He admitted to police that the decline in prize money from boxing played a part in his decision to make some extra money by selling the drug to young people in the northeastern province.

The man is a Muay Thai legend with 5 Lumpini title’s, one Ratchadamneon title and one WMTC world title and saw him crowned boxer of the year for 2001. .He is remembered for Breaking a thigh bone in an opponents leg, with a huge low round kick.

His career came to an end on Thursday. But while his professional boxing career may be over, an opportunity lies ahead for him to redeem his reputation.

Corrections Department chief wants Thongchai to become a trainer and work with other prisoners and former inmates who want to change their lives and become boxers.

‘’The department has a policy of utilising skilled prisoners for the benefit of their fellow inmates,’’ he said.

In Thongchai’s case, Mr Wanchai said he is confident his presence in the prison will lure other inmates to take up boxing and boost the popularity of the department’s boxing camp.

The department already turned female inmate Siriporn Thaveesuk into a star after she won the WBC light flyweight title, and now her story is set to become a Hollywood film.

The department may now produce more champions with the experienced Thongchai as a trainer.

Well, this guy shouldn’t be getting any special privileges. He is a drug peddler, a person who makes young people become criminals and enter a life of crime and at times commit murder. He is one of the people who make your son or daughter head down a dark path where they get lost and most will never find their way back.

He is considered a celebrity and should be setting examples not taking advantage of the position he is in where kids approach him for an autograph or maybe even advice. Instead of advice he is giving them poison that will affect them forever. He is despicable.

He should be put to work in a laundry or maybe a kitchen, some menial job like that. He is a criminal and shouldn’t be able to do what he loves’ being Muay Thai. Prison is meant to be a punishment not a holiday camp.

Of course the Correctional Department can see stars and the warden has his name in lights and in the headings of newspapers. Okay the idea of him helping other kids or men in jail is a great idea but maybe not through teaching kick boxing.

The Correction Department could make him go out and do awareness campaigns at schools and give talks about the effect drugs have on people. He can talk about the bad things drugs have brought to his life. So instead of him helping criminals he could prevent kids and young teens turning to a life of crime.

I believe prevention is the best idea here. A person who is known throughout Thailand can use his status to change people’s lives. Even if he changes just one person’s life, changes the fork in the road the person was going to take, that fork being drugs and a life of unknown. The money spent and also his redemption will all be worth it.

Here is a brief synopsis of the man. He was born in Zurich on 13 March 1947. After receiving his medical degree in 1973 he specialised in paediatrics at the Zurich Children’s Hospital. In 1974/75 he was sent through the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) to Cambodia to work at the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital. His mission came to an abrupt end when the Khmer Rouge invaded the country. Dr. Richner was forced to return to Switzerland where he took up his former work at the Zurich Children’s Hospital. In 1980 he opened his own practice in Zurich, which he shared with a fellow practitioner.

In December 1991 Dr. Richner was asked by the Cambodian government to rebuild and manage the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital which was destroyed during the war; once again, his life took a sudden turn as he accepted the job. In March 1992 he created a foundation in Zurich, moved to Phnom Penh and began with the actual reconstruction work. On 2 November 1992 Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital was back in operation.

He hasn’t stopped since then, he has lobbied and fundraised money through the Swiss government and other fundraising efforts and the King of Cambodia has been most generous donating land and others as well. With the funds he has gone on to build 7 hospitals in all. The man is a real life Saint.

The great parts about these hospitals are; they are free. The people receive free treatment, operations, medicine and even get travelling money to go to the hospital and return home. They also receive money for their follow up visits and the completion rates of patients seeing through their treatment is a high 90%. This is fantastic for the people who really need the help.

Anyway, the documentary was on Cambodian kids suffering at the hands of Tuberculosis, this is a disease that is highly treatable with the correct diagnosis and treatment. Sadly too many young children weren’t diagnosed right and given the wrong medication and suffered horribly, some ended up with terrible and permanent damage to parts of their bodies and others died. This is where Dr Beat has stepped in and started a campaign to save so many young kids with this disease.

