Word: thailand
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During his two months in power, Thailand's new Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has declared war on various fronts. The feisty former governor of Bangkok has promised to rip up the country's current constitution, which was unveiled by the military junta that preceded Samak's ruling coalition. He has declared a no-holds-barred battle against Thailand's drug dealers, a fight that echoes a previous campaign by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the man widely considered to be Samak's political overlord. Samak has even vowed to imprison illegal immigrants who are members of a Burmese minority group...
...over this particular act of epic extravagance. The reason? The banquet comes with a pre-dinner commitment to what the Lebua's p.r. mavens have dubbed "emotional tourism." Hours before digging into truffles and foie gras, the 50 diners will fly by private jet to a village in central Thailand to see how impoverished Thais manage to get by without regular infusions of Brittany lobster and Bresse chicken...
...event it modestly titled "The Epicurean Masters of the World," a Michelin-starred extravaganza at a cost per head of 1 million baht (around $28,000). Despite the hefty check, the dinner event was fully booked - and it received its share of official criticism, coming at a moment when Thailand's then-ruling military junta was unveiling an economic policy based, in part, on scaling back ostentatious shows of wealth. The dinner also mystified many ordinary Thais, who are used to dining on some of the world's tastiest street food for no more than a dollar a plate...
...there's at least one Thai gourmet who may wish he'd stayed away from street food and stuck with pricier fare. Thailand's recently elected Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, boasts a famous palate; before he assumed the P.M. post, Samak hosted his own TV cooking show. But during a trip to neighboring Laos earlier this week, Samak sampled a chili-paste-and-fermented-fish concoction at a local market, and found to his considerable discomfort that the dish disagreed with him. On April 1 - and, no, this was no April Fool's joke - local newspapers put coverage...
...Thailand, the pleas of natural-birth advocates do not find a large audience. "It's like pushing a stone uphill," says veteran campaigner Dr. Tanit Habanananda of the Childbirth and Breastfeeding Foundation of Thailand. "We're frustrated. It's very easy to get a C-section in Thailand. We have some colleagues at hospitals trying to change things but it's very hard." His spouse, Dr. Melanie Habanananda, adds: "If you use the term 'natural birth' here, people think it means you have to go sit in a paddy field to have your baby." Cesareans, she says, "have become very...