Reference: Venus inferno due to greenhouse effect, Bangkok Post, December 3, 2007

Venus is similar in size to earth but the comparison ends there. It is a lot closer to the sun and it has no magnetic field. The atmosphere there is 96% carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid. It is a planet of volcanoes that may have had some liquid water once but was never like earth. Yet, the implication of the article ( Venus inferno due to greenhouse effect, Bangkok Post, December 3, 2007) is that Venus represents earth's fate if we don't reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. It is yet another desperate attempt by the global warming people to scare the rest of us into going along with their agenda. Desperation of this magnitude, instead, should serve to alert us to the level of fraud that is being perpetrated upon us.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The crunch is in mandatory limits, Bangkok Post, December 4, 2007

It is reported that an effect of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels is that droughts, floods, landslides, and rising sea levels are becoming commonplace in Indonesia (The crunch is in mandatory limits, Bangkok Post, December 4, 2007). The primary causes of natural disasters in Indonesia are earthquakes and volcanic activity neither of which has anything whatsoever to do with greenhouse gas emissions. Floods and landslides are not "becoming" commonplace in Indonesia, they have been commonplace their since time immemorial. There has been no drought in Indonesia recently and there is no evidence that the sea level is rising in indonesia. If the sea were rising it would rise everywhere not just in Indonesia.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Democrats at odds on Cuba, Bangkok Post, December 3, 2007

America's Cuba policy is that which will curry favor with the anti-Castro Cuban voters in Florida and it is influenced directly by the Cuban Political Action Committee in Washington DC (PAC). America's immigration policy is that which will curry favor with the Hispanic voters and it is influenced directly by the Hispanic PAC. America's Middle East policy is that which will curry favor with the Jewish vote and it is influenced directly by the Jewish PAC. And so on and so forth. American foreign policy is a product of an incoherent mishmash of special interest groups each pushing its own unique agenda that may or may not have any relevance to America itself. America has become a giant host on which feed diverse cultures of parasites. No candidate can articulate a comprehensive and coherent US foreign policy for fear of stepping on parasitic toes. When a Presidential candidate begins to hem and haw you can bet that the issue in question is curry masala.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Thai-American girl to pay musical tribute to HM the King, Bangkok Post, December 1, 2007

The reference to Dr. Kathleeya Stang, age 28, an ophthalmologist as well as an accomplished musician, as a "girl" (Thai-American girl to pay musical tribute to HM the King, Bangkok Post, December 1, 2007) and that to world class athlete Marion Jones as a "little girl" (Prasong attacks PM's land grab, Bangkok Post, October 11, 2007) are sexist. Yet, such references come easily to Thai men, even those as educated and urbane as Khun Prasong. Misogyny runs deep in Thai culture.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Bush adamant on peace treaty, Bangkok Post, November 30, 2007

At the end of the much hyped Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that a peace deal could not be implemented until the violence against Israel from Gaza stops (Bush adamant on peace treaty, Bangkok Post, November 30, 2007). If that is the case, he was negotiating with the wrong person because Mr Mahmud Abbas does not control the Gaza; and we may safely conclude that the conference made zero progress toward peace in Palestine. If anything, the conference revealed that the world has developed a level of tolerance for the status quo so this is probably the way things will be for a while. The interesting question is why the conference was even held given the Israeli precondition. The answer may lie in a hidden agenda that has more to do with isolating Iran than finding a solution to the Palestinian quagmire.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The bitter taste of sugar, Bangkok Post, November 29, 2007

The article cites the documentary, "The Price of Sugar" to conclude that Haitians working in sugar plantations across the porous border in the other half of the divided island are being exploited by the forces of globalisation because they are working in severe conditions without health care or adequate compensation (The bitter taste of sugar, Bangkok Post, November 29, 2007). It is long on gee-whiz and short on history. The exploitation of of Africans as slaves and then Asians as indentured workers by the sugar industry peaked in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries when the British Empire was busy cornering the market for sugar. That monopoly was broken a long time ago and the industry is now well distributed mostly among poor countries and is not controlled by large multinational or transnational firms. The plight of the Haitians is a poverty issue and not a globalisation issue.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Appointed legislature needs to be closed down, Bangkok Post, November 28, 2007

The appointed NLA was given a difficult job at a critical time in Thailand's political history. They have done that job and they have done it well. It would be a positive action for their legacy to either disband or to simply call a moratorium on legislation; and allow the people's elected assembly to take over some months from now. The nation can wait. Many of the bills before the appointed NLA are frivolous and others possibly unconstitutional. A government that concerns itself with instilling patriotism by bringing every motor vehicle in the nation to a stop for a daily broadcast of the national anthem is surely well beyond Thomas Paine's ideal - "that government is best which governs least". Just look at how long the Belgians have gone without a government; and the trains still run on time.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Chart Thai proves its slippery reputation, Bangkok Post, November 26, 2007

Thailish has its place in Thai society but the Bangkok Post is not that place. The Post is Thailand's international newspaper and it should be held to international standards. Sadly, the title of your commentary (Chart Thai proves its slippery reputation, Bangkok Post, November 26, 2007) falls short. The Chart Thai Party may live up to its reputation of being as slippery as an eel or this reputation may prove to be well deserved, but it is not possible for Chart Thai to prove its reputation.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Carter presents proposal to end Nepal deadlock, Bangkok Post, November 25, 2007

