Looks like supermodel Kate Moss won’t be adding at least $40,000 USD to the Thai economy this year.

Supermodel Kate Moss suffered an expensive hangover, as an alcohol-fuelled festive period has reportedly forced her to cancel a USD 40,000 trip to Thailand.

The supermodel regularly jets out to the luxury Thai island of Koh Sumui at the end of each year for a sun-soaked vacation, Daily Mirror online reported.

But Moss allegedly fell ill on Christmas after an indulgent morning of eating and drinking and her rocker boyfriend Jamie Hince banned her from boarding a plane forcing her to cancel her flights, as well as those she had booked for four pals.

“Kate goes away every New Year and booked this year’s trip over four months ago. Unfortunately she rather over-indulged during the festive period, stuffing herself with turkey and all the trimmings, booze and Christmas pud,” a source said.

“After drinking champagne from 10 am onwards, she felt really ill all afternoon. Jamie told Kate in no uncertain terms that she would not be flying anywhere,” the source added.

“Annoyingly she can’t get a refund so, after forking out for more flights, she has been joking that it’s the $40,000 hangover! All things considered, she has taken it really well,” the source said.

A really interesting story in The Nation about a think tank’s recommendation that the Thai government develop a welfare system.

I do disagree when they say the market system failed in Thailand. Something that doesn’t actually exist can’t fail. When the government is nothing more than a way for people to enrich themselves and make sure others can’t compete with them then it’s not being ruled by market forces. It’s a pseudo-market where all of the rules are rigged to make sure the rich keep getting richer and the poor remain poor.

Think-tank calls for welfare state

Published on September 13, 2009

THE NATION ON SUNDAY

The country’s leading think-tank has proposed a “survival strategy” – an exit from the current economic and political distress by transforming the country into a welfare state that would help bridge opportunity and income disparity.

They believed this would address the root causes of the current political conflicts that have pushed the country to the brink.

The Thailand Development Research Institute led by TDRI chairman Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn said the institute’s research had found that disparities in income and assets was the main cause of the ongoing political conflicts that could spiral into a crisis.

He said the way out of the political crisis is to reform the economy by creating a welfare state that would help close the gap between the rich and the poor, and thus reduce social and political conflicts.

The research findings showed that the richest had 69 times more assets than the poorest. In addition to 10 per cent of the poorest people, about half the country’s population lacked job security.

The current market economic system fails to bridge economic inequality and the state also adds salt to injuries for failing to provide equal opportunity for everyone to access financial credit, knowledge, natural resources because the state represents a large business conglomerate that monopolises businesses. Only a handful group of politicians and businessmen access to business privileges and benefit from the monopoly. The current tax structure does not help reduce assets and wealth concentration.

Wealth concentration has a significant correlation to political power as the country has seen business tycoons enter political arena.

Not only does political power protect business interests and concessions. Being politicians in power means they can write regulations to expand their own political and economic base and make rules that penalise business rivals. This makes business of politicians distort the market economy. This is the case especially in a country that lacks political stability.

“The more assets they have the more the motivation for the businessmen to come to power,” Nipon said.

Nipon also quoted a research by Dr Somkiat Tangkitvanich, which found that in 2004, companies run by Shinawatra family provide 141 per cent better return than other companies.

The research also found that companies having connections with ministers enjoy 18.5 per cent higher profit than other companies.

The economics presented the research at a seminar organised by the Thai Journalist Association and the King Prachadhipok’s Institute at a Bangkok hotel.

He said a welfare state was the answer because the system could bring sustainable democracy.

While the market economy failed to provide economic equality, extreme populist policies may trigger a coup or revolt by the rich because they would be hardest hit.

Two economic crises in 13 years have made populism popular and every party is forced to adopt the policies. However populist policies bring about great public debt and a lack of fiscal transparency.

