[shieclulaweew]

Quote[/b] ]So all the information is clearly already available for those who want to know it - will one more booklet make any difference ?

You are right, Mike. There is a plethora of information on the cultural dos and don'ts; those who really want to know it will surely find it all, most likely before they'll even see this booklet. However, the intended audience is not the savy and considerate travelers, but the clueless tourists who are completely oblivious to these information sources. I think the reason is because one has to make an effort to access most currently available sources (Ie. do an internet search, buy a guidebook etc.). This booklet will be distributed to the places where tourists do most likely hang out, placing the information practically under their noses. I still wouldn't call that a perfect solution, but it'll improve the situation, I'm sure.

You also mention that the real problem are the people who deliberately ignore the rules. While the booklet won't help that directly, it provides an indirect assistance to the authorities who want to prosecute the offenders. It will do this by closing the loophole that many of these guys used before ("Oh, I didn't know that"). Now the authorities can point to the info published by them and say "Sorry. We told you so.

Quote[/b] ]Those quotes, after all, definitely are aimed at the (voting) Thai public at large even if the booklet itself isn't.

You mean, Thais have access to those comments by the media, right? Well, the monk incidents that you posted here are equally accessible to them, by the same media. So, if the comments do anything, they just balance the equation, IMO.