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Rudi Bakhtiar Reports on Bangkok
by David Dvorkin
In response to my essay, Rudi Bakhtiar is an Airhead, Kurt Francis, a resident of Bangkok, Thailand, sent me the following e-mail, in which he tells how Bakhtiar's sloppy, incompetent reporting slandered that city and its residents.
Be sure to visit Kurt's Web site. The link is at the end of his e-mail.
Since we don't get CNN Headline News here in Bangkok (or at least I don't), I was previously unfamiliar with Ms. Bakhtiar. A friend here told me about the story. I have a website about Bangkok, and do [what's supposed to be] a weekly column on it. When I learned of the story -- my friend didn't know the source -- I immediately did something I've never done, sitting down and writing a column blasting the story, that being the only subject of the column, and put it out as a special edition. When I found the story the next day, I watched it then wrote Fox News a long, scathing e-mail, and detailing the errors in the story.
Because I am unfamiliar with her other than this story, I did not attack her personally. Well, I did call the story "irresponsible journalism" is how I think I put it, so I guess that's an implied attack on her. Besides not being familiar with her, I also saw on a discussion board where a thread got out of hand, in my view, discussing the fact she's Iranian by birth and saying that alone was enough to do something to her, and some of the suggestions weren't very pretty. (I suspect some of them could get their writers into legal trouble, in fact.)
To give a brief summary, there are 3 main points: (1.) her geography is wrong -- the so-called "painter bars" aren't in Washington Square -- they're in a road across the street; (2.) in neither the painter bars, nor any other bars on that street nor any bar in the Square have I ever seen children on offer and have never heard of it in any of those places, (3.) everyone I've known in my 12 years of being a regular in both venues openly detests pedophiles -- the ONE that wandered into a Washington Square bar some years back was told by all of us there to hit the road and never to come back -- and preferably to get the hell out of Thailand.
The reporter's fundamental claim there is this sort of disgusting activity in Thailand is true, though I have never witnessed it any time I KNEW that was the adult's intent. And I've never witnessed it any Bangkok at all, and over the years I've hung out just about every place there is around this town. A friend of mine worked in AIDS research for some years on the field side of things, builting statistics, and coincidental to that he came back from many a trip with dark stories of human trafficking, including of children. And I've been suspicious of Western adults I've seen in a couple of beach resorts I sometimes visit near Bangkok -- but never could reach any positive conclusion either way.
My quarrel is with the stories specific inaccuracies in the report, especially since I'm one of the very men implicitly guilty of engaging in sex with what she claimed to be 4- and 5-year-old children. Not by name, of course -- but I spend most of my waking hours in Washington Square and, too a lesser degree, the bars on the street with the "painter bars."
I've had more feedback on my special column than on any other single story except one -- and that one was dramatic, a story written when a good friend and his two housemates, both acquaintances, were all beheaded in Iraq.
One last point: yes, there is a thriving sex industry, including in the places she talked about. But NOT with children. Given the geographical inaccuracies of her report, I'm guessing she's never been to the places she named. Heck, I joke with some of the bar owners in the Square the run retirement establishments for older, um, working girls -- finding one under 25 is rare!
I won't be dropping this anytime soon, and hope a BUNCH of people flood Fox with e-mails/phone calls/letters.
BTW -- so far at least, every single e-mail I've received has expressed outrage at the story and offering support for my stance. Guess I'm luckier than you were!
Sincerely,
Mekhong Kurt, Webmaster
http://BangkokAtoZ.com
Bangkok's Voice On The Web
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