TB has infected one third of the world’s population, one new infection every second of every day. I watched in horror as an 8 year old girl couldn’t walk, TB had infected her hip joints; this poor little girl was in excruciating pain, it was so sad to watch. They operated on her hip and removed puss and some bone and she recovered after time and is now virtually back to normal. Sadly many cases didn’t have this happy ending.

This is a list from the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the highest countries on the list of burden.

Burden ranking
1. India
2. China
3. Indonesia
4. Nigeria
5. Bangladesh
6. Pakistan
7. South Africa
8. Ethiopia
9. Philippines
10. Kenya
11. Democratic Republic of Congo
12. Russian Federation
13. Viet Nam
14. United Republic of Tanzania
15. Brazil
16. Uganda
17. Thailand
18. Mozambique
19. Myanmar
20. Zimbabwe
21. Cambodia
22. Afghanistan
India is number 1 on the list I wasn’t expecting that. Thailand was 17th and I really wasn’t sure where they would be.

The WHO has officially said “Thailand has historically had a successful TB control programme, however gains made in the past are being jeopardized by the “National Health Systems Reform”.

Also in 2002 the budget was managed at a central level covered all inputs in TB control in the country. This changed in 2003 when a new health insurance system was introduced. As part of this system budget and clinical care including TB diagnosis and treatment are allocated to provincial and district hospitals on a basis of fixed per capita rate. There has been no data at all to show how much of these budgets are going to the diagnosis and treatment of TB.

This doesn’t surprise me at all. The government at this time is more worried about their fight against each other on who will lead the country. Why should they care about helping sick people who might have a disease that can be fully treated if diagnosed and treated properly?

I have searched about what Thailand is currently doing to fight TB, this is what I found.

A new study reveals a striking lack of social and political commitment to control tuberculosis, a leading cause of death in Thailand.

According to the study, released by Mahidol University (one of Thailand’s top universities) and the Open Society Institute, there is little understanding of how TB is spread and that it can be cured. Many patients do not seek treatment because of social stigma, lack of information, and prohibitive costs. Because of these factors, some patients fail to complete treatment, leading to an increased threat of drug-resistant TB and extremely drug-resistant TB.

This went on and on. Over the last few years Thai universities and medical observers have all stated the same thing. “Not enough if being done by the government in awareness, diagnosis and treatment.”
Hello ministers, wake up and read these reports that Thai alumni have written, take heed and do something about it. Stop the cat fighting and get on with helping your country and its lovely people.

This is a link to the Health and Development Networks to a hospital trying to make a difference in the north of Thailand; I praise these guys with the effort they are making in helping not so well off people with TB.

At times I would like to kick ministers in their butts and make them wake up and see reality, see how the majority of their people are living in Thailand.

According to Mr Samak, someone possibly in the military planned to arrest him when he returned. A source close to the prime minister said Mr Samak received an intelligence report that a military officer hatched a plot to capture him at the airport and remove him from power, in a similar manner to the 1991 military coup.

The plot was linked to an earlier rumour that the People’s Alliance for Democracy was in cahoots with some military officers who were involved in the Sept 19, 2006 coup, and were working to stage another overthrow to get rid of Mr Samak and his government.

This is how paranoid the government is. A whisper, a rumour makes the current prime minister speak openly about such hearsay. If the prime minster worried about and spoke about every rumour that came his way, he would be a very anxious and highly strung individual.

Also the Civil Court threw out an appeal by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD opposition protesters) on Wednesday, and ordered the group to open roads and turn off loudspeakers during the day in front of its Government House protest. The court upheld an injunction issued on Monday.

PAD core leaders Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang and Pibhob Dhongchai took the children, parents and teachers of Rajavinit School back to the court, but heard its second setback in three days.

The court said it does not rid the group of the right to gather, but said it has to protect the rights of other people as well.
These selfish people are really pathetic. They keep on saying they are ”protesting for the good of the country”, for the people!

What about the people they are hurting in the 40 plus day saga. Innocent kids trying to get an education and have no idea about this tit for tat saga are being affected by this crap.

A PAD leader took to the stage and called the teachers of the school Khmers, obviously a derogatory term as Thais are such a superior race and believe Khmers are below them and also insulted the school. Funnily enough he has now had Lese Majeste complaints filed against him, the school was named by HM the King of Thailand.

