Coss

! note - this Author has a reputation as being a bit loose, but at least he attributes his facts with actual science, rather than the 'affirmative' and vague statements that warming acolytes generally proffer.

 

http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/17280/review-of-climate-change-documentary-thin-ice/

 

BY IAN WISHART, author of Totalitaria and Air Con

 

It’s touted as an award-winning documentary on climate change, but if that’s true I’d like to know whether the judges were the three wise monkeys. Here’s why: the Thin Ice documentary made by Victoria University of Wellington and Oxford University in the UK is littered with factual errors and misleading statements.

 

The documentary is being toured around New Zealand high schools in a bid to drum up support for the upcoming climate treaty negotiations in Paris this December. I don’t know who’s paying for it but they must have deep pockets – barely 50 people ‘crowded’ into an 800 seat Auckland school hall, each paying a gold coin donation to see the film. But it wasn’t just the movie screening – it had an entourage. Vic University documentary maker Simon “I’m not a climate scientist†Lamb was joined by geologist and film producer Peter Barrett at the school, along with a Vic Uni undergraduate in a supporting role.

 

The gold coin donations were unlikely to even cover their airfares from Wellington, let alone accommodation, unless they managed to score $35 return flights each. Perhaps they pedalled the 700 km: “I hope you are cycling home tonight,†the cheery undergraduate told the scattered audience members.

 

“Come closer,†Barrett urged the people dotted around the hall. Few did.

 

The screening began with a message from “Xena the Warrior Princessâ€, explained Barrett, quickly realising that Lucy Lawless had starred in that role long before most of the students in the audience were born. “Maybe that’s before your time,†he added, “but anyway here she isâ€.

 

Lawless gave her ‘best supporting actress in a fictional documentary speech’, urging viewers to trust the authority of the team who made the movie and to do their part for climate justice.

 

I was prepared to give the film a chance, on the basis that I like to see my opponent’s arguments before critiquing them. But let’s cut to the chase.

 

The film begins with Simon Lamb mocking sceptics of climate change by suggesting they are alleging a grand “conspiracy†of “dishonest climate scientistsâ€. His documentary, he said, was intended to be a neutral revelation of what the climate scientists were doing so people could make up their own minds about whether they were being honest or dishonest about climate. Within a few minutes I felt they were being dishonest, but no one in the audience would have known unless they were well briefed on the facts.

 

MISLEADING CLAIM #1: Antarctic ice cores show CO2 causing temperature increases over the aeons

 

Victoria University scientist Tim Naish made the claim in the doco while Lamb and producer Barrett imposed an ice core graph over thousands of years showing CO2 and temperature moving in “lockstepâ€. What they failed to tell viewers is that a 2003 study by Caillon et al and published in the journal Science looked at 40,000 years of ice core history from the Vostok site, and found that the reverse was true, that in fact temperatures rose first and CO2 levels started to rise 800 years later.

 

As I explained in my book Air Con, this makes sense: the rising temperatures warmed oceans and released trapped CO2 bubbles as the water warmed. The CO2 did not “cause†the temperature increases – the temp increases caused the release of more CO2. The documentary Thin Ice is highly misleading in this respect.

 

MISLEADING CLAIM #2: You can trust the computer models, and they show a three degree increase in temperature but it could be double

 

Again, Lamb plays the ingénue in this part of the documentary, going to great pains to tell viewers how clever the computer modelling is and how the models are actually understating the probable warming that’s coming.

 

In reality, the computer models have been rubbished by peer reviewed climate journals, as I wrote in Totalitaria:

 

“The UN IPCC’s fifth assessment report, AR5, based its climate projections on computer models, and in particular a series of models known as CMIP5 which was described by its designers in 2012 as “a state-of-the- art multimodel dataset designed to advance our knowledge of climate variability and climate change. Researchers worldwide are analyzing the model output and will produce results likely to underlie the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.â€

 

The most embarrassing aspect for the UN IPCC AR5 report is that CMIP5, the so-called “state of the art†simulation system anchoring the UN’s climate projections, has failed epically to account for the massive slowdown in warming over the past 15 years. In fact, the computer projections ran four times hotter for the period than the actual real observed temperature readings, as a just published report in the journal Nature Climate Change notes:

 

The inconsistency between observed and simulated global warming is even more striking for temperature trends computed over the past fifteen years (1998–2012). For this period, the observed trend of 0.05 ± 0.08 °C per decade is more than four times smaller than the average simulated trend of 0.21 ± 0.03 °C per decade. The divergence between observed and CMIP5- simulated global warming begins in the early 1990s.â€[ii]

 

The UN’s AR5 report was out of date even before it hit the newsstands. AR5 claims a consensus higher than “95% certainty†that human-caused CO2 emissions are predominantly driving global warming, but critics and even many scientists are now asking, “based on what evidence?â€

 

The assumptions the scientific “consensus†was supposedly built on are crumbling in the face of new evidence.

 

Confidence in the latest UN projections and journalistic fawning over them has not been enhanced by another new report in Nature suggesting the IPCC scientists are using statistical research techniques more than ten years out of date…â€

 

So much for the accuracy of the computer models then. They’ve been found in peer reviewed studies to have overestimated actual global warming by around 400 percent, yet not a word of that inconvenient truth was revealed by Lamb and Barrett in their “award-winning†documentary. Again, grossly misleading, especially when this material is being used to con schoolchildren into thinking the science is settled.

 

MISLEADING CLAIM #3: CO2 is responsible “for most, or possibly all†global warming

 

Simon Lamb made this claim in the documentary, without citing any actual studies to back up the claim. So let me do the honours. Far from CO2 being responsible for the majority of warming, the actual peer reviewed science suggests not, as I wrote in Totalitaria:

 

New research from respected climate scientist Mojib Latif and others shows the big warming periods like the late 1970s through the nineties, previously thought by climate scientists to have been caused by CO2, were in fact most likely caused by natural cycles in the oceans, or what Latif calls “climate shiftsâ€.

 

This is particularly important, because the last IPCC report in 2007 said it could only detect a possible “human signature†in climate change since the 1970s. That claim was based on the assumption CO2 was the primary driver. The latest research shows CO2 had little if anything to do with warming since that time. Ergo, the “human signature†detected by the IPCC scientists does not appear to exist.

 

“These shifts…have a profound effect on the average global surface air temperature of the Earth,†Latif says in a news release on his study. Changes in oceanic patterns turn “the world’s climate topsy-turvy and are clearly reflected in the average temperature of the Earth.â€[iii]

 

Lamb is possibly anchoring his claims about CO2 in a highly questionable 2006 study by Ben Santer, which I laid into in Totalitaria:

 

“Human-caused changes in greenhouse gases are the main driver of the 20th-century SST (sea surface temperature) increases,†Santer’s 2006 study claimed.[iv]

 

Of course, this was music to the ears of those like Al Gore who wanted to attribute ocean-created events like Hurricane Katrina to human-caused global warming. It’s a shame it wasn’t true.

 

Perhaps the easiest way of pointing out the error is an example of simple physics. The sun is the main source of heat on earth by a degree of considerable magnitude. Direct sun in the tropics can create surface temperatures hot enough to fry eggs on the pavement – 46 degrees Centigrade in the air and even hotter on dark asphalt. In contrast, reflected heat from CO2 molecules (this is solar radiation that has already hit the earth and bounced back up into the atmosphere, so it’s a fraction of the initial radiation, a mere ‘heat shadow’ if you like) is accused of causing global temperatures to rise around 0.8C over the past century and a bit, in contrast.

 

From this bare statement of fact, it follows as a point of logic that oceans will warm far more in response to direct sunlight, than they will from the miniscule blanket effect of greenhouse gases. Any study purporting to suggest that greenhouse gases are the “main driver†of ocean warming is therefore laughable.

 

One of the first to debunk it was Amato Evan. He and his team figured out, like you have, that the amount of heat that gets into the oceans is far more likely to depend on cloud cover and other variables, like dust, volcanic ash, pollution and smoke, that affect how much sunlight actually reaches the surface. Sure enough, when they plugged in the temperatures and atmospheric data for 26 years, they found ocean surface temperatures were far more influenced by these things than they were by greenhouse gases.[v]

 

“The tropical North Atlantic is unique among tropical ocean basins because of its oftentimes extensive and heavy aerosol cover, a consequence of being downwind of West Africa, the world’s largest dust source,†wrote Evans.

