Robby nz

The origional poster said a 20% rise is coming not here already and this could be correct for I understand the price of cooking gas will go up soon and that will make a big difference.

There is also all the new utes and cars around, when payments start to come due there is a chance that the owners who are in a position to do so could raise the prices of whatever they sell to help with the payments.

I live on comparatively little and therefore do notice price rises such as coconuts in the market which have recently risen from 15b to 18b and now 20b.

I notice the price of squid has also risen considerably and a feed at a little roadside place I eat from time to time has in the last couple of weeks gone from 25 to 30b a plate. Not complaining just noting for I know these people got to make a baht.

Although only a few Baht these are big percentages, both more than the 20% mentioned and a couple of Baht added to other small (Made in Thailand) things will boost the additional percentage ordinary people have to pay.

And CMK thats what counts not Govt numbers.

I also see that bank interest rates on term deposits have dropped sharply in the last couple of months whether that makes a difference to inflation I dont know.

People go to college for a reason. If we all could listen to the farmer next door like you we would not need to pay all that big money to listen to economists. The economists of the world read and write those government numbers. The world relies on modern science. The inflation rate in Thailand is around 4%. Check any of the rating agencies like S&P or Moodys. It is like a debate between a brain surgeon and a witch doctor. I can't do it any more. Go to college. Then come back and talk.

I will ignore your insults for the time being but will say that it is indeed what we all have to pay that impacts on our spending power.

What S&P have to say matters not a jot to me or anyone else when we have to pay more for something today than we had to yesterday.

It may of course not matter to someone with a spare 400kb in their pocket.

Consider also that the Thai Minister of Finance thinks it is OK to lie about the economy.

BTW, has anyone else noticed that the fixed deposit interest rates have dropped significantly over the last couple of months? For example, in the middle of last year, SCB was offering 3.35 and now they're offering 2.6.

There's a real risk that BOT could lower the bank rate, that would make THB less attractive and cool the foriegn inflows to some degree. If that happens expect rates to go even lower - blame it all on Abe in Japan and his QE.

Or Ben Bernanke

The dollar has been under 30/1 for days now

Must be hard on folks who retire here on SS income etc.

Just in the last 5 years the dollar has lost 20% against the baht

Yes but that is the US$ drop not the Baht gain but what the heck Ben B will print some more.

The SCB and others in mid November were offering a special rate of 3.85% for 22 months on TD as of yesterday it was 2.5% for 4 months, not good for those of us trying to get some interest on the 800kb we have to have in a bank.

The origional poster said a 20% rise is coming not here already and this could be correct for I understand the price of cooking gas will go up soon and that will make a big difference.

There is also all the new utes and cars around, when payments start to come due there is a chance that the owners who are in a position to do so could raise the prices of whatever they sell to help with the payments.

I live on comparatively little and therefore do notice price rises such as coconuts in the market which have recently risen from 15b to 18b and now 20b.

I notice the price of squid has also risen considerably and a feed at a little roadside place I eat from time to time has in the last couple of weeks gone from 25 to 30b a plate. Not complaining just noting for I know these people got to make a baht.

Although only a few Baht these are big percentages, both more than the 20% mentioned and a couple of Baht added to other small (Made in Thailand) things will boost the additional percentage ordinary people have to pay.

And CMK thats what counts not Govt numbers.

I also see that bank interest rates on term deposits have dropped sharply in the last couple of months whether that makes a difference to inflation I dont know.

I note another bidding process, once again they are planning to sell something they dont own.

What with 3G then 4G and so on they just could rake in enough to keep buying rice.

And who makes and gets the profit from these boxes we all must buy?

I had to have a ticket out of TL when I applied and got an O visa (retirement) in NZ

Cheapest I could get was to Vientian.

The best urologists in the country are the army specialists.The army hospital Pramonkutklow in BKK has 7 specialist urologists and all the latest gear.One of the best is Dr Bandit who I see for cysts in the bladder

If you have an army hospital in GM go there for the specialists from BKK are sent wherever they are needed including incidentaly private hospitals.

Only problem with army hospitals is that they treat anyone on a first come basis and there can often be waiting thmes.

However the charges are less than half that of a private hospital.

Pity he wasnt interested in buying rice

Very apt....on the back of a garbage truck!

Could indeed be that he has found his rightful place.

It beggars belief that you can sue a leader of a government, while the country is under emergency powers, this situation should not have got to the stage that it did, me thinks Abhisit was too kind and generous to that crowd of illiterate morons, try that trick in some of our more so called advanced societies and see how far you get,no, Abhisit you were to darn soft, betcha ya don't do that again , if there ever is a re-run, you have my support.

More advanced societies would not have been shooting their own people with live ammunition. Maybe rubber bullets and tear gas as the 'advanced' society did in N Ireland. But to turn your army loose on civilians with real bullets surely is a criminal and filthy low act. Of course Khun Suthep and his "yes" man AV won't see it this way.

So you are saying, if you are taking live fire from an armed mob, you would return fire with only rubber bullets? Assuming you are from an advanced society of course.

Shooting people in the emergency services with snipers is murder. Who gave those orders.

I assume you are talking about the shots fired into the temple.

The first question must be :

Who fired the shots?

Please post your ideas and proof.

Abhisit et al should now start to really apply some pressure to these lackies, get after them while they still have their tails well and truly between their legs. Wonder how long before we hear from the fugitive mouthing off in their defence, "they were only doing their job, it had nothing to be with me - bla bla bla"

I cant understand how anyone believes that Abhisit is some political heavyweight ( 'get after them'). Hes only a lightweight lackey who took orders from someone above!!!!!!!

You have the name wrong its Yingluck. And its takes not took.

Thaksin thinks etc

Same in Lopburi

How can you impersonate a plainclothes cop?

This lies squarely on the PM, she picked these criminals and is responsible for their actions.

Yep, she and her Cabinet did.

Appropriately, Chalerm's non-Red Shirt son is included in the pickings.

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a list of political office holders, including some 20 Vice-Ministers and a number of Ministerial Secretaries and Advisers.

Several core members and guards of the red-shirt movement received key appointments.

Aree Krainara, Head Guard of the red shirts, is now Secretary-General to Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit.

Red leader Yoswaris "Jeng Dokjik" Chuklom is a Deputy Secretary-General in the Interior Ministry.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung's son, Wan, is a Deputy Secretary-General in the Transport Ministry.

Among the Vice-Ministers are red-shirt leader Visa Kanthap, ex-bureaucrat Prapat Chongsanguan and Pheu Thai party-list candidate Surachai Baochanya.

-- The Nation 2011-08-30

Time to face the music as the piper has already been paid.

Yotwarit, better known as "Jen Dokjik", did not deserve to be paid a salary from taxpayers' money

.

Vice-Ministers would be an apprpriate title.

There had been a lot of breakins and theft in the area where Hori lived and someone suggested that he was the one responsible so one day a couple of cops turned up at Hori’s house to search the place for stolen property.

Now Hori liked to do a bit of woodwork and had a few tools and when the cops searched his room they found his tool box with hammer, saw, chisels, screwdrivers and a couple of tire leavers for fixing punctures on his truck.

Although the cops hadn’t found any stolen property they still wanted to take him in because of they said they had all the tools for breaking and entering.

Hori said “Well you had better arrest me for rape as well”

“You haven’t been doing that too” said the cop.

“No” said Hori “But I got all the gear”

Ah Gerry thought is indeed a great thing but unfortunately there are some who fail to think before they act, talk or even post on this site.

When you have no agenda or anyone to attempt to protect it can be an even more rewarding thing for then you can think of and comment on things as they really are.

When I post my thoughts on this site even though you may think it futile I believe that if one person reads them and it makes them think and maybe understand better it has been of some use.

In this instance I have no expectations that what I wrote will ever be acted or improved on in fact I know it wont because it would not be politically expedient.

However this and many other posts give me pleasure and in some cases researching what I write improves my knowledge.

Oh yes and try fishing some time it promotes good thoughts much better than sitting at one of these gadgets.

Supreme Administrative Court

Now theres a court that's going to have to go, where's that constitution change again.

exercising their legitimate right to organise a peaceful demonstration, as enshrined in the 1997 Constitution.

Yep sure needs changing.

the verdict set a precedent that police and state agencies could not use violence to disperse a peaceful demonstration

Should have come before the recent 50,000 cop thing, but now they know.

Another thought:

The planning they are doing will be to cover the Govts possible reaction to the ruling and what they may have to do to because of that reaction.

I always wonder what those who sling off at the Thai arny really know.

It is far more than just a fighting force and does a great deal for the Thai people. in some cases possibly even more than the Govt.

If you dont believe that try a trip to The army hospital Pramonkutklow in BKK any morning and see just how many Thai patients are treated there and that trearment is first class. All the Dr's and nurses are army including a fair few generals.

It also has a medical school and nursing collage in the grounds which produces some of the best specialists in the country who incidentaly are often farmed out to other public and private hospitals around the country when they need a specialist that they dont have on their staff.

Then there are all the other army hospitals around the country, had to go to the one at Lopburi last week to pick up some papers for a relly of the Mrs.

And there is much more, possibly you missed how much they did during the floods.

It being the Kings army could it be that they are one of the few things that is stopping the present Govt running rough shod over the whole country?

Anyway whats wrong with planning?, I suspect the country would be better off with more of it.

Must be those dasterdly Dems again if it was PT pollies we wouldnt hear anything about it.

But where is the profit in bringing them here? if I understand correctly they have nothing to pay anyone to bring them.

What has prompted me to write this is the recent proposal by a certain, or uncertain depending on your viewpoint, Deputy PM to build a dam across the mouth of the Chaw Phraya river to prevent flooding in BKK.

Now I’m no hydrologist but most of my life has been associated with water in one way or another and for the last several years I have fished in the Chaw Phraya for a couple of days most weeks. This has given me some insight into how this river works through flood and low water and I have given a fair bit of thought to what could be done to give more control over the water.

First off:

The whole of central Thailand is in fact one big flood plain and in the past the annual floods are what sustained the rice farming in that part of the country. When the rains came the river swelled and the water spread out over the land. This saturated the land and deposited a layer of silt that acted as a fertilizer making it possible to grow great rice crops. The people prepared for this by building their houses on stilts, for want of a better term only, about 3 meters above ground. You can still see this today in a fair bit of the country.

Most of the water that causes flooding comes from heavy rain in North and Central Thailand. There are three ways this rain water can be dissipated they are: by evaporation, soaking into the ground and run off down a river. The first two can mainly happen when we have the flood plain in action but as it happens people have build towns and cities which they don’t want inundated by water. This means that the water is restricted in where it can go and the flood plain can’t work as it did in the past. The result being that there is more water running down the river.

So what to do?

I don’t believe a dam across the river mouth is the answer for while a spring tide and heavy sea can slow the escape of water to the sea and cause build up it does not stop it completely. If heavy seas and spring tides were the cause of flooding a dam could be the answer but if they were the cause then there would be flooding every time they occurred regardless of the river level.

The true cause of the flooding of BKK and other places on the river is heavy rain which can’t be prevented. This means that we have to look at ways of controlling the water once it gets into the river.

The way I see it we need to look to Cambodia and Vietnam for the answer. The Mea Kong, a much bigger river does not have the same flood effect there and there are reasons for this.

There are two natural things that restrict the flooding in those countries, one is the Tonal Saap a large lake in central Cambodia into which, when the river is high the excess water flows, then when the river level drops the water flows back into the river. The second is a large delta in Vietnam where the river splits into many channels allowing the water better access into the sea.

BKK is built over what was probably a delta of the C P river and the river is now restricted in where and how it can get to the sea. I don’t know if it would be possible to open up more channels and recreate a delta effect but if it is then that could be part of the solution.

A second part would be to create the lake effect, now it would not be possible to have a big lake like in Cambodia but it should be possible to create a series of smaller lakes along the course of the river. This is not a new idea as it was suggested by His Majesty the King several years ago and called ‘the monkey cheek effect’. However if I understand this correctly rather than lakes it was suggested that places be designated where the water of a flood could go.

What I have in mind would go farther than that and create (dig out) actual permanent lakes to take the overflow in a flood situation.

This would not be a quick fix but then I doubt that a quick fix is possible, rather it would be something like a 20 year or longer project. The first step would be to calculate the amount of water above normal flow needed to cause flooding from there the size and capacity of holding lakes to contain the excess water could be worked out. Next step would to work out the best places to put the lakes and the capacity of each individual one.

These lakes would of course displace people who for a start would have to be compensated for the loss of their land and homes. However each lake would not just be a place for flood water to go but would also be used for various purposes. For instance those close to cities could be for recreational use, some for recreational fishing others for water sports such as yachting, canoeing, etc. Others could be designated for controlled commercial fishing and others for fish breeding with the fish raised released into the river to raise its overall productivity.

All these things would need people to create and run them so those displaced by the lakes could be retrained to work as staff at each lake with, I would hope better returns, homes and lifestyle than they had previously.

These lakes would not only be there to contain flood water and for the uses already suggested but would, with careful control be used as a mechanism to maintain the river at or close to a consistent level along its whole length and giving some certainty to those who use the river and of course the water would be available for agriculture which would help alleviate a drought situation as well as a flood.

Robby

Have thought about all these drug busts we see on TV and such they always seem to involve the small people, dealers and those who are delivering the stuff.

We never seem to hear about any of the big bosses being caught, the ones who run the drug rackets.

Where does all this stuff come from, is there never any effort made to trace things back?

A recent bust of a couple delivering a ute load was shown on tele and the cops said they stopped the ute somewhere on the highway, I wondered how they knew which ute to stop as there are thousands of these things go past every day. The couple said that they had made 5 runs before, this being number 6.

I thought at the time that possibly there could be some arrangement where the cops are tipped off with the loss of a certain amount of product factored into the operation. Those arrested would not matter and it would look like the war on drugs was being won.

And then again we are asked to believe that all the, mostly yellow, packets we see displayed are in fact drugs, is it possible that there is a brick or something in there? If that is true then that would limit the loss of product and profit.

Could it possibly be that he tells lies also?

A bit off topic but I was wondering having read all the posts what is the advantage of getting an extention based on marriage rather than retirement, assuming over 50 that is.

It seems you can work, a dirty four letter word, but is there any other?

Seems to me to be a lot more hassle, paperwork and house visits etc.

I have noted over time that some farang hand over 2000 B and say keep the change when renewing a visa, I used to give 2 1000b notes and sometimes got the 100 back sometimes not, now I give the exact 1900b.

Again no defence of the man if he did do it, but............

There seems to me to be something strange about this whole episode.

I have been in bus toilets and know their size and what they are like and thinking back to those times I really cant see how a man, even a small one and a child of 7 could fit in there and if they did what he could do even with her consent.

If there was no consent then for sure she would have marks of a struggle on her and I would have thought, been yelling and screaming. However even with consent she is still under age and therefore it would still be rape.

Did she have marks on her, was she taken to a Dr, did anyone hear her call out?

There are other questions that come to mind like for instance: Did the family know the driver previously?

Also we have two headlines one says assult the other rape, while rape is certainly an assult, assult can be other than rape,

I presume that even in TL there needs to be proof to convict someone although for sure not on this forum.

Okay...granting that you are not "defending" the guy:

but the story would be different, if a 7 (in words SEVEN) year old kind consented with having sex with a previously known busdriver???

Noooo, of course not , as you say yourself. It would still be rape!

Then WHY THE H@LL DO YOU BRING IT UP?

The girl is SEVEN and if it was a case (as you imply) of child- prostitution (the parents knew the guy...maybe...possibly...) it is as bad or even worse....so does it really matter?

Have you ever seen a 7 year old Thai- girl? Forced into a bus- toilet by a fully grown man...how much of a fight, do you think that (most probably very frightened) girl, would be even possibly put up?

And why is that even a matter of speculation?

Guilty untill proven inocent right Doc?

Agreed!

No child prosition was implied nor did I have it in mind. If there was any a bus toilet I am sure would not the place chosen for it to take place.Now...tell me of an appropriate place for "it" to take place...

If I have to spell it out I was thinking of some sort of coertion, something like a debt possibly and if so a sick way of making repayment. Which would differ from prostitution in what way, exactly?

Again: 7 year old child!

In either which way this plays out...

bus driver : certainly 100% guilty and a sick pervert. No matter if he raped her or was accepting her as some kind of payment....

parents: if anyhow involved in condoning this- guilty!

But that really doesn't matter for HER, does it!?

Yes Doc you sure have got him guilty, without any more proof than a newspaper article and from such a distance from the event. A reincarnation of the hanging judge possibly.

Please try to think. If it was agreed prostitution surely it would take place in a private place not a public one. Which incidentaly has nothing to do with appropriate for as I have said before if he did it he deserves to go down.

Now the Japanese PM has been to TL wait for the announcment of a Govt to Govt sale to Japan.