Verisimilitude by Harry Nicolaides

Verisimilitude by Harry Nicolaides

Harry Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday, Jan 19, 2009 in Bangkok.>br> We demand his release.

Book can be seen here:
Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude. We have seen a copy of this book. We have a copy of this book.
We have put this page back up because we never believed that joining the Thai government in blacking out Harry's book Verisimilitude would ever get Harry out of prison for this horrible charge against him, and after months according to our predictions he is still there.

Write the Thai Government, the Australian Government, and demand his release.

Harry Nicolaides Refused Bail for Third Time in Les Majeste Case in Thailand
Remains in Prison

Jan 15, 2009
Harry Nicolaides, an Australian who was arrested in a strange case of Les Majeste in Thailand over his book Verisimilitude which is claimed to contain three lines about the Crown Prince and a rumor that he kicked a mistress out of Thailand, has been kept in prison in Bangkok since this time. His legal team had been hoping Harry would be granted bail, but each time the Thai police went back on their word.

Apparently "all the King's men" don't know the Thai government like we know the Thai Government.

This case has been kept concealed from the world public. Thai authorities can't point out the offending lines and have "gathered up all the books".

This is an extremely foolish case. Words in a book. A novel. A novel that never sold more than a few copies, a novel no one has a copy of now. A novel that basically does not exist. But Thailand considers itself part of the free world. The King says that people should be able to criticize the King, but then stands by silently while people are thrown in the dungeon for allegations some fool in public has leveled against any individual.

The King of Thailand is obligated to bring an end to the draconian Les Majeste laws. He must begin to support democracy for the Thai people so often kept in the dark, atrocities not coming to light for years and decades after the abuses took place.

We call on all people of good heart to protest the case and imprisonment of Harry Nicolaides. The time for polite speech is over.

The Australian Government should be ashamed of having abandoned one of their citizens to prison in this fashion. Drug runners and women abusers from foreign countries abound in Thailand, sex traffickers, paedophiles, confidence men and crooks of every kind, but Harry has been left in prison by his government over three lines of ink in a book no one apparently has ever seen.

Only your voice will make a difference.

MEDIA RELEASE

Harry Nicolaides is a famous tourism-award winning Australian and
best selling Australian author. His first book "Concierge
Confidential - published in 2002, generated unprecedented national
publicity and attracted reviews from Australian political leaders
and world famous sporting and entertainment figures. An iconic
figure in the hospitality industry as magazine publisher, radio
commentator and service professional, Harry was immortalised in
Michael Heppell"s international best seller - Be Brilliant "as an
individual who achieved brilliance with raw talent and tenacity.

In 2003 Harry Nicolaides relocated to live in Thailand for two
years. He worked as lecturer in Social Psychology at The Prince Of
Songkla University in Phuket, where he taught for over a year. He
drove across Thailand from south to north and gathered material for
his new book. He is currently a lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality
at Mae Fah Luang University in Northern Thailand and living in the
heart of the Golden Triangle - Chiang Rai.

His new novel "VERISIMILITUDE "is a trenchant commentary on the
political and social life of contemporary Thailand. It is an
uncompromising assault on the patrician values of the monarchy, the
insidious infiltration of religious missionaries in the education
system and the intimate relationship between American foreign policy
and Thailand"s battle against Muslim insurrections in the south.

Savage, ruthless and unforgiving, VERISIMILITUDE pulls away the mask
of benign congeniality that Thailand has disguised itself with for
decades and reveals a people who are obsessed with Western affluence
and materialism and who trade their cultural integrity and personal
honour for the baubles of Babylonian America.

Excerpt from VERISIMILITUDE:

"From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for
their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had
many wives "major and minor "with a coterie of concubines for
entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire
family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed
indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and
fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in
love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her
family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all
vestiges of their existence expunged forever."

Enquires to nicolaidesh@yahoo.com.au

BOOK REVIEWS

"VERISIMILITUDE is an undisguised bold-faced assault on Thailand"s
presentation culture and its rank obsessions with the appearance of
truth and the semblance of reality. The truth is a casualty in a
climate of political chicanery, expedient educational practices,
routine self-aggrandisement and wholesale conformity. A post-modern,
allegorical twist on the timeless fable of The Emperor"s New
Clothes. Nothing is as it appears. Trust your instincts!"