 

In short, when there’s plenty of dust being kicked up in Africa it keeps sea temperatures cool in the Atlantic, and when there’s not much dust the sea temperatures rise – because of sunlight, not CO2.

 

When they finally crunched the numbers, dust – or in fact the lack of it – accounted for about 69% of the warming in the Atlantic since 1980. Less dusty times meant more sunlight managed to hit the water.[vi]

 

Armed with this knowledge of how the real world works, let’s return to Mojib Latif’s “climate shift†theory. Big hot and cold cycles within the oceans come around every so often and reset the climate system, effectively they are giant belches of heat into the air from huge areas of ocean, followed by periods of oceanic cooling.

 

As their names suggest, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation or Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation don’t cycle heat in terms of months or weeks, but over decades.

 

“The AMO is an ongoing series of long-duration changes in the sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean,†the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website explains, “with cool and warm phases that may last for 20-40 years at a time and a difference of about 1°F between extremes. These changes are natural and have been occurring for at least the last 1,000 years.[vii]

 

“Most of the Atlantic between the equator and Greenland changes in unison. Some areas of the North Pacific also seem to be affected.â€

 

Research has shown that in addition to those cycles, there are even longer term oscillations deep in the sea that can take centuries to circulate and release stored heat. Scientists studying ancient ice cores have found warming comes first as a result of solar cycles, and then about 800 years later CO2 levels rise as the oceans get warm enough to release significant amounts of CO2.[viii]

 

The importance of this cannot be overstated. It is peer-reviewed research from an IPCC-accredited research team, that essentially says the world’s temperatures since the 1970s have been driven not by CO2 at all, but by heat stored in the oceans. By definition, given the oscillation timescales, the heat emerging from the oceans in the 1970s must have been placed in the oceans decades, or even centuries earlier. Again, this means it cannot be related to human CO2 emissions.

 

Whatever heat has emerged from the oceans to date has been driven by natural cycles, not man-made gases. And again, this means the much quoted IPCC claim that a “human signature†in climate change was detected after 1970 is no longer valid. It has been disproven.

 

MISLEADING CLAIM #4: The West Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of human CO2 production

 

The inconvenient truth that the West Antarctic ice sheet sits atop a massive, active chain of volcanoes was not mentioned by Lamb, even though he is a geophysicist and should have known about it.

 

“You are making unsubstantiated claims!†Lamb protested loudly when I challenged him at question time. Oh really? He didn’t want me to quote from the studies to the audience, but here they are:

 

A 2013 scientific study admits that geothermal heat appears to be a driver of ice melt under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS):[ix]

 

“The most common source of subglacial water is melting at the bottom of the ice sheet due to a combination of ice thickness, geothermal heat flux at the bed, and frictional heating due to rapid ice flow (Joughin et al., 2004; Llubes et al., 2006). Meltwater production could be enhanced by a higher geothermal gradient underneath parts of the WAIS (Shapiro and Ritzwoller, 2004).â€

 

The significance of that is that volcanic activity can cause runaway melt because the water helps sluice the glacier out to sea much more rapidly, which is exactly what we are seeing.

 

“A volcanic eruption has the potential to produce large amounts of meltwater and, thus, could trigger a large flood event (Roberts, 2005; Bennett et al., 2009).â€

 

A gravity survey of the earth’s crust (the barrier of rock between us and the molten interior) underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has found the crust has thinned dramatically under the ice where a continental rift appears to be opening up, which could be letting more volcanic heat into the ice sheet:[x]

 

“Major crustal thinning, coupled with low lithosphere rigidity, attest to the considerable impact of continental rifting beneath this part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet…Narrow-mode rifting within the Pine Island Rift is particularly important as it may serve as a geological template for enhanced glacial flow associated with Pine Island Glacier.â€

 

So far, researchers have established that the Pine Island volcano erupted massively two thousand years ago with enough force to punch entirely through the ice sheet and deposit ash fallout on an area of Antarctica larger than Wales. Significantly the volcano remains active, although we don’t know whether it has been active all the time or whether it has only recently burst into life again.

 

“We rely on the IPCC data, not just one study,†Simon Lamb claimed when I told him about the volcanoes. The objective reader can count and Google…there are far more than one study. The volcanoes should have featured in Thin Ice. They didn’t, the documentary is simply not credible.

 

And let’s not even get started on the pause in global warming measured by satellite sensors which have not detected significant warming for 18 years. As I told the school audience: “There is not a high school student in this room who has actually experienced an increase in global warming during their lifetimes.â€

 

Needless to say, Lamb and Barrett were not happy that the Thin Ice propaganda-fest had been rained on by a reality check.

 

If your kids come home having watched a climate change documentary at school, show them this review and ask whether the film covered any of these inconvenient facts.

 

“An Overview of CMIP5 and the Experiment Designâ€. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 93, 485–498. April 2012

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00094.1

 

[ii] “Overestimated global warming over the past 20 yearsâ€, Fyfe et al, Nature Climate Change 3, 767–769 (2013) doi:10.1038/nclimate1972 Published online 28 August 2013

 

[iii] “Hindcast of the 1976/77 and 1998/99 climate shifts in the Pacific†by Ding et al, Journal of Climate 2013 ; e-View doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00626.1

 

[iv] 190 “Forced and unforced ocean temperature changes in Atlantic and Pacific tropical cyclogenesis regionsâ€, Santer et al, September 12, 2006, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0602861103 PNAS September 19, 2006 vol. 103 no. 38 13905-13910

 

[v] 192 “African Dust over the Northern Tropical Atlantic: 1955–2008.â€, Evan et al, J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 49, 2213–2229. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2010JAMC2485.1

 

[vi] 193 If you are still wedded to the idea that a warming atmosphere caused by CO2 is the most likely explanation for warmer seas, try this experiment at home: Position an illuminated 60w light bulb six

 

inches above a glass of water for ten minutes. Measure the starting temperature and the finishing temperature. Then take another glass of water and breathe on the surface of the water for ten

 

minutes (it’s nowhere near exact, nor a direct comparison, but your warm breath will be significantly warmer than any CO2 in the atmosphere would get in lab conditions in a controlled experiment using

 

enclosed environments). Measure the temps.

 

[vii] 194 http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/amo_faq.php

 

[viii] 195 “Deep-sea temperatures warmed by ~2°C between 19 and 17 thousand years before the present (ky B.P.), leading the rise in atmospheric CO2 and tropical–surface-ocean warming by ~1000 years. The cause of this deglacial deep-water warming does not lie within the tropics, nor can its early onset between 19 and 17 ky B.P. be attributed to CO2 forcing. Increasing austral-spring insolation [higher seasonal solar radiation in the Southern hemisphere] combined with sea-ice albedo [heat reflectivity] feedbacks appear to be the key factors responsible for this warming.†– SOURCE: “Southern Hemisphere and Deep-Sea Warming Led Deglacial Atmospheric CO2 Rise and Tropical Warmingâ€, L Stott, A Timmerman, R Thunell, Science 19 October 2007: Vol. 318. no. 5849, pp. 435– 438 DOI: 10.1126/science.1143791

 

All very technical, but what this study found was that solar heat in the southern hemisphere warmed the oceans enough that ice melted and CO2 was released, but that it took up to a thousand years for the warmth to trigger CO2 release in any major way. In other words, far from CO2 being the “forcer†or instigator of warming, it was a result of warming that had begun a millennium earlier deep within the sea.

