Gravity-Defying Goats

Photograph by Adriano Migliorati/Caters News

Using moves that would make any rock climber jealous, Alpine ibex cling to a near-vertical rock face of a northern Italian dam in summer 2010.

This and other pictures of the goats have been circulating online recently, particularly in emails claiming the animals are bighorn sheep on Wyoming's Buffalo Bill Dam, the rumor-quashing website Snopes reported in September.

In truth, Adriano Migliorati snapped the pictures at the 160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) Cingino Dam (see map of the region), the Italian hiker told National Geographic News via email. The goats are attracted to the dam's salt-crusted stones, according to the U.K.-based Caters news agency. Grazing animals don't get enough of the mineral in their vegetarian diets.

It's not far-fetched, though, to think such a scene could be photographed in the United States. For example, mountain goats could scale dams in the U.S. West, according to Jeff Opperman, senior advisor for sustainable hydropower at the U.S.-based nonprofit the Nature Conservancy.

Opperman, who called the Cingino pictures "mind-boggling," pointed out a picture of a Montana mountain goat doing an "incredibly acrobatic stretching maneuver to lick salt" in the November National Geographic magazine.

"He is wedged up this sheer vertical cliff face, almost doing a yoga pose with four hooves splayed out there," he said. "It's the same concept [with the Italian goats]—these animals can overcome what looks like impossible topography to get what they want."

Opperman cautioned, though, that the Italian dam is rare, in that its rough masonry provides gaps that act as toeholds. The more common, smooth-concrete dams—such as Cingino Dam isn't completely vertical, allowing ibex—such as these goats pictured in summer 2010—to gain some purchase.
Adapted to their perilous environment, Alpine ibex have evolved a specialized split hoof, whose cleft is wider than on any other split-hooved species, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The hoof also has a hard wall that can grab on to steep cliffs and a soft, rubbery inside that serves as a "stopper" when the animal is pushed forward by gravity, the magazine reported.
And because dams are usually built in steep canyons, Cingino's steep rock face is likely nothing novel for the mountain-dwelling ibex, according to Opperman.
Sometimes reaching heights of 16,000 feet (5,000 meters), the herbivores spend their lives scrambling the European Alps' rocky and steep terrain, according to Caters news agency.

Buffalo Bill Dam— would give goats anywhere in the world trouble, he said.

By scaling Cingino Dam, salt-craving ibex, such as this animal pictured in summer 2010, are "showing ingenuity, taking advantage of this human-created thing in their environment," the Nature Conservancy's Opperman said.

Some other enterprising species can also work around dams in their habitats. For instance, eels can literally wriggle up some dams obstructing their paths, Opperman noted. But all too often dams act as barriers for wildlife, for example by blocking migrating salmon and other fish.

"When we think about dams, it's often [about] these weighty issues," such as balancing energy needs with wildlife protection, Opperman added. The goat pictures are "a whimsical, comic relief to that."

Published November 1, 2010

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The fall of a symbol, the rise of the politician

Friday, 04 November 2011 14:28 Lea Friedberg

(Commentary) — The room was hot and crowded. A sense of restlessness filled the air.  All of us, ten young Danish students and two teachers from Denmark, shifted around nervously, some going through their prepared questions, one adjusting a video camera, others waving paper fans trying to cool down, trying to remain calm.

   
In just a few moments, she would enter, Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady, the symbol of Burma's democratic struggle. She was meeting with us. It was hard to believe.

In Denmark, before coming to Burma, we had read a great deal about her as part of our preparation for an educational trip to learn about and experience the real Burma. We had learned about her struggle, her sacrifices, her political ambitions, and her uncompromising fight for freedom for her people, at the cost of her own.

The thought of her having spent 15 of the last 21 years in jail was very hard to grasp. The fact that she's been living away from her children, had been denied the opportunity to visit her dying husband, lost friends and allies, either killed, jailed or simply disappeared, was enough to almost bring our little group—all girls—to tears.

