World Blog : Bangkok, Thailand

Paper plane champ returns home – but still stateless

Petra Cahill — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:24:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

BANGKOK, Thailand – Paper plane champ Mong Thongdee returned to the Thai capital Monday with a bag full of trophies after competing in a Japanese paper airplane contest – but the young boy’s joy may be fleeting.

The 12-year-old boy, who has no official nationality, brought home a third place win in the division for elementary school students in the Chiba, Japan paper plane competition. And his three-person Thai team also won first place in a group competition where the young contestants had to quickly fold their planes and then throw them into the air.

Koji Sasahara / AP

Mong Thongdee prepares to release his paper plane during the team indoor flight duration competition at the All-Japan Origami Airplane Contest near Tokyo on Sept. 19.

Mong glowed while cameras flashed as he greeted his Myanmar migrant parents – whose trip to Bangkok from their home in northern town of Chiang Mai was made possible by a last minute sponsorship from an airline.

Mong’s story captured media attention when he appealed for travel document to compete in Japan, where he would represent Thailand.

The initial rejection of his request to travel – on the grounds that he isn’t a Thai citizen and can’t leave the country without losing his temporary residence permit – brought to light the complicated issue of thousands of people who live in Thailand, but have no citizenship or official status.

At the airport on Monday, Mong thanked all Thais for giving him endless support throughout his journey and said he wished to give his medals to the Thai king.

But after going all the way to win his paper plane titles in Japan, Mong returned home to the same state he’s been in: a stateless boy in the country he calls home.

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Paper planes carry kid's dreams

Petra Cahill — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:06:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

BANGKOK, Thailand – Mong Thongdee is a rare champion.

The 12-year-old boy lives just behind Chiang Mai airport, in northern Thailand, and makes paper planes for hobby. That’s where he gets scolded by his father for littering the place and wasting papers.

"I barely have enough money to buy notebooks for school and there he was, tearing papers to make airplanes," said his father, Yoon Thongdee.

Mong’s parents, who came from Shan state in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, earn $7 a day from construction work to feed their family of four. They all squeeze into a tiny square room in a row house where their neighbors are other migrant workers.

Mong Thongdee, left, poses with Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and paper airplanes during a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on Sept. 3, 2009.

At the national paper plane contest late last year, Mong’s dart floated 12.5 seconds in the air and made him a winner. Ever since that victory, he’s been training two hours a day to prepare for the origami airplane competition in Japan this month, where he will represent Thailand.

But when Mong requested to have a travel document to go Japan he was rejected. Even though he has lived in Thailand since he was born, he is still a son of migrants and doesn’t have citizenship. Like his parents, Mong resides on a temporary permit – which will be terminated when he leaves the country, and turns him into an illegal immigrant if he returns.
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Portly Thai traffic cops told to hit gym

Petra Cahill — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:33:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

BANGKOK, Thailand – Street vendors along a major intersection in downtown Bangkok are familiar with Sgt. Nitat Saisa-ard. Not only is he a good-natured traffic cop who enjoys iced cold fruit juices, but his chubby figure is hard to miss.

The 45-year-old sergeant weighs almost 300 pounds, more than half of which he gained over the past two decades since he graduated from police academy.

"I know I’m fat," said Nitat. "It’s hard for me to move around, dodging the cars, but I don’t feel like working out after a long day at work. I’m just so exhausted and I want to go to bed."

VIDEO: Thai traffic cops told to hit gym

He’s going to have to change. And that’s an order.

Nitat is among 340 overweight traffic police officers in Bangkok told to shed at least 10 pounds and get into shape in three months.

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Thai concert for 'the deaf and the rest'

Petra Cahill — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:03:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

BANGKOK, Thailand – Like many students at the Setsatian School for the Deaf, 18-year-old Supawan Klaiyana has been hearing impaired from birth and cannot listen to music.

She enjoys watching pop singers dancing on TV and thought that was the maximum extent of music she could experience. But that changed completely last week when she and 40 other deaf students attended a concert targeted to suit their special needs.

"I’m so excited," Klaiyana signed, as her hands fluttered over her chest, before the concert. She was sitting in a quiet yet animated classroom, as her classmates were busy signing with each other. Some giggled when she was being interviewed on camera. "I want to dance. I want to have fun. I’m so ready to dance at the concert!"

VIDEO: Pradhana Chariyavilaskul explains her inspiration to organize Bangkok's first concert for 'the deaf and the rest'

The "Love is Hear" concert was held at a downtown Bangkok theater last Thursday and was the first concert ever organized in Thailand for "the deaf and the rest."

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Die-hard Thai fans mourn “King of Pop”

Petra Cahill — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:05:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

“Michael is the first and only international singer who inspired me to learn English to understand his songs,” a die-hard Jackson fan wrote on Pantip, the most popular Thai web forum.

Another comment, posted nine hours after the “King of Pop” was pronounced dead, read, “I’m still waiting for news agencies to say they made error report.”

