Steely Dan

Of course the foreigners will be blamed for pulling out their money leading to them being made scapegoats for a failing economy, which could cause a negative cycle if foreigners feel less welcome and start leaving, and with the archaic and protectionist land and employment laws who could blame them?

It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Non-chinese thais who can afford to start investment or venture capital firms usually got their start through some form of nepotism or family connections. Thus the business expertise may not be there. The thai-chinese have been making money hand over fist through the typical overseas Chinese business ingenuity for centuries.

Indeed. But what an admission of weakness...

Basically, the thais thais if i may say are peasants, servants and employees. And will remain so.

And the thai chinese businesses feed the... new thai chinese businesses, through venture capital.

So basically, by pushing away the "foreign" venture capital, the thais are loosing the only way to finance thais thais companies.

It's perfect.

What I find mind boggling is that the Thai Baht is so strong, will there be a sudden realisation of whats happening and the Baht plummet to 50 to the dollar overnight? Well years ending in a '7' have a turbulent history in Asia so who knows? Anyone for a condo in Pattaya?

Its a bit like having a finance minister who says that he has no interest in economics or that he decides exchange rate policy by nipping into Kasikorn once a week to check the money boards.

Unbelievable and unforgiveable such a Luddite is in charge of policy so crucial to a nations future.

India, China, Korea etc must get a real laugh and sense of relief that there really will be no IT competition from Thailand hearing things like this.

I think you greatly underestimate the Thai IT minister. By restricting access to porn sites and banning Youtube he has probably done wonders in educating the average Thai teenager in the use of anonymous proxies. Next week he needs to come out against object orientation and GUI front ends to get them off networked games and into writing websites.

the last time I expressed my opinion on radical who go around killing and bombing people I was barred from writing any post for a week because I was not politically correct before I become one of them I will stop posting my true feelings I lost my sister in law in 9-11 and it devasted my brother as well as my mother who is still alive she will be 90 in august so any one who want me to be politically correct can kiss my azz I am sorry I do not agree with the police that the motive is political due to the coup on PM Thaksin I suspect it trouble from the south coming north to show there strenth if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck it not a chicken

Whilst not wanting to pre-judge the culprit(s) A truck bomb killing 100 rammed into a tourist hotel is more the trademark of the nihilistic death cult that spawned from political Islam. The unrest in Southern Thailand was never on such a scale but even so if Southern agitators were the culprits I would have expected a larger bomb than yesterdays. I would still lean towards an anti-coup individual as being the most likely culprit with an outside chance that someone supporting the coup arranged the bomb themselves to gain political capital for the current government.

My Wife's surgery is in Phayao, I'd better tell her not to eat at the hospital canteen when she visits there tommorow. It's particularly ironic that the food was served a funeral.

I don't see how this is funny. The guy was driving drunk, fled the scene of a crime, damaged property, fled the police, had a weapon. He also wasted government resources in calling out a special unit to deal with the situation. This guy should be put in jail for a couple years. They certainly wouldn't let a Thai get off so easy. But 13,000 plus Thai work in Israel. Thailand is more about money than morality.

Having just (erroneously) been charged 700 Baht tea money for bringing a duty paid camera into the Country I am gobsmacked at a 500 baht fine for colliding with 3 cars and taking an Elephant hostage. Looking at the realpolitik yes many Thais work in Israel, but furthermore an Israeli tourist was allegedly stabbed to death by the son of the mayor of Ko Pangan and the inevitable cover up will no doubt anger Israel as it is, hence two wrongs are used to make a 'right'.

After some negotiation my wife agreed on a figure to pay, she explained that showing them the tax invoice would cause them to lose face and would result in them extracting money for something even more spurious.

the underlying problem in a nutshell ,

and , as blatantly FALSE as the Emperors new clothes ...........................

Of course, I must have made it all up being delusional being mugged after a long flight. Of course customs don't give you a hastily scrawled official looking document without filing a copy away for accounting purposes. Never would they merely pocket their tea money any more than they would sit on sea freight for months whilst extorting money out of some farang. Of course Song Taews treat their customers in a standard manner and border police never have a bad day at the office either.