Also mum and dad businesses, who are trying to make a living, trying to trade when traffic cannot enter the area where the protesters are camped out, Is this for the good of the people?
Now even though the protesters have been ordered by a court of law to adhere to removing barricades, turning off loud speakers during school hours and dismantling stages, they have ignored these orders. They don’t even have the decency to respect an order and judgment from a court of law. These people want to run the country, isn’t this a little scary? They will be a law unto their own!

The Core leader of PAD Chamlong Srimuang said the anti-government group will continue its non-stop rally in front of the Government House on Saturday.

He also said the group will not remove stages that block the roads around the site. He also said that a small group of protesters will be sent to the Civil Court on Monday when the PAD re-appeals the judgment to protest the decision.

This is beyond idiocy; this is blatant disrespect to order. If every person lived like this when they didn’t agree or believe in something, anarchy would reign supreme.

If the protesters do not follow the judgment set down by the court then the action necessary should be taken to remove them. Be this the police or the army and whatever force needed. I don’t mean opening fire with live ammunition but if heavy handed tactics are needed then so be it.

The 6 co-leaders of the PAD should be arrested, it’s simple. They don’t follow the law then they are put into jail like any other person in the country. If an every day Joe breaks a law he is held accountable. Just because these people are influential and have “titles” before their names and powerful friends should not make them untouchable.

Come Monday the government needs to put an end to this comedy and use an iron fist. If the PAD’s appeal is again dismissed and they don’t do what has been ordered by the court of law then no sympathy should be shown to them. The police and whatever force ishould move in immediately and dismantle and remove protesters, be it forcefully if needed.

I personally am sick of this, I cannot believe it has been allowed to drag on for so long and hurt so many people. I agree that everyone in a democratic society has a right to protest and have their voice heard. This is what democracy is about. It has to be done through the right channels though, not by a Kangaroo court and a lynch mob who have their noses out of joint.

On March 20 and 21 this year in 2008 the army conducted an interrogation on a man named Imam Yapa Koseng, a Muslim religious leader. What he was put through over two days is despicable. It led to his death.

Testimony by a forensic expert on June 30 showed that Imam Yapa’s cause of death was blunt force trauma, including fractures of his ribs from the front, the side, and the back. Broken bones punctured his lungs. Bruises and wounds were found all over his body, including his eyes, forehead, and lips. He also had long abrasion marks on his back, indicating he may have been dragged on his ankles across a hard and rough surface.

I don’t care if the guy was a terrorist or suspected terrorist, this is just so despicable. The Thai army doesn’t have a good record when it comes to human rights and this has again showed this to be very true.

A judicial inquiry into Imam’s death has been blocked by army stonewalling. On June 30, 2008, Major Wicha Phuthong, commanding officer of the 39th Taskforce at the time of the killing, testified to Narathiwat Court in the post-mortem inquest that he did not know who tortured and killed Iman Yapa, or the names and ranks of the soldiers on duty at the time, or other relevant details.

He has either developed a very bad case of amnesia or couldn’t be a good leader of his men. A good leader knows everything that is happening in his platoon.

And more surprising is this; He testified that written records of those on duty were destroyed. He further stated he had the authority to grant permission for interrogation of detainees in the camp, but no one made a request to him to interrogate Imam Yapa.

This is the sort of stonewalling and cover-ups that goes on with the Thai army. For all the extra judicial killings that have apparently happened in the south of Thailand, not one soldier or officer have ever stood trial.

Now though the army could actually right a wrong. They have a large amount of evidence including Imam’s son’s testimony. He witnessed his dad’s beating at the hands of soldiers over two days. He witnessed soldiers jumping on his father, kicking and punching non stop.

He heard his father plead to his murderers to please stop; he told his son he was in so much pain.

Here is some of his testimony.

“I heard punching and kicking noises. I heard my father scream in pain. That went on for at least two hours.”

“When my father fell down, they kicked him again and again. They were laughing. My father could barely walk when they forced him to get up on his feet.”

“There were more than 10 soldiers hitting, punching, and kicking my father. I saw them hit him hard on his head. When my father fell down on the floor, some soldiers stepped on him and stomped on his chest.”