 

[ix] 202 “Paleo ice flow and subglacial meltwater dynamics in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica†F. O. Nitsche et al, The Cryosphere, 7, 249–262, 2013 www.the-cryosphere.net/7/249/2013/ doi:10.5194/tc-7-249-2013

 

[x] 203 “Aerogravity evidence for major crustal thinning under the Pine Island Glacier region (West Antarctica)â€, Jordan et al, Geological Society of America Bulletin, December 30, 2009, doi: 10.1130/B26417.1122 no. 5-6 p. 714-726. http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/122/5-6/714.abstract

you are being snarky

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11880921/Made-in-Germany-lies-in-the-gutter-after-Volkswagen-caught-cheating.html

 

 

VW's conspiracy to rig emissions exposes it as the 'Lance Armstrong' of the car industry, once again revealing corrupt reflexes in German boardrooms

 

Diesels may actually be emitting three times the pollution allowed under current emissions tests

Volkswagen's own vow to become the 'greenest' car producer in the world by 2018 has been exposed a hollow publicity stunt

 

 

Volkswagen has suffered a shocking loss of credibility after conspiring to violate US pollution laws and dupe customers on a systemic scale.

The scandal has once again exposed a culture of corrupt practices at the top of German export industry.

“We are facing a blatant abuse of consumer trust and a degradation of the environment,†said Jochen Flasbarth, the German state secretary in charge of pollution enforcement.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen cars have already been recalled

The scandal is intrinsically worse than the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. While BP and its contractors may have been negligent, VW appears to have engaged in a cynical plan to trick regulators in a wholesale breach of the US Clean Air Act.

“It is profoundly serious. The accusation is that VW deliberately set out to mislead regulators with a cleverly hidden piece of software,†said Max Warburton from AllianceBernstein.

It is of an entirely different character from earlier breaches of US law by Hyundai and Ford, which stemmed mostly from errors. The US Justice Department is weighing serious criminal charges.

“‘Made in Germany’ in the gutter,†said German newspaper Bundesdeutsche Zeitung.

 

The financial daily Handelsblatt called the deception a “catastrophe for the whole of German industryâ€, warning that it had completely undermined a joint campaign by Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Bosch and VW to convince Americans that diesel is no longer dirty and is the best way to meet tougher US emission standards.

Germany is the world leader in clean diesel. Its car companies have bet heavily on the technology, hoping to win the strategic prize in the US as new rules come into force imposing fuel efficiency of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

"We are worried that the justifiably excellent reputation of the German car industry and in particular that of Volkswagen will suffer," said Sigmar Gabriel, the country’s vice-chancellor and economy minister.

Volkswagen’s own vow to become the “greenest†car producer in the world by 2018 has been exposed a hollow publicity stunt.

 

Theoretically, the company could face fines of $18bn in the US, based on a standard penalty of $37,500 for each of the 482,000 cars fitted with "defeat devices", which allowed them to mask exhaust emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) in pollution control tests.

The actual release of these toxic particles – blamed for emphysema and respiratory diseases – is in reality 40 times above the acceptable levels imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The cars will be recalled and modified, greatly reducing their fuel efficiency.

The US press is already calling VW the “Lance Armstrong†of the car market, an apt allusion to drug cheating in sport, and a deadly epithet in an industry where brand image and goodwill are the lifeblood of sales.

 

'Very sorry': Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn

VW’s share price crashed 19pc in Frankfurt. The company’s strategic ambition to dominate clean diesel sales in the US lies in ruins.

“There is no way to put an optimistic spin on this. The best case for VW is probably still a multi-billion dollar fine, pariah status in the US, and damage to its leading position in diesel,†said Mr Warburton.

The suspicion is that other car companies with diesel models may also be cutting corners, much as the Libor scandal in the City of London revealed common practices by other parts of the banking industry. The US authorities said they would widen the probe to other manufacturers.

 

Martin Winterkorn, VW’s chief executive, said he was “very sorry†and ordered an internal investigation but it is hard to see how he can survive.

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, from Germany’s Centre for Automotive Research, said Mr Winterkorn is either complicit or has failed to establish control over the corporation. “Either way, he is no longer viable. No politician could remain in his post in such circumstances. It is an unimaginable disaster,†he said.

It is barely a decade since it came to light that VW – still 20pc owned by the state of Lower Saxony - had set up front companies in India and Czech Republic to win contracts.

Volkswagen touched a raw nerve on the German Left by using slush funds to compromise union members on the works council with extravagant trips abroad and visits to brothels, at a time when the company was pushing through a wage freeze. That scandal led to a purge of senior management and a prison sentence for one member of the board.

 

Transparency International in Berlin said VW scores a middling grade of 5.5 out of 10 for corporate purity, but refuses to offer any breakdown of its activities in each country where it operates. This can be a warning flag. “VW provides zero information on a country-by-country basis. We find this very important,†it said.

Volkswagen is not the only German group that has lurched from scandal to scandal. The chairman of the engineering giant Siemens was forced to resign in 2007 following the exposure of bribery on an epic scale, though the company has since sought to clean out the Augean Stables.

A Siemens official revealed that he had run a bribery budget of €40m a year through a network of secret accounts from Venezuela, to Israel, Italy and Vietnam. He described overseas pay-offs as the company’s “business modelâ€.

 

Siemens was later fined $1.6bn in the US after pleading guilty to running slush funds. It then had to settle with the Greek authorities for bribing officials on a raft on contracts for the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Bribes were tax-deductible in Germany until 1997, reflecting the general attitude that whatever went on in foreign markets was fair game. The country has since tightened standards and scores relatively well in global corruption league tables.

The problem for Germany is that its global market niche is for expensive cars and machines, charging a premium for what is supposed to be the most reliable technology in the world.

Germany’s other problem is that Berlin has been lecturing the rest of the eurozone for five years that the root cause of the continent's crisis is the failure of some countries in the monetary union to abide by the law. Southern Europeans might feel entitled to a moment of Schadenfreude.

I've been avoiding this, because of the Star, but, based on your usually high standards, I'll have a look now

different as in better or worse

 

Different as in "My BG is different, really she is, she really cares..."

Malaysian police may have two bombers

 

MALAYSIAN police have sent photos of two men -one suspected of being the yellow-shirt bomber responsible for last month's Erawan Shrine blast that killed 20 people in Bangkok and the other the 'blue-shirt man' who kicked a device into the Chao Phraya River that blew up harmlessly under Sathorn Pier, a Thai security official said yesterday.

 

Thai security agencies would see if the pictures of the two men detained by Malaysia's Special Branch Police in Kuala Lumpur match the characteristics of the yellow- and blue-shirt men captured on surveillance footage.

 

Malaysian plainclothes and uniformed police on Saturday searched several apartments and rental rooms believed to be hiding places of the two bombers at the request of Thai police.

 

A Pakistani and two Malaysians suspected of being part of a human trafficking operation are already undergoing interrogation by Malaysian police in connection with the shrine attack.

 

Malaysian police said the human trafficking gang gave shelter to the yellow- and blue-shirt bombers at a location two kilometres away from Moo Noh Police Station.

 

The two were allegedly taken by boat across the Kolok River near Soi Rong Leuy, where two Malaysian men identified as A-pi and Padeh were waiting on the other side at Bukit Bintang to receive them.

 

Another Malaysian man identified as Serlin allegedly took the two to Kuala Lumpur.

 

Malaysian Special Branch Police were tipped off by an unidentified group after a man calling himself Abdul (last name withheld) phoned the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, threatening violence against it.

 

Thai security officials will show the pictures of the two suspects to Yusufu Mieraili, who was nabbed last month on the Cambodian border after the blast. He admitted meeting the alleged bomber outside Hua Lamphong Train Station and handing him a backpack containing the explosives used in the attack.

 

Thai police said if Mieraili identifies any of the men as a bomber, police will seek that person's extradition for prosecution in Thailand.

 

Assistant National Police chief Lt General Prawut Thawornsiri refused to name the blue-shirt bomber, saying more investigation was needed.

 

Police would summon the taxi driver who picked up the blue-shirt bomber for questioning, he said.

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Malaysian-police-may-have-two-bombers-30269196.html

Quite a few intersections in Laos are just like that.

 

I remember once I slowed and stopped at an intersection, as the way forward, was not safe and two trucks overtook me and charged into the traffic, one on each side!

 

One was a petrol tanker!

