The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a central budget of 1.57 billion baht to boost government agencies’ water management potential until next year.
Of the total budget, 911.71 million baht will be allocated to three ministries: Agriculture and Cooperatives (192.07 million baht), Natural Resources and Environment (619.71 million baht) and Interior (99.92 million baht) to work on their 576 water management-related projects.
“Once the projects are completed, about 542 households will gain benefits, while the water reservoir volume will increase by approximately 3.32 million cubic metres,” Government Spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said.
He added that the potential of nine water irrigation structures will be increased under those projects.
Meanwhile, another 663.87-million-baht budget will be handed out to the Royal Irrigation Department to procure 203 water pumps in a bid to boost their potential to tackle floods and drought.
Of the total, 67.13 million baht will be used to purchase 27 water pumps with pipe size at least 8 inches, 99.74 million baht for 34 pumps with pipe size at least 10 inches and 497 million baht for 142 pumps with pipe size at least 14 inches.
Earlier, the Budget Bureau said the the government still had 10 billion baht left in the central budget to tackle water-related issues.
A fish rots from the head down was the message delivered by Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt as he launched an anti-graft drive on Tuesday.
Speaking at a seminar titled “Leaders and corruption suppression”, Chadchart identified three types of leader: those who are corrupt, those who allow corruption, and those who fight corruption.
The new governor was elected in May after promising to crack down on graft in the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
Chadchart noted that corruption often starts as a small irritant before growing into a cancer that consumes an organisation. However, effective suppression of corruption depended on the actions of leaders.
“Leaders are important because when they refrain from initiating corruption, they set an example for their subordinates to follow,” he said.
He added that a rigid hierarchy also aids corruption by suppressing transparency as well as questioning and whistle-blowers. He pledged to remove hierarchies in the BMA in order to help fight graft within the organisation.
Chadchart added that technology also has an essential role in detecting corruption and making organisations more transparent.
Earlier, the governor launched the Traffy Fondue app where Bangkok residents can report problems including corruption to the BMA.
He also highlighted the problem of city officials taking gifts in return for goods or services, saying they risked becoming the “slaves” of bribe-givers.
“So we have to make ourselves [as leaders] transparent and have no fear of anyone except the public we serve,” he said.
Meanwhile, all four sectors – the government, the private and public sectors and academia – must work together as a network to tackle corruption, he added.
The seminar was organised by the Anti-Corruption Organisation at Bangkok’s Bang Sue Grand Station.
Children were among dozens of Rohingya rescued off the coast of Satun province after their boat broke down on Tuesday.
Local fishermen reported they had found 10 famished Rohingya adrift in a boat off Langu district on Tuesday morning.
They were rescued from the sea and brought ashore for questioning by immigration police. The Rohingya told police they had set sail from Rakhine state in Myanmar bound for Indonesia. They said their boat was overloaded with passengers and suffered damage after encountering stormy weather.
Thai immigration officials then extended their search after receiving information that more Rohingya were stranded off Satun. Another 41 Rohingya were discovered abandoned on a small island off the coast of Thung Wa district. The group comprised 31 men, eight women and two children, all reportedly suffering from hunger and dehydration. The group was given food and drinks.
Police are investigating whether both groups came from the same boat and if they were dumped by human-traffickers.
The Thai Taxi Network Trade Association has submitted five proposals to the Department of Land Transport (DLT) to push for electric taxis.
The association’s president, Witoon Naewpanich, said on Tuesday that he had handed over a letter to DLT director-general Jirut Wisanjit, seeking support for electric taxis after Thailand was affected severely by Covid-19.
The pandemic affected taxi drivers, taxi operators, and taxi cooperatives as the number of customers was reduced significantly due to the lockdowns.
He said the association had asked the DLT to consider the following five proposals:
Increase the usage duration of taxis to at least 12 years to make investment worthwhile
Allow varied vehicle sizes to be an alternative for operators and customers
Set a fare rate to reflect the true cost
Coordinate with the Energy Ministry and related organisations to support the charging system of electric taxis to be efficient and the charging price to be appropriate to the fare rate
Publicise the electric taxi project to taxi operators and customers
He said the EV taxi project would reduce pollution, fuel cost, fuel import, and satisfy customers.
Witoon explained that they were affected the most during the middle of 2021, as the number of taxis went down to only 20,000 from 85,000 before the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, each driver earned 2,000 baht on average per day before deducting expenses. However, they earned less than 400 baht during the middle of 2021.
