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The warning can supposedly be found inside the in-flight magazine of Philippine Airlines and has been circulated on Twitter.
Passengers with Philippine Airlines are told that "Despite being under military control, Thailand is very safe for tourists" but are offered five tips to help "blend in".
They include "carry your passport (or a copy) with you at all times", "avoid wearing red t-shirts, which are associated with a group opposed to the military government", and "don't carry George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984'. You don't want to be mistaken for an anti-coup protestor."
[Editor's addition follows]
The Telegraph has a more recent article which lists
eight things that can get you arrested in Thailand:
- Wearing T-shirts that could "promote division"
- Eating sandwiches in public
- Reading certain books
- Posting anything deemed critical of the military online
- Gatherings of more than five people
- Raising a "Hunger Games" salute
- Being labelled "problematic", or a political activist
- Playing a non-approved computer game
We here at SoylentNews endeavor to promote journalistic independence and freedom. Some may find it easy to laugh at such dystopian rules in a foreign land, but these can be a wake-up call to those in a country which claims greater freedoms. Are these freedoms still in effect? Are they being encroached? Where and in what ways? What can be done about it?
Consider recent efforts to have ISPs provide filters in the UK and for logging of customers' net traffic in the UK and Australia. Consider, too, the reports of the NSA's huge new data processing facility in Utah and the Snowden-leaked documents which identify massive data collection.
"Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty."
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. (Qu’on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j’y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.)" Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (1585–1642).
Do you find pervasive recording of your physical and on-line travels troublesome? What steps have you taken, if any, to protect yourself? Firewalls? Installed https-everywhere? Used a VPN and/or TOR? Encryption? What would you recommend as best practices to your fellow Soylents and others in the world at large?
[Update: Added indicator of where the original submission ended.]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by lonestar on Monday September 22 2014, @01:48AM
Yes, damned right I find pervasive surveillance troubling. I mean on the surface it's troubling, but not exactly surprising. Every government that gets too big will inevitably become rampant and succumb to these darker urges. Much as I hate to admit it, there is no doubt in my mind the US government has irrevocably reached that stage. The only thing that's going to stop it is a hard reset. At the same time, we're headed in a collectivist direction.... mass surveillance and collectivism are the most deadly combination in human history.
What is most troubling are the prevailing attitudes about it. Nothing makes me more contemptuous than hearing someone say, "If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide and nothing to worry about." This sort of non-linear thinking, completely lacking in any capacity to synthesize context and human nature, is to be expected - from a fucking 2 year old.
Having said that, I really don't let it consume me. At 40 years old, I have my convictions about right and wrong, and I'm comfortable with my parameters regarding what I'm willing to tolerate. I've always said that when my way of life becomes "dangerous" to "the greater good" and I need to be removed from society, come & fucking get me. Because I'm really not going to change.
Out of principle I try to keep my profile low. It's not my intention to become a willing participant in the facebook social experiment. But I don't actively hide anything.