Although Thailand’s main attractions for tourists usually revolve around Thailand’s beaches, Thai food, nature, adventure sports, and cultural activities, the country also has a significant adult entertainment industry. Though Thailand is perhaps less well know for the sex industry than some of its neighbors (like Singapore), nevertheless there are pockets of tourist areas that cater to both the adult nightlife and the courtship industries.

Popular international dating websites cater to Western male-Thai female couples, and Thailand Lawyers do a brisk business in Thailand prenuptial agreements and Thailand marriage arrangements for Thai-Foreign couples.

But what about the Western women who are largely excluded from this bustling social scene – how do they feel about their male counterparts traveling to Thailand for romance? We decided to get the other side of the story.

This video, when first posted, engendered a lively debate about the value of the viewpoints and comments of the Western women we spoke with. It should be noted that the diverse opinions presented in the video do not represent our own opinions. We have only provided a forum for rational discussion.

Divorce proceeding, whether located in the US or abroad, are rarely pleasant experiences for those involved. That said, a number of legal developments in the past week have conspired to make divorce a slightly easier, and much fairer, process for all involved.

New York Awards Woman State’s First “No Fault Divorce”

An aged Long Island wife has been granted the state of New York’s first contested “no fault” divorce. The woman, who claimed that her 56 year marriage with her husband was “irretrievably broken”, received a divorce and half of the couple’s assets despite the fact that her husband had allegedly refused to give her a divorce, or commit grounds for a divorce, for the last 20 years.

 The ruling is an application of a year-old “no fault” law, which previously has been used in amicable divorces, allowing couples to divorce without accusing each other of grounds of cruelty or abandonment. In Thailand, uncontested divorces are allowed if both spouses consent to the divorce, and no grounds are required.

British Courts Overturn Unfair Pre-nup

This week, a British judge deemed a pre-nuptial agreement signed ten years ago between Russian millionaire Boris Agrest and his British ex-wife “unfair”; the Russian High Court has therefore awarded Agrest’s ex-wife approximately half of his fortune, rather than the small fraction she would have been awarded by the prenuptial agreement.  The court battle between the two parties commenced in 2007, after Agrest left his wife and allegedly vowed to leave her, as well as their three children, destitute. Although there has become an increasing trend of UK courts being more receptive to prenuptial agreements, this case has shown that British courts are still more than ready to strike down prenuptial agreements in cases of inequity.

Will “Amphur Administrative Divorces” Come to Texas?

On 26 January, Texas’s Supreme Court Justice Chief notified the Texas State Bar that work on creating uniform forms for divorce – move that would streamline many divorce proceedings in Texas, allowing couples with low funds to divorce without spending large sums on legal fees  – would continue, despite protests from several family lawyers in the state. These parties allegedly felt that Texas family law was too complicated to condense into a single form.

Would “Gender Neutrality” work in Thailand

The British parents of five-year-old Sasha Laxton, a boy brought up to be “gender neutral” have posted a youtube video in defense of their widely-criticized parenting method. The video stars Sasha claiming that gendered colors (pink, yellow, blue, and green) are “silly”, and when his mother asks him if boys and girls are different, he obediently answers “no”.

Sasha’s parents allegedly kept their son’s gender a secret until the age of 5, referring to him as “the infant”, in order to keep societal gender stereotypes from affecting their offspring.

Would gender-neutral childrearing methods be accepted in Thailand, known for its cultural acceptance of transgendered individuals? Probably not. Most Thai parents are in general rather concerned about the possibility of their sons becoming “katoeys” (the Thai word for male to female trangendered individuals), also known as ladyboys – surprisingly, Thailand has rather conservative social norms regarding sexual orientation. The ladyboys of Thailand, for that matter, with their impressive regimes of cosmetic surgeries, high heels, hair extensions, and even beauty pageants are anything but “gender neutral”, and likely would be highly insulted by being portrayed in such bland terms. Gender in Thailand is seen as being highly distinct rather than fluid.

Schools for Sex – Life is Stranger than Fiction.

Austrian citizens were recently shocked to learn that the highly-publicized founding of a “sex school” had only been a media stunt to draw attention to the country’s low birth rates. What the school’s founders seemed unaware of, however, is that on the other side of the world, Singapore has already attempted to use such methods to boost its own birth rates – and failed.  The Singaporean government established a “Romancing Singapore” campaign all the way back in 2004, which ultimately failed to budge the country from being ranked the worlds LEAST “sexually active nation” in a poll taken by condom company Durex.

Music lovers trapped in Thailand take heart – band “Incubus” will rock Thailand on January 28^th, for the “Silverlake Music Festival 2012”. The festival will be held inPattaya,Thailand, at the Silverlake Pattaya Vineyard, and will feature a variety of artists, including “Seether” and “Owl City”.  Check out the festival’s website for more details.

Incubus is a band from the US state of California known for it’s alternative rock style.

Beyond merely a concert venue, Silverlake Vineyard is one of Pattaya’s more interesting locations, as it contains both winery and a resort.

Yemen’s president Ali Abudulla Saleh has left his home country to receive medical treatment in the U.S., despite widespread calls from Yemeni citizens for Saleh’s arrest. Saleh, who has been referred to by Yemeni opposition as “the Butcher”, is accused of authorizing a bloody crackdown on government protests during the “Arab Spring” of 2011.

The US State Department has vehemently denied that by giving Saleh a medical visa, the US is allowing Salah (a US ally) to escape trial in his native land – apparently, the ideal timing of the issuance of the U.S.visa is mere coincidence. Unfortunately, medical visas did not amount to a get-out-of-jail-free-card for Hossni Mubarak, currently on trail for crimes committed during his presidency in Egypt. Mubarak was denied a US medical visa, and is now appearing in Egyptian court in a hospital bed.

On January 19^th, Thailand announced that it had recognized Palestine as an independent state. The news has been met with applause from a number of parties, including Thai academics, Southern Thai Muslim activists, and the Palestinian Authority; other groups, including the Israeli government, condemned the move.

We visited the (in)famous Khao San Road in Bangkok to see if the hoards of foreign tourists who inhabit the area offered the same diversity of opinion onThailand’s recognition of Palestine. Indeed they did – responses ranged from total apathy, to questions of “Eh? Palestine?” to eloquent speeches in support of Palestine, to analysis of the role of Southern Thai politics in Thailand’s decision. The best of the interviews are captured below.

January 17^th was beautiful day for a wedding in Surin, Thailand, when Thai T.V. producer Chadil Deffy married his dead girlfriend Ann Kamasuk. Looking dapper in a mourning suit and top hat, Chadil married the wedding dress-clad body of Kamasuk in an “act of great love”.  Allegedly, Kamasuk, who had been Deffy’s significant other for a decade, had asked him to marry her, but due to Deffy’s continued procrastination, the couple failed to legalize their union before Kamasuk died in a car accident on January 3^rd.

 Our Thailand divorce lawyers can unequivocally state that marriage to a dead body does NOT count as a legal union under Thai law; these circumstances do, therefore, eliminate the need for a prenuptial agreement.

On 19 January, Thailand ratified the United Nation’s “International Convention for the Protection of All Person’s from Enforced Disappearance”. The convention will allegedly result in improved human rights protections in Thailand, as Thai law previously had no specific regulations for the treatment of missing persons. The term “Enforced disappearance” refers to government-supported arrest, detention, and abduction of an individual.

Article One of the Convention states:

1)No on shall be subjected to enforced disappearance

2) No exceptional circumstance whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.

A major proponent for Thailand’s ratification of the convention has been Justice for Peace Foundation Chairwoman Aghkhana Neelaphaijit; Aghkhana’s husband was prominent Thai human rights lawyer specializing in human rights abuses in Southern Thailand. Somchai was last seen being arrested by Thai police in Bangkok in 2004. His body has never been recovered.

While Thailand has indeed made great steps forward in the world of Human Rights law by ratifying this convention, we’re wondering how the rules of the convention – specifically the regulations of Article 1, listed above – will apply to other nations. Can the rules of the “International Convention for the Protection of All Person’s from Enforced Disappearance” prevent the US military from detaining “terror suspects” and US citizens within Thailand under the recently approved “National Defense Authorization Act“? We suspect not.

On 7 January, US Border Patrol agents cited rapper Snoop Dogg for marijuana possession at a checkpoint in Sierra Blanca,Texas. Border discovered roughly two ounces of the drug after performing a search; Snoop Dog, who has long been an outspoken advocate of marijuana legalization in the U.S., admitted to possession of the drugs.

US Border Patrol checkpoints, which extend 100 miles into the interior of the United States from the US border, have been a frequent source of controversy among proponents of US constitutional rights. Controversies over the checkpoints involve the use of roadblocks for searches and seizures without apparant grounds based on the lawful requirements, reasonable suspicion, or probable cause. Further, critics are concerned and the fact that petty marijuana seizures are not the domain of the US Border Control agents, who are supposed to be focused on immigration enforcement.

Ironically, Snoop’s arrest took place at the same checkpoint where fellow musician and marijuana legalization proponent Willie Nelson was arrested for possession of the drug in 2010.

While Border Patrol authorities in Sierra Blanca may be congratulating themselves on their celebrity arrest, we’d like to point out that connecting law enforcement genius isn’t really needed to profile Snoop Dogg’s tour bus as potential source of  marijuana possession…

On December 31^st 2011, President Obama signed into law the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012”, a move that effectively legalized arbitrary military detention without trial for US citizens.  

President Obama stated that he had “signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

We’re having difficulty finding anything to laugh about with regards to the NDAA, but Stephen Colbert (as always) has managed to find some humor in the situation:

Thailand attorneys have have already observed  detentions by US military authorities  of non-US citizens in Thailand.  However, now Americans will have to deal with the reality of US citizens being held in military detention within America’s borders.