The Bangkok Post article on Nepal (Carter presents proposal to end Nepal deadlock, Bangkok Post, November 25, 2007) states that the political deadlock there has to do with the Maoists demand to abolish the monarchy. This representation is not accurate. The monarchy issue is not the deadlock issue at the moment. The deadlock has to do with the Maoist demand for proportional representation of the marginalized groups in the new Constituent Assembly. Both the Nepali Congress and the Maoists have expressed their willingness to compromise on the monarchy issue but neither side will budge on proportional representation.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Bush thanks the troops, Bangkok Post, November 25, 2007

In his Thanksgiving message to his country, President Bush thanked the American troops in Iraq who are killing people (Bush thanks the troops, Bangkok Post, November 25, 2007) but forgot to mention the American troops in Bangladesh who are saving people. On Thanksgiving Day of 2007 the Bangladeshi victims of Cyclone Sidr discovered the enormous military might of the USA, the humanitarian nature of the American people, and the meaning of Thanksgiving all at the same time when the US Navy and the US Marines Corp launched an incredibly efficient and effective blitzkrieg attack in Bangladesh not to kill but to save. No matter how much you hate America for the evil that they do, there are times when you have to stand up and salute them. This is one of those times. Thank you America and happy Thanksgiving.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: How equitable is climate change, Bangkok Post, November 24, 2007

Tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal that made landfall in Bangladesh with the severity of Cyclone Sidr or greater have been recorded prior to the year 2007 in 1991, 1970, 1942, 1897, 1876, 1837, 1822, 1789, 1767, 1737, 1699, and 1584. The mother of them all was the cyclone of 1970. It killed 550,000 people and the devastation eventually led to the birth of the country we know as Bangladesh. It is not possible to represent these events as evidence that CO2 from rich countries is devastating poor countries (How equitable is climate change, Bangkok Post, November 24, 2007) without being either ignorant or disingenuous. The Bay of Bengal is known for cyclones. These are natural and recurring events. They are not caused by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. The cyclone of 1737 was more severe than Cyclone Sidr by orders of magnitude and it was apparently able to form without the aid of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

From a Muslim perspective, a state of cold war with Israel and the consequent illusion of Islamic unity is much preferable to communal carnage among Sunni, Shia, Kurd, and Ahmadiya, as well as the conflict between Arabs and Iranians and between those who call themselves true Muslims and the others who are presumably false Muslims. All of these true hatreds are sublimated by the perception of a common enemy. The Muslim world is held together by a thin string called Israel. Toda raba.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: ASEAN leaders adopt charter, Bangkok Post, November 21, 2007

It is reported that the ASEAN summit in Singapore withdrew its invitation to United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambhari when Burma objected (ASEAN leaders adopt charter, Bangkok Post, November 21, 2007). The relationship between Burma and the rest of ASEAN is intimate and well-developed and it is based not only on geography but on a common understanding of cultural, economic, and political equations. It is time for the rest of the world to understand and accept this reality. It is not possible for ASEAN to discipline the Burmese junta or to expel Burma from the organization because that country is a little too much like ASEAN, an organization made up of nations that rank near the bottom in global ratings of political freedoms, human rights, transparency and integrity in government, and the freedom of the press; and up near the top when it comes to things like corruption and the heavy hand of the military in government. The Association does not stand on sufficiently high moral ground to lecture to the Burmese junta on any of these issues. It cannot eject Burma from ASEAN as has been suggested. It would be a dangerous path for this organization to tread as it may end up ejecting most of its other members on the same grounds.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Putting climate change refugees on the map, Bangkok Post, November 20, 2007

The Kiribati and Tuvalu islands are atolls. Atolls form when volcanic islands begin to sink by subduction and remain as long as the coral growth exceeds the rate of sinking and sink when the rate of sinking exceeds the rate of coral growth. Sinking and flooding of atolls is a common and natural phenomenon and is not caused by rising sea levels or by greenhouse gas emissions. If rising sea level were the cause all the atolls in the sea would be affected uniformly, not just a select few. Since only a few atolls are flooding and other similar atolls are not, we may conclude that the evacuees are subduction refugees and not global warming refugees.

Bangladesh consists of a delta into which drain major rivers that flow through India. In recent years, dams built upstream by the Indians have reduced the amount of water that flows into the delta. The effect of the reduction in water flow is clearly visible all over the country in the form of sand spits in once mighty rivers as well as deeper encroachment of brackish water into tidal canals in southern Bangladesh. These phenomena are not related in any way to global warming or the emission of greenhouse gases.

The part of Africa where Darfur is located is a semi arid area that has been subjected to periods of tragic droughts for thousands of years. The current drought there as well as that in Australia which ended this year are natural phenomena. They are not caused by greenhouse gases and have nothing whatsoever to do with the global warming issue. The victims are drought refugees or perhaps genocide refugees but not climate change refugees.

Shishmaref, Alaska is a fishing village on the sea that is often subject to very high tides as well as to severe storms and high waves. When these two events coincide, the sea can encroach up to 40 feet inland and devastate homes and other man-made structures. Such a coincidence did occur on November 21, 2003 and one home was in fact washed into the sea. The entire community was devastated and they do need help to recover from this tragedy. Yet, it was a natural event and it cannot in any way be related to greenhouse gases, rising seas, or global warming.

