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"The Rounds" Thursday, June 19, 2003
Mekhong Kurt * * * * * * * * * * Good New from the W.H.O. About the SARS "Epidemic" Yesterday's papers here carried the exciting news that the World Health Organization both declared Taiwan a safe destination now and announced SARS is receding. Officials noted that the battle is far from over, though they did mention -- pointedly, even if that wasn't there intent -- the low number of deaths and infections not resulting in death globally, the former number being one *everyone| needs to remember: about 800 deaths TOTAL. Now those who delayed your business or holiday trips to Asia can breathe easy and take those trips. I guarantee you the whole "epidemic" was blown *way* out of all proportion. I can understand the media reaction in the early days, especially when it became clear Chinese authorities had covered up the emergence of the rarely fatl syndrome. But as I mentioned a column or two back, for a respected news organization such at the AFP calls SARS "often fatal" -- an exact quote from their news release in Manila -- the other day is simply irresponsible, and the editor who approved the story ought to be summarily fired. Garbage like that influences people like you and me around the world, and has a direct impact on the lives of our Asian hosts. I've already mentioned the 3 million jobs lost *already* as a direct result of the SARS "epidemic" -- and that's 3 million breadwinners or family-coffer contributors out of work across the region. Think about it in reverse: I'm American, and I can darned sure promise you I would be *begging* tourists to return and businesses to resume investment if 3 million Americans were thrown onto the dole by such a non-epidemic as this one has proven to be. When one talks "epidemic," in my mind he better be talking about something on the order of the Black Plague (estimated to have killed as many as 20 million across Europe 1347) or the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918-19 that in a single year killed at *least* 20 million -- and maybe as many as 40 million, globally. Eight hundred deaths, as tragic as they were for the victims and their families and other loved ones, do not constitute an epidemic. The only "epidemic" that occurred this spring was in the media, and the public misled by the media -- and epidemic of hysteria. So . . . come on back -- the water's just fine! * * * * * * * * * * Asoke Plaza Update I recently started a subscription to the locally well-known Baronbonk's regular newsletter, and just today was reading a recent issue in which he wrote about hearing the same story while on a walkabout Asoke Corner that the place will cease to exist by no later than the end of the year. Actually, I heard it will be history far sooner than that, but what he heard and what I heard directly from employees of some of the bars there are the same, in broad terms. So I'm reckoning the venue to be gone over the next few months. Right from the start I heard the owners allowed the place to exist just to make a *little* money off rentals -- with the understanding they could pull the plug at any time, with an agreed-upon notice period. Given the horrendous condition of tourism here in Bangkok, no doubt some of the bar owners will actually be *relieved* to get out from under losing bars, which I'm willing to wager a fair number of them are. Another group out of work, albeit not due to the idiocy of SARS. . . . * * * * * * * * * * An Entertaining Radio Website My former partner, "Doctor" Dennis, has a new website I want to give a boost, though I have no part of it nor provide any services for The Doc. Called "The Best Western Radio," it is that -- and far more. The Doc has assembled an amazing array of old-time radio favorites such as "Gunsmoke," the original radio version featuring William Conrad as Matt Dillon. Older folks remember such shows fondly -- I know I do -- and even young people are often fascinated when they stumble across such shows. We might say they're the show equivalents of music radio's "Oldie Goldies" shows. As I said, The Doc offers far more than just old-time Western radio shows. I can't possibly cover the extremely diverse offerings in detail, but he has items such as mystery shows -- Sam Spade, for instance -- and books on radio, such as Zane Grey's immortal western classic Riders of the Purple Sage. The Doc is working fast and furious expanding his offerings. Best of all, they're all absolutely FREE. His site has global appeal, including with nostalgic Westerners right here in Thailand. The players for the shows are also free and readily downloadable. Visit http://www.BestofWesternRadio.com -- and if you like it as much as a whole LOT of other folks do, drop The Doc a line and let him know you like it. And *I'd* appreciate it if you let him you you learned about it right hear, which will please him no end. * * * * * * * * * * ASEAN and Burma In my last column a couple of days ago I reported that the two major local dailies had conflicting reports about what ASEAN ministers said -- or didn't say -- regarding the situation in Burma. The following day the daily that had reported nothing was said carried a story saying the joint communiqué ASEAN issued after their meeting called on Burma to take positive action to sort out the conflict there. There also was a letter from an official of the Foreign Ministry criticizing a story condemning Thailand's non-action, arguing that Thailand wants things to return to "normal" and for the reconciliation process to continue. Only one problem: what's "normal"? For the past 15 years, it has been for the murderous generals to continue their dictatorship, a situation driving the Burmese people into ever deeper despair. In my view, "normal" *should* mean "finally honoring the election results of years ago and for the generals to step down and hand over power to the NLD, which despite the junta's rigging of the election won by something like an 80%+ cut of the vote." But somehow I'm skeptical about officials here meaning THAT. * * * * * * * * * * Two Calls for Help If you like this site -- any part of it at all -- I hope you will tell from friends and relatives about it and give them the URL for whatever part of it is you like. I enjoy running the site, and hope to see an steady increase in the number of site visitors so that I can know that more and more people are getting some benefit from the years of work I've put into it. Let me give an extreme example of the effectiveness of you're doing this. Some years ago The Doc and I did a dead-tree spoof newsletter about Washington Square, the Squaronians, and the Square Maidens. We eventually began e-mailing it to friends, including friends in other countries. Two of our friends were in Australia, at opposite ends of the country and not known to each other. Interestingly, almost simultaneously each became curious and began checking just how far his recommendation had gone -- each would e-mail it to *other* friends, and ask them to mail it on, and so on. When we heard from the two denizens of Oz and put their numbers together, we reckoned that those 2 e-mails of each issue were reaching about *1500* of our 2 friends' family members and friends -- an astonishing example of the power of word-of-mouth endorsement. But on a more reasonable level, even if each one of you reading this got just one other person to visit the site, the result would be thousands of new visitors, some of whom I hope would be people who would return regularly (and sign up for the update e-mails I send out). I'm *not* asking anyone to give a false recommendation, nor even a half-hearted one. a heartfelt recommendation is always appreciated. My second naked plea is for materials for inclusion. Regular readers already know about the "Travellers' Tales" section of the site (for which I've had not one single submission in months and months, ahem, by the way). But I'm also interested in updated information about anything this site address, and corrections of any demonstrable errors -- I sure don't want to be unwittingly putting out incorrect information! I don't care if it's something as minor as a change in the operating hours of a bar in one of Bangkok's several entertainment venues -- that's news I'll report, and in the case of bars listed elsewhere, I'll update the bar's info there. Pretty please??? . . . * * * * * * * * * * Crystal Bar in Washington Square I hate to say it, but I'm reckoning on Crystal Bar in Washington Square to go out of business, probably sooner rather than later. At no time I've been there in a year or more has there ever been more than two other customers -- and most of the time, not one other than me myself. The woes there well pre-date the SARS scare and the war in Iraq. The opening hours seem to be erratic as well. The last several times I dropped by there was either *no* employee, just the owner, or just the owner and her sister -- I guess the owner let the last girl -- yep, just one -- go. And it's too bad, because the bar used to be one of my favorite hang-outs. * * * * * * * * * * E-mail Change Notification Sign-up Sign-up here for e-mail notification when I add or change something on the site. Just go to the sign-up page. * * * * * * * * * * Travelers' Tales Got a "Traveler's Tale"? -- send me a line! MekhongKurt@BangkokAtoZ.com * * * * * * * * * * Link Exchange If anyone reading this has a website and would like to place a link there for BangkokAtoZ.com, you can copy-and-paste the banner and text link below into your site; they are live links to this site's homepage:
I'll appreciate an e-mail telling me the URL of where you placed it. If you want me to put a link on BangkokAtoZ.com for your site, do tell me where you have placed our link, and I'll give you a link in a comparable position, of the same nature (i.e., banner-for-banner, text-for-text). * * * * * * * * * * Until next time -- Sawasdee khrap! Mekhong Kurt
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Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 by Kurt T. Francis, except as noted otherwise. Materials by Christopher G. Moore, Dean Barrett, Richard K. Diran, Sonia Pressman Fuentes, and Hardy Stockmann are copyrighted © by those respective authors. All rights reserved. Please see the Copyright Notice for further information. Click here for our Privacy Statement Please direct all inquiries to mekhongkurt at bangkokatoz.com |
