Whatever else can be speculated about re the CP he appears to be healthy and virile. Post-modernist feminists would likely “kick back” – and good for them – but the CP is clearly not on his “death bed” yet so much of what appears is simply idle speculation: the stuff of 112!
Chris any bank note that personifies those in high office, whether it be Mao in China, Bac Ho in Vietnam or the Queen on NZ banknotes I am all for………………
Ryan I am not an apologist for this regime or any other (made that mistake supporting that maniac Pol Pot in Cambodia for quite some time) but I don’t think the situation is quite a grim as you paint in your post. Forever the eternal optimist, especially after a “few” glasses of over-priced wine I think as a “revolutionary” who has lived through quite a few not simply regime changes but societal upheavals that the situation is not quite as grim as you portray it. Still if I am proven wrong I will take it on the cheek or elsewhere if necessary!
Yep. Not directly in person but he has been on television or at least someone who looks like the CP. Probably down-under you don’t get live-feeds in that shockingly insular place they call Australia.
Good points Michael but we have to understand poor Jim. He is enscorned in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where desire is a far more fetishised commodity (how is that for post-modern BS) than fortunately most Thais, including those “born to rule” would want to grasp. However, at least Professor Jim has balls and does not hide behind some arcane pseudonym.
The powers that be are indeed very, very afraid of Thailand’s break-up : hence they are hitting on their neighbours, where the junta thinks it can INDEED lay on massive pressure : here this – re. what they are doing to Cambodia : “a Cambodian official said that authorities were working on an appeal to extradite three Thais accused of insulting the monarchy.
The Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman, Chum Sounary, told reporters that its government “is processing the extradition request”. Reported by The Guardian.
It will be very interesting indeed to see how the Government of the Lao PDR re-acts to any such requests.
Appreciate what you say Mark. We don’t have any clear, hard evidence of the CP being “AIDS-infected”. There’s none in the Wikileaks cables, where one would expect to find it, and which Andrew MacGregor Marshall is so fond of quoting. So, much as I respect AMM’s fact-finding in many ways – on this it’s simply rumour. It could simply be malicious rumour spread by the CP’s enemies, some of whom are rumoured to be gay cross-dressers – and may well suffer AIDS themselves !
My problem with Jim’s “analysis” here has nothing to do with how abstract a post-modernist he is or isn’t.
Like so many others on this site, Jim plays and overplays the “victim game”. In doing so, he creates, along with so many others, a version of the Thai people as a passive, brainwashed, brutalized “subject people” without agency.
In Deleuzian terms, you might say he denies them their desire, their very subjectivity itself.
So for such a retrograde ideologue to pick up the Deleuzian notions of “micro-fascism” and “black hole”, both of which foreground subjectivity and subjective desire, is just another example of folks here on NM just “making shit up” because it happens to serve their view of themselves and their world.
There is no such perverse entity in D&G as Jim’s “microfascist state” generating “micro-transformations with the knock on flows suffusing all elements of social and cultural life”.
There are individual congeries of “desiring machines” and their individual “microfascisms” that may or may not result in the creation of a macrofascism, which would be a fascist state.
Whatever one thinks of Deleuzian approaches to “politics”, it is clear that the constant labeling of various Asian political phenomena as nothing more than versions of “Western” prototypes– Duterte is Trump is Hitler; Thai traditional militarism is Fascism– is a form of deterritorialization, which of course is the predominant mode of capitalism as it romps around the world tearing apart traditional structures.
Rather than pushing the Thai people to one side in the attempt to understand and describe contemporary Thai politics by devaluing their desires as nothing more than the result of brainwashing, it might be better to begin with the assumption that Thais, like Australians, have their own desires and then ask why they seem to prefer what Jim calls fascism to the chimera so many Anglospherians celebrate as “democracy”.
