Thoughts to think about for commercial bloggers in MY..

Reposted from: http://soloverly.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-so-loverly-is-leaving-nuffnang-how.htm

October 25, 2010

Why So Loverly is leaving Nuffnang & How clients and agencies should treat bloggers

It seemed like such a good idea. A local advertising service catering to the blogging community, bringing unity and credibility to the medium. Unfortunately, Nuffnang has proven to be manipulative, disrespectful to the community and frankly rather clueless of the value and power of the blogging medium.

As such So Loverly has removed all Nuffnang ads and will be forfeiting the money we have made on it in protest against such treatment.

This really isn't about the amounts of money we've made. It's entirely possible that if So Loverly had stooped to slightly less ethical blogging practices we could have made considerably more. Here are our reasons, based on my personal experience as a professional journalist, backed by my co-bloggers:

1. Nuffnang inherently disrespects the blogging community. By attempting to run competitions instead of campaigns - pitting one blogger against another and by attempting to ban bloggers from dealing with other social media advertisers, Nuffnang is ignoring the media's inherent value. The truth is Nuffnang would not exist without bloggers whereas we'd happily go on blogging without them.. They need to learn their place.

2. Nuffnang attempts to monopolise bloggers. Recently, Nuffnang created their "Glitterati Plus" group. To belong to it bloggers must, among other things, attend about 50% of all Nuffnang events and attend and post exclusively on Nuffnang events and advertisers. This is ridiculously deluded. The onus is on Nuffnang to create events and campaigns so compelling that bloggers WANT to be at their events. This is how the media is supposed to work. Please don't let them continue with this delusion.

3. Nuffnang dangles events as prizes and payment. Media events are money-making for the organisers and provide the sponsor with publicity. Dangling it as a prize or payment is like awarding work for work. How ridiculous is that? If I win the event as a prize I should not have to blog about it. Instead they are making money both ways. They run competitions and get paid, award an event they are presumably PAID to organise as a prize, and then reap the benefits of bloggers blogging about the event. Also, competitions pay them better than campaigns as not all participants are compensated.

4. Nuffnang assumes all Malaysian bloggers are ignorant and teenagers. Not only by the practices listed above but the promotional ideas they forward. For example, the Vaseline "Are You Moist Enough?" blogger competition which had bloggers writing "the best post" answering if they were "moist enough". Who thought this up? A bunch of horny teenagers? Not to mention the ridiculous prize - the Vaseline Are You Moist Enough Party (after which, Nuffnang tweeted that "all ther staffs are moist" [sic]). Frankly, it's the job of professional media to attend these things and we're paid to do so - it certainly isn't doled out as a "prize".

5. Nuffnang treats foreign bloggers with more respect. If you read online, they treat Australian bloggers with considerably more respect than local ones which, when you consider that Nuffnang is Malaysian, is a crying shame.

6. Nuffnang is advertorial heavy. Advertorials are really not what blogs are about. Being paid to say something is good undermines the value of blogs as word-of-mouth opinion. If So Loverly ever accepted money to say a product was good, when we didn't think so, would you ever trust us again? So Loverly has never accepted money, products or services to voice an opinion we didn't believe. Giving us a free product or service to try merely gives us the chance to try something we might not have otherwise and will usually guarantee an HONEST review. (Edited from "Nuffnang wants us to lie to you" as I felt that was more sensationalist than fair. I don't think advertorials are ethically wrong if disclosed. I do feel they are a strategic mistake however).

These statements are opinion and perhaps not fact. But I have tried to be fair and balanced in my evaluation of this social media advertising service. Do read it through and make your own decision.

So how should companies and agencies deal with bloggers? Here are 10 pieces of advice on handling Bloggers for brands, PR and media agencies:

1. Treat us with the same respect you treat professional / mainstream media.

2. If you want us to write about an event, make the event worth writing about. Believe me, we enjoy what we do or we wouldn't be doing it so when something great happens, we're bursting to share. Make something great happen.

