Thai News

Pandora's On Soi LK Metro has just been converted from a coyote bar into an A-GoGo. The news owners have posted a new notice about its 65 Baht draft beer suggesting that the venue will now be known as the more logical Pandora's rather than the unlikely Pandors's on the main sign.

Presumably the lack of apostrophe on the sign is yet another typo.

A non-binding video game ratings system has been proposed by the Thai Ministry of Culture. Six age-based ratings for games have been mooted by the Ministry of Culture that would be placed on all games released in Thailand but would not be legally binding on retailers to enforce. Pradith Posew of the Film and Video Censors Board said:

There won't be any legal effect in banning kids from playing games. It's merely a guidance for guardians to take care of their kids' video game playing, based on the appropriateness to their age.

He said it was also intended to help internet and gaming cafes to advise kids who play games at their shops.

In addition to a general audience category, the six ratings would include recommendations for minimum ages of 3, 6, 13, 15 and 18.

The ratings system has been sent to the military government for final approval, Pradith said.

On several recent occasions video games have been banned in Thailand. In 2008, the Ministry of Culture banned sales of Grand Theft Auto IV , after a 17-year-old student stabbed a taxi driver dead and blamed the game for his actions.

In August 2014, three months after the military seized power from an elected government, Thai authorities also banned sales of Tropico 5 , which allows players to assume the role of a dictator running a fictitious tropical island nation. The Film and Video Censors Board claimed the game could possibly affect the kingdom's political situation. The game creator hit back at Thailand this past June by launching a new Espionage mission tasking players with crippling the Thai tourism industry.

Thailand's military government threatened women posting photos of the lower half of their breasts, a current social media trend, saying their actions could violate the country's computer crime laws and lead to 5 years in prison.

Thailand's computer crimes act 2007 bans material that causes damage to the country's security or causes public panic or any obscene computer data which is accessible to the public .

The culture ministry said offenders faced up to five years in jail. Ministry spokesman Anandha Chouchoti said:

When people take these 'underboob selfies' no one can see their faces. So it's like, we don't know who these belong to, and it encourages others to do the same.

We can only warn people to not take it up. They are inappropriate actions.

Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2015 USA romance by Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Starring Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan and Jennifer Ehle.

The film adaptation of the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey will be screened uncut in Singapore. It received an R21 rating from the Board of Film Censors, with an advisory that the film has a mature theme and sexual scenes.

Meanwhile in Thailand the film has been given a rare 20 rating. (20 is the age of maturity, similar to 21 in the UK)

For comparison, countries have rated the film as follows:

• Argentina 16
• Australia: rated MA15+ (15A in UK ratings terminology) for strong sex scenes, sexual themes and nudity
• Canada (Quebec) 16+
• Canada (Ontario + British Columbia) 18A
• China Unavailable as distributors think Chinese film censors would ban it
• Czech Republic: 15
• France 12
• Iceland 16
• Indonesia Banned
• Ireland 18
• Italy 14
• Kenya Banned
• Malaysia Banned
• New Zealand R18 for sex scenes and offensive language
• Netherlands 16
• Philippines R-18 after censorship cuts implemented by blurring
• Russia 18+ (banned in Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya)
• Singapore R21 uncut for mature theme and sexual scenes
• South Korea 18
• Spain 16
• Sweden: 15
• Thailand 20
• UAE Banned
• UK 18 uncut for strong sex
• US: R rated (17A in UK ratings terminology) for strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.
• Vietnam 16+ after cuts which were required to make the film suitable for the masses

And perhaps, most importantly the viewers have rated the film 3. (3 out of 10 that is, the average mark from 10,000 reviewers on IMDb )

The Daily Mail is always campaigning for the censorship of internet 'sleaze', and it seems to have got its message across in Thailand.

The Thai internet police have recognised the sleaziness of the newspaper, notable for its sidebar of shame, and blocked it accordingly.

Thankfully for readers amused by the newspaper's ludicrous takes on moralist issues, the website is only partially blocked.

The main page is inaccessible, but the rest of the pages are available, so for instance starting browsing at www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/index.html should restore the merriment.

Virtually without notice, the government last week raised the entry fees for national parks. In fact it was more than just a raise , prices were doubled.

On Feb 1, national parks were instructed by the government's National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department to begin extorting higher fees from foreign visitors. Thai fees, to be shown only in Thai script, went from 40 to 50 baht. Tourist prices were doubled, from 200 baht to 400 baht per adult.

The following report appeared on the super-popular Tripadvisor.com website last Friday:

We went to Khao Yai [National Park] for the day, and when we got there we realised that the entry fee for Thais is 40 baht, and for foreigners it is 400 baht.

Dozens of comments followed, ranging from outrage to mildly critical. It might not deter a tourist or a family from visiting Thailand, but it has already deterred visits to attractive sites, and it has brought the government into disrepute as racist and greedy.

No topic sets a tourist's teeth on edge like double-double-double-pricing. It is the worst sort of disrespect displayed at the economic level. The government knows this. When it sets different prices for Thai and foreign visitors, it prints the local price in Thai script. This merely compounds the sneaky intent, since tourists in Thailand and abroad know full well about this trick.