Stuffed

Do you have something to declare, Madam?

Authorities at Bangkok’s international airport found a baby tiger cub that had been drugged and hidden among stuffed toy tigers in the suitcase of a woman flying from Thailand to Iran, an official and a wildlife protection group said Friday.

The woman, a Thai national, had checked in for her flight and her oversized bag was sent for an X-ray which showed what appeared to be a live animal inside, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring group.

The woman was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport before boarding her Sunday flight. The cub, estimated to be about 3 months old, was sent to a wildlife conservation center in Bangkok.

“The cub arrived at our unit Monday,” said Chaiyaporn Chareesaeng, head of the Wildlife Health Unit at the Department of National Parks’ Wildlife and Plant Conservation Center, where the animal was put under close supervision.

“He appeared exhausted, dehydrated and couldn’t walk, so we had to give him oxygen, water and lactation,” said Chaiyaporn. “We have monitored him closely. As of today, he looks better and can walk a little now.”- Associated Press

The smuggler faces up to a 40,000 baht fine and four years in prison. Since 911 smuggling stuff on your body or in baggage has become incredibly difficult. Some people apparently haven’t gotten the memo.

In other Tiger news, a golfer by the last name of Woods shot 65 yesterday in a PGA Tour golf tournament. IMHO I think we need more than one excellent round before saying Tiger Woods has gotten his golf game back together again.

Mad rush

Be glad you're not traveling to Thailand right now. From AP-

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thousands of bleary-eyed tourists mingled with yellow-clad protesters who brought flights to a halt at Bangkok's international airport Wednesday, dealing a major blow to Thailand's tourism industry during its peak season.

The tourism industry, which makes up 6 percent of the economy and employs about a million people, was already flagging after protesters in late August shut down airports serving popular beach resorts in Thailand's south.

With the latest unrest paralyzing the airport -- which handles about 40 million passengers a year -- during the peak tourist season, and TV networks broadcasting images of the chaos worldwide, the damage this time is likely to be more severe.

"Our main concern is to get the first flight home and never come back," said Australian newlywed Robert Grieve, 32, drinking a can of Heineken at 9 a.m. as he leaned against a vacated Thai Airways check-in counter. "I haven't even seen any staff since last night."

Fred Thierry, a Shanghai-based French executive with a printing materials company, had been stranded at the airport since 8 p.m. Tuesday.

"I have some meetings in Shanghai today," he said. "I had a big meeting with big customers."

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport was shut down Tuesday after thousands of protesters -- dressed in yellow to symbolize loyalty to Thailand's revered king -- stormed the complex. Some of them were masked and carrying metal rods.

Sounds like non-thinking hooligans to me. What could possibly be the reasoning of the people who caused the airport to close? Turists and ordinary people who work at the facility are more likely to be angry than sympathetic to any cause the protesters support.

I've experienced a airport closing once in my life. It was December 1st 1989, and I was flying to Manila Philippines to meet my wife who would a few days later be going for her embassy interview in order to immigrate to the USA. A coup attempt happened in Manila that day and I got stranded in Seoul South Korea.

One of the coup plotters is now a Senator. They have a funny way of penalizing traitors in that part of the world. Will one of the Thai protesters benefit from the chaos they caused like Gregorio Honasan has?

Update- I will give Gregorio credit. He and the 89 plotters knew how to try toppling a government, today when a so called coup attempt happens in the PI, the only threat caused is to hotel guests and a people trying to get married.

An interesting approach

Here's one way for wives to get their husbands to help with the dirty clothes. Do customers get condoms with their Tide?

Hat tip- Weird Asia News via Japundit.

Bribes Thai style

Guess what a politician is being accused of handing out to elderly male voters in that Asian country?

BANGKOK, Thailand - Vote-buying is an old practice in Thai politics, but one candidate for December's Thai election has reportedly come up with a new tactic -- handing out Viagra instead of cash.

The allegation, made Thursday by a campaign worker against a rival party, comes as rules about handing out favors to voters have become stricter than ever, barring even the distribution of free T-shirts and soft drinks.

Sayan Nopcha, a campaigner for the People's Power Party in Pathum Thai province just north of Bangkok, said the drug used to treat sexual dysfunction in men was being distributed to elderly male voters at social functions.

Viagra is supposed to be used only on a doctor's advice, but is generally available over the counter in Thailand.

"The politician is giving out Viagra to gain popularity and votes," said Sayan, a local government official whose older brother is the PPP candidate. "I think this is a very bad way of vote-buying."

He would not identify the candidate who allegedly handed out the pills.

That's unfair! How is one supposed to know if these bribes gave the candidate a boost at the poles polls.

Note- This all could be bs. It's an accusation being made by one party against the other. That doesn't mean the news can't be funny.

Linked to- Pirate's Cove, Right Voices, Rosemary, Woman Honor Thyself,

If we got room for 32.....

From Digital Chosunilbo-

The U.S. will soon admit more than 30 North Korean defectors from a Thai refugee camp. Radio Free Asia quoted aid workers helping North Korean refugees in Thailand as saying Washington has completed identity checks on 24 of them and collected fingerprints of eight others. On Oct. 12, the Bangkok office of the International Organisation for Migration began the finger printing, which will end this week.