After the devastation by Hurricane Katrina, the IPCC projected worse Atlantic hurricanes to come in the 2006 season due to increases in greenhouse gases. It did not happen. After a period of silence on the subject of Atlantic hurricanes, they issued a forecast in April 2007 that the 2007 hurricane season would be so severe that it would settle the global warming issue in their favor once and for all. That did not happen either. In fact, the entire IPCC case against greenhouse gases rests on forecasts that are so far in the future that they can't be proven wrong.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Keeping languages alive, Bangkok Post, November 18, 2007

Languages are dynamic communication tools. They are not static. They evolve over time in Darwinian fashion as our communication needs change. Some die off even as new ones are born. The job of historians is to record history, not to preserve it, nor to keep it from changing. The appropriate response to the expected disappearance of thousands of arcane languages each spoken by a handful of people, is to record these data for posterity rather than to force people to continue to speak a language that no longer serves their communication needs. Ethnologists appear to have lost their way on this issue. It's the Bambi Principle.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Rape victim gets lash, Bangkok Post, November 17, 2007

There are societies among the human race that find it rational to punish a 19-year-old rape victim with 200 lashes of the whip and 6 months of jail for the crime of being raped (Rape victim gets lash, Bangkok Post, November 17, 2007). Surely theirs and ours are mutually exclusive civilizations. If they are civilized then we are not and if we are civilized then they are not. It's a clash of civilizations.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Cult families ready to die, Bangkok Post, November 17, 2007

Human DNA must contain an apocalypse gene. Thousands of years ago, we fretted about the end of the world described in the Book of Revelation. More recently a doomsday cult in Russia has sealed themselves off in a cave to prepare for the end of the world (Cult families ready to die, Bangkok Post, November 17, 2007). They are not the only ones. There are plenty of doomsday cults among us. Biological forces within draw us to them for there is something about the apocalypse scenario that fits in with the way we rationalize mortality. I see climate change activism in this light and the IPCC as a doomsday cult.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: UN warns of climate catastrophe, Bangkok Post, November 18, 2007

According to the IPCC, "melting ice sheets could lead to a rapid rise in sea levels". The much touted claim that the sea level will rise by 7 meters in 100 years has been quietly revised downwards 100 fold to 7 cm on the IPCC's own website but the rhetoric has not changed.

In the same article (UN warns of climate catastrophe, Bangkok Post, November 18, 2007), the IPCC also claims that global warming will cause "the extinction of a large number of species" and thereby devastate the biodiversity of the planet. This relationship is inconsistent with the geological history of the planet which shows that every prior epoch of climate change has caused an explosion in the number of species and in biodiversity. In fact, these data have forced biologists to revise Darwin's theory of evolution to include the idea that environmental stress causes biodiversity.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Musharraf's electoral farce, Bangkok Post, November 18, 2007

Musharraf's election is not the only farce in the theater of the absurd currently being played out in Pakistan where the person who has now taken center stage as the champion for democracy is at the same time ducking corruption charges. Many of the government's actions may be politically motivated as claimed but at the same time much of the new enthusiasm for politics may be financially motivated. As usual in South Asia, the real information is hidden under many layers of misinformation. The interested observer must peal away the layers and follow the money.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Coalition govt a foregone conclusion, Bangkok Post, November 13, 2007

A known weakness of parliamentary democracy is that it relies heavily on the opposition bench in parliament to hold the government accountable. Without a strong opposition, the government can devolve into party dictatorship. However, if a parliamentary democracy could be structured so that each of three or more political parties fields one and only one candidate in any given constituency, then a small change in the election procedure would make it impossible for any one of these political parties to form an unaccountable government. The same change would also severely weaken the effectiveness of vote-buying. The proposed change is to select not just one but two candidates from each constituency to serve as equal members of parliament. Various methods may be used for this selection, the simplest of which is to select the top two vote getters. The system would require protection from fraud because, among other things, it would encourage large political parties to field multiple candidates in a single constituency through devious means. It will also be necessary that political parties themselves be made transparent and democratic.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Who are the real climate leaders, Bangkok Post, November 10, 2007

Charoen Wat-Aksorn was a Thai hero because, like Seub Na Kha-satian before him, he stood up to the power elite of Thailand and said no. No, you can't just pay people off to have it your way as you run amok over this land to enrich yourselves. He was killed shortly after he had asked the authorities to investigate the alleged attempt by influential locals to grab public lands. He was opposed to the location of the power plant not to the kind of fuel it would use. He was not a global warming warrior and he had no fight against fossil fuels. It is a cruel, shameless, and grotesque act to use his name to push the global warming agenda (Who are the real climate leaders, Bangkok Post, November 10, 2007). The agenda survives only because its long term forecasts have yet to be proven wrong and it survives even though all of its short term projections have already been proven wrong. Hurricane Katrina was not a global warming phenomenon. There was no killer hurricane season in 2006. There was no killer hurricane season in 2007. Sane and decent persons would conclude that the model that made these predictions is wrong instead of continuing to push the same agenda even if it means having to sell genuine local heroes as global warming warriors to achieve their marketing objectives.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Excerpted from a letter written by Mr Farmuzul Huq to Gen. Ayub Khan's assistant in 1958. Personal communications left out.

Dear Colonel Sahib

Please tell General Ayub Khan that even though I was a sitting member of Parliament when he seized power and dissolved it, and I should be most adversely affected, yet I heaved a sigh of relief, so unruly had democracy become in our country and so close to the edge we had gone to becoming a failed state.

