Short sighted

[webmaster]

Bangkok Post: http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_new ... ?id=119295

Thailand to promote foreign film-making

Cutting red tape will produce more 'green' foreign exchange and benefit both government and private companies, so Thailand is moving to deregulate and cut red tape for international film crews making movies here to 'harvest' more foreign exchange, Tourism and Sports Minister Suwit Yodmanee said on Thursday.

For that reason, a one-stop motion picture industry service centre will open next door to the offices of the Tourism and Sports Ministry on Bangkok's Rajdamnoern Avenue from July 12, to promote film-making by foreign operations here.

Bureaucratic procedures and regulations affecting the motion-picture industry will be shortened, and speeded up, with the help of online technology, while the authorities concerned , namely the Tourism and Sports Ministry, the Culture Ministry, the Labour Ministry and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, will provide every convenience, Mr. Suwit said.

Foreign embassies in Thailand as well as overseas tourism offices will help publicise the one-stop service centre for the film industry in this country, he said.

Thailand earned almost two billion baht in foreign currencies from companies who had come to Thailand to make 491 films -- including 201 commercials, 188 documentaries, 39 music videos, 37 TV serials and 26 feature films. Most international film makers operating in Thailand are from Japan, India and South Korea, according to Mr. Suwit. (TNA)
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Here is another fine example how short sighted the government is,

In last years the film industry managed to generate 2,000,000,000 THB by making 491 films. That makes each production worth roughly 4,000,000 THB.

This is so ridiculous, if the existing property laws were adjusted properly and the red tape they are cutting for the film industry was applied to property ownership, they could generate this amount of money every week not in years.

Note: I don't own property and not willing to buy here in Thailand due to the double standards and ownership regulations. This post is to show the incapability of Thai government's business management.

Also on another brilliant decision to improve country's education and business in the future.

The Nation

Education Ministry to scrap one laptop per child project

Published on November 27, 2006


The Education Ministry Monday vowed to scrap three populist policies floated by the previous administration.

"We will not focus too much on technology and materials. We will focus on substance," Education Minister Wijit Srisaarn said Monday.

When Thaksin Shinawatra was at the helm, his government promised to procure 250,000 computers along with Internet broadband access to state schools, and also to give a low-cost laptop for every primary student.

"We don't request budget to finance such ideas," Wijit said.

The Nation

[buksida]

This post is to show the incapability of Thai government's business management.

Absolutely, this is just another example of elitism, open the doors to the wealthy film industry but fck all those other farangs that are just trying to make a living and feed their families here.

When Thaksin Shinawatra was at the helm, his government promised to procure 250,000 computers along with Internet broadband access to state schools, and also to give a low-cost laptop for every primary student.

Heaven forbid such a notion, the internet and technology are evil, we should stamp out such things and return to living off the land.

[Wanderlust]

By the way, what is the Thai word for Luddite?

[Jockey]

Thailand is a great place for film making and I'm glad they are trying to attract that type of investment. If we followed the OP's logic Thailand would head for a socialistic welfare state.

[gaijin]

Computers and the internet are a dangerous combination. New ideas and knowledge can be disseminated to the masses! The Dear Leader Kim Jong IL has provided a good example to follow in how to restrict technology so as to limit the masses from being corrupted by evil foreign ideas.

The progressive North Korean official state ideology of Juche appears to have gained traction in Thailand. For those of you who are not familiar with this wonderful doctrine that has made North Korea into a workers' paradise beyond equal, read on.

The Juche Idea (also Juche Sasang or Chuch'e; pronounced /ʨu.ʨʰe/ in Korean, approximately "joo-cheh") is the official state ideology of North Korea and the political system based on it. Kim Jong-il has explained that the doctrine is a component part of Kimilsungism, after its founder Kim Il-sung. The core principle of the Juche ideology since the 1970s has been that "man is the master of everything and decides everything". The official biography Kim Il Sung by Baik Bong had previously described this as saying that the masters of the North Korean revolution are the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people, who must remake themselves under the leadership of the WPP. Juche literally means "main body" or "subject"; it has also been translated in North Korean sources as "independent stand" and the "spirit of self-reliance". Other sources have revealed other interpretations.


Kim Il-Sung advanced Juche as a slogan in a December 28, 1955, speech titled "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" in rejection of the policy of de-Stalinization (bureaucratic self-reform) in the Soviet Union. The Juche Idea itself gradually emerged as a systematic ideological doctrine under the political pressures of the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. The word "Juche" also began to appear in untranslated form in English-language North Korean works from around 1965. Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche in his April 14, 1965, speech “On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People’s Republic of Koreaâ€

[DawnHRD]

"We" are not following anyone's logic, Jockey. "We" are just farang that have no say in anything. The Thai government will follow any path they so choose. Maybe if we had filmmakers' budgets things might be different? Or maybe not.

[webmaster]

Thailand is a great place for film making and I'm glad they are trying to attract that type of investment. If we followed the OP's logic Thailand would head for a socialistic welfare state.

