Wasn’t that what OTOP was about?

…doing at a local level essentially what CP Foods does at a national level for export:
http://www.readbangkokpost.com/business/international_trade/cp_foods_export_strategies_in.php

Certain fields in Thai universities like Food Science are more important than in western universities. But the pioneering abalone entrepreneur in the article above was trained as a vet, so you could argue that the more general rigorous training of the natural sciences is very pertinent. The importance of the fundamental and more universal subjects that have been around for ages like mathematics is underrated. The university I worked at had no math department but it did have a trendy cosmetic science department, more an artifact of marketing than knowledge per se.

IMHO instead of taking His Majesty the King’s words and try to create some monolithic new all-encompassing subject out of it, if people just **thought good and hard** for a couple of minutes each day, perhaps before breakfast, **about what “Paw Piang” actually means** and then practiced it with perseverance in their own daily lives (albeit it is difficult to do that in the hustle bustle of Bangkok) that would be of much more value than big theories and a course. One of the most disheartening things about being a teacher was seeing all the lecture notes strewn about on the ground outside the examination room after the final exam. I still have the lecture notes from when I was a graduate student at Stanford 20 years ago.

Three weeks ago the government was claiming that they didn’t know how to activate the “sufficiency economy” philosophy in policy. Three weeks later they have grandiose all encompassing ideas and policies. They should get a clue.

The sufficiency economy is already there. Rural people can go down to a bookstore learn how to fish farm in their backyard. Ask some neighbors for some advice and presto, enough cash to eat everyday. Pak Bung, it grows wild by the side of the road! People just need to learn to use what they already have better!

But anyway, I think there are more questions to be asked about Inpaeng too, before comparing it’s success with other villages. Here are some:

1. What is the strength of land ownership and tenure there? What is the average family farm size?
2. How much input came from outside with the region chosen as a demonstration model?
3. How are lands being divided among subsequent generations?
4. How much of the mobile phones and TVs and other modcons are paid for by family working in the cities — that is, what is the role of money transferred inward?
5. With this approach how to you produce people educated enough to run the central bank?

I witnessed someone in a coma denied oxygen necessary for their continued life unless a lot more than 30 baht was forthcoming.

Here, as always, transparency is the issue: 30 baht for what?

Chris Baker isn\’t really an academic (he\’s an \”independent research\”, which means that no university will give him tenure), and the Thailand Human Development Report is a palace puff piece to justify the Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award that Kofi Annan gave to the King. Sounds impressive, doesn\’t it?

Until you ask who else has received this award…. And the answer is: nobody. It\’s an award created specifically for the king.