<p>The story is that Somebody Who Shall Be Nameless spread the word that whistleblower Edward Snowden had escaped the transit lounge of Sheremetyevo Airport on board the air force jet used by Bolivian President Evo Morales as a presidential plane. Morales was on his way home from the 2^nd Gas Summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, also attended by such US-friendly states as Iran and Venezuela.</p> <p></p>

<p>Chulalongkorn University has sleepwalked its way into an unfortunate muddle. Five final-year students have just discovered that they failed a first-year course and should no longer be students. By the rules of the university they should have been thrown out 2 years ago.</p> <p></p>

<p>They’re taking over.</p> <p>Let’s just take yesterday’s paper as an example.&nbsp; The headline was the rice mortgage scheme and a second article (of four on the front page) was about the SET.&nbsp; The inside pages have 2 more stories on domestic business matters, one on the maybe-they-will-maybe-they-won’t asbestos ban and another on the luxury car tax fraud.&nbsp; The op-ed page has one piece on the financing of the water management and flood prevention programme, another, subtitled ‘Economics’, questioning Thailand’s claims to be greening the economy and a third on Japan’s ‘Abenomics’ economic revival plan.</p> <p></p>

<p>This website recently reported <a href="http://prachatai.com/english/node/3617">the outstanding work of Rangers Task Force 45 of the 4th Army Region</a>. Based in Ra-ngae District of Narathiwat Province, or smack dab in the middle of bang-bang shoot-shoot territory, this intrepid band of soldiers have made their name not in combatting the insurgency with patrols and checkpoints, nor in hearts-and-minds strategies to win the allegiance of the local population.</p> <p></p>

<p>So the Thai education system&nbsp;has earned itself some international publicity of the exactly the kind the Ministry of Education doesn’t want.</p> <p>Thomas Fuller of the New York Times got insideNawaminthrachinuthit&nbsp;Triam&nbsp;Udomsewuksa&nbsp;Pattanakarn&nbsp;inPaknam&nbsp;to produce an article ‘In Thailand’s Schools, Vestiges of Military Rule’</p> <p></p>

<p>My experience of Thai courtrooms is, mercifully, not extensive but as far as I can recall, they all have a notice facing the public seats telling you to turn off your mobile.</p> <p>And fair enough.&nbsp; Other entertainment venues, like cinemas and theatres, also expect you to turn them off.&nbsp; Why should the courts of justice be any different?</p> <p></p>

<p>Memo</p> <p>To: Central Politburo, Thai Spring</p> <p>From: Acting Temporary Director, Foreign Relations Section</p> <p>Re: International Reaction</p> <p>In response to&nbsp;our Dear Leaders’&nbsp;wise and far-seeingcommand to&nbsp;report on the response in foreign countries to our Dear Leaders’ moving and eloquent&nbsp;Open Letter from Concerned Thai Citizens,&nbsp;it is&nbsp;with&nbsp;undying love and loyalty for our Dear Leaders&nbsp;that&nbsp;we&nbsp;respectfully report the following.</p> <p></p>

<p>Right, I’ve had enough. I’m sick up to here with this mindless ‘if you don’t like it here, then go and live somewhere else’ garbage.</p> <p>So what about you? If you don’t like reading this stuff, why don’t you go and live somewhere else where they don’t write like this? Never thought of that, did you, eh?</p> <p></p>

<p>Dear me, I can hardly keep up.&nbsp; A Prime Minister talks about democracy in something more than platitudes, and in front of foreigners.&nbsp; And comes home to a chorus of boos from those whose recent contributions to democracy have included coups, live fire zones, and mass censorship of the internet.&nbsp; How dare she mention the word ‘democracy’ 27 times in a speech at a forum on democracy!</p>

<p>From a report by the National News Bureau of Thailand, part of the Public Relations Department (stop giggling there, of course news is subordinate to PR):</p> <p>‘Thailand’s Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has asked the public to stop making comments or criticisms about the controversial bomb detector GT200 procurement.’</p> <p></p>

<p><em>My word how things change.</em></p> <p>When I came to Bangkok, I remember there were 3 buildings of more than 7 storeys. One was the tapering triangular structure of the Dusit Thani, which set an aesthetic example which later high-rises studiously ignored. The second was the glass-and-steel Chokchai building, whose construction on Sukhumwit suffered the hiccup of a bankruptcy until the CIA was rumoured to have quietly helped with the financing so it could stick its satellite dishes on the top. And the third was Thai Daimaru at Pratunam, which was so nondescript it has long since been demolished in favour of something much taller and equally nondescript.</p> <p></p>

<p>A 30-year-old resident of the US who was born in Bangladesh was beaten up in the Bronx on the day of the Boston Marathon bombings. A group of 3 or 4 men, described by the victim as Hispanic looking, had decided that the bombing was the work of Arabs. They then assumed that the Bangladeshi looked sufficiently Arab and ‘took revenge’. The Bangladeshi man hadn’t even seen the news at that point and had no idea why he was being attacked.</p> <p></p>