pimay11

The Prime Minister of any country is entitled to speak in the language of that country. If he/she wants the message to be recieved by those present someone should be responsible for ensuring that translations are available. In this case I reluctantly must side with her.

Giving your statement the benifit of the doubt, as this was a confidence building mission on the PM's part do you think it would have been wise for the Thai delegation to insure translations with their Japanese counterparts? Or do you think that is the responsibility of the host country?

If he/she wants the message to be received by those present someone should be responsible for ensuring that translations are available. I think this explains it all

Agreed.

The Prime Minister of any country is entitled to speak in the language of that country. If he/she wants the message to be recieved by those present someone should be responsible for ensuring that translations are available. In this case I reluctantly must side with her.

Giving your statement the benifit of the doubt, as this was a confidence building mission on the PM's part do you think it would have been wise for the Thai delegation to insure translations with their Japanese counterparts? Or do you think that is the responsibility of the host country?

Complaints complaints and more complaints......has anyone complained when Obama spoke English to Chinese, Japanese and Russian audiences.

Or when Japan PM, Russia President/PM, France President all gave their speech in their respective mothers' tongue....

Blame it on Thaksin and Puea Thai again...

The difference is that when presidents or FM visit foreign countries and they choose to give speeches in their native tongue they have real time interpreters in the local language in order to be understood. They don't hand out a word document or PDF to their hosts leaving then to wonder where they are in the speech they are giving.

So who to blame for this brilliant decision, the Democrats, the red shirts, yellow shirts, or the people responsible for the protocol which is the PTP?

The reporter seemed to think that because she attended university in the USA Yingluck would be able to speak English. Poor misguided soul.

He should know better because she attended Kentucky State University.

What everyone seems to ignore is that the electorate must rule in such discussions. I am neither pro nor anti-Thaksin. Yes, I read the charges against him and the opposing arguments, but T.I.T. That is the lynch pin in my non-argument, and not to be dismissed as a mere notion. I am simply saying our opinions as ex-pats are not only wildly speculative, but also demeaning to Thais.

If the majority of Thais hate him, let him stay away. If the majority loves him, then bring him back. Whatever they decide we should wave their flags--it's their country, after all.Root for the home team, because they pay your wages and secure your well-being and that's the way it goes EVERYWHERE. Enough with the egregious finger-pointing. What the majority of Thais want to happen in Thailand, no matter how much we disagree with it, is what is going to happen. Live with it, wanke_rs.

How can a thinking person, in one breath, say that no one here gets jailed or elected without influences, and then also say that they know what is going on and who is the bad guy? That is vapid in the extreme. It does not equate, at all. Either we are in the dark or not, and the evidence is that we are totally in the dark. I can say I like this guy and hate that guy, but with such restrictions on freedom of the press it is quite likely we are basing assumptions on red herrings, cooked slowly over burnt rubber and served up as caviar. And some idiots call that gourmet.

But we don't like that, we don't like not knowing. And we never will. Almost like being in America again, for me.

I really don't care if he comes back. So many people here are just bickering, like old hens over an egg that already spoiled and belongs to someone else.

Worse, we came here because our own countries let us down, disenfranchised us, or screwed us in one way or another, and too many suggest the Thais should have the same model. If at first you don't succeed, make other messes ad infinitum.

Really, there must be a lot of bored arm-chair political experts teaching first grade floating around here.

FF

In which country is guilt decided by a popularity contest?

Evidently Thailand. Remember the constitutional court 8-7 not guilty verdict of concealing $98.4 USD worth of assets?

The veteran politican called on the media to understand and give justice to Thaksin by claiming that the ex-premier “did not commit any offence but instead happened to do what the law prohibited”.

Priceless.

Quite.

But that is a fairly rational statement to make if you think that it is perfectly Ok for your son to shoot a policeman.

Especially shooting point blank in the face.

Exactly how does bringing back Thaksin and him avoiding jail (on the existing charge as well outstanding charges) help reconciliation in any way what so ever?

