"The Rounds" June 24, 2005

Police Raid 2 Bangkok Underground Casinos

Police in Bangkok raided 2 illegal casinos, one Tuesday night, the other about dawn Wednesday, according to reports in the Bangkok Post and The Nation headlined "Major city casino busted" and "Police raid gambling den" respectively, though the latter story doesn't mention the earlier raid.

The Bangkok Post story says the earlier raid was partly diversionary, police hoping the owner of the casino raided yesterday would be lulled into a sense of false security and think it unlikely there would be 2 raids in just a few hours. The latter raid was top secret and involved a 2-month investigation -- an investigation that did not include local police, who have been unsuccessful for the most part in their past attempts to close down the casino.

Perhaps one of the most surprising elements of the dawn raid is that the casino is supposedly owned by a high-level politician.

Given that no one escaped (at least in the dawn raid) and a large amount of evidence was seized -- including security video cameras.

While there are arguments on both sides of the gambling issue, the fact is it is illegal here, so the police are to be congratulated for their twin successes. [Thursday, June 23, 2005]

Late News: A report in yesterday's The Nation I didn't see until just now says the Metropolitan Police Bureau has ordered an investigation into 5 senior police officers in the story "TAOPOON GAMBLING RAID: Five senior police officers under investigation ."

The report says the station commander was transferred a month ago and that the other 4 officers are under investigation, an investigation approved at high levels within the Metropolitan Police Bureau.

Meanwhile, today's Bangkok Post is running a different story about the aftermatch of these raids under the headline "Casino raid revives row over betting." Some parties are accusing the government of orchestrating the raids to garner public support for legalizing gambling, adding certain members of the government stood to benefit from land sales and the like were gambling to become legal.

So, the aftermath has sent our currents in 2 directions -- already. [Friday, June 24, 2005]

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Thailand Mulling Legalizing Casinos as Other Countries Do

Coincidentally, the Asia-Pacific edition of the BBC has a story today about the raid agreement between the Singaporean government and 2 casino groups to build major entertainment complexes in the country, "Asia lays bet on casino gambling."

The relevant part of the story to Thailand is that the Kingdom and other countries in this region are considering legalizing gambling, particularly since it's easy now for people to find legal gambling -- Cambodia, Malaysia, and Macau spring instantly to mind. Macau has been particularly successful, which comes as no surprise given its long experience in the field. According to the BBC report, revenues at Macau's nearly 20 casinos totaled about US$5 billion last year, on par with those in Las Vegas.

Gambling is deeply ingrained in many Asians' psyches, strenuous efforts by various governments over the years to stifle it. Right here in Thailand countless people take part in the semi-monthly government-sanctioned -- and therefore legal -- lottery. They also participate in the underground parallel lottery.

Further, utterly illegal gambling occurs all over the place -- in restaurants, bars, homes, just about any place people gather. Dice, card games, and various other such games are popular.

In other words, it seems virtually impossible to stop.

Yet gambling brings problems, particularly when a gambler becomes addicted to the activity.

It's a difficult call for any government. I personally lean towards legalization, because people are going to gamble anyway, and the problems associated with it are still there to face. However, many people object to it on various grounds.

Given the increased availability of legal gambling, the pressure on regional governments to follow suit is increasing -- and as government leaders consider the potential for revenues, increased employment, increases in numbers of tourists, etc., the temptation to do exactly that must be strong indeed.

It'll be interesting to see what path Thailand takes; I would bet -- no irony intended -- we'll see at least limited legalized gambling in the private sector sooner or later. [Thursday, June 23, 2005]

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Government Considering Steps to Improve Energy Efficiency

The current campaign aimed at motivating people to conserve energy is apparently meeting with indifference from the public. A few days ago Prime Minister Thaksin was quoted as indicating his government will impose energy-conserving policies if the present campaign, set to end in August of this year, and today's The Nation has a story "ENERGY POLICY: New savings measures proposed" saying the Energy Policy and Planning Office approved a plan yesterday to seek implementation of some steps immediately, well before the recently-launched campaign ends, the plan to add the moves to the campaign until its end. The Bangkok Post has a similar report, "Get ready for a TV curfew."

Other steps are planned, including asking employees in government offices use the air-conditioners only 9:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M., including turning them off during lunch hour, and directing police to strictly enforce speed limits.

If the sputtering start of the current campaign is in any way indicative, one has to wonder if these new steps will help.

Further, it's easy to imagine a public backlash regarding the forcing of television and radio stations, including cable television operators, to go off the air at midnight. (Neither report says when they will be allowed to resume broadcasting.) Advertisers may object, too, if they've paid and their ad(s) are scheduled to be broadcast during the off-the-air hours.

With fuel prices continuing to soar -- I heard on television yesterday that oil was approaching US$50 per barrel -- clearly conservation is necessary.

One of the proposals is to limit the use of private vehicles in Bangkok during the weekends. If the restrictions are significant, I suppose they may well do some good. And there are precedents. I remember in America in the 1970's when we could fuel up our cars only every-other day -- and enforcement was very strict. That step alone helped significantly.

Another few interrelated steps the government might consider, if it isn't doing so already, is to make buying vehicles less attractive by charging a fee just for the right to buy a car, increase the annual fee for vehicle registration dramatically, and require vehicle owners to have (expensive) permits displayed on their windshields to be able to operate their vehicles at all in certain areas; Singapore, as I understand it, has long done all these.

An intensive public awareness campaign is also needed, given the national obsession with speed and fine disregard of road courtesy. That's a longer-range proposal, to be sure; all of us resist fundamental change.

The letters pages of the local newspapers may be quite interesting in the coming days. . . . [Thursday, June 23, 2005]

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SIM Cards Must Be Registered by December 31, 2005

The media are widely reporting more details about the new requirement that people using mobile phones must register their identity details with the government by year's end, including people who use pre-paid cards instead of having a monthly bill sent to them.

Some details aren't clear yet, or they haven't appeared in any story I've read, nor has anyone I know been aware of the missing details. I looked through a couple popular discussion boards were this is a hot topic, but found no postings in them, either.

The main bit of information missing is just where one is supposed to register. That is, does one simply register at any place that sells pre-paid cards? Or do you need to go to any phone company office (TOT, CAT, DTAC, AIS, Orange, etc.)? Or perhaps only TOT and CAT, which are government-run, as the others aren't? Or do you need to go to the local police station? Local district office?

If comments in online discussion groups are at all representative of general feelings, quite a few people are concerned, concerned both that their details will be registered and that they don't yet know where to go.

Further, consider the case of a person who uses and pays for a phone, but that phone's SIM card is in another person's name. Who goes? -- the de facto owner (the one using and paying for the phone), the legal owner, or both?

In future, what will happen when one goes to buy a phone: will the buyer have to register at the shop, or will he have to take his receipt to wherever it is he has to register, then, presumably, get a form to give to the shop before he can take possession of the phone?

Then there's the question of pre-paid cards -- will their sale be affected? Will we have to give a copy of our passport or national I.D. card to the sales clerk before being able to buy the card, or will we be issued some sort of receipt by whoever ends up registering the phone we can use for future purchases of such cards? Or will nothing at all be required?

The fundamental reason behind this move is a good one: to make it difficult for terrorists to use mobile phones to detonate bombs, as has happened in the Deep South, for instance. Yet no one seems to know how this new requirement will stop a terrorist from buying a SIM card in a country that doesn't require registration then "call" it, perhaps using another foreign mobile phone with its foreign SIM card, to trigger a bomb.

There are ways to jam the air waves -- in fact, if memory serves me, authorities in the Deep South have done so on a limited basis in the past already -- but that's not a practical long-term solution, given that it blocks all users, including the vast majority who are innocent people from making or receiving calls.

Professional terrorist groups may well have members with the technical expertise to get around this, though I'm almost entirely ignorant of telephone technology, so I don't know. (Such stuff is magic to me; I barely understand basic electricity!)

And, of course, there are other ways, unfortunately, to use other everyday, taken-for-granted items that can be used for the same purpose. Think of the nightmare for everyone, authorities and individuals alike, if we have to start registering, say, alarm clocks.

Like most people, I strongly support the fundamental goal of bringing terrorists to heel -- and to the dock. I just hope the concerned authorities are able to work out an effective plan to achieve that laudable (and oft-stated) goal that is as unobtrusive as possible.

Sample source: Thai News Agency: "Mobile phone users told to register SIM cards" [Friday, June 24, 2005]

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Fuel Prices Up Again Today

No doubt to drivers' distress, the cost of both petrol and diesel went up at 6:00 A.M. this morning except at PTT Plc stations, which ate state controlled.

The Bangkok Post story "Petrol up again today, fishermen grumbling," the story in The Nation headlined "Petrol prices to rise again Friday," (the story ran in that paper yesterday), and the TNA (Thai News Agency) report all report of the price rise of 40 satang per liter on all fuels. The TNA gives the story the most prominent coverage, running it as the lead on the agency's home page.

Fuel prices now stand at record highs, which comes as no surprise given that world oil prices crossed the US$60 per barrel level yesterday. Bus operators want to increase fares, but the Transport Minister turned them down.

I don't see how the government-run PTT organization can continue subsidizing, in effect, fuel prices as price pressures move upward. Top-grade petrol is now THB24.14 per liter at other stations and THB20.19 at PTT outlets, a significant difference.

Compared to some places, Thailand still is far from the most expensive place in the world to buy fuel; the current top price works out to about US$2.25 per U.S. gallon. But given average incomes here, that's a heavy hit, especially when it wasn't that long ago when the same fuel was priced in the mid and upper teens; incomes certainly haven't risen in lock-step with fuel prices.

There is one positive benefit of the soaring price of oil: the government is looking with increasing seriousness at alternative fuels such as biological ones. As for solar power, a friend of mine recently bought a large swath of land in Isaarn (1200 rai, which is about 480 acres or 192 hectares) and wanted to use solar power there, until he discovered, he says, that such technology isn't available on the domestic market and to import it carries a hefty 300% import duty. (I was surprised when he mentioned the steep import tariff, given Thailand's membership in the World Trade Organization, but, then, I'm amazed at my own country's continuing not-in-the-spirit-of-the-WTO agricultural subsidies, too.)

Perhaps investors might set up domestic production of solar panels, bringing this alternative source of energy into an affordable price range. Given the abundant sunshine -- which there is aplenty, despite the Kingdom's sometimes lengthy monsoon season -- solar power might be an excellent possibility.

The same may be true for wind power and using tides to generate electricity, lessening the Kingdom's dependence on oil imports. I remember when the electric company in my home county in Texas erected a vast windmill farm for electricity generation; as I understood it at the time I became aware of the "farm" in the late 1980's, it was quite a boon for the company and its customers.

There's a closely-related consideration not mentioned in any of the reports I cited above: China's damming of the Mekhong River, long considered the lifeline of the Mekhong Region. Whether China has a sovereign right to treat that mighty river as a domestic one is not my point. Whether The Middle Kingdom has that right or not -- it's damming away, lessening water availability for nations downstream dependent on it to a degree for water itself and water for power generation. (By the way, water shortage possibilities are raising other concerns now as well.)

Even given the careless abandon with which people waste fuel speeding, not keeping their vehicles tuned up, etc., I can't help but feel sorry for folks seriously affected by these rising prices, such as long-distance truckers, bus operators, and the like. Commercial fishermen are also feeling what's changing from a pinch to a threatening blow to their livelihoods.

Wait until the government phases out its diesel subsidies -- then listen for the screams of agony. And numerous reports have said that's on the cards. [Friday, June 24, 2005]

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TNA (Thai News Agency) has a welcome report today that the Tourism and Sport Authority of Thailand, airlines, and the private sector are joining together to promote tourism along the Andaman Sea side of the Kingdom. "Bargains galore for off-peak travellers to Thailand" (the TNA report) is thin on details, but does say the promotion is expected to attract about a million tourists, 3/4's of them foreign.

The article does say some of the packages include return domestic air fares as low as 4,000 baht. It also says Thai Airway has some free tickets for holders of first-class tickets, but I searched the airline's web site awhile and couldn't find anything in English about this.

There are many anecdotal stories that the tsunami-raved coastal areas continue to suffer from decimated tourist arrivals. One recent news story said hotel occupancy rates were at an abysmal 20% -- not high enough to meet even daily operating expenses.

Let's hope this helps the locals regain their livelihoods. [Friday, June 24, 2005]

If one anecdote a friend told me late last week is true, those concerned may want to re-think local approach to dealing with reducing costs. He said he booked 6 rooms in a beachside hotel he like for himself and 5 friends. (The friends came over from Hawaii to celebrate one of their group's birthday.) He said 2 things happened that made him feel he had wasted his money and time, especially given that he goes out with those guys every Friday night back home -- he lives in Hawaii and comes here once annually.

He had arranged a roast pig and the trimmings to be prepared and served on the hotel's front lawn early the evening they were there; in the event, the food was brought in by an outside caterer -- and cold. He said he himself declined to eat any of it, unsure if it was safe. Later in the evening he wanted to watch something on cable TV in his room, and thought something was wrong with the television set when he couldn't get any cable channels. He went to the desk, only to be told that since it's the off-season, the hotel had suspended cable service.

Local operators in affected areas need to think again if they plan to draw tourists -- that hotel, my friend said, had exactly 6 guests: him and his friends! [Friday, June 16, 2005]

The government's ICT (Information and Communications Technology Ministry) ordered 2 web sites closed earlier this week.

The government's stance is it is duty-bound to take such actions, in these cases saying there were procedural reasons to close down the sites.

Critics maintain the real reason is the sites ran editorial content critical of the government, according to a story in today's The Nation headlined "Anti-govt website closures slammed." That story claims both the Thai Webmaster Association and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance have both reacted sharply against the closures; the SEAPA homepage's 2 of 3 stories today are about the closures. (The Thai Webmaster Association has a Thai-language-only website, so I decided not to hyperlink it; virtually all my visitors read in english, not Thai.) It also says a Democrat MP criticized the moves, which comes as no surprise given the bitter relations between the ruling coalition and the Opposition.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post ran a story today taking a somewhat different tack, "Suvit: No govt war on media." That story also reports the Opposition's stance, but focuses on only one closure, and gives full play to the government's explanation that the closed radio station web site was in technical violation on its license and could re-open freely as soon as that matter was corrected. The report does add there was confusion because the ICT had indeed sent a letter directing the station to improve its editorial content but that there was no specific order to close.

I was not familiar with either site, so am not in a position to be able to comment on their editorial stances. I do know that government's everywhere sometime have legitimate reason to punish and even close some sites when they step over certain lines, such as those supporting speratism in the Deep South the Thai government as blocked here in Thailand (and rightly so, in my view).

This isn't the first time the current government has stood accused of muzzling the media, though I have to say even the government's own departments' sites rather regularly carry stories critical of the current masters.

I suppose these incidents will cause even deeper friction between the government and its opponents than already exists. [Friday, June 24, 2005]

The short version is this: over the next 4 years or so, new technology will be in place in many places around the world that will extend current wi-fi systems' ranges by up to 50 kilometers -- and be able to be used when on the move (in a car, for instance).

Other than being wireless, the other great attraction of wi-fi is its lightning speed. A friend of mine demonstrated his PDA accessing the Internet through the wi-fi system in his restaurant-hotel, and I was stunned. Over a dial-up modem connection, some pages take forever to load on my computer. When my friend started bouncing around the Internet on his PDA, the jumps were for all intents and purposes instantaneous -- I couldn't see the transition from this web page to the next.

The phase-in will be in 3 technical steps, as detailed in the story. The prices, even in aggregate, will be remarkably low for such "Xtreme" technology -- a few hundred U.S. dollars, spread over time.

And this technology will be available right here in Thailand. No longer will one have to go to a "hot spot" such as a Starbucks, Au Pain Restaurant, or Bourbon Street Restaurant & Boutique Hotel (my friend's Doug's place where he demonstrated his PDA). You can be, say, on a cruise along the Chao Phraya River and have global Internet access.

I remember a mere decade or so ago when Bangkok got its very first Internet cafe; now they're ubiquitous. Technology continues to outpace growth, though more people here in the Kingdom are taking to cyberspace every day. Perhaps even a better example than Thailand is mainland China, where the authorities are queasy about the Internet. When I last lived there September, 1999-June, 2000, the number of Internet users quadrupled -- in less than a year.

Among the other things I monitor, I try to keep at least dimly abreast of this stuff -- and forever am finding I'm several steps behind. The physical space requirements for ever-improved performance keeps shrinking. I remember reading maybe 3 years ago that a then-top-of-the-line desktop computer -- just a single one -- had more computing power than available to the entire Manned Spacecraft Center in Texas when the U.S. landed its first astronauts on the Moon in 1969! At that time, we didn't have even electronic calculators -- forget personal computers.

These leaps and bounds into the technological future should help Thailand in its development in every way.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty excited! [Friday, June 24, 2005]

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