Ok, it’s really not that hard to grock.

Part of me thinks it is just plain stupidity, that most people are just dumb and don’t know any better. I mean, most people don’t read much more than USAToday and some gossip magazines, so I guess I can’t expect them to make much of an educated decision about things …

… then again, people could be racist and not fully realize it.

sometimes i feel like it takes all the energy that i can muster just to drag myself out of my apt when i don’t have to go to work or school. i love being in a city, but there are days when it all seems like way too much stimulation. when i first moved here, the bars still permitted smoking which meant that about the only time i would ever go out was when i had someone visiting from out of town.

when the smoking ban when into effect at the start of this year, i think i probably went out about three weeks in a row and then got bored of it and took another big break. these days it takes a really special mood or some very good reason to get me out, and when frankie knuckles was set to perform at club culture i figured that was good enough of an excuse.

the music was really good, but for some reason the 11 billion thai gossip and fashion magazines were out in full force. the was probably one photographer for every 10 people, each one trying to get interesting shots for their publication. these two shots of me ran in cheeze magazine (for people not familiar with the thai press, this one has about 80% fewer words than intellectual paragon from usa called InTouch). you can probably tell by the second shot that i look pretty annoyed at the paparatzi. i scanned the full pages in case you want to see what else they were shooting that night, click the images to view full size.

this ran in the weekly newspaper for my university, interviewed me about being the only white person studying in the general program and a few other things about my life. the university has over 600,000 students and i think most of them get this in the mail every week.

click the image to download the full article.

thai newspapers will print just about anything to get people’s attention. they particularly love photos of dead bodies, or when the police force a shoplifter to reenact his crime for the camera (causes the criminal and his family to loose face and let’s the store clerk who caught him gain face).

this particulartly strange photo ran a week or so ago … the caption reads “Mr. Sskri Anunnrawad, a well-known professor, had this show repair needle shoved into his head by the cobbler Mr. Jerun. Ohh what good luck that it didn’t enter his brain! The cobbler apparently wasn’t happy with some situation caused.”

bush is coming to town, which means it’s time for the thai government to do a quick clean up … make things boring for a week. everything always goes back to normal once he is gone tho. it’s become clear tho that bush’s problems don’t stem from his general lack of competence or the fact that he’s dumb, apparently thai farmers have put a curse on him.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JG31Ae01.html

Pirated DVDs, fake Swiss watches and imitation designer garments are fast disappearing from Patpong, a red-light strip in the Thai capital popular with tourists, bargain-hunters and others. The clean-up comes ahead of US President George W Bush’s two-day visit next week to Thailand as part of his final Asian tour as chief executive.

The US has pushed for stronger IPR protection in the proposed FTA than is currently mandated by member states to the World Trade Organization, which allows for generic drug production under certain circumstances through a compulsory licensing arrangement. US officials have taken issue with that clause and were behind the 2006 removal of a World Health Organization country representative to Thailand who argued against the FTA.

Local interest groups, particularly the farmers who have suffered from previous free trade deals, doubt those scientific assessments. They demonstrated their displeasure with US trade policies the last time Bush visited Thailand in 2003, placing a curse on him by dropping his photograph inside a pot and tossing it into the northern Ping River amid chants and black magic mantras. Bush can likely expect more of the same during his visit next week.

well good news is that bangkok is finally getting mexican food, but we still don’t have copyright laws. unfortunately this place stole it’s logo and menu from del taco, the food is horrible … but they do deliver.

i don’t report on news items much, but this one is rather exciting.

from the bbc

In a statement, he accused China of not doing enough to pressure Sudan to end the “continuing human suffering” in the troubled western Darfur region.

At least 200,000 people have been killed and two million forced from their homes in the five-year conflict.

Beijing has not yet responded to the move, which correspondents say is its first big setback in staging the Games.

A source in the Beijing Olympic Committee said a response was being discussed at the highest levels but had not yet been made public.

But the BBC’s James Reynolds in Beijing says the decision will anger and worry the authorities there.

Since Beijing won the right to host the Games it has always tried to keep China’s politics and China’s Olympics separate, he says, and it has attacked anyone who has tried to link the two.

Sudan, with its vast oil reserves, sells some two-thirds of its oil to Beijing.

In turn, Beijing sells weapons to the Sudanese government and has defended Khartoum in the UN Security Council.

As a result, China has been criticised for its links with a government ostracised by many for its role in the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

Read the entire article here.

Read China’s response here.