Fuhrer furore! Thai student Nazi dress-up day causes outrage

• Foreign parents and teachers appalled by the costumes
• Thai teachers 'did not understand' the controversy
• School asked to put the Holocaust on the curriculum

They had been meticulously planning their costumes for quite some time.The annual summer sports day had a long tradition of fancy dress and, eager to impress, the pupils of Sacred Heart Catholic School kept their outfits under wraps for weeks.
They wanted to surprise their parents and teachers as they made their entrance at the school in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.
And surprise them they did. With a flourish and a fanfare, they revealed their costumes - to outraged gasps from the crowd.

Bad taste: A girl strides into her school at Chiang Mai dressed as Adolf Hitler, seemingly oblivious to the offensiveness of her costume

Shock: Smiling pupils carrying a Swastika flag were met with horror from foreign parents and teachers, who were left reeling at the bad taste of the procession

The smiling pupils arrived at the school dressed in full Nazi regalia and carrying large Swastika flags, leaving foreign parents and teachers open-mouthed.

Leading the march into the sports ground was a girl dressed as Adolf Hitler - complete with toothbrush moustache - seemingly unaware of the offence she had caused.

She was followed by a procession of pupils dressed as SS guards - brandishing plastic machine guns.
Stunned ex-pats were appalled. Surely the pupils were aware of what the Swastika and Nazis represented?

Under fire: Thailand's education system was criticised as it emerged that not even the teachers knew what Swastika and Nazi costumes represented

Apparently not, as it emerged that not even the Thai teachers at the school understood what all the fuss was about.
A teacher at the school said: 'It was all very embarrassing. Traditionally the students wear fancy dress on the summer sports day and they like to keep everything they are preparing quiet. Nobody saw any swastikas around the school before the event.
'But then on sports day when we saw these Nazi storm troopers we were appalled. We told the Thai teachers that this was not on. But they did not understand what was wrong with the display.'

History lesson: The school was asked to put the Holocaust - and Adolf Hitler - on the curriculum

Today, a delegation from the consulates of Britain, the United States, France and Germany descended on the school to protest about the controversy - and called on teachers to put modern history and the Holocaust on the curriculum.
They left the premises after the school told them no malice had been intended.
Chiang Mai is a popular retirement destination for many Europeans and Americans, some of whom lost relatives to the Nazis.
A British parent added: 'It could have been worse. They could have been marching to the 'Horst Wessel Song or Bomb Oh Bombs on England."
The school's principals did not want to comment about the incident, but a spokesman said: 'We did not know what the students had planned. No offence was intended.'
This is not the first incident of its kind in Thailand. In 2007 about 200 students from a Bangkok school dressed as Nazis for their summer sports day, Sieg Heiling as they strutted around.
Kanya Khemanan, a director of the Thewphaingarm School, was forced to apologise to the Los Angeles-based Holocaust museum Simon Wiesenthal Centre following the incident.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said at the time: 'We are long past the time when such incidents take place in Asia that can be excused due to "alleged" ignorance of the Nazis' atrocities during World War II.'

About 5,000 seeking help each day for flood woes, illnesses

Ministry makes child vaccinations top priority for mobile units

With an average of 5,000 people seeking help for floodrelated diseases and other health problems across the country each day, the Public Health Ministry has adjusted the operations of its mobile medical units, permanent secretary Phaijit Warachit said yesterday.

Patients have been prioritised into three groups: small children in need of immediate vaccination, who will be visited and administered injections right away; those requiring sustained care, such as pregnant women or those with disabilities, who will be visited periodically; and those with less serious problems, who are already catered to daily by 200 mobile units.

To minimise postflood outbreaks, villagers are being advised on diseasecontainment methods, such as installing sufficient latrines or putting garbage in plastic bags before disposal, he said.

According to a ministry report, 367,656 people had become sick and sought treatment during 2,889 visits by mobile units, with a daily average of about 5,000 people seeking treatment.

The most common complaints, in descending order, are: foot diseases, colds, muscle pains, skin rashes and stress.

Severe cases of stress disorder were found in 1,451 people, and 3,161 milder cases were found. A total of 375 cases - comprising people in both groups - were considered suicidal and provided with special care, while another 530 were being monitored.

Mudslide and flashflood warnings remain in effect in nine of the 26 flooded provinces, according to the government's new Flood Relief and Coordination Centre. The nine provinces are Lampang, Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok, Ubon Ratchathani, Trat, Chanthaburi, Nakhon Nayok, Rayong and Ranong.

