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This little tidbit was front-page above-the-fold news in the Bangkok Post on Monday. I’m not sure what stands out more: that these people have zero understanding of the Buddha’s message, or that the post reports gives black magic than weather reports. If they were reporting on the possibility of rain tomorrow, the headline would read something like “80% chance of rain reported”. However in the instance of some villagers cursing some thieves to die (Is a Buddha image worth more than human life? Would the Buddha have really approved of worshiping these statues as idols? Would the Buddha have said guffawed if someone claimed that a statue can have magical powers?), the headline reports on it as if the outcome were guaranteed 100%.

Here’s an article on the situation in Thailand.

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.”