It remains to be seen whether the 32 North Korean defectors will leave for the U.S. in one group or several. According to the aid workers, no other North Korean defectors are seeking asylum in the U.S., discouraged by the long wait of more than one year.

This is great news for the refugees and I approve of the decision to allow these men and women to immigrate to the US. It is the humanitarian thing to do.

Now tell me why this immigration travesty is allowed to continue. If this country can allow 32 refugees in, we have room for the 85 or so widows whose only crime was their husbands died before their immigration paperwork was done.

Hat tip- ROK Drop
Linked to- Big Dog, Blue Star, High Desert Wanderer, Stuck on Stupid, Third World County,

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is The Thawee Kara Anant Buddhist temple. They get the award for the following.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai Buddhist temple has been reprimanded by religious authorities for selling amulets containing the ashes of cremated infants to raise money for a plot of land and a crematorium, an official said on Tuesday.

The bodies of 28 foetuses or infants who died of natural causes were cremated legally at the temple's ageing incinerator, they said, as Thailand's craze for Jatukam Ramathep amulets promising wealth showed no signs of easing.

"It is not illegal, but it is inappropriate," an official of the local office of Buddhism told Reuters.

"The chief provincial monk has submitted a formal reprimand letter to the temple's abbot," said the official, who declined to be identified.

The Thawee Kara Anant temple in a northern Bangkok suburb was taking advantage of a craze for the amulets that promise to make their owners "super rich" or "rich without reason" sweeping across predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

In July, it made 140,000 disc-shaped amulets about the size of a coffee-cup lid from a variety of herbs and human ashes and had sold most of them, a monk at the temple said.

I'm pretty open minded so far as religion goes. What the temple did involved was superstition and nothing to do with worshiping Buddha. A dead child's ashes is not something to be sold. The local Buddhist authorities condemn what the temple is doing, and that's good enough for me. I make The Thawee Kara Anant Buddhist temple today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Linked to- Adam, Big Dog, Bright & Early, Cao, Conservative Thoughts, Dumb Ox, Mad Pigeon, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Webloggin,

Thai elections

From AFP-

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States called on Thailand's military junta to call for quick elections, following voters' approval of a new army-backed constitution.

The new charter was to replace the one the military threw out when it seized power last year and toppled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"We have seen reports of the referendum and we believe it is important that they move forward with the elections as quickly as possible," said Gonzo Gallegos, a spokesman for the US State Department.

He spoke after nearly 58 percent of Thai voters approved the constitution in a referendum Sunday.

Dr. Taylor had an interesting take on the referendum. Saying 'This is yet another example of a classic post-coup move by a military government: some sort of popular vote that can be used to validate the coup in the first place.' The vote being to put a democratic face on a government that came to power undemocratically.

Both the margin of victory and the turnout were lower than the ruling junta had predicted. The last two general elections brought about 70 percent of voters to the ballot box.

Following the coup in September 2006, the United States suspended 24 million dollars in military aid to its oldest treaty ally in Asia and also halted negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement.

Thailand's military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said after the referendum that elections would be held by year's end as pledged earlier.

Don't mind me if I remain skeptical about the Thai military relinquishing power so quickly. Hopefully events will prove me wrong.

Arrest warrants were also recently issued for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife. I don't doubt the PM and his wife were corrupt, Through personal experience I've seen corruption in Asia, almost all coming from my time in the Philippines. Whether the Thaksin was corrupt or not, that doesn't legitimize the Chulanont regime or the junta that took power last year. They are no better than the crooks who get elected to office.

Linked to- Planck's Constant, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,

Hunger strike in Thailand

From Yonhap News-

SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of North Korean defectors detained in a Thai immigration detention center have gone on a hunger strike to protest an alleged delay or decline by South Korea in the process of accepting them, activists said Wednesday.

"The South Korean government refused to issue air tickets for unknown reasons, so 100 male and 300 female North Korean defectors started a hunger strike Tuesday evening," said Lee Ho-taek, secretary general of a civic group helping defectors from the North.

Increasing numbers of North Koreans are fleeing from their impoverished country and crossing into Thailand via China, mostly on their way to South Korea.

Thai police arrested hundreds of North Korean refugees in Bangkok last year, and many of the defectors were believed to have received help from human rights organizations based mostly in South Korea.

Activists claim that 622 North Korean defectors were arrested since 2003 at the checkpoint of Mae Sai in northern Thailand. Of those, 367 entered the country illegally last year.

"About 300 female inmates are held in Thai immigration facilities that are sufficient for 100 females. The living conditions of the detention center are terrible," Lee said.

It is disgraceful that the government in Seoul can't find room for these defectors. For if they return to Pyongyang, its either death or a concentration camp. Kim Jong-Il will protest, but he's a psycho anyway. Would he go to war over 400 refugees? I think not. ROK Drop says the moral bankruptcy of the Korean government continues. I agree.

Linked to- Cao, Right Wing Nation, Third World County, Yankee Sailor,