November 5 2006
Galt silences Stickman

Thousands of disappointed readers seeking their weekly dose of Stickman are being greeted by this terse message:
The Stickman site is down and offline for the time being. It is hoped that it will return soon...
Best wishes,
The Stickmanbangkok team
Rival webmaster, John Galt, precipitated Stick's downfall by revealing his place of work and, a few minutes ago, he dropped by to offer an explanation.
Stickman was sufficiently shaken by my most recent column that he shut down his site. I'm sure this is only a temporary condition. Chances are he is removing all evidence that links him to his place of employment. The axe I grind is that Stickman is cleverly taking advantage of people in ways that are clearly questionable. Stick very cleverly mixes truth with fiction and, in the end, his readers are the suckers who pay the tab. That's a good reason to wield an axe. Stickman has stepped on a lot of toes and now those toes are stepping back.
Perhaps the Galt/Stickman conflict has gone too far. Clearly, Mr Stick's editorials do contain some blatant product placement but this is true of almost any website, magazine or TV show. Advertisers are always demanding favours.
When you see the sleuths of CSI New York tapping away on Apple Macs or you open the Bangkok Post's Guru supplement to see an ad for some spa resort beside an article singing its praises, you know exactly what's going on.
Expecting Stickman to run his low-budget nightlife website with a greater degree of integrity than the producers of CSI or the editor of the Bangkok Post seems unrealistic.
I'm saddened that he's been silenced. Stickman's writing inspired thousands of western guys to start living the good life in Thailand and, for that, many of us owe him a debt of gratitude.
However, the harsh criticism meted out by John Galt is par for the course around these parts and I'm sure that there will be many who side with him.
After their first holiday here, many visitors assume that the expat scene in Thailand is populated by a friendly bunch of oversexed playboys without a care in the world but the unpalatable truth is that the place is overrun by some of the angriest and most vindictive malcontents you could ever hope to meet and bust-ups happen all the time. A chum of mine calls it "Jungle Jim" Syndrome after a 1930s comic book that depicted bizarre internecine conflicts in colonial Asia between white men in pith helmets.
So long as you don't get involved, it can be quite amusing.
Galt wears his pith helmet with pride and his website is highly entertaining but I hope that he puts his trusty Browning pistol back in its holster before one of Bangkok's most respected voices is silenced for good.
Links
NOT Stickman's Guide to Bangkok
[Posted to Internet by David]
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