me313

It always amazes me to hear about the Philippines, the poverty and despair. Makes me wonder why that country adamantly clings to a strict no birth control or abortion policy to curb the poverty. The Pope (Francis) did advise that country, in his latest tour of that country, not to "breed like rabbits", but the clergy and corresponding legal system refuses to alter laws prohibiting abortion or birth control.

I feel very confident that the Russian Oligarchs are happily enjoying a prosperous New Year, and await a continuation of their prosperity for the year to come, now solidified with the weakening of the Russian middle classes, who now can't afford (for the most part) to vacation in Thailand this year.

I don't consider anyone a "failure" who can't cope with rising costs. I live in Phuket and I hear from Thai people that the cost of living is much higher. When I review YouTube videos of open air markets the prices of locally grown produce like coconuts has risen, the price of rent has risen, and it's not going to stop rising. If you live on a restricted budget, I say there is no reason to feel any sense of failure whatsoever in this regard.

Due to internet interference, I tried editing my post above and was unable to, and because I spent time trying to fight the internet disruption (due to my local WiFi connection) that put so much of what I had written into a shortened version of what I'd like to add to the post, I'm going to repost--I see that I cannot even delete what I had written above, but I feel determined. I also want to add that I used to live in Miami, in the area called South Beach. I witnessed what was a more quiet but tourist-based economy become an international party scene investment community, which has proven to be a bonanza for some investors, but for the people who used to enjoy peaceful quiet mornings on the beach and a more unique and interesting scene, it turned into a corporate venture that has made that area lose it's former charm. I see the tell-tale signs here in Phuket, so from the many recent developments I read of, I see emerging the same sort of pattern. The world is turning into a global corporate enterprise, or I see it's tentacles reaching here. So, I repost with a few additional flourishes to my two paragraphs above:

Phuket is going to become a much more expensive place to live for both ex-pats living here as well as the local Thai population. As emphasis shifts from attracting a volatile and unstable short-term tourist market to high-end corporate and Real Estate investment and development, focus will concentrate on long-term investment strategies with the aim of bringing in these corporate entities to settle and operate in Phuket. Accordingly, property prices will exponentially soar (this might take a few more years to go into effect). The demographic might shift, as the local Thai population who cannot keep up with inflated prices move out, and more well-off ex-pats and other more affluent nationals will move in with their operations based out, or partially out of, Phuket.

I further predict that the fantastic, relatively new string of luxury hotels lining the beach cliff areas of Phuket will host conferences by some of these corporate concerns. There might be international expos, or other global marketing conferences. There may be a shift to attracting high tech operations into Phuket to form a new Asian high-tech sector. Much more of the newly built beach-front property that lines the Andaman Coast from Nai Harn to Surin will acquire a high-end retail and business office look and feel. This has already begun many years ago, but I believe the shift from tourism to corporate and high-end Real Estate will hold precedence. I think this transition from a middle-value tourist market to high-end corporate investment has been a coveted goal for a while now in the inner circles of those who plan such transitions in the Phuket economy. It seems apparent when I observe how local poorer entrepreneurs who had run family businesses along the beaches are now deemed an eye-sore, as they lose their former livelihoods so the beaches can become pristine and devoid of unsightly shacks and umbrellas. This will make reclining on the beach after a days' work at the new corporate structures for the upcoming long-term corporate investors more attractive. The now disenfranchised or slowly deteriorating local economy which has enjoyed operating on beaches will be superceded by the much more lucrative corporate structure. I can see many changes in the political and local government offices such as the police, as some offices are being shifted to specialized units or other merging into a larger more centralized structural form. This will make for a more efficient corporate structure, albeit I think labor laws will somehow be pushed to the outer rim of concern as centralization for profit will be the prime focus. All will be partially run or controlled in other partnerships by a more tight corporate group widely dispersed within the ASEAN community.

