Found in my in-box:
Under the theme “Proud Chiang Mai, Proud La Na”, Chiang Mai Governor Wibul Sanguanpong proudly invited consulates’ members for a party to meet and weave a good relation at the newly established “Aquarium” at Chiang Mai Zoo on 31 July 2009 in the evening. … Being the brainchild of Mr. Roch Thuvanalin, President of MarineScape (Thailand), the new aquarium is a living museum that boasts Southeast Asia’s longest and most spacious underwater pathways with crystal clear “sea tube” tunnels that place the visitors directly in the centre of huge 360 degrees aquatic habitats. … Mr. Apinun Suwannaraksha, Curator of the Chiang Mai Zoo Aquarium, is proud that the aquarium altogether offers over 20,000 examples of fresh and saltwater life forms as well as more than 250 various species. Also, 80% of these various species are native to Thailand. Actually, the total project area covers four acres and the aquarium itself can be reached via a narrow bridge spanned over an outdoor water tank. The attending consulates’ members first feasted on food and beverages from Chiang Mai’s finest hotels … and were later entertained at the reception area inside the aquarium with an underwater panda and mermaid performance. Finally, the party ended with a classical Lan Na cultural dance show and all the guests were assured that the “underwater world” of the Chiang Mai Zoo Aquarium makes the tourist destination of Chiang Mai even more perfect than before.
If any New Mandala readers actually saw the underwater panda and mermaid show then please, please, give us the details!
10 responses so far ↓
1 Susie Wong // Aug 4, 2009 at 12:58 am
Real change won’t happen unless we make our voices heard. However, we also must be sensitive to the fact that those audiences live in different political settings and with different cultural frames of reference. With the rate of globalization, information technology, and education we are having presently, I am sure people in Chiang Mai will catch up soon enough. Why not start with a few scholarships to study Cultural Anthropology in Australia? I am certain it will bridge the gap.
2 Luecha Na Malai // Aug 4, 2009 at 12:45 pm
It is sad that many Thais have chosen to path of extravagance, instead of concentrating on the necessities of life for the people.
3 Susie Wong // Aug 6, 2009 at 9:57 am
Aquarium helps expand people horizon, it is a living educational tool, healthy for our minds. The issue being argued here seems to be about the aquarium high technology and the panda show, rather about the educational entertainment of the aquarium. In my opinion, the presence of Panda in Thailand is about the common interest in peace. It is a preventive measure to ensure an assumption that every nation has an identical interest in peace, and that any nation which desires to disturb the peace is therefore both irrational and immoral. This is the underlying reason why Chiang Mai is proud of her advanced technology aquarium and the panda show.
4 Ralph Kramden // Aug 6, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Last evening’s royal news featured the underwater panda in the aquarium. Brilliant student, badminton champion and fashion designer Sirivannavari Nariratana visited the real live panda with a bunch of buddies and took photos and then went to the aquarium – there it was, the underwater panda, waving to her.
5 Rusty Hinge // Aug 6, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Aquariums educate? About all most zoos and aquariums here do is acclimatize people to living in emotional, economic and social slavery themselves. And unless very well-run, they frequently just result in just more dead, dead-bored and psychotic animals. That sounds familiar too!
6 Susie Wong // Aug 7, 2009 at 3:59 am
A debate arguing with prejudice fails to inform, it only inflames. It takes society nowhere. There’s no point to go around the bush with your hidden agenda about China. China and Thailand has blood-bonded special relationship especially in the national security matter. In short, Panda is here to stay.
7 Andrew Walker // Aug 7, 2009 at 8:26 am
Thanks Ralph. Well spotted. Please let us know if the mermaid appears on the Royal News. AW
8 Ralph Kramden // Aug 10, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Not a mermaid, but equally strange. In the Bangkok Post Outlook section (10 August), in the Social Scene set of photos, Princess Bajrakityabha is shown being welcomed with flowers, people curtsying and senior police at attention and saluting. Not odd you might think, but what is the princess doing? She is visiting the La Baguette Bakery at the Woodlands Hotel in Pattaya “to enjoy cakes and crepes.” Now even going to have a snack is cause for royal entourages and celebration. Not unlike Sirivannavari’s toursim getting on the royal news.
9 Lleij Samuel Schwartz // Aug 12, 2009 at 1:55 am
re: Ralph
True, but for some perspective, have you ever seen the hullabaloo the U.S. media creates whenever Pres. Obama goes out for a burger?
10 Ralph Kramden // Aug 12, 2009 at 11:53 am
Yes. But I think the point is that this is a young girl who is going out for a cake being greeted by senior officials. Obama has quite a different political role. I guess one would compare her better with Princess Anne’s daughter going out rather than to the president of a major country.
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