Thailand's shameful travesty of a political get-togethe

Hello World and fellow junkies of news, views and analyses. Straight outta Nong Bon this is the early edition of Fishwrap for Tuesday, 19 March 2024.
10 Ramadan Mount Barker SA Fajr 0550 Sunrise 0713 Maghrib/Iftar 1936

March 20 is a day that should live in infamy, the fourth anniversary of the day that the military dictatorship began shutting down Thailand with an 8-page Civil Air announcement halting all civilian and tourist flights.
Not only that
It is the tenth (10th) anniversary of the pilot-suicide that took MH370 and 239 passengers and crew colleagues to their deaths in the depths of the Indian Ocean.
Latest on Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oxtober 7
As of today, Hamas holds 134 hostages as human shields, including eight Thai citizens.

This photo (above) shows ex-prime minister Thaksin, centre, next to current Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, left, and the northern Thailand politician and kingmaker Somchai Wongsawat at their dinner get-together at Chiang Mai last Friday.
An old saying goes; a picture is worth a thousand words, and one good picture tells the whole story and chain of events.
Convicted heroin-trafficker and current minister of agriculture Thammanat Prompow was also invited.

And as the former Bangkok Post editor Veera Prateepchaikul writes after his own personal trip through it all
 Thaksin doing better than he should be.
 Thaksin's busy schedule for his three-day visit to Chiang Mai did not suggest he was seriously sick or has just recovered from a prolonged life-threatening illness.
Thaksin -- also a convict who was bed-ridden for six months -- is surprisingly even more radiant, youthful and healthier than his brother-in-law Somchai or even globetrotting PM Srettha.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2760291/

Crutch starts off in super-serious mode
Farewell George Stevens, a colleague and friend
It is always very difficult when someone you have closely worked with passes away and that is the case with George who hailed from Burma (Myanmar). I worked with on the night shift for many years often through difficult times.
George was a quiet, unassuming person with a deep sense of humour -- and a wonderful gift for the English language.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2759918/

I'm pleased to say that later this month I will be flogging my new tome Beyond Nowhere at a combined book-signing session with two other authors and their newly published chronicles -- Back Up the Blindside and My Name is Bond, Pete Bond

Oh, those Kiwis!
Two New Zealanders banned from Thailand after attacking Phuket cop
PHOTO: Oscar and Hamish Day attacked Royal Thai Police senior sergeant-major Somsak Noo-iad of Chalong Station in Phuket.
Deputy (national) police chief Surachate "Big Joke" wrote on his Facebook page that the two foreigners will be tried, deported and banned forever.
The charges, as of now: robbery, obstruction of police on duty, physical attack against a policeman, driving without a licence, bribery.
The brothers arrived in Phuket on March 11.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2760516/

Somsak was on traffic duty and tried to pull over both men because they were speeding in a Phuket community.
They accelerated to escape. The traffic policeman pursued them and when he caught up with the two, they wrestled the policeman to the ground.
According to The Nation online newspaper
 The Kiwi brothers assaulted the officer while trying to grab his gun. During their struggle, the weapon fired one round. No one was hit. Somsak was injured by the attack of the two New Zealanders.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40036478

The explanation, according to the New Zealand Herald:
 They are offspring of millionaire business and property owners Laurence and Katrina Day.
VIDEO and PHOTOS published by the Auckland newspaper show Hamish and Oscar going for Somsak's 
The Facebook page 'Phuket Info Center' claims the perpetrators are MMA fighters.

NOTE: The newspaper has blocked all requests for the video from Thailand.
NOTE2: The "boys" are being held without bail, pending trial.

OPINION EDITORIAL
A perennial headline atop a perennial problem

Graft sours land reform

The issue of Sor Por Kor plots in Khao Yai National Park has devolved into a conflict between the Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro) and the Department of National Parks over the map that the government uses to define which plots are Sor Por Kor and which are not.
Not a Surprise!
The problem with this Sor Por Kor policy is that public land -- sometimes prime forest in national parks -- has been declared as Sor Por Kor land and given to investors or even politicians.
Without a major overhaul, Sor Por Kor will continue to allow large-scale corruption that results in more prime public land finding its way into the hands of rich, corrupt individuals.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2757199/

McDonald’s Apologises for Global System Outage That Shut Down Some Stores for Hours
Hong Kong's Mickeydees were hit (photo) as were most of the stores in Thailand.
The computer glitch by a third party contractor began last Friday at midnight Chicago time (noo Saturday in Bangkok) and lasted 'about' 12 hours.
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/business/2024/03/16/mcdonalds-apologizes-for-global-system-outage-that-shut-down-some-stores-for-hours/
Khao Son (Fresh News) https://shorturl.at/EMVY1
A worker at a restaurant in Bangkok said the system was down for about an hour, making it impossible to take online or credit card payments but allowing it to still accept cash for orders.
At another location in Bangkok, there was plywood over a door with a sign saying, "Technicians are updating the system," even as customers were ordering again and paying digitally.

Related, sort of...
McDonald’s Thailand Achieves Highest Sales In 38 Years
7.213 billion baht in 2023, a 31 percent increase from 2022.
https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2024/03/13/mcdonalds-thailand-achieves-highest-sales-in-38-years/

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Not a celebration, just noting the anniversary.
Ten Years Ago today -- Literally Clueless
Malaysian Airlines and a squad of other know-nothings called off their searches for MH370 in the South China Sea and in the Gulf of Thailand in the first of a series of admissions that they had no idea what happened to Flight MH370 after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International and (supposedly) headed for Beijing.
Inside that Boeing 777-200 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah was doing for real what he had planned for months on his Microsoft Windows Flight Simulator at home in KL. He securely locked co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid out of the cockpit when Hamid went to the toilet. He turned off the flight transpornder, meaning no air-traffic controller could see him. He gently turned MH370 around, flew back, east coast-to-west over Malaysia, then Penang, turned off the air/oxygen supply to all crew and passengers, turned on auto-pilot to a course of (about) 220 degrees. or a bit south of due-west and sat back to endure -- well, more likely to enjoy more than seven hours of flying over the huge, bleak Indian Ocean until the flight's twin engines began to sputter and, with no more fuel, pointed the airplane's nose down for one, last spectacular suicide plunge into dark depths of the ocean.

Whew! Finally! The whole Fishwrap Family is to tired of eating those potatoes from the supermarket's meat section.