Have ben spreading the word since 2012 – now Nusa Tenggara Timur – East Indonesia – is ranked #7 province for prevalence of AIDS
By far not sufficient manpower here, lots of stigma and discrimination, not sufficient access to VCT, correct: most people I speak with have no clue about what HIV is, how it is being spread, whether they are high-risk and how to respond when tested HIV+
Made a film about it to show some of the aspects, excuses for poor translation – low budget production. Have been lobbying for funding for a capacity building campaign of local leaders – no luck yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1skeBcuZS4
Hey Chris,
I was only speculating on the nature of the ” personal business ” that could have led to prince Vajiralongkorn’s trip. There has been speculation that a possible reason for his frequent trips to Germany is a medical condition. This was simply the first thing thing that came to my mind. I’m sure there are any number of other possible causes.
Perhaps you should add rice farmers post-war that received lower than market prices because of the rice premium that was in place until the mid 1980s, women and men from farms who became wage laborers in a range of non-agricultural based sectors, including manufacturing and service industries OR of course those women and men who went abroad and repatriated as much of their earnings as possible to support families back in Thailand. But one should not ignore the role authoritarian regimes play in the accumulation of capital aka most of the other NICs in the Asia-Pacific region such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. Of course this should not be an argument for philosophically justifying authoritarian regimes but one does have to confront the dynamics of economic development in the real world.
HIV is no longer a death sentence. It can be managed easily as long as you can afford to pay for the appropriate drugs. Men with HIV can father children who are not infected, via various techniques.
One of the main reasons for the Bike For Mom and Bike for Dad events was to allow the crown prince to demonstrate that he is healthy and virile, in spite of his medical condition.
Mark Dunn – if the Crown Prince really has a “life-threatening disease”, how come he was able to cycle such a distance – indeed ANY distance – in the sweltering of that Bike4Dad ? It must be very pressing business indeed for the CP to retreat to Germany, at this time. Or did the current Regent compel him to do so ? Would that be gross Lese Majeste ? This of course is one of the fundamental flaws in the LM law : how does it work IF – say only in theory – the Regent “defames, insults, or threatens the Monarch, Heir-Apparent”. Or vice versa ?
John Smith,
You are on the money about the west, up to a point.
To take Brexit as an pertinent example, so far, Westminster, largely horrified by the outcome, abide by the referendum result.
The utterly brazen way the successive Shin landslides have been undermined again and again, rather than a pragmatic win-win strategy attempted, demonstrates the dreamworld the elite occupy in Thailand.
Democracy may be somewhat of a charade in the west, given that, the elite here have little if anything to lose by going along to get along.
Occams razor would suggest blinding greed and towering stupidity are at the root of their failure to figure this out, even after repeated ‘lessons’ have been presented to them.
Khan Kai,
Why would Taksin care about this tiny farang website?
If you read carefully here, no one is actually ‘against’ the late King, and few if any believe Taksin is the ‘answer’ to Thailand’s problems.
Unfortunately lese majeste law is so misused and misunderstood, that no intelligent discussion in Thailand is permitted.
With the exception of the gulf states, other royal families do not throw their citizens in jail, even for insults!
This law is not needed to protect the monarchy at all. It is used to keep a group of rich and powerful Thais from sharing in the wealth and governance of Thailand with the people in the provinces, who make them wealthy with their low paid labour.
Until Thais wake up to this, and demand rule of law, the problems will continue until there is a mass uprising with many Thais likely to die needlessly. This is always the end result when debate is punished and banned by unjust laws.
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Thailand’s supreme reign
Thailand’s Junta Wants the Monarchy to Surrender
The military cooperated with the royal family for decades – but now it wants a subordinate, not a partner.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/30/thailands-junta-wants-the-monarchy-to-surrender-king-asia/
Thailand’s supreme reign
Whatever else can be speculated about re the CP he appears to be healthy and virile. Post-modernist feminists would likely “kick back” – and good for them – but the CP is clearly not on his “death bed” yet so much of what appears is simply idle speculation: the stuff of 112!
