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Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

bbc.com

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Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#41

Post by superfluid »

todd8 wrote: post #11

His daughter dated my roommate in college. I always thought he was just making it up. She was a very attractive, nice, intelligent woman (they met in Physics class at MIT), but I never believed that she was from the ruling family of Thailand. She never mentioned that her father was a king and never acted any different than the rest of us commoners. One summer, I read about their wedding in the paper. He wasn't BSing…

Sure, just like the rest of the commoners - except for vast wealth (King's wealth est. at $30 billion in 2011, by Forbes) - and except for some hilarious and ridiculous lese majeste laws that they love to enforce:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se_majest%C3%A9_in_Thai...

(also mentioned by ddeck here)

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#42

Post by joshontheweb »

mhurron wrote: post #25
joshontheweb wrote: post #16

I'm in Thailand at the moment and I'm interested to see how this plays out. This guy is super popular. His picture is on the wall in every business and many homes. Not out of compulsion. They just love the king. I'm sure most places will close for mourning. We have been advised to take out lots of cash and get food sorted as we may not have access for a little while. The bigger question is what is going to happen wit…

> This guy is super popular. ... Not out of compulsion. Making it a crime to criticize the royal family with punishments up to 15 years tends to make it look like uncoerced love.

This is all just based on my personal experience talking to people.

I started asking about him because the pictures were everywhere. Maybe I was fooled but it sure seemed like they liked him and had good things to say. Not that they were fearfully trying to avoid speaking ill of the king.

Is there a law requiring them to hang his picture? I don't think I've been in a single thai owned business that didn't have him hanging on the wall.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#43

Post by pastProlog »

rodgerd wrote: post #32
dageshi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thailand has cycled between elected government and military dictatorship something like 15 times while he was King, the miracle is he didn't have an outright civil war during his reign. If you've ever visited Thailand, you'd know that compared to surrounding countries (with the exception of Malysia perhaps) the level of infrastructure and standard of living is much higher in Thailand, things generally work there wher…

> things generally work there whereas in neighbouring countries like Cambodia/Laos/Burma they generally don't, Yeah, I can't imagine having B-52s unloading on Cambodia or Laos had anything to do with that. Clearly it's their lack of a monarchy.

Cambodia had a monarchy and stability (relative to its neighbors), but Sihanouk refused US requests to get involved in the Vietnam war, so the US began a campaign to destabilize the country, eventually replacing Sihanouk with a puppet government under Lon Nol when Sihanouk was out of the country.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#44

Post by JoeAltmaier »

joshontheweb wrote: post #42
mhurron wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This guy is super popular. ... Not out of compulsion. Making it a crime to criticize the royal family with punishments up to 15 years tends to make it look like uncoerced love.

This is all just based on my personal experience talking to people. I started asking about him because the pictures were everywhere. Maybe I was fooled but it sure seemed like they liked him and had good things to say. Not that they were fearfully trying to avoid speaking ill of the king. Is there a law requiring them to hang his picture? I don't think I've been in a single thai owned business that didn't have him ha…

You grow up in a nation where from childbirth you're taught its taboo to criticize the ruler - that's consistent with everybody having good things to say; everybody hanging the picture. It becomes second nature.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#45

Post by kimsk112 »

joshontheweb wrote: post #42
mhurron wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This guy is super popular. ... Not out of compulsion. Making it a crime to criticize the royal family with punishments up to 15 years tends to make it look like uncoerced love.

This is all just based on my personal experience talking to people. I started asking about him because the pictures were everywhere. Maybe I was fooled but it sure seemed like they liked him and had good things to say. Not that they were fearfully trying to avoid speaking ill of the king. Is there a law requiring them to hang his picture? I don't think I've been in a single thai owned business that didn't have him ha…

There is no such law requiring them to hang his picture. Many Thai restaurants in US also have his picture hanged.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#46

Post by 1024core »

zymhan wrote: post #2

It blows my mind that someone could reign from just after WWII until this year. I hope that Thailand will stay stable. Support of the King has been key to successful military coups and transitions. The Crown Prince is much less admired, and quite odd: "The 63-year-old crown prince, Vajiralongkorn (pictured), is spoilt and demanding, and—to put it mildly—widely loathed. Three times divorced, he spends a lot of time ab…

> It blows my mind that someone could reign from just after WWII until this year.

Queen Elizabeth of UK (and CANZ) has been ruling since 1952.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#47

Post by rosser »

truth_sentinell wrote: post #12

Can't believe there are still monarchs in 2016. Definitely there are millions of people living in 1500. Abolish monarchy!!!

There's a pretty substantial difference between an absolute monarchy and a constitutional one (which Thailand is). Just ask the Dutch how they feel about it, for example.

Monarchies are not necessarily bad, and the kind of shallow, absolutist thinking displayed here contributes nothing to the discussion.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#48

Post by dhimes »

superfluid wrote: post #41
todd8 wrote: post #11

His daughter dated my roommate in college. I always thought he was just making it up. She was a very attractive, nice, intelligent woman (they met in Physics class at MIT), but I never believed that she was from the ruling family of Thailand. She never mentioned that her father was a king and never acted any different than the rest of us commoners. One summer, I read about their wedding in the paper. He wasn't BSing…

Sure, just like the rest of the commoners - except for vast wealth (King's wealth est. at $30 billion in 2011, by Forbes) - and except for some hilarious and ridiculous lese majeste laws that they love to enforce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se_majest%C3%A9_in_Thai... (also mentioned by ddeck here)

Indeed. I did some sailboat cruising there this past February and it is a fabulous place (at least the coast is). As I met and talked to the locals I was surprised at how much people loved their king. When I would ask if their king was fair or their government responsive, not only would they answer positively but their faces would light up. They seemed to be genuinely happy with their government.

Then I found out about these laws. I'm no terrific judge of phoniness, but it seems to me that they are either well practiced at these responses or they are pretty happy with things.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#49

Post by dhimes »

joshontheweb wrote: post #42
mhurron wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This guy is super popular. ... Not out of compulsion. Making it a crime to criticize the royal family with punishments up to 15 years tends to make it look like uncoerced love.

This is all just based on my personal experience talking to people. I started asking about him because the pictures were everywhere. Maybe I was fooled but it sure seemed like they liked him and had good things to say. Not that they were fearfully trying to avoid speaking ill of the king. Is there a law requiring them to hang his picture? I don't think I've been in a single thai owned business that didn't have him ha…

I feel the same way and made the comment up-thread. I was only visiting for ten days though. Coming from the US it's hard to imagine any current ruler being as well liked as this guy.

Re: Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej Dies at 88

#50

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

truth_sentinell wrote: post #12

Can't believe there are still monarchs in 2016. Definitely there are millions of people living in 1500. Abolish monarchy!!!

...You realize that a lot of Western countries, like the UK, Canada, New Zealand, etc are monarchies, right?

Thailand largely functions either as a parliamentary system or military junta, depending on the year.

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