Adoption fraud trial begins

       Sixteen people accused of falsifying papers for adoption went on trial in Vietnam yesterday, in a case that raised fears of international human trafficking.
       Among the accused are two directors of social welfare centres in northern Nam Dinh province,Thanh Nien newspaper reported. Doctors, nurses and local officials are also on trial, it said.
       They are accused of "abuse of power in the exercise of their public missions",a court official in Nam Dinh said.
       The accused allegedly manufactured false documents of abandonment to permit the adoption of 266 infants by foreigners between 2005 and 2008,according to reports.
       The arrests of the two key suspects came in July last year, three months after the US embassy in Hanoi detailed endemic baby-selling and graft in Vietnam's adoption system.
       That US report led Vietnam to suspend a bilateral adoption agreement. The US probe found that some American adoption agencies had paid $10,000(337,000 baht)"donations" per child to orphanages after officials had forged birth certificates and wrongly identified the infants as abandoned.
       In some cases, the natural parents had been cheated into giving up their babies, while other infants had been procured from illegal centres that paid pregnant women to give up their newborns, the US investigation found.
       Vu Duc Long, head of the Vietnamese Justice Ministry's International Adoptions Department, said then that most children sent for overseas adoption from the two Nam Dinh centres had ended up in France and Italy, and some in the US.The children came from a disabled children's home and a social protection centre.
       The trial is scheduled to last until Monday.

US man discovers co-worker is lost brother

       Seven years into his tenure as a furniture mover for a bedding retailer, Gary Nisbet was joined by a new colleague, Randy Joubert, who looked so much like him that customers asked whether they were brothers.
       "We thought they were just trying to razz us," Mr Joubert said.
       Turns out the customers were on to something: they really are brothers. And the attention they got after finding each other also has turned up a sister.
       The two men were given up for adoption as babies about 35 years ago, then attended rival high schools and even lived in neighbouring towns on the Maine coast before working together at Dow's Sleep Center in tiny Waldoboro and uncovering their relationship.
       "This kid could have been anywhere in the world, and here I am riding in a Dow furniture truck with him," Mr Joubert said in a telephone interview on Monday.
       Mr Joubert's adoptive mother,Jacqueline Joubert, said she and her late husband raised him with four sisters.She said he knew from a young age he was adopted and she wasn't surprised that he would try to find his siblings.
       "But when he said he was driving a furniture truck with him, that really surprised me," she said."I think it's great."
       Soon after Dow's hired Randy Joubert,co-workers began commenting on how similar he and Mr Nisbet looked.
       "Customers would ask if we were brothers more often than not," he said.Mr Joubert had already found out the names of his biological parents, who had already died. He asked Mr Nisbet if he'd been adopted while the two were making deliveries about three weeks ago.
       Mr Nisbet, who also knew his biological parents' names, was "star-struck and blown away" when his long lost brother revealed that he too was adopted and had the same mother and father.

Aussie quadriplegic starves himself to death

       Quadriplegic dead: An Australian quadriplegic who won a landmark legal battle to starve himself to death by refusing food fied yesterday, his family said, ending an existence he described as "living hell."

       An Australian quadriplegic who won a landmark legal battle to starve himself to death by refusing food died yesterday, his family said, ending an existence he described as "living hell".
       Christian Rossiter, 49, who was paralysed from the neck down, died in a nursing home in Perth early yesterday after developing a chest infection, his brother Tim Rossiter said in a statement.
       "I thank all those who have made Christian's life, in his final years, as comfortable and as dignified as possibly," he said.
       Lawyer John Hammond, who five weeks ago won a court battle allowing Rossiter to refuse food and medication, said his client had welcomed death and empowered all severely ill people who wanted to die on their own terms. "He wanted to die and it will be some relief that he is now dead because he underwent so much pain in his final years," Hammond told the ABC TV channel.
       In the historic ruling, a court said that Rossiter, a former stockbroker and outdoor adventurer who became a quadriplegic following two accidents, had the right to refuse to be fed.
       "This is a living hell," he told reporters through a tracheotomy tube during the court case. "I'm Cristian Rossiter and I'd like to die. I am a prisoner in my own body. I can't move, I have no fear of death - just pain. I only fear pain."

