Thailand Centric News

[admin]

I was reading The Nation today and they had a story that had the following headline:

"Iceland volcano unlikely to hurt inbound tourism to Thailand"

I lived in Gibraltar during the last volcanic eruption that stopped air traffic across Europe and even in a country of only 25,000 people did they make the story about themselves.

I mean, sure, I can understand it if the story contained one or two sentences stating that tourism in Thailand is not expected to be impacts under a headline of "Flights Returning to Normal After Iceland Volcano Eruption" but WTF is this?!?

The article only has 2 paragraphs about the impact on Thailand out of a 14 paragraph article talking about the disrupted flights.

I saw a similar headline floating around on Twitter saying that Phuket's tourism probably wouldn't be impacted either.

This isn't the first time I've noticed it but for whatever reason it just got under my skin today. They did the same thing with several world events, Japan, Libya, Egypt, NZ, etc. It's like there's a need to latch onto it some worldwide news and somehow associate Thailand with it.

You really don't see that happening too much elsewhere in the world. Sure, they might be a mention of X number of Brits or Americans were killed in this or that tragedy but they don't try to hijack the entire story.

WTF is up with that?

[English_Bob]

You mean there are other countries?

I remember when the Japanese earthquake hit and the news was full of 'experts' saying that Thailand wouldn't be affected.

And I thought 'Duh! 'Cos of the different oceans?'

[admin]

I'm just trying to figure out whether it's an issue of Thais won't have any interest if it isn't somehow Thailand related or if it's an issue of self-importance (i.e. "So, what does that mean to me?")

[Admin_2]

I'm just trying to figure out whether it's an issue of Thais won't have any interest if it isn't somehow Thailand related or if it's an issue of self-importance (i.e. "So, what does that mean to me?")

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the majority of Thais don't/can't travel. Thus, the news spits out what people really want to hear about. If you've never seen anything outside of your own country, it would be hard to imagine what it's like over "there"...let alone care about what's going on with their people enough to click on a story and read about it.

What's strange is that the readership of that article isn't primarily Thai, though, right?

[admin]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the majority of Thais don't/can't travel. Thus, the news spits out what people really want to hear about. If you've never seen anything outside of your own country, it would be hard to imagine what it's like over "there"...let alone care about what's going on with their people enough to click on a story and read about it.

What's strange is that the readership of that article isn't primarily Thai, though, right?

But the writers are Thai. That's why I'm not entirely sure it's an issue of appealing to what the audience wants to read. I think even English fluent Thai journalists (which I assume were educated outside of Thailand based on their English mastery) might actually view the world like this. Whew! Thailand narrowly avoided another blow to the tourism industry and then rewrite an AP or Reuters article about the actual event for filler.

[pandorea]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the majority of Thais don't/can't travel. Thus, the news spits out what people really want to hear about. If you've never seen anything outside of your own country, it would be hard to imagine what it's like over "there"...let alone care about what's going on with their people enough to click on a story and read about it.

What's strange is that the readership of that article isn't primarily Thai, though, right?

I think you're pretty much right on this, Rob. Traveling isn't one of Thai things, beside of it's expensive, it's also difficult for Thais to go anywhere without Visa. Therefore, people don't care much about what's going on with Iceland volcano eruption. (and we have election news going on, and I bet people don't care much about that either).

Slightly off topic, the volcano eruption last year (April), I was on the way back to CPH and I had to land in Stockholm then took a bus for another 10 hours to CPH. It has been very long journey, and less than 24 hours after I arrived CPH, the airport was opened. That was annoying!!

ps. I bet people care more about the prime-time drama on TV. than something erupted in Europe. For the every simply reason,..that **** has nothing to do with me!!

[admin]

ps. I bet people care more about the prime-time drama on TV. than something erupted in Europe. For the every simply reason,..that shit has nothing to do with me!!

And that was my point. Because, believe me, I've had to endure the torture of enough Thai dramas to know that the lifestyles they portray aren't even close to the average Thai lifestyle. The shows aren't about Thai people. They're about rich and upper middle-class Thai people which make up about 20% - 30% of the population but are probably only 5% of the audience that actually watches such rubbish entertainment.

Obviously the same could be said about a lot of farang countries as well. Our entertainment often portrays the average American, or Brit, or European very differently than how most people live. But we stop living in the fantasy world when it comes to legitimate news sources.