A devastated fan said she has been writing a diary to Jackson for years now, and she would continue doing so even after his death.

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Baby panda charms Thailand

Petra Cahill — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:41:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

Thailand has been in dire need of some good news recently thanks to political upheaval and the gloomy economic outlook. The surprise birth of a baby panda has cheered the nation.

Officials at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand had tried unsuccessfully for years to breed the mammal and were unaware the mother was pregnant. Thailand joins the United States and Japan in a rare club: the only countries outside of China to breed a panda in captivity.

However, the panda cub's parents are on loan from China, making the cub's length of stay limited to only two years, according to an agreement between the two nations. Still, the Thai zoo says it is ready to do what it takes to make sure the panda stays in the country.

Watch NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen report on the panda below.

VIDEO: Thais cheered by rare baby panda

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Thai tabloids lurch between lurid and deferential

Petra Cahill — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:23:00 GMT

By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen

BANGKOK – Thailand’s media is a complicated morass of contradictions.

A constitutional monarchy, the country has draconian laws that restrict and prohibit publishing or broadcasting materials deemed insulting or offensive to the monarchy.

But when it comes to reporting dramatic crimes, especially those involving sex and violence, all hell breaks loose. Crime reporting is so detailed that it tends to the gaudy and salacious, the death of David Carradine being the most recent example of over-the-top coverage.

In contrast, century-old lèse majesté ("injured majesty") laws mean that Thai media most often exercises self-censorship and is extremely cautious when it comes to covering the monarchy, military, judiciary or other politically sensitive issues. The codes say that whoever defames, insults or threatens the monarchy is punishable by a sentence of three to 15 years imprisonment (though royal pardons are usually granted after conviction).

Carradine most definitely did not receive the royal treatment. Thai Rath, Thailand’s best-selling daily newspaper, published a grisly photo of the actor on its front page last week. The photo, though pixilated to hide some of his nudity, shows Carradine hanging by rope inside a closet.

Carradine’s family was outraged and their lawyer threatened to sue any other media outlet that published the photo. But criticism of the coverage from Thai readers was minimal.

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Bangkok inferno puts spotlight on police payoffs

Petra Cahill — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:19:00 GMT

By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent

BANGKOK, Thailand – The initial investigation into the pub inferno that killed 64 New Year’s revelers here makes for depressing reading: Not only did Bangkok's Santika Club have no operating license or insurance, there were no heat or smoke detectors, no fire alarm, no emergency lights, no fire escape sign and no sprinklers. It was packed with highly flammable material, electrical wires were dangerously exposed, windows were blocked and the main entrance was just over six feet wide, according to experts quoted in the local media.

It was, in other words, a death trap.

PAIROJ/AFP/Getty Images file

Thai policemen and rescuers stand by the bodies of victims of a fire that ripped through a nightclub in Bangkok early on January 1, 2009.

Yet this was not some seedy, underground establishment, hidden from view. It was a large flashy building on a busy upscale Bangkok road, with the capacity for several hundred, frequented by well-heeled Thais and foreigners.

How on earth were they allowed to get away with not adhering to any safety codes?
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Protesters on Bangkok’s streets switch from yellow to red

Petra Cahill — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:11:00 GMT

By NBC’s Warangkana Chomchuen

BANGKOK – Someone once said living in Thailand is like having a sports day every day. But instead of having five teams in five colorful jerseys compete the way Thais do in primary school, we only have yellow and red, sported respectively by anti- and pro-government protesters who take turns venting their angst in the streets.

The yellow-clad protesters, or the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), recently made themselves known internationally by blockading Bangkok airports. The country was forced to shut down its air links, leaving roughly 300,000 travelers stranded while damaging the country's economy.

Protesters attack a car coming out of parliament with rocks after the voting for the country's new prime minister in Bangkok, Thailand on Dec. 15.

But just as the yellows protesters left the streets, and the new prime minister – the third in half a year – was named by parliament on Monday, the protesters in red shirts showed up.
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Reading the (yellow) tea leaves in Thailand

Petra Cahill — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:18:00 GMT

By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent

BANGKOK, Thailand – A strange thing happened in Bangkok today on the king's 81st birthday. Very few people wore yellow.

In Thailand, colors represent different days of the week. Yellow is the royal color, since it stands for Monday and King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born on a Monday. On his previous birthdays Bangkok has been a sea of yellow. Not today.

AFP - Getty Images

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej sitting next to Queen Sirikit during a review of the honor guard for his birthday celebrations on Tuesday.

There may be a straightforward explanation for this. Yellow was the color worn by the royalist anti-government protesters, the Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which seized Bangkok’s main airports and closed them for more than a week, causing immense damage to Thailand’s economy and image.

Most Thais were appalled by this, and by the increasingly cult-like behavior of the PAD’s leaders and the violence of their armed "security guards," and simply don’t want to wear anything associated with them.

But the lack of yellow today does beg a bigger question: has the PAD by its actions damaged the very institution it claimed to be defending?
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