Thailand operates as a boutique banana republic with the pretensions to being something grander but has more in common with some African regimes than with other asian tigers. Roll on the currency crisis and dont forget to stash your savings in dollars or Euros.

I was afraid that my post should be thus misinterpreted ......................

I was suggesting that the concept of face was comparable to the Emperors new clothes in this instance ,

NOT casting dispersions on your story .

mid

spelling

Mid,

Sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusion, I was strung out with jetlag. As a follow up the wife and I went to immigration and had it confirmed to us that we should not have been charged seeing we only brought in one camera which was allowable as personal posessions. The guideline seems to be one of each type of item is allowable the rest is discretionary, we had 12 packets of tea with us which we were told is more plausable than say bringing in say 20 books to read over a 30 day period. I suspect customs are given revenue quotas to meet and we were just unlucky, though next time we will clear customs in Bangkok rather than having our bags checked through to Chiangmai.

With over 40k family income you should be able to extend your stay on a yearly basis at an Immigration office. This will also allow you to obtain work permits for that period rather than renew every 90 days. Seems as if that should be your goal. I would visit Immigration with with and they should have printout of exactly what documents you will need.

If you just want a multi entry visa only KL is likely to issue. Singapore will normally issue if you can show bank account of 400k or more.

I can confirm it's the 40K joint income they require and NOT the bank account balance of 400K having just got back from seeing immigration. This results in a Kafkaesque situation for anyone if they are cash rich, under 50, married to a Thai national, but lacking a degree/teaching qualification and not desiring to 'invest' the 3 million Baht required to set up a Thai company - If such individuals exist how do they stay here?

The 1992 Travel Agency Business and Guide Act says that only Thai nationals can operate such businesses. In addition, tour guides in particular are on List 3 of the Foreign Business Act, which classifies business in which Thai nationals are not yet ready to compete with foreigners."

Why is it that 15 years later the Thai's still can't compete? I mean, they still haven't got the hang of showing people around their own Country!

Shocking other feelings, or cultural assets? Well, what about those wonderful thai people who wear daily Tshirt with svatiska (the left one, the nazi one.... not the right one, the indian one)... Does it not hurt feelings of those who lost familly in Daachau, or Bergen-Belsen? ....

Off-topic but:

The swastika (from Sanskrit svástika स्वास्तिक ) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either left-facing (卍) or right-facing (卐) forms. The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. The Thai greeting sawasdee is from the same root, carrying the same implication.

It is a widely-used cultic symbol in Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism). Hindus often decorate the swastika with a dot in each quadrant. In India, it is common enough to be a part of several Devanagari fonts. It is also a symbol in the modern unicode. It is often imprinted on religious texts, marriage invitations, decorations etc. It is used to mark religious flags in Jainism and to mark Buddhist temples in Asia.

From Wikipedia

Well did you READ what I wrote? There is a distinction(difference) btw the left-facing and the right-facing one, I am sorry the 'know all' wiki did not refer to that!!!! To make it simple, right = good luck, left = bad luck. The right one is traditional, as you explain so well, but the left one is not used.

Anyway if you live in Bkk, and walk on the streets you will understand (take a look in MBK, and let me know what you think about the shops selling those Tshirts, replic of german helmets, iron cross, or other like nazi stuffs .... hard to be confuse btw a legitimate religious symbol and something else).

Even in the case I was confuse, I do not think it reduce the value of my comment : that law is another door open on the real world that will be close.

When the said T-shirts have the word NAZI's printed on them left or right facing becomes a moot point. I still don't think I would take offence as I suspect the average Thai has no idea who the Nazi's were any more than they know what the Punk rock movement stood for. Still sensibilities being offended seems to be a one way street here; - There is a range of janitorial products on sale called 'Black Man' with a logo some may find offensive.

Anyway whatever the law says it will be circumvented as quick as you can say anonymous proxy.

Why improve service and be more competitive when you can just have the government load the dice even more in your favour?

Banana republicanism at it's finest.