The official death toll stood at 158, with three people missing, yesterday. The number of people affected was 1,927,120. A total of 8,088 villages in 141 districts of 26 provinces are inundated.

The possibility of heavy rain remained high across the country, according to a weather forecast yesterday, with Bangkok and the three heavily flooded Central provinces of Lop Buri, Saraburi and Ayutthaya facing a 70percent chance of rain, along with Ubon Ratchathani in the Northeast. In other areas where rain was forecast, the likelihood was put at 60 per cent.

A Dusit Poll survey found that the public was happier with floodrelief efforts undertaken by the media and the private sector than they were with authorities' efforts. The 2,019 respondents, surveyed from September 1924, gave a 27percent approval rating to the media's efforts and a 25.5percent approval rating to authorities.

Approval rates, by source of assistance, were as follows, from highest to lowest: local businesses, local administrative bodies and local authorities. Percentages were not provided.

Angry Chai Nat flood victims destroy sandbag barrier protecting Suphan Buri

BMA officials open gates to let river water into city canals
More than 500 flood victims in Chai Nat yesterday demolished sandbag walls that officials had erected to limit the amount of water flowing into neighbouring Suphan Buri province.

"We have lived with floodwater for a month now. We can't put up with this any longer," said a flood victim who identified herself only as Kung.

She and her comrades at first closed the Wat Sing - Uthai Thani Road in Mueang Chai Nat district to force officials at the Phon Thep Irrigation Project to come out and negotiate with them. However, after the officials refused to come out, the local flood victims simply demolished the sandbag walls.

"The first floor of local houses are flooded. Have you thought about people whose houses have just one floor? Three locals have drowned. Our children are suffering from athlete's foot," Kung said.

The project's chief, Worachai Bamrungphon, later said his team had released some water but the locals were still not happy.

"I think within two days, water from here will reach Suphan Buri," he added.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), meanwhile, decided to open water gates to let water from the Chao Phraya River into some of Bangkok's canals.

Sanya Sheenimit, chief of the BMA's Department of Drainage and Sewerage, said the move would ease flood problems in Nonthaburi.

Previously, farmers in Bangkok's adjacent provinces lamented that the authorities' efforts to fully protect the capital came at their expense.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Pornthep Techapaiboon urged the government yesterday to quickly compensate affected people in Pathum Thani, a province adjacent to Bangkok.

Two young children, including an eight-month-old baby, were among the latest casualties of floods that now look set to hit even wider areas.

The baby, Siripop Khamroon, and his three-year-old brother Weerapop were found dead yesterday after a flash flood swept through their village in Chiang Mai's Fang district late on Friday night.

"The disaster also seriously damaged 30 houses there," Fang district chief Prakasit Mahasing said.

He said flood torrents were so powerful the whole road to the village was damaged and five bridges destroyed.

Pong Namron Horticulture Experiment Station sustained serious damage too. "The damage is estimated at over Bt50 million," Prakasit said.

Fang district was among areas at risk identified by the National Disaster Warning Centre, which yesterday warned that landslides and flash floods could hit some northern provinces this weekend due to expected downpours.

The centre said many districts of Si Sa Ket, Ubon Ratchathani and Maha Sarakham in the Northeast were also at risks of flash floods and overflows this weekend.

Central provinces such as Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Angthong, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Bangkok might also face downpours and possible flash floods today and tomorrow, it added.

Eastern provinces like Prachin Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat would also face these risks from tomorrow till Friday, it warned.

As for the South, there would be risks between Tuesday and Friday. Popular tourist destinations like Krabi and Phuket were also facing adverse weather.

"People in risky areas must be on alert," the centre said.

According to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, floods have now raged in 23 provinces. None of these was in the South, however.

The official death toll stood at 153 as of yesterday morning. Three other victims were reported missing. But more deaths were reported later yesterday.

Uthai Thani Governor Wanchai Hosukhonsap said Prateep Sukiam, 57, was the latest flood victim to have drowned in his province.

"He drowned while trying to wade through floodwater to visit his elderly dad, who lived just 150 metres away," Wanchai said.

Floods

Rain clouds approach the city centre of Thailand's capital Bangkok . Monsoon rains, floods and mudslides have killed at least 140 people since July, authorities said.

Red-shirt villages to join up

Residents of red-shirt villages are planning to create a national federation to boost unity and facilitate expansion nationwide.

Anon Saennan, secretary of the Udon Thani red-shirt movement who initiated the creation of these villages, said yesterday that the chiefs of these villages would meet at a hotel in the northeastern province on October 5. At the meeting, they will elect the chairman and members of the federation's board, which will be formally announced later.

