The Bulletin

Stephff's world

Julian Spindler, RIP

Julian Spindler at home in late 2024. (Photo by Keith Richberg)The FCCT regrets to announce the death on Sunday, 18 January, of Julian Spindler, a former club treasurer and honorary life member. An obituary will be published in the coming days. In the meantime, please be advised of the funeral arrangements:

Venue: Wat Phai Ton, Saphan Kwai วัดไผ่ตัน สะพานควาย (Sala 9)

Funeral Schedule:

• Tuesday, 20 January, bathing rites at 4pm, chanting 6.30pm
• Wednesday & Thursday, evening chanting at 6.30pm
• Friday, 23 January, cremation at 4pm
• Saturday, 24 January, collection of the ashes at 8am followed by boat trip for floating of ashes

Education on the edge: Launch of the Survey Report on Access to Education for Conflict-Displaced and Migrant students along the Thailand-Myanmar Border

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Tuesday, 20 January, 10am

Save the Children Thailand invites the media to the launch of a new survey report on Access to Education for Conflict-Displaced and Migrant students along the Thailand-Myanmar Border. This survey was supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)The presentation will include key findings followed by a Q&A and reflections from education and civil society representatives.Did you know?- Around a thousand students dropped out of schools in temporary shelters along the Thailand-Myanmar border.- Aid cuts are pushing dropout rates as high as 40% in some migrant learning centres.Join us to learn what this means for conflict-displaced and migrant students, children’s futures, and what must change.This is not an FCCT event.

Beyond the badge: Crime, justice, and the FBI in Thailand

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Book discussion and Q&A,
Wednesday, 21 January, 7pm

Retired FBI Agent John Schachnovsky says the 10 years of his 25-year law enforcement career that he spent as the FBI representative to Thailand was the highlight of his career.  When he retired in 2019, he recognized there was so much he could write about his unique career and his time in Thailand. Beyond the Badge explores how the trust, goodwill, and long-term relationships he built with his Thai counterparts lead to the capture of numerous dangerous criminals in cases that transcended borders. Providing a behind the scenes view of high-profile incidents like the shocking death of famous Hollywood actor David Carradine at a high end hotel in Bangkok, the apprehension of a notorious kidnapper subject to an Interpol Red Notice, the extradition of a suspect in the murder of a United States Marine, and responding to overseas terrorism, Beyond the Badge takes you to the frontlines international crime in Thailand and the region.John will share the highlights of his journey in Thailand with the FBI and explain how he did his work as the FBI’s “man in Bangkok”. His presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the author, and there will be opportunities to purchase the book at the event.

Speaker: John Schachnovsky, author of Beyond the Badge-Crime, Justice, and the FBI in Thailand.

Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.

Non-members can use this link.

Members free, non-members 300 baht, students and Thai press with ID 150 baht.Bar and restaurant open.

Drop Dead City: New York on the Brink in 1975‍

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Film screening,
Thursday, 22 January, 7pm

The rescue that saved New York was as remarkable as the depth of the disaster it addressed. Labor unions, banks, community activists, politicians and state and local institutions formed an unlikely alliance. They overcame punishing financial terms from Wall Street, antipathy from President Gerald Ford and official Washington, and the city’s own history of chronic economic and social disputation.

Film director Michael Rohatyn, who co-directed the film with Peter Yost, will be on hand to answer questions about the film. He is a filmmaker and musician who most recently provided the musical score for Apple Studios documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.” In 1975, Michael had a front row seat to the events in Drop Dead City since his father, Felix Rohatyn, was one of the key architects of the city’s bailout plan.

Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.

Non-members can use this link.

Members free, non-members 150 baht; Thai media and students with ID, 150 baht.

Bar and restaurant open.

The General: Vietnam in the Age of To Lam‍

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Film screening,
Wednesday, 28 January, 7pm

General To Lam is Vietnam’s most powerful man, bar none. A new film, The General: Vietnam in the Age of To Lam, produced by journalist Laura Brickman, chronicles his rise and the impact his rule has on the people of Vietnam. This showing will be the Thailand premiere for the film.

