Coss

Fresh horror HAUNTS Thailand's TIP upgrade bid May 5, 2015 1:00 am PRAYUT'S PLEDGE TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING HAS BEEN DIVERTED INTO A PUBLIC RELATIONS EXERCISE The discovery of 26 corpses of what are believed to be Muslim Rohingya migrants threatens to sink Thailand's already dismal reputation on human trafficking even further. With the United States currently reviewing its annual report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP), the grisly find has left the Thai military regime struggling to convince the international community it is doing enough to combat the trafficking. The mass grave - thought to contain the bodies of stateless people from the Myanmar-Bangladesh border - was found on a hilltop in the southern border province of Songkhla last week. The bodies were discovered at a "holding area", where migrants were kept before being sneaked across the porous border into Malaysia. While the cause of the deaths is not yet clear, the police chief described the site as a "virtual prison camp", which appeared to have been abandoned just days before its discovery. Its secrets would likely have been buried forever had one "prisoner" not escaped and told his story to police. But that story has raised even more questions over the country's handling of trafficking. The major question is how traffickers managed to build this holding camp (and perhaps others) in Songkhla. How did they hide so many people on a hilltop without their activities being noticed by the authorities? The hills in the border region between Songkhla's Sadao district and Malaysia’s Pedang Besar are notorious for their trafficking trails. Every Thai border official who works in this area knows about them. The lone survivor said he had heard that more than 500 migrants had been killed in the holding areas along the border. The recently established trafficking investigation team says there is at least one more camp in the area where the mass grave was discovered. Police had apparently been tipped off to the presence of such camps long before last week's grisly discovery, yet they chose not to take any action or investigate further. Difficulties managing political transition in the capital are no longer an excuse for the authorities' failure to act on this problem. Thailand has been under the international microscope over human trafficking for years now. The country was downgraded to the lowest tier in the annual US TIP report last year. This year's report is due in the next couple of months. The military-backed government, whose rulers cited the threat of civil war and the need for reform as reasons for ousting an elected administration last May, claims it is working hard to end the trafficking. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has threatened officials caught aiding traffickers with tough punishment. His government set up a committee to combat trafficking last year after the TIP downgrade. But rather than ordering concrete action, the committee has mostly been busy with diplomacy and preparing information updates for Washington in a bid to get Thailand's TIP status upgraded. Foreign Ministry officials have been striving to convince the international community of Thailand's "good intentions" in the fight against trafficking. Meanwhile authorities and security officials tasked with actually tackling the problem mostly stand idle. When they have acted, it has been to arrest the victims rather than traffickers. None of the major trafficking syndicates has been rooted out in the months since Prayut pledged serious action. Instead, Prayut's government and his armed forces have maintained a stance of intimidation towards news media that report on the issue. To turn his words into action that yields results, the prime minister must determine whether the officials tasked with tackling trafficking are doing their job. Public relations must take a back seat until Thailand can actually show real gains in the battle against the trafficking of people. http://www.nationmul...d-30259337.html

"Human rights relativists will tell you that the only difference between Saudi Arabia and Isis is that Isis are amateurs. The only difference between Isis and China is that China is officially atheist. The difference between China and the US is that in China even unarmed black people get a trial before they are shot." "Let's take it as read we're all against child sex slavery. Saudi Arabia is on the wrong side. China and Indonesia are on the wrong side. But America and Australia are on the right side, because in those two countries people can complain about their Government's policies and work to change them." http://www.nzherald.co.nz/economy/news/article.cfm?c_id=34&objectid=11442331

Quite, but again, I'm not edge-imicated enough to see the truth in all of this.

I'd be indebted if you could have a look, when you're over the vacation, it all looks like it's possible to me, but I lack the actual education, to be confident that it's not a clever jape.

Very funny, should be mandatory. There'd be a parliamentary enquiry of the use of "teenee weenee bikini" if that'd happened in NZ

talk about business opportunity...

