Reference: Stunning victory for the Awami League in Bangladesh elections

The two main parties vying for control of parliament in the elections held in Bangladesh on December 29, 2008, are the BNP and the Awami League. Early returns show an unexpectedly huge margin of victory for the Awami League. To grasp the measure and meaning of this lopsided result one has to consider that BNP's primary ally in the elections was the Jamaat-e-Islami Party of Bangladesh, an organization whose stated mission is to establish Islamic Sharia law. Jamaat-e-Islami's sister party in Pakistan, also called Jamaat-e-Islami has ties to Lashakar-e-Taiba, the Islamic organization with alleged links to the terrorist events in Mumbai. These events in November 2008 have raised the specter of yet another war between India and Pakistan and generated unprecedented geopolitical tensions in South Asia. The Bangladesh elections follows in the heels of these events and the results are best understood in this context. The crushing defeat of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami alliance is a clear rejection of Islamic extremism by the Bangladeshis.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Pakistan groups banned but not bowed, Asia Times Online, December 18, 2008

In "Pakistan groups banned but not bowed" you write "At the same time, on the 37th anniversary on the fall of Dhaka and the split of Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the media played up Indian intelligence's proxy operations and the attack of the Indian armed forces that resulted in the separation of East Pakistan." Please note that the "attack of the Indian armed forces" was a response of an attack by the Pakistan air force in the western front. The 1971 war started in the west and moved to the east. The war resulted in a comprehensive and humiliating defeat of a Pakistani miliatary apparatus that was thought to have been one of the world's best by Pakistani citizens. The scary part of the post Mumbai reaction is that we are seeing the same kind of bravado among Pakistanis once again. We are getting scarily close to a war scenario posted by a youtuber named Rakesh in October 3 of 2008. Here is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er9_eM9_8Do

Rakesh's real fear is that terrorists may seize control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Fear of a storm surge in Samut Prakarn, Bangkok Post, August 27, 2008

It was reported several times earlier this year that a noted weatherman had predicted that a tropical cyclone the likes of Cyclone Nargis was likely to cause a devastating storm surge along Samut Prakarn and Bangkok sometime during October of 2008 and that global warming was to blame (Fear of a storm surge in Samut Prakarn, Bangkok Post, August 27, 2008). October 2008 and the cyclone season has come and gone since that prediction without even a cyclone let alone a storm surge in the Gulf of Thailand. The credibility of the expert and the gullibility of the media were derived from the claim that this particular weatherman had correctly predicted the 2004 tsunami with otherwise intelligent and diligent newsreporters failing to note that tsunamis are not weather events but geological events and that geologists have yet to claim that earthquakes are predictable. The media are being taken for a ride by global warming scaremongers. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Poznan only marking time, Bangkok Post, December 18, 2008

According to the newspaper you can trust, the volume of sea ice in the Arctic basin "fell to its lowest recorded level to date" this year and that reduced ice coverage is causing a non-linear acceleration in the loss of polar ice because there is less ice to reflect sunlight (Poznan only marking time, Bangkok Post, December 18, 2008). This scenario was sold to us in October of 2007 when the summer melt in the Arctic basin was more extensive than normal. Their theory predicted that due to the loss of sunlight reflection by ice, the Arctic ice extent would not fully recover in the winter of 2007-2008 and that the summer melt in  2008 would be greater yet and the ice formation in the winter of 2008-2009 lesser yet and so on and so forth until the artic basin becomes completely ice free. They said that the Arctic was the "canary of global warming" meaning that what happens in the Arctic is a harbinger of what awaits the rest of the world. It's all very scary except for the data. The ice extent in the Arctic basin fully recovered to well above 4 million square km that is considered "normal" for that time of year by December of 2007; and even worse for the scaremongers, the summer melt in 2008 was less than that in 2007, not more; and today in December of 2008 we find that the Arctic ice extent is back above 4 million square km. The Arctic ice melt scenario reported in the Bangkok Post editorial was postulated in the fall of 2007 and today, about 15 months later, we find no evidence to support it and if anything the data seem to be pointing in the other direction. I have attached the data for your reference. They were downloaded from the University of Illinois website.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Govt has populist agenda, Bangkok Post, December 17, 2008

