Erynnyes from Those were the days said that the SAR government in Hong Kong is under the spell of Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Any issue, small as evacuating tourists from Thailand, has gone wrong [zh].

The Wildlife Direct team reacts to news that a tourist has been awarded 1 million dollars in a case involving injury from an elephant. Contrasting this award with the amount Kenyans hurt by wildlife attacks get:$500. More discussion on the landmark ruling here.

Amid the sadness and shock at the Mumbai attacks, bloggers across the Arab world are posing many questions.

Bahraini Hasan Hujairi is very saddened by the news. He writes:

I’ve been very saddened by the news of the recent terrorist attacks in the city of Mumbai. I cannot imagine any reason that would justify carrying out such a terrible and mindless act.
My heart goes out to those affected both directly and indirectly by this tragedy.

From Dubai, UAE, Seabee poses a lot of questions and here are some of them:

I simply don't understand anything to do with the obscene killings in Mumbai.

I don't understand the mentality of people who randomly take innocent lives. The vast majority of the dead and injured are Indians, hotel workers, train travellers, people simply going about their daily business.

We're told that Americans and British tourists were specifically singled out in some instances. Yet many of them may well have opposed their governments' policies, so what does the simple fact of citizenship have to do with anything?

I don't understand how a country which has had so many terrorist attacks over recent years can have been so unprepared.

Rantings of an Arab Chick too is annoyed and writes:

It goes without saying that my heart goes out to the victims of the terror attacks in Mumbai, those who made it and those who didn't. I don't believe that justice is always meted out and that punishment always falls upon those who deserve it, but I can sure as hell wish for it.

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia wonders:

In any hostage situation there should be hostages , kidnappers, negotiators and demands where as in the latest Mumbai terrible terrorist acts there were hostages,Kidnappers and forces but no negotiators or demands !!??

What were the kidnappers demands ?? They did not take that big number of hostages for nothing !!?? The demands will indicate the identity of the kidnappers so why the Indian government does not announce these demands now !!??

There is something I don’t understand and Please Pardon my question but how on earth 10 people only cause all that destruction in Mumbai in one day or rather three days or even how 10 people can control a hotel in the size of Tag Mahal for three days !!?? This is what the authorities in India said !!??

An Egyptian [Ar] is appalled with the lack of interest among bloggers from Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. He notes:

Still in Egypt, ~W~, who writes at I Wanna Hold Your Hand, posts a discussion she had with her neighbour on the attacks. Here's the beginning of the discussion:

Me (pointing to the newspaper on her coffee table): Terrible events. I am so upset. I do not know what these terrorists are thinking when they kill innocent people in the name of Islam.
AS : They think they are fighting in the name of God, and they may have a point.

Follow the link above to read the rest of it.

At the online forum, Omania2.net one reader writes:

Another commentator, Ibn Al Rahbi, said he sent cables and letters of condolences to all his Indian friends and acquaintances.

Writing on American-Palestinian Kabobfest, Will, links to the following Al Jazeera report, and says:

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The violent ideology behind such senseless attacks belies the emptiness of the group's claims to be defending Muslims. While they are correct that western media and publics are generally blind to and complicit in Muslim suffering, such tactics are unjustifiable in religious, moral and political terms.

And in Kuwait, which had eight women taken as hostages at the Oberoi, bloggers breathe a sigh of relief when their hostages returned home safe.

DiLLi O MiLLi posts a newspaper clipping showing the women being recieved by officials and family at the Kuwait airport. Q8ia Mamloo7a too shares the news on her blog saying:

Yeas and Nays:
Reid: We won't smell the tourists anymore  —  The Capitol Visitors Center, which opened this morning, may have tripled its original budget and fallen years behind schedule, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found a silver lining for members of Congress: tourists won't offend them with their B.O. anymore.

Anti-government protesters are still occupying Bangkok’s two major airports. Thailand’s tourism officials have estimated that 240,000 passengers are still stranded in the country.

Initial flight schedules have been released for stranded passengers. Tourists who want to leave Thailand are embarking on a bus trip towards Malaysia even if they will have to pass Thailand’s southern provinces, where an insurgency exists.

As expected, Thailand’s highest Court found the ruling party guilty of electoral fraud. What is the implication of the order? The ruling party is disbanded, the Prime Minister could no longer hold public office, and other party leaders are barred from holding a public office for five years. A caretaker Cabinet is now in charge of Thailand, led by Deputy Prime Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul. Out of 34 cabinet ministers, only 12 have been banned from holding public offices. The remaining 22 can continue to govern until a new Cabinet is ready.

