<p>Another school year over and time to reflect for a moment on all that budget wasted, and time and effort, and the young minds.&nbsp; So sad.</p> <p>The Thai education system, you might have thought, would be near the top of the to-do list for any government that comes to power speaking the language of reform.&nbsp; The whole shebang is so dysfunctional that anybody and his mother can pick holes in it, the latest critic being Supachai Panitchpakdi, ex-head of the WTO and UNCTAD.</p>

<p>The code of omertà (silence) among mafia types is often portrayed as a form of honour among thieves.&nbsp; Something like not snitching on your mates, a lesson you learned in the school playground to show you were brave, principled even, and prepared to stand up to the sadistic bullying of small-minded authoritarians called teachers.&nbsp;</p> <p>But with all due respect to any members of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Ndrangheta" title="'Ndrangheta">ʼNdrangheta</a>, Cosa Nostra or Camorra who might be reading this – bollocks.</p>

<p>The Thai police have reacted angrily to international coverage of the latest ‘vice’ raid, which is being portrayed as another bumbling bone-headed police farce.</p>

<p>You may not have noticed this, but the escalators on the underground MRT in Bangkok have signs telling you not to walk and to hold onto the handrail.&nbsp; But on the BTS skytrain, they tell you to walk on the left and stand on the right.</p> <p>Certainly the vast majority of passengers seem to be ignoring the signs.&nbsp; This could be the confusion of having different systems in the same city, but I suspect it’s just the regular scoff-law attitude you get round here.</p>

<p><em>‘Under the new regulation, those wanting to contest MP and Senate elections must not have parents and spouses who are MPs, senators, members of local administrative bodies, or local administrators</em><em>.’ — Newspaper report</em><em> on a new constitutional provision</em><em>.</em></p> <p>It was a whirlwind romance.</p>

<p>Maybe the military government is getting a bad rap over the alleged corruption concerning Rajaphakti Park.&nbsp; I know one of their stated excuses for overturning the constitution and ousting a democratic government was the elimination of corruption, but it would be unreasonable to expect any government to be 100% spotless.&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>‘Gen Prayut said that other countries planned to use genetically modified </em><em>(GM</em><em>) plants during times of war or widespread disease that affected crop cultivation because they could be engineered to endure</em><em>.’</em></p> <p>News report explaining the government decision to withdraw its GMO bill, which had nothing to do with protests from farmers, consumers, exporters, the NESDB and the Ministry of Commerce – in fact just about everyone except the GMO companies whose fingerprints were all over the bill.</p>

<p>Some years ago, I was in conversation with a retired government official who had been a high heidyin in the Bangkok governor’s office.&nbsp; Bangkok was just recovering from the latest inundation and he was scathing in his criticisms of the administration of the day.</p> <p>He noted, correctly, that flooding in the capital seemed to be both more frequent and more severe.&nbsp; I agreed, but mentioned climate change and other factors that were not directly under the BMA’s control.</p>

<p>It’s beginning to get on my wick.</p> <p>Because of the BMA’s farcical idea of what constitutes a ‘cycle lane’, I have a choice. I can pedal along the gutter, prey to the insouciant homicidal tendencies of the average Bangkok motorist.&nbsp; Or I can mount the footpath, use the ‘cycle lane’, and become myself predator, a danger to poor pedestrians.</p> <p>My confidence in my own magnanimity (and total lack of confidence in that of Bangkok bus drivers), induces me to choose the footpath.&nbsp; But I am not out of danger there.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Sorry, but are we living under a military dictatorship or not?</p> <p>This morning’s paper has a lead that says the military are about to throw Deputy Defence Minister, former Army Commander-in-Chief and chairman of the Rajabhakti Park Foundation General Udomdej Sitabutr to the anti-corruption wolves (or at least those of them who are less selective in their outrage).&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Thai Health Promotion Foundation has fallen foul of the anti-corruption vigilantes, who claim that the Foundation has been supporting all sorts of activities that are beyond its mandate, wilfully and wantonly squandering the taxpayers’ hard-earned money.</p> <p>Well, no.</p>

<p>Acharn Thitinan ‘the Quotemeister’ Pongsudhirak produces a Bangkok Post op-ed with an exemplary regularity that makes a Friday read of the page most worthwhile (though maybe not as entertaining as on a Saturday).&nbsp; His recent offering on Thai trade policy and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), however, was a sad disappointment.</p>