And I forgot to add, if the story is correct and she chooses to "hide her beauty" not only what about her makeup,,, but what about plucking the mono brow, what about shaving the jowls ? even the ones that only show a slit revealing their eyes and eyes only, still have brows plucked within a millimetre of their lives and eye makeup that's worth more than gold by weight. "Vanity thy name is Woman" is in play, I would think (thought not agree with the practise) that muslims have a handle on this.

Texas suburb in lockdown after shooting at anti-Islam art show Last updated 14:27, May 4 2015 MIKE STONE A police officer seeks witnesses to the shooting outside of the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative in Garland, Texas. A building in Dallas, Texas, which was hosting a contest for cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, has been locked down after a shooting outside. An officer dressed in SWAT gear took the stage during the event at the Curtis Culwell Centre in Garland and told attendees, including an Associated Press reporter, that a shooting had occurred. The Dallas Morning News reported that the two men pulled up in a vehicle and shot a Garland Information Services Department (ISD) officer. The men were fatally shot by Garland police, and their bodies remain on the street outside the events centre. The injured officer was released from the hospital after his wounds were treated. No one was being allowed to leave the facility and nearby businesses were evacuated. Authorities were investigating a car within that zone. Garland police were waiting for a bomb squad to examine the vehicle. Reports of the incident began to develop shortly before 7 pm (local time), when the event had been scheduled to conclude. Throughout the event, there had been no notable protests, despite its controversial nature. Garland Police Department spokesman Joe Harn was unable to confirm details or comment on the incident. The New York-based American Freedom Defence Initiative was hosting the contest to award $US10,000 ($NZ13,297) for the best cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed. The decision to book the event came a little more than a week after Islamic militants in France killed 12 people at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Well well...

read comment after story. NADA TAWFEEK Last updated 08:56, May 4 2015 Supplied Nada Tawfeek says the hijab is "a weapon against my own vanity". OPINION: In the midst of debate about religious dress, Nada Tawfeek explains why she chooses to wear a hijab. Why do I wear hijab? The reason is simple. I am a Muslim woman, I choose to be a Muslim every day. I believe in Allah (the Arabic word for God) and I sense his presence in every aspect of my life. I sense Allah during my morning walks, in the overwhelming beauty of the sunrise, I sense him in the richness and softness of avocados and dates (my favorite foods), I sense his love in the nourishment of water, in my mother's smile and in the peace that is in my heart. I believe that in the Quran, Allah has commanded the believing women to cover their bodies and hair "so that they may be known and not harmed". I have learnt through experience that Allah's commands are never a burden and through their wisdom our hearts may be purified. The hijab is a weapon against my own vanity. It is a reminder every day before I leave the house that my outer beauty is not my priority. My hijab is a shield against the constant and consistent objectification and sexualisation of women's outer beauty for profitable ends. I believe that wearing a hijab does not make me any better or worse than a woman who does not wear a hijab, because it isn't the outer attire that elevates us, but the state of our hearts and women should have the freedom to cover or uncover as they deem appropriate. The Arabic word for woman stems from the word "rahm" which is the Arabic and Hebrew word for womb and it is the source of the word "Rahmah", meaning mercy. In my personal world view, I, as a woman, am here to bring Rahmah to the world, and my hijab is to not allow vanity to distract others or me from that purpose. As a poet from the distant past wrote: "oh you with budlike mouth, why keep hiding your face like flirting girls?" She laughed and said; "unlike the beauties of your world, in the veil I am seen but without it I am hidden". Nada Tawfeek is a Christchurch Muslim who was recently detained for two hours at Brisbane Airport while wearing her hijab. So how do you explain the makeup?

and there it is again....

In fact, someone should do it, 50% of the profits to KS and 50% to the worthy soul who undertakes the job. Flash?