I sat in Parliament as a member of the ruling Awami Party but I was morally opposed to their Joint Electorate plan. I felt that my party had betrayed me for the socialist policies of Bhashani and Congress. As a result, I left the party and joined the opposition with a view to wreck the Awami government. However, we were defeated by the brutal and unparliamentary tactics of the Ruling Awami Coalition. I felt that as a country and a government we were lost and stumbling in the dark. It was in that state of hopelessness that I received the news of declaration of martial law. My immediate reaction was that the country had been saved and I am willing to serve in the new government should I be needed.

I graduated from Calcutta University and soon thereafter organized the Broja movement against the tyranny of the Hindu zamindars and when Jinnah organized the Committee of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML) in 1938, I joined the movement. In the first election of the BPML held in 1939, I was elected Assistant Secretary of the organization and also served as office secretary. I continued to work in that capacity until 1943. In the 1943 BPML elections, Mr Abul Hashem was elected General Secretary and I was elected Joint Secretary while continuing to serve as office secretary. I held that office until August 14, 1947, the day that India became free of British rule and the new nation of Pakistan was carved out of India.

During the same period, 1939 to 1947, I also served as a member of the All India Muslim League Council and an elected member of the Indian Constituent Assembly. After partition, I worked as a secretary in the Ministry of Heath for the government of Pakistan even as my name was suggested by Mr H. S. Suhrawardy for a place in Fazlul Huq's cabinet. Unfortunately, Fazlul Huq was opposed to me on personal grounds and so I was left out. Mr Suhrawardy had me in his list of Awami Ministers in East Pakistan but as I had fallen out with him on the Joint Electorate issue, he lamented, saying "He has dug his own grave".

Sincerely
Farmuzul Huq
76 Shantinagar
Dacca, East Pakistan
October, 1958

Reference: Only autonomy can resolve southern conflict, Bangkok Post, November 7, 2007

In one of the most scholarly articles I have ever read in the Bangkok Post, Professor Imtiyaz Yousuf presented a comprehensive theoretical and empirical argument that the southern insurgency in Thailand is not a religion issue but an ethnicity issue. Muslims in Thailand are spread out throughout the country and include ethnic Thai, Chinese, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Burmese in addition to Malay. And yet the insurgency is only in the south. What is unique about the south is that it contains a concentration of Malays who differ from Thais in culture and language. Therefore the insurgency in the south is based on ethnicity not religion. We are dealing with Malays who happen to be Muslim not Muslims who happen to be Malay. Before one proposes a solution to a problem, one must first define the problem. The article on the autonomy solution (Only autonomy can resolve southern conflict, Bangkok Post, November 7, 2007) is quite possibly the right answer to the wrong question because it assumes that the insurgency is a holy war.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Amazing Thailand starts with drivers, Postbag, November 5, 2007

What Thai driving habits, ice cubes in beer, Pidgin English, and "Mai pen rai" have in common is that when you first come to Thailand they will drive you crazy; but you stay Thailand long time already you do same same.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Star powered professor, Bangkok Post, November 4, 2007

Astrological predictions are a hit and miss affair with mostly misses but it is the rare hit that grabs our attention and legitimizes the practice. The global astrological outlook for 2001 contained no hint of 911 but instead predicted a huge natural calamity, the likes of the 2004 tsunami, which incidentally was missing from the 2004 outlook. Instead of the tsunami, the 2004 forecast incorrectly predicted that Tony Blair and the Labour Party would fall that year. Comprehensive statistical analyses of past astrological forecasts do not show that they contain any useful information.

According to astrologers, who we are and how our lives evolve as individuals depend on our astrological chart determined by the internal organization of the solar system at the moment of our birth. Assuming that people born in the same five-minute period will have identical charts, they should have more or less identical personalities with identical lives. A large scale survey was undertaken to test this hypothesis and it did not find any similarity within these groups.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Rise in average temperature seen, Bangkok Post, November 3, 2007

Thailand's excessive reliance on fossil fuels is pumping so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that temperatures are rising across the country. As a result, the winter season will become shorter and shorter in the northern mountainous region as winter arrives later and later and spring comes sooner and sooner. Cool nights in the north with temperatures below 15 Celsius will disappear from Thailand (Rise in average temperature seen, Bangkok Post, November 3, 2007).

Reference: North turns chilly, Bangkok Post, November 4, 2007

Winter came early to the northern mountains this year and it is cold up there. The temperature has dropped to 13 Celsius at low elevations and as low as 8 Celsius up in the mountains (North turns chilly, Bangkok Post, November 4, 2007).

