(AP) May 19 –
The government declared an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in Bangkok, and said army operations would continue through the night.
“Tonight is going to be another worrisome night,” government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.
It also imposed a partial media blackout on local TV stations, saying all of them will have to air government-prepared bulletins.
Protesters turned their rage on the local media, which they have accused of pro-government coverage. They attacked the offices of state-run Channel 3, setting fire to cars outside and puncturing water pipes that flooded the building.
“At Channel 3 need urgent help from police, soldiers!!!” tweeted news anchor Patcharasri Benjamasa. “News cars were smashed and they are about to invade the building.”
Hours later its building was on fire. Its executives were evacuated by helicopter and police rescued other staff. The English-language Bangkok Post newspaper evacuated its staff after threats from the Red Shirts. A large office building down the street from the Post was set afire. » The full AP article – By Denis D. Gray

Bangkok – May 18 | Thai Media joins government in spreading hate:
A constant crawl at the bottom of television screens, which started running in March on two government-owned stations, makes the case that “malevolent” protesters are hurting the country and should go home. And an advertisement implores, “Thais should love each other because we all live in the same country.”
“The Thai people love peace but when we go to war, we are not fearful,” read one of the dozens of messages exhorting people to oppose the protest movement that has paralyzed parts of Bangkok for more than seven weeks.
At the same time the government has shut down an opposition television station and at least 420 Web sites affiliated with the red shirt movement.
Officials are also accusing red shirts of trying to overthrow the monarchy, an incendiary charge that protest leaders reject. » The full International Herald Tribune article By By Thomas Fuller.

newscopy.org

image source Tolerance.org

• The New York Times – Learning Network – When the News Ignites a Fuse -
  Overview | Students examine news stories and images that have incited violence in the past to put into historical context recent news coverage. Go to this Media and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – News or Propaganda? -
  Overview | Students discuss objectivity and press responsibility. Go to this Media and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• World Wise School – “How Accurate is It?”
  Overview | This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people… Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – Exploring Bias in the News -
  Overview | Students look for biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning. Go to this Media and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – Keeping It Quiet -
  Overview | Students consider ways in which countries use censorship to control information. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Thailand is copying the self serving tactics Mao used to purge his political rivals

Editor | Fifty years since the “Cultural Revolution” and China is still recovering from the damage, while Thailand is copying the mistakes.
Blocking elected governments using vindictive and biased courts, a malicious self serving media, a menacing military, and a street gang that was above the law and hijacked the airports to lead to Abhisit’s artificially installed government, foreshadows the chaos that followed Mao’s revenge. (Editor comment posted 10/26/2008).

Li Qingyou: “Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do. We never realized where it would all lead.”

“The movement, which Mao had asserted would ensure permanent revolution, was in fact launched mainly to purge his political rivals. These included Deng Xiaoping (later to become Chinese leader) and the moderate Liu, whose liberal economic policies had undermined Mao’s authority and called into question his ability to run the country day-to-day after his introduction of the catastrophic Great Leap Forward in 1959. » The full Times Online article.

Wang Guangmei and her husband Liu Shaoqi before his fall from grace and her public humiliation by Mao’s Red Guards… In 1966 he was stripped of the presidency, and the following year both were consigned to jail where he was to die, and from which she was not to emerge until 1978… She died on October 13, 2006, aged 85.

• “The Constitution Tribunal is illegitimate and the case is completely political,” said legal expert Kanin Boonsuwan, who helped draft the 1997 (Thai) Constitution. “Judicial powers have gone too far already; the judges are abusing their power and independence. This is not only about dissolution, but the future of democracy in Thailand.”
  Many legal experts see the dissolution case as a sham. Indeed, many wonder how a body created by those who overthrew Thaksin has any right to terminate political parties for allegedly attempting to overthrow democracy. And especially to do so for violating a constitution the junta leaders discarded? – The Rise of Thailand’s Third Branch – By Daniel Ten Kate – The Asian Sentenel

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• June 2010 update:
  

  Ousting Abhisit May Not End Protests Over ‘Autocratic Rulers’

  The current constitution, written after the 2006 coup, set up a Senate in which almost half the members are appointed. It also offered amnesty for generals such as Army Chief Anupong Paojinda, who helped oust Thaksin and (was) calling for parliament to be dissolved.
  “Abhisit may resign or dissolve parliament, but that doesn’t necessarily get us anywhere,” said Prudhisan Jumbala, a lecturer at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “Nobody can implement the rule of law without the cooperation of society, and neither side trusts the authority of the state.”
  The conflict underpins a split within Thailand’s 67 million people over the extent to which the country’s leaders should be elected. » The full Bloomberg article – By Daniel Ten Kate.

• World Wise School – Worksheet – Generalizations: How Accurate Are They?
  Overview | Students will examine how generalizations can be hurtful and unfair, and they will devise ways to qualify statements so they avoid stereotyping other people. Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast –
  Mao’s use of power with that in Thailand being used against deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and anyone associated with him. Go to this ESL, Law and Society Lesson.