Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Why can't politicians around the world show some accountability? In Thailand, it is the same old boring story. Today we have the Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Noparmonbodee refusing to quit and even threatening to sue an investigation into his supposed corrupt dealings. His boss has already resigned after being accused of engineering "irregularities" with billions of baht of public money, but Mr Manit has cleverly understood that the ruling Democrat party needs the support of the minor party to which he belongs, so he is not moving. I predict that this story, which has caused a huge fuss recently, will disappear within a week. We may even find out one day that Mr Manit has become PM, and no-one will remember his murky past. The Bangkok Post covers the story here.

In my native Australia, the papers have been full of stories about tragic road accidents. There have been five people killed in three separate road accidents, some of which have involved collisions between huge trucks and private cars. In response, there is tremendous public pressure for heavy freight haulage to be moved from road back to rail. Reading stories like this always reminds me how far away my own country is. Nearly every day I see ridiculously overloaded trucks being driven like F1 sports cars by drugged up truckies and I mentally wonder when it is that I will be squashed like a pancake. However, I have given up feeling outraged, and now drive as recklessly as everyone else here.

Finally, The Guardian newspaper in England is remarking on the bitterly cold weather in Europe. I wish we had some of that. It was 27 degrees when I went for my run at 5am this morning, and I must have sweated several liters by the time I finished. We definitely have not had a winter.