Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Bangkok Burning

By John Ballard



Tweets from Jotman this morning indicate serious instability in Thailand. Checking with someone at random whom he is following, this is what appears at the moment (5am, ET).





tulsathit -- I think martial law may soon be unavoidable. (2 hrs ago) A Pratunam 7/11 shop has been broken into. An ATM smashed. (1 hr ago) Have heard about arson attack on Ubon Ratchathani provincial hall. Waiting confirmation. takling to a friend abroad - his mom lives around siam center and she says that there is a fire at siam soi 5 Explosion heard in front of TV3 station. some pics here of ubon http://bit.ly/9GqGVN Urgent: White smoke seen on top floors of Central World. The Emporium and most of stores in Bangkok inner city have been closed. Turmoil in Ubon RT @dbergma: http://bit.ly/97nGkn Arson attacks at provincial halls in Udon, Khon Kaen have also been reported. Tension in several other provinces. 2.50 pm. We have received tweets of fire at a Siam Square movie theatre. Can anyone confirm? TV footage shows fire at Udon Provincial Hall. Hundreds of reds runing amok. Angry Din Daeng reds going after reporters. Every journalist in the area please pull away or be very careful. TV Channel 3 is seeking police/troop protection. Central Lardprao has been closed. Repeat: Channel 3 is sending SOS to troops/police. Cars have been smashed and building under siege. Sorry guys. Tweets from nation staff may be on&off. Threats against mainstream media looming. Any Australian Embassy people out there? Someone seriously needs to be hooked up with embassy. @freakingcat r u still there? All reporters please remove your green armband. RT @surachets: picture of CH3 on fire http://twitpic.com/1p32oz Urgent : Siam theatre has collapsed via js100radio (28 minutes ago) @freakingcat r u there? RT @Adam_Sims: Australian Embassy number: 02 344 6300 24 Hour assistance number in Canberra - Channel 3 has been off the air for a while. We have heard of people trapped.There are incidents where firefighters have been shot at to prevent them from putting out fire. Latest we heard is Channel 3 staffs say they need all the help they can get. 4 pm: Molotov cocktalks thrown at Din Daeng flat. residents trying to control fire. (12 minutes ago)



Tweets make for a very dramatic report but it's hard to make sense of anything from this distance.



I would love to stay at this keyboard and follow what's happening for the next few hours but I have an assignment this morning. (As the reader can see, I get a lot of news on the radio. This makes me a Socialist, you know, since I listen mostly to Public Radio.)



This post is mainly to link an excellent interview that played yesterday which helped me shape this conflict in my mind. John Burdett is a novelist living in France whose past writing about Thailand has been prescient. I can't find a transcript, but listen toward the end for Burdett's summary, including the role of the Thai King.



The stand-off in the southeast Asian nation of Thailand continues today. Leaders of the so-called �red shirt� demonstrators said today they�re ready to accept mediation from a group of Thai senators. But the government says it won�t negotiate with the red shirts until they end their rally in the capital. Marco Werman talks to British novelist John Burdett about the story behind the headlines from Thailand. Burdett�s series of crime thrillers are set in Bangkok.



I hesitate to interpret current events through the eyes of a novelist, but when I read the words of journalists and pundits I am even more uncomfortable. Another interview from yesterday's radio keeps ringing in my memory.



Well, you know, fiction is a wonderful thing. I think of that line from Camus, where he says, fiction is a lie we tell to get to the truth. If I had just written this great nonfiction saga, perhaps I'd only be read by Filipinos or people interested in Philippine politics. But by writing this as a fictional account of the Philippines in a parallel dimension, Im able to talk about broader themes: revolution, exile, corruption, government - satirize all of these things and in doing so make them universal for readers all over the world.


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