Gates helps bring banking to the poor

       The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, best known for its work combating malaria, AIDS and other diseases, announced an effort this week to bring banking, including savings accounts, to the poor.
       It may be hard to understand how savings are even an issue for the people who live on less than $2 a day, said Bob Christen, who directs the Gates Foundation's financial services initiative. However, access to a safe place to store money is a top priority of poor people around the world, he said.
       That's why the world's richest charitable foundation announced a$35-million (1.18-billion-baht) grant to help facilitate agent banking services already being developed in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.
       Mr Christen said the Gates grant will provide assistance to numerous organisations through the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, whose efforts are historic in the world of banking, and will help people climb out of poverty, save for their children's education, build their businesses and plan for the future.
       The ideas for bringing savings accounts, insurance and other financial services to the poor include transferring money by way of mobile phones and setting up banking kiosks in markets and post offices.
       The Gates Foundation has invested a total of $350 million (11.80 billion baht)so far in other financial services for the poor, including micro-credit, which involves small loans for poor entrepreneurs.
       Mr Christen says savings accounts are a more basic need of many people.An estimated 2.5 billion people - more than half the world's adult population - do not have access to savings accounts and other financial services.
       People are forced to buy and pawn jewellery or make other poor investments to keep their money safe.
       Foundation research identified this as an area that is not getting investment dollars and turned its attention in this direction.
       "It became very obvious that the single service that is least developed that most people need is savings," Mr Christen said."People really want to be able to save in a safer place."
       The Gates Foundation is providing an infusion of cash to facilitate the sharing of ideas among the innovators and to make sure the new systems offer a wide range of financial services.
       Alfred Hannig, executive director of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, said banking innovation is happening in developing countries without the foundation's help, but the money will help speed implementation.
       The alliance has a goal of reaching 50 million of the world's "unbanked" by 2012.
       In a phone call from Nairobi, Kenya,where the alliance was hosting a meeting for representatives of 42 countries, Mr Hannig said that plans are being made for a delegation from Kenya to go to Brazil to learn about that country's efforts to bring banking services to small villages along the Amazon River.
       "People were waiting for this," said Mr Hannig, who works for the German Technical Corporation and is based in Thailand.
       "This was very timely. They have been waiting for such a mechanism for such a long time."
       Mr Hannig said 60% of the money from the Gates Foundation will be redistributed in smaller grants to groups like the delegation fromKenya to Brazil,and the Bank of Thailand, which wants to measure banking access around the world through a survey.

Flooded homes get relief

       Foundations under royal patronage have been handing out emergency relief bags to victims of floods in downtown Chaiyaphum.
       The bags were given to 2,000 families most affected by the floods in the northeastern province.
       The bags were donated by the Rajaprajanugroh Foundation under His Majesty the King's patronage and the Princess Pa Foundation under Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha.
       The floods were caused by run-off from the Lam Pathao reservoir in Kaeng Khro district, and are now receding after inundating downtown areas for the past few days.
       Chaiyaphum's city mayor, Banyong Kiatkongchoochai, yesterday handed out the bags on behalf of the foundations.
       The council worked pumps around the clock to drain water from the city centre. Council staff are on the lookout for crocodiles which escaped from flooded farms.
       In the eastern province of Rayong,persistent heavy rain at the weekend has triggered a mudslide which damaged communities around Wat Nong Wa in tambon Makhamkoo of Nikhom Phatthana district. Residents said the mudslide appeared to have weakened the foundations of the temple wall, which they feared could collapse on to nearby homes.

SARAH PALIN SUPPORTER PAYS $63,000 FOR DINNER

       A true fan of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in paying US$63,500 (Bt2 million) to have dinner with her.
       Cathy Maples of Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday won the dinner in an Internet auction, which was a benefit for a charity that aids wounded veterans.
       Maples says she fully supports the military and the men and women fighting for this nation. Maples, who owns a defence contracting company, also says she's "big advocate" for Palin, and would love to see her as president.
       Palin offered the dinner as part of the charity auction on eBay for the Ride for the Ride 2 Recovery programme, which supports wounded veterans through cycling programmes.
       Organisers say the winner will gave to foot the travel bill to meet up with Palin, likely in Alaska. Maples says that's no problem.

