News from Thailand – July 29, 2014
The repair of Thailand's longest wooden bridge, the Saphan Mon Bridge in Kanchanaburi, is progressing slowly. Last year, 70 of the 850 meter long bridge collapsed, the repair started in April and has only progressed 30 percent so far. It had been planned for four months, but that didn't work out in any way.
Work has been delayed because an emergency bridge that was right next to it has to be moved, only 26 piles have been recovered and 1.300 new ones are now due, most from the Northeast. The rain has also caused delays.
– Some news coverage Bangkok Post reminds me of the role of Kees van Kooten as Prof. Dr. Ir. Akkermans who coos 'I am called' at the distribution of ministerial posts. Likewise today.
The newspaper opens with the expectation that army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha, who will retire in September, will remain as leader of the NCPO (junta) and will also hold the post of prime minister in the interim cabinet that is to be formed.
As successor to the position of army commander, the current second man is named Udomdech Sitabutr. Former army commander Anupong Paojinda is tipped as deputy prime minister and defense minister. That says 'a source', and let's hope that source doesn't suck this out of his big thumb.
It's all in the article name dropping, information that seems less relevant to my readers this Tuesday morning. [What's the weekday got to do with that, Dick?]
The article also contains news about the legislative assembly (NLA, a kind of emergency parliament), reform council and the appointment of an interim cabinet. A list with 200 names of persons who will form the NLA has already been sent to the king. Royal approval is expected this week.
Again from a mysterious source: 110 of the 200 are army officers. The NLA will have 220 members, so there is still room for later appointments of suitable persons. The other 90 members are former senators and academics. [I miss civil society organizations.]
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defense asks for understanding for the military's dominance in the NLA. "The country is not yet in a normal state." According to him, the nominated candidates are 'the cream of the crop'. The NLA is expected to meet for the first time next week.
– The NCPO (junta) has ordered the evacuation of all 1.500 Thais in Libya as fighting between pro-government forces and militant groups escalates. The first evacuations will take place within 48 hours. According to the Thai ambassador, the situation in Tripoli is 'life-threatening'. Closing the embassy is being considered. Other countries have also started to remove their compatriots. The Thai evacuees will move to Djerba in Tunisia and fly from Djerba and Tunis to Bangkok.
The junta is also working on plans to move Thais working in Israel to safer areas. The embassy has advised them to stop working or temporarily change jobs. According to the ambassador, 65 of the 500 Thai workers working within 20 km of the Gaza Strip have asked for evacuation. Seven have already returned to Thailand.
– It has sometimes been different, but it is all over again between Thailand and Cambodia. Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh, on a two-day visit to Thailand, said his government understands the political developments in Thailand and in particular the junta's policy to restore peace and democracy in the country. Tea Banh is accompanied, among others, by the son of Hun Sen, the prime minister of the neighboring country.
During the visit, bilateral issues, preparations for the Asean Economic Community and border issues are discussed, but the problems surrounding Hindu temple Preah Vihear are not discussed. According to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defense, it is not the right time for that, because that could lead to a conflict. “Let us live together happily as before. We can talk about it later.'
– The provincial court of Betong (Yala) has approved the arrest warrants for two suspects in Friday's devastating bomb attack. Ten people are believed to have been involved in the attack.
Three separatists and a soldier were killed in two incidents in Narathiwat yesterday and a police officer was injured. The officer was shot at in his Toyota as he was driving home. That happened 200 meters from an army base. An operational team was sent from there and engaged in combat with the militants. Three of them were shot dead, one soldier who was seriously wounded later died in hospital.
A girl was killed in an explosion in Sai Buri on Sunday evening. Six others, two rangers, two young girls and two women, were injured.
– Is that called creative accounting? The railways (SRT) want to bear only one-fifth of the 109 billion baht debt, the rest is borne by the government. It should also dock for infrastructure projects. This proposal will go to the Department of Transportation on Friday and on to the State Enterprise Policy Commission and the NCPO.
Acting SRT Governor Prasert Attanan said debt splitting is key to solving and alleviating the massive debt burden that weighs on the SRT. A new four-year plan will come into effect later this year. Nothing came of the beautiful plans in the five-year plan that ends this year. They concerned the construction of double track, the purchase of locomotives and wagons, and a new signaling system.