Rising through the state security services to ultimately become today’s general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, To Lam severely cracked down on free speech and any form of dissent while simultaneously being lauded by trade partners on the international stage as a “blazing furnace against corruption”.

While this reputation helps To Lam secure lucrative trade and development deals, Vietnam’s so-called “economic miracle” has had devastating environmental ramifications,  including the 2016 Formosa Steel disaster, and has displaced many thousands from their homes, particularly poor people and ethnic minorities. At the same time, the willingness of foreign governments to trade and invest with the regime without regard for the country’s significantly worsening human rights climate has whitewashed those abuses, and helped To Lam solidify his hold on power.

The attacks on dissidents extend far beyond Vietnam’s borders, and the film begins with the widely publicized 2017 abduction of Trinh Xuan Thanh in central Berlin as he tried to escape the reach of the general. A prominent Vietnamese businessman and political figure, Thanh led Vietnam’s oil and gas utility, embodying a challenge to To Lam’s iron rule.

Through interviews with prominent Vietnamese dissidents and exiles — including democracy activist Nguyen Van Dai (founder of the Brotherhood for Democracy) and Trung Khoa Le (publisher of Thoibao.de) in Germany; human rights defenders Nguyen Van An and Siu Wiu in Thailand; the artist and pop singer Mai Khoi in the U.S.; and the activist Pham Doan Trang in Saigon before her 2021 arrest — The General offers a cogent analysis of the tactics Vietnam’s police state uses to repress its critics around the world.

Movie director Laura Brickman will answer questions from the audience after the film.

Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.

Non-members can use this link.

Members free, non-members 150 baht; Thai media and students with ID, 150 baht.

Bar and restaurant open.

Gofundme appeal for Al Rockoff

Al Rockoff, left, strolling with John Gunther Dean, the US Ambassador to Cambodia when it fell to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975. The ambassador was shown in The Killing Fields fleeing Phnom Penh on a Marine helicopter with the Stars and Stripes folded under his arm. The pair had a cordial reunion in 1991 at Angkor Wat, when it was finally declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after their more fractious relationship during the war years. (Photo by Dominic Faulder)After American military veteran and war photographer Al Rockoff appeared to have lost control of the archive he risked his life so often to create, friends in the US set up a Gofundme appeal to help with his rent, moving and legal assistance.Vicki Bornas, Rockoff’s longtime partner, is his unpaid caretaker. She has had to forego work in order to look after him, and is overseeing use of the funds.Graham Bowley recently spent four days in Florida with Rockoff preparing a detailed report on his plight for The New York Times entitled ‘Al Rockoff’s war is still being fought’.Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rockoff was a regular visitor to the FCCT, and there has been much concern among his many friends here over his unexplained absence in recent years.Rockoff has never completed the book of his life’s work so often discussed. He was portrayed by John Malkovich in The Killing Fields, the 1984 Oscar-winning film about the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. It was a complimentary depiction he never liked. Rockoff’s Gofundme has so far raised over $4,700 and can be found here:https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-al-rockoffs-housing-and-archive-battlePlease consider donating.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/arts/design/al-rockoff-war-photography-killing-fields.html?unlocked_article_code=1.208.1KYU.cMe4thRscKTz&smid=url-share

Co-working at the FCCT‍

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Tuesday, 20 January, 10am

Need a change of scenery from your home office? Join us for a coworking day at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) -- a perfect space for working professionals, digital nomads and anyone looking to break free from the home-office routine.Enjoy a spacious, comfortable workspace with dedicated tables, a full restaurant, café and bar and exclusive lunch specials just for this event.Whether you're tackling deadlines or networking with like-minded professionals, this is an opportunity to be productive in a collaborative, social environment. Come work, connect, and enjoy great food because working remotely doesn’t have to mean working alone.Hosted by Nick Bernhardt, FCCT board member and managing director of Khayan Consultants and Tommy Walker, FCCT board member and digital nomad.