Thailand’s supreme reign
Chris any bank note that personifies those in high office, whether it be Mao in China, Bac Ho in Vietnam or the Queen on NZ banknotes I am all for………………
Thailand’s supreme reign
Nah Juan. You need to follow Charlie Chaplin……
Thailand’s supreme reign
Minor point Griff!
Thailand’s supreme reign
Ryan I am not an apologist for this regime or any other (made that mistake supporting that maniac Pol Pot in Cambodia for quite some time) but I don’t think the situation is quite a grim as you paint in your post. Forever the eternal optimist, especially after a “few” glasses of over-priced wine I think as a “revolutionary” who has lived through quite a few not simply regime changes but societal upheavals that the situation is not quite as grim as you portray it. Still if I am proven wrong I will take it on the cheek or elsewhere if necessary!
Thailand’s supreme reign
Yep. Not directly in person but he has been on television or at least someone who looks like the CP. Probably down-under you don’t get live-feeds in that shockingly insular place they call Australia.
Thailand’s black hole: a Deleuzian take
Good points Michael but we have to understand poor Jim. He is enscorned in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where desire is a far more fetishised commodity (how is that for post-modern BS) than fortunately most Thais, including those “born to rule” would want to grasp. However, at least Professor Jim has balls and does not hide behind some arcane pseudonym.
Thailand’s law of the mob
The powers that be are indeed very, very afraid of Thailand’s break-up : hence they are hitting on their neighbours, where the junta thinks it can INDEED lay on massive pressure : here this – re. what they are doing to Cambodia : “a Cambodian official said that authorities were working on an appeal to extradite three Thais accused of insulting the monarchy.
The Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman, Chum Sounary, told reporters that its government “is processing the extradition request”. Reported by The Guardian.
It will be very interesting indeed to see how the Government of the Lao PDR re-acts to any such requests.
Thailand’s supreme reign
Appreciate what you say Mark. We don’t have any clear, hard evidence of the CP being “AIDS-infected”. There’s none in the Wikileaks cables, where one would expect to find it, and which Andrew MacGregor Marshall is so fond of quoting. So, much as I respect AMM’s fact-finding in many ways – on this it’s simply rumour. It could simply be malicious rumour spread by the CP’s enemies, some of whom are rumoured to be gay cross-dressers – and may well suffer AIDS themselves !
Thailand’s black hole: a Deleuzian take
Shane:
My problem with Jim’s “analysis” here has nothing to do with how abstract a post-modernist he is or isn’t.
Like so many others on this site, Jim plays and overplays the “victim game”. In doing so, he creates, along with so many others, a version of the Thai people as a passive, brainwashed, brutalized “subject people” without agency.
In Deleuzian terms, you might say he denies them their desire, their very subjectivity itself.
So for such a retrograde ideologue to pick up the Deleuzian notions of “micro-fascism” and “black hole”, both of which foreground subjectivity and subjective desire, is just another example of folks here on NM just “making shit up” because it happens to serve their view of themselves and their world.
There is no such perverse entity in D&G as Jim’s “microfascist state” generating “micro-transformations with the knock on flows suffusing all elements of social and cultural life”.
There are individual congeries of “desiring machines” and their individual “microfascisms” that may or may not result in the creation of a macrofascism, which would be a fascist state.
Whatever one thinks of Deleuzian approaches to “politics”, it is clear that the constant labeling of various Asian political phenomena as nothing more than versions of “Western” prototypes– Duterte is Trump is Hitler; Thai traditional militarism is Fascism– is a form of deterritorialization, which of course is the predominant mode of capitalism as it romps around the world tearing apart traditional structures.
Rather than pushing the Thai people to one side in the attempt to understand and describe contemporary Thai politics by devaluing their desires as nothing more than the result of brainwashing, it might be better to begin with the assumption that Thais, like Australians, have their own desires and then ask why they seem to prefer what Jim calls fascism to the chimera so many Anglospherians celebrate as “democracy”.
