New Mandala readers who have waited in anticipation to download Andrew Marshall’s “Thai Story” can whet their appetite with this beauty from Not The Nation. The explanatory graphic that goes with it is pretty good too.

And then there is Marshall’s story itself. It is now online and getting a tremendous amount of attention. Part I (of IV) is 107-pages of reportage, quotation, interpretation and argument. You can download it here.

I encourage New Mandala readers to get started — there is plenty to digest.

Marshall has also penned an essay for The Independent titled “Why I decided to jeopardise my career and publish secrets”. As he writes:

The answer is that — incredibly, a decade into the 21st century — this is the price that has to be paid for trying to tell the truth about an apparently modern and open country: Thailand.

Much discussion — here, there and everywhere — will, I’m sure, follow. If you want to keep up-to-date with this breaking story then this page and this one should do the trick. And for those of you who prefer to surf the tweet stream this will be a good place to start, as will this.

As Saksith Saiyasombut tweeted a minute ago, “So it has begun…!”