Free and open to all.

Board games night

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Tuesday, 20 January, 7pm

Join us for a chilled night of board games with The Boring Club. Try your luck with classics like chess and backgammon or modern games including Catan and Pandemic.The bar and restaurant will be open. Try our pizzas from the new pizza oven. The Boring Club meets at the FCCT clubhouse for games every Tuesday at 7pm.

Free and open to all.

The decline of rights in 2025: Conflicts, aid cuts and democratic backsliding Human Rights Watch's 2026 World Report

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Press Conference, Thursday, 5 February, 10.30am

Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2026 exposes the human rights situation in nearly 100 countries worldwide over the past year.

At the Asia launch of its global report, Human Rights Watch will report on the serious downward slide in human rights across Asia as well as regional trends of rising authoritarianism, transnational repression, violations of media freedom, shrinking civic space and civilians caught in armed conflict.

This past year saw continuing non-accountability for crimes against humanity in China, Myanmar and North Korea; the human rights and humanitarian catastrophe worsen in Afghanistan; conflict-related abuses in Thailand-Cambodia and Afghanistan-Pakistan conflicts; and the weakening of democratic institutions in India and Pakistan.

As protest movements seek to oust governments for rights’violations, mismanagement and corruption, voters will go to the polls in Bangladesh, Nepal and elsewhere to determine their future, while sham elections in Hong Kong and Myanmar only serve to deprive people of their basic rights.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has abandoned the human rights commitments of the United States, decimated the country’s aid budget and stopped taking in most refugees.

Join us in person at the FCCT or via livestream on Facebook live to hear from the following Human Rights Watch experts:

Elaine Pearson, Asia director

Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director

Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director

Sunai Phasuk, senior Thailand advisor

Moderator: Phil Robertson, FCCT board member

Free and open to the public.

An evening with Barry Broman, retired American spy and writer

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Monday, 9 February, 7pm

Barry Broman, a graduate of the University of Washington in political science and Southeast Asian studies, first came to Asia in 1962 as an Associated Press photographer covering Thailand, Cambodia and South Vietnam. He joined the FCCT at that time, and rejoined in the 1970s. In between, he served as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam war, and was a liaison officer in Bangkok.

Broman went on to a 26-year career in the CIA with postings in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, France and Myanmar. He retired in 1996, and returned to writing and photography. He has written and/or photographed more than a dozen books on Asian themes, including Old Homes of Bangkok and Spiritual Abodes of Thailand with the late William Warren, and has produced nearly a dozen documentaries, including ‘Burma: A human tragedy’.

Last year, Broman published a memoir, ‘Indochina hand: Tales of a CIA case officer’, the second in a trilogy and set in Thailand and Cambodia in the early 1990s. It is a compilation of 62 short stories, most of which relate to the CIA.

‘Risk taker, spy maker: Tales of a CIA case officer’, the first in the three-part memoir was published some years ago. It covers Broman’s life from his school years in England,where his father was stationed at RAF Manston, a fighter base in Kent, his stint in the early 60s stringing for the Associated Press in Bangkok with assignments in Cambodia and South Vietnam, and his clandestine career with the CIA.

Broman also published a second novel last year, ‘The spy from Sukhumvit Road’, set in Thailand and Cambodia in 1991. It followed ‘The spy from Place Saint-Sulpice’, set in Paris in the 1980s. According to Broman, the CIA has recently cleared a third novel for publication, ‘The spy from Golden Valley’ set in Burma in 1994. It deals with chasing a Burmese drug lord and involves the Thai army and police.

All of the books are available on Amazon, and Broman will bring some copies to the event.

Members who wish to book in advance should email info@fccthai.com or call the FCCT office on 02-652-0580.

Non-members can use this link.

Broman cover 1/3

Broman cover 2/3 & Broman cover 3/3

Members free, non-members 300 baht, students and Thai press with ID 150 baht.

Bar and restaurant open.

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