Crikey readers weigh in on the big issues of the day.
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Phuket’s red light women trade where it’s ‘no big deal’
Bangla Road in Phuket is one of the world’s best-known red light districts for tourists. But life for prostitutes isn’t exactly what Liam Engel, an Australian writer, expected.
READ MOREReality TV battle … Murdoch conference … e-book price fix …
In today’s Media Brifs: dose of reality crucial for Nine, Gyngell … How Murdoch hacked: a conference … Front Page of the Day … Apple accused by US of colluding with publishers to fix price of ebooks and more …
READ MOREFree speech and a car dealer come to grief in Thailand
Another setback yesterday for free speech, as Colorado car salesman Joe Gordon was sentenced in Bangkok to 2½ years jail for insulting the king of Thailand.
READ MORESeeing the ocean through the trees in Gunns debate
Crikey readers have their say.
READ MOREWalkley Awards … breakfast with Piers … Rupert returns to Oz …
A hearty congratulations to those nominated for Walkley awards, journalism’s highest honour, announced at simulcast union-funded drinks last night in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Plus other media news of the day.
READ MOREThailand’s new PM and her favourite phrase
Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s first female PM, is staying “on message” and embracing the same line delivered again and again: “everything will be done according to an established procedure…”
READ MOREAn uncertain Thailand hopes for reconciliation
Despite coups, bloodshed and political upheaval, Thai voting behavior has been shown to be remarkably consistent.
READ MORENew Thai PM begins a turbulent chapter
Crikey media wrap: The difficult political history in Thailand just got even more interesting, with national elections over the weekend ensuring that opposition leader Yingluck Shinawatra will be the country’s next prime minister.
READ MOREThailand’s shirts fight it out at the ballot box
A new and possibly dangerous chapter in Thailand’s volatile political history begins on Sunday.
READ MOREA day of shame for the Australian Reserve Bank.
Australia has its first ever prosecution under foreign bribery legislation.
READ MORETimes are a-Changin’ for Thailand’s ‘institution’
In the lead-up to Thailand’s July 3 national election, which many hope will bring stability to a turbulent period, The Bangkok Post call for calm, defending ‘the institution’ and its role in guarding culture and tradition.
READ MOREMore Bangkok for your polling buck
I know I have regularly criticised those of my peers who slavishly rely on opinion polls published well before the actual polling day to predict election outcomes but, I’m sorry, I cannot resist this one that appeared at the weekend in the Bangkok Post.
READ MOREBangkok: land of the ladyboys
Bangkok is known for three things: the steaming heat, incredible shopping and ladyboys. Steffi Chang explains her awe at seeing a ladyboy cabaret with her parents as a child.
READ MOREThe lady with the stall below Thong Lo station
Each morning she is there, her stall set up beneath the stairs of the Thong Lo skytrain station in Thailand, long before the sun is up. Damian Doyle guesses her story.
READ MOREThailand prepares for economic rebuild after the violence
Now that Thailand is slowly getting back to something approaching civility, it’s time for an accounting. A lot of unquantifiable damage done to the country’s reputation by the disorder, but we won’t find out until much later in the year if the economic fabric of the economy has been affected.
READ MOREWhere’s the King? The monarchy asleep as Thailand burns
With the dust settling on the rubble of the former Red Shirt strongholds in Bangkok, Crikey intern Nicole Eckersley speaks to Professor Damien Kingsbury about the future of Thailand’s democratic process and the role of the monarchy.
READ MOREExit the King
King Berenger the First — the protagonist of Eugene Ionesco’s celebrated farce Exit The King — is solipsistic and belligerent and near death. Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej is also dying.
READ MOREBattle in Bangkok: this is a class war
Beyond yellow and red, the bloody battle being fought on the streets of Thailand is fundamentally about rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural, explains Andrew Walker.
READ MOREThailand needs its king
As Thailand’s streets grow bloodier by the day, the only person who can bring some stability to the country is its beloved monarch, King Bhumibol Ajulyadej, says HDS Greenway. Will he speak up before it’s too late?
READ MOREThailand: where soldiers sing karaoke, joke, and shoot people
The Thai riots are at a critical stage. Yet nobody offers a clear way forward, or a reason why tensions that had been bubbling in the background for years had come to a head now, writes Brett Debritz from Bangkok.
READ MOREPostcard from a ‘yuppie refugee camp’ in Bangkok
Craig Knowles lives in Bangkok and is sheltering friends in his living room which has become a defacto yuppie refugee camp. He writes to Crikey as the violence in Thailand is becoming dangerously unpredictable.
READ MOREThailand on the brink of civil war
The moderate voices in Thailand have disappeared, leaving just the militant forces of the Red Shirts and the government remaining. If the killings continue, will it descend into civil war?
READ MOREFear of democracy extracts its price in Bangkok
How did a modern, prosperous, thoroughly Westernised country descend into a spiral of violence and chaos? Because a system in which only “the right people” are allowed to get elected is not democracy.
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