Word: thai
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...game's expansion is considered good news in Malaysia and Thailand where, two years ago, the government-funded International Takraw Academy was set up in Bangkok to train both local and overseas players, coaches and administrators. The Thais and Malays are historic rivals and dominate international competitions (at Doha, the Thai team took home four golds and a silver; Malaysia left with two silvers and a bronze); both claim the game as their own, and even split the sport's name between them, with sepak meaning kick in Malay and takraw meaning ball in Thai...
...burgeoning international interest in sepak takraw won't catapult their players into the stratospheric income brackets of a Thierry Henry or Kobe Bryant, but it could turn them into decently paid professionals. At present, a top player in the Thai league, the sport's most developed, will earn a rough maximum of $15,000 for a four-month season. A true god of the game like Thai veteran Suebsak Phunsueb-considered sepak takraw's top player for the past several years-might be able to supplement that with advertisements and media work, but he's still no Beckham...
...that brings to mind harmless, crystal-wearing Californians rather than religious fanatics. Our image of a clash of civilizations does not include renegade Buddhist monks. Nevertheless, we should be every bit as worried about the protest marches in Bangkok as those in other countries with different faiths, because the Thai call to prayer is being driven by the same worrying trends: nationalism and communalism...
...many Buddhists in Thailand have no wish to see their faith enter politics. And Thai Muslims, most of whom already feel marginalized in this overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, will read any such move as more evidence of their second-class status. "It will inflame the south," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security specialist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "Muslim countries will believe we are against minorities." That would be a shame, since historically Thai culture has shown tolerance toward other cultures and religions. "Most Thais would like to find a compromise or middle path on this [constitutional] issue," says Panitan. A Buddhist...
There have been plenty of explanations for the problems at Bangkok's trouble-plagued Suvarnabhumi Airport since it opened, after 46 years of planning, last Sept. 28. Sinking swampland and hasty construction, Thai bureaucracy and allegedly corrupt deals by the former Thaksin regime are variously mooted as the causes of everything from cracked runway asphalt to customs delays, cramped toilets, monotonous retail outlets and long lines. But Thai geomancer Mas Kehardthum is convinced he has the real answer: construction was started in the wrong phase of Jupiter. "An improper calculation was made for structures in the city's eastern sector...