Plane crash in Phuket Thailand 89 died

First, I’d like to express my sympathy for those who have lost the loved ones in the plane crash in Phuket. From how I understand it, fingers are pointing back and forth between the Airline (One-To-Go Airline) camp and the airport authority camp over the misguided/misjudge landing.

According to a transcript of the conversation between the control tower and the plane, ground officials informed the Indonesian pilot, Arief Mulyadi, about wind shear at the airport but he decided to land anyway, the Air Transport Department’s director-general, Chaisak Ungsuwan, said on The Nation TV channel.

Since the majority of the passengers are foreigners (non Thai), this again likely will be a major hurt to Thai toursim. I’m all for the good good good for this country I call home but if shit like this keeps happening, visiting Thailand will not be a top choice for people (unless the rest of the world is screwed worse) .

Thaksin uses Bush’s lobbyist service (apprently not “enough” politics for him)

Now that Thaksin’s news are floating around international arena again. Lets see how all of the sudden (and months after the former PM has been ousted), the foreign media is interested in Thaksin again. (I just use the word “again” again?) Seth Mydans reported from Singapore for The New York Times:

In recent months, Mr. Thaksin has been traveling through Asia, from Hong Kong to Bali to China to Singapore to Japan, meeting with supporters and keeping his name in the newspapers at home.

He is represented in Washington by Barbour Griffith & Rogers, a prominent lobbying firm, and he has hired the public relations firm Edelman of New York to help arrange meetings with the news media.

In a telephone interview from Hong Kong, Alan VanderMolen, vice president for Asia and the Pacific at Edelman, said, “We’re working with him in his capacity as a private citizen and supporting some media outreach to support his efforts to return to Thailand.”

Who’s Barbour Griffith & Rogers? A lobbyist company for Bush administration run by Robert D Blackwill who once served as “Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Planning under President George W. Bush.”

Here’s a Lobbying Registratoin document from the US Senate:

Thaksin has recently spoke through the media in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. On a CNN program in Singapore, he said “enough is enough” when asked if he would be back in politics again.

Now the information above didn’t agree with what the man just said. If you were to quit politics, why would you try so hard to get yourself back in the news paying for all those coverages and lobbyist services? Just to get return to Thailand?

If Thaksin just wanted to be back in Thailand, the government already said that all Thaksin needs is to say he will “stop all (political) movements and express that his family wants to live in peace.” Hiring a formidable US lobbyist firm and paid for media exposure to return to Thailand? Oops, I don’t think this sounds like a man who has “enough” politics. (A minus point for you, Mr Thaksin.)

Thaksin’s lawyer still lied all over TV saying Thaksin didn’t use the service from the BG&R and only met with the “old friends” at BG&R because, he said, Thai government used the service from BG&R when Thaksin was the PM. Fact is (and confirmed by Thai officials), Thai government has never used services from BG&R before. It was Thaksin’s old company, Shin Satellite:

Acorrding to the US Senate information, Thaksin’s old company, Shin Satellite, used the service from BG&R to lobby for investment for the IP-Star satellite. And Thaksin lied, back when he just got elected the second time, saying he had never used the service. (2 minus points for you two, Mr Thaksin and Mr Lawyer.)

When the news broke here in Thailand that there’s evidence Thaksin hired BG&R, Thaksin’s lawyer changed the tone and said Thaksin only hired BG&R to reserch on some information that may have been miscarried out since the coup. Oh, you gonna change just like that? (One minus point for Thaksin’s lawyer.)

OK I agree it’s not like everybody says the truth in politics here. But a regular is a regualr, right?

So today we have a total of 4 minus points for the tagteam of Mr Thaksin and his lawyer. An image of Thai pinup girl below to wash the politics dirt off your mind:

Slowly fixing the telco connections in Taiwan

My internet is being fixed. International connections (connecting to WordPress.com, for example) will be slow at least for a good while (according to CCTV news):

Telecommunication operators and Internet users need to sit tight a little longer before service returns to normal. Authorities say damage to undersea cables caused by an earthquake off Taiwan is more serious than previously thought. And repairs are still ongoing

I’m hopeful I’ll be fast browsing international porn websites again by the next quarter.

Unplugged in Thailand (The Asia-Wide Internet Down Time)

There was an earthquake in Taiwan yesterday. Internet here in Thailand was almost disconnected from the rest of the world. Google was unreachable (except a few sub domains like image.google.com, news.google.com). Technorati and a whole horde of sites were also unreachable. CNN has an update on the news:

Nearly all Asia’s earthquake-disrupted Internet service and 80 percent of its phone service should be restored by noon (0400 GMT) Thursday, a Taiwanese official said following one of the largest telecommunications outages in years to hit Asia.

…

The 6.7-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks on Tuesday night and Wednesday caused disruptions for major telecommunications operators from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Singapore and South Korea — with ripple effects spreading beyond Asia.

Add that tiny litle Kngdom of Thailand in that list too. No time to check news on what happened in neighbour countries like Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar .. (List goes on.. sorry friends if I forgot to mention your country. Doesn’t mean we aren’t friends 🙂