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Health dept warns of cholera risks, Bangkok Post, November 4, 2007

Cholera is spread by the feces of infected persons normally through drinking water or eating fresh uncooked foods that have been thus tainted. Sharing spoons can only spread infections diseases that are spread through saliva and cholera is not one of them. The long spoon lecture in the article about cholera (Health dept warns of cholera risks, Bangkok Post, November 4, 2007) is misplaced.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Kamnans to join poll fraud fight, Bangkok Post, November 3, 2007

Political candidates in Thailand buy votes in wholesale lots from local agents and it is these agents and not the candidates themselves that carry out the alleged illicit trade in votes. The candidates, without these agents, would be unable to buy votes. The agents are well known. The obvious but apparently impenetrable way to end the trade is to simply put these agents out of commission by placing them under house arrest and taking away their communication privileges including their mobile phones until the elections are over. The various indirect means being proposed by the present government are not unlike the provisions in the 1997 constitution that were supposed to end vote trading once and for all. They did not do that. Besides, there is a more fundamental question that has yet to be answered and that is whether vote trading compromises democratic principles. Even the most failed of democracies experiences a brief moment of democratic freedom during elections for it is then that every voter, however poor, infirm, or stupid, exercises his absolute right to vote as he pleases and if we demand that he not profit from those rights do we not infringe on those rights? Do we know better than he? Perhaps he only sells votes to candidates he finds acceptable. If the political financing that might otherwise go to advertising agents and pork barrels that only benefit the rich, end up going directly to poor voters through vote trading, is that necessarily bad? Are we trying too hard to live up to the expectations of the West? Are we unable to reason for ourselves? We should take note that vote trading was endemic in Britain in the 19th century and yet here they are all developed and democratic and wonderful. In time, and given better education, Thailand's democracy too will evolve after going through the growing pains that older democracies once endured.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Southeast Asia's sordid secret, Bangkok Post, November 1, 2007

Asians like to think of their sordid state of prostitution, particularly in the case of paedophilia, as an evil imposed on them by Western debauchery. Asians are presented as innocent victims. It is, they say, the relative poverty of the victims in comparison to the seemingly infinite wealth of the falang that is the primal cause of their sordidness. In other words, the twin evils of child prostitution and paedophilia are imposed on them from without and not from within. The reality is more sordid than that for it is Asian men that are the primary sexual predators in this realm and it is Asian misogyny that makes this kind of predation possible. Debauched falangs did not create this situation. They have come only to feed in a feeding frenzy of the Asians' own making.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Women sexy men can't sleep pray, Bangkok Post, November 1, 2007

According to Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, spiritual leader of the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party, there are too many women in Malaysia who wear sexy clothing. The sight of these women is enough to cause Muslim men sufficient anguish that they are not able to sleep or pray, so shallow is their faith. The answer is not to cover and hide their women nor to sue women for emotional abuse as the good spiritual leader implies. Rather, those who profess to be men of faith should find sufficient depth of devotion, equal to that of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Jews, so that they too can look upon a woman who is not covered from head to toe and still find the mental acuity to worship just as Muslim women are able to look upon an uncovered man and still pray. The defect, if any, is with Muslim men not with sexy women.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Nepal on the brink

Nepal is a tinderbox once again. The so called Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists (CPNM) has run into a bitter dispute over two pivotal issues. There is no resolution in sight. At issue are the monarchy and the make-up of the elected Constituent Assembly (CA). The elections were to be held in April of this year but they have been postponed and postponed again. The Maoists want the monarchy abolished and Nepal declared a republic by the current, unelected, parliament. They also want the membership of the new elected Constituent Assembly to include all the so called marginalized ethnic groups in direct proportion to their population in Nepal. The Nepali Congress (NC), the primary component of the SPA is vehemently opposed to these motions and they have accused the Maoists of using these motions to delay the elections which they feel will diminish the wedge of power now wielded by the Maoists in the CPA. The Maoists in turn have declared that these motions are fundamental pillars of what they stand for and no compromise is possible. If this situation blows up just about anything is possible from failed state to military coup and perhaps even to an invasion by India in the name of maintaining peace and order. As a taste of things to come consider that the Young Communist League (YCL), an unofficial arm of the Maoists, are running amuck and terrorizing the people with abductions and extortions at will with no one able or willing to check their bravado. Simultaneously, the so called marginalized groups who constitute almost half of the population and therefore expect by virtue of the Maoist position to constitute almost half of the elected CA, are taking to the streets. It is high noon in Nepal.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Last call, Bangkok Post, October 30, 2007

There are too many people on this planet and their numbers are growing too fast. They are consuming the world's resources and generating toxic wastes at an alarming rate. We are hurtling toward certain doom. In 30 years time human beings will outstrip all available resources and collapse in an inevitable mess unless Draconian measures are taken to limit growth. If allowed to grow at the current rate "in a few thousand years everything in the visible universe would be converted into people, and the ball of people would be expanding at the speed of light". (Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, 1968)

The impact of humanity on the planet includes a growth rate of its ecological footprint that is out of control. This planet can no longer sustain us because we have overshot its limits. In 30 years time, the biosphere that sustains us will collapse because we have overshot sustainability unless Draconian measures are taken to reduce our ecological footprint. (Meadows et al, The Limits of Growth, 1972)

The earth's population of human beings is now so large that "the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available". If Draconian measures to limit growth are not taken we will face catastrophe in 40 years and eventual extinction brought on by exhausted resources and climate change. (UNEP Global Environment Outlook, 2007)

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: PAO squabbles linked to murder, Bangkok Post, October 30, 2007

It is reported that the murder of a Provincial Administration Organization (PAO) official allegedly by hired gunmen was likely masterminded by friends and relatives of a fellow PAO official who allegedly held a grudge after having been dismissed from his job. As usual, the gunmen have been arrested and they have confessed and even agreed to re-enact the crime in public but the real murderers remain untouchable and at large. The aggrieved PAO official was actually arrested and charged with possession of bullets without a permit but he is out on bail after having authorized his own bail in his official capacity in the PAO from which he had been fired. There are goings on in Thailand that are not easily rendered in terms of Western logic. The East is East and the West is West and the twain shall never meet.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Small things with a big impact, Bangkok Post, October 29, 2007

