Even if women have formal political equality, there still exists in society an unspoken, second-order sexism. Yet another reason why there is a place for the ideology of political correctness, which can expose and shame these attitudes

……

The ousted prime minister, a billionaire tycoon who rose to power in 2001, was extremely popular among rural Thais largely because of a series of lucrative local programs he backed. But allegations of corruption and abuse of power earned him the hostility of the country’s elite, mostly in Bangkok.

Sounds a bit like Chavez in Venezuela. But it’s not something I know enough about to say who is wrong or right. I was just correcting the misconception that:

britain screwed with the country in the past -> country is screwed up in the present

The correct way of stating that is:

Britain screwed with the country in the past -> country is located on planet earth

Britain screwed with essentially every country at one time or another, so if you go to some troublespot and say ‘look, britain used to be involved here’, that is like saying ‘look, the people here breathe air and have a moon in the sky’.

You only have to see the popular military takeover from last September to realise that King Bhumipol is probably having the last laugh.

Only because it had already been done:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Thailand_%281768-1932%29

‘The British interceded to prevent more French bullying of Siam, but their price, in 1909 was the acceptance of British sovereignty over of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu under Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. ‘

Thailand and Iraq started the post-WWI-era as rather similar countries – british-backed anglophile monarchies, from the period where direct imperial rule was out of fashion. You could imagine their corresponding Kings meeting at Sandhurst and comparing notes.

Both then had a period of military rule, and a period of fighting somewhat on the other side in WWII. The big difference is that the monarchy in Thailand came back into power:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Thailand_%281932-1973%29

With chaos reigning on the streets, King Bhumibol, ignoring the safety concerns of his immediate security staff, ordered the gates of Chitralada Palace opened to the students who were being gunned down by the army.

The junta had fallen, at the cost of 1,577 lives.

There’s really quite a lot of 20C history you never seem to hear mentioned.

Richard Gere was the prostitute in American Gigolo you were not paying any attention? Admit it.

Shilpa Shetty always at the centre of attention. Must buy stock cubes.

Milkless, tidy top-heavy thrashes

Is an anagram of

Shilpa Shetty loves kismet hardy

As dick littlejohn says, you couldn’t make it up

I hope this has been enlightening for you

anyways. didn’t he see the pictures of liz hurley and whats his face nayar’s wedding? everyone was decked out in a sari!

So Shilpa comes to this country with her culture and we all go boo that the common english can’t tolerate her ways. Western bloke goes to India and they burn effigies of him

And most importantly, what about Shilpa’s sari? Didn’t the twins look really nice in it?

“Top stories today, In brighton there is a cat stuck in tree, in Fincley a woman has broken an nail and in Europe a boat has sunk and thousands are reported dead.”

“Now straight to the main story – I believe that we have live pictures of this poor cat”

Its the same as it ever was, in fact the odd bit is how much interest we have in foriegn affairs these days. I’m still shocked that the Mumbia bombings were so poorly reported.

Personally I think that spent to much time on the murdering in Iraq and that we ought pay more attention to fate of the Buddists in Southern Thailand, if we pretend to care about Iraq’s a little bit, we bother at all for the Thais.

TFI