inmysights

I agree with the poster who said he should've come back and served his jail time, which would almost certainly have been reduced to a fraction of that which was meted out, if at all. Instead he's now having many more and worse charges laid against him. He's obviously unaware of the saying 'when you're in a hole, stop digging'.

This would have been a true master-stroke. People talk about what a great political player the man is, but simply coming back and facing charges would have created a massive dilemma for the authorities and put them in a very tight corner. Thank goodness the man is a coward.

But had he stayed here, or returned after he went to watch the Olympics, then he could not have avoided all the other court-cases, and would (if found guilty of any of them) have been facing a much much longer time in jail.

Which you truly believe would have/will happen here? You are incredibly naiive. When they say 'money number one' they mean it.

This professor has laid out the choice for Thailand. His remarks about how the upper class can save itself with income redistriburtion are encouraging, for without it civil unrest is inevitable and stability leading to growth of wealth in the kingdom is impossible.

what?

how is elite gonna prosper by having peasents get closer to them? socialism just kills ambition. everyone is worse off.

How very wrong you are. The Tories (thieves) said the worse thing that was ever done was to educate the working class. How can you possibly better your lot from some rural homestead in Isaan as opposed say, to a middle/'high' class family with connections in Bangkok?

By the way, your term 'peasants' is very offensive and simply shows up your Daily Mail/Sun/Telegraph reader mindset.

Requiescant in pacem.

Phuket isn't a bad place to spend your last few months on earth...and a great place to spend eternity :jap:

it was not the few last months, that probably was still a long or short time ahead, nobody knows when you have to go

anyway if Phuket is so nice, why he did not stay

He probably ran out of money. No welfare state here, no job opportunities for farang and a dread of returning to the UK.

This place is getting more like Burma every day. Excepting the fact that the Burmese are Bhuddists:whistling:

the short answer, my chunky friend, is that some do.

I met a very intelligent 18yo bar girl several years back who brought this subject up, and she mocked thos e who believe folk like her and her family should live like this, whilst these hypocritical philosophers live off the fat of the land.

That is some pretty treacherous ground you tread given the theory's key proponent.

Many have asked the same question though.

Yes, I'm one ...

Facebook is blocked and you convienantly left out that I wrote it was a minor grievance

[unquote]

I keep seeing this but I've never had any problem accessing it?! Wish I did, would then stop erstwhile friends from aeons ago attempting to contact me with page upon page of mindless drivel.

The OP said:

A red-shirt leader warned Thursday certain red-shirt people may turn suicide bombers to avenge the government crackdowns and fight for democracy. The warning was made by Somyos Prueksakasemsuk

[unquote]

This is ridiculous scaremongering from someone working for Taksin.

Won't ever happen here, not Thai mindset. And what Thai will blast himself to bits with the promise of 21 virgins when he can get them right here without having to?

Thanks. This is a helpful political point. Lack of opportunity, allied to structural inequalities, makes for the sorts of exploitation and abuse you've been annotating. But I'm not sure the connection with 'UN-Buddhist' practices helps at all. What are you exactly saying here?

Greed and sexual exploitation of others, both contradict the teachings of Buddha. Wouldn't you expect a predominantly Buddhist country to actually exemplify SOME of the wisdom provided by Buddha their supposed focal point of their professed faith. Both of these characteristics would be considered "Selfishness".

While most would think Thailand is a "Buddhist" country, I would say in general that most of the population has little real knowledge of Buddhist teachings. They mostly go thru the motions without much understanding of the religion. Seems like most go to the temple to ask for some kind of favor or luck. Without making too much of a generalization they seem to do what is expected in public but privately just live like most of the people in the world in which greed is god, and ethical behavior is for the few.

This thread has gone all over the place. While I will admit to being sucked in by the headline and as unfortunate as the incident is, this was hardly worth the initial posting as news, and the subsequent 4 pages of comments (including mine) added little. Posting and thread were a waste of my time.

A friend of mine told me he was no longer a Bhuddist. When I asked why, he told me he believed in getting things through your own hard work, not praying to some 'piece of cement' at the local wat. And he'd spent six years as a monk in his local temple.

Shame youve found evidence of this for all of us. Except the ones happy with his bribes.