The Kingdom's advances in nanotechnology and its abundance in incident solar radiation provide Thailand with an opportunity to take the lead in solar energy in the region, the new gigantic REC (Renewable Energy Corp) plant in Singapore notwithstanding. Emerging nanotechnology products offer greater efficiency and lower cost than photovoltaic cells. The nano product is a flexible plastic sheet that mimics nature's photosynthesis process to generate electricity from infrared radiation. The technology offers a window of opportunity in a niche industry that is a good fit for Thailand.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Pakistan's leadership crisis

There appears to be a feeling in Pakistan that the country's political crisis can be resolved with a change in leadership. Yet, the new leaders will face the same dilemma that Musharaf now faces once they are in power. The dilemma involves billions in bribery to do America's bidding. Their choices in this regard are not likely to be any different whatever their initial ideals and agenda might have been. Also of note is the country's willingness to embrace Benazir Bhutto. No sensible country would want as a leader a person who needs immunity from corruption charges in order to return from "self imposed exile". If the Bangladeshis had been in charge over there she would have been welcomed into jail rather than to euphoria.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: How the Republicans hate Gore, Bangkok Post, October 16, 2007
Reference: After Nobel Gore should go for the next big prize, Bangkok Post, October 16, 2007

These articles on Gore's Nobel achievement are based on the assumption that the Nobel Prize legitimizes his science and proves that he is right. It does not.

Shortly after the inventor of DDT was awarded a Nobel Prize, DDT was banned worldwide because if its harmful effects on the environment. Robert Merton and Myron Scholes thought they were certified masters of Finance because they had won the Nobel Prize until their hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management did a nose dive and almost brought down the American financial system. More recently the Nobel Prize was awarded to scientists who had warned us that that human activity was causing ozone depletion and making the ozone hole bigger. They were allowed to keep their prizes even after it became apparent that the observed changes in the ozone layer were part of a natural cycle having to do with shifting winds in the upper atmosphere and NOT due to human activity.

In its latest goof, the Nobel Committee has awarded a prize for service to humanity to a guy who sees humanity as the enemy of the earth and whose stated goal could be achieved by simply eliminating humanity from the face of the earth. Besides, his movie about global warming has been widely discredited as being biased and containing not only exaggerations but outright lies.

His Nobel Prize does not prove that the Kyoto Protocol hypothesis is correct. The fact that he was awarded a prize by a committee of five Norwegians appointed by the Norwegian legislature does not vindicate Gore. If anything it discredits the committee. If the Nobel Prize is to be made into a global prize then it should be removed from its Norwegian limitations and opened up to humanity at large perhaps through the Internet.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Christian fundamentalists threaten priceless pagan artefacts, Bangkok Post, October 11, 2007

One way to prove that the Bible is right is to get rid of all the evidence that it isn't. So for hundreds of years Christian zealots have been destroying evidence of human history that contradicts the Bible. Consider Mexico's Franciscan Bishop Fray Diego De Landa for example. During the 1550s, Father Landa destroyed the entire collection of Mayan writings because they were inconsistent with the Biblical version of reality. This collection consisted of thousands of volumes. It took the good Bishop and his workers many years to complete the job, but they did complete the job. The history told in those writings will now never be known. Incidentally, the Mayans had also left a mountain of hieroglyphic sculptures that were also deemed to be pagan and so they too were destroyed and mined for gravel. Much of history is known to us but most of it is not known and will never be known. Our version of history is biased by the availability of data. Much of that bias has been imposed on us by religious zealots. Talibanism has been around a lot longer than the Taliban.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Singapore's Lee scolds dumb junta, Bangkok Post, October 11, 2007

A small clique of cronies runs Singapore with an iron hand behind a veil of democracy. They justify their politics with economics and the importance of image. So it is not surprising that their advice for the brutal military regime in Burma is that they may consolidate their dictatorship with better economic policies as a way of keeping the citizens pliant and by shedding their military uniforms as a way of image building. It is a lecture on Autocracy 101. The lecturer laments that his students are too dumb to understand and implement his lecture. As for the evil that the junta has done, the only thing that your "visionary" could think of was the bad image created by Thandar Shwe's lavish wedding. It is a shocking take on a tragic situation particularly in light of recent events. This visionary's vision is a scary one.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Prasong attacks PM's land grab, Bangkok Post, October 11, 2007

Marion Jones is a not a "little woman". This condescending reference to a world class athlete and the attempt to shame a man for his inability to do what even a woman could do, exposes the depth of gender discrimination in Thailand. It's pathological, and pathetic as well.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Busy storm season likely, Bangkok Post, April 5, 2007

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was unusually intense and it included Hurricane Katrina's tragic effects on an aging system of levees and the flooding of New Orleans. During the media hype that followed, global warming scientists announced that these events had been caused by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and that Katrina was the Americans' just reward for driving SUVs and emitting carbon dioxide.