3. Freebies and review products are not the same thing. A free gift is a GIFT and I am entitled to do whatever I wish with it. A product for review however, if accepted, promises a review after a full and fair evaluation of the product. (edit: That means giving us enough time to test the product)

4. If you want a review written in any particular fashion disclose it first before sending the product for the blogger to accept or reject.

5. Why are bad reviews good for you? Because not only is it valuable market data, it prevents girls who the product would not work for from trying it and thus damaging your brand image with them. The girls on So Loverly, and many beauty bloggers disclose our skintypes for a reason. And if a product fails to work for us we try to discern why and recommend it for other skintypes. Your brand value will actually strengthen with honest and fair reviews.

6. Be honest and don't attempt to use us.

7. Choose your blogs wisely. I am the last to say that all blogs are created equal. Each one is unique and appeals to different demographics. Read a few posts to learn if this is the blog for you.

8. Don't expect miracles. Getting your product or service reviewed by us is like having someone tell a thousand friends about a personal experience. Whether they trust us or not entirely depends on the individual. We're not a silver bullet.

9. Please don't treat us like we're idiots or children. All the bloggers on So Loverly are highly educated professionals. Same goes for the circle of beauty bloggers we hang out with. Dangling a goody bag as a prize for a review, asking us to stick products down our cleavage, or assuming we don't know basic chemistry or dermatology is insulting.

10. Be human. Social media is about people. Bloggers are people, our readers are people and this is your chance as a brand to also be a person. Don't waste this chance by attempting to be a faceless product. Talk to us and then listen.

I will be happy to talk to anyone about the opinions voiced here. Do leave a comment or send us an email!

Love,

Kahani

Happee Nu Year!!!

Wow... It's been awhile. End of last year was quite a bz time at work. Was travelling a fair bit on Dec, a week in SG for workshop and immediately to Sydney via BKK also for work. Was there to shadow our counterpart and learn from her how do they manage digital in an FMCG environment. Back in KL for a week and I was off to BKK and surroundings for Christmas and New Year.

Was in BKK for 4days, then off to Pattaya(where I only saw the toilet for 24hrs), then off to Koh Samet for NYE and got back to BKK on 1st and was back in KL on 2nd.

What did I learn from all this?

Well, BKK airport has a great massage place in the terminal, so if u got time to kill or are transiting at ridiculous times u know where to go. The Mango Tree restaurant serves quite decent Thai food. . Platinum Plaza is a great place to shop, Chatuchak is too HOT, Spending NYE at a beach is COOL, though crowded... Especially if every hotel on the beach is letting off fireworks continuosly for 20 min non-stop.

And not to forget, too much sticky rice gives u indigestion.. :(

P.S.:- pics to follow later...;)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hello World... :)

Hello world... :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hi my name is Yee Ee and its been 5 months since my last posting...

(don't be fooled by the pic, its an old pic, today i actually havin a flu and look like crap.. hmm... maybe photo with face mask also cool... :P)

...many things have happened and not happened along the way.. good and none really bad but lotsa bz times settling into the job, learning how thing work and trying to keep some sort of routine going..

i sleep earlier than i used to coz i report to work like 830-900 instead of 930-1000.. so tend to sleep earlier abit.. but u know me.. hehehhehe.. though i have to say those weeks when i goto bed at 10-12 atnight i wake up fresh as a... erm.. vegetable??flower??? just fresh la... :)

been down to cross the causeway twice since i started.. been a new experience.. challenging nonetheless but hanging in there for the ride.. progression & growth normally comes with challenge.. i think... lols..

a close buddy and some ex colleagues have now defected across the causeway to move on and experience working in another country. i wish you all well and that your soujourn day is rewarding from all angles la of course... my son & daughter (u know who u are) have really grown up (very proud of them) and sometimes i feel like a little nostalgic about our times together as a team.. i may not have been the best but it was a happy period of my life... :D

i miss my team in Prox to0.. it gets lonely here.. and i dun have my 2 EE's Angels here, my 2 princesses hv also moved on, one is planning on blissful matrimony and a "tai-tai's" life thereafter(joking oni, dear) and my russian royalette is rocking with the rest of the gang at RAPP..