Do they really think the yellow shirts will sit back and let it happen without protests?

Chalerm is just being his normal ass-wipe self. He has to keep the red mob thugs pumped up in their support of PTP. Consider the source.

1st, we know we made a right dog's breakfast of it last year, but we'll try to do better.

2nd, we're trying to fix all the rubbish infrastructure that failed last year, and we've identified some areas that we are calling flood retention areas - and some actually aren't suburbs.

3rd We'll even clean the canals BEFORE the floodwaters arrive, and we're planning some stuff that will take years but with heaps of kickbacks and scams. My brother went to Korea to get some pumps that should arrive any day - eventually anyway. We're elevating walls and roads, and starting a learn to swim program so employees can get from their flooded homes to work.

4th We'll have single command centre manned mostly by a different pack of incompetents, plus some of the old incompetents, and maybe a few experts if we can find any willing to be associated with us, and who are owed a few favours by my brother. We promise to find another little job to keep Chalerm and family away.

5th I now I've told a few porkies in the past but you have my promise that this is all true, which should be good enough for you to risk a few million dollars.

6th We have advised the people in the flood retention areas that they can make a good living catching fish during the flood this year. Of course they will have to travel about 100 kilometers out of the flood retention area to sell their fish. But this should not be a problem as my cousin is working out the details.

Thaksin Shinawatra said in an interview on March 6 at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, that political conflicts among political parties will be put to an end by the end of this year, adding that conflict will not lead to violence.

Well seeing as everything Thaksin says is almost the exact opposite of what he means, then the above would translate to... do not expect the conflicts among political parties to end anytime soon, and there will be violence, just as much as I can pay for.

As we have seen already he can pay for a lot. Take the burn Bangkok campaign for example.

They forgot to add: Fugitive Ex-PM Thaksin Longs for National Reconciliation This Year [insofar as It Happens on His Terms]. Thaksin, the mighty He, shall not have a lower case first letter ever applied to His mighty pronouns again.

How about potentate - a ruler who is unconstrained by law

dictator

ruler, swayer - a person who rules or commands; "swayer of the universe"

strongman - a powerful political figure who rules by the exercise of force or violence;

autocrat, despot, tyrant - a cruel and oppressive dictator

"No, I do not support the Yellow shirts, I disagree with them for being quite anti-western, but I do not think that the current government is any better either. However, I admire Abhisit for how he assisted in the floods, and has been a true man by offering bipartisan assistance during the floods. This is the mark of a true leader. "

Anti-western? Why would anyone want to follow in America's foot-steps?

And what was it Abhisit did for assisting with the floods? I must have been sleeping that particular moment.

The present Government was voted in by the people so get over it.

"The present Government was voted in by the people so get over it".

That is totally irrelevant to TGW's post....

Thai PM in Japan vows no more flood chaos

TOKYO, March 7, 2012 (AFP) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Wednesday pledged floods would never again disrupt business in the kingdom as she sought to reassure investors during a trip to Japan.

"I have reaffirmed to the Japanese government and business leaders that the Royal Thai government is committed to ensuring that the devastation caused by such disasters will never happen again," she told reporters in Tokyo during a joint press conference with her Japanese opposite number.

I am reminded of Bagdad Bob saying "there are no tanks within 100 miles of Bagdad" when the streets were full of them only one hundred meters from the press conference.

I wonder if any of these apps include warnings of jet ski and tuk tuk scams? Probably not.

I'm sure they are licking their chops over this one. In Singapore during the F1 race and the normal hotel rate of $250 went to $1,000 per night. Some hotels were charging $1,500+ per night.

Oink oink, make room for the returning piggies, starved after a 5-year diet !

or

Hurrah as the victims of an undemocratic coupist Constitution regain their rightful places-for-life, now for some compensation !

... Up to you, how you view this news, but if the existing Cabinet were all chosen for their ability to do their jobs, why would PM-Yingluck need to make any changes at all ?