A welfare state also helps the middle-to-lower class manage their “risk” caused by fluctuating income, unexpected expenses since they do not have enough savings and liquidity or financial resource to turn to for help in times of financial troubles.

The country also has a group of people that the state and NGOs cannot extend a helping hand to such as the disabled, the homeless and the elderly if the country is still run under the current economic system, Nipon said.

Well this does explain a lot about Thaksin’s popularity.

Thais ok with corrupted government

By: BangkokPost.com
Published: 28/06/2009 at 12:02 PM

A latest survey reveals that many Thai people would accept a crooked government if it can make the country prosper and raise their standard of living.

The Abac Poll Research Centre conducted a survey on people’s well-being, involving 1,228 households in 17 provinces nationwide.

84.5 per cent viewed that corruption in businesses would not be unusual and 51.2 per cent said they would tolerate a corrupted government if it can improve the country and their well-being.

73.9 per cent agreed that living self-sufficiently can help ease the economic crisis.

On the continuing border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, 84.6 per cent wanted both sides to negotiate peacefully and jointly improve the regional economy. 4.8 per cent wanted either side to use force to solve the problem.

52.9 per cent supported the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship’s anti-government rallies under the condition that they must be held peacefully.

16.3 per cent said they would support the UDD unconditionally. 21.1 per cent opposed the group.

I ran across a slew of bad news for Thailand:

First from the Wall Street Journal is news that Ford Motor Company plans on moving its operations in Thailand to China.

Ford Motor Co. confirmed Thursday it plans to move its Asia, Pacific and Africa regional headquarters to China from Thailand.

While the move will improve management efficiency, according to the auto maker, it also places Ford in what is becoming the biggest car market in the world. China is expected to surpass the U.S. this year in car sales.

Ford didn’t disclose which city has been selected, although published reports suggest Shanghai.

Thailand will continue to serve as the regional headquarters for Ford’s operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, Ford spokeswoman Whitney Small said in a statement.

Ford Motor China reported sales of 306,306 vehicles in 2008. The company makes the Ford Fiesta and Transit in the country and sells a variety of its other products there, including Lincolns and Volvos.

The move comes five years after competitor General Motors Corp. moved its regional headquarters to Shanghai from Singapore.

This seems to run in contrast to a story run just the other week in which Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said that Ford and GM were thinking of expanding their operations in Thailand.

Ford Motor plans to make Thailand its sole overseas base in order to trim its expenses although it is concerned about the political turbulence in this country, he said.

In recent years Ford closed more than a dozen plants and cut more than 40,000 jobs. The car maker lost more than US$15 billion in 2006 and 2007. The Michigan-based company is trying to secure hundreds of millions in direct loans and loan guarantees to aid its credit line and to comply with environmental regulations in North and South America, Europe and Australia.

Despite a bankruptcy declaration on June 1 by Detroit-based General Motors, its subsidiary GM Southeast Asia Operations Ltd., including General Motors (Thailand) Ltd., announced earlier this month that its units in Thailand and elsewhere in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region would not be affected. (TNA)

Even at the time I found myself wondering how GM could possibly say that units in the region wouldn’t be affected when the company is in the midst of a gut-wrenching bankruptcy in which huge sacrifices are being made across all of their business units.

In other bad news, Thailand’s exports plunged in May.

Thailand’s exports slumped at a record pace in May and could fall by nearly a fifth this year as global demand remains weak, the Commerce Ministry said Friday.

Exports from Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy plunged 26.6 percent from a year earlier to $11.7 billion, their biggest monthly drop ever, the ministry said in a statement.

To be honest, I’m not even sure how Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij has a job. I don’t lay sole blame on him for the state of the economy but the guy seems to have a pretty worrying history of bad predictions and his forecasts for May were much cheerier than they actually ended up being. Of course, he was trying to downplay the bad performance in April when he made those predictions because he had been wrong about those too. And the April estimates were an attempt to downplay March’s bad numbers. And so on and so on.

Interesting story in The Nation about a poll which indicates that more and more Isaan women are seeking a Western husband

Bagging a farang

More than threefifths of women in the Northeast surveyed in an Isaan poll said they wanted to marry farang husbands, mainly because of their wealth, faithfulness and respect for women.

Of 484 women living in 19 northeastern provinces surฌveyed in March and April, 61 per cent said they deemed Western men rich, 53 per cent said they thought farang men were kind and respected women more than Thai men, while 16 per cent said they wanted to marry and live abroad.

Englishmen were the favourites, gaining 32 per cent of respondents’ votes, while Americans and Germans trailed behind with 21 and eight per cent respectively.

The survey found that women who were already married to foreign husbands spent a large portion (20 per cent) of their monthly income on electricity and water bills as their homes tended to be large and full of domestic appliances – another factor that attracted single, northeastern women.

The last part about electric bills seemed a little out of place but what do you expect from The Nation?

It’s one of those “Only in Thailand” sorts of headlines.

I assume that skinny prostitutes extorting vexed clients is perfectly okay.

I mean, what does her being overweight have to do with this story and why is it in the leadoff sentence?

You can thank TravelHappy for the catch.

From the Bangkok Post

Assoc Prof Sukhum Chaloeysap of Suan Dusit Poll on Saturday said that he was not surprised with the report that Ministry of Culture had found more than 1,000 websites claiming to be by university students selling sex.

The quoted price ranges from 1,500-3,000 baht or higher for very good looking female students. When the ministry personnel phoned the published phone numbers, they could contact actual women claiming to be university students.

Mr Sukhum said he had been informed by Rajabhaet Suan Dusit students that some websites featured sex workers dressed in the uniform of Suan Dusit students as well. He wanted every university to discretely investigate sex-for-sale students whether it was true and if it were true, the students should receive psychological therapy as they were also human beings.

Mr Sukhum wondered why the concerned authorities did not take action to close down the offending websites or the issue was treated as normal.

He also revealed that female students selling sex were not confined to only websites but by peer-to-peer networking. One female student sex worker could offer a network of over 20 students with pictures album to be browsed by prospective clients.

My first reaction when I read this story was to laugh at the fact that Assoc Prof Sukhum Chaloeysap wasn’t shocked by the report.  The only reason he wouldn’t be shocked is if he knew what was going on.  Yeah, sure you were “informed” about these sites by students. 

But I always wonder about the people who are shocked.  Of course the same person who is shocked by this is the same person who doesn’t quite understand that putting this information out to the press has caused “thai students selling sex” to become the number one Google search term in Thailand. Come on now, you know you googled some variation of that phrase.  Admit it.

Another interesting article in the Bangkok Post.

Many teenagers in Bangkok liked to use marijuana, followed by amphetamines and weeds, according Abac Poll for Assumption University.

The poll’s recent study on drug abusers was conducted in Bangok involving people between 12 and 65 years old from 2,452 households from January 2 to 17, 2009.

43.6 per cent of the communities taking the survey said they rarely or never watched over narcotics in their areas, while 53.6 per cent said their communities had done little or nothing to prevent illicit drugs from spreading in their areas.

Out of 4,274,757 people, 593,314 tried using narcotics, excluding alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug, followed by amphetamines, weeds, methamphetamines, inhalants, love pills, heroine, opium, ketamines, and cocaine.

As for people aged between 12 and 24 years old, 23,981 smoked marijuana in the past 30 days. In addition, 22,226 took amphetamines, 18,168 took methamphetamines, 13,347 smoked weeds and 6,795 used inhalants.

Abac Poll director Noppadon Kannika said narcotics have reemerged after the Thaksin Shinawatra administration declared war on drugs.

He called on the coalition government led by the Democrat party to put this matter on the national agenda again.

Forgetting for a moment that the last time that someone declared a war on drugs 2275 people died in three months, what the hell are the weeds that these kids are smoking?