tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-219890142011-04-21T12:31:20.019-07:00PaolaDMnoreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21989014.post-1139142524317982382006-02-05T04:18:00.000-08:002006-02-05T04:33:34.766-08:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5553/731/1600/PICT2581.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5553/731/320/PICT2581.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />by Don S<br /><br />Well over a hundred thousand of people filled Royal Plaza in the biggest anti-government protest since the 1992 "mobile phone mob" which led to the fall of the Suchinda Kraprayoon military government.<br /><br />The crowds cheered Sondhi and his team on as they reiterated allegations of corruption and lack of morals with Thaksin and his cabinet.<br /><br />The event was fanned by the sell-off of Shin Corp last week which netted the Prime<br />Minister's family 73 billion Baht (1.8 billion USD) without a single<br />Baht in income tax. Public sentiment was tested and reached breaking<br />point when the tax authorities and the stock exchanged ruled that the<br />deal was not subject to any tax.<br /><br />The protesters succeeded in submitting petitions to the Office of His<br />Majesty's Private Secretary, Privy Councellor General Prem<br />Tinsulanonda and Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Sondhi Boonyarataklin.<br /><br />During the demonstration, news filtered through that<br />Information and Communication Technology Minister Sora-At Klinpratoom<br />resigned from the cabinet. Meanwhile, an official from CAT Telecom, who runs the country's<br />Internet backbone, said that Internet traffic was at an all-time high,<br />both domestically and Internationally as people clamoured for information.<br /><br /><br /><strong><br />Don Sambandaraksa</strong> is a journalist and open source advocate who is<br />doing his bit to promote the values of open source and free speech (as<br />opposed to free beer) beyond the IT industry in Thailand.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21989014-113914252431798238?l=eastwards.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>PaolaDMnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21989014.post-1139141903894463222006-02-05T04:15:00.000-08:002006-02-05T04:18:23.903-08:00During my travels, <br />I get a lot of spare time.<br /><br />That's maybe why I end up doing dozens of new things<br />Like trying to learn the new language<br />Interestingly, I come across very interesting patterns<br /><br />I have been travelling almost constantly for about twenty years now<br />I have seen a lot<br /><br />I think I understand things that I could not undersand before<br />and lots more I do not understant still<br />but I will<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21989014-113914190389446322?l=eastwards.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>PaolaDMnoreply@blogger.com0