Although every soldier in the southern border provinces carries a code-of-conduct booklet produced by the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), many former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that after being arrested they were immediately tortured by interrogators – including soldiers in uniform and in plainclothes – at district-level camps. These are witnesses’ reports to HRW.

The most common forms of torture and other ill-treatment reported were ear-slapping, punching, kicking, beating with wooden and metal clubs, forced nudity, exposure to cold temperature, electric shock, strangulation, suffocation with plastic bags, and piercing the detainee’s genitalia with needles.

This is disgraceful; this is obnoxious and sickening that in this day and age where there are international rules for how prisoners should be treated. Some of these torture techniques are just unforgivable. How could any human being inflict such forms of torture on another human being?

Thankfully the HRW has called on the Thai government and army to:

Immediately ensure the safety of all detainees; to provide urgent medical care to all who sustained injuries during arrest or in detention; to allow timely access to legal counsel and family members; and to launch a full investigation into allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

I don’t know how lucky the HRW will be as the current Prime Minister and the opposition party, are fighting a childish battle over the leadership of the country. They have forgotten about more important things like, people being killed.

I do not agree with what is happening in Thailand’s south. Both sides who murder and maim people everyday need to be taken out of society at any expense. If the insurgents are caught then they need to be treated humanely, they need to be given a fare trial no matter what they might be accused of. If a court of law sentences those to death then so be it.

It is not the job of some thugs in green khakis to pass death sentences. That’s what laws are drafted and enforced. If we didn’t live by these laws we would have anarchy, more than so today.

Read about the Thai army suffocating 78 Muslim men in the south of Thailand. No-one was ever held accountable.

The political antics of the government the PPP and the opposition People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) are continuing. These two political parties are acting absolutely disgracefully; they are more like primary school kids in the school yard arguing and crying over spilt milk instead of being responsible mature adults who are meant to have the best interest of their country in their agendas and listening to the people who voted them into office.

The PAD has been harassing the elected government for a month now with protests that have blocked streets and affected people’s livelihoods. The PAD always said it was their democratic right to protests as they were doing it for the good of the country. Instead of acting like an opposition party they are acting like spoilt brats, they should be using the parliamentary system to voice their concerns and try and hold the government accountable for the alleged grievances the PAD has raised.

The six main opposition leaders who are the backbone of this protest need to take a very good hard look at themselves, they need to grow up and start being politicians, not some mob of unruly thugs trying to overthrow the people elected government by sheer bullying.

The PAD finally drew its last straw with a school that had had enough. After weeks of loud speakers interrupting their classes and the students and parents having to walk a long way because the protesters had blocked off the roads, they had had enough. They went to the court and filed a motion against the PAD. They are also started a lawsuit against them as well.

The court agreed with the school, finally someone with some common sense. The judge ordered the roads to be opened immediately and the protests stages to be moved. The judge also ordered the cease to all noise from loud speakers or microphones during school hours. At last some common sense.

Of course the PAD were outraged and they appealed the decision the next day, saying it was dangerous to open the roads as “bad people” would be able to drive into the area and attack the PAD protesters. They really are too paranoid.

Foolishly, the PAD ignored the court’s ruling after complying for a short time. They parked a lorry or truck across the road in front of Government House. Lawyer for the plaintiffs said parents and students would ask the court to enforce the injunction, saying the PAD only cleared parts of Rama V and Phitsanulok roads about 7am, and blocked them again after 4.30pm. Metropolitan Police chief said the court ordered the PAD to open the roads 24 hours a day, not between 7.30am and 4.30pm, which applies only to loudspeaker use. He hoped the PAD would abide by the court ruling.

The ignoramus PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang yesterday took to the stage and turned on the loudspeakers at 4.22pm. He said that at 4.30pm, the PAD would block the roads, while maintaining that the group respected the court’s order.

At exactly 4.30pm, the PAD’s security teams erected metal barricades blocking the roads at Nang Loeng intersection, Wat Benjamabophit intersection and Misakawan intersection.

Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit Thursday warned the People’s Alliance for Democracy to comply with the Civil Court order for the sake of the country. He said if the PAD was defiant against the court order, the country would be doomed because the court is the institute that every one must respect and comply to. “It is a rule that we abide by the court order even though we do not like it. If we do not follow the order, we will set a bad example for others. We must regard the court order as a sacred order that we must uphold, he said.

This is the problem the PAD and its six selfish rulers have no respect for anybody, not even themselves. I hope that they arrest the leaders of the PAD and lock them away. Put them out of the picture for a few days or weeks. Sadly if this happened their moronic and cult followers would probably riot just causing more problems.

The simple solution is, if the PAD doesn’t follow the rules of the law, the ruling set down by a judge and then upheld by another then the leaders and any supporters should be arrested. Whatever force that is needed to be used should be used.

The political circus has gone on long enough. The no-confidence vote has been run and won. To both parties, get on with leading your country and helping your people in a time when they really need you with the cost of living skyrocketing.

Drug trafficking has become increasingly popular with Thais trying to make some fast money in times of hardship. Everyday papers have stories of more people that have been caught selling drugs, most are just young kids.

The suppliers and manufacturers are using these people as they know they are desperate, the couriers or sellers are most at risk, they are the ones who are caught while the big players sit back and just find new sellers to push their pills.

Thailand has pretty harsh penalties when it comes to drugs; they still give out death sentences even though one hasn’t been carried out for a long time.

My stance on drugs is pretty simple; if people are stupid enough to traffic or take drugs then they deserve everything they get and more.

I personally believe that any person convicted of taking drugs for personal use should be sentenced to a minimum of 5 years jail.

A seller sentenced to life without parole.

A manufacturer or supplier, sentenced to death. To be carried out within a year of the conviction. Are these too harsh? I personally don’t think so.

I don’t agree with what Thailand did in 2003 in the Thaksin Shinawatra’s “War on Drugs.” Thailand has a very checkered past with problems with drugs.

In 2003 the former Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra issued a war on drugs. The government’s antidrug war had a shoot to kill policy in 2003, it resulted in more than 2,500 extrajudicial killings of suspected drug traffickers. The government denied direct involvement in 2,450 of the cases. They said that 50 people who had been killed by police were in self defence.

During this war on drugs many innocent people were killed. Such as the death of a 9 year old boy hit by bullets being sprayed by police, a 16 month old girl shot along with her mother, a pregnant women shot in front of her two young sons, an 8 year old boy who witnessed his parents being shot to death after they were returning home from a temple. This is just to name a few.

Now, a fact finding panel was set-up and they found that:

More than half the victims had no links to drugs at all.

Also this from January 2008:

The panel blamed the violence on a government “shoot-to-kill” policy based on flawed blacklists. But far from leading to the prosecutions of those involved, its findings have been buried. The outgoing interim prime minister, Surayud Chulanont, took office vowing to right Mr Thaksin’s wrongs. Yet, he said there was insufficient evidence to take legal action over the killings. It is easy to see why the tide has turned. Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, a lobbying group, says that the panel’s original report named the politicians who egged on the gunmen. But after the PPP won last month’s elections, those names were omitted.

Now, that’s a little shocking, isn’t it? The government’s original report “named politicians who had egged on gunmen” but the current government has now omitted the names in the report.

The drug trade is flourishing here in Thailand and yesterday two men were shot dead by police in the northern part of Thailand near the Burma border. They had a 10 minute gun fight with police before losing out, they ahd an estimated 8.5 million Baht worth of drugs. Also a Laotian woman was arrested at another border check point trying to smuggle in 8,000 speed tablets, she will be looking at a possible death sentence but the maggots who employed her to courier the drugs are sitting safely at their home.

Drugs will never be rid from our world, but with extremely harsh penalties it will take some of the undesirables off the streets for a good period of time, sadly I am sure that there are many lined up to fill the shoes of people who are caught and jailed everyday here in Thailand.

Some funny stories have come out of this serious matter, like a doctor turned politician who armchair diagnosed the Prime Minister, saying there was medical evidence to confirm that his glaring at reporters and ordering cake and red cordial drinks like a child reflected a low IQ and low emotional quotient.

Another interesting article conducted by different universities here in Thailand had some interesting figures. The one I liked was the support for the current Prime Minister; even after all the shenanigans that are still going on in Bangkok.