I we could assemble the assemblage, of all the trip report posts, that used to ebb and flow in this board, it'd be the greatest porn novel of all time. Fuck 50 shades of grey. Think, a million shafts of technicolour brilliance!

did you sign up for a free account and give them your name and email address? Spam baby Spam

For a contrast on police shootings, read about someone getting shot by Police in NZ. 1st he had a gun. 2nd " we heard two gunshots" not two hundred, two and then, 'stand down, stand down', you know, stop.... LINK

Vast Brides, why I'm cautious about thinking of going to 'merica. and a telling portrait of wannabe brides looking towards South East Asia, where their men are

merely engaging to stimulate debate

well... I would beg to differ, house, progressive or nay, is really a progression from disco. And where it once took a whole band to make, it can now be made on an iPad. Bronski Beat's cover of I Feel Love springs to mind.

Footage on the TV appears to show, 2~3 cops having to lift, an already incapacitated young man from the ground, before placing him in the van. I would suggest that any injury, is already in place by the time he is handcuffed.

"lots of good music emerging all the time" I don't disagree, but it's not a new kind of music. "Disco" for example is not a rehash of a similar genre from a previous time. "Rock and Roll" is not something that existed before and was reinvented for the masses in the 50's and 60's. Music these days can be very good, but I haven't heard anything "New" for a long time, it's all the same genres and styles from the 20th century. Despite the attempts with Dumb and Basser.

I wonder if Mid West Christians are gonna try and kidnap kids, under the guise of rescue. I wonder if NGOs are gonna say there's an army of pedophiles stealing youngun's for bouncy bouncy.

How unfortunate for you...

"Stand by me" = music

It's True, what YimSiam said,1993 they stopped making new music, it all got recycled from then on in. You only have to look at the rise of the DJ, a species whose fame is measured by the ability to "mix" other people's music together, to see this. Look at Kanye West ffsake, where is the originality? And Hipity Hopity, or Rap or such, is not music, it's beat poetry, it's performance, its angst for angry young people, but it's not music, any more than a pile of dog shit is art. Show me a new Rock n Roll, show me a new Disco, show me a new New Romantics. Nope 1993 was the year the music stopped. Someone once tried to explain the genres of Dub and Bass and Bass and Dub and so on to me, I tried to explain that I could whack some of that out in 15 minutes using Reason and a laptop or an iPad, they didn't understand, they were young, they thought they'd invented everything.

This is a tragedy.

Mass grave of 'boat people' found in southern Thailand AFP BANGKOK: -- Around 30 graves believed to belong to migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were discovered Friday in southern Thailand, officials said, in an area criss-crossed with trafficking routes. The grave site was found in Sadao district of Songkhla province at an abandoned camp for 'boatpeople' who had apparently been trafficked to Thailand's border area with Malaysia, a zone notorious for housing remote camps for trafficked migrants. "There are 32 graves, four bodies have now been exhumed and are on their way... to hospital to for an autopsy," Sathit Thamsuwan a rescue worker, who was at the scene soon after the site was found, told AFP. "The bodies were all decayed," he said, adding a single man from Bangladesh survived and is being treated at a hospital in nearby Padang Besar. The local hospital confirmed the Bangladeshi man had survived and was in a stable condition. The grisly discovery of the grave was also confirmed by a senior official from Sadao. "There are more than 20 graves," he said, requesting anonymity. "Military and border patrol police have now cordoned the area off so we can bring forensic officials to the site." Tens of thousands of migrants from Myanmar -- mainly from the Rohingya Muslim minority -- and increasingly from Bangladesh make the dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a well worn trafficking route often on the way south to Malaysia and beyond. Thousands of Rohingya -- described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities -- have fled deadly communal unrest in western Myanmar's Rakhine state since 2012. Thailand has been criticised in the past for pushing boatloads of Rohingya entering Thai waters back out to sea and for holding migrants in overcrowded facilities. The ruling junta says it has taken significant steps to combat trafficking since June, when the United States dumped Thailand to the bottom of its list of countries accused of failing to tackle modern-day slavery. In January, Thai authorities confirmed more than a dozen government officials -- including senior policemen and a navy officer -- are being prosecuted for involvement or complicity in human trafficking. via Thai Visa