Personally, I think that the missing ingredient in all failed democracies is the lack of freedom of the press. Every day I read the English language Thai press and the stuff that comes out of government officials' mouths is jaw dropping. Even though jaw dropping comments happen daily I remember a few years back during the rice shortage reading either Finance Minster Korn or some other high ranking official talking about how Thailand was going to become the middle-east of SEA because Thailand had more rice than everyone else.

Oil is finite. That's why the price goes up. Rice is a season to season product. That particular season the world had underproduced. As the price goes up more people will grow rice trying to get the high price. All of the extra rice production drives the price of rice down. This is Econ 101 but some Thai government official is talking like he's never even heard of economics. And not one journalist even questions this very basic logic flaw.

This is exactly why many of us farangs are fans of people like K. Voranai from the Bangkok Post. He asks questions!!!! He points out logic errors from government officials. He won me over back in 2008 when wrote about first meeting Thaksin. He ripped apart the hypocrisy of both the red and the yellow and said:

"I will ridicule the ridiculous no matter the colour of their shirt."

Many of us farangs cheer him not necessarily because we agree with him but we support his courage to say what he feels. This is the cornerstone of a strong democracy. The moment you start writing headlines like what I read in The Nation this morning, you're nothing more than a tabloid. You're not a journalist. You're more like Chompoo. You get paid to write stuff that people want to see/read.

[Admin_2]

No Thais Hurt In Latest Supernova

GALAXY UGC3478 – No Thais were reported injured or killed in the latest stellar explosion in the far reaches of deep space, according to authorities.

The explosion, which was reported last week by NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was classified as a Type 1 Supernova and is believed to have been caused by the collapse of a massive star into a new black hole, releasing gravitational potential energy that pushed the star’s remnant outer core into space where it was observable as a halo of luminous radiation.

The Supernova, designated SN2011AF, is observable in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere using commercially available telescope equipment.

“No Thai nationals were in the immediate vicinity of SN2011AF, either at the time of its first observation, or, as far as we know, during the initial collapse of its creator neutron star 140,000,000 years ago,” said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. “However, we are continuing to monitor the situation.”

The Ministry also updated the press on possible risks to Thailand from various intertstellar events, including the pulsar wind nebula from SN1054, and the remnantsof SN1979C, a still-unclassified supernova in Galaxy M100, about 500 million light years from Earth.

“Our foreign registry shows that there are zero Thai guest workers in Galaxy M100,” said Kasit. “However, that does not eliminate the possibility of undocumented workers, who may be enduring hardship there from intense gravitational forces and searing temperatures of 10,000 degrees Kelvin.”

Kasit did not provide details on possible intergalactic evacuation plans, but insisted that the government was prepared to do whatever was needed to protect Thais everywhere in the known universe, and report on Thailand’s significance in universal cosmic events.

-NTN

[JanisK]

No Thais Hurt In Latest Supernova

GALAXY UGC3478 – No Thais were reported injured or killed in the latest stellar explosion in the far reaches of deep space, according to authorities.

The explosion, which was reported last week by NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was classified as a Type 1 Supernova and is believed to have been caused by the collapse of a massive star into a new black hole, releasing gravitational potential energy that pushed the star’s remnant outer core into space where it was observable as a halo of luminous radiation.

The Supernova, designated SN2011AF, is observable in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere using commercially available telescope equipment.

“No Thai nationals were in the immediate vicinity of SN2011AF, either at the time of its first observation, or, as far as we know, during the initial collapse of its creator neutron star 140,000,000 years ago,†said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. “However, we are continuing to monitor the situation.â€

The Ministry also updated the press on possible risks to Thailand from various intertstellar events, including the pulsar wind nebula from SN1054, and the remnantsof SN1979C, a still-unclassified supernova in Galaxy M100, about 500 million light years from Earth.

“Our foreign registry shows that there are zero Thai guest workers in Galaxy M100,†said Kasit. “However, that does not eliminate the possibility of undocumented workers, who may be enduring hardship there from intense gravitational forces and searing temperatures of 10,000 degrees Kelvin.â€

Kasit did not provide details on possible intergalactic evacuation plans, but insisted that the government was prepared to do whatever was needed to protect Thais everywhere in the known universe, and report on Thailand’s significance in universal cosmic events.

-NTN

Great piece - lol!