Phuket is going to become a much more expensive place to live for both ex-pats living here as well as the local Thai population. As emphasis shifts from attracting a volatile and unstable short-term tourist market, focus will concentrate on long-term investment strategies with the aim of bringing in corporate entities to settle and operate in Phuket. Accordingly, property prices will exponentially soar (this might take a few more years to go into effect). The demographic might shift, as the local Thai population who cannot keep up with inflated prices move out, and more well-off ex-pats and other more affluent nationals will move in with their operations based out, or partially out of, Phuket.

I further predict that the fantastic relatively new string of luxury hotels lining the beach cliff areas of Phuket will host conferences, hosted by some of these corporate concerns. There might be international expos, and things like that. I think this transition from a middle-value tourist market to high-end corporate investment has been a coveted goal for a while now in the inner circles of those who plan such transitions in the Phuket economy. The loss of the unstable Russian, Australian and backpacker tourist groups and the revenues the now disenfranchised or slowly deteriorating local economy has enjoyed for a few decades will be superceded by the much more lucrative corporate run by a more tight corporate group in a partial partnership with the larger ASEAN community. You may see more high rises and business offices in the coming years as well. I think the plan is to eventually try to create another semi-Singapore type of community here in Phuket.

How can so many people claim to know the internal politics and political leanings of "the police" when there are no public reports that I know of except that there is an alleged tie between Thaksin and police forces, which implies the police necessarily follow with populist leanings, but on the other hand these same (foreign) commentators claim the police are corrupt and only interested in money. The wrong puzzle pieces fit when you force them into the wrong spaces and are conveniently used as labels applied in a most broad and general sense to prove one point one day, and another point of an entirely different perspective on some other day to support an opposing premise.

There is an entire shift in Thai politics and society and I think it has more to do with fitting into the more broad agenda of the upcoming ASEAN partnerships than in any Thai internal political improvement.

This is the type of story that rarely gets reported in newspapers in my country, because it's not deemed "newsworthy". It should, but rarely does, bring up the issue of domestic violence and violence against women, and how police usually (it seems always) support violence against women. This is an issue almost never brought up on this forum, also there's no mention of sex trafficking or that sort of violence, although it must be rampant but always covered up and protecting the violators of human rights. It just always gets silenced, until there is murder, and then it still is never brought up. The police protect men who terrorize, rape or traffic women in Thailand, and many countries around the world. This story of the man who shot another male who was flirting with his girlfriend or wife, whatever the case is, she's a possession, and the police seem to exonerate this type of violence when a woman is involved and the male's sense of right to ownership is involved. There is no slogan like, "Hands up, don't shoot" but there needs to be.

Disaster for the US dollar? ah, very doubtful. maybe if oil was denominated in Euros, or if the US couldn't manipulate markets like a boss.....but this is a game that Russia, Venezuela, Japan, and maybe China will lose in the short-run. In the "long-run" Of Course everything will play out..... QE will stop in USA, rates to 10% from zero, dollar crushed, market falling, etc.....but this is not a scenario that will happen in 2015. Exposure to Russia is pretty small from US Banks anyhow....people look at a map, think Relative risk, and put it into America. Regardless of all the scamming going on there.....it's all relative.

The article ends with commentary on the rise of the Chinese grip on money markets. China owns a significant portion of the US debt, has many holdings in the economy, so much so that if China suddenly pulled out of it's investments in some sort of financial attack, the dollar would crash. The question would be whether the dollar could rebound or permanently lose it's significance in the world money markets. The situation is unstable and the Yuan is a contender not to be taken lightly. Many people question whether the US dollar will hold it's top position in money markets in the decades to come, even in American news broadcasts commentators and economists say there is a danger of the Yuan or other currencies taking over what used to be called "Dollarization".

Remnants of the Vietnam war, lingering effects of what is now called "globalization". The "Golden Triangle" is still in operation but now it's more synthetic drugs--so I have heard. It seems to me that this place I live, Phuket, is indeed a land of "Lotus eaters" of the synthetic variety. Either that or the expats living here are just decaying meat on two legs, or severe alcoholics. They just look perpetually "wasted".

