atsiii

Moved out of Sadao...........what next the soft chair and comfy cushions?

No, because of their experience, they will probably be transferred to the Burmese border area.

"...a better DNA-based identification system was necessary for underprivileged and marginalised people, as it would help protect them from exploitation and trafficking."

How many people believe taking DNA from exploited and/or marginalized people would be done for their "protection?"

It's good PR; now the junta can claim that "hundreds have been prosecuted since the human trafficing crackdown began!"

Holy cr*p.......Does Thailand even have the slightest clue how this act will

play out in the world media ???

Well, they control the media and what is disseminated. And when real investigative journalists try to discover the truth, they put them in prison. The ban and censor human rights websites. So if you google 'thailand human trafficing,' all you see is a list of controlled PR articles that tell what a great job the country is doing with its crackdown.

So what does the world really know or care? The USA never does anything because they don't want to endanger their military ties, and they are the ones who created all these 'Millionaire Generals.' IMO, unless the EU and USA hit Thailand with major sanctions, nothing will change.

If I am correct these are 2 of the statements made by quit a few people here:

The perpetrator got off so easy because he only killed a foreigner through his reckless driving.

He would have been sent away for a long time if he killed a Thai person with some influence.

So, again I am asking myself; why would anyone in their right state of mind stay in a country where his life is worth f all?

Honest question; honest answer. I can only speak for myself, but for me it's because I have family and loved ones here. I love, appreciate and enjoy being with them, and so I do my best to help and support them. But that said, I consciously keep my head down and maintain a low profile, essentially accepting the odds. But we substantially improve those odds by choosing to live on a very, very small island with no car ferry, where everyone knows everyone. There is no military presence here, only 1 policeman on the island, and very few nightspots where one can get into trouble. When we do go to the mainland, I choose not to drive at night, and we almost never go out 'partying' at bars. Instead, we are happy to have a nice dinner and cocktails with friends. Basically we choose to live a quiet and low-profile life, in a very small yet pretty place. And in this respect, we love our Thailand home.

But no place is perfect, and even on our little island we had a 'Thailand suicide' this last season. A ladyboy from somewhere on the mainland went missing. Some days later she was found dead in a 55-gallon water barrel. Because drugs were found at her bungalow, and it was thought she owed people money, the authorities ruled it a suicide--probably to save face. Apparently she climbed into the water barrel, somehow hooked up the water pipe and then turned on the water, while squatting down to get her head under water and pulling on the lid. She was obviously very, very intent on killing herself because instead of just standing up when she started coughing on water, she remained in the barrel with her head under water until she was dead. Needless to say, there was no investigation into foul play; it was obviously just another sad suicide. No place is perfect.

Life is cheap, in the land of smiles!

Sadly, it seems like this is particularly true if you are a foreigner killed--either accidentally or purposefully--by a Thai; be it in a bar, on a bicycle, in a taxi, on a beach, in a 'hidden' detention camp or on a fishing boat. What deterrence? If you're actually caught (doubtful), just confess and it will be a simple 300 to 7500 baht fine. When it is a Thai who is killed, and the perp is a wealthy Hi-So, the results are exactly the same.

How can one reasonably expect things to change for the better?

Really! That's absolutely shocking! How did that happen?

555...yes, who would have thought he would have read the news, watched the TV, opened his email and answered his phone, all just to avoid a stealth raid of 300 troops on his house. Completely shocking! 555

I also laughed when I read that his 'assets' had been seized; i.e. a car and a van. You can be sure that the balance of his real assets, such as bank accounts and offshore stashes of cash, less, of course, payment for his 'early warning' system--were not seized.

So... one group of 46, from which one woman + child are taken by an armed Thai man; another group of 28, four of whom had been raped; another group of 150 'unaccounted' for (how then do they know there was 150?); hundreds more at the river waiting to cross; and all this is separate and apart from the recent articles highlighting 33+ bodies found along with three camps and suspected hundreds missing.

"..... arrested its five members" ?

Photo of nine civilians.

Yes, in Thailand, 5 Vietnamese + 5 Camboians = 9 arrested and photographed criminals. Perhaps the 10th person had enough 'cents' (pun intended) to avoid arrest?

"More than 50 police officers, including senior officials, have also been transferred from their posts for complicity or failing to act on the trade."

"for complicity" they get a transfer. Complicity to trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, abuse, assault, torture or murder? What excatly did those BiB-guys do to not be put in prison?

Easy: in the best of Thai traditions, they 'paid' for their transfers. Good thing they had saved up their outside incomes!

