I'll sort of miss reading the Bangkok Post. Reading about the government's latest hair-brained schemes is entertaining. Take the new plan to eradicate poverty: "One Tambon One Singer." Each tambon (villiage) will enter a singer in a nation-wide reality TV show like Big Brother, and the winner will get a million baht (about $25,000).

That may be insane, but at least it will only waste tax money, and not get people killed, like the latest plan to end the Southern insurgency, in which people on motorbikes are murduring monks and teachers: free TV's in cafes showing English Premier League football, to keep the killers entertained. I swear I'm not making this up.

Then there are the constant scandals involving members of the Prime Minister's family or cabinet (his cronies). Reading about these is difficult, because if the papers provide too many details they will be sued for libel by the culprit.

Finaly, as an American, the most frustrating thing is reading about PM Thaksin's bastardization of democracy. He got his overwhelming majority in Parliament, but even that is not enough. His emergency decree is going before Parliament, and he has threatened any government MP that dares to debate it with expulsion from the Party (wich will kick them out of Parliament). That's not how a democracy works. What's the point of even having a parliament if they just rubber stamp what the PM decrees?

So next month I am going to China, a party dictatorship. As much as I may hate this kind of government, at least it doesn't make any bones about what it is. Its unelected leaders rule by decree, censor everything, and basically do whatever they want without caring what the rest of the world thinks. They don't pretent to be a democracy because they aren't one.

What's so frustrating about Thailand is that it's supposed to be a democracy, but it's really not. I guess I won't miss reading the Bangkok Post.