dobadoy

Link to the word list please!

It may be a language thing. I can tell my wife something in English and she doesn't pay much attention. But when someone tells her the same thing in Mandarin, it is 100% right.

No, it's not a language thing. It doesn't matter whether you speak Thai or not. Foreigners are not deemed a credible source of anything except cash and English proficiency.

I've had exactly the same experience as the OP more times than I can count. Being right in the past doesn't confer any credibility on any future pronoucement either. Sometimes I do get recognition (after the fact) for 'telling the future' (spouting common sense) along the lines of 'Wow! look even the farang said that would happen! Wasn't he lucky to guess right!!'

Live with it. It's only a matter of pride.

Thx great tips.

Anyone else know somewhere nearer BTS/MRT lines?

Pretty self explanatory ... no ?

It's only up to you if you're paying...

And anyway, as one respected poster on TV said: " She's all I got"

อย่ากังวล มีความสุข

In which case shouldn't that be

ไม่มีความสุข กลัวตางค์จะหมด

There's lots of pics in the news of small 2/3 man boats floating around in the flooded areas. Where can I get one in BKK?

A very good post rametindallas; sadly, one of the very few sensible ones I've seen on this subject in the last few years on TV, and I agree entirely with your conclusions.

It looks as though the whitewashing of the Thaksin clan has begun, with Potjaman's tax evasion conviction now quashed. Though I only read the English translation, the court's reasoning looks farcical and sycophantic, and in itself will do nothing but raise further calls from some parties for the military to once again get involved.

Unenlightened, unprepared, bandwagon-jumping money-wasting nonsense.

There's nothing wrong with the idea of tablets for education (I mean the digital kind, rather than medicinal ones), but the Pheua Thai gov't have no idea what either the benefits or the challenges are. Some have already mentioned lack of training for educators (a problem that still plagues the use of bog-standard desktop computers in many Thai schools and colleges); on top of that there is the supply, quality and content of suitable software; there is maintenance and repairability, and of course internet access (is this going to be free for kids, or are their parents all going to be given grants for True Online, too?), not to mention internet infrastructure (no broadband in most of Thailand...).

A waste of 3Billion baht, that could be used to do something genuinely life-changing for education and the disadvantaged, instead of a 3yr free toy. Stupidity at its most wasteful.

Profile says female. Pic would be good..

It parallels the very competent, patrician and astute John Kerry losing to

the good ole boy, word manglingly inept, man o the people, George Bush.

Nah, dubbya was always entertaining to watch (even if you were just laughing at him). Thaksin's never anything less than slightly sinister or half-unhinged, and always transparently self-obsessed.

Clever Guy, all his strategies seemed to have worked, so he is smart

Yup, that's one thing about Thaksin I'll never disagree with.

Gaddaffi's smart, too. And look at Mugabe, Kim Jong Il and, for that matter, Putin. These kind of guys have staying power; they're always the smartest.

Underestimate them at your peril. That's once of the weaknesses of nice folk, historically speaking.

"I'm 62. It's long overdue for me," Thaksin said.

Curious. That implies Thaksin hasn't retired from politics yet. But since he's been out of power since he was 56, there's something not quite right about that statement...

I seem to recall Thaksin saying he was finished with politics back in 2006/2007 anyway...

"I'm not coming back" - he'll still be saying that even as he boards the plane.

"I am so lonely, I couldn't stay away any longer" as he steps onto the tarmac at Suvarnahbhumi.

I'll give it till the end of next week. He's already packing.

Great ideas on paper, but mass transit is a cash sink, not a cash cow, 'cept for those that own land on the prospective routes, of course...

floating city to protect BKK from floods...who's going to risk life and limb living on that (maybe Abhisit and Suthep will be exiled there)?

300 baht mininum wage - damned good idea, but when the Dems proposed raising it by about 20 baht or so last year the business community went apeshit saying they'd all go out of business...so that one's not going to fly.

Mining in Africa...ah yeah, now we know people that have assets there, that'll definitely be first through the legislature. 15k/tonne of rice? For sure, got to keep the power base happy.

( BTW, hope those schoolkids aren't banking on those knock-off iPads from Klong Toey anytime soon... )

Abhisit oddly enough may have made a good poltician in a developed country.

Interestingly, I've heard this view from one or two educated Bangkokian Thais, who were rather disappointed that their once favoured son was so compromising, reasonable, fair, open-minded, and considerate to his opponents as PM (Rachaprasong being a case in point. Televised debate! Good lord, an thems newly empowered reds want to accuse him of unnecessary violence! Anyways, I digress...)

When I pointed out that Abhisit's qualities are just those that Thais normally try to instil in their children, and Thaksin's are far more typical of your average jai rorn farang that so gets up your average Thai citizen's nose, I got a shrug and a 'But Thailand needs a strong leader who can get things done'.

Go figure that contradiction!

Despite all the right words coming out of Dubai, I can't see why Thaksin doesn't just turn up at Suvarnabhumi tomorrow morning.