Not sure about that. I was in Sathorn, just two streets away whilst all the rallying was going on and the entire soi had their radio /tv's switched on to the rallies day and night. All of the Issan workers in my building were pro Taksin, but none of them joined the rally. I tried to talk to them (I speak Thai) about what Taksin had done in the past and wanted to continue to do, and all I got was 'you farang, you don't understand'.

Whilst of course people were being shipped down from the pedominently Northern provinces, and being paid to do so, their sense of injustice was very real, and in my view, rightly so. Having said that I am no fan of Taksin and saw him for what he was from the start. But have become very disenchanted with Abbhisit also.

I agree with the poster who said he should've come back and served his jail time, which would almost certainly have been reduced to a fraction of that which was meted out, if at all. Instead he's now having many more and worse charges laid against him. He's obviously unaware of the saying 'when you're in a hole, stop digging'.

30,000 baht? try 8,000 baht - that is the starting salary of a junior teacher, even those in profitable private schools get no more than 10,000 - some assigned to some Mattayom classes.

When I was teaching 8 years ago the highest salary in the private school was 15,000 baht, yet the mercs would roll up in the morning to drop off their kids, says it all really.

You and your co-workers were being scammed. The rate of pay in a government school for Thai teachers is about 17,000 baht.

Starting pay is 8 - 9000.

Easily confirmed. I have only ever met one Thai teacher that earned 30k and that was in an International School. In the Thai schools- both Govt and private, the starting pay in less than 10k and a full Administrative position would be unlikely to fetch anywhere near 30k. Doubting the validity of some posters with the crud data that is coming up. Expect a few thousand farang teachers to respond to that.

The main point is, do you really believe that the ruling elite would want the masses to be educated to think for themselves? That would be like paying police officers a decent salary and training them better to stamp out corruption...

I have a met/am friends with a lot of Thais who are very well aware of this. Their response is generally along the lines of 'what can we do?' You can voice your discontent in the same way that the Yellow/Red supporters did/are doing, that's what.

I don't like/want to call them 'apathetic' in regrds to corruption per se, and usually, discounting the aforementioned 'rallying groups', why so timorous? Perhaps the Thais have not the guts to stand up to those in authority. Much the same as the South Americans, say, are?

@ guesthouse

I think the difference is there are standards to be upheld there and those people get better wages and are better trained.

The problem is that for most of us its hard to get those kind of people to work for us building our homes or modifying them.

Just paying more for a job often means there is a bigger profit for the builder. They wont spend it on better employees. I would gladly pay more for a better quality job.

Your point being? Do you honestly believe that your paying the big boss more will ensure it gets passed on to his Burmese/Hmong workers?

I have never met people that are so able to turn their hands to almost anything, I've never met many Farangs like that at all.

These so called unskilled people can build a house from foundations up, these are not skilled workers, have had very little training, yet they certainly get by.

I know this thread will turn into yet another Thai slag fest, but if Thai people had the same opportunities as we had, and we had what they had, we'd all be working for them for peanuts.

And they would have threads running on internet forums and they'd all slap each other on their smug backs about how great they are, and how stupid and useless we are.

Farangs are the lucky ones, yet they still can't resist putting the boot in on those less fortunate, having digs at Thai people anonymously, safe in the house or the condo that low paid Thai workers built, but could never dream of owning.

What a sad way to end up.

I completely agree with you Not A Sillyman. My Thai husband and I unwittingly built a house which then fastly became a predominantly farang area on Phuket.

Soon after the 'boom' bombed (thanks Surayud) we were stuck here, inside this farang enclave:bah:. My husband who too, could turn his hand to almost everything, was asked to carry out odd jobs, anything from house painting to plumbing, decking, pool cleaning, for peanuts. He did it anyway, and try getting payment out of the tight farang here was a bloody nightmare. Never again.

You petite bourgoise come here and talk of 'tradespeople'? Where do you think you are? Bournemouth?

thanks for the info, gotlost.

the fight appeared to start out with 2 people and by then end there were at least 7 throwing punches. the mama of the honey bar got hit by a chair (that i saw) and her leg was all cut up. there was a very big ladyboy trying to keep the peace...she threw the big overweight british bloke into a white car more than once. will be interesting to know what the hel_l the whole fight was all about!

they were drunk. and sai yuan was such a lovely, quiet forrested soi not so long ago.

