Negative Thai News
http://www.2bangkok.com/
Bangkok takes a beating - August 18, 2006
CNN's Anderson Cooper 360: ...Law enforcement officials say John Mark Karr is a former school teacher. Arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, notorious for its sex trade and for child prostitution... One of the things, obviously, everybody has been asking about here today has been the location, Thailand, a country known for a very active sex trade and a very active sex trade that involves very young children. Any hint from the authorities there about any connection to that with this man?...
CNN's Anderson Cooper 360: ...But it's a lot different arresting someone in Bangkok than it is in the United States. How can you even offer someone in Bangkok an American lawyer? They're not -- they're not -- there are not any of them over there...
CNN's evening newscast described the parading of the suspect by the Thai police as being reminiscent of Lee Harvey Oswald.
CNN Breaking News: Boulder DA: Ramsey murder suspect John Karr started working as second grade teacher in Thailand Tuesday
...Karr had begun working as second-grade teacher in Bangkok international school system on Tuesday, Lacy said...
Sicko bagged in Bangkok - New York Daily News, August 16, 2006 (Also: John Karr's resume)
And the ancillary stories:
Poverty, corruption in Asia helps sex trade thrive - CNN, August 17, 2006
It's a photo that has become a staple in the tabloids of Southeast Asia: the foreigner taken in by police after being caught in bed with a local boy or girl.
For many of the region's countries that derive huge sums of money from the tourism trade, it's a vivid illustration of its seamiest side -- child sexual exploitation...
The LA Times runs the same story with a slightly different headline: Child sexual exploitation thrives in Thailand, region
Bangkok known as center for sex industry - Denver Post, August 17, 2006
Bangkok is a pedophile paradise with a lucrative child-sex industry.
"Certainly it's an attractive place for a pedophile who has the money to travel, so it follows the person who murdered JonBenet Ramsey would be attracted to Thailand both as a place to fulfill sexual desires and as a place to hide," said criminal justice Professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston.
"If you know who you're looking for, that might be a place to look..."
The Daily News runs the same story, adding a bit to the headline: Thailand known for active sex trade, especially of kids
The JonBenet Suspect: A Loner's Life in Thailand - Time, August 17, 2006
John Mark Karr, 41, lived on the ninth floor of a rundown apartment building in a Bangkok district full of similarly rundown buildings and guest houses...
And the Fox News report about Thailand: 'Pedophile Paradise'? (link on the top right side of their front page)
"...it's no surprise where he fled to..."
Sex is a "billion dollar industry in Bangkok"
"Washington Square in downtown Bangkok where sex is offered with kids..."
"The Entertainment Act of 1966 says that places where tourists come are exempt from banning prostitution..."
"Is the only reason someone is going to Bangkok Thailand is for the sex industry?
Well I'd hate to speculate on that and ruin Thailand's tourism industry in all together in one shot, John, but it is listed as the third place for child abuse and child sexual exploitation."
"The implication is that the Thai government doesn't care--it lets this happen."
Meanwhile:
Mobile phones 'warping cultural values' - The Nation, August 17, 2006
Thai cultural values have been warped, with half the population "dependent" on cell phones, the National Culture Commission said yesterday...
...The third "disease" was impatience and hot tempers caused by getting used to a instant connections and a response to orders. People become irritated over other things, even trivial events, in life.
...The last "dysfunction" was insincerity resulting from the nature of phone conversations, which are not face-to-face dealings. Users are prone to use overly sweet words or lies to convince the other party that they care about something, when they do not.
Amornrat said overuse of cell phones was also causing other problems. Ear disease, severe headaches and nerve disorders have become more common due to long exposure to the cell-phone's electromagnetic field.
Also, more and more peeping toms or exhibitionists are using phone cameras to shoot nude pics to be published on the Internet...
More "Bangkok takes a beating" - August 19, 2006
Thailand, Sex-Trade Capital? - ABC, August 18, 2006
"The way Wall Street is to finance тАФ Bangkok is to pedophiles..."
Bangkok, Haven for Sex Offenders - family.org, August 18, 2006
...John Mark Karr lived in central Bangkok, known for its massage parlors and sex tourism. The area fit Karr well, a known pedophile. Ann-Janette Alejano-Steele with the Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking organization, says Thailand is a pedophileтАЩs paradise.
тАЬIf youтАЩre hiding and youтАЩre a pedophile, certainly thatтАЩs going to be a place to hide partly because that lifestyle is acceptable.тАЭ
...LaRue says while the U.S. is not immune from pedophiles, our laws are intended to see that we donтАЩt become another pedophile haven like Thailand.
John Mark Karr's Strange Life as a Teacher - Time, August 18, 2006
He moved from country to country and school to school, winding up in Thailand, where expatriate instructors have a special cachet...
But Thailand's headmasters, it seems, sweat not such details. In fact, at least one Thai school administrator thought Karr's variegated experience an asset...
Suspect's 'Lonely' Bangkok Life - LA Times, August 19, 2006
...Karr evidently spent much of his time in the dreary, claustrophobic room he rented at the Blooms Residences, one of the city's countless low-end boarding houses that target both budget travelers and long-term guests.
Situated on a quiet, narrow street in the city's bustling Sathon District, the building has a drab, salmon-colored exterior. Its facade is a honeycomb of small balconies and dirty windows, each with a small air conditioner jutting out of it. Guests can rent rooms for three hours, by the day or by the month. Only cash is accepted.
