Thailand’s prime minister pauses briefly and swallows hard as he addresses the question few of his compatriots dare contemplate: life without King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch.
“I am under no illusion — it will be a very difficult time for all of us,” says Abhisit Vejjajiva, who in December patched together a multiparty coalition government and became troubled Thailand’s fifth prime minister in four years.
American-born King Bhumibol, 81, whom many Thais regard as semi-divine, ascended the lotus throne in 1946, when Harry Truman was in the White House and Josef Stalin ruled the former Soviet Union. He has been the lone stabilizing presence in a land that has been rocked by 15 successful or attempted coups d’etat, 16 different constitutions and 27 changes of prime minister during his reign. The stern-faced monarch with few official powers but much influence has at least twice intervened to halt bloodletting.
Thailand’s need for stability has grown more acute with the emergence of a seemingly unbridgeable, color-coded societal chasm between wealthier city dwellers and those that live in the countryside — warring factions that use symbolic hues to literally wear their allegiances on their sleeves.
On one side: the urban elite, based largely in Bangkok, who have adopted the king’s traditional color of yellow. On the other: the majority rural poor, who pledge equal loyalty to the king yet sport red shirts to show their support for billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist prime minister overthrown in a 2006 coup.
While newspapers may be folding, all is not so cut and dried on the Net when it comes to filling the advertising void. Check out what one net guru thinks.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiva’s critique of the “danger” of mixing fact and opinion together in the form of “news” by the so-called “television news chatterers” is evidently being completely ignored, not only by the numerous practitioners but also by professional associations theoretically enforcing ethical standards upon such people, and the consumers themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s really a little bit pathetic how Bob Lefsetz keeps writing about music and the music industry in his own time as if it were his own time. Bob and the gang were ‘current’ for about five years 25 years ago. I mean how dated did Buddy Holly become almost immediately when Led Zeppelin II came out? Read the rest of this entry »
Paying attention isn’t a simple act of self-discipline, it’s a cognitive ability with deep neurobiological roots — and these says Maggie Jackson, are in danger of dying. In Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, Jackson explores the effects of “our high-speed, overloaded, split-focus and even cybercentric society” on attention. It’s not a pretty picture: a never-ending stream of phone calls, e-mails, instant messages, text messages and tweets is part of an institutionalized culture of interruption, and makes it hard to concentrate and think creatively. Read the rest of this entry »
So just where is Khao San Road, an alleged hippy haven of cheap rooms, traders of dreams, night- and daymarkets and wall-to-wall marijuana?
by ALEX PITHIE
I
first came to Bangkok 25 years ago and they told me then that ‘it’s a must-see’. It was…kinda. Heaving I guessed with visa fugitives, pimps, hustlers, on-the-run scam artists, losers, dope peddlers, Congolese drug mules, randy college kids finding themselves with or without a condom, off-duty cops, on-duty cops, Euro trash playing pool, thieves marking time, misplaced soccer dickheads saving up for more lager, and tanned Jews forcing prices down and the goyem out. Read the rest of this entry »
The decline of newspaper popularity has been attributed to the rise of the internet and the proliferation of web-based content. With an extremely low barrier of entry and variable cost, the web allows anyone with a computer to become an independent publisher: As a result, the amount and variety of content online far exceeds print publications in most fields.
The best way to think about new media, I have learned, is to look at the recent past and at the trends that are here now and seemingly have staying power. Apple CEO Steve Jobs once famously said “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” He’s right. With that in mind, there are three trends that are likely to shape things over the next four years. Read the rest of this entry »
A few months ago we ran a graphic from Kansas-based anthropologist Michael Wesch on his take on Web 2.0 vis-a-vis stuff in the pre-digital age. Now he has completed (and filmed) a presentation to the Library of Congress about why 2.0 matters and how far out it all is. Puzzled by the impact of Youtube and stuff? Spend an hour with Mike and it might just make sense again and put you five years ahead of the loop.
Posted by withoutacitywall 
Posted by withoutacitywall 
Posted by withoutacitywall 