The PAD or the opposition party have been leading protests in Bangkok for a month and have been causing many problems in the areas where they are protesting. Many people had complained about the PAD protests and the PAD continually and selfishly said they were doing it for the good of the country.

The problem is that they are hurting everyday people, people doing there best to make a living. Roads were closed and people could not travel through areas which caused major traffic problems. Businesses suffered downturns as customers couldn’t get into the areas.

Now I am happy to say is that a school has sued the PAD. The PAD is camping out on the road directly outside the school. It‘s causing havoc for parents trying to drop off their children and also the non stop load speakers and speeches from the stage made it impossible for the kids to concentrate. The good news is the court agreed and has ordered the PAD to open the road and cease using loud speakers throughout school hours.

The selfish PAD leaders countered, by saying that its fight was “more important than schools and traffic”. They had decided on Monday morning to fight the school children.

That’s how pathetic and selfish the opposition leaders are. They believe interrupting a child’s learning, someone who has no idea why these people are acting so selfishly and causing all these problems.

The court has ordered the key leaders of the PAD to immediately open Rama V and Phitsanulok Roads to traffic, and to stop using any type of loudspeakers during the day, immediately!

I hope that the PAD have to pay huge amounts of compensation to not only the school who is suing but also others affected by their childish behaviour. If the people who have been affected get together and start a class action against the PAD it will give them more weight for compensation.

It will be interesting to see if the PAD adhere to the court’s order tomorrow and move off the road and also cease making noise so kids can get back to receiving their education.

HBV is a chronic liver disease that causes cirrhosis, this is a disease that which eventually leads to the victim turning yellow. Many HBV carriers end up with liver cancer. HBV ultimately leads to serious liver diseases and early death in up to 25% of the individuals.

In Thailand there are an estimated 3 million carriers, 1 in every 20 people, many don’t know they are carrying it though as they are perfectly healthy at this time. Only 15% of these people are being treated for the virus.

The reason the rate of infection is so high, is the lack of awareness. There simply isn’t enough being done by the government or its health ministers to make people aware of the virus. It is the same with safe sex education, it is non existent. You never see ads in any sort of media relating to safe sex or HBV.

Liver cancer studies have shown patients with HBV symptoms for a long time but never sought treatment or diagnosis. Cancer is the major cause of death among the Thai population with 62,000 deaths reported in 2006 alone. Most of its victims in Thailand are males.

Chronic hepatitis B is mostly prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region where 75% of the world’s 350 million carriers reside. Wow, that is a big number. 214 million carriers in the Asia Pacific region and you can leave out places like Australia and New Zealand. It is really obvious that Asian governments are not doing enough in awareness and trying to prevent the virus from being spread.

HBV can be spread easily to from a carrier, one is infected blood and also the virus can remain active on table tops, razor blades and blood stains without loosing its infectivity.

HBV is a chronic liver disease that causes cirrhosis, this is a disease that which eventually leads to the victim turning yellow. Many HBV carriers end up with liver cancer.

Why are Asian governments, when a taboo subject, usually because of the culture of the country, too afraid to publish awareness campaigns that could save lives. If they are worried about upsetting some people in the community with adds relating to safe sex, or the HBV, then so be it. A few old timers with their noses bent out of shape is better than more young people contracting diseases. If 1 life a year could be saved from an awareness campaign then the millions of Baht spent on it would be well worth it. A person’s life is worth more than money.

So this means new university students who attend orientation week are put through such tasks. Some vary from mundane tasks, humiliating acts to violent and dangerous rituals. Here some new female students had to perform simulated oral sex on male students, here in Thailand society looks down on this behaviour very badly, it is not tolerated especially being broadcast across media, if behind close doors and people don’t see or hear about it, all is fine.

In Thailand Technology schools, schools that teach trade skills usually get bad raps and for good cause, as they are the ones that commit the most serious and dangerous initiation rites. Technology school are full of kids from the wrong side of the tracks, kids who didn’t make it through school, dropped out or got terrible grades and couldn’t get into a university. I am not trying to pigeon hole these kids but they are often in the media here for all the wrong reasons.

