Sunday, September 20, 2009

Mong Thongdee wins 3rd place in Origami Airplane Contest

Mong Thongdee, a twelve-year-old stateless who was born in Thailand to Myanmar migrants, has won 3rd place in the individual event (paper dart contest) at the All-Japan Origami Airplane Contest in Japan on Sunday.

Mong Thongdee wins 3rd place in Origami Airplane Contest

He and his team won the first place in the team event in the same competition in Makuhari, near Tokyo, on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009.

Mong, 2008 Thai origami airplane champion and one of nearly half a million stateless people in Thailand who legally cannot leave and return to the country, was granted a temporary passport exceptionally to take part in the contest in Japan with paper planes that can fly for 12 seconds at a time.

Mong Thongdee stateless Thai-Burmese boy

The Interior Ministry initially rejected his application to have a temporary travel document to go to Japan on the grounds that he is stateless boy.

However the ministry changed the position after several people, including Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, personally stepped in.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"An Engineer-pilot Boy"

A 12 years old boy
whose paper plane can fly
till 12.50 seconds in the sky.

His paper plane'll fly and carry his life safely
to be a Ph.D, to the university.

In his future nearly
he, as an aeronautical engineer, shall make planes smartly.
He, as a pilot, shall drive the plane himself expertly.

He'll fly, so many hours, in the Asian sky.
He'll fly, more and more, in the Global sky.


(To paper aero-hero Mong Thongdee)

Kyaw (mggtta), Myanmar.
MST 10:25 PM, 24th Sept,2009.