Duterte’s plan to revive Philippine democracy
Excellent article
Stopping the spread
Have ben spreading the word since 2012 – now Nusa Tenggara Timur – East Indonesia – is ranked #7 province for prevalence of AIDS
By far not sufficient manpower here, lots of stigma and discrimination, not sufficient access to VCT, correct: most people I speak with have no clue about what HIV is, how it is being spread, whether they are high-risk and how to respond when tested HIV+
Made a film about it to show some of the aspects, excuses for poor translation – low budget production. Have been lobbying for funding for a capacity building campaign of local leaders – no luck yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1skeBcuZS4
Thailand’s supreme reign
Hey Chris,
I was only speculating on the nature of the ” personal business ” that could have led to prince Vajiralongkorn’s trip. There has been speculation that a possible reason for his frequent trips to Germany is a medical condition. This was simply the first thing thing that came to my mind. I’m sure there are any number of other possible causes.
Thailand’s supreme reign
Perhaps you should add rice farmers post-war that received lower than market prices because of the rice premium that was in place until the mid 1980s, women and men from farms who became wage laborers in a range of non-agricultural based sectors, including manufacturing and service industries OR of course those women and men who went abroad and repatriated as much of their earnings as possible to support families back in Thailand. But one should not ignore the role authoritarian regimes play in the accumulation of capital aka most of the other NICs in the Asia-Pacific region such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. Of course this should not be an argument for philosophically justifying authoritarian regimes but one does have to confront the dynamics of economic development in the real world.
Thailand’s supreme reign
HIV is no longer a death sentence. It can be managed easily as long as you can afford to pay for the appropriate drugs. Men with HIV can father children who are not infected, via various techniques.
One of the main reasons for the Bike For Mom and Bike for Dad events was to allow the crown prince to demonstrate that he is healthy and virile, in spite of his medical condition.
Thailand’s supreme reign
Very interesting. thx
Thailand’s supreme reign
Mark Dunn – if the Crown Prince really has a “life-threatening disease”, how come he was able to cycle such a distance – indeed ANY distance – in the sweltering of that Bike4Dad ? It must be very pressing business indeed for the CP to retreat to Germany, at this time. Or did the current Regent compel him to do so ? Would that be gross Lese Majeste ? This of course is one of the fundamental flaws in the LM law : how does it work IF – say only in theory – the Regent “defames, insults, or threatens the Monarch, Heir-Apparent”. Or vice versa ?
Thailand’s supreme reign
John Smith,
You are on the money about the west, up to a point.
To take Brexit as an pertinent example, so far, Westminster, largely horrified by the outcome, abide by the referendum result.
The utterly brazen way the successive Shin landslides have been undermined again and again, rather than a pragmatic win-win strategy attempted, demonstrates the dreamworld the elite occupy in Thailand.
Democracy may be somewhat of a charade in the west, given that, the elite here have little if anything to lose by going along to get along.
Occams razor would suggest blinding greed and towering stupidity are at the root of their failure to figure this out, even after repeated ‘lessons’ have been presented to them.
Thailand’s supreme reign
Khan Kai,
Why would Taksin care about this tiny farang website?
If you read carefully here, no one is actually ‘against’ the late King, and few if any believe Taksin is the ‘answer’ to Thailand’s problems.
Unfortunately lese majeste law is so misused and misunderstood, that no intelligent discussion in Thailand is permitted.
With the exception of the gulf states, other royal families do not throw their citizens in jail, even for insults!
This law is not needed to protect the monarchy at all. It is used to keep a group of rich and powerful Thais from sharing in the wealth and governance of Thailand with the people in the provinces, who make them wealthy with their low paid labour.
Until Thais wake up to this, and demand rule of law, the problems will continue until there is a mass uprising with many Thais likely to die needlessly. This is always the end result when debate is punished and banned by unjust laws.