The fact that she was still ready to fight and talk with the very people who cost her so much pain astounded us and only seemed to enhance our admiration for her strength.

Coming to Burma, seeing her face everywhere, we were amazed by how much this one woman seemed to mean to the people. It made her seem a little unreal, like a symbol of something greater, more than a human being.

That’s why we were shocked when we saw her. There was no halo on her head, no choir singing as she gracefully entered and greeted us, just a beautiful lady, undoubtedly charismatic, but human just the same.

I have to admit, we did not accept that. She was very straightforward, went instantly to the point—just a brief introduction and small talk and then, what were our questions? You very quickly sensed that she was a busy woman and an experienced politician. I was fascinated.    .

We talked about the criticism she was starting to endure for talking with the government, how some people felt betrayed or confused and the difficult art of flexibility and compromise over principles.

We sensed that although she was used to being criticized, these topics was still quite sensitive to her. It appeared this was much harder to take from her own supporters.

People’s eyes might light up by the mention of her name, but we also experienced people who were skeptical of her ongoing communication with the government. We were asked to question her why about she would talk with these people? Did she really believe that they could be trusted? Was she giving in and letting go of her principles?


She understood where her critics came from, but made it clear that this was not some new strategy they had all of a sudden taken upon themselves. The talk, negotiations, deals with the government, were something that they had been working on the whole time.

"When you are a political party you have to have some principles, but there is a great difference between lack of principles and flexibility,” she told us. “Just because you are unprincipled you can’t say that you are flexible, and flexible does not mean lack of principles either, you have to find the right path."

She understood that people, because they had gone through a lot of disappointments, had a hard time believing. But, as she pointed out, if they did not believe that there could be genuine change, why had they then been struggling all along?

"We have always said that we were never promising anything except that we will do our best,” she said. “And I have always been very clear that democracy doesn’t mean that everything will be handed to you on a plate, and that it is important that people in a democracy have responsibilities. No rights without responsibilities."

She underlined the role people themselves played in the struggle for democracy. Her voice strengthened and her brown eyes looked at us intently, trying to make us understand.

She pointed out that negotiations involve give and take, and their goal was not to accomplish what was best for the NLD or the government, but what was best for the people of Burma.

"We were trying to achieve exactly this,” she said, with a voice that left no doubts of her dedication "We were trying to make what seemed impossible possible, and reconciliation is possible."

We sensed her frustration. She had offered a lot, and the thought occurred to me that the fact she was a politician might offend some people.

In her case, she was not able to do anything concrete when she was under house arrest and therefore she could not be criticized for a lack of results or any other wrongdoing for that matter.
 
Her role as a symbol might serve to increase her popularity but it might also be quite a burden to bear if she were to disappoint, and here lies the problem.

As a politician, you have responsibilities, and there will be compromises and disappointments. This will serve to diminish her popularity among some people. This is the problem, I thought, and this is her challenge—her double role, the politician and the symbol.

She cannot be both a symbol and a politician. One part must perish for the other to grow. The symbol cannot survive in the shadows and dirt of real politics.

The politician cannot move forward, compromising, with the heavy weight of expectations that comes with being a pure symbol of hope.

When asked how she saw her role in the future, if she was going to stay in the role of a symbol of hope and a unifying figure for the country, or if she were to become a politician, she quickly cut us off.

"I am a politician!” she said emphatically. "It is not going to change. I am a member of the NLD, I have always been a member of NLD and I have always been a politician. Whenever I have to fill in an official form and they ask me what my occupation is, I always put down politician."

The last part was said with a glint of a smile in her eyes, but she was dead serious.

Regarding suggestions that she should distance herself from NLD and remain a national figure she was quite clear: that was the worse thing she could do.

"If you want to make democracy work, you should never think that you are greater than your party, that’s the way to dictatorship, that’s not the way to democracy," she said.

She said no democratic leader should ever feel that he or she was greater than the organization he or she came from, and if she were to do that, then she would not help Burma but create great harm to democracy.

"So I am a politician, that’s how it’s going to remain, but I will always work for national unity," she said.

I agree with her. Burma needs the politician more than the symbol if there is ever going to be real change. I cannot see her handling the situation any differently. Of course, a politician, no matter how skilled or popular, could never succeed to serve all interests, but still I wonder—will her political power diminish along with unifying image?

No one doubts that she will remain powerful and to a certain extent a symbol. But if the government senses that her compromising has cost her popularity, they probably will use it against her.

Negotiations involves the difficult dance of handling the different views of her supporters about how to negotiate with the government.

Should she stay away from the pseudo-democratic government that is in power now?

Or should she engage, register the NLD as an official party, continue to try to work closely with the government, or try to find a compromise between being critical and cooperative?

It was still hard to grasp, looking at this petite, elegant woman. I wondered how she could continue working under the pressure and the stress of these changing times in Burma. It made me think of something she had said when talking about how to manage difficult times and believing in change:

"You need endurance and you need faith,” she told us.

As our hour ended, we stood up and sang for her. The song was an African freedom song that had been sung during the Apartheid era in South Africa. It was a song about faith and endurance, a song about the belief that freedom would come. It seemed quite appropriate in her present circumstances.

As I left the headquarters with my class, I was thinking about the person I had just met. Our group split into  three or four groups, taking taxis to different parts of the city so that the government officials who were taking our pictures as we stepped out the door onto the hot street would not follow us.

I thought about Aung San Suu Kyi. Charming, an intellectual, sharp, undoubtedly a person who demands your respect. She is not an icon. She is not a saint. She deserves to be thought of as something more, as what she is – politician.

For the future, I think that the best thing for Burma and national reconciliation would be to let her come down from the pedestal were she has been put and recognize her as a human being and a hardcore politician.

Despite the challenges that she faces, I felt an overwhelming sense of hope after our meeting. The faith of a democratic Burma could lie in no safer hands than the delicate hands of this impressive woman.

 

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Can Clinton, Suu Kyi change Burma?

Wednesday, 30 November 2011 12:46 May Ng

(Commentary) – As the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Burma in 50 years, Hillary Clinton’s trip marks a turning point, and there is high expectation that Burma may finally be coming out of the cold.

Soon after its independence from Britain, British travel writer Norman Lewis wrote in the early 1950s that in comparison to Vietnam, Burma had remained isolated and mysterious.  He wrote that “while in Vietnam the established authority was challenged by a united opposition with a single ideology, the Burmese government was opposed by two separate bands of communists, two versions of a heterogeneous organization called the People’s Voluntary Organization, in which many bandits had enrolled, 10,000 or so Seven Day Adventist Karens, and a small army of mutinous military police.”

Even today, while resisting the central government’s ethnocentric nationalism and chauvinism for decades, Burma’s various opposition groups, while they share a common goal for democracy, have never unified under a common leadership or set of principles.

Following the Saffron Revolution of 2007, the Burmese military regime was viewed negatively by the world at-large. With the fresh memory of monks’ blood on their hands, it could no longer use the blunt force of violence against Aung San Suu Kyi, as it did during the 2003 Depayin Massacre. The army finally released Suu Kyi from house arrest in 2010, but it has continued its brutal assaults on ethnic minorities in conflict areas. However, simultaneously, the new government began a concerted charm offensive on all fronts, including it pursuit of separate cease-fires with armed ethnic groups.

The military’s rapid warming up to Suu Kyi and the NLD caught many in the political opposition camp by surprise. There was no time to openly discuss or mull over the political choices made by Suu Kyi, but people trusted her instincts. However, some political factions still remain far apart in areas throughout the country.

Looking back to 1886, James George Scott wrote, “Large trading towns of Burma will be for all practical purposes absorbed by the Chinese traders, just as in Singapore... And Burma is a country that has never known, and can never know, famine except as a direct result of civil war and misrule. It is perhaps a pity that the Burmese have not more vigor about them, but, on the other hand, it would be a pity if so simple and contented and genial a people were to be spoilt by a new and sordid desire for the acquisition of wealth.”

Burma and China seemed so utterly different then, but since the 1988 crackdown in Burma and the 1989 uprising in China, the two countries have become key political and economic allies. The question is whether the United States can now move Burma from its deep embrace of China?

With the assassination of General Aung San, the father of Suu Kyi, after Burma’s independence from Britain, the dream of a peaceful and democratic Burma quickly faded. Distrustful of the population, the Burmese army took over political and economic control, and according to commentator Mary P. Callahan, “after cleaning house inside the army, Gen. Ne Win led the ultimate offensive against civilian parliamentary rule in March 1962.”  Again in 1990, under a new name and a new set of army generals, an even more brutal military junta grabbed political power back from the election-winning National League for Democracy.

Callahan concluded that there would be no easy solutions to the problem of dissembling this security-obsessed state and replacing it with a new one that treats citizens with dignity and accountability. The removal of the handful of top generals and colonels from the government, and their replacement with fraudulently elected officials, will not transform the century-old command relationship between the state and society overnight.

Callahan also rightly noted that many ethnic minority leaders question whether a democratic government based in central Burma would really commit national resources to development programs in ethnic border areas. And as the world focuses on Suu Kyi and her political party, many minority leaders worry that their needs are not being taken into account.

The political uncertainty in Burma’s tortured history rivals that of Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping. Surely a change of clothes from military uniforms to civilian garb cannot, at this stage, be equated with a true change of heart to embrace genuine democratic reforms in Burma.

Regardless, Clinton’s visit signifies the Americans’ willingness to invest major political capital in Burma. Clinton brings with her not only the momentum of a global outcry for freedom, but also as a leading member of the U.S. administration, she can also use her influence to help reconcile Burma’s various political factions, including the military, democracy activists, and ethnic nationalities.

As Suu Kyi says, most Burmese may not understand English, but they all know the meaning of democracy and freedom. So far, Suu Kyi seems to have set aside her differences with Thein Sein. The recent gains, including the halt of a major dam project, the symbolic release of a handful of political prisoners, and the slight relaxation of press freedoms have been attributed to their renewed relations.

Whether it is only a superficial gesture or a true commitment on the part of the current Burmese government, as Ko Myat Soe, a former student leader now living in the United States, observed, twilight is finally descending on the dictators. This is a perfect time for Clinton to go to Burma and meet with Suu Kyi.

Even though she has been released from house arrest, like all other Burmese, Suu Kyi is not yet truly free. In order to fulfill her promises and those made by her father, Burma still has to release all political prisoners and must bestow equal political rights on ethnic nationalities by laying down the groundwork for a true and democratic political process.

For Clinton, it’s a little bit of a tightrope walk right now. It requires delicate steps, one by one. But one thing is certain: it’s the twilight of the military dictators in Burma. Everyone in Burma, including the generals, wants U.S. help. Expectations are high. This is a once in a lifetime opening in which the world’s two most respected women can bring positive change to Burma.

Can history be made while the two ladies quietly sip tea together and the Burmese generals wait outside?

Only time will tell.

 

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Many sites in Ayutthaya face risk of crumbling