Witoon said that the effect of the pandemic lasted for almost three years and some 10,000 taxis were abandoned on the streets.
After the lockdown was eased, more Thais and foreigners are using taxis, helping them earn on average about 2,000 baht a day before deducting expenses.
He expected the number of taxis in the near future to be around 60,000, which will be not sufficient. He suspected some leftover taxis might not be available, as some of them required maintenance of more than 100,000 baht each.
He said taxi operators were affected by Covid-19 as a result they lack liquidity. Moreover, financial institutions are not lending to them.
He said at least 30,000 taxis must be registered within two years to be sufficient but operators will not register more fossil fuel car taxis.
Witoon said that operators are facing cost problems from cars, parts, and fuels in both NGV and LPG after the sharp increase in price.
He said that the DLT had hired the Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation to conduct research. One research said that taxi operators do not get enough income even if they work more than 12 hours per day.
Without increasing the fare rate, they will earn enough if all costs could be reduced, so he agreed to push for electric taxis.
However, it required cooperation from several government agencies, including the DLT to make the project successful.
Witoon said, “The DLT should take this opportunity in planning a taxi system for the future to be efficient in car size and usage duration to become a motivation for operators to invest in electric taxi systems.”
Typhoon Hinnamnor, the 11th typhoon this year, passed South Korea on Tuesday, leaving one dead and two missing, the government said.
Although not included in the central government tally, eight additional people were reported missing in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. The missing people are reported to have entered underground parking lots at two separate apartment complexes to move their vehicles as water flooded the parking lots.
President Yoon Suk-yeol is said to be considering visiting the city as the search goes on for the missing.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, Typhoon Hinnamnor passed Jeju Island at midnight and made landfall on the southern coast of the country at 4:50 a.m. Tuesday. The typhoon then headed back out to sea at 7:10 a.m.
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Typhoon Hinnamnor moved northeast at a speed of 62 kilometers per hour near Ulleung Island, an island east of the Korean Peninsula. The typhoon’s atmospheric pressure reached 965 hectopascals at its center, with a maximum wind speed of 37 meters per second.
Typhoon Hinnamnor was expected to pass the northeastern coast of Ulleung Island — 330 km away from the island — at around 3 p.m. and approach an area 420 km away from Sapporo, Japan at 9 p.m.
The typhoon is expected to weaken further and become an extratropical cyclone once it approaches Sapporo, the state weather agency said.
As the typhoon moved away from the country, South Korea also lifted typhoon warnings in most areas, with some exceptions in the coastal regions as of noon Tuesday.
Typhoon Hinnamnor dumped heavy rains in the southern part of the country, as well as on Jeju Island. Between Saturday and Tuesday morning, the mountain area in Jeju had an accumulated rainfall of 1,058 millimetres. Gyeongju, South Gyeongsang Province, also had 447.5 mm of rain, followed by 418.2 mm in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Ulsan also had 385.5 mm of rain.
The National Fire Agency said 13 people have been rescued from nine accidents that took place under the influence of Typhoon Hinnamnor.
A total of 66,341 homes suffered power outages, and around 45 per cent of them have been recovered, according to Korea Electric Power.
The number of people who were temporarily evacuated for safety concerns came to 2,909 from 2,143 households. In South Gyeongsang Province, 1,620 people were evacuated, followed by 723 people in South Jeolla Province. In Busan, 379 people were evacuated from their homes. Seoul only reported three people from two households temporarily left their houses.
Three houses in total in Jeju and Gyeonggi Province and one building in Jeju were reported to have been inundated so far, while one house in the central city of Sejong was destroyed.
Farmlands in the country also reported damages. The government said a total of 1,320 hectares of farmlands have been damaged nationwide, with 477 hectares in South Gyeongsang Province, 411 hectares in South Jeolla Province, 280 hectares in Jeju Island and 115 hectares in North Gyeongsang Province.
Typhoon Hinnamnor was previously expected to be one of the strongest typhoons that South Korea has ever embraced. In terms of atmospheric pressure, Typhoon Hinnamnor ranked third at 955 hPa, following Typhoon Maemi’s 955 hPa.
In terms of maximum wind speed, Typhoon Hinnamnor came in eighth place with a maximum wind speed of 37.4 meters per second, significantly lower than Maemi’s 51.1 mps.
