Xircal

Poking the bag with a stick without knowing what's inside it? If it had been a real bomb that might have set it off.

According to Wikipedia the population of Longyearbyen is only 2,144: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longyearbyen

Hardly enough to keep a couple of chefs working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Also considering it's very close to the Artic circle I can't imagine many wanting to make the trip to a Thai restaurant every night.

10 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

But everything so far has proved to be transparent and above board.

Depends on who was doing the investigating.

1 hour ago, ddavidovsky said:

 

Thanks. Still don't get it though. The managers-taking-bungs exposé is separate to the Allardyce issue. Can't for the life of me see exactly what Allardyce did wrong. Dodgy attitude, maybe, but that's not wrongdoing. Seems like it's just a thought-crime.

Questions arise when a man earning £3 million a year attempts to do a £400k deal with a ficticious Far East company just so that he can have a bigger slice of the cake. It's pure greed in anyone's language.

But match fixing is what it's all about really. Moving star players to other clubs so as to ensure one club loses or wins is against the rules.

He also has business interests in 19 other companies one of which has Wayne Rooney and goalkeeper Joe Hart as his business partners. That kind of thing raises eyebrows at the FA since it constitutes a conflict of interest.

On 11/23/2015 at 3:32 AM, gandalf12 said:

They will need it though in the future but then it will be too late. Watching the summing up at ASEAN meeting on TV the Malaysian representative addressed the audience in English not Malay

ASEAN kicked off at the end of December last year with high hopes but pretty much everything which was agreed has turned out to be just so much rhetoric with hardly any real implementation. At the time of its conception Burma functioned under a military dictatorship while Thailand was still relatively democratic by  comparison. The boot is on the other foot now with positions reversed.

The Philippines is now run by a despot intent on wiping crime from the streets even though the adminstration is itself is perpetrating extra judicial killings without mercy. Hardly an attractive country to engage in trade talks with.

China's incursions into the South China Seas claiming it as its own has given another member of ASEAN namely Vietnam something else to think about and Malaysia has its own internal problems to deal with. It's flag carrier Malaysia Airlines has shrunk from a world class five star airline to little more than a regional carrier and its own influence as a regional power has also taken a knock.

So all things considered, ASEAN has become a bit of a flop and not so much of a threat to Thailand as it was once thought to be with Singaporeans taking over jobs that required a good knowledge of English.

According to the US Thailand is moving away from dependence on the West and becoming closer to China. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/thailand/forrel-prc.htm

So this too may influence how the NCPO views the future of the country and whether English is as important now as it once thought to be back when the US and Thailand were common bedfellows.

Whether the move towards China will also result in rising hostility towards expats remains to be seen.

On 11/23/2015 at 2:13 AM, JoeLing said:

Of course they are ready to teach Engelish.

Might not be the Engelish the rest of the world sapeaks but I'm sure,
Thais will understand each and after the centel of world eco-no-mics
shifts to Thailand, it will even become the hub of Engelish language
sacools.

I see huge potentials for the Thai economy, could even patent and
copyright Thai Engelish and evelyone who writes or sapeaks it, will
need to pay royalty fees. Clarifications will cost extra.

The future is blight, the future is Thai

Brilliant transcript of Thais speaking English!

3 hours ago, anotheruser said:

 

hey siri....

Siri hibernates in the winter: too bloody cold.

53 minutes ago, monkey4u said:

How do they think it will make them rich

 

Flog it to the Chinese who'll turn it into snake wine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_wine

They'll need a pretty big bottle for that bugger though.

59 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

'In a section titled ‘Personal Appearance’ the form also asks for details of height, weight, skin colour, hair colour and details of any scars.' Plain clothes, or the newly invented plain closed, if they need to ask hair and skin colour, they must be wearing blinkers. That comment does, of course, ignore the obvious racist overtones. And always assuming they were still alive, details of my parents have bugger-all to do with them - unless they think there is a terrorist link. And the way the Thai RTP thinks, that is unlikely.

 

'What's going on?  Next will be having to report to the village head man AND immigration every 90 days?  And why do we have to fill the information 90 day forms out AND this new one AND this home delivered police one... ALL with the SAME information on them ...' It's down to the Thais' version of triplicate. They never see the point in wasting carbon paper.
 
'... Thailand’s Immigration Bureau introduced a ‘Foreign National Information Form’ which asked foreigners for provide a wide range of personal information including bank account numbers, social media accounts and even places they frequently visit.' As a number of us have observed on this forum, that is not precisely accurate. Social media ... or email address, as another communication option. Places frequently visited: Starbucks works well enough - or nothing at all. And bank account numbers are only required for certain types of visa.

It's called Bureaucracy. It also gives immigration something to do instead of sitting around scratching their balls all day.

7 hours ago, Fookhaht said:

There is already a ton of cyber-ink spilled on the Thai Visa forum since I broke the news on the forum about this form six months ago  (I still chuckle at UbonJoe's post:  "Looks like nonsense to me. There is no new form.").  Ah yes, some are still in denial.  