Maybe Jews and Muslims in Germany can find a common enemy instead of turning against each other, while those who created the division in the first place finally get the bad rep they are due, long overdue

Mary Jane needs to be legalized and liver-killing cheap whiskey made illegal.

The trickle-down theory of subservience: absolutely no personal accountability for actions committed as puppet state which has become a repository of torture activities run by covert authoritarian CIA agencies and their puppets serving below them, ostensibly some must have been Thai nationals. Like a sieve of compliance with no resistance and full cooperation. To say this is an internal CIA matter, bearing no responsibility on Thai authorities, or even the US government agencies like the Consulate or Embassy in Bangkok, is to say that Thai people have nothing but passive compliance and absolute agreement with all actions, so much so that they can't even claim the personality to admit to having participated since they are just absolutely null and void of personality in the matter. All rebounds back to their puppet masters in the CIA, they are so empty and compliant there is nothing to blame them for.

Hyperbolic as this is, I find it not far from the reality I see that has become the welcoming society beckoning investors to help form a unified "peaceful" country ruled by martial law, in case there is any opposition.

I tried posting this to a multi-quote forum and it was not posted, so I'll just post it here. This is for the people who throw labels around such as, "Americans are ...and Germans are....and French are..." (which I too am guilty of), the fact that America is a huge country with over 300 million registered inhabitants, as of the 2000 census, I have this to say about the labels thrown around which I hear echoed in various shades of hate from the "girlfriends" of the ex-pats where I live, which I can now read in black and white on this forum instead of hearing them repeated by Thai girlfriends or haters sitting around in their complacent groups of haters and labelers. I have to add this to the forum on what "Americans" are and what the labelers are as well.

Uninformed dude who wrote this post: the fact the Diane Feinstein (do you know who she is and what she represents in US politics?) was bold enough to risk such censure from a large and vociferous group of staunch American supporters of the War on Terror and it's accompanying torture techniques and secret prisons (in addition to an increasing surveillance society under Homeland Security in order to control more "terrorists"), who perhaps view Fox News instead of reading the Huffington Post, shows the increasing shift in American public consciousness which has been slowly emerging under the current Obama Administration, although far too late but at least this shift in the willingness to admit to these crimes and examine the inner workings of the CIA, is one facet of America you rarely have seen in the mainstream media news, but who are a strong force in America nevertheless. Despite your yearning to label over 300 million people as ignorant peasant patriots who are blind to the misdeeds of their estranged government, you cannot lump all of them based on the ex-pats you may have met here in Thailand, or what you merely want to believe due to your hate of America for your own personal reasons, insecurities or fears and bigoted opinions you want to base on limited information you may have and use as a form of argument to support your opinions. This effort to create a transparent examination of the CIA torture camps does show a paradigm shift in America after the many years of the Bush Administration and it's covert activities, which were indeed supported by many Americans I have to say, who did shrug off the crimes as being part of "National Security". As other commentators have mentioned which you may have not known or fail to mention yourself, the MI6 worked with the CIA in torture camps and prisons. In his election campaign, Cameron also promised to reveal the cooperation of the MI6 with the CIA in the torture camps, but that report has not yet come forward due to lack of pressure which is necessary now to reveal the international effort to use torture as part of this worldwide "War on Terror". This means you also have to pressure your own government to reveal it's operations under it's own secret security agencies instead of, as usual, attacking the US, since the US works hand-in-hand with Europeans and other secret agencies worldwide, including Thailand. In fact, the reports have shown that Thailand also hosted a secret torture camp.

I fully trust the US Consulate in Bangkok or anywhere in Thailand to protect my interests, since they must have been ignorant of the CIA torture camps/prisons in the first place, they must truly care about individual human rights and will leap into action should any US Citizen applies for assistance.