i always worked in a team small or big.. but now its different dynamics though its a team. hehehhe.. new ma so hv to relearn kua.. maybe more serious but still its a very wholesome yet professional environment.. i go for baby shows and not alcohol n cigarette events.. now its hot moms n their babies n not hot chics with hot bods... lol.. well some moms are HOT TOO i have to say... lols..

been meeting alot of the good people from the industry and its good seeing them too.. its a same wavelength thing i guess.. am i suppose to go back to the agencies in the future??? are these signs??? TEN TEN TEN!!!!

Radio Silence... video killed the radio star??

Sorry for the radio silence...

Been busy at the new job. My first month.. Getting a semblance of a routine going.. And boy do I sleep early indeed nowadays... :)

So far so good. Like it here so far. Think they were on the list of "World's Best Employers in 2006".

Feels good to be workin, the extended holiday was exactly tat.. EXTTTTEEEEEEEENNNNNDDDDEEEEED!!!

More soons... :P

2 Foreign Flicks..

My Sassy Girl


Che

Recently just rewatched a favourite Korean flick & also checked out the movie "Che".

My Sassy Girl has been an all time Kollywood film which i have enjoyed watching countless times. Not watched the Hollywood adaptation yet. It actually started as an internet serial in Korea. As most Korean movies that i have enjoy there's always elements of LOVE & STOMACH CLUTCHING HUMOUR!!

Source from Wikipedia:

My Sassy Girl (엽기적인 그녀; literally, That Bizarre Girl) is a 2001 South Koreanromantic comedy film directed by Kwak Jae-yong, in which the lead protagonist's chance meeting with a drunk girl on the train changes his life. It is based on the true story told in a series of love letters written by Kim Ho-sik, a man who initially posted them on the Internet and later adapted them into a novel.

The film was extremely successful in South Korea.^[1] When My Sassy Girl was released throughout East Asia, it was well received in the entire region. An American remake, starring Jesse Bradford and Elisha Cuthbert, and directed by Yann Samuell was released in 2008.^[2] A Japanese drama adaptation with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and actress Rena Tanaka as the leads started broadcasting in April 2008.^[3]

Che was good. DO watch.. Mr. Del Toro has never let me down!! :)

Source from Wikipedia:

Che is a two-part 2008 biopic about Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro as the title character. Taking a cinéma vérité stylistic approach, the pictorial diptych comprises two merged films entitled The Argentine and Guerrilla. Each part is intentionally illustrated with differing approaches to narrative linearity, camerawork, and aspect ratios; with such duality intended to be reflective of the two military campaigns' divergent outcomes. The first part, The Argentine, focuses on the Cuban revolution from when Fidel Castro, Guevara and other revolutionaries landed on the Caribbean island to when they successfully toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista two years later. The second part, Guerilla, meanwhile focuses on Che's futile attempt to bring revolution to Bolivia and on his early demise.

Featuring: Mob's Crib

Hey peeps, i jus wanna share some cool & sometimes twistedly inspired artwork from Mob's Crib. He does visually inspiring & sometimes humourous posters of current affairs in Malaysia (political satire).

Mob yr posters of late... "NICE". My FAVE at the moment must be the RPK face mask one. Very functional.. :) The "no oral sex one"... hehehhe.. no comments..

Go here for more from Mob's Crib.

MALAYSIA INI MACAM TAK BOLEH!!!!

Was considering create a post or not today as i was surfing through MalaysiaKini.

I watched at their YouTube the latest vid on "Perak Crisis: What will happen in the next 48hrs?". Also went to Lim Kit Siang's English blog & viewed the video which was the confrontation between UMNO youth ppl & Karpal outside the Parliament. This sparked me off looking for the videos of Parliament sitting(believe they call it the HANSARD te actual physical archives) on YouTube.

