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This column covers "developing stories" meaning that you can expect additional stories on the same subject in the near future. The material that follows was written using much of the same language as your Bangkok Post writers use in their stories. June 21, 2005 LOCAL The hazing season Abusive initiation rites have been a part of Thai university life for a long time, although that may be about to change

Tossaporn Serirak, adviser to the education minister, examines a wound on the shoulder of Patiparn Inya-po, a mechanical engineering student at Rajamangala University of Technology Nakhon Ratchasima campus, who said he had been tortured during an initiation ceremony.. — APICHIT JINAKUL Much of our news is seasonal. For example, there is the flood season, the drought season, and now, with the universities reopening, we have entered the hazing season. And every year, like clockwork, there is a raft of stories of initiation abuses, protests from victims or their parents, and promises of action by educational authorities. Soon, however, the season passes and little is done. This year, things may be different. The complaints are so numerous and the reported incidents so outrageous that there may be a serious effort to bring the practice of hazing under some control. Already this year, the Education Ministry has received more than 100 reports of indecency, lewd acts, torture and at least one rape. Hazing was also blamed for contributing to the suicide of one student. This prompted the Office of Higher Education Commission to call for a halt to all initiation rites this year, but that brought an immediate protest from the Student Federation of Thailand (SFT). Kotchawan Chaibutr, an SFT member and a senior law student at Chulalongkorn University, called instead for the Education Ministry to host a meeting to gather opinions from all parties concerned and set guidelines for initiation activities. Without waiting for such a meeting, Thammasat University last Friday issued strict regulations on rituals, saying all activities for freshmen must not violate individual rights and new students should not be forced to join them. Actually, there are many models around the world for laws and regulations to control cruel hazing practices. This is especially true of the US, which probably has the biggest problem. At the moment 44 US states have laws against hazing. One of the strictest is the state of Oregon, which has specifically outlawed a long series of popular hazing practices, including callisthenics; total or substantial nudity, forced ingestion of any substance (alcohol, etc.), wearing or carrying of anything obscene, physical assaults or offensive physical contact, transportation and abandonment, confinement of the person to unreasonably small, unventilated, unsanitary or unlighted areas or requirements to carry out pranks. That’s an impressive list, but here in Thailand it would have to be amended to include forcing students to spend all day in the hot sun as reportedly happened at one prominent Rajabhat University recently. Many US universities have strict regulations on hazing, including complete prohibition. That is the case at the University of Washington, which expressly forbids student organisations and their members from “engaging individually or collectively in hazing activities”. The university goes on to warn that “consent is no defense to hazing”. Watch to see if Thailand ends up with anything similar. Incidentally, if you are interested in this problem, check out the website www.stophazing.org. And if you want to counter the arguments hazing proponents most often use to defend the practice, see hazing.cornell.edu/pages/myths.shtml. hazing activities involving new members of a group or organisation which often cause anxiety or embarrassment and can include annoying or upsetting actions, as well as physical or mental mistreatment abusive cruel or rude behaviour initiation the process of officially bringing a new member into a group or organisation rites a fixed set of actions used in a ceremony or special event; rituals drought a long period of time without rain like clockwork to happen exactly on time raft a large number of practice a regular activity, habit, custom, etc. outrageous shocking and morally unacceptable indecency morally offensive behaviour which is typically related to sex lewd sexual in an obvious and rude way torture the act of causing great physical or mental pain suicide killing yourself callisthenics simple physical exercises (push-ups, pull ups, etc.) nudity the state of wearing no clothes ingestion taking into the body (by eating, drinking, etc.) obscene upsetting; rude or shocking, usually because it is related to sex assaults attacks offensive causing upset or hurt feelings abandonment leaving someone alone confinement forcing someone to stay in a place from which they can’t leave unventilated not receiving a fresh flow of air unsanitary unclean pranks tricks that are intended to be amusing prohibition not allowing something to happen or be done; forbidding expressly clearly counter to react to an opposing opinion proponents supporters

Secret no longer Information theft has become a serious problem for companies processing credit card purchases We are always being warned to use our credit cards carefully and to keep our information secret. But what about the companies that process our information? It certainly looks like they are the ones who need to shape up. Already this year there have been at least 10 incidents of significant information loss or theft in companies in the US alone. In the latest incident, more than 40 million credit card numbers belonging to consumers may have been accessed by computer hackers and are at risk of being used for fraud, according to MasterCard International Inc. The hackers apparently infiltrated the computers at a credit card processing centre some time last year and it was only discovered last May. The theft may involve all four major credit card issuers. It is not yet clear if the thieves have actually made use of the stolen credit card information to make fraudulent purchases, but there is some indication that they have. Fortunately, credit card holders are not responsible for the bills run up by the thieves, but they may see their credit ratings damaged until everything is straightened out – often a very long and frustrating process. Something good may come out of the latest incident, however. It appears that the company at fault was not using the latest safety precautions because it had failed to encrypt the information which would have made it much harder for the thieves to use. You can expect procedures to be much tighter in the future. shape up to improve their performance or behaviour hackers people who get into someone else’s computer system without permission at risk of in danger of fraud the crime of obtaining money or goods by cheating or deceiving people infiltrated secretly and improperly entered precautions actions done to prevent something bad from happening encrypt to change electronic information or signals into a secret code •This lesson was prepared by Acharn Terry Fredrickson, BA Stanford, MA (TESL) University of Minnesota, Manager/Editor of the Learning Post at the Bangkok Post and general editor of this programme. Read our other What's news columns here. Back to our home page |© The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. All rights reserved 2005 | Last modified: June 20, 2005