I’m currently re-reading the book Very Thai, which attempts to decode Thai popular culture for the western visitor. Well worth a read, I reckon.

Thanks, and I will have fun — but I don’t leave until after we’ve gotten this election out of the way.

Yea Dogs Stil! I thought I was a home body!

How will you change? ….. hmmmm …..well, your “wordliness” probably comes from being a media junkie and all the exposure. You know what’s going on, take an active interest in it and have racked up enough years to have seen it all it before.

What will probably change is your perceptions of what you thought, your stereotypes and predispositions, once you actually experience how it is and what the people are like. I’ll be interested to read your experiences.

Safe journey and have fun!

OTOH, emerging democracies need the extra security don’t they? Not every nation aspiring to democracy has had such a fortunate record as ours.

OTOH - “freedom has a taste the protected will never know”. Those having lived through decades of “peace and prosperity”, are less inclined to recognise, let alone protest the cuts of a thousand deaths, that nibble away at the civil protections which many of our forebears have fought and died for.

Democracy - use it or lose it!

Have to admit comments like that leave me somewhat confuzzled - would you be happier if there were soldiers with automatic weapons at Australian polling places?

Actually I hope we don’t get PC voting. It opens up far, far too many new ways of hacking the vote without adding anything to the integrity of our democracy. There isn’t a problem for which it’s a solution. At least not this generation.

And yes, as I wrote “this Boeing 747-400… belongs to Thai Airways” I was thinking it probably doesn’t. I remember that kid in the UK starting an airline by bidding for carrier licenses no-one else wanted, then just chartering an aircraft once he had ticket sales. It began as a school project but ended up as a Real Live Airline.

Again, an airline is just an abstract concept, a brand.

btw. I don’t know who actually owns that plane but there’s a good chance it is an investment bank, hedge fund or even a company with a leasing arm like GE. Could even be our own aussie IB, Babcock and Brown. Often they are embedded in structured finance deals (asset backed investments). A lot of planes these days are never bought by the airline companies but simply leased for cashflow reasons. Asset ownership is a very interesting topic. Ownership is far more convoluted and unusual than anyone ever expects these days if you dig down into it. You can even buy a music artists royalty stream these days. No-one would expect their favourite band is a superannuation company!

It does sound that Thai election is not so serious, does it? Well, look back at the death tolls at the past elections. Anyway, she must have seen the loud and colourful activities of the supporters.