Clicked the search box and keyed in "malaysia parliament" clicked "search"... Lo & behold what you see in the pic was the search results. Check it out yrself here.

As a Malaysian i "segan" seeing the 1st search result "Malaysia Parliament asking Chinese Get Out from Malaysia -

this is the rasist parliament in Malaysia(UMNO) ...", as being Chinese by ethnicity makes me "meluat" seeing all these antics.

To be fair i did a search of the below "singapore parliament", "indonesia parliament", "thailand parliament" & "phillipines parliament". However, i don't see these kinda of antics in out neighbours search results.

Seems like Malaysia is the most sensational & 3rd world if i were to jus based my personal opinion from these results.

Its a sad state of affairs we're in... Our only reprieve is watching the reality TV series titled "Politics in Malaysia"

3 GREAT @NiMe'S watched recently..

Grave of the Fireflies


The Girl Who Leapt Through Time


My Neighbour Totoro

Recently watched 3 animes worth mentions.

Currently I'm on a quest to watch the most popular/acclaimed animes of our times. I've got a list of 100 from animenfo.org

I'm slowly vetting through the titles & select those that i find interesting and will reccomend those that i find to my taste.

Grave of the Fireflies (from wikipedia)
- MUST WATCH.. I nearly cried..(not exactly my normal reaction to animes)
Taking place toward the end of World War II in Japan, Grave of the Fireflies is the tale of the relationship between two orphaned children, Seita (清太) and his younger sister Setsuko (節子). The children lose their mother in the firebombing of Kobe, and their father in service to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and as a result they are forced to try to survive amidst widespread famine and the callous indifference of their countrymen (some of whom are their own extended family members).

The movie begins in Sannomiya Station, and shows the second main character: Seita, dying from starvation there in rags. A janitor comes and digs through his things, and finds a candy tin, containing Setsuko's ashes. He throws it out, and from there springs the spirit of Setsuko, Seita and a group of fireflies. The two spirits provide narrative throughout the story. The film is, in effect, an extended flashback to Japan, at the end of World War II during the Kobe firebombings. Setsuko and Seita, the two siblings, are left to secure the house and their belongings, allowing their mother, suffering from a heart complaint to proceed to a bomb shelter. They are caught off-guard by a batch of bombs dropped in their vicinity, although they survive unscathed. Their mother, however, is caught in the air raid and dies from burn wounds. Having nowhere else to go, Setsuko and Seita go to live with their aunt, and write letters to their father. On the second day that they stay there, Seita goes out to get the left over supplies which he had buried in the ground to preserve before the bombing which killed their mother. He gives all of it to his aunt, but hides a small tin of fruit drops. This tin of fruit drops later proves a recurrent icon in the film. Following cruelty from their aunt, who gives them barely enough food, insults them and sells their mother's kimonos for rice, which she keeps for herself, Seita and Setsuko finally decide to go and live in an old, abandoned bomb shelter. Gradually, they begin to run out of rice, and Seita is forced to steal food from local farmers. When Seita is eventually caught stealing, he is unable to feed Setsuko enough before she begins to starve. In desperation, Seita removes all the money from their mother's bank account, when he learns of his father's death. He buys a large quantity of food, and rushes back to the shelter, where he finds Setsuko hallucinating. She is sucking marbles which she believes are fruit drops and offers him 'rice balls' which are really only made out of mud. Finally, she dies of starvation. Seita cremates her, using supplies donated to him by a farmer and leaves her ashes in the fruit tin, which he carries with his father's photograph, until his death on September 21, 1945.

At the end of the film, the spirits of Seita and Setsuko are seen—no longer raggedy and etiolated but healthy and well-dressed—sitting side by side as they look down on the modern-day city of Kobe.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (from wikipedia)
- The time travel & LOVE brings back some memories about a Korean movie i watched if I'm not mistaken it was called My Sassy Girl (starring Cha Tae-Hyun and (Jun Ji-hyun) .
Makoto Konno (Riisa Naka/Emily Hirst), a girl attending high school in Tokyo's shitamachi, realizes she has the power to go back in time and re-do things (called a "time-leap") when she impossibly avoids a fatal accident at a train crossing one day.

Bewildered, she consults with her aunt (Sachie Hara/Saffron Henderson) throughout the film, who then implies that she is the protagonist (Kazuko Yoshiyama) from the original novel. At first, Makoto uses her power extravagantly to avoid being tardy and to get perfect grades on tests, and even relive a single karaoke session for about ten hours. However, things begin to turn bad as she discovers how her actions can adversely affect others.

Makoto ends up using up more of her leaps to recklessly prevent undesirable situations from happening, including an awkward confession of love from her best friend Chiaki Mamiya (Takuya Ishida/Andrew Francis). Eventually she discovers a numbered tattoo on her arm which counts down with each leap. She determines that the tattoo indicates that she can only leap through time a limited number of times. With only a few time leaps left, she attempts to make things right for everyone, but impulsively uses her final leap to prevent a phone call from Chiaki asking if she knows about time-leaping. As a result, she is unable to prevent her friend Kōsuke Tsuda (Mitsutaka Itakura/Alex Zahara) and his girlfriend from being killed in the accident at the train crossing that Makoto was originally involved in. As Makoto watches the accident in horror, time suddenly stops.

Chiaki reveals that he is a traveller from the future and leapt through time in order to see a painting being restored by Makoto's aunt, as it has been destroyed in the future. While walking in the frozen city, Chiaki hints that his original era occurs after a world wide catastrophe decimates mankind. He then reveals that he has used his final leap to prevent Kōsuke's accident and has stopped time only to explain to Makoto what the consequences will be. Having revealed his origins and the source of the item that allowed Makoto to leap through time, and being unable to return to his time period, Chiaki must disappear. Makoto realizes too late that she loves him as well.

True to his words, Chiaki disappears when time begins again and Makoto is upset. As she tries to come to terms with losing him, she discovers that Chiaki's time-leap had inadvertently restored one time-leap to her: Chiaki had leapt back to before Makoto used her last leap. Makoto now leaps to the moment when she gained her powers, at which point Chiaki still has one remaining time-leap. She reveals everything that he told her in the future concerning who he is, the ability to leap through time, and his reasons for extending his stay in her time frame. Shortly before returning to his time period, Chiaki says he will wait for her in the future and Makoto replies that she will run towards it.

My Neighbour Totoro (from wikipedia)
- Enjoyable watch even for older children like me.. ;)
In 1958, a university professor and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, move into an old house in rural Japan to be closer to the hospital where his wife is recovering from an illness. The daughters find that the house is inhabited by tiny animated dust creatures called soot sprites — small house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. When the girls become comfortable in their new house and laugh with their father, the soot spirits leave.

While she is playing outside one day, the younger daughter, Mei, sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass. She follows the ears under the house where she discovers two small magical creatures, who lead her through a briar patch, and into the hollow of a large Camphor Laurel tree. She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars she interprets as "Totoro". Her father later tells her that this is the "keeper of the forest".

One rainy night the girls are waiting for their father's bus and grow worried when he does not arrive on the bus they expect him on. As they wait, Mei eventually falls asleep on Satsuki's back and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. He only has a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken along for her father. Totoro is delighted at both the shelter and the sounds made upon it by falling raindrops. In return he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds. A bus-shaped giant cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it, taking the umbrella. Shortly after, their father’s bus arrives.

The girls plant the seeds. A few days later they awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his two miniature colleagues engaged in a ritual dance around the planted nuts and seeds. The girls join in, whereupon the seeds sprout and then grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes his colleagues and the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have indeed sprouted.

Mei, believing her mother's condition has worsened, sets off on foot to the hospital and gets lost. Desperate to find her sister, Satsuki returns to the camphor laurel tree and pleads for Totoro's help. Delighted to be of assistance, he summons the Catbus, which rescues Mei, then whisks her and Satsuki over the countryside to see their mother in the hospital. The girls perch in a tree outside of the hospital to discover that she is doing well. They deliver an ear of corn that Mei believes will speed her mother's recovery, and then return home on the Catbus. When the Catbus departs, it fades away from the girls' sight.

The closing credits show Mei and Satsuki's mother returning home and feature scenes of Satsuki and Mei playing with other human children, with Totoro and his friends as unseen observers.

A lazy afternoon @GaN's & 2 movies later!!

TWO interesting movies to watch..




Enjoysss!!! :D

IN support of Eli our lovely Selangor state EXCO & ADUN!!!

Courtesy of Mob's Crib

ELI MY HEART GOES OUT TO YOU!!!!

On the Perak FROG crisis!!!

ScreenCap of the game

I'm a Generation X'er tried & true... Those of you , you know who u are. U had the pleasure of having played with PC's that run on tape drive & TV, booting up in MS-DOS, 286-386 machines with 5.25" floppys & 4GB HDD's, What Windows???, moonbugs, xenon, leisure suite larry, police quest, kings quest, decathlon, karateka, bushido, etc, etc...

Anyways before i veer further off topic, i would jus like for us to remember an old game called FROGGER!!! Reflect on this game and maybe it will put some perspective on the frog situation in the Silver state... LOL..

For those who dunno about the gameplay, its a frog trying to cross the street & river while avoiding moving traffic & obstacles... if the frog gets hit or lands on the wrong place u die lo!!!

Of temples, tea & sakura..

A little town fair for the Tea Festival, sale of tea & hilltribe cultural shows.

My apologies for not updating my blog for quite awhile. I have been away & busy with looking for work and also enjoying the loooooooong holidays...

For NYE2008 i spent it at Mae Sa Long, a little hill village about 45minutes from Chiang Rai, Thailand. A different kinda NYE, as opposed to goin clubbin or reveling in the city. We spent NYE having a bbq & drinks in the little bamboo shed/platform right up front Shiao Shung & CheChe's house. Of course not to forget my favourite NYE activity setting off lanterns (though i think i was not sober enough to remember my camera at that time).. :D

Mae Sa Long was COLD!!! I think in the evenings it'd be like 16 degrees celsius. This area is largely populated by Chinese community, mostly descendants of the Kuomintang army from the time when the the Kuomintang & Communist were fighting in China. U still see those caligraphy words stuck on the wooden plank doors & red cloths hanging over the doorway.

The Thai Palace i believe had launched a project in this area to help the ppl residing here change their maincrop from poppy to chinese tea. Today this is a region with numerous tea plantations, surprisingly(or not) they grow chinese tea for export markets like Taiwan. Don't be surprised if u chance upon ppl speakin mandarin to each other... ;-)

Merry Christmas Happy New Year!!

Wishing u season greetings n a many blessings for the new year!!

These KiWi Guys are BRILLIANT!!!

Flight of the Conchords intertitle from Wikipedia

Lately been checking "Flight of the Conchords"!!!

F@#KIN BRILLIANT!!!

From Wikipedia :
Flight of the Conchords is an Emmy Award-nominated ^[1] television comedy series that follows the adventures of the Flight of the Conchords, a folk duo from New Zealand, as its members seek fame and success in New York City. The show portrays a fictionalized version of the real-life duo, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who play themselves.

Kudos to the Kiwis. Have to say that the Kiwis have always been rather unique to me, possibily because i was there at an impressionable age (NOT). But these 2 guys really show creativity unique to the Kiwis. Well, just my personal opinion.

But i shall say no more.. CHECK THEM OUT!!

More here..

WOULD LOVE 1 OF THIS FER CHRISTMAS!!!

