Nicholas Sarkozy wins the French election, and to celebrate, 340 cars are torched in Paris, and no one seems to bat an eyelid. Just another exuberant night in the 'burbs. Voilà. Thailand is in between everything, and a tiny bomb goes off in a phone booth in a city of 11 million people, and it sends "political shock waves" through the "anxious" city.

God only knows how our press and powers that be would deal with the situation if this was China and its 70,000-plus riots a year. They'd certainly run out of adjectives to frighten us.

It's salutary that the French do it all wrong but still get life so right. But then so do the Thais, in their own extraordinary way. Are the French laughing at us for being so wussy? Quite probably. In fact, even the mimes can't hold it in. The Thai media and politicians can claim that the capital's citizens are "stressed out" by the Armageddon of a slightly damaged phone booth because it makes good copy, but I don't believe a word of it.

In fact, the vibe in my downtown neighbourhood over the last 15 years never seems to change, not for coups, floods, changes of government or even financial meltdowns. Life goes on. In fact, the only time my soi really went berserk was when Real Madrid arrived at the Queen's Park Hotel. David Beckham emptied the offices and bars in seconds. Doors swung in the wind. Managers screamed for workers and bargirls to get back inside, threatening hideous fines and immediate dismissal, and everyone completely ignored them. A joy to behold.

Does this mean the Thais who live in the area are unaffected or simply uninterested? Neither. It means they are resilient, sceptical and hard to ruffle but likely to stampede for a passing icon. But when you find yourself living between the slum that is Klong Toey and the gleaming towers of Sukhumvit, you realise life is full of paradoxes and take reality as it comes. Everything connects in this city. As some wag remarked: "Either heaven or hell will have continuous background music. Which one you think it will be says a lot about you."

As far as I can tell, the locals believe Thai politicians will continue to emulate their great English hero, Robin "The Hood", by stealing from the poor and keeping it, and that the only difference between any political party is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when big business knocks on their door. They know that politicians don't mean to rip people off, they just feel it's an obligation. The point being that Thai politics is, like, so predictable. All promise, no delivery.

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People may not be fazed by phone-booth bomblets, but they are certainly concerned about the rising price of food, rent, petrol and school fees - and the lack of ready cash to pay for them. Successive governments must be immensely relieved and gratified that teaching and nursing tend to be a calling rather than a mere occupation. Children are brought up to respect - and in some cases fear - teachers, but when they reach adulthood they realise the salary for both callings borders on the criminal. And then authorities complain when the state schools are 30,000 teachers short and are "shocked" when nurses are leaving state hospitals in droves.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see the outcome over this compulsory drug tussle. Yet isn't it ironic that it is now cheaper to buy drugs that offer people escape than it is to buy drugs that help them survive?

By the way, an estimated 7,000 Americans a year die as a result of doctors' bad handwriting. [Harper's magazine, April 2007]

A visiting journalist from Australia remarked: "There is something I don't understand. Thailand has 700 generals and 4,500 colonels, and the deep South is currently haemorrhaging life through the murder of 2,100 people and counting - and they don't even know who they are fighting, right?"

"Correct."

"And a lot of troops are going into the fray without back-up vehicles, right?"

"Correct."

"How many generals and colonels own top-of-the-range Mercedes do you think?"

"Enough to launch an armada, but I couldn't possibly comment."

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The new constitution. Can it really bring a positive change for Thailand? One fervently hopes, but history shows that every time new ideas and ways of life arise, a backlash of the old ways rears its head and gobbles the change. Indeed, those who are superior to us in background, breeding or station have absolutely no desire to see any changes at all. In fact they would prefer that we did not even discuss such things and are prepared to take any necessary measures to ensure that the rest of us desist from doing so.

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Last Friday the UN General Assembly announced that Zimbabwe would chair the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. No! Really? Yes!

And it's a simply brilliant idea. There's only electricity for four hours a day, hardly any petrol to leave a carbon flip-flop print, and life expectancy is 36.

North Korea and Burma have established "relations", which is bit like a Cuban drug-dealer meeting an Albanian people-smuggler and greeting each other with "What an opportunity!"

There are unconfirmed rumours of a gig in Pyongyang to celebrate this joyous occasion featuring The League of Burmese Trombonists conducted by the Defenceless Secretary of North Korea and 50,000 dancers.

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The magical Isle of Skye off the northwest coast of Scotland is to become "Eilean a' Cheo" by order of the local tourist authority. Sweet Jesus, where do they find these people? You take a beautiful island with a name immortalised in song and replace it with something completely unpronounceable that sounds like a Highland sneeze.

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Sunday thought:

"The world would be a better place if there was no religion. The two great killers are religion and nationalism. If we all just travelled a bit more, I think we'd realise that on an individual level we're all pretty much the same." John Landis, film-director.

Amen to that.

Compiled by Roger Beaumont