Woman near goal on world's top 14 peaks

       A Korean left Kathmandu yesterday to start the ascent of one of the world's highest peaks in the Himalayas, closing in on her goal to become the first woman to scale all 14 of the world's highest mountains.
       Oh Eun-sun,43, said weather conditions will be decisive when she climbs Mount Annapurna in west Nepal next week, the world's 10th highest peak at 8,091 metres.
       "It is autumn and there are too many crevasses and avalanches," said Ms Oh,who is leading a seven-member Korean team to the peak."But I am not scared.I am more careful."
       Ms Oh, who has already climbed Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, and 12 other peaks of more than 8,000 metres, will climb along the route pioneered by Frenchman Maurice Herzog in 1950 on the first 8,000-metrehigh mountain ever climbed.
       Only 17 men have scaled all the world's 14 highest peaks.

Toddler wins Elton's heart

       Look out, Madonna and Angelina Jolie - pop star Elton John may be joining the ranks of A-list celebrities with adopted children.
       John and partner David Furnish are interested in trying to adopt a Ukrainian toddler named Lev they met during an orphanage tour.
       The singer told reporters in Ukraine on Saturday he had been reluctant to adopt a child until he met Lev at an orphanage where many of the children's parents have died from Aids.
       "David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said 'no' because I am 62 and I think because of the travelling I do and the life I have,maybe it wouldn't be fair for the child,"John said.
       "But having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him.
       "I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. He has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home.
       "I've changed my mind."

SMALL JOCKEYS, BIG PROBLEMS

       Vietnam is rapidly industrialising and focused on the future, but horse racing still seems stuck in the past
       With its small horses and tiny jockeys, racing at Vietnam's only track is a low-key affair receiving high-level attention as officials threaten acrackdown on under-age riders.
       "On paper the jockeys say they're 15 or 16, but they're 12 or 13. If you're too young you can't ride, so they have to lie," says Vo Hoang Vi Thanh,33, whose family has trained racehorses for three generations.
       Trainers say young jockeys and small horses have for decades been a mainstay of the Phu Tho racetrack in the southern commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon,which was set up by a Frenchman in 1932.
       Officially, gambling is considered a "social evil" and banned by the communist government, but Phu Tho is one of the only places,along with some dog races and the official lottery, where it is allowed.
       Illegal gambling on cock fights, underground lotteries and other gaming is nevertheless widespread.
       Phu Tho has relied on riders weighing between 30 and 40 kilogrammes because they are the only ones small enough to mount the ponies, which stand up to 1.4 metres at the withers, workers in the industry say.
       "We can't keep huge horses. It costs too much money," says Mr Thanh, whose seven racehorses and a brood mare might make him rich in other countries.
       In Vietnam they do not.Vietnam is rapidly industrialising and focused on the future, but it remains a largely rural society where horse racing still seems stuck in the past.
       Local media cited officials in Ho Chi Minh City talking tough about bringing changes to the industry.
       Phan Thanh Minh of the city's labour department was quoted as saying "we cannot let the violation and abuse of children continue".
       The department declined to comment.State media said labour authorities, along with officials from the local sports department,had formed a joint task force to examine the young jockeys' situation.
       Racing has continued in the meantime,but all the attention has left trainers nervous about their futures, and defensive of their sport.
       "I won't be able to go on. I guess everybody will quit" if authorities enforce a ban on young jockeys, Mr Thanh says.
       Local media reported that almost all of about 850 horses at Phu Tho weigh less than 250 kilogrammes - about half the weight of horses competing at the Singapore Turf Club,where jockeys weigh more than 50 kilogrammes.
       "To avoid child exploitation in horse racing,organisers will have to import big thoroughbreds, although this will be expensive," Tran Van Nghia, former chairman of Phu Tho,was quoted as saying by the online English version of the Tuoi Tre newspaper."But we have to do it if we want to have an international-standard racing industry,"added Mr Nghia.
       The director of the racetrack did not respond to queries.
       Closed in 1975 after the Vietnam War ended,
       Phu Tho reopened in 1989 and seems to have changed little since then.
       The weekend racecard, where a minimum bet is 10,000 dong (19 baht), draws a mostly Vietnamese crowd of men who squat on large concrete steps that serve as the grandstand as they watch the ponies.
       Without the neck-and-neck contests involving large horses that are a feature of major tracks, fewer jockeys are badly injured,one trainer said.
       "In bad conditions like rain they'll fall off,but it's not normally dangerous," said Thi Bao An,30, a stable worker.
       There were "many deaths" in the early 1970s, said Nguyen Van Thanh,53, who rode from the ages of 14 to 16.
       Mr Thanh now dismisses concerns over young riders who, he says, take a six-month course and have to earn a certificate.
       "They were trained. They have skill," says Mr Thanh, who comes from a long line of teenage jockeys.
       "My father, my uncles, my mother's father and my father's father were all jockeys," he says.
       Mr Thanh, whose son carried on the jockey tradition, said a good young rider "can support his whole family" with his earnings.
       Local media reported that jockeys can earn in excess of two million dong on a race day - a good wage in a country whose per capita income is about US$1,000(34,000 baht).
       With a thoroughbred and other large horses among his stable, Nguyen Van Thanh is better placed than other trainers if the industry has to change.
       But all the talk of a crackdown on an industry which has been his family's life for decades has still left him uneasy.
       "Four generations till now, that's been our job."
       A crackdown, he says,"makes no sense".
       "To avoid child exploitation in horse racing, organisers will have to import big thoroughbreds TRAN VAN NGHIA version of the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Slum women hail a taxi to equality

