Reference: China's genocide Olympics, Bangkok Post, January 29, 2008

The circumstances in the attack by the Sudanese army on UN peace keepers in Darfur and in the murder of John Granville in Khartoum this month are not known and are subjects of investigations by the Sudanese government and the United Nations. It is premature and irresponsible journalism to presume guilt and to state that the Sudanese government had a hand in these events and by implication to smear the Chinese government and the Olympics (China's genocide Olympics, Bangkok Post, January 29, 2008). Also the claim that the soft power of subtle Chinese diplomacy does not work ignores its obvious success for it was deft Chinese diplomacy that made it possible for UN peace keepers to be deployed in Darfur. It is a theatre of the absurd for Americans to lecture the Chinese on the subject of failing to adequately address human rights issues when securing oil supplies. It takes hypocrisy to new heights.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Hypocrisy about sex damages society's health, Bangkok Post, January 9, 2007

Khun Jon Ungphakorn tells it like it is in the tradition of the great Howard Cossell and points out the contradictions between what Thais believe to be their traditional values and how they actually live their lives (Hypocrisy about sex damages society's health, Bangkok Post, January 9, 2007). His courage and sincerity are admirable but it must be said that whatever the reality on the ground may be, all societies need a moral compass just to define what it is that they aspire to. Traditional Thai values do serve that purpose in spite of the contradictions described in the article. In all the countries where I have lived I have always found that traditional values serve only as a reference and do not necessarily reflect reality. However, the problem of Thai men fathering and abandoning children is a serious one and requires urgent attention. The single moms are left to fend for themselves and even ostracized by a male dominated society as undesirable women with a "history". Many of them end up resorting to prostitution or concubinage just to raise the child. I know of no greater institutionalized social injustice.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Plants or animals begin to change or die, Bangkok Post, January 7, 2008

A global warming article in the Bangkok Post raises the alarm that climate change is causing mass extinctions of species and is expected to devastate the biodiversity of the planet (Plants or animals begin to change or die, Bangkok Post, January 7, 2008). I would like to remind the concerned individuals that there have been many epochs of climate change in earth's history and the data in the fossil record show that in every occurrence of climate change there has been, not a reduction, but indeed an explosion in the number of species. In fact, these data have caused biologists to revise Darwin's theory of evolution to include the idea that environmental stress causes biodiversity and that mutations occur in spurts when life is forced to adapt to changing circumstances. In any case, evolution is the way of Mother Nature and extinctions and mutations are part of that process. It is unlikely that She needs human beings to micromanage evolution for Her.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The best hope is gone, Bangkok Post, January 6, 2008

There is no doubt that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was a tragic event and that she deserves an eulogy but the one presented by Global Viewpoint (The best hope is gone, Bangkok Post, January 6, 2008) takes things a little too far all the way into the realm of fairy tales. The assumption that Al-Qaeda carried out the killing is premature and the conclusions drawn from that assumption including the comparison with Ahmed Shah Massoud and a heroic role for Ms Bhutto in the fight against Al-Qaeda are just plain silly. Pakistan still has whatever hope it had prior to the assassination of achieving democracy and containing Islamic extremism. Some hopes are probably gone or at least weakened and those would include the hope of unfreezing certain Swiss bank accounts and sealing forever certain pending court cases by way of political deals made with Musharraf. Other hopes are still as distant as ever and among them is the hope that the day will come when real democracy overcomes dynastic politics in South Asia and real issues rather than family soap operas sway the electorates there.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Monk molests girl 8, Bangkok Post, January 1, 2008

The news story about a Cambodian monk who molested a Western child (Monk molests girl 8, Bangkok Post, January 1, 2008) serves to illustrate that pedophilia is not a social evil that is imposed on innocent Cambodians by Western debauchery. There are plenty of Cambodian pedophiles. The child prostitution industry in Cambodia is an internal social problem with the supply side controlled entirely by Cambodians including parents who sell their daughters, poverty stricken jobless girls trying to make a living, and the powerful moneyed elite who control the lucrative trade. The demand side is more than 90% Cambodian and the rest consists mostly fellow Asians who share a natural proclivity for misogyny and prostitution as social institutions. There is also a superstitious mystique in Asia with respect to the health and spiritual value of having sex with a virgin and the younger the better, and it is this Asian weirdness that is responsible for the demand side in the market for child prostitution in Cambodia. Poverty provides a ready supply. Wester pedophiles did not invent the Cambodian child sex industry. They choose to go to Cambodia precisely because that industry already exists over there. Yet, international organizations, Cambodian NGOs, and the Western media continue to mis-represent this phenomenon as a social evil imposed on Cambodia by debauched Western pedophiles. The targeting of Western pedophiles particularly in high profile cases offers the illusion that something is being done and it brings in a lot of funding from Western donors to the concerned NGOs in Cambodia. It also provides additional leverage to a corrupt criminal justice system to extort money from rich Westerners. In a comical and ironical twist, parents who sold their daughter to Western pedophiles often demand and receive compensation in this extortive process. However, the targeting of Western pedophiles does nothing to solve the underlying problems of poverty, child prostitution, and the market for virgins in Cambodia. In fact it makes things worse for Cambodian children because the real underlying social problems are not addressed and because children at risk can now be used to entrap farangs for the purpose of extortion on a grand scale.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand