<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-7f2074c6-5dd9-7f7c-14b9-6a79dbdbb192">Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?</span></strong></em></p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7f2074c6-5dd9-7f7c-14b9-6a79dbdbb192">Juvenal (Satire VI, lines 347–8). Literally, "Who will guard the guards themselves?"</span></p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</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>

<div>The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) explains that summoning people for attitude adjustment and detention is carried out in accordance with the law. I say the NCPO because this explanation has been repeated by the head, deputy head, and on down to the spokesperson. </div>

<p>A 'Whiteness makes you win' <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/08/thai-advert-white-makes-you-win-skin-whitening-lambasted-for-racism">ad</a> by Thai skincare company Seoul Secret promoting skin-whitening pills called Snowz (seriously?) has hit Thai social media hard, made the major dailies such as the <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/820268/firm-behind-be-white-to-win-skin-pill-ad-apologises"><em>Bangkok Post</em></a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.th/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=4&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwigl7n</p> </a></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 dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b175826b-0535-a2cb-7b15-df104d5abc15">Back in 2003, Thailand ratified the 1966 UN </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Convention_on_the_Elimination_of_All_Forms_of_Racial_Discrimination">International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination</a> (CERD), though it does not recognize the competence of the relevant Committee under Article 14 of the Convention regarding an individual complaints mechanism.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><em><span id="docs-internal-guid-fcd8e39e-c3d4-1456-7cea-da4243f6b98f">This article was first published at </span><a href="http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/">New Mandala</a>, a specialist website on Southeast Asia based at the Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.</em></p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fcd8e39e-c3d4-1456-7cea-da4243f6b98f"><img alt="" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/685/23857937346_4b446caf40_o.jpg" style="width: 440px; height: 284px;" /></span></p>

<p>The December 11 <u>Bike for Dad</u>’ cycling event was personally sponsored and led by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. The event attracted 99,999 people (registered) in Bangkok as well as thousands in 77 provinces (498,105 registered) and approximately 9,800 Thais in 66 cities in 52 countries worldwide, coordinated by a sophisticated operation and website. In total, 703,792 Thais registered for the event.</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>This column is a follow up to <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/5600">this column</a> on how Thailand is at the Bottom of the Global Creativity Index’s ‘ethnic and religious tolerance’ indicator, on which Thailand ranked 127^th out of 130 countries. The importance of creativity is that it is linked to growth, especially in cities, where a cosmopolitan mix lends itself to dynamism.</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>

<div> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a0cbb653-6708-7d8c-2765-822d79482c10">As the negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris are ongoing, the following column analyses the effects of various global climate change scenarios on Bangkok. The planet has already experienced a 1ºC increase since the industrial revolution and is expected to reach </span><a href="http://issuu.com/greenpeaceth/docs/en">5-6ºC warming</a> in a business-as-usual situation (BAU) (which incorporates the 1,600 planned coal-fired power stations globally) by 2200 at the latest.</p> </div>