The less strong winds could have helped the country avoid severe damage from the typhoon, said Woo Jin-kyu, a senior analyst at the weather agency. However, Woo stressed that the winds were still strong enough to cause significant damage, and the days of taking precautionary measures prior to the typhoon’s arrival mainly helped the country avoid severe damage, unlike the case of Maemi in 2003.
Shim Woo-hyun
The Korea Herald
Asia News Network
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Cambodia is playing host to an international conference to find measures and solutions to protect cultural heritage and prevent looting of historical artefacts, which kicked off in Siem Reap and will run through September 8.
The conference theme is “International Conference on Cultural Property Protection: The Prevention of the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Properties – An Asean Perspective.”
According to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the conference was held to discuss the scope of these issues and coordinate strategic measures to ensure the return of looted artefacts.
Speaking at the conference, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona said that many Cambodian cultural properties were looted, especially during periods of conflict and upheaval, and then illegally smuggled out of the Kingdom, an indisputable assertion is given that many of the lost artefacts have been found on sale at marketplaces, auction houses and galleries abroad.
The minister said that she and the government regarding such looting and smuggling of these cultural properties as acts of destruction – as opposed to collection or preservation – that undermine understanding of the underlying cultures and the identity of the descendants of their creators.
She continued that Cambodia and all Asean countries acknowledged that it is an immediate necessity to protect the joined cultural heritages in Asean by combating illegal cultural property trading as well as forming a cultural market with a sense of mutual responsibility.
“In recent years, Cambodia and other Asean nations took active steps to jointly prevent the destruction and looting of those properties through cultural exchanges among museums and the private sector.
“This is the reason that Cambodia is striving to look for cooperation among Asean countries and the international community to jointly combat illegal trading as well as the protection of cultural heritage,” Sackona said.
The conference also has the goals of promoting understanding of culture, encouraging regional peace and security, and exploring opportunities for economic development related to heritage in the Asean region.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn attended the international conference virtually and said that Cambodia recently made a big move forward with repatriating its looted cultural artefacts back home again.
He said he expected that the rest of the looted artefacts which can currently be found in museums and private collections abroad would be returned to Cambodia in the near future, though this would only be possible through international cooperation.
“We believe that the looting of ancient artefacts is a complicated issue faced by all Asean member states. That is the reason that we have invited the Asean governments and international experts in this field here to discuss these issues,” he said.
Sokhonn said that the return of Cambodia’s looted artefacts would serve to motivate Cambodians and help inspire new ideas and innovation among them, while also allowing for new museums to be created that can be designed to incorporate elements like music or the use of technology and entertainment for an overall expansion of cultural tourism.
With Cambodia being the Asean chair this year, the Asean summit is set to take place in the Kingdom in November and Sokhonn urged Asean members to touch on this issue at that gathering.
“I hope that Asean ministers of culture will create an orientation programme for the region with the participation of cultural heritage working groups and each country’s culture ministry and cooperation at all levels such as commerce and law enforcement,” he said.
Separately, a Buddha statue estimated at 125-300 years old has been returned to Cambodia after being illegally traded to and stored in Thailand by unethical antique traders more than 30 years ago, according to the chief monk of Chanppak Chotanaram Pagoda.
On the morning of September 5, venerable Son Chan Chivak Chanmony, chief monk at Chanppak Chotanaram Pagoda, also known as Ta Sot Pagoda, told The Post that the expert officials of the General Department of Heritage of the culture ministry told him the Buddha statue is made of bronze and is 65cm height, 46cm wide and has no throne for a total of 28.7kg weight.
The eyes of the statue are now missing but were likely precious diamonds, though they have long since disappeared.
“According to experts, this Buddha statue was cast between the 18th and 19th centuries during the reign of King Norodom,” the monk said.
Venerable Son Chan Chivak Chanmony said that on July 29 of this year he visited the home of some Thai Buddhists in Bangkok and saw the Buddha statue. Because of the style of it, he was suspicious that it could be a Khmer Buddha statue and he asked about the history of the object.
“The Thai Buddhist right away told me that his father bought the Buddha statue from an antique dealer in Cambodia around 1988 or 1989. He said that the eyes of the statue were removed by the Cambodian antique traders and sold separately, while the statue was sold to his father for 550,000 baht,” he recounted.