Who would dare arrest him now, given that PT is riding high on a wave of victory? The army might spit and kick, but they know their intervention would never be tolerated at this point. Wait six months though, and people will think the army might be right to stop him coming back.

If I was a gambling man, I'd have money on him being back much sooner rather than later...

since it's the courts that decide, not the government, Thida won't be able to force the outcome without facts, which need to be somewhat more sound than a doctored recording

True, true, true...given an independent judiciary.

What about the video of the announcement of the neutral politicians, who went in to negotiate with the red shirt leaders around 5am in the morning, when they announced that the protests would be ended peacefully, only to have the army run in shooting like mad an hour after?

Didn't I say history would be getting re-written? I'm not sure I can bear to watch all the appaling lies and dangerous games that are going to come avalanching down like a mudslide in the rainy season over the coming months.

Someone wake me up when sanity returns.

Aw, they'll be plenty more of this. It's a great way to get Big Bro' home. Get Abhisit up on daft charges, then give him and Big Bro' both a pardon - it's call "Reconciliation", people.

Before history gets re-written, as it surely will, lets not forget that some of the redshirt leaders were all ready to make a deal to quit Rachaprasong 'till Veera went mysteriously missing, Weng suddenly shut up, and Seh Deang told everyone no one was going home till the military came in.

Let's not forget that the crackdown was the hardcore redshirt/TS plan all along and Abhisit did so much to avoid it that he made himself a laughing stock even with his own supporters.

A decent chap who did his best. I think he'd be wrong to accept renomination. Some Thais I've spoken to voted for Lil' Sis simply because the Dems have been so utterly ineffective, and rightly or wrongly they blame Abhisit for that.

Time for a change. I agree Korn has the intellectual mettle, but his yellow shirt/airport days will dog him.

I've been saying it for years -- long before he [Thaksin] was ousted -- it was not only abundantly clear in his actions but even his words: the man was no believer in democracy.

Aye, that's where the fear comes from with this result. Nuff of all you Thaksin supporters/redshirts saying those of us who are worried about this result are "denying democracy". You're missing the whole point. The thai people have spoken, fair enough. It's what happens next that is the concern. Will they ever get to speak again?

Clearly, a lot of people voted for Thaksin. Them that deny it are just kidding themselves. Pheua Thai and the Democrats all use the same tactics. In my soi, we saw PT canvassers a couple of times over the last month or so. Never saw any Dems once. The dems ran a crap campaign, and I know folk in BKK who were considering voting for PT just because they think Abhisit is useless. These are the sort of people that don't want Thaksin back, and are fooling themselves with the hope that maybe his little 'sis - "aw, she's a gal after all" - will be more reasonable.

Stupid is as stupid does. I'll wait and see what happens, but like someone else said above, best to have an exit strategy if this place goes to the dogs. I got kids here, that's what matters to me.

Have no Fear... all the smaller Parties will soon be Acknowledging the True Power and lining up to feed at the Trough.. Even if it will only be Leftovers!

Ain't that the truth! I wonder which country Nevin is thinking of moving to right now?

All I can say is let them rule and if they do not work out then vote them out.

The fear among those of us who've been here awhiles and still remember Thaksin as a young pup right from '97 is that there won't be a 'next' time. Future elections here are more likely to resemble that "election" they had in Burma last year.

Thaksin doesn't allow criticism, you see, that's what the old hands remember. People who didn't like Thaksin talked in hushed tones even in their own homes in 2005.

You want to dissent in a Thaksin-run country? Expect to be bought at best, but more likely sued or physically intimidated; at worst, and it's happened, you might just be found 19 storeys below your condo balcony...

So what if her name is Shinawatra? Who cares? A new era is about to open with hi so people forced to share.

You think the family name ain't important? You think the Shin's ain't hi so? You think they're all about sharing wealth with the poor?

You really don't know too much about the Shinawatra's, Thailand, or the situation here at all, do you?

The military will stay out of it for practical reasons. They couldn't control an uprising in the north, and there's a lot of folk who don't like TS and don't want to see him back, but who nevertheless would rather see how things turn out with little 'sis before resorting to the tanks.

Will TS have learned the lessons of his bro-in-law and Samak failed gov'ts? Will he be smarter this time, and not make a move to come back till he's castrated all his enemies (one way or another)? Or will his ego interpret a landslide win as a call for his immediate return and force a direct confrontation with the military? Interesting but undoubtedly troubling times ahead for this country.

BTW, going on his past behaviour, I agree with animatic and others, you've got one serious dictator in the making here, my lovely Thai friends. Don't expect there to be much tolerance for any anti-Thaksin stories in the news, 'net, or streets ever again. We're all gonna be red-shirts now....like it or not.

Online translators like Frengly do seem to have got a lot smarter even in the last 12 months.

It won't be long before you'll be able to speak English into your iPhone and some $1.99 App will spit out the Thai for you, correct tones and all.