sunnyrolfe

This is all well and good but the vast majority of Thai children abused by paedophiles are abused by Thai offenders, often close relatives or untouchable people with money and influence. Massage parlours have private rooms offering under age girls to their special customers that include senior police and military officers who give them protection in the same way they protect the procurers who provide foreign tourists with under age boys and girls. Efforts by Western governments to deal with their own nationals abroad are just dealing with the symptoms of the problem and allow authorities in Thailand and other developing countries to sit smugly back and blame foreigners, while the root of the problem and their own sex offenders are left largely untouched.

Absolutely nail on the head here, Good post. Just like all the PC naive backpackers think if there were no Farangs coming to the girlie bars there would be no sex trade in Thailand. Because the Khao San Rd Lonely Planet types would never dream of the horrors inflicted on young people by their own people here. Well it's not on public display as the beer bar trade.

The only upside is The Japanese have excellent emergency services but I fear for less developed pacific rim countries that could be affected yet by this. My thoughts are with them all.

Yes but................................ This is overwhelming for any country, and it only took minutes , look at Katrina and it took hours with plenty of notice !! My heart goes out, I'm having trouble doing anything but watching and thinking how lucky not to be there and the helpless terror involved... I'm going to go hug my boys ...

Yes you are right about that. It is a big problem for anyone to know where to start and accessing the most needy is made all the more difficult by the water,mud broken infrastructure etc. Well it's a shame it always takes this kind of thing for us to remember we are all brothers and sisters in humanity,

The only upside is The Japanese have excellent emergency services but I fear for less developed pacific rim countries that could be affected yet by this. My thoughts are with them all.

If there was such a thing as a watch list for the natives of Isaan sadly the numbers would be much higher. Do you think the Thais will ever control this sickness when it's rife in their own people?

However, as long as there is still a big gap between the rich and the poor and unfair ownership of land - with a handful of wealthy people holding the largest share while poor people are left landless - the streams of poor villagers and farmers calling for fairness will never cease.

"Never trust any politicians." They gave some land to the poor. So people came by and claimed their new land.

But the truth after all is that the rich guys knew what will happen. All they did was to send some poor looking people to get the land. Shame on this. Can't really blame Abhisit alone, but all of them.

And I'm talking about dirt poor people in the lower north-east........:jap:

AGREE, Well stated

due to concerns about hygiene, the Public Health Ministry yesterday said it might follow suit.

Blimey there go the food stalls. When soi chayapoon in Pattaya used to flood badly at the soi Buakhao end before they sorted it I thought it and many other such places around Thailand would be more of a concern than a fish tank thats had a few feet in it. Have you seen the shit that floats up out of those drains?

Based on personal experience with over 10,000 hours flying as a Transport Pilot the most accident prone part is the Takeoff and Landing section of every flight. Being of this short duration the aircraft must stay at or below 3000 Ft ASL (±1,000 meter) this is also were Helicopters dart in and out of between buildings. As for the flight deck crew, any qualified pilot will not bid for this duty. Get the idea; Thai Airways pilot training department most likely is the operator to give trainee copilots hands-on experience. The difference is, in the real world you are not allowed by aviation laws to conduct for profit flights with trainee(s) at the controls. Still wonder why Thais and a good number of farangs in Thailand drive as they do? Laws, what Laws? Remember this flight is internal and does not come under International Aviation Laws. On Internal Flights Thailand can do in aviation whatever it wants to do including making up aviation rules as they go?

In addition this idiotic flight is 4 minutes 30 second the rest of the time is all taken up by takeoff and landing.

Thai Airways must have gotten this idea from Gulf Air with its Dhahran – Bahrain flight; the difference is, with Gulf Air it is a feed-in into the Bahrain Main Hub and part of the flight from Bahrain to wherever a person goes – Europe, Asia, Australasia. As for the aircraft B-737 it was its last hop of a Gulf Air Arabia flight. Not a flight just by itself as this idiotic Thai Airways flight Dong Muang – Savarnabhumi / Suvarnabhumi – Dong Muang.

