Wildlife Smuggling

Wildlife trade is illegaly among the largest trades in the world,rivalling the illegal drugs and arms trades.

The figures suggest the trade is worth about US $ 10 billion per year.

It is frightening figure indeed.

Famous cases of illegal trade include the black Rhinoceros and Pangolins.

Horns of Rhinoceros are used for daggers handles as a symbol of masculinity in Yeman and meat of Pangolins are used as an Aphrodisiac in China.

China’s reputation is among the worst when it comes to the illegal trade in wildlife.

Traditional Chinese medicines include Rhino horns,Tiger bones and Tiger penises and Bear’s bile.

All are unproven Aphrodisiacs and are extremely costly to buyers.

In the past, Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has frequently seized a large number of Monitor Lizards and wildlife customs officials seized Pangolins, believed to be destined for Veitnam via Thai and Laos.

Wildlife smugglers are able to obtain the Pangolins and Monitor Lizards in the forest area in Malaysia where the hunters are collecting the most wanted Pangolins meat of which is naturally the best food for the rich Chinese.

They commonly believed the meat of Monitor Lizard and Pangolin were Aphrodisiacs and worth more than gold on the black market.

Apparently, more than 200 Monitor Lizards were confiscated by police force in the northeast earlier October, ‘08 and Wildlife customs officials seized the 288 Pangolin kept in the wood boxes at Don Muong Airport.

They are hunted for the bush meat trade .

The mother and the daughter reunited , they have been separated for 35 years long

Long period of wishful thinking  ,which  heartily stimulates the daughter to meet her mother, ended with happiness.
Young Thai baby called Somi was adopted  by a missionary  couple  Morrie Palmer  from the United State .

She was taken  from her home in a small village in Udon Thani province since  1973.

Suan, the teenage mother of  Somi, put her  new baby up for adoption at an office of the US Air Force in the provincial capital .In Minnesota, and later in Nebraska, Somi grew into a typical, normal US child, then teenager, then woman.

Her family and siblings  loved her.

But  she was not typical.And life was not normal.

“From the age of five, from my very first memories, what I remember is that I was different.

Life was difficult.

I didn’t belong.

“When  she was at the age of 12 “I couldn’t talk to Asian kids because they all spoke their own language, Somi recalled .

“Some of the boys and girls wouldn’t talk to me because of my dark skin “she said.

“Some of the kids  like me, but their parents told them they had to stay away from me because I was different, I was darker .

The right to pursue happiness was continually  snatched away from the adopted Thai.She felt  isolated  outside her immediate family.

“I really craved friendship or just attention. It was terrible .I started to do destructive things”, she said, to get that attention-nothing violent, but unpleasant to remember.

But this is not a sad story.
Somi’s life took to a decided turn for the better, and not too many years later she was happily married to an American man, Jay  from Fort Collins in northern Colorado.

Her wonderful husband said “Well, we have the means, so if  you want we can go to Thailand and find your family.” So the newly married couple picked Thailand as their honeymoon destination.
Her adoptive parents had kept her birth certificate,identifying the original hometown and name of her mother, Ms Suan.

But she set out to discover her roots and find her blood relatives, all she had was that piece of paper and to resolve to satisfy her desire to discover her roots and remove a lifetime of hurt.

In days, hours really, the fears,objections and difficulties faded.

The mother and the daughter walked up to each other  and  gave each other a big hug.

“I was so happy  to have found her ,but there were so many emotions going on right then, I didn’t know  which one to feel.” said Somi.

The older people checked her fingers, they all remembered  baby Somi had beautiful long fingers.

There were tears,and many cheers.

Life will never be the same for Somi Palmer.

She has dug deeply into her past, discovered her true roots,and struggles with a dual identity.

It is not the big stuff that bothers her so much.

She knew that she was different from her earliest, childhood memories.

All of that is part of the life with which she has struggled openly.

“I am so relieved. For 35 years I felt guilt, giving up my daughter for adoption, even though I knew  I could not look after her.

So young, and my husband left me.

And for most of that time, I thought she was dead.

I don’t know  where that story came from, but it’s not true, that is so great.

And now my daughter has come back.

I am so happy.

She is healthy.

She is successful.

And such a woderful daughter, not one time did she want to know  why I gave her up for adoption.

She understands me so well. “Somi is back in Colorado, almost exactly halfway round the Earth.

She cannot just pack up and move to Thailand as she sometimes dreams.

She has family in the US and that complicates things somewhat.

Thaksin Shinawatra, his gain and lost

Thailand’s ex-Premier lost a football team but he gained a new fortune. In July of last year, he bought Manchester City Football club for 5.2 billion baht. He recently sold it Arabs of the Abu Dhabi United Group for development and Investment for 12.9 billion bath, putting him up a cool 7.7 billion bath.