It is reported that populist policies of the new government in Thailand are "aimed at helping grassroots people in rural areas" (Govt has populist agenda, Bangkok Post, December 17, 2008). What are "grassroots people"? Are some Thais grassroots and others not? How does one make this distinction? And what criteria will the government use to decide whom to help and whom not to help? 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Hua Hin villages declared disaster zone, Bangkok Post, December 15, 2008

It is reported that certain mountain villages near Hua Hin have been declared a disaster zone because of extremely cold weather with temperatures as low as 10C (Hua Hin villages declared disaster zone, Bangkok Post, December 15, 2008). It was only a year ago that Thai scientists had said that temperatures lower than 15C in Thailand was a thing of the past because of global warming caused by our use of fossil fuels (Rise in average temperatures seen, Bangkok Post, November 3, 2007).  

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Greenhouse gas talks falter, Bangkok Post, December 11, 2008

It is not likely that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is "the world's most respected scientific agency" (Greenhouse gas talks falter, Bangkok Post, December 11, 2008). In spite of its best efforts, it has failed time and again and now in Poznan as well to convince the world that its scaremongering scenarios are credible. All of its scientific predictions and climate relationships that could be empirically tested have proven false. They are left with nothing more than climate devastation that "could" occur a hundred years from now under certain unsubstantiated hypothetical conditions. The proof of their credibility is in the pudding. The IPCC has now failed three times, in conferences they convened, to convince the world that the Kyoto Protocol should be extended beyond 2012. They have completely run out of empirical support for their position and are now running entirely on inertia. They will likely survive one more year until the meeting in Copenhagen in 2009 unless common sense prevails and they are disbanded sooner. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Climate change is quickening, Bangkok Post, December 1, 2008

More than 10,000 delegates are attending a meeting in Poland of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from December 1 to the 12th. During this period we can expect a flurry of scary press releases saying that human activity is causing the earth to become warmer and that global warming will soon be out of control and that there will be devastating consequences (Climate change is quickening, Bangkok Post, December 1, 2008). If one reads these press releases carefully one will find that they consist entirely of hypothetical statements that state that if event X occurs then a devastation Y is likely to follow. They are limited to hypothetical data because the real data do not support their thesis. The earth is cooling not warming and arctic sea ice has fully recovered from its summer melt and shows no sign of ratcheting downwards as they had hoped it would to prove their point that the arctic is the canary of climate change. The great gathering of global warming scaremongers comes at a very inconvenient time for them because the data have not cooperated with them at all and the global economy is so devastated that the competition for research dollars is fiercer than ever.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: 52 abuse victims per day, Bangkok Post, November 26, 2008

The Thai government's advice to women "not to walk through dark and isolated areas alone at night" as a way of combating violence against women and children appears to be strangely disconnected from the data. The data show that most cases of such violence occur at home and that "most of the abusers were people whom the victims loved and trusted" (52 abuse victims per day, Bangkok Post, November 26, 2008). Staying away from dark and isolated areas is necessary but not sufficient and it does not address the issue of domestic violence.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Hindus seek peace, Bangkok Post, November 24, 2008

It is reported that a two-year ritual is to be held in India involving thousands of priests chanting ancient religious verses and lighting a ceremonial fire in order to keep the world from going into economic recession (Hindus seek peace, Bangkok Post, November 24, 2008). At a time of relative weakness and vulnerability of the Western economic system it may seem that the time has arrived for Asia to take the lead as global economic powers. Yet, deep down in the foundation of Asian societies we find goofiness and superstition that are so profoundly congealed in the Asian psyche that the Western economic powers need not fear real changes in the global economic hierarchy any time soon. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference:Malaysia's Muslims told not to practice yoga, Bangkok Post, November 23, 2008

Yoga is a form of stretching and slow motion sustained movements of the human body that has been shown to have enormous health benefits. It is not a religion. Foribidding Muslims to participate in this healthful activity simplly because it is thought to have been derived from another religion is cruel and ignorant if not sinful. The alternatives to yoga proposed for Muslims - cycling, swimmming, and eating less fatty foods - though certainly healthy, and possibly good complements for yoga, are not by any stretch of the imagination substitutes for it. Muslim clerics who eschew helpful knowledge from sources deemed unislamic are cheating themselves and their brethren. One can only hope that sanity and rational thought will eventually prevail down there in Malaysia and Muslims there will be allowed  to take advantage of all proven healthful practices, even those that did not originate in Islamic culture. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Fantastic green rally 2008, Bangkok Post, November 23, 2008

