Once again some nice motion pictures from Baan Konssay, U-Kaew district, Udon-Thani province

Check it out:



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In Thailand the military has always been playing an important role. The military operates broadcasting stations, banks and military schools as an alternative to the regular public schools.
In politics one finds much more Generals than in western countries.
Of course there is a military draft in Thailand. All males at the age of 21 have to do their duty for two years. And the draft is always due in this time of the year. From April 1st to April 12th draft-time in Thailand during which all 21-year-olds and all males born in the year 1987 have to submit to the draft.
Conscripts will receive an monthly salary of 1,550 baht and a daily allowance of 75 baht.
Assistant army commander Gen Jiradet Khotcharat said the army had set up 154 committees to supervise the annual draft to make sure it is free of fraud and bribery.
Gen Jiradet said the army must be careful in drafting men from the three strife-torn southernmost provinces for fear that insurgent sympathisers could mix with and infiltrate the army. He said military training would help instil good attitudes into conscripts from the South and help them stay away from insurgents. This year, a total of 85,760 new conscripts will be recruited into the armed forces. Of these, 1,392 will go to the Defence Ministry and the Supreme Command, 62,323 to the army, 16,000 to the navy and 6,045 to the air force. More than 20,000 conscripts have agreed to sign up for military service so far

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After a vicious fight at an food stall in Nakhon Sawan a Briton had to be hospitalized due to a skull crack. A gang of about 30 Thai, including one soldier had kicked and punched the victim and two other Englishmen while they were dining at a roadside restaurant early Sunday morning.
After the three victims had been taken to hospital the gang stormed the building and resumed beating the three Brits until police eventually arrived. Responding to questions about the attack, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said the incident must be thoroughly investigated by police and the army.
Meanwhile police have arrested the accused soldier and another man. The suspects face a maximum seven years in jail if found guilty.
Police are searching fort the other suspects.

Also read the post : Battle with Thai People - You better don't

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Like Europe in the 18th century elegant whiteness is regarded as chic in today’s asia. In drug stores all over south east asia you will hardly find a bodycare product without “whitening”-ingredients. Ranging from deo roll-ons to bodylotion all products have the whitening stuff inside which particularly people in the sunny regions of south east asia like. But many peole can’t effort the mostly expensive brands and buy therefore no-name products from the market –with sometimes ugly results. So, if you care for your skin pigments better buy brand products an invest some minutes to find a cream without whitener.



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Some call it a smelly liquid made of fermented fish but for others it it is part of the national culture. Even the ancient Romans used it for seasoning their dishes and called it Garum. What soy sauce is for the Chinese, fish sauce is it for the people in South East Asia. Especially in Vietnam fish sauce (Nuoc Mam) is very popular – cook and poets refer to it as eatable perfume. There are even poems and songs about it. In Thailand fish sauce is known as Naam pla, on te Philippines they call it Patis and Koreans speak of Jeotgal. But all have the strong, fishy smell in common, which needs to getting used to for foreigners. The production ist quite simple: Fresh anchovies are mixed 2,5:1 with salt. During the next months the salt abstracts water from the fishes, which drains through a small tap in the fish sauce barrel and pour back into the barrel. Like olive oil Nuo Mam has different levels of quality. Fishsauce increases the taste of most dishes without adding a fishy taste. With fish sauce, chillies, garlic and lime juice you can fix yourself easily a asian seasoning sauce on your own. Just chop some Thai chillies and garlic, pour some lime juice and fish sauce on it an leave in the fridge for some days.
But, as I said, it takes some time to get used to the aroma. I remember the small village Mui Ne at the coast of Vietnam which is famous for its fish sauce production. At 40 degree Celsius the stench was unbearable.

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The Thai Culture ministry wants to encourage parents to nickname their children with Thai names after a survey displayed that in the Isaan province of Khon Kaen 45.9 percent of the children have English nicknames already. "Now, more and more parents give English nicknames to their children," Culture Ministry permanent secretary Vira Rojpojchanarat said.
In Thailand people have nicknames additionally to their official first and last name. Official names hardly play a role in everyday life in Thailand. Instead, nicknames are used even on the job. If people are close to each other or younger than you, they may call themselves by their nicknames instead of using pronouns. Some Thai nicknames have meanings, and some don’t. Treat them as mere names – don’t try to translate the names because some might be funny or not make any sense like pig (muu), chicken (gai) or fish (pla). Common Nicknames are: yai, duk-daa, gung, mot, an, jäng, dim, mai, bum, dtui, än, ding, nooi, däng, mäm, nüng, miao, nok, gop, oo, nit, nuu