Why doesn't anyone mention the influence the relatively well - off foreign investors have on Thais (i.e. ex-pats from certain formerly recognizable fascist countries) who exert power here in Thailand, whether overtly or behind the scenes? It's not like the generation shift of the children of Nazis from former WWII days has vanished and evaporated in a moral cloud of anti-Nazi sentiment. It's not that people in Thailand don't know about atrocities the Nazis committed, it's that they don't care, and perhaps they embrace it covertly, and offer smile big fake smiles if you try to corner them about the truth. The truth (if anyone wants to dispute this?) is that they want to get rich and will be part of what they perceive as the "elite" forces of power. The other truth unspoken is that perhaps Thailand is simply a paradise colony for fascists who are spreading the word that if you comply you will get "fashion", meaning you will get rich if you participate in their power structure. As Hitler said, "The bigger the lie, the more people believe it", so if anyone seriously believes for a second that Thai people are too stupid to understand or don't know....

Are you and the Thais so sure that Switzerland is the right partner to discuss democracy? I ask as I found a posting (link below) that indicates to me that Switzerland is no more the Holy Cow of Democracy. I only can speak for myself that I heard many stories and Switzerland is trying very very hard to kill any decent on their system often also with substantial amount of cash. Judge for yourself.

https://50mincoach.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/running-saved-and-still-saves-my-live/

Try watching "Chatzefratz" on YouTube about Swiss banks--perhaps what was not mentioned in any of the above references to Swiss support are the BANKS.

Good on them, this puts the onus firmly on the prosecution to show all their evidence and to support it (in theory of course)

With all the uncertainty surrounding the case it is good to see that the Burmese chaps will get to put across their side of the story and that their team of lawyers can put some skillful defence / scrutiny on it.

Also with the Burmese embassy / government behind their citizens they have some extra clout. I hope ths pushes the case towards a fair and just conclusion. Face hasn't won yet.. A huge plus

I think even if there had been a cam or video of the killing and the suspects were not the Burmese men in question, it's possible they would still face indictment. If such events can happen in a supposedly operational justice system (i.e. The US) then what can one expect here?

Uber Taxi should be illegal simply for the name of the company and what it implies.

Too much bad alcohol, too much gratuity, too much for such unworthiness

This is a very slippery slope and only damages the image of the junta further.

If this is completely true just look at what's going on, ' attitude adjustment ' then sign this or you are finished as a student and step out of line again and you will be prosecuted. Maybe it should really be ' you will be convicted ' !

Freedom of speech, openness, transparency and happiness are all available and all the public have to do is do what they are told without question.

There's a word for what's happening and it's not ' governing '

If you have, as Thai Visa has reported in the past, Thai school girls marching in SS Uniforms for their "costume" day parade, and Thai people wearing Swastikas and calling it "fashion" (meaning money) and if you just look at the European investors and look at what their real affiliations are behind the charade of wanting Democracy, then you will realize that it's a puppet regime being lead by (use the N-word) groups which want NO resistance to their power politics of controlling the investments they want to consolidate into one power structure, then you will realize there are many more proponents to this situation than a "bad" junta. If people will just openly connect the dots and look at the larger picture instead of focusing on the surface manifestation of political chaos that is asserting hegemony, and where it's tentacles are being controlled from (like a puppet obeying for money).

They want business to flow to other ASEAN countries in the region, a dispersement of capital and investment while Thai corporate interests become consolidated, probably into some larger monopolistic sort of centralized corporate system.

With a total failed State, such a high rate of corruption, a total laxity and the absence of controls, moral, ethics and common sense (other than money) I am convinced that Thailand has become an important base for terrorists; not only for the South of Thailand. For me, it is just a matter of time before something happen there; so many easy targets.

I love(d) Thailand but things go down the hill so fast for the last decade... Thainess just make things even worse.

People associate "terrorists" with people from developing countries with a didactic moral code leading to acts of violence in order to assert power. The terrorists I see in Thailand, many of them have white skin are from wealthy Western countries and pull the strings behind the covert corruption. Why no one ever mentions this unspoken force in Thailand only proves how much it's intentionally being hidden, or the racist viewpoint that only the enemy are of darker skin and from poor countries.