___________________________________

"Thailand and America have had close relations since the end of the
Second World War and the defeat of the Japanese. During the 1960"s
large US airfields and military installations were developed in
Thailand to thwart the spread of communism in South East Asia. In
the book, VERISIMILITUDE, Harry Nicolaides contends that the USA is
still in Thailand today advancing the interests of economic
imperialism at the expense of cultural integrity and diversity."

___________________________________

"VERISIMILITUDE has set the scene for the monumental struggle of
belief systems on the soil-cracked battleground of the Third World.
Buddhism and traditional Thai values are being threatened by the
commercial imperatives that dominate the family and individual as
everyone is swept up by the race along the economic superhighway."

____________________________________

"The American soldiers may have left Thailand after the Vietnam War
but today, in VERISIMILITUDE, they have been replaced by hyperbolic
Evangelical missionaries, church planting with George Bush"s money.
This is the new face of the foot soldiers of American foreign policy
in South East Asia."

____________________________________

"Domination and control "these are the objectives of the new
American religious right wing together with the subtle stratagems of
manipulation administered by a Republican administration in the USA
that VERISIMILITUDE identifies with lacerating insight. In Thailand,
they have infiltrated schools and universities to influence the
content of educational curriculums to transmit their hidden agenda
while the local authorities receive massive financial grants in
exchange for their collusion."

"Polygamy, indentured servitude and the sexual exploitation of women
flourish in Thailand under an oppressive patriarchal social system.
In VERISIMILITUDE, the impunity of the nation"s ruling elite stands
unchallenged by the lower classes who imitate, like grotesque
acolytes, the predilections and peccadillos of their rulers."

________________________________

"Tell the tailors to tie a knot in their thread before they take the
first stitch "The nefarious incarnation of Dr Jekyl was Tom Hyde.
He spoke these enigmatic words standing on the gallows to hang.
VERISIMILITUDE puts Thailand on trial revealing that in Thailand it
is more important to save face than tell the truth. The book also
examines the consequences of a policy of being expedient with the
facts."

________________________________

"VERISIMILITUDE begins and ends with the same passage in what is a
Homeric cycle of trials and tribulations only to return to the place
the journey started and see it for the first time. This is the
archetypal Odyssean journey where the protagonist sets out to
achieve modest ambitions but instead finds himself trapped by the
eternal paradoxes of love and identity."

________________________________

"On one level, VERISIMILITUDE is a tale of a tortured relationship
and on another allegorical level it explores the development of
Thailand as an emerging Third world country grappling with
corruption, nepotism and a sycophantic adoration of Western
affluence and materialism."

________________________________

"VERISIMILITUDE asks the most important question of our age "to
what degree is the world we see around us a projection of our
prejudices, beliefs and language and of the two worlds we inhabit "
the reflection in the glass pane and the world beyond the glass "
which is "reality". In Thailand image is reality."

_________________________________

"VERISIMILITUDE ends how it begins "decidedly ambiguous. Each
reader will project their own values on a textual surface that is
subject to multiple interpretations. The reader is drawn into the
author"s obsession to explore the mysterious relationship between
empirical truth and social constructs and the interplay between
light and shadow."

______________________________

"A bird is trapped by the false azure in a glass window pane. It is
transfixed by the reflection not able to determine whether it is
real or not. The bird must fly away to be free. In VERISIMILITUDE
the protagonist must choose to stay with the woman who says she
loves him or leave her, to be free."

______________________________

"A dead butterfly. Fallen Frangipani flowers. Counterfeit artworks.
They all look vibrant, alive and enigmatic. And they all make
promises that they can"t fulfil. In VERISIMILITUDE the protagonist
discovers that love is expertly reproduced, word for word, sigh for
sigh, like the ubiquitous elephant figurine in the Bazaar. In
Thailand, love was sold on a stick, seasoned with sugar and spice
and lightly roasted by flames leaping about like the forked tail of
the devil. Caveat Emptor."

_______________________________

"The grim reality about generational debt bondage in the Third World
and the enslavement of Thai women into the sex industry are revealed
in VERISIMILITUDE. Towns in Northern Thailand whose populations have
been decimated by the AIDS virus have been left as dustbowls
littered with orphans, widows and stray dogs. This is the horror of
the truth not dissembled by politicians, deconstructed by academics
or finessed by journalists."

