4,000 Hmong "Voluntarily" Evicted From Thailand

Monday saw Thailand send more than 4,000 Hmong refugees to Lao with soldiers in riot gear escorting the convey over the Mekong river where the two countries boarder.

Many will ask the question why these people are being sent back to a land which they fled in fear of the country's communist regime since it came to power in the 1970s. The US Goverment has been particular vocal on the subject of Hmong repatriation with the State Department quoted in the NY Times:

“We deeply regret this serious violation of the international humanitarian principles that Thailand has long been known for championing. The United States strongly urges Thai authorities to suspend this operation.”

Most shocking is Prime Minister Abhisit's declaration that the Hmong have left Thailand "voluntarily":

The Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, said yesterday the repatriations were voluntary and were carried out without incident or violence.

[Via New Mandala]

Cell phone lines out of the camp where the refugees were held were jammed while journalists, human rights workers and UN officials were forbidden from being 12km from the camp.

Sadly this is the latest in a long line of incidents which reflect the Thai government's heavy handed policy of dealing with refugee and political asylum seekers in the region. Just last year Thailand was heavily criticised for sending 1,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar out to see on boats, which subsequently caused the death of many of the group.

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Tiger and Santa

- What's the difference between Santa and Tiger Woods?

- Santa knows to stop at three hoes.

Ouch - sorry Tiger, I couldn't resist.


[Image via wetfdstamp on Twitter]

Of course Tiger is half Thai (mother) which justifies me putting this gag here.

Anyone got any others?

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Google Friend Disconnect

Apologies in advance fellow bloggers.

If I am registered as following your blog via Google Friend Connect I will now be unsubscribing.

This is not reflect on you, well most of you, but GFC has run its course with me. I subscribe to most blogs in an RSS readers and am cutting the wastage.

As for my own GFC app, on the left hand side, I'm yet to decide.

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Thailand's Top Websites

UPDATE - whoops, my mistake, didn't mean this post to end up here.

Is entry from my early Posterous experimenting over here, where it looks a lot smarter and easier on the eye.

• Global
• By Country
• By Category

Top Sites in Thailand

The top 100 sites in Thailand.

The sites in the top sites lists are ordered by their 1 month alexa traffic rank.

The 1 month rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors and pageviews over the past month. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1.

1. กูเกิลประเทศไทย
   

   google.co.th

   Google.co.th
   

   
   
2. Windows Live
   

   live.com

   Search engine from Microsoft.
   

   
   
3. Google
   

   google.com

   Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology.
   

   
   
4. hi5
   

   hi5.com

   One of the world's largest social networks
   

   
   
5. Facebook
   

   facebook.com

   A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.
   

   
   
6. YouTube
   

   youtube.com

   YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!
   

   
   
7. สนุกดอทคอม
   

   sanook.com

   หนึ่งในเว็บท่าที่มีผู้เข้าชมสูงสุดของไทย
   

   
   
8. Microsoft Network (MSN)
   

   msn.com

   Dialup access and content provider.
   

   
   
9. พันทิปดอทคอม
   

   pantip.com

   เว็บชุมชนที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในประเทศไทย แบ่งหมวดหมู่ชุมชนหลากหลาย นับตั้งแต่เรื่องทั่วไป จนถึงเรื่องเฉพาะทาง
   

   
   
10. Yahoo!
    

    yahoo.com

    Personalized content and search options. Chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager.
    

    
    
11. Blogger.com
    

    blogger.com

    Free, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via FTP.
    

    
    
12. เอ็มไทย
    

    mthai.com

    จุดนัดพบชาวไซเบอร์สเปซหนุ่มหล่อสาวสวยทั่วเมืองไทยมีทุกสิ่งที่เลือกสรรเพื่อคุณ
    

    
    
13. กระปุก
    

    kapook.com

    ข่าวเด่นประจำวัน, กระทู้, ฟังเพลงออนไลน์, นิตยสารออนไลน์กะปุ๊กลุ๊ค และรวมลิงค์
    

    
    
14. Dek-D.com
    

    dek-d.com

    ::> Dek-D.com :มหานครวัยรุ่นออนไลน์ : เวบไซต์แหล่งพบปะ รวบตัวของวัยรุ่นอันดับ 1 ของประเทศไทย สำหรับระดับมัธยมฯและมหาวิทยาลัย
    

    
    
15. MediaFire
    

    mediafire.com

    MediaFire is the simplest way for businesses, professionals, and individuals to host files and share them with others.
    

    
    
16. exteen
    

    exteen.com

    ให้บริการพื้นที่พร้อมเครื่องมือในการทำบล๊อก
    

    
    
17. ผู้จัดการออนไลน์
    

    manager.co.th

    เสนอข่าวการเมือง เศรษฐกิจ การตลาด การอุตสาหกรรม ข่าวภูมิภาค และบันเทิง
    

    
    
18. 4shared
    

    4shared.com

    A simple and easy-to-use service offering free online files storage and sharing accessible worldwide.
    

    
    
19. Wikipedia
    

    wikipedia.org

    An online collaborative encyclopedia.
    

    
    
20. teenee.com
    

    teenee.com

    One Stop of Thailand. Teenee.com is the top4 of website in Thailand.
    

    
    

Next

Questions about Top Sites? Visit the Forums.

via alexa.com

Google dominates the Thai webspace with its local search engine (co.th) sitting top of the pile while the main Google search page (.com) takes third place. Microsoft also enjoys a strong presence in Thailand with its Windows Live portal separating the Google's sites in second place, while MSN sits eighth on the list.

Interestingly third placed Hi5 remains Thailand most visited social networking site one place ahead of Facebook. Given the enormous surge of Facebook users in Thailand this year (user numbers rose 588%, to 1,160,980, between January and September) it appears to be a case of when not if Facebook topples incumbent leader Hi5.

YouTube is the highest place video site in sixth place while dedicate Thai sites Sanook and Pantip, both of which run popular forums, occupy seventh and ninth place respectively.

Also ran search engine Yahoo rounds off the top ten list while notable websites further down the order include blogging platforms Blogger (11th) and Wordpress (28th) and Live Journal (96th), search engine Bing (59th), news site Manager (17th), Thai blogging platform Bloggang (22nd), Amazon (.com) (27th), Flickr (69th) and CNET (.com) (96th).

Twitter ranks 30th although this does not reflect its userbase in Thailand as Alexa's rank accounts for traffic to Twitter.com only ignoring those that use third party Twitter applications and services without visiting Twitter's website.

Posted via web from Loose Ends Thai'd Up

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Pork penang curry

แกงแพนงหมู or "gaeng penang moo"

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