Severed Head

KC-We live in grisly times. The Nation has reported the gruesome death of a foreigner in Bangkok whose head was found dangling five metres below Rama 8 bridge in Phra Nakhon district. The head was sealed in a plastic bag. The body has not yet been located. A strange, cryptic message was found scribbled on the bridge's railings in correction fluid. It read: 'I want but I cannot.... I came to Bangkok to be with you.' I will post more on this as it unravels. The man has not yet been identified.

Interestingly, the Bangkok Post reported a variation in the message: 'I want it but I didn't get what I want' and 'I came here to see you'.

Another variation on the message was: 'CATH I WANT BUT I CANNOT CAME TO BANGKOK TO BE YOU'.- Source TNA, 22/02/2009


HORROR IN CITY
Severed foreigner's head found hanging from a bridge

BANGKOK: -- Police on Sunday are trying to identify a man, believed to be a foreigner, whose head was found hanging from a rope at Rama IX Bridge in Phra Nakhon district. His body was still not found.

The head, belonging to man in his 40s, was tied to the rope and apparently put in a plastic bag and hung from the bridge's railing. When it was found at about 2pm, the plastic bag was detached from the head, revealing a gruesome sight. A doctor estimated that he had died for at least eight hours.

Two sentences, "I want but I cannot …," and "I came to Bangkok to be you," were found written on the bridge's railings.

Pol Col Chavalit Prasobsilp, a police chief, said that it was apparently not a suicide and he will wait for autopsy results before concluding how the head was cut from the body.

"We will check the security circuits at the bridge and see if anything related to the incident was captured," Chavalit said.

"We need to urgently know who is the victim," he said, requesting that the media published clear pictures of the victim's face to help police identify the victim.

-- The Nation 2009-02-22

Berserk Farang

KC-Satirist Chris Morris' "twisted brain-wrong of a one-off man mental" was made flesh in Bangkok recently as a berserk drunken Australian went on the Sukhumvit rampage. Clearly inebriated with liquor the Aussie went ballistic, stealing beers from the 7-Eleven and commandeering a taxi, before being arrested and bundled into a police van. The confines of the small van only sought to enrage the individual even further and led to a full-blown assault on Thong Lor's boys in grey, who finally managed to subdue the man and promptly incarcerated him at a secure unit away from other prisoners. Obviously this story will only serve to feed the anti-farang sentiment which bubbles nervously behind -some- Thai smiles. A picture of the brute with his trousers round his ankles, his wee pecker saved from the lime-light by a superimposed dot, brings a truly horrible addition to the 'violent drunken foreigner' stereotypes and perceptions in the Thai media and psyche. It is indeed a shame that Thailand has more than its fair share of holidaying neanderthals. Let's hope the hairy animal is deported and never allowed to return, or sent to a forest monastery to be relentlessly soaked in Buddha Dharma until he is expunged of both violence and the poisonous brew that overpowered his senses.-

The Phuket Gazette has the full story:

Enraged Aussie pounds Bangkok police

BANGKOK: Life in Thailand can sometimes get a bit frustrating for expats when things don't quite work out as they would in their home countries. This, coupled with the booze-heavy lifestyle enjoyed by a fair percentage of Westerners living in the Kingdom, occasionally leads to “Angry Farang Syndrome”.

A prime example occurred one afternoon last month outside Thong Lor Police Station. Station Superintendent Col Suthin Sapphuang was sitting in his office around 3 pm, when he heard a commotion from outside the station. When he got downstairs, he found the noise emanated from a large middle-aged Westerner who was busy beating the inside of a police van with such fury, that none of the watching officers dared to go near.

Col Suthin ordered his deputy and three inspectors to go and try and calm the 50-year-old man, identified by name in the original report, but referred to here only as “the Aussie”.

After the officers’ efforts to calm the Aussie down failed, they decided that a dose of pepper spray might do the trick. After the Aussie was liberally doused with the noxious spray, police decided he was calm enough for them to dare open the door. However, as soon as police had the Aussie out of the truck, he exploded again, freeing himself from the clutches of the officers and going on a rampage, chasing and punching as many policemen as he could.

The enraged Australian managed to injure a number of officers before he was finally overpowered, in the process of which he, disturbingly, lost his trousers. The photo of the incident in the Thai press shows the Aussie with his trousers round his ankles, his dignity somewhat spared by a small superimposed red dot.

To view the image, click here.

The Aussie was bundled to the ground by the officers, and the group then rolled into the gutter. In acknowledgement to the Aussie’s determination, it took six officers to keep him subdued long enough to get the cuffs on.

The Aussie was initially arrested following a complaint by a taxi driver that the Australian had stolen his cab. The taxi driver, Phanomphon Pranison, 40, told police that earlier that day he had picked up the Aussie opposite Sukhumvit Soi 16. The Aussie didn’t say where he wanted to go, but when they got to opposite Soi 22, the Aussie asked to stop so he could go to 7-Eleven. A few moments later, the Aussie got back in the cab clutching two bottles of beer. In hot pursuit was a member of staff from the shop shouting that the Aussie had not paid for the beer. When Mr Phanomphon got out of the car, the Aussie climbed into the driver’s seat and took off in the taxi, Mr Phanomphon said.