Which part of SATIRE: did you miss?

The the BKK traffic is getting worse by the year this may not be such a joke eventually

And of course more discrimination about other nationalities ... what about the other tourists ?

The Chinese already run the show anyway so the next plan is to gradually phase out the ethnic Thais from all but menial labour jobs and bring in more of their Sino brethren. The pigs will then move into the farmhouse, eat at the table and sleep in beds. All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.

GANGSTERS???? That's 30 odd million of the population covered anyway.

This is total, absolute bullshit!

I was defrauded when using my Kasikorn bank web card just last week - I called them immediately to cancel the transaction.

They told me that nothing could be done!!

They asked me to go and fax them a form detailing the fraud, which I did, and they have done exactly zero about it!

Don't believe these useless lying sacks of dog feces. They do not care if you live or die, or if your money gets stolen, or about anything more complex than a fuc_king turnip.

Just thought I might mention this before some idiot gets on here to applaud the move and decry the cynics as Thailand-hate mongers.

Yes I rember the case a few years ago of the guy whos card was stolen and they even had CCTV footage of the thief using it but they didn't do a thing for him and he lost.

Why do they even make these statements. Do they think the entire Western population put our heads in the sand and pretend we know nothing like these idiots. We grow up learning to think outside the flock and to question things. Don't they even have one person amongst them who lived in the West for years who can tell them how these kind of statements will be received? So much for attracting quality tourists. A long long way to go before they even have people who know how to use a mop properly(read,use clean water) let alone do a police job efficiently. The Chinese, Indians and Russians can have the place and good riddance.<br>

Yes he is called the Prime minister.

jb1

Well answered. But if number one can't or won't do a thing about this attitude it really shows there's no hope the rest of the crabs in a barrel.

Why do they even make these statements. Do they think the entire Western population put our heads in the sand and pretend we know nothing like these idiots. We grow up learning to think outside the flock and to question things. Don't they even have one person amongst them who lived in the West for years who can tell them how these kind of statements will be received? So much for attracting quality tourists. A long long way to go before they even have people who know how to use a mop properly(read,use clean water) let alone do a police job efficiently. The Chinese, Indians and Russians can have the place and good riddance.<br>

WOW!!! Where can I buy them ?

Like the sound of Alcohol Ice Cream

I do not think the thousands of " village shops " have a licence to sell alcohol or tobacco as you can buy these products from them at any time of day or night

Absolutely. When I lived in Isaan the kids would always be sent off to fetch gut rot Lao Kao and smokes for the adults. Must remember though that to the hi flying people who make these laws Thailand consists of only choice parts of Bangkok and at a push small slices of other cities they begrudgingly have to fly to on occasion to keep up the pretense of doing their job.

Is this some kind of a joke? Nothing will ever be done about it. They need to start at toddler level and work up so even if they took it seriously now, It would take at least two generations to stop the nose picking, Spot squeezing food venders. I remember on a daily basis the Rajdamri Big C male food hall vendors would be in the toilet and every time whether it was a piss or a shit there would be no hand washing. just a bit of water to straighten up the pathetic space helmet Korean boy band hairstyles was the only time the taps would be run.

"Most of our customers are between 20 and 30 years old, but in the afternoon many teenagers come to shop after their classes." From my experience should read MANY TEENAGERS COME TO SHOP WHEN THEY SHOULD BE IN THEIR CLASSES.

also really lucky that there was a cable car operating there, i didn't know there was a cable car service available in pattaya

Then there will be a CRACKDOWN on soi dogs sleeping on the tracks. The operator of any cable car in Pattaya would get beaten up and harassed daily by the baht bus mafia anyway. Remember the bus experiment?

It's really quite simple. These bus drivers are paid almost nothing, and the companies that hire them don't care if they get sleep. So naturally, they drink tons of these strong energy drinks (and probably some stronger illegal drugs), and think they can stay up. After driving buses back and forth for a few days their bodies crash, and they can't do anything else but fall asleep.

start paying bus drivers more, make them sleep, and there will be less crashes like this one.

