Review of Kathryn Clark’s Grave Markers, Bird Feathers and the Aegean Sea

An unnamed woman, apparently the author herself, recounts the story of a number of years in her life and the lives of her close family members. The starting point is the discovery of the cancer that will take her father’s life and this is soon followed by a different form of cancer for her husband. The third death will be that of her mother, the aftermath of which provides the conclusion of the book. The effects of these traumatic events on the narrator and her children provide the framework of the narrative and the action skips from suburban America to the Greek islands that do so much to inform the philosophical and poetic conclusions that the narrator reaches.

Read the full review here.

GLB: Khun Supoj Claims Evidence Will Exonerate Him

It has been quiet in 64 this afternoon but yesterday and this morning some helpful chaps were around to help dismantle some of the protective kit being used to protect Khun Supoj’s house from possible flood – he himself has hit back today to claim that he is collecting evidence, which he does not wish to reveal at the current time, which will clear his name.

Interestingly, he has begun to resign from high profile public sector board membership which I noted the other day was characteristic of Thai society. The board membership of a public sector body offers an opportunity for different members to combine their different networks and thereby increase their strength overall (of course, they may not always wish to join up with certain other people).

There are several different types of network which are active in Thailand. The first type to consider is the regional network (since this is essentially what the Bhumjaithai faction is) – in this, at various geographical levels (e.g. village, tambon, provincial) an important person (chao por) distributes resources and develops relationships of asymmetric power but mutual dependency as the leading person strengthens a network that, like Maoist strategy, replaces the existing state structures.

The second form of network is organizational and ranges from the weak (e.g. at schools and universities) to rather stronger ones (e.g. at the military level). This kind of network can become sufficiently strong that, in some organizations (or across different organizations) it subverts the official lines of communication and orders and replaces it, at least on some occasions, with those that represent the interest of the network. This has been seen in various of the military coups that the Thai people have suffered.

The third form of network is class-based: specifically, it is the upper class (other classes are not permitted to obtain power and hence are not relevatn here) – members of it come into contact with each other regularly in educational, social and civil societal institutions. In addition to name, reputation and deportment, issues of ‘taste’ and ‘refinement’ have been invented and reproduced in different forms so that it can be determined immediately who is a member, who might be admitted with suitable guarantees and who is forever destined to be an outsider.

So, all of these three types of network are united in the characteristic Thai system of public sector cross-board membership (private sector networks are quite separate). This provides the benefit that different types of network can be combined, when those representing them are amenable.

In the current case, then (based on the anecdotal evidence that has been provided in the public domain), a regional network (Bhumjaithai) is united with an organizational network (Ministry of Transportation) and any other networks represented by the other members of the boards – this is just the hypothesis with which I am working at the moment.

Since – it is alleged – that bribes have been involved in various governmental contracts, it is evident that private sector networks are excluded from the ruling network system. This would help explain the 2006 events, of course.

Okhna Mong Port Co. Ltd.

I am off on Wednesday morning for my annual trip to New Delhi for the Case Management Conference, which this year is based at Greater Noida. The abstract is below:

Okhna Mong Port Co. Ltd.

Type of Case: Teaching

Focus of Case: the business-government relationship, globalization of emerging economies, ethics of investment

Abstract: Okhna Mong Port Co. Ltd. is part of Cambodia’s Mong Reththy Group and was created in 2002 to develop some 64 hectares of land in the southwest of the country as a private sector port, integrated with special economic zone, resort area and other facilities. Cambodia has been moving towards the factory age or the East Asian Economic Model, in which low labour costs provide competitiveness for large-scale manufacturing of mostly low value-added products primarily aimed at exporting. Clearly, an efficient port and attendant infrastructure will be of great assistance in promoting industrialization of the country. Further, infrastructure is an enabling technology that should provide benefits to anyone who wishes to take advantage of it, from individuals right up to the largest corporations. However, there is some concern that making this vital part of the country’ economic development solely part of the private sector is a form of the new enclosure of the commons and that, since it will reduce the role and effectiveness of state agencies within its confines, workers’ rights and protections will be compromised. This case study uses thick description of the Cambodian market, in the context of Mekong Region industrialisation more generally, to analyse the extent to which infrastructure provision is likely to benefit the country as a whole, the equitable distribution of new income opportunities and the social development of the country. Students will be asked to consider whether the existing public-private relationship may be considered to be optimal and what alternatives might be suggested. Additionally, they will be encouraged to debate the various routes to economic development and which of these should be chosen both by Cambodia and by other countries facing the same developmental goals.

Keywords: Cambodia, infrastructure, corruption, economic development, government

I will probably be out of contact for a few days during the conference but will be back home on Sunday. Monday is a holiday and Father’s Day (it’s the King’s Birthday) and back in the office on Tuesday.

Incidentally, sometimes it is spelt ‘Okhna’ and sometimes ‘Oknha.’

Review of Davies’ The Eerie Silence

The Fermi Paradox has it that it must be very unlikely that there is alien intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy because, if there were, then where is it? Why can we not find it or see it? Paul Davies, the author of this fascinating book, is well-placed as the head of the SETI Post Detection group, to explain why this is and whether there might be life after all.

Read the full review here.

Review of Erikson’s Crack’d Pot Trail

In the second book of tales about the vile necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (who actually make only a very fleeting appearance in this book), Steven Erikson has written a very funny novella satirizing the world of art and criticism, as well as subverting various elements of the genre of fantasy in which he sets his work.

Read the full review here.

Operational Competitiveness Development in Turbulent Business Environment: A Case Study in Thailand Export Industry

Announcing: Nithisathian, Kittichok, John Walsh, Josu Takala, Yang Liu and Qian Wu, “Operational Competitiveness Development in Turbulent Business Environment: A Case Study in Thailand Export Industry,” paper presented at the 12th Management International Conference (Portorož, Slovenia: November, 2011).

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze strategy towards the Thailand production service industry. Various tools are applied in the paper, including five force analysis, diamond of the nation, and the sense and respond method with CFI models. The analysis results show that the Thai fine gold jewellery exporter should concentrate on the value added and customer requirement; focus on product development, networking, cooperation between Thai organizers and lobbying; pay more attention to marketing orientation than personal judgment. The benefit of combining five force and the diamond of the nation model to analyse the strategic condition can be proved in this study.

The GLB, Politics and Corruption

The story with the Great Ladprao Burglary (GLB) has moved on to the political and corruption aspects, so it is safe for me to talk about now – you might note that yesterday a 60 year old man was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment (probably in solitary confinement) because some of the country’s thousands of censors claimed that four SMS messages were sent from his mobile telephone to an aide of the bloodstained former PM Abisit without any additional evidence under the lese majeste law.

The Perm Sec who was robbed, Khun Supoj Saplom, is closely linked with the Bhumjaithai faction whose MPs (allegedly) accepted forty million baht in cash each from army personnel using money from the public purse to  switch allegiance from the people who voted for them to the military’s candidates, the Democrat Party. Allegedly.

It always seemed likely that this decision would not be forgotten – there are various reasons; not the least of which is the malicious cold-blooded murder by the army to date unexplained deaths of scores of pro-democracy demonstrators last year and the disappearances of dozens of others  related incidents. I may have mentioned this dozens of times before (but most of the time I have practiced the self-censorship famous for Thailand – in fact, much of the Mekong Region).

Well, it is kicking off now: the Perm Sec is accused of hosting the bribe money offered for awarding the contracts for expansion of the MRTA, on the board of which he sits (I mentioned this the other day – perspicacious readers will have understood what I was suggesting then) and Khun Chalerm (no stranger to controversy himself) is the designated attack person in this case.

At the Thai Studies Conference this year, the leading Prof in this field Craig Reynolds observed that, having dismissed Marxism and Buddhism as the means of understanding Thai society, had now determined that the real field of study was risk management. From my humble position, I would suggest that he has a point.

The Great Ladprao Burglary and State Governance

One of the problems with Thailand’s political system as a whole is that a small number of people get to share numerous important public positions, which makes them incredibly powerful through being able to distribute resources and influence. The victim of the Great Ladprao Burglary, Perm Sec of the Ministry of Transport Supoj Saplom (other spellings are available) is also on the board of Thai Airways International and the Mass Rapid Transit Authority and was due to be nominated for Chair of the Board of the State Railway of Thailand (no doubt he holds other positions as well).

It is understandable why such people get invited onto boards – they are the ones who can (f they wish) get things done or stop things getting done. However, a civil servant in Thailand is both unelected and largely unaccountable and policies prepared by the democratically elected government (in the brief periods we are permitted to have one) can be blocked or else can be pushed though only with considerations for committee members.

It is not a good place to start from and powerful interests would aim to stop any changes occurring – the Thai media disgracefully follows the establishment line that any attempt to change is ‘undermining checks and balances’ or attempts to favour certain individuals or groups.

Perhaps the best place to start would be through providing (no doubt against their will) transparency concerning the activities of leading people. There also needs to be some kind of public campaign to educate people that multiple posts does not necessarily indicate the wisdom, virtue and competence of the people involved.

Poverty: Addressing Development Needs

The problems and extent of poverty are quite well-known – what is less evident  is what to do about it. There are two broad tasks involved. The first is related  to disaster mitigation or emergency aid: when people are starving or suffering  from a natural disaster, the urgent need  is to deliver food, blankets, medicine and so forth.

Read the full article here.

Our Neighbour Kept Millions or Billions of Baht at Home in Bags

The latest from the great Ladprao burglary of our near neighbour the Perm Sec of the Ministry of Transport Supoj Saplom is that police now seem to believe that some 100 million baht in cash was stolen from his home (everyone seems to be away from that home now and presumably have taken any liquid assets with them).

So, on the day he was celebrating his daughter’s wedding, Khun Supoj seems to have come a cropper that will blight the rest of his life – the NACC (National Anti-Corruption Commission) has begun an investigation and, given how long these things seem to take in Thailand. he can expect to be under suspicion for many years to come.

People find it very easy to believe the worst – the large house, the fact that the Transport Ministry is considered an ‘A Grade Ministry’ in terms of revenue opportunities and the poor states of transportation in the country (as the floods recede, there seem to be more potholes in the roads, for example) all seem to provide compelling evidence that something must be wrong. Of course, there have been so many scandals over the years (some genuine scandals and some manufactured by certain invisible hands) that it seems inevitable that everyone is at it.

This is one of the causes and the effects of a low trust society such as we have here. We are in chicken-egg territory here to some extent but low trust reduces the possibilities of developing the social solidarity necessary for real change in the country.