The Akha Heritage Foundation - www.akha.org Akha Human Rights - Akha University Home - Contact Us
	Document You may copy and save this document for later reading. Please remember to do a site search for other related documents which may not be shown here. If you are interested in books like Verisimilitude by Harry Nicolaides, and if you happen to visit the Good Reads website, you will find a collection of reading material and ratings for the material. You can find books by Harry Nicolaides on the site, including Concierge Confidential: Hotel Stories and Verisimilitude. You can also find books of poetry, graphic novels, cookbooks, memoirs, Fisher Investments on Good Reads and many other genres and topics. Verisimilitude by Harry Nicolaides Harry Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday, Jan 19, 2009 in Bangkok.>br> We demand his release. Book can be seen here: Verisimilitude Verisimilitude. We have seen a copy of this book. We have a copy of this book. We have put this page back up because we never believed that joining the Thai government in blacking out Harry's book Verisimilitude would ever get Harry out of prison for this horrible charge against him, and after months according to our predictions he is still there. Write the Thai Government, the Australian Government, and demand his release. Harry Nicolaides Refused Bail for Third Time in Les Majeste Case in Thailand Remains in Prison Jan 15, 2009 Harry Nicolaides, an Australian who was arrested in a strange case of Les Majeste in Thailand over his book Verisimilitude which is claimed to contain three lines about the Crown Prince and a rumor that he kicked a mistress out of Thailand, has been kept in prison in Bangkok since this time. His legal team had been hoping Harry would be granted bail, but each time the Thai police went back on their word. Apparently "all the King's men" don't know the Thai government like we know the Thai Government. This case has been kept concealed from the world public. Thai authorities can't point out the offending lines and have "gathered up all the books". This is an extremely foolish case. Words in a book. A novel. A novel that never sold more than a few copies, a novel no one has a copy of now. A novel that basically does not exist. But Thailand considers itself part of the free world. The King says that people should be able to criticize the King, but then stands by silently while people are thrown in the dungeon for allegations some fool in public has leveled against any individual. The King of Thailand is obligated to bring an end to the draconian Les Majeste laws. He must begin to support democracy for the Thai people so often kept in the dark, atrocities not coming to light for years and decades after the abuses took place. We call on all people of good heart to protest the case and imprisonment of Harry Nicolaides. The time for polite speech is over. The Australian Government should be ashamed of having abandoned one of their citizens to prison in this fashion. Drug runners and women abusers from foreign countries abound in Thailand, sex traffickers, paedophiles, confidence men and crooks of every kind, but Harry has been left in prison by his government over three lines of ink in a book no one apparently has ever seen. Only your voice will make a difference. MEDIA RELEASE Harry Nicolaides is a famous tourism-award winning Australian and best selling Australian author. His first book "Concierge Confidential - published in 2002, generated unprecedented national publicity and attracted reviews from Australian political leaders and world famous sporting and entertainment figures. An iconic figure in the hospitality industry as magazine publisher, radio commentator and service professional, Harry was immortalised in Michael Heppell"s international best seller - Be Brilliant "as an individual who achieved brilliance with raw talent and tenacity. In 2003 Harry Nicolaides relocated to live in Thailand for two years. He worked as lecturer in Social Psychology at The Prince Of Songkla University in Phuket, where he taught for over a year. He drove across Thailand from south to north and gathered material for his new book. He is currently a lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality at Mae Fah Luang University in Northern Thailand and living in the heart of the Golden Triangle - Chiang Rai. His new novel "VERISIMILITUDE "is a trenchant commentary on the political and social life of contemporary Thailand. It is an uncompromising assault on the patrician values of the monarchy, the insidious infiltration of religious missionaries in the education system and the intimate relationship between American foreign policy and Thailand"s battle against Muslim insurrections in the south. Savage, ruthless and unforgiving, VERISIMILITUDE pulls away the mask of benign congeniality that Thailand has disguised itself with for decades and reveals a people who are obsessed with Western affluence and materialism and who trade their cultural integrity and personal honour for the baubles of Babylonian America. Excerpt from VERISIMILITUDE: "From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had many wives "major and minor "with a coterie of concubines for entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever." Enquires to nicolaidesh@yahoo.com.au BOOK REVIEWS "VERISIMILITUDE is an undisguised bold-faced assault on Thailand"s presentation culture and its rank obsessions with the appearance of truth and the semblance of reality. The truth is a