Good morning,

Foolish people, of whom we have a surfeit, are determined to focus on personalities and not politics, as this example shows. This of course suits the forces of conservatism or the status quo since they can use their influence (in the media, for instance) to blacken the reputation of the individual and by this to defeat the ideas and policies that define the personalities. So, ignoring this kind of approach, what is the point of the Charter Amendments? The Charter was pushed through by the military junta by a minority of eligible voters during martial law. The Charter, which few people actually read, clearly adds power to conservative interests and takes it away from democratically-elected elements. In particular, it provides a mechanism for removing democratically-elected governments which those conservative elements consider to be undesirable – this is by having the political parties involved dissolved by a court acting according to very opaque methods and with a very fuzzy approach to what defines ‘electoral irregularities.’ If the court finds against one individual within a political party, it can then dissolve the entire party. This is the threat that the democratically-elected PPP is facing now – hence the urgency is amending this charter. It appears the court may, realizing that amendments might be expanded perhaps to abolishing the amnesty for the coup ringleaders which was also written into the charter, back off and avoid the possibilities for chaos and street level confrontation that dissolution of the democratically-elected government might inspire.

Burmese (or Myanmarese) PM General Thein Sein is in Thailand on a three day visit to promote good relations between the two countries. Drug suppression, border issues, energy security and food issues are among the topics to be discussed. Thai PM Samak Sundaravej has promised (or threatened) to cook for the General personally. Good relations are important, of course, but there are indications of a new outbreak of the Saffron Revolution are imminent, now that the Burmese junta is trying to put through an unjust charter of its own.

However, the story most people will talk about is this: 70% of Thai women cannot achieve orgasm, according to an international survey.

My review of Geling Yan’s The Uninvited has been published at Bookideas.

Tomorrow is May Day and I am going to schwep to Singo. I might post on Friday. Monday is Coronation Day, another holiday and, in any case, I am due to go to Chiang Mai for the ICTL 2 Conference and return on Thursday evening. Friday is the day the Royal Buffalo digs up the ground and it is determined whether we will have a lucky year or not but I think that is not a holiday here. Well, in short, posting will be a little erratic for the next ten days.

Whoever wins will be playing against ten men in the final with the big game bottler involved.