       Abattered housewife, a Muslim widow and an illiterate mother of four are among a group of Indian women looking to carve out a living by breaking into the male preserve of New Delhi taxi drivers.
       Hailing from some of the poorest quarters of the Indian capital, they are part of plans to launch the city's first radio taxi-service run by women,in time for the October 2010 Commonwealth Games.
       The project is the brainchild of Meenu Vadera of the Azad Foundation, a voluntary group that works with disadvantaged women whose employment prospects - if they exist at all - are usually limited to the world of domestic help.
       "We have trained one batch of nine women and the training of another batch of 11 is underway," said Vadera, who aims to have five taxis on the road by February and a fleet of 20 by the time the Games begin.
       "I was looking at a programme that would combine a livelihood for the girls with the idea of having women cab-drivers who will provide safe transport to working women in Delhi."
       Of all major Indian cities, the capital ranks worst in terms of violence against women, with more than 4,300 registered cases in 2007-08,according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
       To ensure their own safety, the women have received some basic self-defence instruction as part of their training at a professional drivers'school run by India's largest car manufacturer,Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
       Supplementing these are classes in grooming,etiquette and spoken English.
       "The goal is to establish a company with the women as stakeholders. This way it does not look like a charity but a business run collectively,"Vadera said.
       India's emergence as a global economic power has done little for millions of unskilled or illiterate women for whom menial work as domestics or care-givers remains a chief source of regular but often underpaid employment.
       The work is generally unregulated and unprotected, leaving them vulnerable to harassment and exploitation.
       "Some come from families where only the menfolk work," said Poonam Bala, a Delhi University Sociology professor.
       "For others, their background is such that they are totally unprepared to enter the professional job market."
       Rita, 24, ran away from her marriage and home after suffering seven years of abuse at the hands of her parents-in-law.
       Living at the home of a friend in Delhi, Rita saw the female taxi project as a way out of a social and economic dead end.
       "I jumped at the idea," she said."It would give me independence and the ability to support myself."
       Shanno Begum, a 32-year-old Muslim widow,signed up for the programme last year.
       "My husband died three years ago. I had three children and my parents-in-law to support. As a private nurse, I used to earn 4,500 rupees [3,000 baht] a month for a 24/7 job," Shanno said.
       "Now, I will earn the same amount working eight hours and can devote more time to my children."
       For Ekta, a 28-year-old mother of four, the taxi project opened doors that she had thought closed to her as an illiterate woman married into a conservative family.
       "Persuading my husband to let me work was very difficult," she said."Now I feel empowered as if I have my own identity other than a wife and mother."
       The project has not been without its problems.With the commercial licence necessary to drive a taxi-cab requiring a year-long wait, Vadera has been trying to find short-term chauffeur employment for her fully trained drivers - with little success.
       "I underestimated the gender bias," Vadera said, citing repeated questions from potential employers as to whether women could be trusted to drive safely and turn up to work on time.
       "Despite my assurances, they decide against women drivers. This is despite the fact that records show women are more careful than male drivers - they obey traffic rules, don't drink and drive,don't get into brawls on the road," she said.
       Some of Delhi's male cabbies, unimpressed by the idea of an all-woman taxi service, have decided the best reaction is one of collective ridicule that panders to a disparaging stereotype of women drivers.
       "It's bad enough having women behind the wheel in private cars," said Pamma Singh, who runs a taxi company with his two brothers.
       "They take ages to reverse, negotiate turnings,to park properly. So what kind of challenge will they be to us? Just be prepared for more chaos on the roads," he said.

Life in the twilight for Muslim transsexuals

       Why can'tIslamaccept us? We are human beings as well. I am also one of God's creations.
       With her tight jeans, elaborate makeup and flowing hair, Tasha looks for all the world like a striking young woman. But her all-important Malaysian ID card declares she is a Muslim man.
       "In Islam, there are only men and women,there are no transsexuals, and this is an Islamic country so that makes life very difficult for us," says the 28-year-old who has been cross-dressing since she was a child.
       Like many transsexuals in Malaysia, a conservative and mostly Muslim country,the clash between ID card and appearance means Tasha is shunned by employers, and forced to make her living as a sex worker.
       "It's a hard life, people don't like us,they're always making fun of us," she says as she prepares for another night in the grimy alleyways of Chow Kit, the red light district of the capital Kuala Lumpur.
       Tasha endures drunken clients, violent pimps and aggressive competition from other transsexual prostitutes, but what really frightens her are the raids mounted by police and religious authorities.
       Enforcement officials from the Islamic Affairs Department (JAWI)- notorious for swooping on nightclubs and motels in search of Muslims drinking or having extramarital sex - regularly descend on the streets of Chow Kit.
       Sex workers are sent scattering on their high heels, and those who are caught and hauled off face jail or intensive "counselling"sessions like a two-week interrogation Tasha once endured.
       "They asked me why I didn't want to be a man, how I became like this and why I behave like this. But it didn't change my mind!" she says as she layers on make-up before hitting the streets where she has worked since she was 15.
       Tasha puts on a brave face, but the pain is clear when she relates how she has struggled for acceptance from her family, her religion and her country. Although she is on the margins of society, she continues to perform the Muslim prayers, fasts during the holy month of Ramadan, and respected her mother's wish that she not undergo sex-change surgery.
       "Of course I still believe I'm a Muslim,it's just that the religion cannot accept us transsexuals," she says."Why can't Islam accept us? We are human beings as well. I am also one of God's creations."
       It was not always this way for transsexuals in Malaysia, where they are known as "mak nyah".
       "Until the early 1980s transsexuals were usually accepted in Malaysia, they could go for a sex change and amend their identity card," says Teh Yik Koon from the National Defence University who has written a book on mak nyahs."At that time quite a few had a sex change, some became happily married and even adopted children."
       But in 1983 a "fatwa", or Islamic ruling,that prohibited gender-reassignment surgery as well as cross-dressing was imposed on all Malaysian Muslims, who make up 60%of the multicultural population.
       "So now they're not accepted, there's no such thing as transsexuals according to Islam in Malaysia," says Ms Teh, who estimates there are in fact at least 20,000 in the country.
       "The biggest dilemma for a Muslim transsexual is the ID card, because it states they are a Muslim man but when you look at them they look like a woman," she says.
       Some do manage to find regular work,typically as hairdressers, make-up artists,and boutique sales assistants, but advocates say that at least 70% resort to prostitution.
       "At 15 I ran away from home and to Chow Kit. I cried at first, but luckily I had other transsexuals who helped me find a place to stay," says Tasha.
       On a good night she can earn 500 ringgit (4,851 baht), a huge sum by Malaysian standards, but since the economic downturn she now gets only two or three clients a night who may pay as little 50 ringgit (485 baht)a time.
       Now that her mother has died, she plans to go to Thailand later this year and have a sex-change and breast augmentation surgery.
       "If you want to become whole pretty quickly, then you can't be afraid," she says."Only then will I feel like a complete woman."
       Transsexuals do not need to be selling their bodies in order to attract attention from authorities. Last year, Islamic religious police arrested 16 for taking part in a beauty pageant at a beachside resort. Influential Islamic cleric Harussani Zakaria, who helped establish the 1983 fatwa, defended the strict approach and said that transsexuals should use their "willpower" and adopt a traditional lifestyle."Of course they won't get a job if they turn up wearing a woman's dress. All religions are opposed to this," he said.
       "You cannot be transsexual, you are either a woman or a man. Why do they want to go against Allah?" he asked."If God has created you as a boy, then act like a boy."

STARS IN THEIR EYES

       The lives of personal assistants to Thaicelebrities
       Ever wanted to live the celebrity lifestyle without the hassle of being recognised in public? In the US of A, this troublesome dilemma is easily solved by the celebrity personal assistant (PA).In the States - home to more celebs per head of population than anywhere else in the world, according to Gurupedia - a PA's duty is to handle tasks ranging from shopping to arranging appointments,to taking their client's chihuahua outside to poo.
       PAs get to go to parties, receive pretty presents, a relatively high salary (an average of USD$64,000-100,000[B2.2m-3.4m] according to The Guardian )and a chance to meet all the cool people they idolise on the silver screen.
       The downside of it all of course is that some celebrities have borderline psychological behaviour issues. Some of the bizarre outbursts that American stars make when on tour, or on the Internet, really blow your mind away as you are forced to ask,"Is this really how an adult is supposed to behave?"
       According to celebrity gossip website theimproper.com, Jennifer Lopez's outrageous demands on tour have included that her hotel suite be painted white, decked with matching white lilies and roses, and white candles burning with the essence of her favourite perfume, Diptyque (more like dipstick, right?). She also required bed sheets with Egyptian cotton of over 250 thread-count and the room temperature set to exactly 25.5 Celsius.
       Are Thai stars this awesome? Are our celebrities this insane? We asked some people well placed to answer, PAs to the Thai stars.
       Working so closely with celebrities, you must receive some great benefits right? Pupe:When we work as a team it gives us a fulfilling feeling, especially when you see your little stars grow into fully fledged celebrities. It's quite heartwarming. Travelling around with the stars to different countries is also fun. The job is very unpredictable and exciting. Weeks are never the same. Travelling? That's awesome! You must get to go to all the hot locations like Monaco,Dubai and The Bahamas right?Pupe:The job has taken me to Hong Kong, Laos, Singapore and Japan. Laos? Err, cool... I guess I was thinking that it would be more of a jetsetter lifestyle...Ke:Once, several of my clients simultaneously required my help and they were all in different parts of the country. I had to organise their schedule for work and for their personal lives. Over three days I visited every region of the country, getting very little sleep. I also have a team that helps me and it was a very busy time. The schedule can get messy but I love my job. I see. You said the job is heartwarming. What about the diamond-studded underwear or a free house? Ton:This job makes you a more responsible person. I get to go to all the events and concerts. Since I joined the company I have been to a few thousand. The networking you get out of this job is also great since you meet a lot of people.Ke:Working for my own company, I really get close to my clients as if they were like family.On my birthday I get presents from them and that gives me a very warm feeling.Sometimes they even buy me a plane ticket so that I can travel on holiday with them. What about all the love triangles between beautiful people? I bet you get all the gossip,and can sell it to the papers huh, wink, wink? Pupe:In my job, you become the middleman between the press, your celebrity and their parents. A nightmare scenario involves all three parties pressuring me at once and that can be very stressful.
       Err, that's not exactly what I meant. What about nightmare scenarios? You probably have to deal with all kinds of crazy situations right? Ton:Now that I am in a managerial position it is not that bad. I have a steady schedule where I get proper weekends like everyone else. I wouldn't say I have any nightmare scenarios but dealing with tabloids talking about your stars dating can become quite a chore. Does Thailand have any cases of the American diva syndrome? Has a Thai celebrity ever demanded that they have an entire bathtub filled up with ice cream cones heated to exactly 38.5 Celsius, for example?Pupe:At a recent project, Tata Young requested that she use her own microphone. Wow, thats hardcore! Was it a one-of-a-kind gold-plated microphone? Pupe:I think she just wanted her own microphone because it sounded better than the available one, but that was about it. She even shared her dressing room with her dancers.Usually we just try our best to make our stars feel comfortable before a performance and it doesn't involve the levels you see in the American entertainment industry.Ton:I can't really think of any situations like that. Our artists usually request refreshments and food for their dressing rooms but no one has ever asked for something out of the ordinary. Refreshments? What like million dollar bottles of Cristal champagne to spray on all the naked groupies?Ton:Oh no, we don't allow our stars to have alcohol at events. From these interviews we can conclude that Thai celebrities are nowhere near as insane as their American counterparts. This can be attributed to two possible factors:1) Our celebrities simply don't possess as much of the insanity gene; or 2) Maids are cheap to hire in Thailand. Here, just about anyone with a reasonable income - celebrity or not - can already live like Mariah Carey by hiring legal immigrants and paying them - at least minimum wage.
       While American celebrities are like five-year-olds that have discovered their father's platinum card, thanks to their straight talking PAs we can see that Thai dara are infinitely more human than we could have imagined. Who would have thought it?