Just as the SARS situation improves in China and Hong Kong, the Taiwan SARS crisis escalates. What with the South Korean chief honcho suggesting that leading South Korea is all getting too much for him and announcing a 3 day personal holiday, things are not looking like getting better soon. I just hope they are Buddhists (see below)...

Concurrently, in a fit of delusion last week I mentioned to the APMF editors that possibly I could update this column every day. Next day they announced it to the world in the APMF newsletter, before I could settle down for a ice cold Kloster and consider it with a few good Buddhist (see below) mates.

OK, so it means i have to arise an hour earlier every day, but this is just to put on record that it will indeed be daily from Monday, unless...

• Enough people of class and discernment finally tell me to shut up and return to my burrow. (the 25 so far isn't enough - ...and I'm not too sure of their class either...)


• I sleep in


• I cant think of anything useful to say ('useful' being defined by me) OR..


• I find something more useful to do (like working for REAL Baht (are you listening eds.?)

Western deductive Popperian research has finally confirmed why your colleagues in Thailand, India and Buddhists in other countries always seem much more relaxed than you. According to a Reuters report, egghead Professor Owen Flanagan of Duke University in North Carolina, USA brain scan research has demonstrated that:

"...certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, and not just when they are meditating, which indicates positive emotions and good mood...."

We can now hypothesise with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India, really are happy..."

Now, this "lighting-up" occurs in the "left pre-frontal lobes" of these Buddhist subjects, which as we should all know from Psych 101, is associated with positive emotions, self control, and temperament.

And again, according to the Reuters report, Paul Ekman of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center has discovered that "experienced" Buddhists were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised, or angry as other people.

Hmm.. that explains it then... and now i can forgive certain people for their apparent lack of concern for deadlines knowing that our science has explained it all to me. ...But somebody really should tell my mia noi...

Those in the Asia Pacific interested in Thai/Australian relationships and the media may want to tune into Radio Australia next week for a series of specials focusing on Thailand ­ live from Bangkok. According to the press release two highlights of the week’s 'Asia Pacific: Focus on Thailand' programming will be:

• A series of broadcasts from the 1st Conference of the Ministers on Information and Broadcasting in the Asia-Pacific Region on Tuesday 27 May, and


• a special half-hour panel discussion, 'Exploring Australian-Thai Relations', on Thursday 29 May at 5pm Bangkok time; exploring political, cultural and developmental relationships between the two nations, and broadcast from IDP Education Australia’s Bangkok offices before an audience of invited guests.

The special will be called 'Asia Pacific: Focus on Thailand' ­ and will broadcast from Monday 26 to Friday 30 May 2003 at 10:00, 11:00 and 15:00 Universal time.

'Asia Pacific' can be heard throughout Asia and the Pacific on Radio Australia. It can also be heard worldwide on the internet and via an extensive network of some 400 partner stations, which now deliver Radio Australia programs direct to their local audiences

For media, Jean-Gabriel Manguy will be available for interview in Bangkok next week. Media enquiries: Jean-Gabriel Manguy, Head, Radio Australia; mobile telephone: 0417 680 410