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Kids Only nominated for Thai TV award
Ankana Intapan, CBN Siam and Staff
Reporters
Kids Only, the top quality children’s TV program
produced in Chiang Mai by CBN Siam has been nominated as one of the
contenders in the Children and Youth category for the 19th Golden TV Awards
in Bangkok.
The
program’s five talented co-hosts — Tan, Nan, Champ, Sarah and Pun Pun.
This year’s awards ceremony is scheduled to be
broadcast live on April 9 at 10.10 p.m. on Channel 5, which unfortunately
could be a trifle late in the evening for general children’s viewing. The
Golden TV Awards are sponsored by Chomrong Songserm Torathat, the Jomnong
Rangsikul Foundation and the Thai Cultural Center.
Under the supervision of CBN senior producer Somporn
Moolsan, Kids Only strives to inspire Thai youth to be part of the world of
imagination and creativity, to put no boundary on learning. The program’s
five talented co-hosts — Tan, Nan, Champ, Sarah and Pun Pun — lead young
viewers on weekly adventures through specially tailored segments.
CBN Siam’s Kids Only is a 30-minute “magazine format” television
program airing Wednesdays from 5.30-6 p.m. on Channel 11. For more
information contact Ankana Intapan at 0 5326 2940.
FERC delivers benefit gala proceeds
Scott Jones
Photos: Becky Lomax
After their successful 6th Annual Benefit Gala on
February 19, 2005 at Baan Wongmalee which raised half a million baht,
members of FERC (Foundation for the Education of Rural Children) delivered
87,700 baht to Nampu Thai School outside of Lamphun.
 Frank
Weicks and Dave Holowaty hand out 1000 baht notes to each child at Nampu
Thai School which was then transferred to the school administration.
43,000 baht covers one-year scholarships for 43 children,
many of whom have lost their parents to AIDS. 44,700 baht will be used to
upgrade their library with new books, a computer and educational software.
The additional funds raised at the Gala are now being used to build a new
septic system and toilets, expanded the canteen and provide furniture for
Srinehru Hmong School high on Doi Sutep.
Children
of Nampu Thai School outside Lamphun patiently wait until it is their turn.
After a meeting and lunch with teachers, administration
and town officials, FERC members were treated to several performances by the
school children: a traditional Thai drum group, a dance act and a singing
group with a girl who had just won the Best Singer in Lamphun award. The
children had been scheduled to perform at the Gala but unfortunately they
got lost along the way and never made it to the event.
The
singing group is led by a girl who had just won the Best Singer in Lamphun
award.
Activities ended with a ceremony where each child received a 1,000 baht
note which was then transferred to the school administration along with the
other funds. Frank Weicks, Becky Lomax, Celeste Tolibas-Holland and Dave
Holowaty enjoyed the beautiful day, the children’s shining faces, the
music, dance and drumming, the ceremony and the food, while FERC board
member Scott Jones, who started out following Frank’s truck to Lamphun,
spent the day sweating with his dead motorcycle in a hot Carrefour parking
lot and collecting material for another Life in the Laugh Lane column.
Payap University students develop keyless motorcycle starting
Staff Reporters
Motorbikes are started with a key, therefore the rider
risks losing the key or the motorcycle if a fake or copied key is used.
Keyless motorcycles is an invention developed by using
fingerprints to start the engine, rather than the key. The rider has to put
a finger on a print-reading device that then checks its memory and if it
matches, a micro controller will open the ignition circuit to start the
machine. If it does not match, a theft protection device will sound the
alarm. The information in the memory card can be changed, and additional
users can be added or deleted via a keypad.
Payap
University students develop hi-tech motorcycle started by using
fingerprints.
Damrongkiart Keunkam and Jaran Kamweloh, computer science
students at Payap University who developed the program, revealed that the
achievement was a part of a computer project. The project supported students
to apply what they had learned in practical examples.
In addition to the hi-tech motorbike device, the students of the computer
science department have developed many other devices such as Zoo Smart Maps
and e-commerce websites for Thai goods.
Prem students achieve mindfulness through meditation
David
Michaels
Grade Nine students from the Prem Tinsulanonda
International School visited Wat U-Mong in Chiang Mai for a day of education
and meditation instruction. They were joined by students from Australia’s
Kardinia International College, participating in Prem’s Visiting Schools
Program.
Prem
students prepare to meditate on their field trip to Wat U-Mong.
Upon arrival at Wat U-Mong, students were introduced to
Phra Song Serm, the head monk. As everyone gathered in the shade outside the
temple, Phra Song Serm spoke at length about some of the main principles of
Buddhism. He gave an excellent background of the religion, and subsequently
fielded questions from the students.
Students
from Prem and Australia’s Kardinia International College meditate together
at Wat U-Mong.
The highlight of the program came in the afternoon when
Phra Song Serm provided an introduction to the art of meditation. He
instructed the students on two types of meditation techniques - breathing
and walking. Meditation, or mindfulness, involves focusing solely on one
thing. As students walked, they thought only of the motion of their feet. In
the breathing meditation exercise, participants concentrated on their
body’s air flow to achieve a state of mindfulness. They meditated while
sitting as well as standing.
According to Phra Song Serm, “Mindfulness is the tool
to allow our minds to see things as they are.” When asked about the
purpose of meditation, he replied that, among other things, it is a method
of training ourselves to exercise self-control and attain peace.
By the end of the day, students may not have been on their way to
monk-hood, but they certainly gained valuable exposure to a practice
understood by relatively few people. In the oftentimes hectic rush of daily
life, meditation may very well be the perfect tool to achieve a focused and
positive escape.
PM Thaksin Shinawatra grants Student Loans Fund
Regales students with his childhood privations
Nopniwat
Krailerg
PM Thaksin Shinawatra paid special attention to
education, offering an educational opportunity authorizing a Student Loans
Fund budget on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of Student Loans
Fund. The PM encouraged students to apply for jobs at a fair to find work
for the summer vacation. This celebration was organized in cooperation with
government and almost one hundred private groups.
Students
applying for jobs during the summer vacation.
The celebration took place from 15-16 March, at Chiang
Mai University. The PM presided over the opening ceremony for the 3,000
participants of northern students and teachers.
The office of Student Loans Fund works under the Ministry
of Finance. It was established in 1996 with the objective of providing equal
chances of education for all. The Government supports impecunious youth to
maintain their studies and to relieve their parent’s financial burdens
with the fund. It has already distributed 100,000 million baht for 2.3
million students so far, successfully supporting the needy for more than
four years.
PM
Thaksin Shinawatra and Prof. Dr. Pongsak Angkasit, president of Chiang Mai
University.
PM Thaksin said proudly, “What I’ve done indicates that I really pay
attention to education, especially offering the opportunity to learn by
authorizing the Student Loan Fund, and I will develop the fund to become an
Income Contingent Loan (ICL). It is a loan combined with income in the
future and I’d like to encourage all students by telling them that when I
was young, I had to sell “slush puppies” after school, to relieve my
parents’ burden. I sold lottery results and washed coffee cups in the
morning. However, I enjoy working and studying while thinking all the time.
Whoever is trying and suffering should see their troubles in a positive way
and keep on studying because education can make us richer and more
powerful.”
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