Reference: Home loan crisis won't just go away, Bangkok Post, December 17, 2007

The Bangkok Post commentary says that a run on banks caused by false rumors of bad loans can be solved with a temporary injection of liquidity but one caused by a true news about bad loans cannot (Home loan crisis won't just go away, Bangkok Post, December 17, 2007) and concludes that the 1998 LTCM crisis was solved by a temporary injection of liquidity because it was caused by a false rumor of bad loans but the 2007 mortgage crisis cannot be solved in that manner because it was caused by a true information about bad mortgages. This analogy is false because the 1998 Long Term Capital Management financial crisis was caused by true information about a loan default by Russia and not by false rumors about bad loans. As a footnote, one should also consider that financial markets respond only to changes in the forecast of future cash flows and not to past events. No event in the future can be either completely true or completely false because the future is not known with certainty.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Leave Burma alone, Bangkok Post, December 13, 2007

Theodore Roosevelt spoke softly and carried a big stick but that luxury is not available to Hun Sen, a man who is supposedly the leader of a nation but who finds himself taking orders from donors because his government cannot function and his nation cannot survive without foreign aid. He does not have a stick. He compensates for that shortcoming by speaking as loudly as possible. Many of his utterances appear to be symptoms of insanity but are really the venting of his frustration of having to deal with an international community that carries the big stick of foreign aid and that stick so emboldens them that some puny United Nations bureaucrat can garner the audacity to call for the people of Cambodia to overthrow their government. I know of no country or government that would tolerate that kind of behavior.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Climate change hits Asia hard, Bangkok Post, December 12, 2007

The claim that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are causing extreme weather events (Climate change hits Asia hard, Bangkok Post, December 12, 2007) has been challenged. An organization called the Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change (http://www.csccc.info/) has published a report showing that the mortality rate from extreme weather events in the period 1990-2006 is almost half of that for the prior 90 years of the 20th century and that this mortality rate is not rising but has been falling steadily since 1920. The global warmists have dismissed this report as a product of scientists who are in the pay of oil companies but have not explained its findings. They have also failed to explain what errors in their climate model might have led them to incorrectly predict extreme Atlantic hurricane seasons for 2006 and 2007. They sound a lot smarter when they stick to their usual 100-year forecasts because you can't prove them wrong. Jesus Christ's many competing Apocalypse peddlers fell out of grace when the world did not end when it was supposed to. Jesus did not set a date for the end and made his forecasts long and indefinite. There is a lot that the global warmists can learn from Jesus.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Warming threatens penguins, Bangkok Post, December 12, 2007

The planet's climate is ever changing and these changes can cause the extinction of some species even as a burst of evolution creates new species better suited to the new conditions (Warming threatens penguins, Bangkok Post, December 12, 2007). The penguins themselves are a product of this process. They are flightless and not well dispersed and therefore at risk of extinction but that extinction, if it happens, will lead to a new species and even greater biodiversity. This is how nature works. Nature does not need environmentalists, much less UN bureaucrats, to micromanage these processes nor is such micromanagement possible.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: World losing patience with junta, Bangkok Post, December 11, 2007

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is reported to have said in Bangkok yesterday that his patience with the Burmese junta was running out. Accordingly, he is willing to raise the Burma issue at the UN-ASEAN summit next year and he has received a pledge from Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont that guarantees Thailand's full support to UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari. These words are music to the junta's ears. It must make them happy to know that so deep is the lake of patience in Ki-Moon's heart that it has yet to run out and that the river of patience is still flowing like the Irrawaddy and guaranteed to keep flowing for at least another year. Buying time with trickery is their game and Mr Ki-Moon has signaled that he will play. As for Mr Surayud, he was actually given a chance to support Mr Gambari at the ASEAN summit in Singapore but he gave his support to the Burmese junta instead and he reiterated at that time that the internal affairs of Burma were strictly off-limits to ASEAN. The veto powers exercised by Burma at the ASEAN summit show that Burma can change ASEAN but ASEAN cannot change Burma. Mr Ki-Moon's choice of ASEAN and Mr Surayud as his bulldogs to bring democracy to Burma assures the junta that it shall be business as usual and the status quo for the foreseeable future.


Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Asia's growing oil palm farms seen as climate change threat

With 35 scientific flaws identified in Al Gore's global warming documentary, the failure of their predicted extreme hurricane season to make an appearance either in 2006 or in 2007, and serious questions about the validity of their climate model, the global warmists have developed a new more defensive strategy by dismissing their critics as "industry representatives" and by claiming that errors in their model do not detract from the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions because the reduction can only do good and can do no harm (Realistically it's too late, Bangkok Post, December 10, 2007). Both of these arguments are flawed. All critics are not industry representatives and even if they were, it is the substance of their argument and not their affiliation that needs to be addressed; and history has shown that environmental extremism is not costless to society. The worldwide ban on DDT in the hysterical aftermath of the book "Silent Spring" has made possible the resurgence of malaria and dengue fever and has cost millions of lives. The error has been recognized. The ban on DDT was lifted last year as a way of containing these deadly diseases once again. Closer to home, the global warmists themselves are now crying foul at the environmental devastation being caused by the rapid expansion of the palm oil biodiesel industry in Southeast Asia (Asia's growing oil palm farms seen as climate change threat, Bangkok Post, November, 2007), an expansion that is in fact part of their prescription to fight global warming with renewable energy. The global warmists' charge against the biodiesel industry is an unwitting admission that their fight against global warming has gone wrong. The assumption that environmentalists do good by definition even if their science is flawed is false.


Cha-am Jamal
Thailand
---------

Reference: Pearl harbour raid remembered, Bangkok Post, December 9, 2007

The article says that a few dozen "greying" Pearl Harbour survivors had gathered to remember their comrades who died in the attack in 1941 (Pearl harbour raid remembered, Bangkok Post, December 9, 2007). Kindly note that those who were serving in the military back in 1941 are in their 80s today. They are no longer greying. They are as grey as they are going to get.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Sharif Bhutto remain divided, Bangkok Post, December 8, 2007

Pity the Pakistani voters in their next elections. They have to choose among a military dictator, a convicted felon who has been found guilty of corruption, and a family with serious criminal charges pending in the courts. Is that all the leadership material 150 million people can muster? Perhaps partition was not that great of an idea after all. There are 150 million very happy, free, and democratic Muslims living on the other side of the great divide while the supposedly safe homeland for Indian Muslims teeters on the edge of becoming a failed state.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Melting Greenland ice sheet could be next puzzle for UN panel, Bangkok Post, December 8, 2007

When the IPCC first raised the alarm and cranked up the rhetoric about rising sea level, their forecast was that at the current rate of increase in the use of fossil fuels, the sea level would rise by seven meters in 100 years and devastate low-lying countries like Bangladesh. When these estimates were challenged and their internal inconsistencies exposed, the IPCC quietly revised the 100-year forecast downward 100-fold from 7 meters to 7 centimeters on their website but the rhetoric continued unabated slyly inserting "thousands of years" in place of "100 years" in the 7-meter forecast (Melting Greenland ice sheet could be next puzzle for UN panel, Bangkok Post, December 8, 2007). The sleight of hand appears to have gone unnoticed by the media. The media has been less than vigilant in holding these people accountable for their brash fear mongering and have dutifully published all of those scary press releases without a critical analysis. One day the greenhouse gas scare will go the way of the ozone hole scare and the millennium bug scare and the gullible that went along for the ride will be disgraced along with the perpetrators of this fraud.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Iran's take on America, Bangkok Post, December 6. 2007

The article reflects on various policy errors of the Bush Administration that have disgraced America and lists among other things its misguided war on terror, its failed energy policy, and the deterioration in America's infrastructure and traditional values (Iran's take on America, Bangkok Post, December 6. 2007), but what does any of this have to do with Iran? Is Iran the new bogeyman? Once the USSR was America's bogeyman and when the USSR bit the dust it was Saddam and now that Saddam has also gone to dust I suppose they have homed in on Iran; but why do they need a bogeyman?

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

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