From self-imposed exile, the influential leader of Thailand's rural "red shirt" opposition movement has delivered a simple message to followers chafing at the military junta's iron rule: lay low for now, don't panic, "play dead".

 

 

Red shirt movement leader Kwanchai Praipana poses with a photo of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra at his office in Udon Thani, Thailand, September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

 

UDON THANI, Thailand: From self-imposed exile, the influential leader of Thailand's rural "red shirt" opposition movement has delivered a simple message to followers chafing at the military junta's iron rule: lay low for now, don't panic, "play dead".

 

Billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, long-time political leader of the north's disenfranchised electorate, is watching events at home closely and urging patience from those who want to see his allies return to power.

 

"When I spoke to Thaksin, he told me to pretend to be dead a little longer," red shirt leader Kwanchai Praipana, a popular pro-Thaksin leader in the northeastern province of Udon Thani, told Reuters.

 

"He told me to ... wait until the next election. That will be the moment that we will win. The only question is whether an election will ever take place."

 

Kwanchai said he spoke to Thaksin a month ago, though he did not specify how they communicated. Thaksin, who lives abroad to avoid a jail sentence for graft, was ousted in a coup in 2006, but remains a major figure in Thai politics.

 

While the military has kept a firm grip on power since it felled the remnants of the government of Thaksin's sister Yingluck in another coup last year, he and his allies have won every election since 2001 and anger is mounting among farmers and political opponents.

 

The military government has slashed rural subsidies and coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said this month the next election would not be held until "around" July, 2017, the latest delay to Thailand's return to democracy.

 

DRIVE-BY SHOOTING

 

The reference to playing dead resonated with Kwanchai, who rolled up his sleeve to show a scar the length of his upper arm from a drive-by shooting at his rural home when Bangkok was paralysed by protests that preceded the coup.

 

Prayuth's ban on political activity has severely curtailed the red shirt movement and his junta has quashed any sign of open dissent.

 

"They have bullied us too much," said Kwanchai, adding that he has to report his movements to the military every day.

 

Prayuth staged the coup and banned political activity after months of sometimes deadly street clashes, saying he had to reconcile a dangerously divided society. Many Thais, especially Bangkok's middle class and urban elite, backed the intervention.

 

But sharp divisions remain and the Shinawatras retain their popularity in northern strongholds.

 

A draft constitution that critics said was an attempt by Prayuth to prevent a comeback by the Shinawatras was rejected by a military-appointed reform council rather than taken to a national referendum that may have become a public test of the junta's popularity.

 

"At first we thought the drafting of the constitution, had it been passed, would have been the time to protest," said Sabina Shah, a red shirt leader and radio DJ in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen. The radio station was shut down after the coup and remains off air.

 

"People want to protest. But they are afraid, despite facing difficulties and hardship...The economy's been going backwards."

 

Hundreds of activists on Saturday defied a ban on protests and marched in Bangkok in a rare rally against the military to mark the ninth anniversary of the coup against Thaksin.

 

Lines of police stood by as crowds of people chanting "no dictatorship" and carrying anti-junta banners marched to the city's Democracy Monument.

 

"ALMOST DYING"

 

Compared with the Shinawatra clan, Prayuth has done little for Thailand's farmers.

 

He ended subsidy schemes that funnelled billions of dollars to agricultural communities.

 

The populist schemes were fiercely criticised as vote buying by opponents of the Shinawatras.

 

Without the subsidies, rice farmers have seen their income per kilogram of rice fall by about a third and are struggling to pay down debt they took on when times were good.

 

"I'm not that happy at the moment because agricultural prices for us have not been good at all," said farmer Samrong Pongthai in lush rice fields outside Udon Thani.

 

"The government won't increase the price. It's been a struggle really. You make a loss if you sell it these days."

 

Despite his distaste for populism, Prayuth has turned to one of the architects of Thaksin's economic policies in an attempt to revive Thailand's stumbling economy.

 

But farmers say the soft loans and spending on small projects announced so far are not enough.

 

"This government tells us to stop making demands, and to live sustainably," said Samai Sribang, who owns a rubber plantation in Nong Khai province near the border with Laos.

 

"But how can it be sustainable if we can't sell our goods? If Thaksin can hear us, tell him we are almost dying."

 

Prayuth's government is considering asking farmers to not plant an off-season crop next year after drought left many reservoirs low. It has also tried to encourage rubber farmers to cut down trees to reduce oversupply.

 

Both measures will only add to farmers' resentment, said Teerasak Teecayuphan, the mayor of Khon Kaen.

 

"If that is all the government can come up with there is little hope of restoring political faith," Teerasak said.

 

"Sooner or later this pot will boil over. You can't suppress it for long if you don't solve the problems."

 

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

 

- Reuters

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/thaksin-tells-thailand-s/2138804.html

 

Disclaimer - I support Kwanchai Praipana's right to support whomsoever he wants in Thai Politics.

Brasil 1985 - Terry Gilliam's 1984 - Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan. Worth another watch.

Blood Line - a Netflix series, 13 episodes.

 

It started a little slowly, and (apologies to 'mericans) a little over the top, with scenes of family celebrations where every actor was giving 10% more than was necessary - yes I get it, you're having a good time.

 

But! about episode 9 It get's seriously good, and the previous episodes gel.

 

This will keep female viewers going as well, as there are strong 'Soap Opera' elements.

 

Very good is my verdict, provided you watch all the episodes. Don't skip ahead, you'll need the background.

 

Oh and Florida Keys looks like a nice place to live.

Published September 19, 2015

 

 

Pro-democracy protesters gather at the Democracy monument in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand have defied a ban on protests and staged a the largest rally against the ruling military government in months .(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (The Associated Press)

 

BANGKOK – Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand's capital have defied a ban on protests and staged a rare rally against the country's ruling military government.

 

More than 200 people marched peacefully Saturday to Bangkok's Democracy Monument, a symbolic location that has become a rallying point for protests in recent years.

 

Protesters carried anti-junta banners as a ring of police kept watch over the event but did not break it up.

 

In May 2014, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who was head of the army at the time, led a coup that overthrew the elected government after months of sometimes violent street politics. Now the country's appointed prime minister, Prayuth says elections will not take place until at least 2017.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/09/19/pro-democracy-protesters-in-bangkok-stage-rare-rally-against-thailand-ruling/

Family still in the dark about arrest

 

20 Sep 2015 at 01:21

 

The family of the first suspect arrested more than three weeks ago over the Erawan Shrine bombing do not know he is in custody in Thailand.

 

Bilal Mohammed, 30, has prepared a statement through his lawyer Choochart Khanphai to present to the Turkish Embassy to try and gain consular assistance.

 

In an exclusive interview with the Bangkok Post Sunday, Mr Choochart gave intricate details of Mr Bilal’s case to back up his client’s claim of innocence.

 

Mr Bilal was arrested at 7am on Aug 29 while staying in room No 412 at the Pool Anant Apartments in Nong Chok. Born in the Xinjiang region in western China, he travelled to Bangkok via Vietnam from Turkey, where his family had relocated more than a decade ago. The room he was arrested in was organised by a people smuggler he identified as Abdullah Abdulrahman.

 

Mr Choochart intends to submit the plea to the Turkish Embassy within days to ask for Mr Bilal’s family to be informed of his plight. His mother Sefiye Mohammed, 70, older brother Adil, 33, and younger sister Hadiqe, 27, live in Istanbul. Mr Bilal says the family moved to Istanbul from Urumqi, Xinjiang, in 2004. His father died in 1990. The three siblings have Turkish nationality, but their mother does not.

 

 

Legal aid: Lawyer Choochart Khanphai is assisting bomb suspect Bilal Mohammed.

 

Mr Bilal told Mr Choochart that he and his brother Adil work as truck drivers in Turkey. “He wants me to help coordinate with the embassy to inform his brother about his arrest. He is very concerned about his mother’s health and doesn’t want her to know of his situation at all.â€

 

The statement was put together after a five-hour visit with Mr Bilal on Tuesday at a military camp, during which military personnel and two interpreters were present. Mr Choochart said Mr Bilal speaks reasonable English and he was able to communicate with him in this language.

