THE LAND OF SMILES
Courtesy Mark Brassington
Many things happened.
The land of Smiles is one of the most successful advertising history has ever seen.
And like many advertising slogans, it is a lie.
Thailand has painted itself as a welcoming country.
In reality it is one of the world's most dangerous countries.
The idea that the Thai people embrace strangers is a marketing myth.
In reality they dislike foreigners, have little empathy for them and rejoice in their misfortune. Their deaths are often unlamented; even unrecorded. Murders of foreigners often do not make the newspapers.
"Mai chop falang," I don't like foreigners, is a phrase often spoken, and often enough right in front of tourists; who the Thais assume cannot understand a word of their language.
And often enough, that is true.
As a tonal language, Thai is uniquely complex, difficult for Westerners to understand. It's syntax bares little or no resemblance to European languages and its often vivid imagery is patterened in a way difficult for novices to take in.
The word falung, pronounced farang the closer to the Laotian border one ventures, is used widely and frequently; and with little if any respect for those it is being directed towards or, often enough, against.
In the West, particularly in countries which have embraced the ideology of multiculturalism, reference to an individual's physical appearance is considered rude, if not racist. In some jurisdictions, making derogatory comments based on someone's race is actionable as a hate crime.
No such niceties exist in Thailand; where foreigners are almost inevitably observed as if they were large, ugly, smelly elephants with no grace, charm or common sense. The fact that they have money, and usually being on holidays and therefore willing to spend it, is seen as tasteless, crude, offensive, unfair and yet another sign of the world's multiple injustices.
Taught from birth to regard themselves as superior, with eleaborate manners and conventions, exaggerated respect for the elderly and for those in high status positions, the feudal nature of Thai society, to which most tourists are entirely immune and ignorant, all play into the intense dislike with which foreigners are greeted.
That the Thai industry has built itself into a multi-billion dollar enterprise equivalent to, on some counts, seven per cent of GDP, is a miracle of form over substance.
But this triumph of modern marketing does not stretch far beyond the upmarket hotels, the beach chair littered beaches and the beautifully designed shopping precincts in which most tourists dwell.
Beyond the rim, beyond the world in which most visitors inhabit, lies another, darker, more mysterious, more violent and all together more dangerous place indeed.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syria-us-kerry-20130826,0,4680728.story
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Monday condemned Syria’s reported chemical weapons attacks as a “moral obscenity” and declared that the Obamaadministration intends to move quickly to hold the Syrian government accountable.
Citing “undeniable” evidence that the government of President Bashar Assad used nerve gas against its population last week, Kerry said that the world must respond to the use of weapons that have long been outlawed by international agreement.
President Obama “believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people,” Kerry said in a brief appearance at the State Department.
Although Kerry made no mention of military action, he strongly implied that the United States is ready to embark on direct military action for the first time in a more than 2-year-old war that it has sought to keep at a distance. U.S. officials and foreign diplomats say they are privately discussing military options, including a possible cruise missile attack on Syria’s military complex that could begin in days.
“The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity,” Kerry said. “By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.”
KEVIN Rudd could have been briefed on the apparent chemical weapons atrocity in Syria by secure phone hook-up or travelling officials, raising new questions about whether he manipulated the crisis for political gain.
As Foreign Minister Bob Carr warned that "everything points" to poison gas being used by the Assad regime against civilians in Damascus last week, the Prime Minister said the timing of a national security briefing in Canberra on Saturday night had been advised by his departmental head.
Mr Rudd has denied playing up the crisis in Syria at a time when Labor is trailing in the polls and its campaign strategy is under pressure, saying media reports that he had suspended campaigning on Saturday were wrong.
While Labor did not correct media reports on Saturday that Mr Rudd had "suspended" the campaign to deal with the Syrian issue, he furiously rejected claims he had delayed the briefing to fly to Brisbane on the RAAF VIP jet to film a segment for the ABC's Kitchen Cabinet cooking show before returning to Canberra.
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The Australian has been told that Mr Rudd did not need to fly from Brisbane to Canberra on Saturday afternoon because the national security briefing could have been conducted by secure telephone hook-up or the officials concerned could have travelled to him. "It could all have been done in Brisbane," a senior source said.
It also emerged yesterday that a "picture opportunity" set up for television cameras and showing several ministers and their senior staffers - but with no defence, security or foreign affairs officials in sight - was arranged to convey the gravitas of the situation and the fact that the Prime Minister was in control.
"The officials would not have wanted to be props in something that was clearly quite political," the source said.
The government has indicated the picture opportunity with Mr Rudd and Senator Carr before the full national security briefing was set up in response to pressure from media organisations for material to illustrate their stories.
When Mr Rudd was asked at a media conference in Sydney on Saturday morning - before his departure for Brisbane for the Kitchen Cabinet segment and another private appointment - whether his decision to go to Canberra could be regarded as a temporary suspension of his campaign, Mr Rudd did not dispute the proposition. "I regard it as a necessary practical step to make sure that we are fully briefed on developments," he said.
Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said yesterday Mr Rudd's travel on Saturday was odd. "It would be a very poor reflection on Kevin Rudd if it emerged that he was using the issue for domestic political gain or to distract from his failing campaign," she said.