I believe the person who wrote this entry is an American, like myself. Yes, Thailand appears to be a relaxing place after the hectic pace of American/Western lifestyle, however since you come replete with your pension or savings from your sufficient savings or pension or investments, you are a "rich" man in the eyes of Thai people. You get smiles, service, agreeable compliance in a way you wished you could get in America without having to push and work and strive and struggle and demonstrate your potency as a man or human being due to your car or where you live or job you have. All you need here is to have a bit of cash, or not even but the promise of cash and you'll be treated "like a king". To all the Men who would be Kings, first of all your system that you fled from is slowly being implemented here, so as taxes are raised and more cement, glass and steel buildings are being constructed to change the face of Thailand into a Western-style culture, with luxury condos, hotels and restaurants being constructed endlessly along the Andaman Coast, within a few decades it's going to resemble the California coastline that stretches from one edifice in a chain along most of the entire state, roughly approximate to the distance of the Andaman Coast in Thailand. The changes in Thailand, with factories being built along rivers, will create a pollution environment just like polluted and saturated parts of America or wherever we dump toxic waste products into rivers. Soon CCTV cameras will be implemented on roads. Already tax hikes are in effect for basic consumer products. People have written on this forum of how places like Phuket, where I live, have lost their previous slow-paced gentle charm as people are acclimating to the vicissitudes of a market-driven competitive market which will eventually parallel any society of the West. It might come in a sort of Thai flavor, but soon people will become more aggressive, greedy, selfish (if not completely saturated with these qualities already, as I've noted many Thai people are. I'm not referring to places like the Immigration office, as a well-known situation of corruption, greed, and exploitation which has been well-covered in this forum in other posts. As media, marketing, and all the consumer-driven forces of subliminal control over people's hearts, minds and souls to consume become the dominant paradigm, which means to have an image, to have a nice car, house, to get plastic surgery to conform to a cliche model of consumerism that is expressed endlessly in media, soon (if not now already) people will only care about what car they drive, what type of house they live in, and also as with the West, any formal presentation of religion will be a secondary construct to the internal drive to be a consumer product and an image. If you think "escaping" to some other country like Cambodia will help restore a vagabond type of existence, the Westernization of SE Asia and indeed other parts of the world is part of the consumer "Domino effect" that will sweep across the entire region. As ASEAN gains prominence next year, more changes will come about that will bring about this Brave New World in Thailand. Not to be pessimistic or descry your enjoyment of luxury living with smiling obsequious people who appear to be completely happy to serve you, they live lives of poverty in the most part and they look to you to build a society just like what you left behind. "You", the theoretical "you" which represents the hoards of investors are also clamoring to build their fortunes that they could not assume in the West, will bring about a Thai version of what they wanted to leave behind, but they themselves will be in a higher socioeconomic bracket instead of being in the middle or lower zone, and will have finally achieved their status they longed for in the West. This change could take a few more decades to come to fruition, so you may or may not live to see this country transformed into a type of Western-based "paradise" near a beach, with architecture that will resemble all the beach areas of the world in similar transition to Thailand.

Since no one can protest the tax hikes, it will be part of the peace and happiness agenda, but how can people swallow the bitter guile without any sweet succor beverages?

Bloody Hell....

When everyone is reporting tourist numbers are well down on last year irrespective of the reasons (martial law, murder, police corruption, slavery etc etc). This unmentionable prosthetic is saying that overall tourism will be up... Lol.

This guy needs to go back to school to learn how maths works.

as for the new tourism campaign, with the "Discover Thainess" theme as a national priority.

Many of us have already discovered many facets of 'Thainess' and most of us find it bizarre. It is the last thing you want to push onto your visitors. I doubt it will make people want to stay longer, more likely to make them want to decrease their stay.

Kudos to your post, well-written just right to the point---humorous, accurate