Phatarawadee Phataranawik
The Nation December 1, 2011 1:00 am

Fine Arts chief leads Unesco team on inspection tour

Many experts are worried that an ancient pagoda in Ayutthaya might come tumbling down because its base has been found to be severely damp, Soamsuda Leeyawanich, director general of the Fine Arts Department, said yesterday.
She was inspecting historical sites in Ayutthaya with experts from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). Ayutthaya, which was granted the World Heritage status in 1991, was one of the many provinces devastated by one of the worst floods in decades.
"There is concern that the base may no longer be strong enough to carry the weight of the [centuries old] pagoda," she said, adding that there were some signs of the top of the pagoda crumbling.
With flood waters slowly receding, large cracks are starting to be noticed in several statues and ancient structures that have been submerged for more than a month. The most famous reclining Buddha in Wat Lokkaya-suttharam is also severely cracked.
Soamsuda said her department would spend more than Bt600 million on repairing the 130 historical sites damaged by the floods. She added that the Unesco team was gathering information to seek funding for the restoration. So far, the UN agency has approved US$72,000 (Bt2.24 million) in initial assistance.
"Unesco will review all the relevant information to consider additional grants if the government makes a request," Soamsuda explained, adding that the team of experts had also provided useful advice on how to restore the sites in line with international standards.
Archaeology expert Toko Futagami said she would examine the brick walls of Wat Phra Si Sanphat before providing guidelines on how to deal with the moss and water stains. Some ancient structures like Wat Chaiwattanaram are still flooded, though Chaiyanand Busayarat, director of the Ayutthaya Historical Park, said he hoped the waters would recede by next week.
"After that inspections can be conducted to determine the damages," he said. As of yesterday, the area was under nearly a metre of water.
Culture Minister Sukumol Kunplome said her ministry was planning to seek more than Bt1.4 billion for the restoration of 313 historical sites damaged by floods across the country.
"The Culture Ministry will make the request at the Cabinet meeting next week," she said.
According to her, a committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit had already approved the list of these historical sites.
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Learn from good sayings. (My gift for this coming New Year)

Learn from good sayings.

1.    A life without love is a jeweled cup without wine.

2.    Marriage is not an experiment, but a serious commitment.

3.    Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half-shut afterwards.

4.    The little thing we do are important because how we do anything is how we do everything.

5.    Each of us is different; the ideal way to help others is to help them help themselves.

6.    When asked for advice, never give your opinion. Rather, help your friends to arrive at their own conclusions by asking a series of questions and let them think for themselves. Remember no one likes to be told what to do.

7.    The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

8.    Small differences can make differences.

9.     One and Only You

Every single blade of grass,

And every flake of snow—

Is just a wee bit different...

There’s no two alike, you know.

From something small, like grains of sand,

To each gigantic star

All were made with THIS in mind:

To be just what they are!

How foolish then, to imitate—

How useless to pretend!

Since each of us comes from a MIND

Whose ideas never end.

There’ll only be just ONE of ME

To show what I can do—

And you should likewise feel very proud,

There’s only ONE of YOU.

That is where it all starts

With you, a wonderful

unlimited human being.

James T. Moor

10.  It is necessary to prioritize and always direct our willpower and self-discipline to the most important matters first.

11.  Pain, suffering, stress, and other difficulties are the admission tickets to the game of life.

12.  Misfortune tells what fortune is.

13. A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.

14.  Life invites us to become adventurers. Our lives don’t have to be boring. Life is not a war to wage, but a gift to cherish.

15.  Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

16.  It is easier to forgive others when we understand there are no bad people, just bad choices.

17.  Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.

18.  When you make fun of yourself, you disempower those who would make fun of you and disarm possible confrontations.

19.  Everyone loves someone who can make them laugh. The more you share your sense of humor, the more friends you will have.

20.  If you can’t fight, and you can’t flee, flow.

21.  There is no right way to do something wrong.

22.  Fill your truth with love and it will never hurt others.

23.  Live as if you were living a second time.

24.  Telling is not selling; only asking questions is selling.

25.  True security is knowing that you are improving in some way everyday.

26.  Questions are the keys to unlocking solutions to problems, answers to dilemmas, and solutions to difficulties.

27.  Monitor your thoughts, and think what you are thinking about.

28.  Don’t add to your suffering by comparing yourself to others. Life is not a competition; it is a garden. Every flower (person) is different but beautiful in its own way.