He said the federation's headquarters will be located in the same building that houses the 111 Thai Rak Thai Foundation formed by executives of the disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party, including former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

"The formation of the federation will help enhance unity within the movement," Anon explained. He added that after the first red-shirt village was set up in Udon Thani last December, more than 3,000 of them have sprouted across the country. He expressed confidence that in two years, many more villages in all provinces of the country will become part of the red-shirt movement.

Anon said at a meeting in Cambodia last Sunday, Thaksin told him personally that he had never told the ruling Pheu Thai Party to dissolve red-shirt villages.

"The former prime minister said that in addition to strengthening the red-shirt movement, he wants these red-shirt villages to create jobs for residents. He also wants us to work with the Interior Ministry to keep these villages free of drugs," Anon said.

Hundreds of Thaksin supporters have been crossing the border from Si Sa Ket province into Cambodia to watch a friendly football match between red-shirt politicians and members of the Cambodian cabinet, which is scheduled to take place today at the Olympics Stadium in Phnom Penh.

Sompoj Prasartthai, a red-shirt leader from Nakhon Ratchasima, said he expected the football match to boost ties between the two countries. However, many red-shirt from the North chose not to travel to Cambodia after hearing that Thaksin had left the country and would not be present at the match.

Suvarnabhumi Airport to stamp out rogue taxi drivers

BANGKOK, 23 September 2011 (NNT)-The Airports of Thailand (AoT) Public Company Limited has boasted its security measure against illegal taxi drivers around Suvarnabhumi Airport by holding a seminar for police, hoping their operation would stamp out rogue taxi drivers completely.

With a new batch of police force who came to work at the airport since 2 July this year, training was necessary to prepare them to work on the airport compound, which is in a commercial and transport environment. The seminar was held yesterday to assure the efficiency of the operation and to make sure AoT staff and the police officers are working in the same direction.

Other efforts by the AoT include signs and posters to remind passengers or tourists to use the taxi service in the designated zone outside of the passenger terminal on the ground floor. The record on taxi drivers and destinations will be kept each time the passenger is using the service for easy tracking.

Tourists are warned not to trust anyone who approach them and claim to provide a taxi service as they are not registered taxi drivers. Since 2009, 8 suspects have been arrested where 5 of them have already been jailed.

To prevent illegal taxi drivers, the AoT has also forced any sign holders to get their signs inspected and approved under a precautionary measure to prevent a rogue business operation from preying on the tourists.

In addition, a new technology will be introduced in the near future in which the vehicle’s license will be examined. Those that are not authorized vehicles will be notified to authorities.

Ex-Massage Parlor Tycoon Rubs Away Thailand's Police Chief

BANGKOK, Thailand -- When voters recently elected a crude, joke-cracking, former massage parlor tycoon to parliament, no one expected him to immediately unleash a video sting against Thailand's biggest illegal casino, and topple the country's chief of police, plus the military-installed head of the National Security Council.

"I have been removed for a reason which has nothing to do with my ability or my shortcomings," Thawil Pliensri, the ousted National Security Council secretary-general, said on September 7.

All the chaos and drama is thanks to the wise guy tactics of Chuvit Kamolvisit, who has even upset the U.S. State Department.

The American Embassy refused to issue Mr. Chuvit a visa to meet his two daughters and former wife in San Diego, California, because he previously owned several huge Bangkok massage parlors packed with sex workers and openly admitted to bribing police, he said.

"I stopped my massage parlors," a reformed Mr. Chuvit said in an interview while waxing nostalgic about his life in America in 1985 when he worked as a doorman at a sleazy sex club in New York City's Times Square.

"I miss my kids, who are American," he said, describing two California daughters, 24 and 26, from his first of three marriages.

The U.S. Embassy gave him a visa four years ago, he said, but "they don't give me the human right" to have another visa.

Now, instead of bribing cops, he is using his new seat in parliament to expose police who allegedly profit from lavish, illegal gambling dens equipped with baccarat tables, roulette wheels, card games and other betting games.

Most gambling is illegal in this Buddhist-majority country, though lotteries are permitted.

Mr. Chuvit, who boasts of being a hedonist, favors legalizing gambling and heads a tiny, four-man opposition Rak Thailand ("Love Thailand") party, which he uses as a personal soapbox.

After winning a July election, he stunned parliament in August by displaying an elaborate video sting he arranged which allegedly showed Thailand's biggest illegal casino was protected by police.

There are more than 170 illegal gambling dens of various sizes in Bangkok, winning a total of up to $6 billion each year -- with five to 20 percent of the profits allegedly paid to bribe police -- according to Rajabhat University's Good Governance program.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal gambling sites exist throughout Thailand.