Pay them more How much ???? to make them a safe driver. .....The companies to make them sleep, so they go to their homes and give them morphine at bed time. ....The driver has to be a responsible person, and qualified properly to do his job. You employ the wrong person you get these crashes. Like most work in Thailand I wonder if they insist on a UNI/diploma. ....This is a on going road problem, with only stupid transport ministry splashes of Ideas-instead of tackling the problem properly. Vetting drivers, their previous record, age. medical problems. A host of things to correct, AFTER that then give them a drivers min/wage, experience taken into consideration.

Would make no difference how much they're paid. I employed Thais, Paid them twice as much as Thais did on average, Supplied all food and soft drinks all day and to top it all off a paid day off each week. I found that far from gratitude in fact it was a case of give an inch take a yard. More so when working for Farangs . If I wasn't there nothing much would get done and most of the food and drinks from the fridge would be pilfered to take home. Take all you can get now and stuff tomorrow sadly is the Thai attitude.

Guess no Hi-So's, politicians or even any royal blooded ever take such buses, so there is no lobby / power to change and improve anything...

Sad but true, sometimes I feel like I am in Ghana here.

You are spot on, I was in Ghana some years ago too and Gerry Rawlings has that bag all tied up doesn't he. I remember I wouldn't see a daily paper without his ugly mug shot all over it.

I was in the U.S. Army for 20 years and never saw weapons stolen. It's easier to get into a bank than the weapons room on a U.S. military base.

Yes but you are real soldiers tried and tested in more than bombing temples or shooting people with catapults. And who did they turn to to sort it out? The Thai police. Don't hold your breath.

A good start might be taking a bulldozer through places like Pattaya. Round up all the bargirls on the streets. Quality tourists don't flock to Thailand for ladyboys and the sex industry.

I'd drive a buldozer through your house first....not everything in Pattaya is to do with sex.

Agreed...... you drive or I drive?

I'd drive something through him

A good start might be taking a bulldozer through places like Pattaya. Round up all the bargirls on the streets. Quality tourists don't flock to Thailand for ladyboys and the sex industry.

Thailand should not look a gift horse in the mouth. Very few "Quality" tourists are likely to bother with Thailand at all. The South of France is so much more inviting.

HERE HERE, You are a clever person and a man after my own heart. Hope you pass the quality human being test if rounded up.

TOO LATE TOO LATE THE MAIDEN CRIED. How about spreading the quality of life more evenly amongst your own people first you usurper.

A good start might be taking a bulldozer through places like Pattaya. Round up all the bargirls on the streets. Quality tourists don't flock to Thailand for ladyboys and the sex industry.

so called quality tourists don't flock anywhere except the Chinese owned gem and tacky rubbish shops their Chinese owned company guides take them. What is a quality person? are the rest of us untermensh? Who the F*** is this puppet ruler to talk about who is quality and who isn't? At the end of the day the frugal retirees spend their money in Thailand so the puppet leader shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. After all when what we all know will happen that we are not allowed to talk about{everyone dies} they'll be lucky to keep what they consider trash. By the way when the shit has ever hit the fan in Thailand us trash people have always stuck it out whilst the North East Asians and other QUALITY people have stopped coming or left in droves. The Thais need to think as wholesalers at present because turnover is what they have now but trying to make themselves into a Monte Carlo of Asia will not work. They need to teach their people to stop attacking and scamming visitors for a start. Or not to blow all the crap out of their noses whilst they're making your fried chicken might be a start. Don't forget also for every

group of bargirls/ladyboys there is a logistical support crew of food vendors,beauticians,pharmacists,clothing shoe and trinket sellers, and a multitude of other occupations that would be out of work if the domino effect of no Bar customer = No bargirl =I'm sure you can work it out. Just to end I rarely go to any bars myself these days but understand the meaning of HORSES FOR COURSES..

How long did the duty free scamming go on with nothing done about it? And if you all remember there was an outcry from several countries over that so I don't expect much to be done in a hurry about toilets or food prices etc.