Baby Cow with a Human Face

Photo Courtesy of MThai News

PHATTHALUNG – Phatthalung residents discovered a baby cow with a human-like face. Its body and head did not have any hair but other parts of the body resembled a normal cow. It died a few days after birth. Many people paid a visit to the dead human cow.

The owner, Thawee Pornduang, 64-years-old, said the mother of this strange cow was only pregnant for 8 months then gave birth. As a result, the cow was deformed and died not long after. Neighbors heard the news and came to see the cow almost everyday. Thawee said he will take the dead cow to Praduhom temple for the public to see.

Animal research officer, Manoon Nuujeenseng, had a less mystical view of the situation. He said the possible reason for the cow’s deformity was to do with the abnormality of sperm cells at conception, or that the mother cow ate some harmful substances by accident or that “someone” had made the cow pregnant.

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

A Little More On Keiko Sato

Photo Courtesy of Khaosod

THAILAND – As the father and son arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport on the father’s final day in Thailand, a congregation of teary fans passed on gifts and flowers to Katsumi Sato, the father.

Before entering the gate, Katsumi kneeled down to hug Keiko and they both cried while embracing each other; a strong emotional charge was felt throughout the airport and many people began sobbing. Katsumi thanked Thailand again for the last time before disappearing through the departure gates.

Keiko Sato, when asked if he wanted to live in Japan with his father, simply shook his head. He doesn’t want to leave Thailand and only wants to go to Japan for a vacation.

Before leaving to the airport that night, the two had been on the TV Show, “At Ten,” and gave an interview on how Katsumi had met Thipmontha Sato, Keiko’s mother.

Katsumi Sato said that he likes Thai women because they are cute, good-looking, kind and joyful. The couple had met at Tha Luang temple and eventually got married and had Keiko.

Katsumi recalled that one newspaper in Japan covered the news on a Thai-Japanese boy, Keiko searching for his father. Not long after that, the Japanese embassy contacted him. He said that years ago he was learning Muay Thai in Thailand, when he met Keiko’s mother. He had stayed with her for three years before they separated. He tried to take Keiko, but the mother wouldn’t let him. Katsumi returned to Japan and never heard another word.

Katsumi Sato’s background in Japan is still unknown.

Katsumi returned to Japan in sorrow. Keiko said he will go visit his father in Japan soon. We can expect to receive full coverage in high definition.

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

The Case of Keiko Sato

Photo Courtesy of Thairath

THAILAND – A while ago, a little 9-year-old half-Japanese boy appeared on national news, in search of his estranged Japanese father after his mother had died. The media immediately took to daily coverage to help Keiko Sato look for his father. It became an issue that everyone talked about. The Thai government contacted the Japanese Embassy to assist in the search. The boy was constantly in the media: TV news, radio and newspapers. One company even stepped in to make him a theme song and music video. But the case Keiko Sato seems to be more of a lesson in the power of the media and its ability to construct a form of truth in society through dramatization.

What we have now is a little boy surrounded by countless journalists and flash lights; the issue is more about celebrity than finding his lost father. The most common question he is asked is if he would be interested in taking a role in a TV drama series or as an advertisement presenter or show host.

Behind all the hype of Keiki Sato, there is the reality that many more half Japanese kids are abandoned. There’s even the case of one Thai mother who wanted her half-Japanese child to be in the spotlight of the media like Keiko after searching and fighting for so long. But they never did get the same privilege and support as Keiko.

The case of Keiko Sato reflects some serious issues in the Thai media:

1. The time and space given to the story shows that Thailand’s probably overwhelmed and bored with political issues and news of conflict. The boy searching for his Japanese father was the heartwarming story everyone needed. This shift is a clear exercise in the media’s power to control what kind of news people see or want to see. In the end, Keiko boy has become a stress-relief drama turned reality TV show, with the media more concerned about ratings.

2. The actual value of the coverage of Keiko’s case comes into question. The main goal of the boy was to search for his father and it was nice for the media to announce this on national television, requesting support, but why didn’t it stop there? The helping hand of the media has turned into a manipulative hand, coercing Keiko into the role of dramatist, emphasizing the boy’s hardships as well as the sympathetic, cute version of the boy dancing in music videos, which has resulted in an emotional and powerful grip on the public. In an office somewhere TV executives are jumping up and down and receiving pay rises.

After a period of media madness, the Japanese embassy tracked down Katsumi Sato, the father of Keiko Sato. Katsumi Sato agreed to board a plane to Thailand to see his son. The media followed Keiko Sato all the way to the moment he met his father. Katsumi Sato came down from the plane to meet an array of flashing cameras and swinging microphones. It seemed that every step of the boy and his father had been airbrushed, from the time the boy brushed his teeth, to the type of van he got on to go to the airport, and to what kind of shoes he was wearing.

The media circus went on reporting all day a meticulous record of the father and sons movements. Of how they went to the zoo, how tired they were, how they went for an exhaustive day at the water park, where a company looking for cheap advertising issued the boy with a 10-year free pass. They posed for cameras – an entire PR campaign. Everyone was trying to put their finger in it. Some organizations even tried to get the boy to become a mini-tour-guide, so that the boy could bridge the gap between Thai and Japanese culture. They went on a cruise in Chaopraya River. The media described and embellished the warm moments between the father and son while they chose food from an epicurean buffet. They also went to pay respects to the deceased mother of Keiko in Pichit province. The media never once failed to capture their every movement.

