middle-east

Recent Articles

• Thailand PM sacked, party banned… what next?

  02 December 2008 in Politics, Thailand

  News is just coming through that Thailand’s Constitutional Court has disbanded the ruling People Power Party for electoral fraud, and banned prime minister Somchai Wongsawat (สมชาย วงศ์สวัสดิ์) and 35 others on the party’s executive from politics for 5 years.
  What happens next is up to the Red Shirts, the pro-Thaksin loyalists. As I explained in my [...]

• Do we really care about our kids?

  01 December 2008 in Internet, Politics

  Despite all the rhetoric about “protecting our children” and “children are the future”, our governments seem determined to prevent them preparing for the real future. Take NSW schools minister Verity Firth…
  This morning the Sydney Morning Herald tells us the NSW government will receive $285M for new laptops — which will then be blocked from accessing [...]

• Thailand’s political crisis: an introduction

  29 November 2008 in Internet, Politics, Thailand

  Thailand’s long-simmering political crisis finally made it onto Western TVs this week when protesters closed Bangkok’s international airport, disrupting [shock horror] Western tourists.
  The essence is that the People’s Alliance for Democracy, the guys in the yellow shirts who’ve shut down the airport, want prime minister Somchai Wongsawat (สมชาย วงศ์สวัสดิ์) to resign. They reckon he’s the [...]

• Links for 28 November 2008

  29 November 2008 in Daily Links

  Here are the web links I’ve found for 28 November 2008, posted automatically with the aid of badgers.

  Conroy responds to Ludlum. Finally. | Public Polity: A blog post quoting Senator Stephen Conroy’s eventual response to Greens Senator Scott Ludlam’s questions about Internet censorship plans. I haven’t had time to analyse it or link back to [...]

• Still Cold

  27 November 2008 in Notes, Personal, Stilgherrian Live

  Our dear friends the rhinovirus continue to make their presence known. So there’s no Stilgherrian Live tonight and no follow-up to today’s Internet censorship forum — though the liveblog material is still there. My promised backgrounder on Thai politics will just have to wait too, sorry.