So, in other words, nothing will change. The toilets in question will get cleaned on National Toilet Cleaning Day--complete with copious Ministry photo ops, no doubt; and then nobody will do anything the other 364 days a year.

Recently on Koh Chang, a group showed up to clean the beach. The resort was so helpful that they had their staff spread several bags of garbage out on the beach by the resort. The group showed up, picked up the newly spread garbage, took lots of photos of their great work, and a good time was had by all. The whole episode was caught on video. Later the tide came in and deposited the real garbage, but sadly (albeit with good planning!) the group was all gone. Perhaps the Ministry of Tourism could use this idea for a National Beach Cleaning Day?

No warning light at the truck.

No warning triangle 100 meter behind the truck on the road.

No head light on the motorbike.

No helmet for the motorbike driver.

Instead some leaves one meter behind the truck on the road.

And of course some good luck amulet around the neck of the motorbike driver.

So, for God's sake! Why the hell could this accident happen? After his recovery of the accident, this guy has to talk to his monk.

My thoughts, exactly. I see these abandoned vehicles on the sides of roads at night with no lights, no reflective warning triangles amidst all the people driving and riding with no lights going both directions on both sides of the road. I always hedge towards the middle of the lane or road with hopes of having a little bit more room to react, but in truth I've mostly quit driving here at night. It's enough of a challenge in the light of day!

Not a seismologist myself, but how do they know that it will never exceed 5 on the Richter scale?

Wouldn't like to have property in Phuket now. Just saying, that tsunami is still engraved in everyone's mind. Terrifying....

That's exactly right, seismologists can no more predict the size of the next quake than they can predict its timing. They can only say that this fault has never created a quake larger than X in our recorded history. But they can't predict what will or will not happen tomorrow.

Yes, people are still nervous since the 2004 tsunami, as well they should be. And they should remain somewhat nervous with heightened awareness. Evacuation drills are absolutely necessary, along with preparedness training, which is, I think, the best way to deal with rumors; by building confidence in the emergency alert system. But I don't think it really helps for officials to be downplaying nervousness by saying, "oh, don't worry, this fault never creates quakes over a magnitude of 5.0, and even if it did we'd have a couple of hours to escape." Instead, they should use these tremors and and accompanying rumors as an opportunity to remind people that, yes, you are in a seismically active zone and tsunamis can be deadly, so you and your family should be prepared and knowledgeable of the evacuation routes, procedures and warnings.

Then they (the government officials) should make damn sure that all the warnings and alarm technologies actually work!

And now that we've got the violent Thais sorted, here are just 2 links to illustrate how civilized things are in the paradise we left behind when we moved to Thailand.

This assault was hard to watch but gratuitous violence isn't just a Thai thing, it's a human thing and happens all over the world.

But hey, let's bash the Thais for a minute or two.. They are not all bad..

https://www.google.com/search?q=old+man+beaten+in+englandan&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/drug-addicted-senior-beater-gets-60-days-behind-bars-for-violent-attack

I don't think anyone believes all Thais are bad. But arguing in their defense that the same types of things happen elsewhere is like trying to argue that two wrongs somehow make a right. They don't. For many of us, this is our home. So this is where we must try to exert our influence to create a more civil and peaceful society. We can certainly hope that other people in other parts of the world are trying to do the same thing where they live. But we can't really expect them to help us here, any more than we can do much to help them, there.

When there appears to be a culture of violence, such as there is with gun violence in the USA, it deserves to have a bright light shown on it. A society cannot hope to fix or improve a problem until it first acknowledges that it exists. Dismissing things just because something similar happens somewhere else is a form of denial through deflection. And one cannot hope to fix or change something that you deny exists.

So, no, not all Thais are bad. Like all of us, they are humans. And as with all groups of humans, there are a few hero's and a few criminals, with the vast majority falling somewhere in between and trying to do the best they can. Many of us are married to Thais, and we have Thai families and communities that we love and cherish. But that doesn't mean there are not urgent and pressing problems here that need and deserve the light of day. Needless, indiscriminate violence is one of them.

I do agree with you that 'Thai-bashing' gets us nowhere, just as 'group-bashing' of any group gets us nowhere. We must keep our indignation focused on the crime and the criminals until such things become socially and culturally unacceptable. I just don't think that deflection and denial gets us any closer to a solution--or even towards improvement.

Years of repressed anger and frustration explode over nothing. Result: Violence until the other is dead.

You see it again... and again... and again... and again....

Perhaps there's a cultural reason why Thailand has 23,000 gun homicides every year (4th highest in the World). Keep it all in until you can't any longer.

I think you are correct. A few years back Thailand had 2X the number of homicides per capita as the gun-crazy USA. And that was just the number of homicides reported by authorities and did not include all the amazing suicides that happen in Thailand, such as people putting themselves in bags and throwing themselves off bridges, people hanging themselves with their hands tied behind their backs, people endlessly leaping from tall buildings, people drowning themselves in 55-gallon barrels, etc. One wonders what toll all the repressed emotions take.

I'm guessing the minister of culture has not taken time to look at the Bangkok Craigslist page. The advertisements there leave little to the imagination.

Sounds to me like an emergency descent due to loss of pressurization.

"So, next time, please elect a good government into power.

Presumably he means: elect a government comprised of the wealthy and elite in Bangkok, who already own and run everything else in the country, or there will be another coup. And we will keep having coups until you, the electorate, learn to do things our way right.

I would love to see a blanket charge on Thai people ONLY to visit the national parks in my country, which are free for everyone, visitors included. 4,000 baht equivalent per Thai head ought to do it, taking into account quality of services and perfect upkeep.

And a sign outside the Tower of London:

Thai nationals 100 pounds.

Everyone else 10 pounds.

Under 80cm tall free unless Thai national then same as adult.

555... I have considered putting up a sign at my wife's guesthouse that says: Rooms for Rent - Thai's 3000, Farang 1500.

Problem is that most Filipinos, Malaysians, Indonesians, Laotians, Burmese, Cambodians, Chinese and even Japanese and Koreans among other generic Asians get the local price too if they shut their mouths and smile.

That's because this is top-down racism at its best. They don't really mean 'foreigners,' they mean 'farang:' i.e. anyone different from us--specifically white and black. Remember, they don't call other Asians 'farang' in Thailand.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Didn't PM Prayuth yesterday assured everybody who can't escape listening that he doesn't care and that the relationship between the Junta and the US Government is good? Little White lies or fragile ego?

Relationship between Thailand and the USA is and always will be good.

But this man had no right to interfere into Thailand's politics.

Thailand does not interfere with the USA.

To take advantage of Thai hospitality and tolerance was a bad move on behalf of a representative of the USA.

I hope the PM will take notice and avoid any future, dubious visits from any country that pretends they care about democracy but in fact they only show their ignorance on Thailand's political situation.

You do understand how naive this makes you sound, right Costas?

Perhaps a few moments on your part reading a little post WW2 Thai history might help ...

For better or worse, the Thai military is only as powerful as it is now thanks to the US. Much of the basic infrastructure of this country was also built with US dollars (and much of the less pleasant side). The mess that this nation is in now is in a large part due to US cold war championing of the bad guys in the Thai military.

I know you see things in simple black and white and block out anything that might clash with the world as you see it, but the fact is the US has long been involved in Thai politics and the involvement by the general's totalitarian forebears was much welcomed. To now try and howl "don't interfere" is both dishonest and hypocritical.

Well stated. And I remember reading that during the SE Asian wars, the US created +/- 300 millionaire Thai Generals.

Now if the character was a suspected Ebola victim he should have been put into an isolation ward situation until such time as any infection would show if it was a positive matter.

Yet we see a total indifference to the reality of the situation situation and now we have the possible chance of an Ebola victim roaming around Thailand and possibly infecting others.

Ah well the Thai's state they have a cure for Ebola so one must suppose there is no need for concern is there?]

Perhaps if the Thai's could ''discover '' a cure for ineptness we all might feel a little happier.

Well, not only a chance that an ebola patient is wandering around BKK possibly infecting others, but if he is contagious and arrived with 10 others, they too by now could be showing symptoms. So in one fell swoop you have the potential for up to 11 possible transmitters wandering around a city of 12 million full of bars, massage parlors, etc. Let's hope for all our sake and that of our families that he was not infected!

We have a small guesthouse and cafe. I buy Thai 'A' fillet, which is very lean, and grind it up for my steak burgers. We pay about 400 THB per kilo for 'A' fillet. I add +/- 20% suet (fat) from the market to the fillet and then grind it twice. Based on sampling over the last 5+ years, I suspect we serve some of the best burgers in the Kingdom. I can put a nice 1/3 lb burger with home baked bun on the table with all the trimmings plus an American size order of fries for 180 to 220 THB.

I use the same beef for cheesesteak sandwiches. I do no t serve any steaks with this fillet as I don't feel like the Thai beef is of adequate quality. Hope this helps.

Please excuse my apparent ignorance, but how can they impeach someone with regards to allegedly breaking the 2007 Constitution, when they themselves overthrew the government elected under that same 2007 Constitution in a completely unconstitutional military coup? I'm missing something here.