Venerable Chanmony added that after hearing the history of the statue he requested intervention by expert officials from the Department of Cults and Religions and the Department of Culture and Fine Arts in Kampong Chhnang province and on August 3 the relevant authorities requested the return of the Buddha statue to Cambodia.
After learning how much it meant to the chief monk and considering the tragic history of Cambodia and how the loss of such objects is tied into it, the Thai owner – a devout Buddhist – agreed to return the statue to Cambodia and did so on September 4. It is presently being kept at Chanppak Chotanaram Pagoda.
Ouk Sokha, director-general of the General Department of Heritage at the culture ministry told The Post that his team of experts is going to go inspect the statue because they haven’t gotten any official reports or documents from the pagoda sent to them yet.
“At present, our team is inspecting the style of the Buddha statue to try and date it and determine its origins,” he said.
Lay Samean and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post
Asia News Network
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A Bangladeshi government employee who travelled without a ticket several times on trains between Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet recently paid up all dues after retiring.
Emdadul Haque, 61, showed up at Brahmanbaria Railway Station at about 12.30pm on Monday to pay for all the train trips he had taken without a ticket while on duty.
The father of three worked as a constable at the Anti-Corruption Commission and retired in December last year.
During his years in service, Haque sometimes travelled without a ticket because he could not afford to pay. However, he kept all records and eventually paid up.
“There is no other way to repay this debt. So I deposited the money directly into the railway. I don’t know if I will be free from the liability, but I will get peace of mind,” Haque told the Daily Star.
The story went viral on social media after the incident was mentioned on the Facebook page “The Train”.
Didar Mollah, a booking assistant at the station, said: “Emdadul travelled several times without a ticket during his time as a service holder. But he had been suffering from remorse since he retired.
“That’s why he contacted the railway himself. To get rid of the debt, today he paid his dues by buying a ticket worth 2,530 taka.”
The station master Rafiqul Islam said Haque was the epitome of honesty.
Masuk Hridoy
The Daily Star
Asia News Network
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Germany plans to keep two of its three remaining nuclear power stations on standby, beyond a year-end deadline to ditch the fuel altogether, to ensure it has enough electricity through the winter as it faces a gas supply crunch.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement on Monday that the move did not mean Berlin was reneging on its long-standing promise to exit nuclear energy by the end of 2022.
Habeck said a stress test by power grid operators had shown there could be hours of crisis in electricity supply over the winter given the tightness in the European energy market.
“That is why I believe the right consequence of the results of the stress test, is that we retain this option that at the end of the planned operating life of the nuclear power plants we put the two southern German nuclear power plants into a standby situation so that they could be used again or could continue to be used if the situation were to demand it,” Habeck said.
The move is especially hard to swallow for Habeck’s Greens, which grew out of the 1970s anti-nuclear movement, although the exit was initiated by former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The Greens and other opponents of nuclear energy regard it as a high-risk technology generating radioactive waste that would remain a burden on future generations.
While all three of Germany’s remaining nuclear reactors would still close by Dec. 31, 2022, the southern plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 would remain in reserve for any emergency, until mid-April next year.
Both plants have a 1,400 megawatt (MW) capacity and are operated by E.ON and EnBW respectively.
Canadian police on Monday found one of the suspects in a mass stabbing spree dead while the other suspect, his brother, was still on the run and may be injured, officials said.
The brothers Damien and Myles Sanderson are suspected of murdering 10 people and wounding 18 in a stabbing rampage that devastated an indigenous community in Saskatchewan on Sunday, in a country unaccustomed to outbreaks of mass violence.
The attacks were among the deadliest in Canada’s modern history. Police said some of the victims appeared to have been targeted, while others were apparently random.
The victims included a mother of two, a 77-year-old widower and a first responder.
In a manhunt involving hundreds of police officers, Damien Sanderson, 31, was found dead in a grassy area on the James Smith Cree Nation, possibly killed by his brother, who had been previously wanted for violent crimes.
The brother still at large, Myles Sanderson, 30, “may have sustained injuries” and could be seeking medical attention, said Rhonda Blackmore, commanding officer of the Saskatchewan Royal Canadian Mounted Police, at a news conference.
With the death of one Sanderson brother and the injury to the other, the casualty count now stood at 11 dead and 19 injured, Blackmore said.
“We can confirm he has visible injuries. These injuries are not believed to be self-inflicted at this point,” Blackmore said without specifying what caused the injuries.