 

The statement contains Mr Bilal’s account of travelling from Istanbul before making his way to Bangkok via Vietnam in order to be transported to Malaysia to find work. Mr Bilal was holding a fake Turkish passport during the raid. It was the second fake passport he had used since his departure from Istanbul in mid-April.

 

“Mr Bilal recalled having prepared US$7,000 [250,000 baht] for the journey, he had savings of US$5,000 and he borrowed US$2,000 from his brother,†said Mr Choochart, who met with Mr Bilal on Sept 11 at Min Buri Prison and on Tuesday at the 11th Army Circle.

 

“He spent US$1,000 obtaining the first passport there [in Turkey]. As an immigrant, even though with Turkish citizenship, Mr Bilal cannot obtain permission to leave the country until he has stayed in Turkey for 20 years. “Another US$750 was spent to buy a plane ticket to Hanoi. Mr Bilal could not remember the name of the airline. He merely said it was an Arabic airline.â€

 

Mr Bilal was informed in Turkey that upon landing in Hanoi he would be picked up by a man named Abdullah Abdulrahman.

 

When he arrived in Hanoi, he met with Mr Abdullah, who speaks Turkish, at the airport. He was taken to a hotel “owned by an Arabâ€. He disposed of his first passport and obtained another one with the name Adem Karadag for US$1,200.

 

“Mr Bilal didn’t take a direct route to Malaysia because he was told that a fake passport could be spotted easier there than in Vietnam,†Mr Choochart said.

 

Mr Bilal stayed in Hanoi for three months. In mid-July he travelled to Laos with Mr Abdullah. They spent another 35 days there before making their way to the Thai-Laos border on Aug 21, four days after the Erawan Shrine bombing which killed 20 people.

 

Mr Abdullah explained the lengthy stays in each location were due to waiting for an earlier “group of people†to move on before Mr Bilal could follow the same route.

 

Mr Bilal remembers arriving at the Laos immigration about 10am, before reaching the Thai immigration. Mr Choochart said, “He paid US$600 for passing each border point.â€

 

 

Bilal Mohammed, on the day of his arrest. He has told his lawyer he did not arrive in Thailand, with a human trafficker trying to get to Malaysia, until after the Aug 17 bombing. (Bangkok Post file photo)

 

At both immigration points, Mr Bilal said Mr Abdullah seemed familiar with the officers and was joking and smiling with them.

 

Throughout the journey, Mr Abdullah held his passport. Mr Bilal couldn’t say whether or not it was stamped. Police have not yet revealed the border point where the passport in the name Adem Karadag was used to enter Thailand or the date it was used.

 

As they passed the immigration point into Thailand, a small car was waiting with a Thai driver to take them to Bangkok. Upon arrival in Bangkok between 4pm and 5pm, Mr Bilal and Mr Abdullah changed to a green and yellow taxi, whose driver spoke English with Mr Abdullah. He took them to the Pool Anant Apartments.

 

Mr Bilal stayed in room 412 and Abdullah in room 414. Mr Bilal says he never entered room 414. Mr Abdullah bought him food, which included beef, oil and apples which he cooked in the room. When he discussed his travel plans with Mr Abdullah it was on the balcony outside the rooms.

 

Mr Abdullah exchanged Mr Bilal’s money for him. On the day of the police raid he had 11,000 baht, 200 ringgit and US$400. During their stay, Mr Abdullah assured Mr Bilal that there were many who had stayed in his room before and all had successfully made their way to Malaysia.

 

On Aug 24, Mr Abdullah handed over a fake passport, saying that Mr Bilal should prepare for the trip to Malaysia. On Aug 25 or 26, Mr Abdullah called Mr Bilal on a phone the smuggler had bought for him and said he should be ready to travel. He never saw or heard from Mr Abdullah again. Police have issued an arrest warrant for a Mr Abdullah.

 

On the day of the raid, Mr Bilal said he was preparing breakfast, after washing and airing his clothes. It was his eighth day in Bangkok, after arriving on the 21st, and he had never been outside the condo building.

 

As Mr Bilal opened the door to see what the commotion outside was, he was shoved out of the room and several uniformed men stormed in and searched the premises.

 

The room was sparse. Mr Bilal said he slept on a green carpet, which was used as a bed at night and a prayer mat by day. The carpet was later photographed by police with items in plastic bags found in the room, including the clothes he aired in the morning. He maintains that every item in the plastic bags - including screwdrivers, scissors and batteries - were scattered in drawers or shelves before he arrived. He denies ever seeing other items, such as ball bearings and steel pipes, which were shown in police photographs after the raid.

 

The clothes he wore that day, a yellow shirt and cream-coloured pants, were in the room before his arrival. He wore them as he waited for his own clothes to dry.

 

Mr Bilal denies any involvement or awareness of bomb-making materials and procedures. Mr Choochart said Mr Bilal only “wants to find work as a driver or furniture-maker in Malaysia because he has seen many earn money after travelling from Turkey to work thereâ€.

 

Mr Bilal has confessed to possession of a fake passport and illegal entry. Mr Choochart said he could face a four-year jail term for the two charges.

 

Mr Choochart said his involvement with Turkish business people in Bangkok led him to represent Mr Bilal, as the news of the fake Turkish passport was raising concerns among Turkish nationals. According to Mr Choochart, Mr Bilal can be detained while awaiting the case to be filed with a court for seven 12-day periods, or 84 days in total.

 

 

The "bomb making components" that police say they found in the apartment with Mr Bilal. He says he never saw them until police showed them at the time of his arrest. (Bangkok Post file photo)

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/security/699464/bomb-suspect-i-wasn-t-even-in-thailand

Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports originally estimated that it would see a loss of 1.33 million foreign tourists and US$149 million.

 

By Arglit Boonyai

POSTED: 18 Sep 2015 23:21

 

BANGKOK: Thailand is hoping for a revival of tourist numbers after the blast at the Erawan shrine in central Bangkok last month.

 

Thailand’s tourism industry, which accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s GDP, saw visitors drop from 80,000 to 59,000 a day in the weeks following the blast. Local businesses say they are confident that the country's tourism industry will bounce back from the attack.

 

 

Thai police have yet to pinpoint a motive for last month's Erawan Shrine blast that left 22 people dead and over 100 injured. Many of those who died were foreigners visiting the shrine, a popular destination for tourists to make religious offerings to the Brahman god known as Phra Prom in Thai.

 

Initially the Ministry of Tourism and Sports estimated that Thailand would see a loss of 1.33 million foreign tourists and US$149 million due to reduced tourist confidence. But it now says the worst has passed.

 

“The shock has happened in a big way in a short period of time,†said Areepong Bhoocha-oom, Permanent Secretary for the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports. “But the number of passengers is climbing back again and all the numbers we have are still higher than the previous year.â€

 

Authorities also believe that the damage is localised to the Ratchaprasong area, with tourist arrivals in popular holiday spots such as Chiang Mai and Phuket unaffected.

 

However, local initiatives have been cropping up to try to revive the Ratchaprasong area, the heart of Bangkok’s shopping district. In a bid to attract tourists, a group of local businessmen have organised a street art event to restore confidence in the area.

 

Now, more than one month on, hotels in the area seem to be doing well.

 

“The hotels I think, some are fully booked some are not, but I think on average it should be close to around 85-90% (occupancy),†said Chai Srivikorn, president of Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association.

 

Shopping malls such as CentralWorld say that they remain positive that tourists will continue to return.

 

“It’s been a month now and things are back to normal, I can certainly say that occupancy in hotels are back to normal and people, tourism coming into the country will see an influx towards the end of the year,†said Isareit Chirathivat, vice president of CentralWorld.

 

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha has also said that tourist numbers are expected to hit at least 28 million arrivals in 2015 exceeding last year’s 25 million. Thailand will be banking on hitting these figures and ending the year on a positive note as it struggles with a sluggish economy.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/thailand-hopes-for/2136324.html

1/. how to pronounce bhikkhunis?

 

2/. whilst I and others, as males, like being the subject of female deference, how long before Thai attitudes towards women, drag themselves into the 21st Century?