Source: Benjawan Poomsan Becker: Thai for intermediate Learners and The Nation

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Police say the hackers who invaded the Information and Communications Technology Ministry’s Website were Thais living in Germany. The hackers breached the website from an Europe-based computer said Colonel Yannaphon Yangyuen. The officer explained, that his department had already warned the ministry about possible online attacks. He said the first findings suggest, that the culprits were from Germany. As a reaction to the invasion, the ministry handed over all systems security to CAT Telecom. After the hack the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) is also concerned about the military’s systems security. ISOC spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng said the Council planned to draft precautionary measures together with CAT Telecom.
Meanwhile, it is still unclear if the hacking was conducted to discredit the Council for National Security and its chairman Sonthi Boonyaratglin. Inofficially ISOC sources estimate that the hacking could have been to confuse the public over the coming referendum on the new Thai constitution.
In the meantime, the and Communications Technology Ministry has filed a complaint against the hackers.
Afer the new omputer-related Crimes Act offenders can be sentencedto prison between three to 15 years and fines ranging from Bt60,000 to Bt300,000.


Source: The Nation

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An hacker attack on the website of the Thai Information and Communications Technology Ministry's website paralyzed the ministry's online presence for some time the day before yesterday. Instead of the welcome page the site displayed the grinning and waving Thaksin Shinawatra with the message "take back your dictatorship and return our Thailand". The attack to place at 11.50 a.m. and lasted about ten minutes. After that the page returned online not until 2 p.m. Up to now it is unclear whether the hackers started their defacement from Thailand or from overseas. Also, it is unclear whether or not supporters of Ex-PM Thaksin were responsible for the hack.

Information minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said he was "glad" about the skills of the hackers, but he disapproved the misuse of that talent. "The ministry will take action against those behind the attack, to make them pay for what they did," he said, adding that he had set a deadline for their arrest. A ministry spokesman said the attack had been launched simaltaneously from three different locations. A ministry employee described the hack a a "slap in the face" as it had hapened just one day after the Computer-related Crimes Act became effective.

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There is no doubt that Panrit “Gor” Daoruang is Thailand's most famous internet kid. At the age of 12 Gor startet writing about his life and about what it is like growing up in Thailand. His Blog entries were first published at the internationally known website ThailandLife.com in 1997. A lot of people regard Gor as Thailand's first true blogger. In his online diary he wrote about school, his home and his vacations all over Thailand. But only when he fell into an turbulent relationship with his first girlfriend and became drug addicted he really became famous. At the age of 16 he was discovered by the Bangkok Post, where he was offered to write a weekly column named Gor's world about his life.

For more than two years he entertained and shocked his readers with insights on the life of a typical thai teenager, who tries to cope with the strict rules of thai society. Motorbike races, teenage pregnancy, smoking in school, gambling, alkohol and drugs were presented week after week in a shockingly free spoken exposure. Nonetheless Gor also showed his appreciation for the thai values, for example when he wrote about his wedding, the birth of his daughter or is ordaining as a monk. A the age of 20 Gor was arrested for drug posession just a few months after he left monkhood. Since the age of 15 he had been addicte to "yaa baa", the crazy medicine", an amphetamine which is more widespread among thais than one would estimate. Gor had been trying to halt his addiction many times but had always failed as the drug was too powerful. At his trial he was sentenced to six years in prison, but the judge reduced the penalty for Gor pleading guilty at the last second. Today Gor is doing his time in Samut Prakan Central Prison, where the guards recruited him as an inofficial translator due to his fluent English

found at thaiprisonlife.com

pictures courtesy by thaiprisonlife.com

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Thai authorities are planning to deport members of the Hmong-tribe back to Laos within the next two months. "Those who came from Laos will be repatriated to their place of origin with no resettlements in Thailand or third countries,"said Third Army Region commander Lt-General Jiradej Kotcharat after an inspection of the shelter in Huay Nam Khao.
In total 7,653 hmong are registered, with an average of 26 births a month and 1.2 deaths a month sais the commander in the newspaper The Nation.

Most of the hmong refugees claim to be associated with the CIA financed hmong guerilla, wich fought until the fall of the laotian capital in 1975 against the communists. They had fled to Thailand because of the oppression in Laos.
Laotian government is still fighting against the former hilltribe soldiers although they not much more than small rugged units in the jungle with antique weapons.
Even though laotian military keeps on attacking Hmong villages.
"In one of the largest settlements with more than 800 inhabitants about 30 percent had gunshot or shrapnel wounds. Due to the attacks by the army many of the Hmong retreat in even deeper jungle areas. Some flee to Thailand, but there they are threatened by forced deportation back to Laos before they are registered by the UNHCR," reads the Amnesty International website.
However, Thailand and Laos regard them as illegal immigrants who should be deported home.

More on the Hmong: Hmong - People between diaspora and annihilation

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