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[RedKing]

Yeah, it's interesting how much the royal reverence thing applies even overseas. You step into any (and I mean *any*) Thai restaurant around here, and there's a picture of the King somewhere near the cash register, adorned with flowers and the nicest picture frame in the whole joint.

It's also a bit surreal when the King himself is saying "No, really....please criticize me if I fuck up. I'm HUMAN." Almost makes me wonder if someone would charge the King with lese majeste. But then, by bringing suit against the King, they'd be guilty themselves. It starts to get into absurdist territory, like the "Jehovah" bit from Life of Brian...

[Trapezohedron]

There's too much of a grey area to have a side to pick on. Supporting the majority is good, provided that the majority actually needs help (and they do), however as is stated, the ways they're doing it is questionable. Going by the facts in this page, I can also see some Shinawatra attempts to minimize business competition, but it is irrelevant at this point. This of course naturally would piss the Yellow Shirts, who only have themselves as their main priority.

Is the Chavez effect about economic mismanagement?

[nenjin]

I have a hard time supporting anyone that is engaged in corruption and graft, even if they have the majority support of the people. I'm not saying the Yellow Shirts are any better; they appear to be playing at the same game themselves. I guess from the perspective of the poor rural voter, they don't give a shit what Shinawatra does as long as their lives improve.

Is the Chavez effect about economic mismanagement?

I think it's about the cult of personality that grows around "the people's leader", where voters are willing to overlook a lot of the fine details as long as the candidate demonstrably does something in their favor.

[misko27]

Why is the Army the sensible one here? Also, who does the king support?

Armies are usually pretty sensible, which was why we were all happy when Egypt's took over. Of course they recently went off the deep end, but the point stands. It's when the army is already in power that they go nuts.

[Sheb]

It's even worse there. Every movie at the theater begins with the Royal Anthem (stand up or get out), while some sickening propaganda film plays (I remember one where a kid was running with flowers, stopping to fix a bridge on the way before putting them in front of a giant portrait of the King to thank him for making it rain on his family's field - the king spent some money on researching cloud fertilization-. You have slogans like "The King is the Heart and Inspiration of All Good Things".

Also, some of thise lèse-majesté lawsuits are hilarious. At some points the Red Shirts passed a law that was then struck down at the Supreme Court after the Yellows sued. The Yellow then sued the Reds for having sent a defective law to the King (he needs to sign laws much like a US president). And the Reds sued the Yellows for having sued a law signed by the King.

[RedKing]

I can't speak for Helgoland, but I think he was referring to the fact that Chavez was wildly popular with most of Venezuela (because of populist rhetoric and redistribution), and in turn used that popularity to give legitimacy to his actions, even the ones that were illegal by Venezuela's own laws.

[Trapezohedron]

This is kind of off-topic, but can I request for a source for that? Not that I don't believe, but it would be good to stock up some events for use as comparisons on later debates I might have.

[Sheb]

Source for what?

[Trapezohedron]

Chavez Effect.

[Helgoland]

I think I just coined an expression... I meant Westerners running after some popular politician in a third-world country merely because he is popular, and not because he's doing a good job. Nowadays it's a commonly held opinion that Chavez ruined the Venezoelan economy, but he used to be quite popular with first-world intellectuals because of his leftist stance and wide support in the populace.

It was really 'Sheb, beware' and not 'Sheb, the Thai should beware'.

[Culise]

I think I just coined an expression... I meant Westerners running after some popular politician in a third-world country merely because he is popular, and not because he's doing a good job. Nowadays it's a commonly held opinion that Chavez ruined the Venezoelan economy, but he used to be quite popular with first-world intellectuals because of his leftist stance and wide support in the populace.

Oh, I thought he still is popular with that crowd.  Also, thanks to the very convenient timing of his death just before the economy really went off the rails, we can almost certainly expect to see Maduro and other less senior political leaders being blamed for the institutional defects of the system that got their start under Chavez; I would expect to hear "If only Chavez had lived longer..." in at least ten years time, if not now. 

[Helgoland]

We could call that the 'Lenin effect'.

[XXSockXX]

We could call that the 'Lenin effect'.

That is totally a thing (I mean Westerners worshipping a popular 3rd world politician). And the irony can have several layers I think, like when you meet people with Che Guevara wallets.

Actually, I might be referring to the Chavez effect, so continue coining expressions.

[Sheb]

Well, given that I started my statement by "Thaksin Shinawatra's place is in jail but..." I think I'm safe from the Chavez effect. :p

[RedKing]

China signs 30-year deal to get natural gas from Gazprom.

This gives Russia leverage with Europe, in that they have alternate markets and wouldn't take as big of a hit from cutting off the pipes to the EU, and it gives China much-needed cleaner energy. China's appetite for energy is voracious and growing, and Beijing has realized for some time that they're killing the country by using so much coal (much of it bituminous coal, which is the worst kind for pollution). It also diversifies the range of countries they're reliant on for energy imports, which gives them more diplomatic leverage.