By DENIS D. GRAY

Sept. 19, 2015 at 4 a.m.

 

In this Aug. 23, 2015, photo, women Buddhist monks pray at the Songdhammakalyani Monastery in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. The top Buddhist authority in Thailand bars women from becoming monks. Thailand has some 100 bhikkhunis who were ordained in Sri Lanka, where women are allowed to become monks. They and their monasteries are not legally recognized in Thailand, and don't enjoy state funding and other support the country's 200,000 male monks are granted. (AP Photo/Penny Yi Wang)

 

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand — On a rural road just after daybreak, villagers young and old kneel reverently before a single file of ochre-robed women, filling their bowls with rice, curries, fruits and sweets. In this country, it's a rare sight.

 

Thailand's top Buddhist authority bars women from becoming monks. They only can become white-cloaked nuns, who routinely are treated as domestic servants. Many here believe women are inferior beings who had better perform plenty of good deeds to ensure they will be reborn as men in their future lives.

 

Yet, with the religion beset by lurid scandals, female monastics or "bhikkhunis" are emerging as a force for reform, not unlike activists in the Christian world seeking gender equality including ordination of women as priests in the Catholic Church. They are growing in numbers and appear to be making headway.

 

Thailand has some 100 bhikkhunis who were ordained in Sri Lanka, where women are allowed to become monks. They and their monasteries are not legally recognized in Thailand, and don't enjoy state funding and other support the country's 200,000 male monks are granted.

 

Living spartan lives, the women are governed by 311 precepts from celibacy and poverty to archaic ones like having to confess after eating garlic. Their ranks and those of hundreds of aspirants — there are five stages before ordination — include a former Google executive, a Harvard graduate, journalists and doctors, as well as village noodle vendors.

 

"It is our right, our heritage, to lead a fully monastic life. We are on the right side of history," says Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, an author, former university professor and the first bhikkhuni in Thailand from the Theravada branch of Buddhism, which is dominant in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Using her religious name of Venerable Dhammananda, she contends that the Buddha 2,500 years ago built the religion as a four-legged stool — monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen — but "we are now sitting on just three legs."

 

The male-dominated religion has been blighted in recent years by crimes and gross violations of vows, just as widespread sex abuse and Vatican financial scandals have damaged the Roman Catholic Church.Monks in Thailand have been convicted of everything from murder to wildlife trafficking.

 

Sexual depravity is frequently reported. One former abbot, fugitive Wirapol Sukphol, faces charges of drug use, money laundering, fathering a child by an underage woman and illegally amassing millions of dollars. A photograph shows him seated in a private jet wearing aviator sunglasses.

 

The Supreme Sangha Council, the religion's ruling body, is under fire over the mishandling of corruption allegations against prominent abbots, including one of its own members. The allegations include embezzling funds intended for the cremation of an abbot's predecessor and the investment of $1.2 million from donations into the stock market.

 

With Buddhism so intimately tied to Thai identity — more than 90 percent adhere to the faith — these misdeeds and what is termed "checkbook Buddhism" have spurred calls in Parliament for curbing the almost total authority the council wields over the clergy and the corruption-stoking $4 billion in annual donations to monasteries.

 

A proposed Patronage and Protection of the Clergy Bill would impose stiff penalties for those who break the religion's cardinal rules and set up a panel to monitor donations. Corruption within Buddhism may also be dealt with in Thailand's next constitution, now being drafted.

 

The role of women in Buddhism has also aroused national-level debate.

 

The Sangha council has urged the government to ban Sri Lankan clergy from coming into the country following what Dhammananda calls a "rebel ordination" in Thailand of eight bhikkhunis last November by Sri Lankans.

 

That drew broad criticism of the council itself."The clergy can no longer insist on operating in a closed, feudal system that violates universal norms and values," said an editorial in the English-language Bangkok Post.

 

Instead of trying to crush women's aspirations, it said the "clergy should concentrate on cleaning up its own house to restore declining public faith."No scandal has emerged among Thailand's female clergy. Dhammananda said she has seen no misbehavior in her monastery beyond a few nuns who had used their mobile telephones to excess."I think that many nuns see themselves as exemplary. They are, and they're carving a new role for themselves that didn't exist," said Juliane Schober, an expert on Southeast Asian Buddhism at Arizona State University. "That that puts pressure on the Sangha doesn't surprise me."Women clergy interviewed at three monasteries said it was essential to maintain a high moral ground so as not to give opponents an excuse to stop their movement.

 

Some cast them as Western-educated feminists out to undermine traditional Buddhism."They can be a force for change in Buddhism," said Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai, a leading activist monk at Chiang Mai Buddhist College."If everything is in the hands of men, it is as if Buddhism was just the way of a father, not mother. But you need both," he said. "Mothers have some unique feelings that men do not share. They may have more loving kindness."Proponents of ordination like Boonchuay say bhikkhunis originated with Buddha himself; the first was an aunt who raised him.

 

Opponents argue that the lineage of the Theravada bhikkhuni order, under which women could be ordained, died out long ago and cannot be restored. The Mahayana branch of Buddhism practiced in East Asia has historically ordained women."We simply follow the rules. The ordination of female monks was allowed in the Lord Buddha's time.

 

But as time passed, the lineage of bhikkhuni disappeared," Phra Tepvisutthikawee of the Buddhism Protection Center has said.Despite conservative opposition, bhikkhunis are gaining ground with the general public in Thailand."It is a movement now. When I was struggling by myself it was just this crazy woman who wanted to be a monk," says Dhammananda, who was ordained in 2003. "Now people don't feel strange when they see a female monk in the streets. We don't have problems with people, with society."Aside from spiritual pursuits, the 15 monastics at her Songdhammakalyani Monastery visit prisoners, aid the poor and infirm and maintain other links with the surrounding community near Nakhon Pathom in central Thailand.

 

Regularly they make alms rounds, a timeless tradition of food offerings by the faithful who are then blessed by the monks.To the north, in the shadows of the country's highest mountain, hundreds of civil servants, businessmen, villagers and others regularly flock to an idyllic monastery to hear talks by Venerable Nandanyani, a bhikkhuni and onetime mathematician.

 

Families attend a weekend religion "camp" on the monastery grounds. A bhikkhuni leads a group of men and women in the slow motions of walking meditation.

 

Seated below a statue of the Buddha, the abbess energetically explains why ordination of women is vital, punctuating her words with thumbs-up gestures.

 

It enables individuals to probe Buddhism's depths and live the full monastic life, she says, and also allows intimate communication between female clergy and laywomen unhindered by the barriers of sex and traditional propriety between women and monks."We must wait," she says. "Slowly but surely it will come."

 

http://www.news-jour...and-status-quo/

Police drop plan to send a team to Malaysia as it may be pointless

 

 

The National Police Office has dropped its plan to send a police team to Malaysia to find out more about three suspects held by the Malaysian police regarding the bombing incidents in Bangkok.

 

The national police chief Pol Gen Somyot Poompunmung told a press conference on Friday that he was informed by Pol Gen Chaktip Chaichinda, the deputy national police chief in charge of overseeing the bombing case, the plan was off because it might be pointless as the main suspect, the yellow-shirted bomber, was believed to have slipped out of Malaysia already.

 

Pol Gen Somyot admitted that, so far, it was still unclear whether the three suspects – two Malaysians and one Pakistani – had any linkages to the bombing suspects in Thailand and, hence, it was doubtful what would have gained if a police team had been dispatched to Malaysia.

 

Earlier on Thursday, Pol Gen Chaktip blamed the extensive reportage of the bombing case by the media for having alerted the bombing suspects of the police movements and prompted their exit out of the country.

 

http://englishnews.t...ay-be-pointless

Phuket police confirm probe underway into missing Antarctic trawler Kunlun

 

PHUKET: Police have finally confirmed that an investigation is underway into the disappearance of the illegal Antarctic trawler Kunlun, also known as the Taishan, which vanished from Phuket waters last week.

 

 

 

 

Details of the missing vessel, its crew and the whereabouts of its multi-million-baht prized cargo of illegal toothfish might be revealed as soon as Monday, The Phuket News has been told.