29. Stop being demanding.

30. Stop claiming the world is unfair.

31.  Admit that many people are worse off than you; yet, they are doing better.

32.  Understand that misery doesn’t exist in the world, but in our mind.

33.  There is no right way to do something wrong.

34.  Persistence, patience, and practice are valuable tools for solving problem.

35.  With our thoughts we make our world. Monitor our thoughts and control them, rather have them control us.

36.  Don’t add to your suffering by comparing yourself to others. Life is not a competition; it is a garden. Every flower (person) is different but beautiful in its own way.

37.  Stop being demanding.

38.  Stop claiming the world is unfair.

39.  Admit that many people are worse off than you, yet they are doing better.

40. Understand that misery doesn’t exist in the world, but in our mind.

41.  Money is something you got to make in case you don’t die.

42.  Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brain; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusement but not happiness.

43.  When things are not going according to our plans, it may be because life has a better place for you, so always remain alert to new opportunities and remain flexible enough to adjust to the winds of change.

44.  It is far better to anger your friend by refusing to loan money than it is to anger them when you ask for the money back.

45.  Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what we wish, we readily believe.

46.  Our feelings are the source of our actions.

47.  Emotion is to us what color is to the rainbow.

48.  Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits.

49.  It is a law of life that we must give away that which we wish to receive.

50.  We heal ourselves by healing the world.

51.  Technology or science organizes knowledge. Wisdom organizes life.

52.  Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts little wisdom.

53.  Don’t commit knowledge to memory, commit it to life.

54.  Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one can see.

55.  For the way we do small things is the way we do all things.

56.  If you are happy with yourself, you are bound to lead a happy life.

57.  The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend. Your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.

58.  To be wrong is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.

59.  Everything is as it was meant to be.

60.  Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

61.  Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.

62.  Thoughts, opinions and beliefs act as self-fulfilling prophecies.

63.  The two great personal moments in our lives are the moment we were born and the moment we discovered why we were born.

64.  Think thing through, and then follow through.

65.  It is not what I do but what I am that defines me.

66.  Life is evolution, revolution and dissolution. Life is change. There is nothing permanent except change.

67.  When we make ourselves successful, there is more success in the world.

68.  Not feeling love for oneself will produce problems.

69.  It is important to know what we don’t like for that is the only way to understand what we want.

70.  Yes, our destiny is in our hands, so let’s start paddling.

71.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

72.  Out of sight, out of mind.

73.  You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it doesn’t exist.

74.  Make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

75.  Praise is free, let’s offer it freely, but it has value only when it is sincere.

76.  Only as much as I dream I can be.

77.  Live with hope it is not a dream but a way of making dreams come true.

78.  Nothing is predictable.

79.  The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not.

80.  Have big dreams; small ones cannot ignite the flames of enthusiasm, excitement, and passion.

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Camping season on Phu Kradung Mountain

The tourist and overnight camping season on Phu Kradung Mountain in Loei kicked off at the beginning of the month. The Tourism Authority of Thailand Loei Office invites all to the Phu Kradung National Park.

A man admires the view from the lonely lookout of Pha Lomsak on Phu Kradung in Loei province.

Phu Kradung is a sandstone mountain with a large plain on its top, about 1,350 metres above sea level. It is the watershed of the Pong River. From this vantage point, tourists can enjoy stunning views of the pine woods, oak and beech forests and grasslands. Flowers and maple trees are widely found around waterfalls, streams and rocks, according to TAT Loei Office director Atchaphan Booncharoen.
Admission fee is 40 baht per for Thai adults, 20 baht for Thai children, 400 baht for foreign adults, 200 baht for foreign children and 30 baht for vehicles. Porters charge 15 baht per kilogramme for items they carry up the mountain for visitors.
This year, the national park is getting stricter with garbage problems, setting the maximum number of visitors who can stay overnight at 5,000 per day. Advance bookings are recommended.