As reported by the media, Katsumi Sato, the father of Keiko, appeared to be very happy and glad how much care Thailand had given Keiko. Katsumi left last night, with Keiko crying, bowing on his father’s lap. The media, again, observed the drama with a less than candid eye. The father promised to come back to Thailand again next year during Songkran and has said to take Keiko to Japan when he’s ready.

However, the media has ignored many loose ends. Where has Katsumi been these 10 years? What kind of job does he have in Japan? Does he have a wife and children in Japan? Everything was overdramatized and oversimplified in the coverage. No informational background on Keiko’s father has been provided. The whole case is a set of drama episodes exploiting a young boy in search of love and family.

Now that Katsumi Sato has left, we will have to wait for the Thai media to find their next victim. What will be of Keiko Sato now?

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

The Plastic Chair Robber

BANGKOK – A shameless thief has been borrowing tables and chairs from temples and trading them for cash on the black market.

Yes, there is a black market for everything.

Supaset Phayang, 28-years-old, is a genius robber who has been doing his rounds at temples and municipal areas; a large number of plastic chairs have gone missing.

Phayang’s hook is to ask people if he can borrow their chairs with no thought of returning them; he then sells the chairs for cash per kilo on the black market. This process has been repeated many times – temples have allegedly lost more than thousands of chairs.

Police recently caught up to the chair robber and raided his safe house fortified by plastic chairs. He has since been thrown in jail.

‘Supaset’ is the thief’s con name, his real name is Warapong. Characterized by strange behavior, he would go around to temples and communities borrowing plastic tables and chairs without returning them. Recently, Warapong approached a temple and asked to borrow 100 chairs for a blessing ceremony in a nearby village that didn’t have enough. Granted the permission, Supaset came to collect them from the temple with his pick-up truck. He appeared more casual than ever.

The tables and chairs did not return after seven days and rumors got around that other monastery’s had been robbed. When confronted, Supaset denied that he had borrowed anything from them. Villagers informed police immediately.

They tracked down Supaset and the thousands of chairs and tables he had stolen and distributed. A couple of commercial fans had also been stolen and sold to a second hand store called ‘Siam’. Police arrived at the shop to find chairs stacked at the back of the store: the names of temples imprinted on the back of them. The owner of the store said she bought the chairs for 11 baht per kilo and was charged by police for trading stolen goods. She had to pay 30,000 baht bail.

Supaset was then arrested and confessed to stealing the chairs and tables. He was also charged with drug possession.

Supaset said he had to use white-out to erase temple names from the backs of thousands of chairs and that the procedure had stressed him out real bad – drugs had helped him cope with the tedious process.

Courtesy of Thairath

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

Temple Wall Collapses Onto Girl

Photo Courtesy of Thairath

PRACHINBURI – A wall outside Dong Praram temple collapsed onto a girl while she was climbing up to collect banana leaves for her mother’s rice pudding. The wall which was made of brick didn’t have a support structure or concrete finish. When it came down, the weight of it crushed the girl’s leg.

A rescue team in Prachinburi arrived to find the 13-year-old buried under a pile of red bricks; they removed the debris and found that the bones in her right leg were shattered.

A cast was made for her at the hospital (in the photo above); at this stage it is uncertain whether she will ever be able to walk normally again.

Investigations show that the absence of any support caused the 2.5m high wall to collapse. Before the incident occurred, the mother asked her daughter to retrieve banana leaves from a tree to make rice pudding for monks on Buddha day. The tree was too high for the little girl, so she used the wall to aid her. That was when it buckled.

Courtesy of Thairath

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

Deadly Soccer Kick

KHAMPAENGPET – Jeen Timsee, 57-years-old, brought Wittavat Maneekiaw, 19-years-old, into the police station with Colonel Sirinon Padoongsheewit and charged him with murder. The victim’s name was Thinkorn Srigaew.

Wittavat confessed that during a soccer match, he was playing right wing, and the ball went out; Wittavat asked the victim to pick it up politely but the victim shouted back and raised his middle finger.

Wittavat became extremely angry and waited the whole game to find the right moment for retribution. While Thinkorn wasn’t paying attention, Wittavat rushed out onto the field and drop-kicked the victim with studded shoes; one kick was to the left ear and skull, the other to the neck – Wittavat then ran off the field in his soccer uniform. He found out later that Thinkorn was dead.

“I didn’t mean to kill him; I didn’t know studded shoes could be so dangerous.” Wittavat said.

The victim’s skull was fractured, his neck broken; the kick had been both accurate and deadly.

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

News Update: Mother Slaughters 5-Month Old Baby

It turns out the woman fed her baby milk, then stabbed it in the back ten times, then sliced the baby’s stomach, then took out its intestines and lay it out on the table.

Next, she wrapped the baby in a towel and sat at the front of the house and had no idea her baby was dead because her brain is toast; she’s loco, she’s cuckoo. She kept cradling the baby, rocking it back and forth to get it to sleep.