I guess the year 3000 is a realistic target for Thailand to join the WTO, no wonder Vietnam is growing at twice the rate Thailand is, wait till tourists discover they also have beaches.

After some negotiation my wife agreed on a figure to pay, she explained that showing them the tax invoice would cause them to lose face and would result in them extracting money for something even more spurious.

the underlying problem in a nutshell ,

and , as blatantly FALSE as the Emperors new clothes ...........................

Of course, I must have made it all up being delusional being mugged after a long flight. Of course customs don't give you a hastily scrawled official looking document without filing a copy away for accounting purposes. Never would they merely pocket their tea money any more than they would sit on sea freight for months whilst extorting money out of some farang. Of course Song Taews treat their customers in a standard manner and border police never have a bad day at the office either.

Thailand operates as a boutique banana republic with the pretensions to being something grander but has more in common with some African regimes than with other asian tigers. Roll on the currency crisis and dont forget to stash your savings in dollars or Euros.

.....................and female condoms (Femidom in UK) are like small tunnels that are inserted with a kind of ridge around the outside - somewhat like a ziplock bag.

I was told there is a religion that the man covers all his body in a sheet with only his pecker poking through as they are not allowed to touch the female, anyone heard this one ?

I think this is rumoured to be what takes place on orthodox Jews wedding nights; still it beats getting turned into a pillar of salt I suppose.

not there yet, but with the US GDP coming in at a paltry 1.3% , its only a matter of time before Thailand takes it on the chin....

Four Asian nations hit by 1997-98 financial crisis face vulnerability

Thailand now faces greater risks due to a decline in the ratio of foreign reserves to short-term debt and an increase in short-term capital inflows.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/19/news/currency.php

I agree with you. but maybe not got the same reason.

Thailand is facing another financial crisis vulnerability because huge hedge funds and investment banks have taken position on the thai baht. As such Thailand is now at the mercy of those forign speculators that can decide to draw out and repeat the same crisis as in 97. Unfortunatly this is now a problem not only for thailand but for the whole world. the Huge fund mangers have only one consideration and that is to make more and more profits. they dont care if they can ruin a country or devestate an economy while doing so.

All the economical factors are in favour for thailand to continue growth but a bunch of greedy speculators can realy rock the boat.

there is no way to stop this as if you put limitations on short-term capital inflows the speculators are going to go to the govermants and complain about thailands monitary policy and thailand does not want tpo upset the americans or the europeans. so at the end of the day a few greedy managers are basicly running the world.

Highdiver, You hit the nail on the head! I have posted multiple times on this subject but most people here just don't get it. When the hedge funds decide to get out of their investments and change their baht back in to euros and U.S. dollars then the Thai baht will do an absolute backflip. People don't realize the size and scope of these funds to change capital markets overnight and ruin a small countries economy as well, and you are correct that absolute greed is the only thing that motivates these people. It is truely unconsionable how governments both in the U.S. and Europe have been bought off and make no attempt to have any regulation or oversight on these hedge fund criminals. A good example was the democratic debate in south carolina yesterday, the moderator asked john edwards and hillary clinton the same question about what they would do to institute some oversight on the hedge fund industry if elected and both candidates completely dodged the question and talked about something else. The next question in the debate was directed toward chris dodd (a senator from conneticut that the hegde fund industry has in its back pocket) and you could see senator dodd sweating bullets thinking that he might be getting the same question on the hegde fund industry, but sadly the moderator seeing that he was not going to get a straight answer about hedge funds from these candidiates, changed the line of questioning and you could see the immediate relief on chris dodds face. Just as Jesus overturned the carts of the moneychangers in the temple, we need someone in power with a strong loyal following to turn over the carts of the hedge funds and watch as the cockroaches scrurry, if something isn't done soon then I feel that the price to pay will be devestating.

if you have proof that this is actually happening, then, let us all see it. otherwise, all this conspiracy stuff is old stuff, and the only thing it does is make foreigners more anti-american.

on the other hand, since you seem to think this is true, perhaps you can tell us all what thailand can do to stop this so-called conspiracy being implemented by evil rich americans?

your conspiracy theories are making it so that win or lose, america will look like the one to blame.

jesus, can't someone in this world take the blame for something THEY did for once?

yeah. maybe I am naive about all the evil in this world. so, please enlighten me. but some more constructive thought would help instead of just all the accusations. thank you.

Nick, First of all there is no conspiracy theory going on here, hegde funds and arbitragers have been with us for a while now and their size, strength, and political clout has grown into something that would make the tabacco industry evious. Secondly, this is not a uniquely american phenomonon there are many european hedge funds manipulating the thai market as well as many other markets in asia and elseware. Last week on 60 minutes (or maybe it was 20-20) there was a segment on just this, and senator grassley who had the guts to put forward some rather tame hegde fund legislation on the senate floor was interviewed and said that within 10 minutes of introducing his bill on the senate floor he was contacted by multiple parties(both other senators and lobbyists) to kill the bill. In this same segment it was made clear that on multiple occasions senator dodd has killed similiar bills and then 60 minutes went on to say that dodd recieved over 5 million dollars from the hedge fund industry in his last campaign. These are the hard cold facts my friend, I only wish it was just a bad dream or some bogus conspiracy theory. By the way americans are not to blame but instead are victims of these hedge funds as well. Perhaps when the valuation on the baht does reverse dramatically and some journalist can lay out just how all this occured, then perhaps you will not be so naive the next time around.

ok. I am not disbelieving you. especially if 60 minutes brought the subject up.

...if some senators and some lobby groups tried to stop this hegde fund legislation, then, these people need to be identified before anybody can do anything. so, the big question is - can you identify who these senators and lobbyist are?

on the same token, since you say that there are american and european hedge funds who are causing all these evil deeds here in thailand, can you identify them so that ALL thais will know who they are?

to fight an evil, you must first know who you are fighting. right?

name the hedge funds.

being a small speck, I certainly cannot do much. but I am sure there are others with more "influence" who can.

expose the hedge funds.

Nick, You just don't get it do you? The United States Congress is so impetent and scared that they cannot pass legislation to regulate or at the very least lend some transparency to the hedge fund industry. In Eurpoe it is the same way, but at least the discussion seems to be "on the table" over there. These funds act with impunity and have absolutly no transparency so what do you think that you could possibly do? I tell you what if you check out the phone books for Darien conneticut, Boca Raton FL., northern N.J., Toronto Canada, Bermuda, the Bahanas, the cayman islands and Berlin you might have a good start as most of the power players in the hedge fund industry operate from these locals. Good luck my friend, perhaps you have the power to do what the U.S. congress obviously doesn't have the balls to attempt!

we only have your accusations. no proof. if you know personally ANY hedge funds who are causing these conspiracies as you claim they are doing, bring it out so that people can confront them.

as for the "other guy" who asked me how I "know" that there is a lot of anti-american sentiment here in thailand. you only have to read the newspapers here to get the general idea of what is going on. gee, you really don't need to go that far either. why, just read the replies from thais on thaivisa.

we are starting to get off-topic here. so, I will stop.

I agree with the above replies you got. and apart from you it seems that other members "dont get it"

Forex is the largest market in the world with a daily turn over of Trillions of dollars. not billions but trillions.

the largest players on this court are usualy central banks and heavy players in forex.

by the way the largest player by far is the US Federal Reserve. some would even go as far as saying that it is the Americans who by sheer ratio are actually controlling this market and do so to promote american interests.

The Hedge Funds and the private equiry funds have become in the last Few years very big players.

some of those funds are called by economists "dumb money" as the investors in those funds dont realy understand what it is the fund is investing in or where the mony is invested they just want to see profis at the end of the year.

Those large funds are making huge amounts of money. and it was published last week about the salaries that some of those hedge funds manages get they were in billions.

Edward S. Lampert made $1.02 billion, while his firm, ESL Investments, raked in a 69 percent return on investment.

Besides Lampert, others in the top 10 of hedge fund managers included James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, $670 million; Bruce Kovner of Caxton Associates, $550 million; Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors, $450 million; David Tepper of Appaloosa Management, $420 million; George Soros of Soros Fund Management, $305 million (Soros was number one in 2003, with $750 million); Paul Tudor Jones II of Tudor Investment Corp., $300 million; Kenneth Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, $240 million; Raymond Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, $225 million; and Israel Englander of Millennium Partners, $205 million.

and that just the americans.

do you undesratand that those guys with those salaries are controlling billions dollar funds and the only objective they have is to make more money and have a bigger return.

Hedge-fund assets globally broke through the $1 trillion mark in July, 2004, with funds invested in Asia approaching 6% of that total.

Dozens of these funds have set up shop in Asia in the past 24 months, hoping to find lucrative opportunities outside the crowded capital markets in Europe and the United States. So why are they investing in Asia and in Thailand??? because the growth rate is better and the lack of monitary controls enable them to do ehat they want.

Aggressive hedge fund managers normally take positions designed to profit from a market decline if one is expected, and perhaps no market "correction" has been as widely anticipated as the latest one in March. Fund managers in Asia were warning of an imminent slide in markets as far back as December. What is surprising about the latest expected drop was how few hedge fund managers appeared to have taken such positions.

Instead, they were trying to take advantage of the bull market for Asian stocks and bonds.

Short-selling, or betting that stocks will fall, is not allowed in some Asian equity markets, but determined short-sellers can use financial derivatives and options to achieve the same effect. When stocks started to move down, though, investors will jumped out en masse, making drops even steeper.

do you understand they are actually going to win a lot of money by crashing the stocks?? do you understand that they are world wide players that can afford to loose in one game if they win more on another? do you understand that The Thai economy is nothing for them and with a single decision they can destroy the country and create another crisis and that at the end of the day they make more moeny from doing it??

But today it is not just the hedge funds that act like hedge funds It is also the proprietary desks of banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Because the banks' traders and hedge fund managers are compensated on the short-term trading profits they make they are not interested any more in Long term investments . they are playing god to other countris so the bonus at the ned of the year will be bigger.

the crisis is coming soon unless the thai govermant and infact every other asian country will take steps to controll forign investement and capital controll. Meanwhile, a 167 percent increase in Vietnam's benchmark stock market index has sparked fears that Hanoi will impose capital controls to keep foreign speculative investments out. Thailand put controls on incoming portfolio capital in December, although it has been relaxing them steadily since then due to international pressure by.... yes you are right those with the big salaries above.

Highdiver, It seems that you can try and explain the situation at hand until you are blue in the face and it really does not matter because some people just don't want to face reality. You are right on about Goldman and Morgan Stanley as well as other large investment banks on wall street and in Europe. I have a friend (who seems to have lost his moral copass years ago) who worked for an arbitrage firm for many years and is now a Sr. VP with Goldman in Manhattan and his clients are virtually all hegde funds, among them some of the Conneticut scumbags that you mentioned. Its funny how quickly the Thai government eased up on the capital controls that they instituted in December 06. I have no doubt that is why the finance minister eventually quit, he obviously could see clearly what was going on and what the fallout would be when the bottom falls out. Thailand really needs to get a newly elected government and constitution ASAP, and they need to institute some well thought out capital controls that will be in the interest of Thailands economy for the long run. In the mean time I fear that when the slide does begin it will be steep and compounded by the hedge funds piling on the short side. I find it kind of funny (sad actually) that so many posters here equate a strong currency with a strong economy, on one of the forums here posters are actually predicting the euro and pound to be 160+ and 240+ respectivley vs. the U.S. dollar by years end, they just don't understand how crippling that would be for the Brittish and European economies. As you well know the US government is loving the weak dollar because it is lowering their trade defecit daily and at the same time keeping uemployment at historic lows and increasing U.S. corporate profits and thus tax revenues, and of course because of that the U.S. stock market has been on a tear recently setting all time highs in virtually every average. Finally in answer to Nicks question, yes there is evil in the world and it is personified by these amoral hedge fund billionaires in Conneticut and elseware who don't care how many peoples lives they destroy as long as they increase their net worth by another 500 million dollars by years end.

Hedge funds will not be stopped until they destroy the world economy as the bubble they inflated bursts. That said Thailand has inflamed the situation by putting itself on the radar of the hedge funds courtesy of the Coup and its protectionist regulations and lack of transparancy. I recently returned to Thailand after my honeymoon to be mugged by customs trying to extract duty on a camera I paid UK duty on. After some negotiation my wife agreed on a figure to pay, she explained that showing them the tax invoice would cause them to lose face and would result in them extracting money for something even more spurious. I can quite see how Vietnam is growing at 8% and Thailand less than 4%, indeed Vietnam is planning to compete with India in the provision of English language call centers, which will require a long term co-ordinated approach to education, the chances of this happening in Thailand are sadly zero.

I wonder what is the target....Karokes?, night clubs?....

Anyone with enough money to pay for it, I would imagine Cocaine is priced well out of reach for 99% of Thai people.

Customers will be Farang expats, tourists and wealthier Thais.

The Stella Artois slogan 'reassuringly expensive' springs to mind. When are the governments of the world going to get real and treat drugs as a fiscal issue and not a moral one? - Though I guess no time soon if the wars for oil are any guideline.

SKO,

I like your style.

This is a horrible thing to happen to anyone. How can a simple loss of face,wich can be as individuale as sliced cheese, be met with such violence. Is'nt such over reaction a greater loss of face?

Why are so many on TV ready to blame the victims?

I worked in to many bars for to many years as security and can tell you RANDOM violence can be just that random. No reason except in the minds of the penile deficiants who commit it.

The 'reasons' probably boiled down to a combination of an adverse football result and hysteria whipped up due to Toxins business dealings with Singapore. Distill this down to a drunken miasma and the local detritus will do the rest. Samui is only a microcosm of the world though, alienation and a large 'foreign' population result in the same thing everywhere, though I suspect this will get worse due to a deteriorating world economic situation. I fear this will result in the same tourists who boosted the economy being driven away in a vicious cycle as they are scapegoated for local economic problems.

P.S Any news of prosecutions in the case of the Israeli murdered at the full moon party?

Seems like punishments week here in Thailand

This guy death penalty for drugs and another guy life sentence for murder. Seems equitable in a way that this guy might have killed hundreds, if not thousands and made equal number of families suffer. A small money and thousands or probably millions of people suffer from such acts.

Although, I do not like the idea of death penalty, however, I think if not death penalty than what could possibly stop him for doing any such thing in the future and deter the rest of the potential drug dealers.

As for a poster claiming that the laws of one country should apply to its citizens no matter where they committed the crime. Sounds like a good idea but it would defeat the very own purpose of the law, i.e. equal for everyone. For example if a Singaporean citizen get caught dealing in drugs in Australia then he should be hanged, seems unfair to me, as Australian law must be applied to everyone equally, same with the Singapore law, i.e. they dont care about how committed the crime, they apply the law equally IMO.

Hmmm, 'might have killed hundreds if not thousands' I wonder how many Mr Chang or Mr Krung Thrip have killed, but then again they pay loads of tax and don't suffer the prohibition which leads to such price distortions that killing a drug trafficer is like cutting the head off the hydra as two more grow in it's place. I'm not saying the smuggler was motivated by anything other than greed, but lets try and mix some perspective with the morality.

The report is INCORRECT

Why dont the reporters check their dictionary !

LiBEL involves publishing IN WRITING . Sontee spoke at a rally.

The word that should have be used is as correctly mentioned below in the Bangkok Post what clearly has an English proof checker

In English law you can only claim damages for Slander when you show the financial loss you have incurred.

A disgraceful law if you cannot speak your mind ...a disgraceful decision

Activist Sondhi gets 2 years for slander

(Bangkok Post)

I believe you will find that it being televised does indeed make it libel in most places

The law in the US defines libel as "a written defamation communicated to a third party." Spoken defamation that fits the same standard is slander.

There is no "the law" in ther US for slander/libel .... it varies by state

Two years sounds lenient to me compared to a recent court case we aren't allowed to discuss.

Hmmm,

Only 25 seconds to access porn! He must have the 1000 Baht a month broadband then.

By the way does anyone know whether sex aids are illegal in Thailand as I once heard from some bloke in a pub, and if so on what grounds other than that face thing again?

Nevertheless, the marine police are continually preventing drug dealers from smuggling Ecstasy into the country by sea.

.....

He says no fishing trawlers have been found to smuggle illicit drugs into the country yet, but officials will continue to inspect them.

.....

The drugs are usually hidden in tour buses, public buses, private cars, and letters.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 27 March 2007

E, AFAIK, is a drug easily made in anybody's garage. Is there much international smuggling of it going on?

Actually there are more than one ways to manufacture MDMA, neither of which are straight forward to the layman, also certain precursor chemicals are restricted making access more difficult. As an aside I was looking for Sal Alluminac (used in the glass industry as a soldering iron tip cleaner) only to learn it was prohibited in Thailand as it was used somewhere in the process of preparing heroin.

But but this is Thailand, losing face is wery important here. We need to accept that and embrace this culture. *spit*

I know I'm going to tread on some sensibilities here, but would you give the time of day to a Los Angeles gang member who blows someone away for not showing RESPECT? For respect read face, and frankly I don't care if this sounds condescending but face needs relegating to extinct anthropological record along with female circumcision, honour killings, cannibalism and the strict interpretation of sharia law.

The cops involved in this deserve to be in jail for life. Pigs like this are the reason why Thailand has so many problems. The police here need to be cleaned up with a purge by the military. The policehave always been the mafia. They deserve no respect from the people of Thailand. And I have heard that the initial cause of the southern violence is the result of sending corrupt cops and soldiers from the rest of Thailand to the southernmost provinces as punishment. They were put there instead of being fired. They abused the locals and now we have endless violence.

As Thaksin had his war on drugs, the current government needs to have War on Corruption focused on getting rid of all mafia in Thailand including corrupt police. If 2,000 corrupt cops were removed as Thaksin did with the 'drug dealers' Thailand would be a lot better off.

Ah, another war on... I feel a major rant coming on. I found out about this case by logging onto Thaivisa and not through my wife, a fact which bothers me. You see my wife is one of the most compasionate people you could meet, someone who campaigned to get rid of Thaksin for his corruption, so why the silence? I put it down to a fatigue with the status quo here which is currently one of a redneck/mafia society. Now hideous beastial acts can be committed by all nationalities and tend to be a feature of the feral disenfranchised underclass of most developed societies. What I find so deeply disturbing here is how the mafia here get a uniform and paypacket and the trappings of official office, yet they seem to have the sole function of upholding the status quo and not the law.

So what can be done? I would say a good start would be to keep this incident in the eyes of the international press and by all means try to raise comphensation for the victim. This should be comphensation and NOT hush money or the status quo will be unfortunately maintained. As a personal wish I would like a body such as amnesty international highlight incidents where a Countries treatment of its citizens falls so far below internationally recognised norms, unfortunately that is a can of worms that will probably never get opened.

... And another Z-turn from our beloved Miss "doctor" Tarisa : 2 other "exemptions" !

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) confirmed that by early next week, it would revoke the 30-per-cent withholding requirement for foreign borrowing for direct investment of companies in Thailand.

You know what ? I start to think that one day she will say : "we keep the 30 % withholding requirement, however... all the transactions are exempted".

She will drain the cup to the dregs...

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/01/24...es_30024981.php

I guess financial speculators are amusing themselves by trading the flow of consciousness decrees from the BOT, the Baht is 3% up against sterling today

The recent volatility in the Thai stock market seems to be the first seizmic rumble indicating that the outside world is liable to become more risk averse with respect to Thailand, though thus far the currency seems to be blissfully isolated from the effects of the coup. I therefore welcome a return to a democratically elected government a.s.a.p as I dread to think what might happen if the event we can't discuss comes to pass whilst the military are still in charge.

Thailand is also a huge exporter of seafood and seafood products as well as being the USA's major offshore supplier of chicken.

So they can swim.