Songphol Eiamboonyarith grew up on a remote military base in northeastern Thailand where his main pleasure as a child was watching the television spy series Mission: Impossible.
Songphol says that following the adventures of American secret agents Dan Briggs and Jim Phelps in the series, which originally aired from 1966 to 1973, helped nurture a dream that he shared with millions of adventurous and ambitious boys the world over.
"I told myself I want to work like that," Songphol said. "I thought that in the future I could help many, many people in the fight against terrorism."
PHOTO: AFP
The difference however is that Songphol did make his dream come true -- not as the spy but as the back-room brains because he took his inspiration from Q, the genius behind James Bond's indispensable gadgets.
Like Q, who designed ejection seats for Aston Martins, pens that could be used as grenades and wristwatches with tiny saws that could cut through rope, Songphol invents gadgets for Thailand's real-life security forces.
He began putting his obsession for making security paraphernalia into action when he was just 12 years old, raiding his mother's closet for scraps of plastic that he fashioned into a supposedly "bullet-proof" vest. Thankfully, he laughs, it was never put to the test.
After he graduated from university with a degree in engineering, Songphol, who at 52 is married with two adult children, spent a decade in the army where he built a knowledge of ordnance and explosives.
Upon his discharge, he established Precipart Co and began creating tools for Thailand's military that melded his academic and military expertise with his rich imagination.
In the early days it was a matter of trial and error as, Q-like, he turned ordinary objects into both life-saving devices and deadly weapons.
Now Songphol's business operates out of a 6,000m2 factory outside Bangkok, employs 400 people and has produced more than 50 devices for Thailand's military.
Above all, Songphol says, his aim has been to enhance the safety of the men in the field and help them protect ordinary Thais from insurgents and terrorists.
"Life is very, very important," he says. "My equipment is invented to save human life."
The long list of his inventions certainly reads like something out of a spy novel, and many have been patented in Thailand -- like the truncheon that fires a net so that police can capture runaway suspects, the umbrella and the walking stick that double as guns, and the blast-proof shield that can protect people from the impact of car bombs.
Songphol says he's most proud of the rubber bullets, bulletproof vests and stun bombs that he personally designed for the Thai forces. He believes that this type of equipment can save lives and help defuse tense situations by giving authorities better protection and non-lethal ways of dealing with crowds.
While there has as yet been no need for his devices in the wake of the bloodless military coup that toppled the Thai government on Sept. 19, many of Songphol's inventions are used in the country's Muslim-majority provinces along the southern border with Malaysia, where an insurgency has been bubbling under for the past few years.
Some 1,500 people have been killed since unrest erupted in the region more than two years ago, in what officials say is a volatile mix of separatism, organized crime and local police corruption.
Among the devices of his company's creation that are most widely used in the south are his specially designed bullet-proof vests, which he says are more effective than the ones used overseas because the plates line up in a way that also shields against knife attacks.
He's also proud of the plated armour he designed for use on military vans which are often used to transport teachers to school.
Teachers, he points out, are frequent targets of attack in the restive south because the insurgents regard them as symbols of Bangkok's effort to impose Buddhist culture on the region's Muslims and ethnic Malays.
So he is working on creating a bullet-proof wig, which he hopes will offer better protection than the motorcycle helmets teachers now often wear to protect themselves in case of ambush.
While it sounds far-fetched -- indeed, the stuff of James Bond movies -- Songphol is convinced that his idea could help cut the death toll.
Most shootings to the head target the temple or the forehead, he points out. So he is designing a protective metal band that would cover those areas, but which would look natural.
Songphol said even if the military didn't buy any of his creations, he would carry on inventing.
"I will keep working, otherwise there will be no inventors left," he said.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
RSS