Things I learned from the Pracha censure

Tulsathit Taptim
tulsathit@nationgroup.com November 30, 2011 3:05 am

Sunday morning is for world boxing championship fights only.

• It's a bad time (for the opposition) to launch a censure debate. On the other hand, since the government can benefit from hangovers, shopping activities and people's simple need to relax, we will see more and more Sunday censures in the future.
• When you were resigned to the inescapability of a Sunday censure and started to think "How bad can it be?", you found out that our honourable law-makers couldn't agree on whether the Flood Relief Operations Command, set up by the prime minister and manned by government officials, is even a government unit.
• If you are a censured minister, you must act bored and patronise your attackers. Pracha Promnok showed us he is getting close to perfecting the art.
• Pracha's best self-defence move, however, was when he said that human beings make mistakes. For a moment there, he seemed like a breath of fresh air.
• Pracha's worst defence was his claim that the previous government also overspent money on relief supplies. So much for a breath of fresh air.
• While we struggled to come to terms with what our honourable MPs were saying sometimes, the sign-language team (bottom right of TV screen) never seemed to have a problem. Without the briefest of pauses, they kept on and on no matter how complicated the issues or arguments.
• Many MPs protest for protest's sake.
• It's time we told the MP-protesters that their acts are unwise. It draws unnecessary media/public attention to an otherwise boring debate that the audience is yawning at.
• You don't miss the water till the well runs dry. A bad metaphor, given the circumstances, I know, but Chai Chidchob, please come back.
• Social media are big, shameless spoilers. Ninety-nine per cent of clips and photos shown by the opposition had been put on "walls", tweeted, shared, liked and YouTubed a million times. (And with the most politically incorrect comments or feedback for extreme entertainment as well.)
• Many speakers on the House floor apparently assume that the audience is stupid.
• The opposition's best moment: Jurin Laksanavisit asking Pracha if he was justice minister for all of Thailand or for just one man.
• The government's best moment: Nothing inspirational. But strategically speaking, government MP-protesters did well in making viewers ask themselves, "What in the name of God am I doing here?"
• The opposition's worst moment: One Democrat - I can't remember who - must have been thinking he was unleashing a sharp blow when he said that political interests were dictating how the floodwaters flowed. (I heard "Oh Yeah?" even before the government side actually said it.)
• The government's worst moment: Pracha showing a photo of Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva distributing relief bags bearing the name of the Energy Ministry was not just a low blow, but also a foolish low blow. (Did he mean to say that all relief supplies should to be distributed by pro-government politicians and that flood victims had to wait until MPs were ready and came their way?)
• Pracha must have had bad advisers, or, worse still, those "advisers" must have hated him. When the debate was drawing to a close, he displayed meaningless video clips of ex-prime minister Abhisit attentively taking part in water management planning, and comparative graphics meant to raise the question why Abhisit did not care about dam waters this year. We could almost hear the Democrats whooping with joy at this point. If you missed it, Pracha suggested that Abhisit let the dams swell as soon as he dissolved the House, knowing he was going to lose the election, and counted on overflowing dams and big storms that he (Abhisit) knew were coming, to take out his enemies.
• Chuwit Kamolvisit, who happened to be caught often on camera, half-naked in flood waters, helping the victims, doesn't like what he calls "flood politics".
• Like a mean dog, Chalerm Yoobamrung can be hated by all the neighbours, for all his master cares.
• According to Pracha, Bangkok would have been two metres under water but for Pheu Thai's Karun Hosakul and Surachat Thienthong. Take that, all you Karun-haters out there.
• Soldiers, the heroes in this flood crisis, are part of the government, too. Exactly why Pracha tried to stress this point, I'm not quite sure.
• Whether you are red, yellow, multi-coloured or neutral, if you felt proud of Thai politics after watching the debate, and want your kids to become politicians, then we weren't watching the same debate.
• The most ignored, useless, desperate statement, repeated by those guys who took turns chairing Sunday's House session: "We are on TV, people."