However, on several threads at TV, I picked up a lot of good suggestions on how to tactfully fill in the form, satisfying both my need for privacy and immigration's need to have the form submitted.  I did so, just last week for the first time, and the officer processing me hardly glanced at it before chucking it in my file.  

A lot of helpful information here.   I would suggest to read up, and fly over this little hurdle without ruffling your feathers. 

At the moment it looks to be written document that will get lost in all the other docs that immigration has to file.

But once it becomes a requirement to complete online within a specific period then more attention may be paid to whatever information has been submitted.

2 hours ago, elviajero said:

• If you surrender at the airport you won't get banned. When the IO at passport control sees you have an overstay you'll be taken to the overstay desk to pay the 20,000 baht fine. They will stamp your passport showing the 60 day overstay and fine paid.
• If you get caught before getting to the airport you could be arrested, detained, prosecuted, fined, deported and banned for 5 years.

Does an overstayer actually have to surrender to immigration at an airport? Can he not go to a local immigration office and surrender there?

9 hours ago, ddavidovsky said:

I've read numerous reports on this but I still can't see what he actually did wrong. It was a sting, which is a pretty shabby form of entrapment - why were they after him? He was just mouthing off about something, not actually doing it. And what's wrong with a public speaking deal?

Seems this is about nothing more than an issue of 'setting a good example' because nowadays everyone has to be so squeaky clean they're no longer human. Sam made it to the top, but he's still an ordinary working class bloke. The world is so up itself nowadays there's no room for old-school characters anymore. Sad.

You'll get a better understanding of it by reading the original Daily Telegraph article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/27/exclusive-eight-premier-league-managers-took-transfer-bungs-clai/

9 hours ago, vogie said:

Another winner vogie!

1 minute ago, rockingrobin said:

prior to the referendum there was a leaked memo suggesting the uk was going to give visa free travel to Turkeys  civil  servants

Erdogan is likely to exploit that then and make every citizen a civil servant.

Great idea but don't forget to explain to the tourists that they're buying a one way ticket.

Erdogan is a wily old bugger and doesn't do things without reason. So once the UK finally leaves the EU expect Turkey to demand visa free access to the UK for Turkish citizens as part of any trade deal. 

10 hours ago, Srikcir said:

From link above: "Exports from Thailand unexpectedly rose 6.5 percent year-on-year to USD 18.83 million in August of 2016, following a 6.38 percent fall in July while market expected a 1.4 percent drop."

 

Again, something is very suspicious in the reporting of exports:

 

In August 2016 it was reported that  "As for car production, there were more than 153,000 units manufactured in July,

I can't imagine that the Ministry of Commerce would risk juggling the figures just to try and create confidence in the Thai economy. If it ever came to light that the 6.5% export boost was a figment of somebody's imagination it would knock confidence in the country for six.

Seems to have been an increase in auto shipments which accounted for the sudden increase: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/exports

It's true though. To go from their room to a 7/11 they jump on a motorbike even when it's virtually next door to where they live. I've said to them that they're going to suffer when they get older and if they fall over they'll probably break a leg. Walking or jogging strengthens the bones in your legs.

Also Thais don't seem to drink milk or eat cheese so they'll likely suffer from calcium deficiency when they get older which can lead to osteoporosis.

So many of them skip breakfast and just buy a pot of instant noodles for their main meal. Very unhealthy lifestyle.

On 9/26/2016 at 10:48 AM, Krataiboy said:

100,000 baht a month working as a masseuse - and they didn't smell a rat?  Hard to believe, though I shudder at the treatment they claim was doled out to them in lieu of the money.

And very few of their clientele wearing a condom. God knows what diseases they picked up which might now be passed on back home.

12 hours ago, Johnniey said:

Speak for yourself.

 

Drugs overdose in the brothel of Thailand with a young sex worker is not what I'd want on my tombstone.

 

 

What an awkward embarrassment for his family at his funeral. I hope he wasn't still married or had kids.

Love the bit about the tombstone!

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Yes its far better to let them steal and defraud others and get away with it. That is the PTP way. 

I'm not condoning anything the PTP did and the rice scheme was nothing more than a populist policy designed to ensure Yingluck's continued presence as PM with her brother holding the reins in the background.

But is the current administration any different? We've already seen evidence of nepotism with prime contracts being awarded to relatives and friends so nothing has really changed if you think about it.

Maybe he's not filling the pothole in but digging it out.

If so, they've finally been able to photograph the phantom pothole maker who for decades has been digging potholes all over Thailand.

10 hours ago, Pib said:

The Thai Highway Dept still has a study pending on fixing the pothole Mr Peter fixed....results expected next year (maybe).

That means they'll probably reinstate the pothole.

Well, as far as the current administration is concerned it's open season on the Pheu Thai Party and anyone connected to it.

Same goes for anybody else who doesn't share the PM's vision of the future.