They said that they had scientific evidence to prove this causal linkage and even to forecast with a great deal of certainty that there was more to come in 2006. This prediction did not come true. The 2006 hurricane season turned out to be milder than normal. The IPCC scientists were quiet on this issue. There was no further word from these scientists on the linkage between carbon dioxide emissions and hurricanes until April of 2007 when they issued a new warning that 2007 will bring a killer hurricane season, even worse than the 2005 season (Busy storm season likely, Bangkok Post, April 5, 2007). They said that it will have 17 or more hurricanes and much death and destruction as a consequence of rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The 2007 hurricane season is almost over. Even if this year's hurricane season turns deadly at this late stage, it will not be possible to reach the predicted level of hurricane activity. Once again the global warming scientists appear to have missed the mark. It is not likely that we will hear more from them about hurricanes very soon. There will be no analysis of the relationship between the 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons and greenhouse gas emissions. They will simply wait until we have a bad hurricane season and then issue their usual alarming press releases. The IPCC is not in the business of providing analysis of all climate data. They are in the business of providing analysis of only those climate data that support their hypothesis.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

A fictional account of corruption in the highway department

In an exotic and fictional kingdom far, far away, they have many good roads built and maintained by very industrious and dedicated people in the highway department. The actual work of building and maintenance is carried out by world class construction contractors who employ highly skilled people and the latest in road building equipment. When a contractor bids for road work, he must show good faith by paying a fee equal to 2% of the bid amount. The successful contractor is required to pay a further fee equal to 12% of the bid amount. No accounting record or audit trail exists to show that these payments were made or that they were received or how these funds were disbursed. It is widely assumed by conspiracy theorists that these payments end up financing luxury homes and cars and a comfortable life-style for certain public servants who hold key positions in the highway department. The same conspiracy theorists also allege that the contractor, having already parted with the net income that he could have made from the project, is thus forced to find more innovative ways to make a living and they involve using sub-standard materials and skimping on specifications while fat and happy recipients of their payment to the highway department turn a blind eye. The product of this genius is that the sub-standard road soon goes to potholes and ruts that require new contracts for resurfacing and maintenance, more work, and more money for the contractors, and more fees for the highway department officials. The ever grateful contractors may even celebrate the early demise of their work by throwing a party for the highway officials and they may invite the highway police as well. Were it not for the kind cooperation of the highway police who are known to allow 30-ton trucks on to highways designed for 10-ton trucks, the road may have taken longer to go to pot and the poor contractors would have had to wait longer for the re-surfacing contract. Not only that, the highway police can actually collect a fee from the truckers for providing this valuable service. It's a win-win situation because all three parties involved in this ingenious enterprise get rich from their participation in it. Of course, if you want to count the taxpayer and the citizens who drive on these roads as stakeholders in this enterprise, you may come to more devious conclusions in collusion with the conspiracy theorists, but the reality is that the contractors are hard working people as they are always seen building roads and then re-surfacing them. This account is entirely fictional and this state of affairs does not actually exist in any country known to me. No doubt there are crazy conspiracy theorists like the so called "whistle-blower" who first made these allegations about this fictional country in a poorly written letter to the editor.

Reference: Maid on witch charges, Bangkok Post, October 8, 2007

It is a contradiction for an Islamic religious police to charge the maid in question with witchcraft because witchcraft does not exist in Islam. The accusation that she cast a spell on her employer has no basis in the religion that the religious police are expected to enforce. It appears that the religious police have lost their way and are unable to see the forest for the trees.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: An Arctic Summer, Bangkok Post, October 6, 2007

The maximum Arctic melt in the summer of 2007 was the most extensive in recent years but not the most extensive ever as the entire Arctic has been ice free in previous geologic epochs; and yet the phenomenon is being described as man-made, part of global warming allegedly caused by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. This agenda is being pushed by the IPCC and Al Gore even though natural cyclical phenomena such as shifting wind patterns described as the Arctic Oscillator can explain not only the 2007 data but previous Arctic melts as well, something that the greenhouse gas theory cannot. One should also note that the melting of sea ice this summer was not "global". While the summer ice mass was lower than average in the Arctic, it was higher than average in the Antarctic, a contrast that might have attracted the attention of serious and unbiased scientists. As expected, however, those pushing the greenhouse gas agenda laid siege with hyperbole only to the Arctic data. Selective presentation of climate data to support their position is normal at the IPCC although these people describe themselves as scientists.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

The pass or fail decision in Thai schools

Many intelligent teachers from foreign countries teaching in Thai schools have articulated their frustration with a system in which they are not allowed to fail the students and an educational culture in which the pass or fail criterion does not play the kind of overarching role it does in their home country. They face the difficult task of teaching in a context in which certain elements of the educational culture of their own youth is absent. It's a cross-cultural thing and these foreign teachers must make an effort to adapt to their foreign students even as the students and the school system try to adapt to their foreign teacher. The demand by teachers that Thai education conform exactly to their particular experience in another country is self-serving. Besides, the pass or fail decision is an administrative one and not a teaching function. The teacher's job is to motivate the students to learn, to channel their curiosity and catalyze their imagination, to actively participate in their learning, and also to provide the necessary feedback to students, parents, and administrators as to the extent to which the learning objectives have been achieved. The fear of failure and the lure of passing or of passing with distinction do offer a carrot-and-stick mechanism that makes classroom management easier for the teacher but they are not essential to the art of learning or teaching.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Haircuts shined shoes matter most in business, Bangkok Post, October 6, 2007