Deputy Prime Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul. Photo credit: Thai Photoblogs

Since the Prime Minister has stepped down already, will the protesters finally leave the airports? No. They do not want to recognize the authority of the caretaker Cabinet. So they remain in control of the airports. The protests continue.

It is clear by now that the airport siege orchestrated by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is supported by Bangkok’s business elite and the military. There is no shortage of food for the more or less 15,000 PAD members in the airports. It was also reported that 5,000 blankets were donated to PAD a few days ago.

Even the police forces are not too determined to disperse the protesters. They seem contented to drop fliers from helicopters onto the Bangkok airports ordering PAD to leave the premises.

In his final message as Thailand’s leader, the ex-Prime Minister declared: “I did my best to administer the country.” Thailand Crisis reacts:

“By traveling to Peru for one week, in full national crisis, to attend a totally useless APEC meeting? By hidding in Chiang Mai, afraid of his own shadow, afraid of the army? Sure he did his very best. Thaksin’s brother-in-law will remain one of the dullest Thai Prime Minister ever.”

While the Court was delivering its decision, government supporters were outside the building. The crowd did not like the Court’s decision. Nirmal Ghosh observes:

“Disbelief, disappointment as dissolution handed down on PPP (People Power Party). Some people are boo-ing. The verdict is photocopied and distributed. One woman snatches it from another and crumples it, throws it on the ground & stamps on it. There is a sense of deflation in the crowd; they seem rudderless.”

The airport chaos is hurting Thailand’s tourism industry, even the economy of its neighbors. But it must be pointed out that ordinary persons, Thais and foreigners, are suffering more. Tourists are stranded; Bangkok residents are losing their jobs, especially those who are working in the airports. Thai Tales had a conversation with a travel agent:

“Today I walked past my travel agent on the way to lunch. She said that she would be paid half her salary this month and that the travel agency could close if the situation continued. But, she said, her plan was to sell iced coffee from a cart if she was no longer a travel agent.

“The fallout may indeed be incalculable, but when it’s people you know, people who make your life a bit easier by being good at their jobs and a bit more pleasant by just being in it, the costs suddenly become measurable and terrible.”

Nomadic Matt, who works in the airport, has lost his job:

“The damage is done though. There will be no high season this year and an expected 1 million people will be out of work because of the drop in tourism numbers (including me as I work at the airport!!!!). No one is going to want to come visit now. Most tourists are canceling their vacations and many that are interviewed just want to leave and never come back.”

To avoid being beaten by partisans, Richard Barrow could not wear red or yellow T-shirts outside his house. Red is the color of government supporters; and yellow is PAD’s color:

“I had to pop out just now in the car to go and run an errand in town. I forgot I was wearing a yellow shirt as today is Monday. I hadn't change after coming back from school. My neighbor was really scared for me and told me that I should go back and change first. Things are getting scary on the streets. Hardly anyone wears yellow these days. And if they do, then only on Mondays. Hardly any teacher at my school wears yellow in case they are associated with the PAD. Some parents told me that they told their children not to wear red or yellow when they go out any more. What my neighbor said to me is true. In particular if I go out late at night. This is how bad it is getting on the streets these days.”

Political cartoons by Sacravatoons

Traffic around the airport has deteriorated. Dreaming of Hanoi writes:

“My day-to-day life has not been affected. Work is normal, as is my social life...Our school is nearer to the airport, and it seemed like there was a mass exodus into Bangkok from that direction. The highway was clogged. We had to hop out of the taxi and walk all the way to Sukhumvit. We then took motorcycles home. This trip usually takes 30 mins, but on Friday night it took over an hour; I’m sure it took even longer for those who chose to sit and wait in the traffic.”

Recognizing that ordinary persons are suffering, Brit in Bangkok criticizes the elite:

“The ones who I feel sorry for though are the ‘average' Thais and not the wealthy Thais that are destroying this country and trying to take democracy away from normal people. Meanwhile, I'm making sure that all my purchases from now on will be from market stalls as much as possible, in an attempt to support every day Thais and not these wealthy as*holes that run this country. The less money these jokers have the better and, from now on, I'm going to make sure they get none of mine.”

Andrew Biggs has a message for both the politcians and protesters:

“What has happened to my beloved Thailand? If you truly love Thailand, you should not be wearing yellow or red. We are past that. It was cute six months ago but it is deadly now. It doesn’t matter if you hate or support the government. Let’s stop this madness. Somchai, resign. PAD, get out of the airport.”

Via Twitter, Bangkok residents are reacting to the latest updates:

Secadra: Protesters still there and the pro-gov aren't happy with the decision. Not much happens in a rush

Charlespulaski: Thai court orders ruling party dissolved What kind of Mickey Mouse Democracy is this? Can they even do that?

Nomadicmatt: Well, once they open up that damn airport, I'll be moving….where should i go?

Badtzrawks: excitement?!?! man, it doesnt seem that PAD will return us our airports loey ah' no sign!!

Noobam: I'm a PAD too but I don't agree with the strike at the airport at all. Esp. with bullshit govt like this

WELL THOUGHT PR STRATEGY REQUIRED TO FIGHT THIS CRISIS

The ghastly act of the terrorists to India’s financial capital and the gateway to tourist destinations will further hamper inflow of tourists to this great country. The government and several tourism corporations across India from each states has painstakingly built brand India and through the Incredible India campaign over the last few years in the foreign markets by raising our graph in the tourism world. To the best of my knowledge this brand building exercise has been going on for over 10 years and significant progress has been made by us in the world tourism map for tourists to consider India in their choice of destination when one thinks of going on a holiday. While some of the foreigners did express their views that they would like to come to the lovely city Mumbai and India after they were rescued but at a global level this will take a considerable beating as some of the countries has already issued advisory orders.

All of us know that building brands in foreign markets is a long drawn process both in terms of time and cost. Having reached so far we now need to re visit our drawing board and come out with some immediate measures to fight this crisis. This is a very classical case of CRISIS and PR will have to play a major role to restore the lost glory. India should immediately act, so that whatever equity we have in the tourism space should be closely protected and should not erode further.

How this can happen? A special task force needs to be set up to address this problem to guard our image. India should work closely with all the countries whose people visit our country immediately, before negative word of mouth start spreading though various media and other agencies. Our first strategy is to instantly protect the image we already have before it slides down. We need to go on a war footing to handle this crisis. This will involve a great amount of orchestration with the home, defence, foreign and tourism ministry so that there is cohesive strategy to handle this internally before we chalk out our strategy to hit the global media etc.

All this will cost more rupees and time but at this hour of crisis every Indian should think positive and help India restore the lost shine. We have come out from several difficult situation and I am sure we will counter this and teach a strong lesson to who ever is jealous behind India’s growth both on the economic and tourism front.

Stray Blog has written about his visit to North Korea's Kaesong City.  His was one of the last tours before North Korea put a stop to cross-border travel.   Stray Blog writes that the North Korean are disadvantaging themselves by this action.

My visit to Kaesong City, North Korea last weekend was timely. This week, relations between North and South Korea took a turn for the worse, and the North responded by canceling any cross-border movement. The unfortunate aspect of this decision is that the overpriced tours made a great deal of revenue for the people of the North. Canceling them is really just a further punishment on North Koreans themselves, who are already struggling to combat a debilitating food shortage. I was fortunate to be able to take one of the last tours of the North for potentially a long time.

Visitors to the country are struck by the lack of advertisement banners and colour as Stray blog observes.

- absence of colour: all of the buildings are very drab, and the people were clothed in primarily dull brown and black jackets. Only some of the children were dressed brightly - usually bright red jackets

Flickr user Kernbeisser has posted images of his earlier journey along the Pyongyang-Hyangsan motorway.

This motorway was planned to connect the capital with the city of Huichon in Jagang Province but the last section was never completed. The completed part which was opened to traffic in 1995 ends rather abruptly in Hyangsan at the entrance to the Myohyang Mountains. So the original “Pyongyang-Huichon Motorway” ended up as “Pyongyang-Hyangsan Tourist Motorway”.

North Korea Economy Watch announces the launch of the website of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (website link). On the website the founder Dr. james Chin-Kyung Kim writes about the motivation behind the institution.

PUST is an experiment to determine if it is possible to train generations of North Korean students-who have been shielded from many international influences-in the technical skills and knowledge required to make positive contributions to a global community undergoing rapid and constant change. PUST will also encourage the students to become aware of the cultural influences that create the differences in international thinking.

In North Korea, you will find people wearning pins (badges) featuring Kim jong Il and Kim Il Sung. These pins are coveted by foreign tourists and hard to get if you are not a North Korean citizen. the bloggers Lianlian Films managed to get one while in North Korea.  They describe how they hold the pin in reverence even when they are abroad.

At the Pyongyang Restaurant in Kathmandu, a North Korean waitresses squealed when shown The Pin - they don't normally wear one in Nepal. The young lady picked it up very carefully, whipped out a piece of tissue and polished the little disc to a shine. Then she took out another piece of tissue and wrapped it up before giving it back. All throughout, she barely spoke a word bu