Running out of Christmas ideas???

Check this out wei!!! Full car sim setup..
Puts the MOMO Logitech steering to shame... hehehhee..

A friend shared this with me today. Pretty darn cool!!! :)

Original link from for the Apex SC830 for more pics, brought to u by the good people at SimCraft.

My Favourite Animes...

The father of them all..

A list of my all time favourite animes as below.

Series:
1. Ghost In The Shell SAC I
2. Ghost In The Shell SAC II
3. Ruroni Kenshin/Samurai X + OVA's
4. Samurai Champloo
5. Trinity Blood
6. Macross/Mospeada :)

Movies/OVA's
1. Appleseed I & II
2. Ghost In The Shell I (Innocence sucked)
3. Akira
4. Gundam OVA's
5. Macross

Currently watching:
1. Bleach
2. Naruto Shippuuden Chronicles

Have i told you Lately..

Lately i have not been updating my blog, not inspired...

Lately i've been going for interviews, waiting for replies & offers & 2nd round interviews..

Lately i've been feeling depressed, probably because this is one of the downest i've been in the holiday season.

Lately i've not celebrated my 31'st, dunno jus wasn't in the mood...

Lately i've been learning mandarin, need to work harder on this...

Lately i've been having a tough streak, where things don't run as smoothly as they normally do..

Lately, projects have been problematic & hard to close..

Lately i've been feeling alone...

Latest News & Political Analysis of Thailand..

Asia Sentinel
Tuesday, 02 December 2008

Thailand and the Coup for the Rich
Written by Giles Ji Ungpakorn

The constitutional courts, as expected, disband a democratically
elected party

Thailand’s Constitutional Courts dissolved the country’s
democratically elected governing party for the second time Tuesday,
forcing the government to resign. This follows the refusal of the
Armed Forces and the Police to follow government instructions to clear
the two international airports blocked by armed People’s Alliance for
Democracy fascists.

The royalist alliance against the government is made up of the fascist
PAD, the military, the police, the judiciary, the mainstream media,
the "Democrat Party," most middle class academics and The Queen. They
are all behind this judicial coup. A leading Democrat Party MP is one
of the leaders of the illegal blockade of Bangkok’s two airports.

The Yellow-shirted PAD have armed guards which have repeatedly shot at
opponents. They constantly use violence and now demand "joint patrols"
with the police. The PAD has constantly broken the law, and yet they
are untouchable. On the rare occasion when PAD leaders are forced to
attend court, they are given bail and allowed to go back and commit
the same crimes over and over again.

The majority of the Thai population, who are poor, face a double
whammy. First, the elite royalists are doing everything possible to
take away their basic democratic rights. Secondly, mass job losses are
occurring among workers in the tourist industry as a result of the
airport blockade. Jobs in agriculture and electronics are also
affected and of course we are faced with the serious world economic
crisis. The elites do not care if the Thai economy is trashed and
Thailand returns to a poor third world nation. In such nations the
elites continue to live the same lives as the rich in the developed
world. The PAD protestors are middle-class extremists who do not have
to go to work, hence their prolonged protests.

We are constantly told by the conservatives that the poor are too
stupid to deserve the right to vote. The army staged a coup in 2006
and rewrote the constitution in order to reduce the democratic space
and also to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing. The electorate have
repeatedly voted in overwhelming numbers for the government party,
whether it be Thai Rak Thai, which brought the former Prime Minister,
Thaksin Shinawatra, or its successor, Peoples Power Party. Now
People’s Power politicians are moving to the new Pua Thai Party. Will
a fair election be held? Or will the elites engineer a "fix" to make
sure that their people win?


What is the root cause of this crisis?
The root cause of this crisis is not the corruption of the Thaksin
government in the past. It isn't about vote-buying, good governance,
civil rights or the rule of law. Politicians of all parties, including
the Democrats, are known to buy votes. The elites, whether
politicians, civil servants or the military, have a history of gross
corruption. Even when they don't break the law, they have become rich
on the backs of Thai workers and small farmers. The Democrat Party is
stuffed with such millionaires.

