"Bangkok’s flood walls hold for now" by Associated Press October 17, 2011
BANGKOK - Barriers protecting Bangkok from Thailand’s worst floods in half a century held firm yesterday as the government said some water drenching provinces just north of the capital has begun receding.
That restored hope that Bangkok, with 9 million people, could escape unharmed. But outside of the city, thousands of people remain displaced, and hungry residents are struggling to survive in half-submerged towns. The military yesterday rescued terrified civilians from the rooftops of flooded buildings in the city of Ayutthaya, one of the country’s hardest-hit.
Katrina.
Bangkok has averted calamity so far because of a complex system of flood walls, canals, dikes, and underground tunnels that helped divert vast pools of runoff south into the Gulf of Thailand. But if any of the defenses fail, floodwaters could sweep through the city.
It doesn't look like it to me! WTF?
Seasonal rains that drench Southeast Asia annually have been extraordinarily severe this year, killing hundreds of people across the region. Thailand has been particularly affected.
And yet I have read NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT IT in my Boston Globe.
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"TEAMWORK -- Workers and members of the Royal Thai Navy used sandbags to create an embankment along a street to guard against more flooding at a temple outside Bangkok. Thai officials said Bangkok should largely escape the flooding that has affected nearly a third of the country since July (Boston Globe October 15 2011)."
That was a photo in the printed paper, and something webbers would never have seen.
Another tip for you:
"US man pleads guilty to royal insult in Thailand" October 10, 2011|Thanyarat Doksone, Associated Press
Hoping for a lenient sentence, a shackled U.S. citizen pleaded guilty Monday to charges of defaming Thailand’s royal family, a grave crime in the Southeast Asian kingdom punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
Thai-born American Joe Gordon has been detained since late May for translating excerpts of a locally banned biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and posting them online. Gordon committed the alleged crimes years ago while living in the U.S. state of Colorado, where he worked as a car salesman. The case has raised concerns about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to both Thai nationals and foreign visitors.
And yet the U.S. can rain missiles down on people and no problem!
Lese majeste is the crime of insulting a ruler, and Thailand has the most severe lese majeste laws in the world. Critics say they have been increasingly abused by political rivals to harass opponents, particularly since a 2006 military coup....
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