Asked if Myles Sanderson was suspected of also killing his brother, Blackmore said, “It is an investigative avenue that we are following up on but we can’t say that definitively.”
She also warned that police still considered Myles Sanderson a danger to the public, even if he were injured.
“Myles has a lengthy criminal record involving both persons and property crimes. … We consider him armed and dangerous. Do not approach him,” Blackmore said.
Police in the Saskatchewan city of Saskatoon had been searching for Myles Sanderson since May, when he stopped meeting his parole officer after serving a sentence for assault, robbery, mischief and uttering threats, CBC News reported.
Ever felt a need to have a companion alongside you to do nothing in particular, but have trouble finding one? Shoji Morimoto, a 38-year-old man from Japan who goes by the moniker “Rental-Do-Nothing-Man”, might be the answer.
As his nickname goes, Morimoto provides a very unusual rental service to his clients in Tokyo, hiring himself out in order to, in his own words, do nothing.
“I am the ‘Rental-Do-Nothing-Man’. I provide a service where I can be rented to do nothing. This ‘Do-Nothing-Man’ is me and I rent myself out. I go to places where I am asked to, and I do nothing there,” he told Reuters.
While such rental services are not unheard of in Japan – there are agencies where one can rent actors to be your friend or even an entire family – Morimoto’s differentiating factor lies in his “effort-free” approach, while not playing any specific role.
“What I mean by doing nothing is, I eat and drink (with my clients), and I answer their simple questions with simple answers,” Morimoto clarified.
Since starting his business on a Twitter page in 2018 to offer his service, Morimoto claimed he has been hired over 4,000 times to do nothing more than to mostly dine with clients, attend events, and sometimes provide a listening ear. Morimoto now boasts nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter and approximately a quarter of his clients are repeat customers, including a woman who has hired him 270 times.
For the price of 10,000 yen ($71.20) per booking, Morimoto will offer his companionship. He won’t start a conversation, but will offer simple responses if asked, he said. On top of his fee, he also charges for transport and clients will pay for his food if the assignment is during meal times.
Despite what sounds like a niche service, Morimoto is in high demand and can sometimes schedule up to three assignments a day.
One such client is data analyst Aruna Chida, who found out about Morimoto when his business was trending on social media. The 27-year-old former Mumbai resident had bought a sari and was keen to wear it in public, but was hesitant to invite her friends because they “might be embarrassed”. She decided to hire Morimoto instead to join her for afternoon tea with her dressed in the Indian garment.
But that was not the only reason she paid for Morimoto’s time.
“When I’m with my friends, I kind of feel like I have to entertain them. But with ‘Mr. Rental’ (Morimoto), I feel like I don’t have to say much and I can just keep quiet (whenever I want),” Chida said.
Another client, who only wished to be identified by her nickname “Kusa” due to privacy reasons, said she was feeling down due to work and wanted to do something unusual to cheer herself up. The 33-year-old public servant thus hired Morimoto in October 2020 to accompany her for a curry meal while she was dressed in a Pikachu costume. She hired him again a second time to listen to her life story.
Morimoto’s rising popularity has brought with it some requests that he has turned down. Along with a blanket refusal on any requests of a sexual nature, Morimoto has previously rejected a prospective client who wanted to take him to Trinidad and Tobago, as well as one that asked him to help move a refrigerator “because it involved physical work”.
Morimoto got into the business after quitting his job at a publishing firm. Often criticised by bosses and colleagues for not doing anything, Morimoto said he was left with an inferiority complex which he tried to overcome.
“I then started wondering ‘what would happen if I try to make use of this ‘do nothing’ side of me, turn it into a selling point and provide that service to people. That was how I started as a Rental-Do-Nothing-Man,” he said.
When asked why he thinks his service has become so popular, Morimoto said his clients probably feel comfortable about the “temporal relationship’ they have with him. With friends, families and acquaintances, people tend to hesitate to ask for favours because they would feel like they have to do something in return for the sake of the relationship.
Beyond that, Morimoto believes his work can change the societal attitude that one needs to always be doing something productive in order to feel valued. Sometimes, just showing up for people and being there can be valuable too, he said.
“People might think that this ‘doing nothing’ service is valuable because it is also a form of being useful. That is what people often say about it (my service) too. I think this (opinion) is interesting, but I also think it is really fine to indeed not be doing anything.”