The debt of the railways is relative, by the way, because the company has a lot of land: in Bangkok alone 512 rai (Makkasan), 1070 rai (Phahon Yothin) and 277 rai (Yannawa) and eleven plots in other provinces. [Why is the reporting never about the balance sheet, but always about the profit and loss account?]
The derailed wagons of the Eastern & Oriental Express have been brought to Bang Sue station (Bangkok). The damaged railway was supposed to have opened last night.
– What kind of idiots [my choice of words] work at the Ministry of Education? Yesterday I wrote about the good deeds passport and today the newspaper reports that the ministry wants to allow unauthorized professionals from certain professions to use the chalk because of the shortage of teachers. [Read: to lecture] Deans of universities and colleges resist.
A similar plan has already been devised by the Teacher's Council of Thailand (TCT), but in this plan the non-qualified teachers would have to take a course at the same time as teaching, with which they could obtain their qualification. In the ministerial plan, they automatically receive a deed of authorization after two years of trial operation. “We have no problem with outsiders, but we have to maintain quality,” says TCT president Paitoon Sinlarat.
The dean of the Faculty of Education at Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University wonders whether this teacher shortage exists at all. He points out that 300.000 students are taking teacher training courses.
– 26 percent of Thailand's total coastline is affected by erosion, or 830 of the 3.148 km. Some pieces are in a critical condition. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources will review its anti-coastal erosion plan and present it to the newly formed cabinet in October. A study of the most eroded places in nineteen provinces, including Rayong, Chanthaburi, Phang Nga, Krabi and Phuket, will begin next month.
In 2011, the government made 19 billion baht available for anti-erosion measures. Of this, 4 billion has been spent.
Economic news
– NokScoot, the joint venture of Nok Air and Scoot from Singapore, is on the warpath, because the budget airline has brought forward the start of the long-haul flight to Japan to September 1. On that date, Thai AirAsia X (TAAX) will also start flying to Japan.
TAAX flies from Don Mueang to Narita and Osaka, both non-flights. NokScoot has not revealed her destination yet, but it is likely to be Narita. For the new connection, the airline uses a Thai license from Pete Air, which has never been used. In this way, the company avoids the time-consuming procedure for obtaining a license from the Department of Civil Aviation.
NokScoot will fly on the route to Japan with a Boeing 777-200. Abroad, the number of seats will be increased from 323 to 415, according to industry sources. And the device gets a new paint job, in which the logos of both companies are incorporated.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
More news in:
Army seizes 6,24 km2 nicked land in forest reserve
Ten percent of the rice supply has gone bad
As far as I can judge, there is a great lack of teachers with practical experience at the universities. This has a number of causes:
1. the content of the training is not or hardly coordinated with the business community, which must take on the graduates as employees, neither on an incidental basis nor on a structural basis (e.g. by means of an advisory board in which the business community is represented);
2. the salaries of teachers are lower than the salaries in industry;
3. new teachers are mainly recruited through the family and acquaintances circuit of the current teachers;
4. due to the requirements of the ministry in the field of quality (sbeaking), when hiring teachers, academic qualifications (such as a completed Ph.D.) are much more important than practical experience.
5. As a result, the labor market for foreign teachers will become even more difficult than it already is.
In my opinion, appointing so-called unqualified teachers with practical experience is not such a bad idea in today's Thai education at university level. It could well benefit the 'employability'.
Also here in NL, due to stricter rules, I am only allowed to put teachers with the right diplomas for the HBO groups. As a result, I am no longer allowed to use the best teachers, those who work in the subject they teach and who bring practice into their lessons. The diploma requirements imposed on teachers make supervision easier, but do no good for the level of education. Without a diploma requirement, however, you must be able to rely on the fact that the educational institution itself sets the quality bar high. That is not so obvious in NL either. Difficult dilemma.
It is not about whether a teacher is authorized, but whether he/she is competent.
The Saphan Mon bridge is not located in Kachanaburi, but in Sangkla Buri, which is 65 km away.
Sangkhla Buri is a district located in Kanchanaburi province. It is my habit to include (sometimes in parentheses) the province name because province names are more familiar than district names. By the way, I now see that the photo caption mentions 30 percent and the message that the work has progressed for 10 percent.