I vote the oink oink statement.

Animaster, I seriously doubt you can lock the tablet form your kids. There might be some apps for that but, generally speaking, all Android users are created equal and one user can't put any restrictions on anyone else.

The kind of things you are hoping to achieve would require you to get root privileges and do some serious tinkering with the operating system, and since you haven't mentioned anything about rooting you are probably very new to this. Who is going to provide rooting tools for you, for example? Normally those are produced by a community, where's this Scopad community? It doesn't exist, who knows what protections are there in those Chinese gadgets and how to unlock them? It's not a rocket science but I'm afraid you are overestimating the real possibilities.

What might happen is that in a couple of weeks or months some local hacker figures out how to root the tablets and pretty soon custom Roms will be sold for a hundred baht on every school corner, stripped of all kinds of restrictions and preloaded with all kinds of games, messengers, and even (gasp) pr0n apps.

Once the process is known and Roms are downloaded it would take some fifteen minutes to turn government zombie tablet into full fledged entertainment device for teenagers.

Might want to take a look here.

This is a discussion on Easily Root your Android Tablet with One Click within the Android Tablet Hacking forums,

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-hacking/545-easily-root-your-android-tablet-one-click.html

I avoid anything made in China ever since I purchased that authentic (made in China) Aussie boomerang from a souvenir shop in Melbourne, the bloody thing never came back. Buyer beware on Chinese manufactured goods anyone remember the baby formular incident? If they can't get thier food products rights I wouldn't trust thier technology. (my Grandfather is Chinese)

Do you mean Chinese products such as this? Lead is MIXED in the paint for toys and here is what happened when a customer bought a pair of flip flops from wal-mart, these were CHEMICAL BURNS:

Come on, there must be at least one person who thinks this a really great idea and is willing to defend it!

GK will be along shortly.

As will the coupist man.

The metal scaffolds have been stolen, leading to the collapse of the beams, according to the SRT governor.

I wonder how many more scaffolds have been stolen with the beams waiting to fall?

"Those companies that are resuming late have to wait for new machinery imported from Japan, and some are still waiting to see the Thai government's flood prevention plan," Iuchi said.

Just in time to be flooded again.

"In my opnion any man that does this should have a tatoo across his forehead that reads "I am a child rapest"."

Yeah, and for the rest of his days he can have people point out to him, "They spelt it wrong!"

Ok, ok no one ever accused me of being able to spell correctly. Good catch JD. We could use a good spell check on here.

It's possible that he felt that he could no longer justify his salary as somebody else was doing most of his work for "free" (reportedly).

Now that he is gone and no longer subjecting the PM to such a "heavy workload" she may be able to attend parliament, or more private meetings.

"Thitima Chaisang ......... expressed sympathy for his service in the post without much political experience." Not that it is unusual in this administration.

The only surprising thing here is that anything has been done before the inevitable reshuffle in May - he must really have p*ssed somebody off to get the boot now.

Your point about the lack of experience in the current administration is a valid one and it will be interesting to see what changes happen when the banned politicians return as they must be chomping at the bit to get back into the limelight.

And back to feasting at the trough.

GENEVA: Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul yesterday told the United Nations Human Rights Commission that his government had made progress in reconciling the deep colour-coded political divide in Thailand.

The government has been fully supportive of the work of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT), he said.

That is good news. I'm sure they will not over look the following recommendation.

5.9 The TRCT sees the root cause of conflicts that took place from the time of

promulgation of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2540 (1997) to the rampage in 2010 was the use of procedures that were against the rule of law and democratic procedure.

Since the time the law was distorted in the case involving hidden assets of Thaksin in 2004, the government has not carried out any investigation of the case to determine the underlying reasons for such a suspicious occurrence. Therefore, the TRCT propose that the government along with relevant social agencies examine this case according to the rule of law.

Petipong failed to mention how many boats will be purchased to speed up the water flow. Maybe they are planning on renting the same ones used last year.