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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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 Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:38 am Post subject: |
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I don't think any of us missed the point. There is one rule that covers all the world:
Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
If you read the article, he was aware of the law in Thailand and even stopped to question whether this passage in his book may cause a problem. An intelligent person would have removed the passage (one paragraph was it?) rather than take the chance. It certainly wasn't crucial to the plot.
This wasn't a 20 year old in his first overseas job. He made his bed...
VS |
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Cleopatra
Joined: 28 Jun 2003
Posts: 3657
Location: Tuamago Archipelago
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| Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:16 am Post subject: |
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| One of the things about being Western is that you tend to take free speech for granted. |
Actually, even in the "Western" world free speech always has limits. In several European countries, for example, it's a crime to deny the officially accepted history of one historical event. In most other countries, it's a crime to incite violence or to make racist remarks in a public context. The Thais may or may not have similar rules but - as every idiot knows - they do not entertain 'free speech' when it comes to their monarchy, and this position is widely supported by the Thai public. Whether you or I or Mr Nicolaides agree with this law is neither here nor there.
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| he made some innocuous comments about an outdated and tyrannical form of government. |
Apart from the fact that it's for the Thais to judge their own government, I highly doubt the comments (a rather odd way to describe words he wrote in a published book) were innocuous. Mr. Nicolaides had spent several years in Thailand and must have known that his words were illegal. I only visited Thailand once on a brief holiday and yet I knew that you don't go around slagging off the royal family there. Put another way, in the highly unlikely event of Mr Nicolaides somehow managing to be ignorant of this well-known law, as VS said, ignorance of the law is never an excuse.
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they think they can get away with treating Westerners in this manner.
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Here we come to what I believe to be the crux of the matter, and probably the reason why Nicolaides allowed his arrogance to overcome whatever he has of good judgement. These silly laws don't apply to "Westerners" do they?
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| obvious injustices |
So far as I know, Nicolaides received the minimum sentence Thailand's justice system permits for what they consider a serious crime.
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| What happened to Mr. Nicolaides could just have easily happened to you or me. |
Well yeah, if I chose to break the laws of the land I chose to live in, I suppose it could happen to me. |
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