Driving a car with the "pedal to the metal" means that the accelerator has been pressed all the way down and that the car is travelling as fast as it is capable. This kind of driving is not fuel efficient and creates road hazards besides. There is nothing green about it. Incidenally the word in this phrase is pedal as in the gas pedal and not peddle, a word that refers to sellling trivial items or things that require salesmanship. 

Cha-am Jamal

'Thailand

Reference: Uproar over drilling leases next to US parks, Bangkok Post, November 19, 2008

The reason for the uproar by environmentalists over the leasing of government lands in Utah for oil drilling is reported in the Post as follows: "If you are standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you're looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it" (Uproar over drilling leases next to US parks, Bangkok Post, November 19, 2008). The irony is that all of those thousands of arch viewers drove oil fueled automobiles for hours through the moonscape of Utah to get there. Without oil they would not be there in the first place. Since they have bought into the oil economy they may as well get a glimpse of the activity  - many kilometers away - that made it possible for them to see the blessed arch.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Glaciers falling faster into sea, Bangkok Post, November 18, 2008

Mt. Erebus along with most of the mountains in Antarctica are volcanic mountains and it is now known with certainty that volcanic activity under the ice there is causing great amounts of ice to melt and to form gigantic masses of liquid water under the ice that would naturally cause glaciers to flow faster. The attempt by global warming protagonists to represent these events as climate change phenomena (Glaciers falling faster into sea, Bangkok Post, November 18, 2008) is fraudulent and inconsistent with the data that were made available to Bangkok Post readers earlier this year (The fire below, Bangkok Post, April 28, 2008). 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Crime does not pay, Bangkok Post, November 17, 2008

The story reports that shoplifters are fleecing the average household to the tune of 1,879 Baht per year. These data show that crime does in fact enrich the criminals and therefore that crime pays, the title of the story notwithstanding. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: The dream is still alive, Bangkok Post editorial, Bovember 6, 2008

The editorial says that, given a new administration, the US should "no longer shirk its responsibilities when it comes to climate change". It is probably for good reason that the phrase "global warming" has quietly morphed into "climate change" since evidence for warming is becoming harder and harder to come by. The world has not warmed since 1998 and in recent years we have seen a steep cooling trend, steeper than the pre-1998 warming trend. If we accept the Kyoto Protocol hypothesis that mankind is able to micromanage the planet's climate change phenomenon by changing fossil fuel consumption - decreasing consumption to cool down the planet and increasing consumption to warm it up - exactly what action do you propose that the new US administration should take now that the earth has entered a sustained cooling trend?

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: India's hidden fragility, Bangkok Post, November 6, 2008

The nation of India has been a stable secular democracy of great cultural heritage and diversity since independence from Britain in 1947 wthout any non-democratic interventions in government. India is home to more people, more ethnic groups, more languages, more religions, both home grown and imported, and more cultural traditions than there are in North America and Europe combined. India's size and diversity are two of many measures of its greatness and importance in the global community of nations. Cultures often clash in this immense collage but the nation endures and that relationship is not a measure of India's fragility but of its robustness. The vicious negative spin put on India's diversity from an extremely narrow perspective (India's hidden fragility, Bangkok Post, November 6, 2008) appears to be blind to these more important global realities that India represents.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: A hope named Obama, Bangkok Post, November 1, 2008

The oped piece on the US presidential election first paints George Bush as the root of all the evil in the world and gushes effussively about Obama as the coming messiah who will deliver the world from evil (A hope named Obama, Bangkok Post, November 1, 2008); and immediately thereafter recants saying that it is not George Bush but the "political and economic establishment" in America that is the root of all evil in the world and that "one must not succumb to irrational hopes" or "entertain illusions" with respect to Obama. To that I would like to add that one must not write opinion pieces until one actually has an opinion.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand