noitom

Sure in his limited consciousness and world awareness he used it as a mock of the speaker leadership. However his use of the Heil Hitler salute demonstratively seeks to recruit support and support his cause. He uses the Heil Hitler salute to embrace support. What if all his supporters suddenly rose and in support, gave a Heil Hitler. Would this merely be supporting the pm by using the "innocent" Heil Hitler salute as a sort of mantra? What if they all Thais picked up on it as a 'neat" way to object? This repeating theme of Nazi symbolic aggrandizement in Thai cultural and society circles is quite disturbing . They obviously don't have a clue about the significance of such a gesture. Someone from the free world should clue them in. This would be a good opportunity for the newspaper to do an informative editorial and set the record staright.

The writer has all this inside information but it appears to be tripe and speculation. Without a quote, the writer makes all these claims of trust and deep knowledge of being inside Newin's and other's heads. It is abominable journalism. Tripe.

It was impossible to find this so called list of top 25 drug traffickers by the Thai Narcotics Control Board. http://en.oncb.go.th/file/narcotics.html

Does this list of top 25 really exist? I assume that the Thai Tak governor saw the list and disclosed it to the DKBA so it must be public information because he disclosed it. The DKBA then threatened reprisal. Wouldn't the threat of reprisal constitute an act of terrorist threat? Would foreign tourists crossing this border point from Thailand have a risk exposure? Kidnapping, murder,..etc.? What is really going on withing this area of Tak and with the DKBA. It would be helpful if the newspaper did an investigative journalism project on this and the "list." Tom determine in good faith what this serious situation is.

The newspaper should be called in to question for just merely posting a story like this without proper due diligence. Has the newspaper ever seen this top 25 list? Why can't we see this list and why don't they report in much more detail about the activities of the DKBA? What is the Thai government's position on the DKBA and its leader who is on the list, according to the Thai governor of Tak?

Street food is a reality because it is too expensive for the average Thai to go in to a restaurant, sit down, get service, and have lunch. There are also too few food courts where it is more reasonable than a 'restaurant." The government should open more food courts and this would be a good incentive for small business vendors. It would also clean up Bangkok and add some much needed health and sanitary regulations to the food serving business.

Thailand is dire. It's not the 300 baht per hour. That is a scapegoat. Thailand knows that the world is in economic crisis. Europe is in shambles and in recession. Even Germany has slowed substantially. Japan is still floundering and struggling with other social economic issues. China is slowing down and desperate to create new jobs. Yet Thais are in denial that their export driven economy with low unskilled labor being paid bare wages can blame this on the 300 baht minimum.

Thailand has done virtually nothing in decades to transition to more of a domestic economy, engage with the entire population, and to upgrade the education, knowledge, and skills of its people. The only Thai industry that holds promise for stable growth is sex tourism, the old standby reliable consistent trade.Fewer tourists with fewer discretionary euros, dollars, yen, won and renminbi will find it worth while to travel to a high cost center like Thailand for sex. There are no peripheral benefits for travelers to come here anymore. Prices are high, higher than the US in most cases for imported foods from Europe and Japan. Shopping is no longer a novelty as most goods found in shopping areas run the risk of being defected knockoffs.

Thailand is at a dire point. Let's see what they do. They'll thrash about blaming the minimum wage, and each other depending on their party, but no one will bite the bullet and stand up for the truth and the right thing to do for the nation as a whole. Thailand has few friends willing to trust it. Thailand has double crossed most of its partners or ignored most of its relationships with other countries. It thrashes about flipping and flopping between the US and Iran, it sues Germany repeatedly, it ignores the assistance of the Dutch on flood management. The French rarely use Thailand as a travel destination. The Japanese are retreating from unmanaged manufacturing relationships and flood control. Thailand is dire.

It's clearly the Bangladeshis' fault. As always Thais never need to take responsibility and be accountable for their actions. They are never at fault. No need to apologize to the Bangladesh airport management for any disruption caused and for their assistance to tow the plane in and assist the 15 bewildered, unapologetic, and innocent Thais. In the immortal words of George "Kingfish" Stevens - "I denies the allegations and resents the allegator."

"Only 0.3 per cent of the respondents chose "excellent".

"The survey was conducted among 63 economists"

Even if one economist chose 'excellent', that can't be as low as 0.3 percent. It can only by zero or 1.5%.

I've never been able to trust these surveys.

Spot on! One would think that the editors would run this simple check at any "professional" newspaper.

Thailand is dire. It's not the 300 baht per hour. That is a scapegoat. Thailand knows that the world is in economic crisis. Europe is in shambles and in recession. Even Germany has slowed substantially. Japan is still floundering and struggling with other social economic issues. China is slowing down and desperate to create new jobs. Yet Thais are in denial that their export driven economy with low unskilled labor being paid bare wages can blame this on the 300 baht minimum.

Thailand has done virtually nothing in decades to transition to more of a domestic economy, engage with the entire population, and to upgrade the education, knowledge, and skills of its people. The only Thai industry that holds promise for stable growth is sex tourism, the old standby reliable consistent trade.Fewer tourists with fewer discretionary euros, dollars, yen, won and renminbi will find it worth while to travel to a high cost center like Thailand for sex. There are no peripheral benefits for travelers to come here anymore. Prices are high, higher than the US in most cases for imported foods from Europe and Japan. Shopping is no longer a novelty as most goods found in shopping areas run the risk of being defected knockoffs.

Thailand is at a dire point. Let's see what they do. They'll thrash about blaming the minimum wage, and each other depending on their party, but no one will bite the bullet and stand up for the truth and the right thing to do for the nation as a whole. Thailand has few friends willing to trust it. Thailand has double crossed most of its partners or ignored most of its relationships with other countries. It thrashes about flipping and flopping between the US and Iran, it sues Germany repeatedly, it ignores the assistance of the Dutch on flood management. The French rarely use Thailand as a travel destination. The Japanese are retreating from unmanaged manufacturing relationships and flood control. Thailand is dire.

Congratulations to the student team. It's would be a step in the right direction for the newspaper to be covering this type of achievement more often.

The math doesn't check out. 2 million taxpaying entities on a tax base of 9 million. At best, what could the tax revenue be? Where does all this government money come from? There is never a standup reconciliation.

Tos and Tong - Chalit said he will "investigate further."

280 km/hour in the Porsche 911. Be grateful you weren't buzzing along at 100 enjoying some nice relaxing smooth jazz when this guy came up behind you at that speed.

Any chance of Thai drug kingpins being arrested? I thought not.

There are no "kingpins" in Thailand. The perpetrators are always "runners" and little guys, soldiers, and fall guys. Kingpins don't exist nor are the authorities interested in discovering if such a species exists in Thailand.

So when does The Nation stop pontificating and start doing its due diligence and investigative journalism? When does The Nation start tracking down the Mr. Bigs and pulling them in to the limelight with no place to run and no place to hide? When will The Nation become a real newspaper?

They are "planning" and "proposing" to build this high speed railway from these points to those points. They are planning and proposing to build a global port in dead center of the confluence of the Burma, Sunda, and Eurasia tectonic plates in the Andaman Sea. But we don't see any follow up to the soot and smoke that killed citizens and caused thousands to flee and have health problems in the Chiang Mai region as the result of slash and burn tactics.

There is no follow up on the Bangkok building fires where fire departments waited until they got approval from building owners to break down the door and enter to extinguish the fires. We don't see any follow up about regulations, fire codes, and building standards or education of selfish drivers to make room for firetrucks. Likewise, we don't see any follow up about the buildings constructed illegally on canals and therefore, inhibiting proper flood drainage. Where is the beef?

How can anyone take these preposterous Thai engineering and infrastructure projects like the port, the railway, and the bridges seriously? Why can't Thais and Thai newspapers get their priorities straight? Why do they keep repeating the same things expecting the results to be different? Thai "schemes and plans" are preposterous. Why don't they announce a step by step plan with action points to re-educate the nation and upgrade its standards? Why don't we read about their engineering plans to build dental bridges in the mouths of millions of its citizenry outside Bangkok where they are totally ignored and hanging around with few teeth and often none? Why don't we read about schemes and plans to engineer running water for flushing toilets in millions of homes that are now not piped for it? Same for Internet lines.

What is it about Thais that they always seem to propose the most laughable, preposterous schemes and ludicrous plans while ignoring the most basic, obvious, and fundamental societal needs? Why do they consistently turn their backs on impoverished Thais "working the land for survival" on an indentured basis? Why do they deny Internet freedom and concrete realistic educational reforms with how to do it management? Why are there no leaders and no leadership that is capable of representing Thailand on the global stage or at least inspire? Why do they "deny" corruption and massive deterioration of society by denying prostitution and sex tourism? A nation in denial.

Bridge, rail, and port building is fine, but not layered on top of these fundamental and unaddressed issues as a hair brained, laughable - Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg scheme. Thais need to adjust priorities and thinking. They need a check up from the neck up. If the Thais had a world renowned psychiatrist in their midst, they would make a great leader. It's clearly a class segmented and stratified society with serious egocentric and over inflated sense of self importance problems. It would be nice to see an illuminated point of view once in a while as well as real leadership. At the very least, it would be encouraging to see informative and educational newspaper work that really has an impact.

Why has webfact posted a picture of Gene Simmons air guitaring?

Very good!

"Thai analysis" is an oxymoron.

Preposterous comments. Preposterous perspective on reality. If the newspaper wanted to do a professional job, it would initiate an investigative journalism project on this whole subject rather than just reprinting frivolous and preposterous comments by Thai officials.. Get at the source and ferret out the Mr. Bigs and follow the money. A good place to start might be the major universities in Thailand and their blatant and illegal copying of textbooks and then reselling the copies to students for half the price of the originals.

A second place to start is the MBKs and other locations where there is a "factory" within striking distance of the retail outlet. Follow the runner, get at the operation of the factory, follow the money up to Mr. Big. A third place to start would be to realistically calculate the true black economy value of counterfeit movies, software, books, clothes etc.. in Thailand. Get real, get professional. The newspaper's investigative journalism should be like a stray dog with a piece of red raw meat in its mouth. Once some thorough investigation was documented, then start investigating the corruption of police and rule of law.

Start dragging these Mr. Bigs into the public limelight. Compel the government to take action. Reality, action, and relentless followup will motivate countries to see Thailand's true motives and sincerity. Until then everything relating to this subject is preposterous and the whole outside world knows it. Thais are delusional about this issue.

This looks like a traditional case of Thai double crossing. This time its their South Korean partners. The Thais will presumably get a name or manufacture a name of a little guy and then take pictures when they bust him. There will be no further news as the case was broken. It was imported to a little Thai guy posing as a Mr. Big. There will be no Thai Mr. Bigs arrested or even charged. There will be no further newspaper follow up as to why/how the South Koreans fraudulently represented the shipment of pseudoephedrine as "automotive supplies." The case has been broken.

Private equity investors seem to favor low labor cost, corruption and graft, and lack of rule of law to investing in their own countries in Europe, the US, Australia, Japan, and elsewhere. Instead of investing in Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg type projects at the behest of the Thais, they should be looking to invest in opportunities at home where corruption at least is occasionally policed with arrests and trials of Mr. Bigs, rule of law is enforceable, and investigative journalism does its job on a regular basis. These same private investors then express shock and concern when Thais sidestep and reneg on agreements, squander funds, and never complete projects within standards. They also voice concern and request "clarification" with new leaders when the military overthrows the sitting legal governments. Foreign private equity investors seem very adept at repeating the same mistakes expecting the results to be different in Thailand.

The tremendous Thai engineering expertise will be at work here developing a project that is risk-free on the border of the Burma,Sunda, and Eurasia plates and high risk area for more disastrous earthquakes and following tsunamis. It's a certainty that the Thais and their proposed investors have thought this through. Let's do it and get that funding flowing through the proper coffers first, then worry about safety, security, and risk later. Whatever happened to the foreign lawsuits relating to the failed highway project along Don Muang going north and the Thai finger pointing, circular blaming, and reneging on agreements? And the Cinese tablets? In typical tradition, The Nation newspaper raises all these issues and then drops them just as spontaneously.