<p>I wish to report a crime.</p> <p>Very good, sir. What crime?</p> <p>I was drugged and robbed.</p> <p>Could I see your passport please?</p> <p>No.</p>

<p>While Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha called for all 9,000 insurgents and their supporters in the South to be brought to justice (not the same justice that he applies to security forces committing extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and, if rumours are true, a whole raft of run-of-the-mill crimes like drug-dealing, smuggling, and gun-running), his deputy, Gen Dapong Rattanasuwan, was expressing the real fears that keep the military top brass awake in their beds at night.</p>

<p>Kenya&rsquo;s declared intention to bid for the 2024 Olympic Games has been widely derided both at home and abroad in the light of Kenya&rsquo;s dismal medal showing in the current London 2012 Olympics. &nbsp;Why should a country whose athletic prowess is clearly on the wane consider itself a suitable venue for the greatest sporting and marketing event on the planet?<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>In another controversial ruling, the Constitutional Court of Thailand has disqualified the Pheu Thai party from politics for &lsquo;not using one&rsquo;s best efforts to win&rsquo; and &lsquo;conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport of politics&rsquo;.</p>

<p>I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;ve ever tried to report a crime to a Thai police station. &nbsp;It can become a somewhat surreal experience.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>With the London 2012 Olympic Games in danger of being rained off and mired in controversy about security, traffic jams, strikes by transportation workers and immigration officials and complaints about price gouging, Thailand has reportedly made a surprise secret offer to the International Olympic Committee to nominate Bangkok as a last-minute replacement venue.</p>

<p>Photo Caption from the Bangkok Post:<br /> Try Not to Laugh: &nbsp;A shy schoolgirl giggles as she walks past a line of sailors during a ceremony to mark the 119th anniversary of the Royal Thai Navy&rsquo;s defeat of an intruding French battleship sailing up the Chao Phraya River in July 1893. &nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>In an unprecedented move, the Constitutional Court has demanded that all 15,744,190 voters who chose the Pheu Thai party in the party-list vote in the last election must submit statements to the Court explaining their decision. &nbsp;</p>

<p>7 August 2012: House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont was criticized by the opposition Democrat Party for changing the House agenda. The speaker had ruled that the debate on an aborted NASA weather research mission should be cancelled. &lsquo;Parliament has the obligation to debate issues of national importance,&rsquo; said a Democrat MP &lsquo;and since this matter was referred to Parliament by Cabinet, the Speaker has no right to cancel the debate.&rsquo;</p>

<p>Every society has its shibboleths.</p> <p>My childhood was blighted by a fear of foreign food. Except that wasn&rsquo;t what we called it. Foreigners didn&rsquo;t eat food; they ate &lsquo;foreign muck&rsquo;.</p>

<p>The scene is an investigation room in the headquarters of the Royal Thai Police. A Police Captain is checking the football section of Naew Na for possible crime leads, while a technician is hunched over some electronic gadgetry. From time to time he punches a button. From the next room, visible through a one-way mirror, come the kind of groans and moans that normally form the soundtrack of a porn movie. A Police Sub-Lieutenant is seated at a desk holding a pencil over an exam answer sheet as he writhes and jerks about.</p> <p>Pol Capt: Bugger. I had Denmark down for a draw.</p>

<p>The Constitutional Court enraged football fans around the country by telling the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to rescind its order to TrueVisions to carry the Euro 2012 football championships.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> The UEFA rights to show the games in Thailand had been won by GMM Grammy, which had then made deals with upcountry satellite channels and the free-to-air channels, but not with TrueVisions, which has a virtual monopoly on satellite TV in and around Bangkok.<br /> &nbsp;</p>