A case in the paper 2 weeks ago you can read here, a new student had his back spray painted or branded in paint with “Industrial Engineering” stenciled on his back(picture above). This was harmless enough until three senior students set it alight, it burnt his back as you can see in the picture. Also students were forced to “dip” their genitals into chilli paste and also had their “pubic hair” burnt.

The three students are facing a 1 or 2 semester suspension, which is way too lenient. The university will pay the hospital costs of the student who suffered the burns. The family of the student is going to take the case further; I hope they sue the students and university for millions of Baht.

Here is another case: a student burnt and scarred, also this article is about Higher Education Commission (HEC) had sent letters to public and private universities nationwide warning them to strictly oversee initiation rituals.

They shouldn’t be overseeing anything, hazing should be completely banned. In western cultures hazing is also practiced, in the USA some students are branded and there have also been recorded deaths from initiations, many universities have strict rules and severe punishments for those caught performing hazing rites.

When I attended university we had orientation week which turned out to be a week long party of drinking and some silly activities, all pretty harmless. If hazing rituals could be guaranteed to be something that was harmless and practiced relatively safely, then no complaints.

The problem is that this isn’t the case for many, the rituals go too far and cause maiming, severe injuries and even mental scarring. There was a student who committed suicide in Thailand in 1995 after being humiliated in a hazing incident, another boy died after being forced to drink an excessive amount of water and the list goes on.

If the Ministry of Education set severe punishments for students and also the education institutions where these hazing rituals take place, they may be stamped out. If an institution is looking at millions of Baht in fines and the MOE revoking their education licence, they might stamp out the hazing rites completely.

Students who commit hazing rites that maim or humiliate someone should face a mandatory jail sentence, and a large fine. With such discouragements senior students may think twice about burning, humiliating or raping new students at their universities.

If you click on the link above there is an excellent paper written on why corruption is so prevalent in Thailand. The problem here in Thailand is that the very people who are meant to be enforcing laws and keeping bylaws are ignoring their job by accepting bribes and letting rich and wealthy people get richer.

It stinks, really stinks that nothing has been done by any government in power in recent years, there is always talk about cracking down on corruption but it is all talk and no action.

This is a classic example of high end corruption just this past week. A lawyer walks into the highest court in Thailand; he files a writ and then hands over to the court official a bag of pastries. The official looks in the bag and sees a lot of money! 2 million Baht, he asks “What is it for? The reply was “share it amongst yourselves”

This obviously caused a very big stir and now it has come out that Thaksin Shinawatra’s lawyer was responsible for the attempted bribe. The funny part is Mr. Thaksin started out as a policeman and rumours are well known about Thai police and accepting bribes.

It was his family’s decision to sell its shares in one of Thailand’s biggest telecom groups, Shin Corp, which led to Mr Thaksin’s downfall. Just after new laws were passed regarding tax free sales in early 2006, which netted his family and friends $1.9bn, angered many urban Thais, who complained that the Thaksin family had avoided paying tax and passed control of an important national asset to Singaporean investors.

Thaksin’s lawyer Pichit Chuenban said “Our team of lawyers was not involved in the attempt to influence the panel of judges. We feel the Supreme Court will give us justice,”

“We don’t need to do that. It was not even in our thoughts. I’m confident the fact-finding panel will find out [the truth] about the attempted-bribery allegation,” he said.

Pichit admitted that he and other lawyers had gone to the court on Tuesday, having been assigned by Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, to file a request to report to the Supreme Court.

After a short investigation a judge hasn’t seen this side of the story and has said “The action by three people, the lawyer, a court official and another man shows the intention to persuade court officials to commit wrongdoing. This action is serious and the court sentences each to six months in jail,” it said.

So they have been sentenced to 6 months jail, but who was behind the bribe? Whose money was it? The lawyer had to have been acting upon orders from some influential person. The problem is the person behind the actual bribe won’t be prosecuted by the court, I am sure they have covered their tracks well and also compensated the people who are now going to jail, well.

Corruption is a worldwide problem, especially in developing countries and Asian countries. If penalties were a lot harsher and a completely independent body that had unprecedented powers to pursue corruptors this could make a small change, maybe.

What is corruption like in your part of the world?