i heard on the news this morning that residents of yala province are too afraid to leave their houses, even to go make merits even though the bhuddist lent day is coming up (july 22) because there’s a rumour going around that southern separatists are threatening to bomb public areas in the upcoming days.

and this lunchtime i was checking out the front page of bangkokrecorder.com, and there’s a little blurb on media censorship:

Thai Media Censorship
Due to the disruptive southern violence, the Thaksin administration has initiated an emergency decree, authorizing the government to censor news, open emails and even tap phones. In other words, be careful what you post, write or even say.

i don’t know what to make out of all this. i don’t know if it’s a good idea or a bad idea. or what the boundaries of the censorship will extend to, i don’t know if censorship is the answer to all the problems.

all i know is that thai government is not known for keeping boundaries. it’s almost like a lawsuit waiting to happen. thaksin tapping into his competitor’s phones. thaksin’s little helpers tapping into their competitor’s phones. and when they get called on it, it’d be like… what?! you have people in your office that are from the southern provinces, we’re just a preventitive measures.

i don’t think preventitive is a word.

but i do think that it’s absoulutely horrendous that amid all these tragedies going on in our country, the government is going to spend fucking XX million baht on promoting senseless fashion city shit (and most likely using the prime minister’s advertising agency to promote it).

i’m assuming they’re in such a rush to spend the XX million baht, because they’re probably up for a budget review, and if they don’t spend all the money they were given this year, they’d have to return the leftover and get a smaller budget for the upcoming year. it’s all very highly political, i’m definitely not an expert in it, but it is highly depressing to hear the shit that’s going on.

also from bangkokrecorder.com:

No Television after midnight?
The Energy Policy and Planning Office made recommendations to save energy, which includes stopping all TV and radio broadcasts after midnight. Bangkokrecorder supports the recommendations, in expectation of more internet users.

great. first they close the gas stations at midnight. most clubs at 1am, and some clubs at 2am. don’t sell alcohol from like 3-5pm. or someother inane time. and now they’re taking tv and radio away.

i’m no economist or anything, but is the current economy of thailand as bad, or worse than what it was after the 1997 burst? because in 1997, 1998, 1999 up till the present government, i remember having tv at night, getting gas for my car at 3am, and being able to buy a glass of relief (vodka tonic) at 4pm.