There are many more very capable people at Pheu Thai. But in the end does it really matter? Anyone of these people is a better choice than the present PM.

Utter nonsense. Speaking out of your bottom!

I had great hopes for Mark, but he seems just so ineffectual, particularly with regard to corruption. I keep hearing that that is only because he is hamstrung by his fellow former cabinet Taksinites, however that seems to be wearing very thin, particularly with the ordinary working Thai. I mean, what has he actually achieved? Really? At least Taksin had implemented some very effective anti corruption measures here (yes, I get the irony) but is Abbhishit any different, ultimately?

Posters keep saying 'wait until he has a mandate/landslide after the next election', but I wonder if anything will change. I personally have absolutely no doubt they won't.

But at least you have the choice.. I am baffled how normal salary Thais are getting by.

Theres a (very busy) noodle stall by us.. 2 plain gwie tiow noodle soups and 2 ice teas. 120 baht.. A bowl of that soup isnt a meal, its a snack.. And at close to 2.50 GBP for a couple of snacks you just wonder how Thais on 8 maybe 12k a month get by. Another local Thai place for Thais, most of the 'simple' dishes are 80 - 120 baht, plus the rice, etc etc. This isnt a cooked fish or something just regular dishes.

Its easy for us, we can just scratch our heads and pay it.. But Thai salaries must be making it real tough.

gwii tiao moo/gai is 30-40 baht a serving. so with your 120 baht for 2 making 60 baht each, no Thai would pay this and it is very substantial (the gluttonous might disagree), usually accompanied by a lot of fresh herbs and vegetables, hardly a snack. Unless of course you are used to meat and two veg? As to your 'simple' dishes starting at 80 baht, again, no Thai would pay this. i think you are possibly confused and believe that eating a thai dish in a restaurant geared toward farang is your idea of 'what the locals do'. I pay 20 baht per dish at roadsides and takeaways. THAI ones.

Condolences. Shame

this a nation of bloody savages. don't let the smiles fool you.

It never helps reporting anything to the police, it will only make more problem for your self.

Are you thai or are you from the moon.................... after what your saying it looks like you dont know anything about thailand

you're quite wrong about reporting anything to the police and 'getting nothing done'. another urban myth put about by expats here. you have a problem, go file a police report. there is still of couse the tea money aspect but this isn't as in you face as say, bali.

by thev way, i don't understand why none of you have cottoned on yet, but 'chantorn' is a wind up. and a very fine job he's doing of it too.

Why bother being sent anywhere, the grounds the same the world over in fact its all one ground. If you want to do the world a favour stay where you drop no need to transport yourself on an unecessary journey.

'you' won't be there. the expensive and onerous act or having what's left of your physical body packed up (by the way i always find it incredibly funny that most people dying in a country not the land of their birth, often opt for cremation as it's far cheaper to transport dust than sending the lump of lifeless meat that will be the only physical remnant of your physicality ), and sent anywhere would be merely for the false comfort of your family. to wit, sentimentality. why bother?

Last Friday, a friend from Singapore and myself were doing some bar hopping. As we decided to go waking up towards Burger King, we were approached by XXX DVD sales boys working all along Silom area, on both sides of the road. They asked my friend if he liked Young Boy and showed him some of the covers and both of use quickly got away. We were then again approached by another man advertising the same thing. We told him, we're not interested.

As we turned around and headed in the opposite direction, toward Pat pong. Some old man asked us, you want young boy or girl to play with.

Just then, Silom was closed off. A whole caravan of police cars, security van's and so on. Right in the middle was a tan colored car with one of the royal family members. My friend and I played out respect to whoever was in the car. The old man, continued to try to pawn off some young boy or girl for sex. I then pointed to the old man, the royal family. He said, who cares, we own this part of town and proceeded to point to the police standing guard.

After that episode, my respect for Thai in that area just went into the gutter. To do such a shameful act in front of a member of the Royal family or even to any royal family is complete disregard in any society. My friend stated the same thing about Thai to; they lack respect and don't deserve respect in any way, shape of form.

So, how can any Thai in that area, doing business in that way which is considered by most to be one of the lowest forms of illigal business, be asked to be respected. Clearly, why didn't they just flip off the car as it went buy, that's the same thing. Clearly, the police on patrol don't care either to enforce a level of morality or standards there.

