THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY
The Otop Heritage sale begins today at Central Embassy, and you can kvetch about what they did with the old British embassy at the same time. Samsung of Korea will allow you to give them 30,000 baht or more today in return for which they will give you a promise to deliver a Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus in about 10 days.
The US state of Arkansas begins a 10-day orgy of executions today, with eight scheduled in all. The reason, and we couldn’t make this up, is that the expiration date on the execution shots is running out. A judge has blocked use of one of three lethal injection drugs. Saudi Arabia, the country that screwed the world 40 years ago, is seeking investment of US$50 billion from producers of 700 megawatts of renewable energy, specifically through solar and wind.
TUESDAY
Back to work! And oh my, your behaviour! Just for that, you can’t have another fiveday weekend until at least October. Constitution Drafting Committee chairman Meechai Ruchupan, who has written more failed constitutions than any other living Thai, will present yet another set of sections and subsections to the completely independent, non-rubberstamp National Legislative Assembly today. Eventually, there might be an election day.
The Tourist Authority of Thailand will announce today that 35 million Thais travelled and partied during Songkran. Yes, the numbers are predetermined. Ratchanok Intanon and other Thai stars will begin play at the China Masters of badminton at the Olympic Sports Centre Xincheng Gymnasium in Changzhou this afternoon. The finals are on Sunday. The annual two-day developers’ conference for Facebook nerds begins today in San Francisco, to discuss new features for the money-printing machine.
WEDNESDAY
The 43rd Bangkok International Gift Fair and Bangkok International Houseware Fair will run from today through Sunday at Bitec Bang Na because Thailand is the hub of trade in gifts and homeware. Jakarta will have a somewhat emotional run-off election for city governor between the accused and apologetic blasphemer incumbent, Christian Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok” Purnama, and popular Muslim rival Anies Baswedan.
The very large Shanghai Auto Show begins today and runs until April 28. The Champions League quarter-finals resume early today with Leicester vs Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich. Tomorrow Monaco host Dortmund while Barcelona try to claw back a 0-3 deficit against Juventus. All matches begin at 1.45.
THURSDAY
The non-rubberstamp NLA will consider the draft law on reform today, with a second bill on national strategy. The bills must pass by Aug 3.
Supreme Commander Surapong Suwanna-at will present the 96-general committee’s report on reconciliation today. After that, thanks to the military’s guidance, the country will be quickly reunited. The critically acclaimed Chinese movie I
Am Not Madame Bovary will be screened this evening exclusively at House RCA. The Qatar national team will play in the IICC 2017 World Cricket League Division 1 tournament beginning today and ending May 2 at Chiang Mai. The Man Booker Prize finalists are to be announced this evening in London.
FRIDAY
The completely independent NLA, which would never act as the junta’s rubberstamp, will consider the new law on political parties and a separate new law governing the Election Commission. Murder suspect Artur Segarra of Spain will wind up his sad tale of being set up and framed for the murder of compatriot David Bernat in January of last year. Then, as the Bangkok media always puts it charmingly, the court will read the verdict and sentence.
The Yasukuni war shrine opens its doors today for the annual spring festival, visits by conservative politicians, brow-beating by China and South Korea, etc. Queen Elizabeth II of England turns 91 today.
SATURDAY
Exams for new teachers will be held across the country today. It’s the first time the tests for a “teacher’s ticket” will include graduates from fields other than education.
Honda Thailand will take the covering off its new CR-V, which runs on a fuel the car maker describes as “petrol”.
Today is the 47th Earth Day, 24 hours of good deeds and dumb predictions. Denis Hayes was chief organiser of Earth Day I even though he knew it was “already too late to avoid mass starvation”, while ecologist Kenneth Watt forecast the impending global cooling, 11 degrees cooler by 2000 and then a full ice age. That was the consensus of scientists at the time. Tomorrow around the world, there will be Marches for Science to demand that politicians base all policies on the scientific consensus.