Mr. Chuvit said he exposed the biggest one, which raked in about $500,000 every night from 1,000 gamblers in the heart of Bangkok.

"So it becomes about 450 million baht ($15 million) per month," in profit for police and others to share from just that one casino, Mr. Chuvit said, grinning with delight that his surprise "anti-corruption" crusade is wildly popular with Thailand's media and public.

"Let me tell you roughly about the illegal casino," he said, mimicking the voice of an imaginary policeman conspiring with cronies:

"These two tables, I give to you. You give me (bribes). These five tables, I give to that guy. Three tables, I give to that guy. And I charge you per table."

Asked who operated most of Thailand's illegal casinos, Mr. Chuvit replied, "I think 100 percent are with the police getting money from the illegal casinos."

Anyone else who wants to open an illegal gambling den has to pay off the cops, he said.

"They cannot open without the permission of the police. If you are the big guy from the army, you have to still be paying the police."

Amazingly, Mr. Chuvit expects to survive in this Southeast Asian nation where contract killings are common, despite exposing lucrative kickbacks.

"The media protects me. That keeps me alive. Because I am still in the spotlight," he said in the interview on August 31.

Others speculate that he protects himself by possessing evidence of much wider corruption and illegal activity, which could be published if he were murdered.

His video sting against the illegal casino appeared to be cleverly planned.

Mr. Chuvit showed his first video in parliament on August 23, which reportedly revealed the lush interior of a huge, expensively equipped illegal casino packed with gamblers.

He voiced mock outrage that police had not closed down Thailand's biggest casino, alleging that the cops were corrupt.

Despite that spotlight, police waited three days before staging a raid, and then announced that Mr. Chuvit was wrong because the building was empty.

"I know the police will be late," Mr. Chuvit said at a news conference earlier on August 31, describing his two-part sting.

So, Mr. Chuvit whipped out his second video, purportedly shot from a nearby rooftop, showing men and trucks emptying the casino's gambling tables and equipment during the three days while the police hesitated.

"Every night, they move everything. The ceiling, the carpets, the tables, the chairs, everything...They can move it in three days. Unbelievable," he said.

As a result of Mr. Chuvit's videos, National Police Chief Gen. Wichean Potephosree was forced to resign last week.

A Royal Thai Police Office committee began investigating 10 other senior police officers for alleged involvement in the case.

"It is impossible that a large casino can open in the heart of Bangkok, and top-ranking police officers are not aware of it, and do not give a nod to the casino operator," said Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, a fearsome former police captain.

Gen. Wichean's downfall pleased newly elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra because the police chief was perceived as biased against her supporters during the past several months.

Mrs. Yingluck replaced him with Gen. Wichean's deputy, Police Gen. Priewpan Damapong, who is the elder brother of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ex-wife.

Mr. Thaksin is Mrs. Yingluck's brother.

The military overthrew him in a 2006 coup and he is now a fugitive based in Dubai, dodging a two-year jail sentence for corruption.

Meanwhile, the National Security Council's secretary-general, Mr. Thawil, was also ousted so Gen. Wichean could have his job.

Mr. Thawil was apparently targeted because last year he helped the military crush anti-coup Red Shirt protesters who support Mrs. Yingluck and Mr. Thaksin.

"You need an expert, the expert to fight about corruption," Mr. Chuvit said at the news conference.

"Have you ever seen 'Catch Me If You Can'?" he asked, referring to the Hollywood film portraying the true story of an American con artist -- played by Leonardo DiCaprio -- who, after arrest, worked for the FBI to bust forgers.

"I can become the specialist about corruption because I know the corruption.

"I used to pay," he said, referring to $5 million in bribes, spread over 10 years, that he paid to corrupt officials to prevent raids on his massage parlors which had employed a total of 20,000 women.

Corruption is part of Thailand's "system" because "everybody pays," he said.

"If 95 people pay, and only five people don't pay, you become the minority. The majority pay."

He defended his former legally licensed massage parlors, which included the Copacabana, Victoria's Secret, Honolulu, Hi Class, Emmanuel, and Julianna.

"I say, 'What's wrong about the massage parlor? What's wrong? People who don't have sex is wrong.' It's not about the massage parlor is wrong.

"Yes, this is Thailand. I accept that the massage parlor is the biggest sex business in the world."

But the government and public remain hypocritical.

"If you ask them, 'Does Thailand have the sex business?' They will say, 'No'. 'Does Thailand do the illegal casino?' They say, 'Oh no, we are the Buddhists, we cannot do anything like that'."