Mr Phanomphon reported the crime and police soon caught up with the Aussie, putting him in the cells at Thong Lor Police station. The Aussie, however, did not take his confinement lightly. He caused such a commotion that police began to fear for the safety of other prisoners, or worryingly, that other prisoners would take it upon themselves stop to the Aussie’s antics. They decided to take him to the cells at nearby Phra Khanom Court, which is when he began attacking the police truck.

The Aussie was initially to be charged with theft and immigration offences. The report did not say if any charges would be added for his post-arrest behavior.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/queernews/index.asp?ref=200922111432

Milky Milky

KC-Is nothing sacred from the selfish greed of Thailand's corrupt? Now even school milk, given to children for essential sustenance is tainted with the impurities of the unscrupulous. The milk was 'substandard' according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which may have been a factor in the recent widespread repulsion towards the beverage amongst Bangkok's pupils. Speculation that flavoured milk could be introduced to persuade the children's palettes was criticized as counter-productive as most flavoured milk contains a miasma of e-numbers and colourings. On the back of the rotten canned fish debacle of recent weeks, this is a further embarrassment for the Abhisit government whose hollow anti-corruption rhetoric continues to reverberate throughout the media in the midst of these scandals. One can only hope the individuals distributing dodgy milk to innocent children are bought to justice and made to suckle on the teats of goats for their heinous crimes.-

An anti-graft agency is gearing up for a nationwide investigation into school milk supplies after its probe into the scandal in Chumphon uncovered possible price collusion in the scheme.

The secretary-general of the Office of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), Tharit Pengdit, said the inquiry into the selection of milk suppliers in Chumphon has suggested irregularities in the bidding process.

Of 18 eligible suppliers, only two tendered bids. One of them quoted an unusually high price while the other offered the median price and won the contract to supply the milk.

Moreover, the two suppliers are apparently owned by the same individuals, said Mr Tharit.

"Price collusion is suspected in this case. So the PACC is prepared to launch an investigation into the bidding process for the school milk scheme across the country. We will choose [schools for the probe] at random. The findings should give us the big picture," he said.

The school milk scandal emerged when the director of Pak Lek school in Chumphon's Phato district complained that milk distributed to his students under the scheme was below standard.

His suspicions were confirmed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which ran lab tests on the milk samples and found the fat level was only 2.6 per cent, below the FDA standard of 3.2 per cent.

These findings have triggered speculation about corruption in the school milk project which is run by local administrative organisations.

The local bodies are required to buy pasteurised milk from eligible suppliers in zones selected by the National Dairy Committee and the Interior Ministry's Provincial Administration Department.

Mr Tharit said a requirement for the local organisations to buy milk only from within their zones is deemed to have opened up channels for price collusion among the suppliers.

Deputy Interior Minister Boonjong Wongtrairat said yesterday he welcomed changes, if any, to the bidding rules to spur competition among milk suppliers.

He urged the local administrative bodies to submit a proposal to the National Dairy Committee.

He said the ministry would monitor the scheme closely and take action against state officials found involved in irregularities.

Meanwhile, the Dairy Farming Promotion Organisation of Thailand (DPO), which produces the Thai-Danish milk brand, yesterday called on the government to seek ways to relieve its excess inventory of UHT milk worth 200 million baht for the school milk scheme.

"If we can't solve this problem, we may face losses this year," said Sunun Keeratiwattanapisarn, a director of the DPO board.

The DPO, a government-controlled organisation, acts as a buyer of excess supplies of raw milk from farmers as part of a relief plan. But it can help buy only 40 per cent of the oversupply, which is expected at 280 tonnes a day. Some statistics show the oversupply of raw milk can reach 400 tonnes a day.

Amnaj Theeravanich, the board chairman, said the oversupply is exacerbated by imports of milk powder whose price is cheaper than raw milk. Manufacturers prefer milk powder for commercial production. The problem also stemmed from cold weather in the past months which made cows produce more milk.

He said the DPO also has to shoulder the financial burden from the purchase of excess supplies for the school milk programme. It needs to borrow 185 million baht from the Farmers Aid Fund for the milk purchases.

"It is hard for us to run our operations these days. We act as a government agency to buy excess milk supplies from the farmers but at the same time we have to strengthen our brand and marketing strategy," Mr Amnaj said.

In a related development, Chantana Ungchusak, manager of a campaign to reduce sugar intake among children, yesterday urged the government not to change from unsweetened milk to flavoured milk.

Her call came amid suggestions that schools buy flavoured milk for children who had turned away from fresh milk due to the substandard product scandal.

"The problem is not that the children do not enjoy the milk. It is with the manufacturers who produce substandard milk. That's why the children do not drink it," she said.


http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/136744/milk-scandal-grows-into-corruption-probe