No money no honey

The dowry system in Thailand is a social mechanism that allows parents to sell their daughters. The groom literally buys his bride in a grotesque ritual involving a large bowl filled with money for the neighbours to see that the parents received a good price for their daughter. The practice corrupts romantic marriage and legitimises the exchange of cash for sex. The dowry system of marriage is primitive and barbaric and it should be abolished by law in Thailand as it has been in the rest of the civilized world.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Amazon hit by chaos, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009

It is reported that four years ago the Amazon Basin was suffering from drought conditions and this year the Amazon was deluged under a devastating flood. The rapid succession of drought and flood is described as "climate chaos" caused by carbon dioxide emissions (Amazon hit by chaos, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009). The historical record of weather patters in the Amazon as well as Indian lore paint a very different picture for they show that floods and droughts in the Amazon are a well known feature of the region. They have been occurring for at least a hundred years for which we have weather data and water level data for the Amazon River at Manaus. These data show and Indian lore tells us that floods tend to occur every 4 or 5 years and droughts every 14 or 15 years. In some years drought in the southwest and floods in the northeast occur simultaneously. The worst floods on record occurred in the late 1940s, early 1970s and late 1990s. The worst drought recorded occurred in 1926 following in the heels of the floods of 1912. These weather patterns correspond roughly with the El Nino and La Nina events. They are not related to atmospheric carbon dioxide content or to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Unertainty grows over carbon trade, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009

The engine of economic growth and well being is energy. The carbon cap and trade is a proxy for taxing energy. It is a formula for economic disaster that would in good times bring recession and in recession, depression; and in our current financial crisis, economic suicide. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Airport flu scanners useless, Bangkok Post, May 27, 2009

On the same issue of the Bangkok Post we find that Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre has developed a thermal flu scanner for use at Suvarnabhumi Airport (Airport scanner, May 27, 2009) and that such temperature scanners are not at all effective in preventing the spread of influenza diseases (Airport flu scanners useless, May 27, 2009).

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Imams meet to mull Islam and web lust, Bangkok Post, May 22, 2009

Male followers of Islam are unique in the power of their libido and their inability to control themselves when thus incited by the sight of a woman whether in person or on the web. It is possibly for this reason that religious authorities go to extreme ends to ensure that their men are not subjected to sexual stimulus of any kind lest their actions, though forgiven because boys will be boys, become an embarrassment for the religious orthodoxy ( Imams meet to mull Islam and web lust, Bangkok Post, May 22, 2009). I would like to suggest a simple solution to the problem that does not involve zealous and invasive policing of people's personal lives. A readily available and inexpensive anti-depressant called  fluoxetine, also known by the brand name Prozac, is known for the powerful side effect of reducing libido. In other words a capsule a day will keep the devil away. Proper Islamic sexual behaviour will be assured. Internet content will no longer need to be monitored or censored. Imams may then return to their primary functions of worshiping and teaching. Disclaimer: Prozac is a prescription drug and may be taken only after consultation with a physician 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: A climate of disease, Bangkok Post, May 20, 2009

Funding has of course always determined to some extent the subject of scientific research but not until the global warming hype have we witnessed the complete corruption of science; for funding now determines not only the research questions to ask but the correct answers to those questions to which the research should lead (A climate of disease, Bangkok Post, May 20, 2009). Clearly, the exercise by epidemiologists to pin a malarial holocaust on global warming is not unbiased scientific inquiry but an effort to fudge the data and the methodology until the findings meet the expectations and the utility of the global warming community and thereby facilitate further funding. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Life is nothing says death studies course, Bangkok Post, May 17, 2009

If death is something then so is life for death and life are two sides of the same coin. To die you have to be alive. Likewise, to be alive, you have to die. These two concepts are inseparable. As a corollary, the greater the impact of your life the greater is the impact of your death and the less the impact of your leff the less is the impact of your death until in the limit there is no impact at all if you are already dead. This is why life is something that is more than nothing.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Zhao spotlights all of the culprits, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009

The failure of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward program weakened his position and there began therafter a period of political infighting within the Party for supremacy and this infighting involved the formation and incitement by the Mao faction of student groups called Red Guards. On August 16, 1966, millions of these students wearing arm bands gathered at Tian Anmen Square to support Mao and to purge the anti-socialist elements that Mao had identified. Thus began China's nightmare we know as the Cultural Revolution in which thousands of Chinese intellectuals, clergy, and party officials were persecuted, tortured, and killed. The 1989 gathering in Tian Anmen by students wearing arm bands must have looked a lot like 1966 to the older members of the politburo peering out from their Party headquarters. All of these people, including Deng Xiaoping, had been persecuted by the Red Guards but had survived to lead China in the post-Mao era. The icing on the cake for them was to see Zhao Ziyang coming out to commiserate with the students just as Mao had commiserated with the Red Guards. The analogy between the two events was thus completed and although Mr Zhao meant well, his actions were surely the proximate cause of the crackdown. The fear and loathing of yet another student gathering in the Square and the reactionary crackdown ordered by China's leaders who had once been tortured by the Red Guards (Zhao spotlights all of the culprits, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009) are best understood in this context. Sadly for China, the Red Guards have left such a bitter aftertaste for student uprisings, that it will be a long time before such uprisings are evaluated on their own merit. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: UN chief urges action on rising climate change risk, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009

It is alleged that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is causing climate change and that in turn is causing increased fatality from natural disasters; and that China, India, and Bangladesh have been particularly hard hit by these climate change diasters (UN chief urges action on rising climate change risk, Bangkok Post, May 18, 2009).  The historical record shows that over the last three hundred years or so, the deadliest natural diasters on record are three floods in China (1887, 1931, 1975), three cyclones in India and Bangladesh (1737, 1839, 1970), three earthquakes in China (1556, 1920, 1976), and one tsunami in the Indian Ocean (2004). Of these only the 2004 tsunami falls in the climate change era and this event cannot in any way be causally related to climate change. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Empire of carbon, Bangkok Post, May 16, 2009

Paul Krugman's column about global warming states correctly that atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen much faster than predicted by the IPCC (Empire of carbon, Bangkok Post, May 16, 2009). It neglects to state, however, that global temperatures have not kept pace with the rapid carbonization of the atmosphere. We can draw two conclusions from these facts. First, the IPCC model of the carbon cycle is flawed because its prediction of atmospheric carbon dioxide is wrong. Second, the theory that higher atmospheric carbon dioxide causes higher temperatures is wrong because while carbon dioxide has risen faster than expected, temperatures have not risen at all and in fact during a decade of rising carbon dioxide the world has actually cooled. It is interesting to note that the IPCC has acknowledged the cooling saying that nature has temporarily overwhelmed the effects of human activity. Kindly note that the idea that nature can overwhelm the effects of human activity is antithetical the the very foundation on which the anti-carbon movement is based.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand