8 - 28 February 2010 Wisdom in Thai Traditional Painting by Sutin Panyadeang

Sutin Panyadeang, guaranteed by 3nd prize, a copper medal in 22nd Thai Traditional painting contest of Bualuang, joins in a contest of Huachiew University in title of “the Year of the Tiger”. His “Year of the Tiger” painting is qualified for the final contest, and it is one of all paintings, shown in the exhibition of “Wisdom in Thai Traditional Painting by Sutin Panyadeang” during February 8 – 28, 2010 at 10 a.m. – 8p.m. on the 2nd floor, the exhibition room 211, River City Shopping Complex, Charoen Krung 24. See lots of notable and fine Thai paintings depicted the culture, the custom, the animals in Thai legend, Thai political history, and much more. All paintings with acrylic on canvas reflected his ideas and feeling in mind have delicate lines and attracted colors.

Thailand Revealing Her Potential Hosting World-Class Event “VICTAM ASIA 2010” – The Cream of Feedstuff in Asia

Thailand, once again revealing her full potential, has set to host VICTAM ASIA 2010 Fair, a world-class event for feed industry for both aquatic animals and pet animals, as well as cereal industry, said to be the largest in Southeast Asia and to be organized by VICTAM INTERNATIONAL, in cooperation with EXPOLINK GLOBAL NETWORK LTD. , following the country’s renown as the seat of all actions, as well as great success found in VICTAM ASIA 2008, the event that generated the spending accounting for Thai Baht 1 billion; not to mention the other two large-scale events, namely, “FIAAP ASIA” and “GRAPAS ASIA,” both to be held for the best value of all feedstuff’s superior quality between the third and the fifth of March 2010 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. Over Thai Baht 2 billion is expected to be spent in these events by more than 150 world-renowned international feedstuff manufacturing companies and proprietors, as well as more than 20,000 visitors from all over the world.


Henk van de Bunt, General Manager for VICTAM INTERNATIONAL BV,an international corporate organizer from the Netherlands specializing in feed industry, has revealed that the company, having realized the great potential of Thailand as the center of feed industry events and fairs in Southeast Asian region, is set to organize “VICTAM ASIA 2010 Fair” between the 3rd and the 5th of March 2010 on over a 5,000 sq-m area at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, where innovations and latest technologies pertaining to feed industry and international plant-processing industry, the latter of which ranges from raw material and ingredient procurement, manufacturing, technology, machinery, processing, storage and full-cycle logistics are to be exhibited. More than 150 proprietors and not lesser than 20,000 visitors are expected to join the events.

VICTAM ASIA 2010 Fair, which is to be held next year, represents the sweetest fruition born of the warm welcome garnered at VICTAM 2008 Fair in which over 150 international companies from such countries as USA, UK, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc., not to mention over 15,000 visitors from all over the world, are reported to have participated.

“Objectives for this event are to enhance the level of productivity and potential in trading pertaining to feed industry so that Thailand could become the seat of operation for the aforementioned industrial discipline within Asian region; the company trusts that this event to be held next year will foster economic growth in Thai feed industry at large, as well as serving as the global stage for business negotiations for all participants, both Thai and foreign, all the more allowing for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and technologies pertaining to the industry among them,” said the General Manager.

Mr. Phusit Sasitaranondha, Managing Director, EXPOLINK GLOBAL NETWORK LTD., which is VITAM ASIA 2010 project manager, has revealed that highlights and features to be included in this upcoming event are comprised of latest technologies and brand-new innovations pertaining to feedstuff for both aquatic animals and pet animals, ingredient-related industry, food animal factory and plant, cereal & wholegrain processing, storage process, as well as logistics and transportation, all the more processing and recycling technologies to be used as alternate power and energy. More so to be included here are the related systems, industrial equipments and tools used in monitoring, controlling, and maintaining safety criteria, as well as dust explosion, not to mention many interesting seminars including those from Department of Livestock Development, Department of Fishery, Agriculturist Market, and Thailand Rice Mill Association.

“In addition to VICTAM ASIA 2010, there are the other two events of great interest: 1) “Feed Ingredients & Additives Asia Pacific 2010 (FIAAP ASIA),” where feed ingredients of superior quality and great additives are to be met, along with feed formulas and the likes; 2) “GRAPAS ASIA,” which represents another activity of great interest for Thailand since it mainly involves exhibitions and conferences regarding milling, as well as others including noodle manufacturing industry, cereal manufacturing industry, and cereal-made snacks and the likes,” said Mr. Phusit.

IVL reports healthy profits despite weaker spreads seen in IRP

Indorama Ventures Limited (IVL) the parent company of Indorama Polymers Plc (IRP) reported a sharp increase in its earnings for the 9-months period ending September 2009 thanks to the company’s exposure to the Pure Terepthalic Acid (PTA) business.


“The performance of IVL has been good because the margins for PTA has remained stable while those for the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) has seen decline during the previous quarter,” Dilip Kumar Agarwal, the chief executive officer of IRP said during the analysts conference to announce the results of IRP’s third quarter and give some indication of IVL’s performance.

IVL which is in the process of buying out IRP from the retail shareholders in a share swap which would see IVL list on the local bourse by Mid-February reported its 9-months net profits of about 4.5 billion baht against 3.5 billion it had seen at the end of June this year.

The 4.5 billion in profits was more than 160% increase from those seen during last year, which the company attributed to the higher ‘integrated spreads’ between the PTA and PET business. The spread for the 9-months ending September for the two businesses stood at $397/tonne against the Asian published spreads of $316/tonne.

As for IRP, which handles only the PET business, the company saw a slight decline in its margins as it has been evident from most Asian operators on the back of seasonal factor and weaker demand. The PET spreads for the quarter stood at $170 against $222 seen during Q2 2009. The third quarter’s spreads in Asia stood at $142/ton.

“Our margins are still better than those of the benchmark industry standards,” Mr. Agarwal said while adding that IRP during the past quarter was slightly ‘aggressive’ in its sales which had caused the margins to decline as well.

He said that the lower margins has meant that the company has managed to increase its market share globally and excluding China the company’s global market share has reached around 13% from blow 10% seen at the start of this year.

“During the fourth quarter we are expecting our spreads to be above $200 per ton,” Mr. Agarwal stressed during questions raised by some analysts on whether the squeezed margins would be the strategy going forward.

This prompted IRP to report a net profit of 239 million baht down from 276 million baht seen during the third quarter of 2008. As for the 9-month operations IRP reported a net profit of 1.58 billion against 933 million baht on sale of 32.85 billion baht against 30.92 billion baht seen during the same period of 2008.

Commenting on the demand side Mr. Agarwal said that there continues to be a shortage of about 1-million ton in the European markets and with many of the incumbent players in not such a strong financial position the situation could further intensify.

He said that IRP and IVL were looking at various options to cater to the European market but none have been very concrete yet to make a formal announcement.

Paws for thought

       SCAD (formerly known as Soi Dog Rescue) and BNOW (Bangkok Network of Women) are holding a garage sale at New International School of Thailand on Sukhumvit Soi 15 this Saturday from 9.30am-1pm.
       Up for grabs at bargain prices will be everything from appliances, and furniture, to kids toys, clothing, books, sports equipment and much more.
       Part of the proceeds will be donated to SCAD.
       For more information, visit ScadBangkok.org.
       For help with directions, call the school Monday through Friday during school hours at (02) 651 2065.

Magnificent seven

       In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
       Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
       Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
       Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
       Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
       The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
       The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
       Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
       The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
       The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.

Pit bulls maul elderly woman

       Five pit bull terriers attacked an elderly woman at a Bangkok housing estate yesterday morning.
       Taweeporn Rujimora, 74, was walking home when the dogs suddenly pounced. Although neighbours rushed to help, the victim sustained injuries to her face, chest and other parts of her body.
       "I heard shouting, then I saw people trying to force the dogs into a house while the woman lay on a bench screaming in pain," said Pol Sub-Lieutenant Damrong Kritchukiat. Damrong managed to video the aftermath of the incident and said the footage could be used as evidence against the dog owner.
       Taweeporn's son, Kanok, lodged a complaint with police against the dogs' owner, Preecha Arunmahat, yesterday. "He has refused to pay for a private room in hospital for my mother. It is useless to talk to him," said Kanok, a news editor at Channel 5.
       Bites, dislocated bones
       Doctors at the Kasemrad Bangkae Hospital say Taweeporn is being treated for bite wounds and dislocated bones caused by the fall.
       "Residents are considering petitioning the director of Bang Khae District Office to have the pit-bulls expelled from the housing estate," said Kanok, adding that Preecha's dogs have attacked many people before.
       Lak Song Police Station superintendent Colonel Sunthorn Torod said Preecha had already been summoned for questioning.
       "He claims he cannot afford to pay for a private room because Taweeporn is at a private hospital. But he has promised to pay Bt40,000 towards Taweeporn's treatment," said Sunthorn.

FLYING COLOURS

       Sarawut Kreedumrongsak always smiles happily whenever his friends refer to him as khon bah nok (bird maniac)."I never get angry when I hear that term since it truly reflects who I am and what I like most. In fact, it is my favourite nickname," he said, laughing.
       His present home, widely known as Ban Nok Mee Ngon (House of Crested Birds),resembles a large aviary, with 200 birds living in harmony with their human friends.But things were completely different a decade ago.
       "Previously,my parents always kept complaining about my hobby. Now my mother and sister are extremely happy to take care of the birds.My mother enjoys feeding them," said the bird lover.
       Although Mr Sarawut is a bird fancier,he doesn't keep several species. He has the only strain that suits his lifestyle and personality. After experimenting with rearing various breeds, he eventually settled on with what he calls his "dream birds".
       "I am in love with cockatiels because of their striking traits and gentle temperament. Compared with other kinds of parrots, cockatiels are less aggressive. In fact, they are rather quiet. I don't like to live in a noisy environment.The sounds made by cockatiels are melodious," he said.
       By profession, Mr Sarawut is a lawyer.He is also a skilful chef. Breeding cockatiels is his hobby. But he doesn't breed just for fun or for commercial purposes. What he is trying to do is to develop the members of this avian category to be stronger and more colourful.
       He started his breeding scheme with the Normal Grey, regarded as the most ordinary strain due to its plain characteristics. But this species is famous for its big,well-built body and physical strength, and these favourable genetic properties can be passed down to descendants.
       "Generally, cockatiels are divided into two main groups - high-colour and lowcolour. The former includes birds with
       rare and sophisticated colours while the latter features feathered specimens with basic colours such as black and brown. I just match the former and the latter together and the result is a stronger and more colourful breed," he said.
       Mr Surawut's birds come in various tones,and many of them are hotly sought after by bird connoisseurs.However, most collectors are often disappointed as not all of them can have their desires fulfilled.
       "The more birds I breed, the more of them I keep for myself. I rarely sell them to others. I really love all of my birds. They all have names and I remember them all," he said.
       Mr Sarawut treats his birds as if they were his own children. All fledglings must be hand fed by him because most mother cockatiels are not good at raising their babies.
       "The most difficult and challenging task in taking care of the nestlings is hand-feeding as even a minor mistake can kill a baby bird.
       "For example, the food temperature must be just right, and all the feeding equipment must be clean. On top of that,the feeder must be highly skilful. The fledgling will die if food gets into its windpipe and lungs."
       Mr Sarawut says a cockatiel makes good company and its lifespan is rather long,about 15 to 20 years if properly looked after. This means that his responsibility and commitment to his birds is virtually endless, but he is happy to trade his time and energy for his feathered friends' wellbeing. All his birds live in a long, spacious aviary since by nature a cockatiel flies horizontally and low.
       Mr Sarawut is also an early bird. He usually wakes at 5am to monitor the condition of all his birds, feeds them, cleans the aviary and all the feeding equipment,rubs the fledglings' feathers and records the history of all the birds, including their egg-laying and hatching particulars. When he returns home at midnight, the first place he visits is the aviary, and he spends at least two hours there to make sure that all of his children sleep well.
       "The greatest enemy of nestlings are rats. They often comes at night, gnaw the net of the aviary and forage for food,which in their case is a helpless baby bird.
       "I have to strengthen my aviary occasionally," he said.
       From time to time, he participates in pet fairs and takes his beautiful birds to the outside world. Some of them have won beauty contests.
       "I just want to meet new friends who share the same interest as mine. Through competitions, I can learn both the positive and negative traits of my birds. In that way, I can improve on my breeding programme," he said.
       After having been a leading figure in the cockatiel arena for more than a decade,Mr Sarawut is often invited by pet magazines to write articles on cockatiels, and he is always more than willing to share his experiences and knowledge with the like-minded, especially greenhorns who have no idea how to keep their birds healthy and happy throughout their lifetime. He also provides tips on how to hand-feed fledglings.
       "Some bird keepers simply follow the trend but have no basic knowledge of how to take care of the young animals properly. I hope that my articles can help raise awareness among bird owners to see value in animal life and treat the creatures with respect," he said.
       At the end of every day, Mr Sarawut looks happy in his world full of colour and melody. And whatever he does, he does it wholeheartedly, as can be seen in the glowing health of all his birds.
       "I enjoy all of my roles. They keep me healthy and happy," he said with a wide grin.