I'm not quit sure whether you're more pissed off with the old vendor selling child pornography or that he and no doubt many others are doing it regardless of whether the royal family are but a spit away or what?

...For example, a couple of bright young people explaining the solar system...

Cock on! Although, if they were to add some science 'n nature, they'd immediately be out of business as nobody would watch that slot as it'd be boring, boring, boring. For example, the vast majority of Thais wouldn't even know what a solar system was...

True story... ask a Thai the word(s) for Earth. They are taught that the planet Earth is a star!

Now, I consider myself lucky. My wife speaks, reads, and writes exceptional English, which for the most part was self-taught. She is also, in Thai terms, fairly well educated and open-minded, but it took me hours to explain to her the difference between a planet, a moon, and a star, and YEARS to convince her a tiger is a cat!

Thai TV and their education system just fills their brains with mush! I wholeheartedly believe it's to keep them at a low enough level of education to not question anyone in authority. Sad, but true.

Even sadder, is the fact that Thais certainly have an aptitude for learning if someone encourages them. I speak a little Thai, enough to communicate well, eat, drink, and have fun when out and about with friends, but the level of self-taught English spoken by some of the girls I've met in the past (both in tourist areas and working for companies I have dealt with) is astounding. While they certainly seem to lack any semblance of common sense, they most definitely aren't incapable of excellent language skills given the tuition and most importantly, the encouragement.

Their whole system saddens me. Many of the girls I know have university degrees, and I would rate their level of education below that of most UK high school children. Certainly of those in the Community College in East Devon where I worked a few years ago.

One afternoon a new 14 year old student was brought to my office. She was Thai, and looked like the proverbial stunned deer in car headlights as she spoke absolutely zero English. Being able to speak to her a little in Thai was the first shock (for both her, and her support teacher!), but more of a shock to her was that the Principal agreed to employ my wife for a while as a translator and teaching support to help her settle in and begin learning in English classes -- a level of support a student could never imagine happening within Thailand, I am sure. She is now enrolled in Exeter college, and demonstrates their capacity for learning given the chance.

AND OH SO EASILY DONE.

Well the OP seems to have disappeared, probably scuttled off to find a good lawyer

For anyone finding themselves in a situation where the 'vendor' openly states he/she is not the original owner of the property, I would strongly advise that, in the case of the original owner being 'dead', insist on seeing the original Death Certificate, along with the original Company Documents and check the names are the same. If this 'vendor' is truly the Executor, he/she will certainly have these to hand.

In the case of the 'vendor' stating they'd come by the property by some other means, such as 'they were given it' for whatever reason, an official document in the form of a Transfer or Thai equivalent of a Deed of Gift with substantiating documentation should be produced. It is not possible to simply 'give' a Honda Dream without proper transfer of ownership, let alone a house.

It's amazing how many farang here leave their brains at the airport. This country has as many, if not more laws, than their home countries. They seem to think the somewhat lax implementation of certain laws in certain areas gives them carte blanche to pick and choose. Be careful your Sale of the Century doesn't turn into Too Good to be True, and come back to bite you in the ass.

If you choose to ignore your own due diligence, by way of a good independent lawyer or at the very least yourself carrying out the simple steps above, (your estate agent was very likely Bill the Barkeep or Noi from the fish counter in Tops last week) then you could find youself in the dock along with the crook who 'sold' you the property. And quite rightly so IMHO.

''Welcome Australians buying vet supplies.''

The best thing I see is for the seller. If he is out from underneath the company, he will be able to sleep nights. Waiting for a Thai politician to take action against these bogus companies would be a MAJOR worry for me.

Thanks for the replies , however the old owner will not be concerned as he is dead and sleep is not an issue ..... as for the Thai politicians changing the rules i ask why would they ??? what benefit would that be to anyone ??

Are you absolutely sure the old owner is dead? Seems a strange thing to ask, I know, however a neighbour was taken to hospital following a serious car accident, and whilst there, a 'friend' had entered her property and stole her Chanote and Company documents. This 'friend' then listed her property with many local real estate agents, telling everyone she was dead and that he was her sole benificiary! Some 'friend'

Took her months to sort out. There were apparently some 'potential buyers' looking for a super cheap deal and let their greed cloud their judgment. It's amazing how many farang here are willing to invest large sums of money without taking the trouble to engage an independent lawyer to carry out due diligence.