The husband comes home, as you will see in the video, and he’s completely distraught and can’t even blame his wife because she has no idea what she has done and he still loves her.

The husband says that his wife normally takes her pills but lately, had been throwing them away. On the day of the stabbing it rained so the wife didn’t go to work and stayed at home to look after the baby. In the video you will see that the baby has turned a pasty white.

Warning: this video is quite disturbing.

http://video.mthai.com/player.php?id=6M1254454047M0

Mother Slaughters 5-Month Old Baby

NONTHABURI – A mother suffering from schizophrenia knifed her 5-month old daughter; intestines and other organs gushed out from the child’s abdomen. The woman’s husband revealed her history of mental illness.

Police arrived at the apartment to find the woman, around 35 years old, wearing a round-necked sleeveless top and a sarong. Mad and out of control, she held the baby to her chest, fresh blood smeared all over her body. The dead child had a long slash wound across its stomach; intestines hung out and dangled midair. Police tried to calm the woman down verbally; after an hour she did, but would not let go of the baby, and warned police from going near her.

Initial investigations revealed the woman’s name to be Napaporn Yuesawang (Yuesawang meaning “Looking for Prey”, pretty ironic), and lives with her husband in a rented home. Her husband said that his wife has been very crazy lately; doing some very absurd things.

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

Some People Just Suck at Dying

Photo Courtesy of Thairath

AYUDTHAYA – A woman has made ten attempts on her own life, from hanging to stabbing to drowning herself; most recently she tried to overdose on pills – all in the hope of escaping her accumulating debts. She has been lucky and survived all of the attempts – but she doesn’t see herself as ‘lucky’ at all.

Thongkam Pluekchan, 51-years-old, carried Laor Pluekchan’s body, his wife, to Uthai Hospital’s emergency room. Laor was foaming at the mouth and choking on her own vomit.

Doctors saved her in time, cleaned out her stomach and put her in the care of nurses.
Doctors said Laor must see a psychologist to regain her mental health.

Thongkam, the husband, said that his wife had been stressed and that she took 20 stress relief pills, 20 sleeping pills, and 30 gastric pills at once.

Thongkam came home, found his wife foaming on the floor; tried to rush her to hospital but as soon as he kneeled down to carry her away, she turned to him and said she wanted to die at the house and not the hospital. She told him to leave her alone.

Laor lay on the floor and continued to foam until she passed out. Without another thought, the husband rushed her to the hospital.

Thongkam said that his wife has tried to commit suicide since August. The first time, she hung herself but was rescued by her husband. Then she tried to stab herself but her husband managed to take the knife away and was himself, stabbed in the process. Next she tried to smash her head to a pole; jumped from a bridge into a river to drown; ate a hundred pain killers. She has been admitted to the same hospital ten times and has been saved by the same medical team each time.

Thongkam also said that he has to keep knives, sharp objects, ropes, and detergents away from his wife because she will use anything to kill herself.

Laor is deep in debt from three loan sharks who threaten her safety when she doesn’t pay up.

Her waking life is full of fear and anxiety and she wants to die to escape her debts. She said she’s getting sick now anyway, with a nerve problem in her right leg which makes walking painful. A work salary alone isn’t enough to repay the debts. She’s found it hard to even keep up food money. Every day is a new opportunity to die. Her husband has resigned from his job to keep an eye on her.

“Even right now, at this moment, I still haven’t given up the idea of suicide; I still want to die to escape my debt. No one can change my mind that easily.”

Courtesy of Thairath

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak

PE Teacher Kicks the Crap Out Of Student

Photo Courtesy of Daily News

AYUDTHAYA – A physical education teacher jump-kicked his grade seven student, breaking the child’s arm and hand. The 13-year-old boy had to get a cast, from hand to elbow. It all started in a soccer game.

The boy explained that his class had been playing soccer on a school field with teacher Bank (name) on the opposing team. While Bank was bringing up the ball, the boy budged into him and teacher Bank let the ball slip out of the line. The teacher, however, used his hand to stop the ball, trying to continue.

The boy rushed in and pinned the ball out of the teacher’s hand because he realized the ball was already out and should belong to his team. Bank became angry at this and did a jumping side kick into the boy, first hitting his side; then came the round house kicks.

“I saw the teacher angry so I apologized but he didn’t let it go. He forced me to kneel down and lick his shoes. I refused and he did jumping kicks into my side and when I couldn’t stand the pain anymore, I lifted up my arm to block but the final kick sent a snap through my arm and hand and I suddenly felt extreme pain. I then shouted out really loud and he left me on the field. He ordered everybody then to stop playing and return to the classroom. After I got home, I told my dad of the hand and so we went to get X-rayed. My arm was broken, and my hand was shattered because he kicked me so many times,” the boy recalled.

The father of the boy went to see the headmaster after the incident to settle the conflict but the headmaster said that Teacher Bank had disappeared and has not answer his phone. The father insisted that if Bank doesn’t show up, he will inform the police and sue Teacher Bank for hurting his son.

Courtesy of Daily News

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak