catweazle

"Discover Thainess!" - wow, that campaign is really doing the trick this year, doesn't it?

RIP to the victim, condolences to family and friends, fast and thorough recovery to the other victims.

With ever tightening rules and regulations which come with a rather disturbing aftertaste of racism, a military junta with a planless leader at the helm who is so in love with himself, and who believes that politics reduce to the tasks of implementing more erratic rules and regulations and babbling useless phrases in front of cameras; with increasing prices, a decline in quality of services, decline of friendliness of Thais towards westerners, and the fact that an investor or house/property buyer in this country owns nothing and has next to none rights regardless of how many millions of Baht or dollars he/she has invested here, mixed with the actual economic situation, it is no wonder that numbers of foreigners relocating to Thailand are in a major nose dive. Too many westerners have realised: Once the superficial Thai smile fades, the true colors shine through and those colors are darker than a Waffen SS uniform.

Never been attacked by a LB since I always managed to politely say no. Easy as that!

Another fine example of "Thainess"...

Good luck, but thanks for trying...

The full text again: http://thailandjustice.com/introduction-to-koh-tao-investigation/

As much as I'd love Pacman to become champ, I fear that Mayweather will win. Pacman divides his energies onto too many fields, so it will be difficult for him to empty his head for the fight and stay focused, wheres Mayweather wants just one simple thing: Keeping the title!

now all they have to do is be sure that they get the genuine evidence not what the prosecution is claiming to be the real evidence, could be very interesting as I am sure there are certain things they will not want to come out.

So you're intimating that the prosecution may provide the defence team with fabricated or false evidence and conceal from them the real facts. Have you read what you have written? If this were to happen, which, in my mind, there is no doubt that it could not nor would not occur, as it would require not a major conspiracy but a monumental one to be in play.

How many police personnel, forensic staff, prosecutors, witnesses, court staff, and judges, to name just a few, do you think would have to be involved for something, such as you suggest, to occur. Think about it. Now, you're also sure the are certain things that they will not want to come out.

Please, you know as much as I do, sweet bugger all, so why do you think you know so much and post in such a manner. if you know as much as you're trying to suggest, then maybe you should go along and offer your two bob's worth to the defence team. There's an old saying that we have back home, "You would be laughed out of court."

SiThea, while you basically call doubters of the official story here naive, your very own naiveness shines like a full moon in a crystal clear night sky. It does not take a monumental conspiracy to achieve what was achieved so far (the true murderers/rapists free and patsies caught and accused), especially after the DNA samples were allegedly stored in the headman's fridge. There was ample time and opportunity to mess with and remove/exchange evidence in the very beginning of the investigation, where prime suspects can be seen on photos trampling about the murder scene. A cigarette bud taken away here, while another is placed there, blood stained clothes removed and burned, changing the contents of the DNA samples in the fridge, etc. even messing with the hoe, was all possible even without the need of support by the RTP plus is there a big chance of postmortem rape of Hannah's body, or the possibility that she had consensual sex with someone prior to the time of the murder...

At least something positive is happening, yet I doubt that there will be anything close to a fair trial. The DNA samples have been here and there and everywhere, even (at the beginning) been stored in the mafia headmen's fridge, who's the father of one of the initial prime suspects "Nom Sod" who disappeared for a full week after the murder most likely to allow the scratch marks on his arms and back (that were allegedly reported by some of his fellow co students) to heal. Investigators in charge, who accused "Nom Sod" and his relative "Mon", stating in front of cameras that there is rock hard evidence that links both, Mon and Nom Sod to the double murder, have been "discharged" respectively were "promoted" immediately after and were sent to other districts while puppets were installed to make it all go away and to pull the two burmese patsies into the limelight, eventually beating them into confession in a safe house, while having a burmese interpreter (tribal/religious enemy to that of the two patsies) engage in the action (the beating). Evidence was corrupted from the very start with one of the main suspects "Mon" who can be seen right next to police, trampling about the murder scene on almost any crime scene photo available taken on the first days of the investigation... Anyone who believes that the burmese patsies will receive a fair trial is a hopeless dreamer, sad as it is...

Newbies, who would like to get more detail about the botched murder investigation should read this please: http://thailandjustice.com/introduction-to-koh-tao-investigation/

What's wrong with those people?

...and 5 lines further down in today's TV headings list we read: "Southern Thailand Gripped by Violence" - appears that determination is not enough, Mister!

Where the F(deleted) is Dexter when you really need him?

I am so urged to embrace "Thainess" by being lured into discovering it, but all I find is make believe...

Who knows the road that this man has travelled. Who knows what pains, and who has taken advantage of him before. Who knows if he has been abused as a child, unloved as a child, treated as a nothing, a lost soul, and searching all of his life. Was he emotionly abused, paralised through life with fear and mistrust. Was he a human shipwreck, a soul always searching for love, a love that was never found. We will never know. But we know this for sure, that he was 81 years old, and a much younger lady being 41 years of age had taken advantage of whatever vulnerable state this man may have been in, and it obviously wasnt the true love that most of us would wish for. Upon the realisation that this love was false, and had never been, did this man finally crack and unleash all of the anger he had pent up inside him since he was a teenager. Did the probability of prison not act as a deterent, because in his eyes, nothing mattered anymore. At 81 had he had enough of being emotinally blackmailed in what he first may have thought was a true and lucky love for him? Who knows......But sometimes people just crack. Their soul breaks in two, because after years of being lost, and at a loss as to who they really are, and to why they even exist, a temptress comes in, and steals their last ounce of dignity from them. Who knows......A very sad tale for both of them.

It however is nice to see that the Thais don't like the taste of their own medicine (ban on this, restriction on that, crackdown on foreigners and making it ever more difficult for them to legally live here, etc. while they (the Thais) can indulge in whatever illegal activity they like)...

Now they are all howling and whining... "Why ban our products? Just because we have the whole fishery industry in LOS run by sadistic sodomizing Thai captains and submissive illegal Burmese slaves? Just because we throw some of them overboard at high sea from time to time if they refuse to work harder for nothing? Come on, white people, you can't do this!? You can't ban our ploduct just because of those litten plomplems!!! It's unfair!!!!"

I - as a layman - warn the whole world of the dire effects if fishing continues at the same rate worldwide: All oceans dead latest by 2050. How will we explain this to our grand children?

I dont see anything that is really bad here in Thailand and I have lived here for 30 years.

The two Brits bashed to death with a hoe at Koh Tao?

The police chief saying it was the gay foreigner that did it, cos gays are like that?

The General/PM saying she brought it on herself for wearing a bikini on the beach?

Fitting up two Burmese workers, cos no Thai could ever do a thing like that?

The trial of the two Burmese being forgotten, while they rot in jail ...........

That seems to be quite a lot of 'bad stuff' from just one incident.

You got a point there, how about the policeman murdering tourists in broad daylight, the machete taxi driver killing a foreign guest over a 70 Baht fee, etc... But murders happen all over the world. Think if you would be living in South America or Mexico you would see killings (or get killed) as frequently as you see underage idiots riding illegal motorbikes without lights in the night here in Thailand? Every country has its issues...

OP, don't forget that expats in Thailand are 2nd class citizens and Thai officials as well as some Thai citizens make sure that we get frequent reminders of that. These reminders come in many shapes, mostly in form of crackdowns on part-foreign-owned businesses, ever tightening work and visa regulations, etc... so it is no wonder when people get disillusioned and grumpy after some time here, fighting against windmills...

On the other hand, one experiences a lot of freedom in other areas here and Thailand in general is a much more better place to live than Europe, for example. I have many Thai friends, many of them are very talented musicians, artists, architects, foremans, electricians, designers, etc. and I could not be where I am today without them.

Speaking for myself, I have it all in balance and appreciate that I am allowed to live here instead of my home country, but still am not immune of frustration when I see on a daily basis how certain things here are handled and how anti-foreign some of their actions are. Please don't make the same mistake many posters do and get caught up in generalizations.

This all said - if you are searching for a forum where everybody pretents (this - by the way - is something the majority of Thai people are good at: pretending) that all is cool, Thais are the greatest people on earth and should not be told what to do, letting alone being criticized... Then this forum is not for you, sorry!

An estimated 112 million indians in north and south America were slaughtered by "the founding fathers"... and now they make a movie where native american indians are ridiculed???

Would like to see a film like that featuring Germans ridiculing jews, and the whole planet would be in outrage, parts of Germany would burn and jews worldwide would demand to see heads roll...

But with those indians, well let's do it, why not? We all know which religion is running the movie industry, so who wonders... America should be ashamed of its past, but instead is proud of it - sickens me to my stomach!

The article provides no evidence that Thailand agreed to any of this. Only that the Chinese guy said so.

I'm guessing the Junta is playing a little game here.

No!! the Yanks were playing a big game (their guns and tanks will have made in China on them in the future) and they just lost!!

I hope that other nations (especially Asian ones) take note of this and reconsider/re-evaluate the extent of their allegiance to this egotistical country that thinks they own the world and everything in it.

If someone childishly takes their ball away then don't sulk, but go and find someone with a better ball that is prepared to play with you.

Well done Prayuth for putting them in their place by ignoring their pathetic threats and doing something positive about it!!

Nonsense.

The US has criticized the Thai Junta, just like UK, the EU, and others. The US has slightly scaled back military cooperation. No "threats" are involved. Just the usual signalling.

At the same time, the US has been strongly pivoting toward stronger alliances with countries that oppose Chinese expansion in the South China Sea. Thailand doesn't factor into that scenario.

Will the Junta actually come to any agreements with China? At this point, it is impossible to say. There is no rail deal. There is no military deal. In my opinion, these deals wont come to fruition. Quiet diplomacy will win out.

Alienating your friends and driving them towards forming alliances with your enemy because they refuse to be subservient and bow to their demands does not seem a very sensible strategy to me!!

But Prayuth's strategies are ver sensible then, aye? What kind of drugs you on?

I doubt very much the US could give a flying fig about Thailand cozying up with China.

They, Thailand and the rest of the world know, for all of America's issues, the Thai's would jump back in bed with the US in a heart beat over China, Russia or anyone else.

Thailand can flutter their eyes and try playing games as much as they want, but they are not fooling anyone and i expect the US could not give a hoot.

Rest assured, they do! Thailand is and always was a strategically important stronghold against communism. Plus it is a strategic necessity for the US marine and army. You truly think they will sit back and watch Thailand being pulled from under their feet? You must be kidding me! By getting cuddly with the Communists, our Fuhrer basically signed his own death warrant.

Oh, oh... bad move! Does our beloved "leader" really want the US of A to bomb this country to bits in order to "liberate" its people, or what? I truly am NOT a Yank lover, but still prefer uncle Sam sitting at my porch over sharing my bed with the communists. This could end bad, real bad...

My prediction is that a certain person here in Thailand (who thinks he stands above all, is untouchable and who obviously is blinded by his sudden rise to power and influence) will forcefully be removed soon. Then, all hell will break loose. May god have mercy on our (the expats') souls

...and falling...