Karr paid about $225 a month for Room 1927, on the ninth floor. Little sunlight would have filtered through his window, which looks out onto another wing of the complex. From his tiny, rusted balcony, Karr could crane his neck to the right and watch Bangkok's choked traffic snake along a highway...
Still more "Bangkok takes a beating" - August 21, 2006
Investigators considered Karr 5 years ago - CHILD EXPLOITATION: Thailand known for lax enforcement - Chronicle Foreign Service, August 19, 2006
When John Mark Karr stepped out of his grungy room on Si Bamphen street, scents of grilled food wafted in Bangkok's humid air while coquettish male and female prostitutes paraded on the sidewalk.
Karr would have attracted little attention with his slight build in a neighborhood that caters to expatriate residents with outdoor cafes, massage parlors, budget travel agencies and seedy hotels...
He repeatedly came to this city of 6 million inhabitants, where expatriates enjoy a low cost of living and a don't-ask-don't-tell social etiquette that allows vice and discretion to flourish. Bangkok, which also attracts millions of visitors for its magnificent temples, markets and canals, is well known for sex tourism, drugs and street markets that sell fake documents...
JonBenet arrest raises Asian crime fears - AFP, August 18, 2006
The arrest in Bangkok of an American suspect in the decade-old JonBenet Ramsey murder case has again cast the spotlight on Thailand as a criminal hideaway, especially from sex charges overseas...
Child protection groups and criminal experts fear that Thailand's reputation as a haven where crimes go unpunished is attracting foreigners seeking a luxurious lifestyle while escaping justice.
...Barely a month goes by in Thailand without another arrest of a foreign sex offender or violent criminal.
Yet still more "Bangkok takes a beating" - August 22, 2006
Case puts seamier side of Thai tourism in the spotlight - USA Today, August 20, 2006
...The frenzy surrounding the deportation of American John Mark Karr dominated Thai TV and headlines over the weekend, the case a reminder of Thailand's struggle to shake its image as a magnet for foreign "sex tourists" and pedophiles...
JonBenet exposes Thai teaching flaws - BBC, August 19, 2006
The Quiet Farang - NYT, August 19, 2006
...Nit Dandin, a veteran teacher of the Thai language to Westerners, put it to me this way: тАЬWhy do farang come to Thailand after they kill or rape somebody in their own country?тАЭ...
English-language circuit in Asia begs for teachers, little screening - Canadian Press, August 20, 2006
And even The Nation: A perfect lure for paedophiles - The Nation, August 19, 2006 (We believe 2B must have given them the idea for this story...)
Will it ever end?: Bangkok takes a beating - August 24, 2006
KarrтАЩs time as teacher in Bangkok under cloud - IHT, August 22, 2006
...A recent posting on the TEFL (Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) monitoring website TEFLWatch.org said, тАЬFor anyone out there curious, Thai schools do not hire on a trial basis. All evidence suggests that John Karr worked long term at both establishments, at least several months,тАЭ and claimed the schools were тАЬblatantly lyingтАЭ to save face, adding that the issue is of serious concern for parents of children at schools across the country...
Thailand's smile hides multitude of sins - Boston Globe, August 22, 2006
To the millions of holidaymakers who flock there every year, Thailand is the "Land of Smiles," a picture-postcard paradise of white-sand beaches, tropical sun and exotic eastern charm.
But behind the relentlessly promoted tourist image lies a darker reality in which legendary hospitality also extends to less savory visitors -- from misfits and murderers, to perverts and pedophiles from across the globe.
..."If you think the meaning of life is riding a bike with a black-haired girl on the back and having a cheap beer, then this is definitely the place to be."
Exploiting the system, in the guise of 'ajarn' - Bangkok Post, August 23, 2006
[This article sounds like someone is pitching a screenplay or book...]
...And sometimes, you can find yourself sharing an office with Hannibal Lector.
...Just like the former US state senator who was repeatedly caught and convicted for drunk driving and beating his girlfriend. When he carried a loaded revolver into the state legislature he was finally expelled from office. At the height of his power, white racist supremacist and militia members rallied at his demagogic speeches against minorities and welfare recipients, but most recently he has found himself teaching English at a university in Thailand.
...I met him in a go-go bar in Phuket. It was the quip about the human race being a plague on the earth and that only through a systematic programme of racial purification would we survive as a species, that made me realise he was not on a mercy mission in the Third World.
He was last seen teaching a transsexual prostitute to sing the Star Spangled Banner in an area notorious for homosexual encounters with young men who had had a sex change operation in Bangkok.
Then there was the teacher at a prominent language school in Phuket, who was recently exposed as a confidante of Adolf Hitler's personal radiologist. At 85, he was old enough to have been around during the Third Reich and his imperious gait was chillingly resonant of high rank. He spoke German, Greek, Italian, Thai, French and English fluently, but his speciality was to craft letters for bar girls consisting of lies and half-truths to beguile mostly male Caucasian tourists out of their money.
I was once privy to a meeting he thought was private and observed him perform the customary Nazi military salute when he greeted a German friend. At first, I thought it was moment of historical parody, but then observed both men deliver the same Nazi salute to each other with triumphant, choreographed precision at their farewell.
He still teaches English today, helping young bar girls conjugate irregular verbs and writes letters while receiving an old age pension from the Italian government.
There was another teacher--an American, former Arizona patrol officer who, while working in Thailand, started to exhibit repressed aggression towards his students.
His violent outbursts and confrontations involved minor infractions of university regulations. He became obsessed with thwarting students from gaining unfair advantage by cheating, and spent hundreds of hours devising examinations that would challenge the ingenuity of students to anticipate the content of examination papers...
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