Monday, August 26, 2013

Thailand Is Not Egypt

On August 22 Jonathan Tepperman, managing editor of the FOREIGN NEWS, had a story entitled Can Egypt Learn From Thailand? published in the New York Times. This ill-reserached Op-Ed piece further demonstrated mainstream media's inability to tell all the news that is fit to print. Thailand is not Egypt, but neither is the Land of Smiles a country which according to Mr. Tepperman has gone from "a virtual wreck to a booming, and relatively stable, success story." Poverty remains deeply rooted in ban-nok or the countryside. Millions have gone into debt to feed their families. And the battles fought between the military, police, royalists, and politicians have split the country in two, as the entitled rich practice 'divide and conquer' to sap the people of their money and lives. Mr. Tepperman is smitten by the nak-lak of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and buys into the report from Morgan Stanley's Ruchir Sharma, that Thailand's economic outlook is the brightest in 15 years. Stock market up. As if the stock market had anything to do with real people. And Ms. Yingluck's accomplishments have solidified the stakes of the rich. Nouveau and ancien. As for the people, no one in powers cares about them as long as they work for hand-to-mouth wages. It is obvious that Mr. Tepperman has spent little time in Thailand and sad to say he probably wrote this article from his New York office. Travel expenses are first to go in austerity. As for Egypt it is no Thailand, but its government was democratically elected by the people. No matter what the media doesn't say, because they have no idea of the truth. Fuck the New York Times. Fuck me too. I know nothing or phom lu bplaao

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