 

Up until today, all agencies involved in the case, including the Phuket Marine Office, the Marine Police, the Royal Thai Navy and Phuket Cutoms, have remained silent on the disappearance of the ship.

 

The Kunlun was seized when it arrived in Phuket on March 6 after outrunning the Australian and the New Zealand Navies.

 

Pol Lt Col Kitipong Kaikeaw, Superintendent of the Vichit Police, confirmed that Phuket Immigration officers filed a report to Vichit Police on Tuesday last week (Sept 8), noting that the Kunlun had left Phuket without informing Immigration.

 

“They (the Kunlun crew) by law were required to inform Phuket Immigration before leaving the country, but they didn’t,†he said.

 

“And we have now confirmed that the vessel presented invalid registration papers to the Phuket Marine Office in July.â€

 

Pol Lt Col Kitipong explained that the captain of the Kunlun had presented ship registration papers purportedly issued by Indonesian authorities.

 

“But a check by the Phuket Marine Office confirmed that Indonesian officials say they have no record of the boat,†Pol Lt Col Kitipong said.

 

“Now we are collecting evidence and questioning witnesses,†he said. “Some details can’t be revealed right now, but the Thailand Maritime Enforcement Coordinating Center Area 3 is empowered to reveal more details.â€

 

However, Col Kitipong was unable to provide contact details for the Thailand Maritime Enforcement Coordinating Center Area 3, which his police officers are to report to in conducting their investigation into the missing trawler.

 

Col Kitipong also declined to discuss the whereabouts of the 182 tonnes of illegal toothfish that was found on board when the boat was seized on March 6.

 

“You can ask Thailand Maritime Enforcement Coordinating Center Area 3 about that, too†he said.

 

Vice Admiral Jumpon Lumphikanon, Director of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) Command Center for Combating Illegal Fishing, based at the RTN Third Area Command, also this week finally confirmed that an investigation is underway.

 

“The investigation [by police] involves many offices. The investigation will question all staff and officers involved,†he said.

 

Now the Navy is lumbered with finding the missing boat.

 

Vice-Admiral Sayan Prasongsamrej, Commander of the RTN Third Area Command in Phuket, told The Phuket News, “We are still looking for the Kunlun, and we have been working with international organizations since the vessel disappeared.

 

“We believe the escape was well planned, and I believe that the Kunlun must be hiding somewhere that does not have strict laws against IUUs.â€

 

An officer at the Phuket Marine Office told The Phuket News that Phuket Marine Chief Phuripat Theerakulpisut had been unavailable for comment this week as he been in Bangkok on official business.

 

“The Thailand Maritime Enforcement Coordinating Center Area 3 (THAI-MECC3) will hold press conference on Monday (Sept 21),†said the officer, who declined to be named.

 

“They will explain their duty regarding IUUs and how they work together with the Command Center for Combating Illegal Fishing,†he said, before hanging up.

 

- See more at: http://www.thephuket...h.TRTsga1o.dpuf

The museum is currently a roving exhibition of ten sculptures, representing ten corruption cases that involved figures from the civil service to television industry.

• By Panu Wongcha-um, Channel NewsAsia
  

A sculpture at Thailand's Museum of Thai Corruption (Photo: Panu Wongcha-um)

 

BANGKOK: A new museum has been launched in Thailand showcasing big public corruption cases through sculptures.

• 
   
  

First introduced on Sep 6 to mark the country’s National Anti-Corruption Day, the Museum of Thai Corruption is currently a roving exhibition of ten sculptures, representing ten famous cases.

 

Highlights include sculptures of a man and woman standing behind a stack of rice sacks, representing the alleged corruption that took place under the rice-pledging scheme introduced by former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government.

 

 

 

Another prominent installation shows a misshaped man swallowing building pillars, representing the alleged misappropriation of public funds for the construction of 396 police stations around the country under Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government.

 

 

There are also sculptures representing other ongoing big corruption cases that involve civil servants and even a television personality.

 

Pramon Sutivong, the chairman of Anti-Corruption Thailand, a non-profit organisation that founded the corruption museum, told Channel NewsAsia that the organisation intentionally exhibited sculptures of mostly unresolved corruption cases to create public awareness about them.

 

 

The exhibition did not directly name individuals involved in the ten corruption cases but urged public shaming of the alleged culprits. Pramon said a new exhibition will be introduced in the future to focus on major corruption cases in the past, highlighting the adverse effects they had on Thailand.

 

Sujane Kanparit, a columnist for Sarakadee Magazine, said the exhibition is highly politicised. “The displays are used to discredit governments that come from elections," she said.

The fight against corruption has often been used as a political tool in Thailand. During the political conflict of 2013-2014, the People’s Democratic Reform Committee used corruption allegations against Yingluck’s government to mobilise its supporters in street protests.

 

The Thai military uses the fight against corruption as one of the many justifications for its coup last year.

 

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, said there are many forms of corruption in Thailand.

 

"Sometimes corruption takes place through the misuse of power by officials and public figures to enrich themselves, while other forms of corruption are committed through implementation of public policies that benefit vested interests of those in power", said Thitinan.

 

The often overlooked cause of corruption in Thailand is the country's patronage system, where individuals benefit through personal connections. "The country needs to be more merit-driven to address the corruption issue at societal level," said Thitinan.

The Thai corruption museum is currently on display at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre from September 15 - 27. The sculptures are likely to end up on permanent display at the office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission of Thailand in the future.

 

http://www.channelne...um/2136102.html

]Thailand declares Pattaya disaster zone after flash floods

 

Thailand has declared Chon Buri, which includes the popular tourist resort of Pattaya, a disaster zone after it was hit by flash floods this week.

 

 

SINGAPORE: Thailand has declared Chon Buri, which includes the popular tourist resort of Pattaya, a disaster zone after it was hit by flash floods this week.

 

Torrential rain and gusty winds hit the Thai resort for many hours on Wednesday night and Thursday, causing damage to property and chaos to road users, local media said on Friday (Sep 18).

 

The heavy downpour was a result of a tropical storm Vamco which caused two-metre-high waves and high winds in the Gulf of Thailand.

 

Pattaya Mayor Ittipol Khunpluem said the disaster declaration would help accommodate state relief and assistance to the area despite the fact that most of the flooding had subsided, the Bangkok Post reported on Friday.

 

The government declared four other provinces - Trat, Chanthaburi, Surin and Si Sa Ket - disaster areas after they were battered by downpours caused by the tropical storm.

 

Residents living in danger zones have been evacuated and authorities were assisting the flood victims.

 

Nearly 400 tourists, who were stranded on Koh Lan, were eventually rescued, The Nation reported.

 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha has urged agencies to help affected people, The Nation quoted a government spokesman as saying.

 

Meteorological officials said the wet weather would likely continue over the next few days.

 

Tourism in Pattaya is expected to drop by 20 to 30 per cent this weekend due to the heavy rains, according to the Eastern Chapter of the Thai Hotels Association.

 

http://www.channelne...ya/2136818.html

 

 

HELSINKI, Finland - Police in Finland have received a complaint after two pranksters erected a makeshift gay bar based on the Blue Oyster from the Police Academy films to protest against Russia’s anti-gay laws.

 

The bar, a wooden structure hung with fairy lights and decorated with blue lettering, was built last weekend on a plot of land belonging to the Russian presidency on the remote Ã…land archipelago, a Swedish-speaking region of Finland.

 

Pictures posted by the pranksters show people outside the bar, some clad in leather and wearing yellow builders’ helmets, with one couple kissing.

 

“This is pure hooliganism,†the Russian consul to Åland, Mikhail Zubov, told the Finnish news agency STT.

 

The bar, outside the village of Saltvik, was erected by the Swedish comedy hip-hop duo Far & Son, who told local media they were protesting against Russia’s crackdown on gay rights, including a law forbidding the “promotion†of homosexuality.

 

“We expected a bit more of a vigorous response from the Russians and that they would immediately send the Scud missiles into the gay bar, but it seems they can’t keep up with Far & Son,†the comedians told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. “They are simply cowards.â€

 

Approximately 28,000 people live on the Ã…land islands, a popular summer resort for Finns and Swedes. The archipelago of 6,000 islands between Finland and Sweden is an autonomous region of Finland with its own parliament and has been demilitarized since 1921 because of its strategic location in the Baltic.

 

Before that it was part of the Russian empire as a region of the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, and there is still some residual local unease about Russia. Zubov, who was appointed consul to the islands in July, told the local press in August that Moscow had not trained troops to mount an invasion.

 

An editorial in Thursday’s Ålandstidningen said it supported the hip-hop duo’s satirical protest, saying that whereas the Soviet Union had attacked the west for its decadence, commercialism and pop music, Vladimir Putin’s Russia now attacked it for gay rights and preaching radical feminism.

 

It added that it was dangerous to underestimate the Russian president, who had a measure of global popularity that meant it was important to stand up for tolerance.

 

The Blue Oyster replica was built on land that became Russian property in 1947 under postwar peace treaties requiring all German-owned items in the area to be given to the Soviet Union.

 

The uninhabited 17,800 sq meter plot once belonged to a German-Finnish couple, and was revealed to be owned by the Russian presidency last autumn.

 

Since the invasion of Ukraine, the Baltic region has been jittery as a result of Russian military exercises and operations in the area, culminating in the Swedish hunt for a suspected Russian submarine in the Stockholm archipelago in October 2014. Putin has also visited shipwrecks in the Baltic in a submersible on a couple of occasions.

 

Ã…land police confirmed they had received a complaint about the incident on Sunday, and said the area belonged to the Russian state.

 

“The perpetrators forced their way into the area and built something, leaving their rubbish behind,†they said. “This incident has been classed as trespassing, as well as some sanitation violations. Police have been in contact with the Russian consul and documented the crime scene.â€

 

The crime could be punishable by up to three months in prison but Far & Son told Aftonbladet they were not afraid. “I think someone will build this again with cement next year. Then it will remain there forever.

 

“The Blue Oyster will be the only thing you can see from the moon, apart from the Great Wall of China. They will never take us alive.â€

 

http://www.eturbonews.com/63907/russia-furious-about-gay-bar-putins-plot-finland

The Supreme Court today reversed the ruling of the Appeals Court's two-year suspended jail term handed down on an alleged teenaged road-rage killer after finding his offences were serious that should not deserve prison suspension on probation.

 

The alleged road-rage killer Kanpitak Patchimsawas, then 25 years old, is the son of a former Thai beauty queen and a leading businessman and nephew of a powerful top police general.

 

He faced trial for murder, attempted murder and assault after he ploughed his Mercedes-Benz into a crowded Thong Lor bus stop on July 4, 2007 killing one woman and injuring several others.

 

Kanpitak was sentenced by the Appeals Court to serve three years in prison but commuted to two years and one month after considering his offences were committed at the time he could not control himself due to mental sickness.

 

Besides, the Appeals Court said, the convicted had paid compensation of up to over a million baht to the family of the killed woman and the three injured, and they agreed not to proceed with civil suits against him, it then decided the prison sentence be suspended for two years instead after considering the nature of the case. The Appeals Court then required him to report his behaviour to the behaviour control officials every three months on a two -year probation.

 

The verdict was appealed to the high court by the families of the killed and injured victims.

 

But in today’s hearing of the trial read at the presence of the convict, now 33 years old, and the killed victim’s family, at the Phra Khanong district court, the Supreme Court disagreed with the ruling of the Appeals Court which delivered Kanpitak on a two-year suspended sentence and on a probation instead.

 

The high court said that although it agreed with the medical report that the convict was mentally sick and had decision making problem, but medical report showed that before committing the serious offences, he still was addicted to drugs when he first took drugs since he was 17 years old.

 

Besides, the court reasoned that as his father still allowed him to drive, therefore, the crimes he committed were serious.

 

The Supreme Court then overruled the Appeals Court’s ruling and handed down him to serve the two year sentence immediately with no suspended jail sentence.

 

The court also retained his one month in prison for body assault ruled earlier by the lower court as there was no appeal by the victim’ s families.

 

In total, Kanpitak was given two years and one month in prison for the offences.

 

Earlier in 2009 the Phra Khanong District Court sentenced him to jail but commuted the sentence on mental health reason. He was freed on a 1-million bail.

 

He allegedly ploughed his Mercedes-Benz into a crowded Thong Lor bus stop on July 4 last year, killing one woman and injuring several others.

 

The incident happened shortly after a bus and Kanpitak’s car were engaged in a minor collision on Sukhumvit Road.

 

Witnesses say Kanpitak hit the bus driver in the face with a stone before driving his car into the bus stop.

 

The defendant’s father, Kan-anek, says his son was mentally ill.

 

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/mercedes-maniac-now-serves-jail-sentence-after-eight-years-of-court-trials

 

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Actually, given the upbringing of a person who probably never had to pass an exam in in his life, how was probably handed luxury on a platter by fawning servants, and whose belief in his personal superiority was so strong as to give him a god complex, mental illness might not be a bad diagnosis.

By Coconuts Bangkok

 

 

Heavy rains lashed Pattaya yesterday and left about 400 Thai and foreign tourists stranded on Koh Lan and flooded parts of the city.

 

The heavy rains, which lasted for about three hours, caused the in-bound and out-bound lanes of the Sukhumvit highway at the entrance of a road to South Pattaya to flood with about two feet of water for about 100 metres, reported Thai PBS.

 

The weather was a result of a tropical storm Vamco and caused two-meter-high waves and high winds in the Gulf of Thailand.

 

The 380 tourists stranded on Koh Lan were eventually rescued when four boats were sent to collect them, reported The Nation.

 

The Pattaya-Na Klua, the Walking Street in South Pattaya and Panya housing estate were also heavily flooded.

 

Strong winds/waves damaged several anchorages at the Southern Pattaya Pier, worth millions of baht.

You always try and get a red edge in there, and frankly, supporting the yellows as you obviously do, look where that got Thailand Captain Herr Coss!

 

Ahh fuc* it - I'll no more mention reds, to keep you happy.

 

I'm not pro or anti anyone in Thailand except Takky and he's not even there, I dislike him with a vengeance and the whore he rode in on. As far as the rest go, red/yellow/black/white/green and inebriated in the gutter, they are all worthy of derision and ridicule.

 

I've met many that are normal, educated and sensible, I'm playing part time host to some here in NZ now. But the ones that make the news in Thailand are the funniest entertainment I've ever seen.

 

You may have noticed me taking the piss out of some Thais who are part of the current establishment. I think these are the opposite of the colour I may no longer mention, in case I am seen to be getting an edge in there. Are the current establishment out of bounds for me to attempt to ridicule?

 

I now you are pro red, good on you, and in a liberated LOS, I'd be too. But as I say, I'm beige and my only real dislike is the Takky himself.

 

Sorry to have offended you.

 

 

Common gossip in Thailand is it's all related to promotions. And who didn't get promoted.

Who knows? None of us!

 

Quite.

Thai police to send second team to KL to gather info on Bangkok blast suspects

 

 

BANGKOK: Thai police will send another team to Kuala Lumpur to gather more information on the three people detained by Malaysian police over links to a group of suspects responsible for the bomb attacks in central Bangkok on Aug 17.

 

“On the second trip tomorrow, we will send our officials who are familiar with Malaysian protocol. The team may be able to interrogate the three persons,†said Thai police deputy chief Police General Chaktip Chaijinda at a press conference on his return to Bangkok Wednesday.

 

“I am not sure if we are able to talk with them (the three people) ... in principle, they allow us to interrogate the suspects but we have to see,†he said, adding that he had obtained useful information during his trip and Malaysian police had been very cooperative.

 

Chaktip said he and his team had met with Special Branch chief Datuk Seri Mohamad Fuzi Harun as Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was abroad.

 

On Monday, Khalid had announced the arrest of two Malaysians and a Pakistani in connection with the bomb attacks in Bangkok.

 

Chaktip said apart from discussions on the three individuals, illegal human trafficking routes and other issues were also discussed.

----

 

So how did he f**k up the first trip?