Harry Nicolaides

As a past resident of Thailand a number of people have asked me what I think of the Harry Nicolaides case. Nicolaides has just been jailed for 3 years for lèse majesté - specifically for insulting the Thai monarchy.   Generally I am puzzled at what has occurred as Nicolaides has worked in Thailand since around 2003 - he should clearly have understood the reverence and respect Thais place on their monarchy.  I find it difficult to believe his claim that he didn't understand the law since any foreigner working in the country finds about about this very quickly.

Moreover, it is not just a question of law. The fact is that the Thai do hold the monarchy in intense respect.  They have an almost religious significance. Almost every household in this Kingdom has pictures of His Majesty the King (King Bhumibol) and other members of the Royal Family.  There is affection and respect for the Royal Family. In addition the Monarchy are seen as unifying the nation.

Australians who are republicans or luke warm royalists might find it difficult to appreciate these attitudes but for the Thais they are genuine and heart-felt.  Thailand is a very free and easy society - I don't believe it is too much to expect foreigners to appreciate these significant Thai attitudes.

Nicolaides seems at least to have been most unwise. As some have pointed out he seems to have even sought to draw attention to his poorly-written novel through his own actions.  On the other hand life in a Thai jail is a fearful outcome and, given that he has already served some time in jail, I can only hope that His Majesty the King grants him a pardon.  This has happened in the past in other cases of lèse majesté .  I am uncertain that public protests outside of Thailand are the best way of achieving this outcome.

If you are travelling or living in Thailand you need to be respectful of the monarchy. And of course keep away from illegal drugs.

Sting: A bitter post

I have an unfortunate, rather negative approach to rock musicians like Sting. They have no obvious musical talents or intelligence and travel the world in their personal jets telling us all how to be environmentally friendly. It is accurate to describe them as hypocrites.

And look at Sting's taste in women. Look at Rita Sting's charming, unpretentious natural smile and the elegant décolletage. Note the way the cleavage neatly bunches over her high waist band-cum-broach. Was it air-touched?

They deserve each other but, surely, the world does not deserve them.

HT: the Currency Lad.

Ruddite verbosity

Julie Bishop accurately described our PM as a 'walking slogan' - 'when I travel around the country', 'can I say', 'fresh ideas', 'You know something?'. Even Labor-supporter Michelle Grattan says that Rudd speaks like a robot and provides quaint examples of Ruddspeak. But now our ear-wax munching defender of the rights of 'working families' has even annoyed the journos at Melbourne's Pravda because of his cliche-ridden verbosity:

...in full flight in Brussels last week answering a three-part question about Asian security.........

"I'll reverse engineer and start at the third and move back to the first," he began, throwing his questioner into confusion.

"On the question of security in the Asia-Pacific region, I think it's quite clear that if you look at the post-'45 history of East Asia that you see an absence of multilateral security mechanisms.

"What you saw even prior to the end of the Cold War here, of course, was the evolution of a series of confidence and security-building measures coming off the back of CSCE, OSCE and the Helsinki accords.

"This, in my judgement, helped to take some of the sharper edges off some of the harder security policy relationships which existed in this continent at that time."

On climate change:

"When it comes to making a carbon market work, when it comes to making an emissions trading scheme work, you must have a long-term target, you must have a medium-term target, hence why we are going through the Garnaut process, and it must be anchored into a system which is a capping trade system, which is globally compatible, and able to be rolled out as a global carbon market."

I am sure he wanted to add that it must address the needs of 'working families' but I assume that disappeared into the stream of Rudd's pretentiousness.

Rudd cracks silly jokes and salutes the US president but is 'only human' says Julia Gillard. I am comforted that his loyal deputy discounts the possibility that he is the reincarnation of something divine.