I think there is a misunderstanding about the OP. The criticism was for government's efforts to cut Thailand from outside world and development by alienating the foreign business and investors, which, if they don't revamp the existing policies, it will eventually make Thailand another North Korea.

My wish is, Thailand to be open and encourage all types of businesses to establish here within logical and supportive regulations, so that the country and their people can preserve their culture and identity but still keep the development of the country to become a world state.

I hope this is more clear now.

[Norseman]

I read you loud and clear webmaster!!
A damn good and explanatory post!!

[Jockey]

Encouraging foreign investment for film making = good

Relaxing laws pertaining to property ownership for foreigners = good

Stopping the initiative to put PCs and Broadband in school = bad (but this initiative if not handled properly could lead to more kids spending hours 'gaming' and not learning traditional lessons).

Trying to protect Thai children from the evils of the western ways - most likely impossible to do this over time - but I have to say Thai culture is well worth protecting, (such as children respecting authority and parents, taking care of family etc.) If you look at the youth culture in the UK and America it would be a disaster if Thai youth went in this direction. For this reason it is worthwhile trying to protect them from subversion, but not by turning the country into an authoritarian military state.

I think most of us would agree we are here for a reason - and the reason is we love a lot of things about this country - things worth preserving - but I understand webmaster's point also (only trying to balance it)

I have to add I suspect the scrapping of PCs and broadband into schools is a budgetary decision, but I bet they have an increased budget for military stuff!

[buksida]

Jockey, are you also in favour of the massive censorship that is going on here so those "poor Thai children" can stay protected from that evil internet thing and never grow up truly educated about anything that really happens in their country?

[Jockey]

Jockey, are you also in favour of the massive censorship that is going on here so those "poor Thai children" can stay protected from that evil internet thing and never grow up truly educated about anything that really happens in their country?

wrong thread!

Answer = no.

[Mahalo]

Note: I don't own property and not willing to buy here in Thailand due to the double standards and ownership regulations.

My goodness, opinions are SO deeply divided on this.

Basically those who have bought property justify their decision and post how rational that viewpoint is. And those who decided not to buy justify that decision and say how rational that viewpoint is. As a newcomer, what I sense is how this topic polarises people into the constant need to say which side they are on and why.

Is it true that Asian people generally avoid declaring their true opinions in this way, and if that is the case, perhaps laws and how they apply also have a certain ambivalence in Thailand? Western ways appear dogmatic in comparison. I imagine the mindset of life in Thailand as waiting, waiting, reluctant, reluctant, and then the surprise of sudden action! If that is the way Thailand works, I am worried too about property ownership, the more I look into it. The laws are Short sighted? Or Opportunistic? And who is truly being opportunistic and short sighted when it comes to property? I cannot tell yet.

I really cannot tell if some of the posts and deeper politics here are ironic or genuine. But if internet is stopped for schools as posted here, it may be because the web is a portal beyond the ways of life that are valued in Thailand. Wasn't it Thailand that never had a swimcostume round in the Miss World, or something? The internet is way beyond what is acceptable in schools, in families, but that does not mean the real reasons will be spoken for a change in policy, they may say some other reason.

[STEVE G]

Thailand, like an awful lot of countries in the southern hemisphere, consists of a majority of poor rural people ruled by a few who have all the wealth, like Europe four hundred years ago. Obviously the few want to change nothing, but in today’s world you have to accept that it is virtually impossible to restrict access to knowledge, how ever much you try to censor, people are going to find out; the global village is a reality.
Countries like Thailand are going to change, they just have to decide whether they are going to do it in a structured way or have it thrust upon them.
It is all well and good to defend a way of life if that is how you are living, but quite another to be living in a mansion in Bangkok, living a millionaire lifestyle like the rulers of Thailand do, and saying Thailand should stay as it is.
It reminds me of an article I read about the famous Marsh Arabs in Iraq, where a well meaning Westerner wanted to restore the marshes that Saddam drained. When one of the Arabs was interviewed about the idea, he said he wanted a car and a TV, not to live in a swamp, and if the Westerner thought it was such a good idea he would gladly change places with him.

[lomuamart]

It's been going on for a long time. Internet censorship.
I give up the number of times it's been reported that Thaksin's Minister of "Culture" or whatever, came back from China waxing lyrical about how the Chinese government kept the internet in line.
If people couldn't see the writing on the wall then, so be it.
The thing is that the Thai people don't care. Why not? Because they don't have access to the internet and when they do, they play games and watch soap operas. Feed them tripe and they'll eat it all up.
Meanwhile, how many web sites have been blocked?
Who knows and most importantly who cares?
Ask a Thai person.

[Jockey]

It's been going on for a long time. Internet censorship.
I give up the number of times it's been reported that Thaksin's Minister of "Culture" or whatever, came back from China waxing lyrical about how the Chinese government kept the internet in line.
If people couldn't see the writing on the wall then, so be it.
The thing is that the Thai people don't care. Why not? Because they don't have access to the internet and when they do, they play games and watch soap operas. Feed them tripe and they'll eat it all up.
Meanwhile, how many web sites have been blocked?
Who knows and most importantly who cares?
Ask a Thai person.

good post