The article says that statistical analysis of the "Time use survey" data of a sample of 13000 individuals in the USA shows a statistically significant correlation between time spent on grooming and salary. It concludes that one can increase one's salary by simply increasing the time one spends on grooming. The analysis and the conclusions drawn from it are nonsensical. Survey data do not contain causality information. Also, on very large samples of this nature even small and materially insignificant correlations can be deemed to be statistically significant by virtue of sample size. Even if the correlation observed in the sample is a true reflection of the population it may mean that personality traits that cause higher salaries are also those that cause excessive grooming or even that those who earn more have more means and social motivation for grooming. The article's conclusion, that losers can simply groom themselves to success is itself a loser.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: About politics, Bangkok Post, October 4, 2007

Since the adoption of the new 2007 constitution in Thailand, it is widely assumed that it is now the supreme law of the land and that all of its terms may be enforced in accordance with the letter of that law although many of the key institutions required by the constitution do not yet exist. For example, it is not clear that the unicameral and unelected NLA (National Legislative Assembly) is the same institution as the elected and bicameral Parliament to which the constitution refers. Similarly, the current unelected Prime Minister who is not a member of Parliament is clearly not the Prime Minister described by the constitution. Although many of the words and phrases used in the constitution are also used to describe elements of the military-installed government, they may not be used interchangeably because it is not possible for them to refer to the same institutions. The expectation by the NLA that the resignation of the Prime Minister prior to the elections would require the next prime minister to be a member of the NLA in accordance with the new constitution is logically flawed because the NLA does not conform to the parliament described in the constitution. The new constitution has been adopted but it has not been fully implemented and it cannot be fully implemented until the new and constitutional parliament is elected. The NLA is part of an interim government whose primary function is to hold free and fair elections and cease to exist thereafter.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Burmese major and son flee into Thailand, Bangkok Post, October 4, 2007

It is reported that on October 3, Major Htay Win of the Burmese army crossed the river into Thailand to seek asylum because he was unwilling to participate in the massacre of Buddhist monks. The significance of this event is that it likely represents the crack in the armor of the junta that the international community may use to bring down the brutal military regime in that country. ASEAN's use of the word "revulsion" in describing events in Burma while at the same time carrying on business as usual with the military regime (ASEAN talks unaffected by Burma unrest, Bangkok Post, October 3, 2007), is a charade. If we really mean to help the people of Burma in this hour of need we must make it clear to them that we support them and we must call on the soldiers to not to kill their fellow citizens and their monks but to join with them in the liberation of their country. I know that ASEAN has investments there as well as energy supplies that must be protected for our own self interest but in the long run those interests would be best served by aligning ourselves with the people and not with a despotic regime that is on its way out.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

The mad man from Iran

During his visit to the United Nations in September 2007, President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad of Iran hosted a dinner at the New York Intercontinental Hotel for American scholars and journalists. They came with the apparent intent of proving that Mr Nejad was deranged because he had questioned the holocaust, denied that there were gays in Iran, and called for the destruction of Israel. However, the dinner conversation failed to show that he was deranged and so they concluded that he was wily as a fox. It was a multiple choice question. Rational or normal was not among the available choices.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Politics behind Army HQ blast, Bangkok Post, October 3, 2007

Every once in a while a small bomb in a package goes off somewhere in Bangkok. In every instance the authorities immediately announce the motivation for the blast and the general identification of the parties responsible. And then, even though they profess to know everything about the event, they go ahead and order an investigation but we never learn what the results of the the investigation were. Months and then years go by and eventually the incident fades from the media and the collective memory of the nation. One would expect that a rational government would order the investigation first, make the results of the investigation public, and only then draw conclusions. One would also expect that the government would bring the perpetrators to justice and take corrective and preventive actions.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Low tech high aims, Bangkok Post, October 3, 2007

The article describes the IDDS (International Development Design Summit) workshop in which participating engineers design things like water-carrying backpacks to help the world’s poor. The engineering solutions being offered do not appear to have much to do with development nor with getting people out of poverty but rather to keep them poor by making them more functional in poverty. It appears that these gadgets will be useful but their impact would have been greater if there were also a development component. For example, the Grameen Bank micro-credit program in Bangladesh offers credit that the poor can use to leverage themselves out of poverty so that they can afford a well or running water and no longer have to carry water on their backs or otherwise. The IDDS objective of keeping the poor more content with poverty seems strangely incongruent with mainstream anti-poverty programs.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Cruise missile diplomacy

By isolating themselves in Naypyidaw, the SPDC generals of Burma have unwittingly set themselves up as a made-to-order target for cruise missiles. There is a good density of high value targets in a well defined area and a minimal possibility of collateral damage. Also, there is no uncertainty about where the generals are. It would take no more than two or three well-placed missiles and this thing could be over. If ever there were a reason to invent the idea of regime-change by cruise missile, this is it.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Enormous challenges await new govt, Bangkok Post, October 2, 2007

The article states that the 9/19 coup of 2006 has forever changed Thailand by creating uncertainty and a "confusion trap" because "from now on no one can guarantee there will be no more coups". As a result Thailand's future economic development will be retarded until the country resembles the Philippines more than itself. These observations are not consistent with the political or economic history of either of these countries. Thailand has a history of coups and new constitutions and the "political uncertainty of the last two years" cited by the article could not have been caused by a coup that occurred one year ago. Thailand's propensity for military coups does harm its image but the article takes that idea a bit too far.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand