Sukhumvit Street Vendors Ordered Off Road Tonight. Will it Be Business as Usual?

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3 October 2016, 13:02

A woman in Soi Sukhumvit 19 cooks food for sale last week in front of a city notice that vendors must be gone by Monday. — A woman in Soi Sukhumvit 19 cooks food for sale in front of a city notice that vendors must be gone by Oct. 3.

BANGKOK — Come tonight, the football jerseys, wooden elephants, cheap electronics, sex toys, Viagra, cheap food, DVDs, velvet paintings, sarongs and everything else that has been sold along the northern side of Sukhumvit Road for decades is supposed to be a thing of the past.

Vendors said notices first appeared two weeks ago warning that come Oct. 3, they would no longer be allowed to set up stalls in the evening from sois 1 to 21, which routinely turn that side of the road into a kind of busy night bazaar.

The bid to reclaim the public sidewalk, part of an ongoing campaign, was revived again in July with a stricter edict that no stalls will be allowed at any time.

There’s no guarantee it will succeed. While the city has prevailed in places such as Saphan Lek and Khlong Thom, it has failed repeatedly to end similar street commerce in the Siam and Silom areas, where its ultimatums have come and gone.

On Thursday, vendors petitioned junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha to extend the deadline until City Hall can arrange an alternate site for them with the same access to tourists and foreign customers. City officials have not yet responded.

Alongside the Soi 19 street restaurant is also a visible dishwashing area.

On a recent day, a long row of street food vendors were lined up in Soi Sukhumvit 19, next to the Terminal 21 shopping mall.

“I’ve heard they will extend it again until the new year. They have extended it many times,” said a pad Thai vendor who discussed the bribes she pays to operate her stall only if her name was withheld. “I will just sell here until they don’t let me. I don’t have anywhere else to go yet.”

The first attempt to eliminate street vendors came in April 2015. It ended with City Hall insisting vendors not to set up their shops until after 7pm.

Under the law, vendors who set up during the permitted time had to follow some regulations but were not required to pay rent.

The pad Thai seller said she pays 3,000 baht monthly to the municipal security officer, or tessakit, to set up her sidewalk kitchen and three small tables. She said the cost is only 500 baht, if the vendor only wants to place one stall.

The city campaign has yet to target the even-numbered sois comprising the road’s south side, which includes several busy locations such as Nana Plaza, a red-light district popular with foreigners.

“An officer told me they will crack down those on the main road first, so I can continue selling for now,” a woman pushing a drink cart in Soi Sukhumvit 4 said Wednesday. “If they really are going to arrest us, I will just let them take me and pay the fine.”

Instead of setting up at a fixed location, many vendors push carts which help them easily move, such as this one seen near Nana Plaza in Soi Sukhumvit 4.

Govt Defends 21M Baht Flight to Hawaii

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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3 October 2016, 11:51

Thai military officials meet with their American counter an undated photo of a recent conference held in in Honolulu, Hawaii. Photo: Public Relations Department

BANGKOK — The military government Monday defended the expenditure of 20.9 million baht for the junta’s No. 2 general and his entourage to fly to an informal discussion with American military in Hawaii last week.

The cost, which included 600,000 baht for in-flight dining, was to fly deputy junta chief Prawit Wongsuwan, also a former Defense Minister, and his entourage of 38 officials to Honolulu to attend the “ASEAN-US Defense Informal Meeting” from Thursday to Saturday, according to government records.

While the lavish spending outraged those who saw it as another example of financial irregularity under the regime, the government said Monday the costs were routine.

“It is a normal procedure for state agencies to follow,” Maj. Gen. Kongcheep Tantravanich, Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters.

Instead of using military airplanes, Thai Airways was hired for the trip, which cost taxpayers a total of 20.9 million baht, including 600,000 baht for “in-flight food and beverages” and 3.1 million baht for “processing fees.”

The total cost of the trip beyond the air travel expenses were unknown at this time.

Facebook pages allied to the opposition movement published the document over the weekend and criticized the junta for what they view as an unusually high expense.

“What were they eating on the plane for the expense to balloon to 600,000 baht, when in-flight food is already included in airline tickets?” the admin of Stop Hypocrisy in Thailand wrote Sunday. “Were they burning national funds on a drunken wine buffet?”

It wouldn’t be the first administration to be criticized for treating itself to costly travel.

The former government under Yingluck Shinawatra spent 21.8 million baht on a 2013 overseas trip that included stops in Italy, Switzerland and Montenegro.

Kongcheep said it was necessary for the government to hire Thai Airways for the Hawaii trip because no military aircraft were capable of the 19-hour flight without refueling.

The spokesman said the trip and its costs were within proper regulations and completely transparent.

Mystery Phone Call Prompts Ugandan Woman to Leap to Death: Police

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Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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3 October 2016, 11:49

Daniells reacts at the scene of a 22-year-old Ugandan woman’s suicide this morning at a condo in Bangkok’s Rat Burana district.

BANGKOK — Police were questioning a Briton after his companion suddenly jumped to her death from the 16th floor of a condo early Monday morning in southern Bangkok after receiving a distressing phone call.

The 22-year-old Ugandan woman’s body was found alongside a khlong outside the Suksawat Modern Condo View in the Rat Burana district at about 4am. Her smashed mobile phone was found inside a pocket.

Lt. Col. Pradit Plaiduan, who was called to the scene, said that a friend of the woman, 50-year-old Briton Ashley Danniels, swam into the canal and held the body, crying. Danniels is an English teacher at Panyasak School, and was renting the room she jumped from. Khaosod English is withholding her name until her family can be notified.

According to a security guard at the building, Danniels often goes out partying late at night, bringing back black women and transexuals to his room.

“She wasn’t his girlfriend,” Pradit said. “But they met at a party. He was crying and hugging her really sadly.”

Last night, said the guard, Danniels came back to the condo with the woman about 2am. At 4am, Danniels came running to the security guard, saying that she had jumped.

Police said they found no sign of a struggle in the room.

According to Danniels’ testimony, they were in his room when she received a distressing phone call. Danniels could not tell what she was arguing about, since she spoke in a language he did not understand. Then, to Danniels’ shock, she jumped out the window.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Danniels’ age. He is 50, not 30.

Dutch Journalist Shot Dead in Libya

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Associated Press

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3 October 2016, 11:02

A sniper of the Libyan forces affiliated to the Tripoli government shoots against Islamic State positions, Sunday in Sirte, Libya. Photo: Manu Brabo / Associated Press

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A sniper fatally shot a Dutch photojournalist on Sunday in the Libyan city of Sirte, the Islamic State’s last bastion in the chaos-wracked North African country.

Jeroen Oerlemans was killed while accompanying mine-clearing teams in the part of the city that has been freed from IS control, according to fellow journalist Joanie de Rijke, who was reporting with him for the Belgian publication Knack.

The Dutch ambassador to Libya, Eric Strating, tweeted: “Rest in Peace. Your photographs of #Sirte #Libya and other places will live on forever.”

Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said in a statement that “Oerlemans is a journalist who kept going where others stopped. Driven to put the news into pictures in the world’s hotspots. It is profoundly sad that he has now paid the ultimate price for this.”

Oerlemans, 45, is survived by his wife and three small children, according to Eike den Hertog of the Beeldunie photo agency.

Oerlemans had been scheduled to return home Monday.

He was wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, “so he was protected,” and was clearly identifiable as a journalist, de Rijke, the journalist traveling with him, told Dutch national broadcaster NOS.

“But it doesn’t matter to IS, of course. They shoot at everything and everybody,” she said.

Oerlemans was hit in the side, in an opening in the vest, and the shot reached his heart, de Rijke said after seeing her colleague’s body in the morgue.

She said it’s unclear whether he was targeted or whether it was an accidental hit, since there were crowds of people crossing back and forth at the same time.

“We were standing on the frontline,” she said. “There was heavy fighting going on,” and active IS snipers in the area.

De Rijke insisted that Oerlemans and the other journalists currently in Sirte “didn’t take any bigger risks than all the others.”

“There were other people who were constantly crossing that street,” she told NOS. “He had the bad luck to get hit. Brutal bad luck.”

Den Hertog of the photo agecy mourned the loss of a friend and powerful photographer who “managed to capture what he wanted to say in pictures.”

“He wasn’t a cowboy. He was prudent, and very smart,” den Hertog said.

Oerlemans was abducted and wounded in Syria in 2012 with British photographer John Cantlie, and freed a week later. Cantlie was later abducted again, and is believed to remain in captivity.

Oerlemans had covered wars in Afghanistan, Syria and Libya and the journey of migrants to Europe. Oerlemans studied photojournalism at the London College of Communication, according to his Facebook account.

It is especially difficult and dangerous for journalists to work in Libya, in chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Much of the country is ruled by a patchwork of local and tribal militias.

Militias from Misrata have recently driven IS militants out of most of Sirte, their last urban stronghold, with the help of U.S. airstrikes.

Oerlemans is the third journalist to be killed in Libya this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The death of Jeroen Oerlemans is a reminder that those who bring us images and video from the frontlines often pay the heaviest price,” CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney said in a statement.

Abu Sayyaf Free 3 Hostages in Southern Philippines

By

Associated Press

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3 October 2016, 10:48

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, second left, on Saturday visits the site of the previous night's explosion that killed more than a dozen people and wounded others at a night market in Davao city, his hometown. Photo: Robinson Ninal / Philippines Government / Associated Press

JAKARTA — Three Indonesian hostages have been released in the southern Philippines after being held by their Abu Sayyaf captors for more than three months, Indonesia’s foreign minister said Sunday.

The men, who were freed just before midnight Saturday, were undergoing health exams in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at a news conference. She said they would be transferred to the city of Zamboanga before being handed over to Indonesian officials and flown back to Indonesia.

The three – Ferry Arifin, Muhammad Mabrur Dahri and Edy Suryono – were among seven crew members of a tugboat who were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants in June. Two of the others were released previously, and two are still being held.

It was not immediately clear whether the three released late Saturday had been ransomed off.

In Manila, Philippine military officials said the release, which brought to 10 the number of kidnap victims freed by the Abu Sayyaf in the past two weeks, was due to ongoing operations against the group.

Filemon Tan, a military spokesman, said 12 more kidnap victims – two Indonesians, five Malaysians, four Filipinos and a Dutch – were still in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

Three Indonesian fishermen who were also being held by Abu Sayyaf militants were freed Sept. 17, along with a Norwegian man and two Filipinos.

Marsudi said the government is working for the release of the two remaining Indonesian hostages – the tugboat’s navigator, Robin Piter, and third engineer, Muhammad Nasir.

The seven Indonesians were abducted June 20 in southern Philippine waters while returning from Cagayan De Oro port in the Philippines to Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan province on Borneo island.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines for deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

Philippine forces launched a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the beheadings of two Canadians early this year sparked condemnations from then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau has called on other nations not to pay ransoms to discourage the militants from carrying out more kidnappings.

Story: Ali Kotarumalos

Vitit Muntarbhorn Appointed First UN Expert on LGBT Violence and Discrimination

By

Associated Press

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2 October 2016, 13:59

Vitit Muntarbhorn. Photo: United Nations

UNITED NATIONS — The Human Rights Council has appointed international human rights expert Vitit Muntarbhorn as the first U.N. independent expert charged with investigating violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

John Fisher, Geneva director of Human Rights Watch, said his appointment on Friday “made history” and “will bring much-needed attention to human rights violations against LGBT people in all regions of the world.”

Muntarbhorn, a Chulalongkorn University law professor, has been on the council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria and previously served as U.N. special investigator on North Korea and on child prostitution and child pornography.

He co-chaired a meeting of experts that adopted the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Report: Trump Losses May Mean He Didn’t Pay Taxes for Years

By

Associated Press

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2 October 2016, 13:52

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in July. Photo: Evan Vucci / Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s business losses in 1995 were so large that they could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for as many as 18 years, according to records obtained by The New York Times.

In a story published online late Saturday, the Times said it anonymously received the first pages of Trump’s 1995 state income tax filings in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The filings show a net loss of USD$915,729,293 in federal taxable income for the year.

That Trump was losing money during the early to mid-1990s — a period marked by bankruptcies and poor business decisions — was already well established. But the records obtained by the Times show losses of such a magnitude that they potentially allowed Trump to avoid paying taxes for years, possibly until the end of the last decade.

Trump’s campaign released a statement on Saturday lashing out at the Times for publishing the records and accused the newspaper of working to benefit the Republican nominee’s presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“The New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests,” the campaign said, calling Trump “a highly skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required.”

The statement added that Trump had paid “hundreds of millions” of dollars in other kinds of taxes over the years.

Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, used the Times story to needle Trump about not releasing his tax returns and contending during his first debate with Clinton that not paying federal income taxes would show he was “smart.”

Mook said in a statement that Trump apparently avoided paying taxes for two decades “while tens of millions of working families paid theirs. He calls that ‘smart.'” Mook added: “Now that the gig is up, why doesn’t he go ahead and release his returns to show us all how ‘smart’ he really is?”

Since 1976, every major party presidential nominee has released tax returns. Clinton has publicly released nearly 40 years’ worth, and Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has released 10 years of his tax returns.

But after initially saying that he would make his returns public during the course of his campaign, Trump switched course, citing what he said were years of ongoing IRS audits and the advice of his attorneys to keep them private as those audits proceed.

Former IRS officials have expressed skepticism that anyone would be audited so frequently, and they and other tax experts say there’s no prohibition on Trump releasing his returns even if he is.

In its story, the Times said the three pages of documents were mailed last month to a Times reporter who had written about Trump’s finances. A postmark indicated they had been sent from New York City and the return address claimed the envelope had been sent from Trump Tower, the newspaper said.

Trump’s campaign did not directly address the authenticity of the excerpts from Trump’s tax filings. Former Trumpaccountant Jack Mitnick, whose name appears as Trump’s tax preparer of the filings, confirmed their authenticity, the newspaper reported.

“This is legit,” Mitnick told the newspaper.

The Times said a lawyer for Trump argued that publication of the records would be illegal because Trump had not authorized their disclosure.

Because of provisions in the tax code that allow wealthy individuals to offset their personal income with losses in various partnerships and business ventures, Trump could have used his losses in 1995 to avoid incurring tax liabilities on as many as three years of prior and 15 years of future profits.

The $916 million in losses reported by the Times would not include previous years of losses incurred by Trump while his New Jersey casino empire slid into bankruptcy.

In an interview, Mitnick told the Times he had sometimes found it odd that the tax code allowed Trump to live in such luxury without paying income taxes.

“Here the guy was building incredible net worth and not paying tax on it,” he said.

Story: Jeff Horwitz

Fate of Boy Up to 12 Angry, Diverse Men in Bangkok

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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1 October 2016, 15:57

Promotional image for Culture Collective Studio's production of '12 Angry Men.' Photo: Suphasit Tanprasertsupa / Courtesy

Update Oct. 31: The event has been rescheduled to Nov. 18 until Nov. 27

BANGKOK — A close-quarters drama about 12 people forced to find consensus on whether a boy from the slums is guilty of killing his father will be staged for seven days in Bangkok.

Set in present day in New York City, the Culture Collective Studio production of “12 Angry Men” features a multinational cast from Argentina, England, India, Italy, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand and the United States.

Based on the 1957 film of the same name, the play opens and unfolds in a jury room where 12 male jurors are deliberating the guilt of an 18-year-old suspect tried on a charge of murdering his father.

The play is directed by Loni Berry. The theater troupe is an English-speaking production company in Bangkok.

“12 Angry Men” will be performed in English.

Ticket is 800 baht and is available online. The 90-minute play starts Nov. 18 and runs through Nov. 27 at the Culture Collective Studio. The boutique-style performance venue is located on the third floor of the Chatrium Residence Riverside on Soi Charoen Krung 70.

Techno for the End of the World Tonight at Studio Lam

By

Mongkorn Timkul, Correspondent

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1 October 2016, 13:58

“Detroit is such a desolate city that you almost have to dream of the future to escape the reality of your surroundings,” DJ Juan Atkins once said of the techno scene which emerged there amid the desolation of hard times which struck the Motor City.

While house raged in New York and Chicago, Atkins and the likes of Derrick May came up with their own spin, fusing the funk of George Clinton with future-bot sounds of Kraftwerk.

Championing these dark edgy sounds in the kingdom is Thai techno producer Rutha “Mai” Rungsang, aka Nolens.Volens.

Since the mid-1990s, the producer’s main claim to fame is remixing tracks from prominent Thai artists such as DJ Suharit, Modern Dog and Groove Riders.

His work has appeared on many compilations, the most recent being “The Future Sound of Bangkok” on Yaak Records and most notably his track “Por Sea T” featured in The Matrix Revisited documentary.

His fascination with techno started in the late ‘80s. Introducing him to the genre was an an early dance music show on Bangkok’s FM88, Smile FM.

“I heard tracks from artists like Rhythim Is Rhythim, Inner City, Lil’ Louis; on a local dance radio program called ’88 BPM’ by DJ Pop and DJ Pom Alisara, and I became passionate and obsessed with techno’s rhythms and sounds,” said the self-professed die-hard fan of Detroit Techno, namely “banging techno … of the 90s-techno era, ghettotech, and hard, edgy, experimental, industrial sounds.”

Those cities’ music must have rubbed off on him, because while studying commerce in 2000 at the University of Illinois he started to take a career in music more seriously.

“The idea started when I heard music by the likes of Mr. Z, Kidnappers, Crub, and a few other Thai electronic music-related artists in the early ‘90s,” he said. “Back then I always told myself I wanted to do something like they did, and all I could do was to beatbox on top of my favorite tracks.”

He said it was just a pipe dream until a college friend, Tang, encouraged him to make music and they formed Nolens.Volens together in 1995. (Not to be confused with Nolens Volens, an act out of Brooklyn.)

“We were not musically trained except for some few tips from our mentors like Zomkiat (Zmix) and his musical partner Raywat; other than that we learned from scratch and from watching electronic music artists live shows,” he said.

The producer’s latest project is an event called _Cosm that aims to bring the best in dark and banging techno, or music for a post-apocalyptic world. The event already hosted techno royalty with DJ Ben Sims and Kirk Degorgio.

To hear the music of the end of the world, check out the crew tonight at Studio Lam and hear UK Techno legend Ben Long, one half of UK Techno duo Space DJz.

Doors open at 10pm, entry is 350 baht.

1AM Nightlife Curfew Killing Mor Lam, Musicians Plead For More Time

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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1 October 2016, 13:09

Mor Lam petitioners on Friday perform a dance at the 23rd Army Circle base in Khon Kaen after submitting a request for a closing time exemption.

KHON KAEN —Folk musicians in the northeast petitioned the junta Friday to exempt them from its mandatory closing time of 1am, saying it’s hurting business and killing tradition.

Representatives of mor lam groups in Khon Kaen province told reporters the closing times run contrary to the long-held tradition of lively performances that go till dawn. A military commander said he’ll submit their request to the junta in Bangkok.

“If we stop performing at 1am, it upsets the audience, because they don’t understand that security officers requested us to stop the performance,” Pramual Seti, chairman of Isaan Mor Lam Artists Group, said Friday at the headquarters of the 23rd Army Circle. “So it causes a problem of fewer and fewer booking of mor lam shows.”

He said if the situation continues, mor lam, a name which refers both the music and its singers, will disappear from Isaan.

“Many mor lams in Isaan have already quit, and the number has grown much smaller … mor lam may disappear for good in the near future,” Pramual warned.

Lt. Col. Phitakphon Chusri, commander of the junta’s security wing in Khon Kaen, said the 1am closing time was part of the regime’s policy of maintaining “orderliness” in society.

Phitakphon also said he will inform his supervisors about the musicians’ request so they can deliberate on an appropriate policy for Mor Lam.

After seizing power in May 2014, the junta has implemented a series of policies with the stated aim of restoring peace and order, including the enforcement of a 1am closing time for entertainment venues in many parts of the country.

Although 1am closing time has been in the law since 2004, authorities rarely enforced it in many entertainment and red-light districts.

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