Word: thailand
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...Bangladeshi politics has become so rotten that many businessmen and foreign investors quietly hope for a military government (though a glance at the recently installed regime in Thailand suggests economic stability is no certainty with soldiers in charge). Even some political scientists think it's time to take a break from democracy. "We don't want in the 21st century to be ruled by the military, but if we can't agree and we always fight then there needs to be an umpire, and the military can play that role," says Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka...
...legislative panel that inspected the site on Jan. 21 said the construction of the tarmac may have been substandard, adding to a lengthening list of problems surrounding Suvarnabhumi's launch-including widespread graft allegations-and prompting Thailand's Transport Ministry to order an independent inquiry into the cracks. IOT, the Thai-Japanese contractor for the airfield surface, denied any defects in construction, blaming the damage on excess groundwater from recent floods seeping under the concrete...
...previously dominant alternative to Hollywood: the foreign film. Fellini and Truffaut are dead, but there are still exciting, challenging movies being made in Europe, Latin America and especially Asia. Some of these films get theatrical release, but to see many top films from Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand and India you need to rent them. A good video store or a specialty DVD catalog is the new art house. Trying to get your intellectual fill with Sundance films is like choosing homemade popcorn over the concession-stand variety: higher quality, little nourishment...
...night scene. A survey by a leading Thai university estimated that between 1999 and 2002, 2.8 million Thais participated in the sex business - this in a country whose entire population is 65 million. Roughly 800,000 of those sex workers were underage; most came from poor farming households in Thailand, as well as nearby Burma, Laos, Cambodia and China. Some came willingly to escape a life in the rice paddies. Others, of course, were sold into the business. Did I mention? Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, although you wouldn't know it to walk the streets of Bangkok...
...north, more than 100 ducks were found dead from H5N1 on Jan. 10; further south, the disease killed several wild birds in December. A major poultry exporter, Thailand is a hot zone for the virus; 17 Thais have died from it since...