Ironically, the Thai Rak Thai party was helping to reduce the
importance of vote-buying because it was the first party in decades to
have real policies which were beneficial to the poor. They introduced
a universal health care scheme and Keynesian village funds. People
voted on the basis of such policies. The Democrats and the
conservative elites hate the alliance between Thaksin's business party
and the poor. They hate the idea that a government was using public
funds to improve the lives of the poor. This is why the
anti-government alliance is against democracy. The PAD have suggested
reducing the number of elected MPs and a recipe to do away with the
principle of "one person one vote". So the root cause of the problem
is the conservative elite's contempt for the poor and their contempt
for democracy. They are prepared to break the law when it suits them.

What is the solution?
Business leaders and the royalist elites are demanding an un-elected
national government. The Democrat Party leader has "volunteered" to
provide the Prime Minister! Such a national government would complete
the judicial coup for the rich. It would be a victory for the PAD and
a defeat for the electorate.

The Red Shirts, who are organized by government politicians, are the
only hope for Thai democracy. They have now become a genuine
pro-democracy mass movement of the poor. This is what is meant by
"civil society", not the PAD fascists. Thai academia fails to grasp
this basic fact. But the Red Shirts are not a pure force. Many have
illusions about ex-Prime Minister Thaksin. They overlook his gross
abuse of human rights in the south and the war on drugs, in which
hundreds of people were shot as drug dealers without arrest, trial or
proof. But these human rights issues are also totally ignored by the
PAD and their friends.

Throughout this three-year crisis, the majority of the Thai NGO
movement (especially the NGO-Coordinating Committee) has failed to
support democracy. Many welcomed the 2006 military coup. Many
supported the military constitution. Now they are either silent or are
echoing the demands of the army chief, who said last week that the
government should resign.

At no point have they attempted to build a pro-democracy social
movement. Many believe that the poor are "uneducated and lack enough
information to vote". The honorable examples are the Midnight
University in Chiang-Mai, some sections of the labour movement, groups
of new generation NGO activists and Turn Left.

The economic crisis
Millions of jobs are being destroyed by the world economic crisis and
the unrest in Thai society. People are being driven back into poverty.
Yet the Democrat Party, the military, the conservative elites and the
mainstream NGO movement do not have a clue or do not care one jot
about the necessary policies to defend the living standards of the
poor. They chant about the King's Sufficiency Economy and the need for
fiscal discipline. In other words, the poor must trim their spending
and learn to live with their poverty while the rich continue to live
in luxury.

We desperately need massive government spending on infrastructure, job
protection and a serious expansion of welfare. The value-added tax
should be reduced or abolished and higher direct taxes should be
levied on all the rich elites without exception. The bloated military
budget should be cut. Wages should be raised among workers. Poor
farmers should be protected. This will only happen in a climate of
genuine democracy. This is why we must oppose this second "coup for
the rich".

Giles Ji Ungpakorn is an associate professor at the Faculty of
Political Science, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He regularly
comments on Thai affairs.
http://www.asiasentinel.com/

Max Payne abit of a pain la...

Just recently checked out the movie Max Payne starring Mark Wahlberg, Beau Bridges, Mila Kunis, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges , Chris O'Donnell, Nelly Furtado, Kate Burton , Donal Logue, Amaury Nolasco , Olga Kurylenko & Marianthi Evans.

Movie is based on the game which introduced the "bullet time" Matrix like sequences and Mark Wahlberg, so i considered checking it out. Well personally i was struggling to keep my eyes open to get through the movie.

But Olga (best known for being the Bond girl in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace) played Natasha Sax , Mona's sister, who was the ever typical hot & sexy eastern european/russian tease... ;)

Would only reccomend if its a really stormy sunday night with mothing better to do.. *yAwnZzzz*