But his assets worth about 73.6 billion bath seized by the state.

Seksan Bangsomboon, the executive director for the Special Litigation Department,handedover a 125-page indictment report to the court along with 180 cardboard boxes containing legal documents and evidence.

The indictment,approved by Attorney-General Chaikasam Nitisiri,charged that the cash and assets were unlawfully acquired while Mr.Thaksin was in office from 2001-2006 and should be seized.

The assets seizure attempt is part of the assets Scrutiny Committee’s investigations into Mr. Thaksin’s alleged corruption and abuses of authority.

The SAC ordered a freeze on assets after the September 19,2006, coup.

The another case,he and his wife Potjama have not been there for their malfeasance, the corruption case, so the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders will meet without them.

The “in absentia” hearing is on her sweet 772-million-baht purchase of 33 rai of Ratchadapisek land from the Financial Institutions Development Fund in 2003.

It is the only currently active case before the court,and the one the couple fled avoid.

Possible penalty: 13 years in prison, each.

There is no appeal from a Supreme Court Verdict.

The couple, sharing the hardship and hertaches, before rise to the top

It was she, who bailed him out when he failed spectacularly in business and was deeply in dept.

It was she who was the audacious one, who answered all the phone calls from debt collectors to disappear, while all he wanted at the time was to go into hiding and wish for his creditors to disappear.

It was she who pulled out all the land deeds belonging to her and family and mortgaged them to extricate him from dept.

He has kept as a memento the old black-phone to which those debt-collection calls came in.

It symbolised the rock-bottom position from which he rebuilt his life and his fortune.

There was also the deep bond born out of sharing the hardship and heartaches, coupled with the enormous respect on his part for his life partner and her guts.

This binds the couple in a way difficult to understand by outsiders.

The Thailand former Prime minister Mr. Thaksin and his wife Potjaman Shinawatra have been living in London with son and daughters.

Mr. Thaksin said he was living a comfortable life in exile and physically fine, but mentally unhappy.

Those who are not in the same situation as me would not understand how I am feeling.

With a small window of opportunity and timing,the former prime minister did what he had to do to preserve his chance to fight another day.

By retreating,he can say that he is theoretically out of the game, with the hope that national reconciliation will afford him an opportunity to broker a comeback.

Giant wax challenge

Candle parade marks Lent, writes Jetjaras na Ranong in Ubon Ratchathani

There is no place that can rival this northeastern province when it comes to the staging of the “carved candle parade” to celebrate the arrival of the annual Buddhist Lent.

On Khao Pansa Day yesterday, local artists once again left tourists and local ordookcrs perplexed with their creative depictions of episodes from the life of the Lord Buddha and Buddhist concepts on wax.

Despite the souring production costs, the artists left no stone unturned to keep the famed local festival alive and well.

Fifty elaborate wax carvings were pahidi’d in the procession this year.

With the cost of producing one large elaborately carved candle climbing from last year’s 300,000 baht apiece to 500,000 baht this year, the works this year arrived much leaner and smaller. But the artists maintained their craftsmanship, and creativity was not compromised.

As competition was also involved, the winner in the largest candle category walked away with a 300,000-baht prize.

This year, to promote community participation, the artists also put up design patterns to offer interested locals a chance to try their hand at candle carving.

The parade is a climax of the province’s 18-day-long candle festival. Since July 1, the candle works of 10 foreign sculptors have also been on display at the province’s national museum, where the third international exhibition of sculptured candles was held under the theme “Global Coolingn@Thailand.”

The festival, in which beeswax candles are paraded, dates to llie reign of King Rama V. Traditionally, people presented candles to monks because there was no electricity in those days.

Candles were Iheir only source of light during Hutldhist Lent when monks were confined to temples for the three-month period during the rainy season.

Bangkok voted world’s best city

Bangkok has been voted the world’s top city up from place last year, in an online survey commissioned by travel & leisure magazine as part of its World’s Best Awards 2008.

The City of Angels replaced Florence which held the top spot for the past two years in second place was Buenos Aires, followed by Cape Town, Sydney, Florence, Cuzco (Peru), Rome, New York, Istanbul and San Franisco.

It was the first time Bangkok was voted into the top position. The Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador, which ranked fourth in last year’s survey, replaced Bali as the world’s best island destination.

“We’re delighted to welcome so many new winners this year,” said Nancy Novogrod, editor-in-chief of ihe magazine. “Nature and adventure were clearly a draw in the selections.”

In the survey, which covered the period from January to March this year, the magazine’s readers also voted for the best hotel (with The Oriental in Bangkok comingin 14th place),and the best international airline (Singapore Airlines was No. 1, followed by Emirates and Thai International Airways).

For a complete list of the awards, visit the magazine’s web site at www.travelandleisure.com.