You Tube
I remember during the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty the King’s Accession to the Throne last year, I spent an evening researching information on the King and dignitaries on the internet. I was about to do the English language narration for TV on the Royal Barge Ceremony, and I needed some extra material.
Imagine how shocked I was when I found this website from the USA which talked about the Thai celebrations. The news story was talking about wonderful it was that Thais wore yellow throughout the celebrations, and it spoke of the deep feeling of love Thais have towards their King.
But … at the end of the news story there were a series of comments from readers. One or two of them were very obnoxious. They said shocking things about the King; even I was very surprised as I read them. I left the website thinking, “Why would people write such cruel and nasty things about a situation they didn’t even know about?”
Despite these comments, the anniversary celebrations went ahead and they were spectacular. The Thais’ love for their King was stronger than ever.
Do you see my point? The level of stupidity was high in those comments I read against the King. But the level of love towards the King is much, much higher. A few stupid comments on a website did nothing to diminish the love Thais have for their King.
And that’s how I feel when I read this government has banned You Tube from Thailand. I don’t care how offensive the video clip in question is. The truth is, the power of the love and devotion the Thais feel towards their King is so strong, it can never be hurt or destroyed by??one stupid video clip.
But the government??has banned You Tube, and in doing so, they have drawn the attention of the whole world to this situation. Now every obnoxious person in the world who has access to the internet (and believe me, that’s a LOT of people)??is now busily making??his/her own anti-King videos.
I wish we had just ignored the whole thing. We should have shrugged our shoulders and thought: “Well, that’s offensive.” If we had, the story (and the video clip) would have disappeared by now.
I think of that website I saw last year with the nasty comments. As far as I know, it is still up on the internet somewhere. But have those comments lessened the feelings Thais have towards their King? No. Not at all. The majority of Thais don’t even know they exist.??
It’s a big, scary, crazy world out there. The internet is full of crazy, crazy people. Lots of them are people who enjoy upsetting others. Thailand cannot force the rest of the world to follow its laws and culture. But who wants to? Thailand has a remarkable King who has reigned for 60 years, and no other country in the world is lucky enough to have that. Who cares about a few obnoxious people who don’t feel the same? Who cares?
11 Responses to 'You Tube'
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on April 9th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Dear Andrew, we cannot control the internet. People can poke fun of everything, even the dying clip (moment) of Saddam. I do not think it was a funny clip, either. Internet is just like a busy highway everyone can use. If you have a bad luck, you may come across a drunk driver who keeps hoking at others. What to do, shoot him? Even Dirty Harry never killed a drunk driver.
And it is not wise to close the whole highway, either. ICT did a bad move. They are fighting technology and they will never win. They want Thailand to have good look & repulation, but they act like a caveman on the lose.
Google has some policies related to specific issues. I think they would listen. Any action from Google is not that fast. At least they removed the clip themselves. Now Google is telling those Thai PhD experts how to block a single clip rather than the whole website.
Just like teaching kindergarten kids!
on April 9th, 2007 at 9:21 am
I think the way ICT protest youtube is the way to punish all Thai people. I wonder how youtube care about this. I think ICT should suggest all Thai who love our King, may be 60 million peoples, send e-mail to protest youtube, each one each mail. I’m sure that youtube will understand how Thai people love their King.
on April 9th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
anyway I heard that the user already removed the offending clip.
Now just waiting for the govt to bring YOUTUBE back…it seems they like to block and close things, I hope they don’t close our country lol
on April 10th, 2007 at 9:00 am
I agree with you for the most part, though I would add that perhaps using the internet to get more information about institutions in ANY country that have , perhaps, previously “encouraged” people to arrive at only one opinion is also a priceless tool.
I understand that for someone with your profile, it’s a difficult topic to discuss.
on April 12th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I would say it is impossible to satisfy everybody. It is as simple as you can’t do everything for everyone to love you. So is the King, since he is just a man as we all are. But what is more important for a man is he is sure what he does is right. If he is sure of that, the comment will not change him. Also, I won’t say those people are stupid, but I would think more of why? And if after thinking bout it, and I think they have no reason then neglect them. The internet is an open society where everyone can express who they are, so there are people who are on the other extreme side of this society. It is an undeniable facts. I rather study and learn the way other people think. So this would be a comment to assist you in understanding the world.
on April 12th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Hi
I thought they banned Youtube because of the goverment wanted to stop unsolicited broadcasts. There was things written about the goverment.
on April 23rd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I totally agree with khun Andrew. My brother surf Youtube for video clip teaching guitar. And now it is blocked. :’(
on April 26th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
I totally agree with all you’ve written here, Andrew.
on May 18th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
[...] Long time Thailand resident Andrew Biggs feels that blocking YouTube only helped encourage the miscreants. I don’t care how offensive the video clip in question is. The truth is, the power of the love and devotion the Thais feel towards their King is so strong, it can never be hurt or destroyed by one stupid video clip. But the government has banned You Tube, and in doing so, they have drawn the attention of the whole world to this situation. Now every obnoxious person in the world who has access to the internet (and believe me, that’s a LOT of people) is now busily making his/her own anti-King videos. [...]
on May 29th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I don’t blame the Thai government for their actions, but at this point in the game, it is important to see what the outcome is and assess the fruit of our actions. Sometimes it is possible that we mistakenly “throw the baby out with the bathwater”; in this instance, I am now personally unable to update my YouTube channel, with videos on Thai insight meditation that have received thousands of views in a matter of months and numerous positive comments. Is the ban worth it? We should consider this matter carefully.
on August 9th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Our world have many group of people and thinking, we can not define they mind the loyalty. The funny things that many people happy to receive today 500 Bath than to remember the owe of the grateful state man. We try to develop the country without thinking of mind such goverment need only help poeple just for win vote and take the authority get benefit this is the cruel couple of Thais and these cheat always grow themselves infant continue evil deed for long time. I felt our soldier worth for protect these evil than protect border current day.