casualty in a climate of political chicanery, expedient educational practices, routine self-aggrandisement and wholesale conformity. A post-modern, allegorical twist on the timeless fable of The Emperor"s New Clothes. Nothing is as it appears. Trust your instincts!" ___________________________________ "Thailand and America have had close relations since the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Japanese. During the 1960"s large US airfields and military installations were developed in Thailand to thwart the spread of communism in South East Asia. In the book, VERISIMILITUDE, Harry Nicolaides contends that the USA is still in Thailand today advancing the interests of economic imperialism at the expense of cultural integrity and diversity." ___________________________________ "VERISIMILITUDE has set the scene for the monumental struggle of belief systems on the soil-cracked battleground of the Third World. Buddhism and traditional Thai values are being threatened by the commercial imperatives that dominate the family and individual as everyone is swept up by the race along the economic superhighway." ____________________________________ "The American soldiers may have left Thailand after the Vietnam War but today, in VERISIMILITUDE, they have been replaced by hyperbolic Evangelical missionaries, church planting with George Bush"s money. This is the new face of the foot soldiers of American foreign policy in South East Asia." ____________________________________ "Domination and control "these are the objectives of the new American religious right wing together with the subtle stratagems of manipulation administered by a Republican administration in the USA that VERISIMILITUDE identifies with lacerating insight. In Thailand, they have infiltrated schools and universities to influence the content of educational curriculums to transmit their hidden agenda while the local authorities receive massive financial grants in exchange for their collusion." "Polygamy, indentured servitude and the sexual exploitation of women flourish in Thailand under an oppressive patriarchal social system. In VERISIMILITUDE, the impunity of the nation"s ruling elite stands unchallenged by the lower classes who imitate, like grotesque acolytes, the predilections and peccadillos of their rulers." ________________________________ "Tell the tailors to tie a knot in their thread before they take the first stitch "The nefarious incarnation of Dr Jekyl was Tom Hyde. He spoke these enigmatic words standing on the gallows to hang. VERISIMILITUDE puts Thailand on trial revealing that in Thailand it is more important to save face than tell the truth. The book also examines the consequences of a policy of being expedient with the facts." ________________________________ "VERISIMILITUDE begins and ends with the same passage in what is a Homeric cycle of trials and tribulations only to return to the place the journey started and see it for the first time. This is the archetypal Odyssean journey where the protagonist sets out to achieve modest ambitions but instead finds himself trapped by the eternal paradoxes of love and identity." ________________________________ "On one level, VERISIMILITUDE is a tale of a tortured relationship and on another allegorical level it explores the development of Thailand as an emerging Third world country grappling with corruption, nepotism and a sycophantic adoration of Western affluence and materialism." ________________________________ "VERISIMILITUDE asks the most important question of our age "to what degree is the world we see around us a projection of our prejudices, beliefs and language and of the two worlds we inhabit " the reflection in the glass pane and the world beyond the glass " which is "reality". In Thailand image is reality." _________________________________ "VERISIMILITUDE ends how it begins "decidedly ambiguous. Each reader will project their own values on a textual surface that is subject to multiple interpretations. The reader is drawn into the author"s obsession to explore the mysterious relationship between empirical truth and social constructs and the interplay between light and shadow." ______________________________ "A bird is trapped by the false azure in a glass window pane. It is transfixed by the reflection not able to determine whether it is real or not. The bird must fly away to be free. In VERISIMILITUDE the protagonist must choose to stay with the woman who says she loves him or leave her, to be free." ______________________________ "A dead butterfly. Fallen Frangipani flowers. Counterfeit artworks. They all look vibrant, alive and enigmatic. And they all make promises that they can"t fulfil. In VERISIMILITUDE the protagonist discovers that love is expertly reproduced, word for word, sigh for sigh, like the ubiquitous elephant figurine in the Bazaar. In Thailand, love was sold on a stick, seasoned with sugar and spice and lightly roasted by flames leaping about like the forked tail of the devil. Caveat Emptor." _______________________________ "The grim reality about generational debt bondage in the Third World and the enslavement of Thai women into the sex industry are revealed in VERISIMILITUDE. Towns in Northern Thailand whose populations have been decimated by the AIDS virus have been left as dustbowls littered with orphans, widows and stray dogs. This is the horror of the truth not dissembled by politicians, deconstructed by academics or finessed by journalists." Copyright 1991 The Akha Heritage Foundation