seminomadic

From the full story: "netizens instantly stormed into the page after its launch, forcing it to be taken down in a matter of few minutes."

I wanted to make a comment on the extreme vagueness and speciousness of this story but my comment was taken down after eliciting condemnation from the online community.

This sounds like it would've been the most videotapeworthy event in the history of humankind.

Thailand still has the death penalty. Get the phu yai's. Execute them.

I've asked my students on many occasions a hypothetical. If executing one man would eliminate corruption in Thailand, could you order his execution?

Almost all students - many classes unanimous - say 'no', because that's not the Buddhist way. Live with the corruption and no need to kill anyone over it.

Not the best sample.... college kids who've had a pretty pampered life.... but indicative all the same. In Thailand nobody's going to be willing to oversee such sacrifices/ham-handed example-making.

Old tried and true lawyers trick, delay, delay and than delay some more,

in the end the public anger and interest will wane quite concededly

and he will get away with a slap on the wrist, it happened many time

before and it will happened again.....TIT..

Guess you're not one for actually reading this rather lengthy article, which clearly states in the first paragraph that it'ss the prosecution who is doing the postponing, for which I'm sure the defense is infinitely grateful.

Supposing it DOES work, and foreigners get faster trials than Thais... then a bit of comeuppance for all the double-pricing we have and continue to suffer.

The Pope is Catholic, Catholics have long displayed wealth and refinement (Puritanism meanwhile supports the opposite). Theravada Buddhism, on the other hand, is actively defined around a set of precepts (5 for laymen - 272 for Monks) many of the Monks precepts relate to not owning things other than discarded rags and offered food, to not attempt to beautify oneself or show off (which is why they shave their heads and make up is banned), to eat just enough to sustain life (2/3rds full), etc. Owning flashy luggage, mobile phones, computers (it is OK to use computers, but they should be owned by the temple not the individual), designer/fashion sun glasses etc. It is direct violation - it would be like the Pope having a live-in girlfriend - would nothing be said if that was discovered?

Nothing new here. The Pope has a Maybach and his private airplane partition would make a business-class passenger blush. The clergy were the next set of historical swindlers after kings (See Guns, Germs and Steel). But Thai Buddhism is so holy that nothing but the holiness can touch such holiness.

So how are Thailand's monks different than the pope?

The Pope is one man for a start - the head of the world's wealthiest most opulent church, the world's biggest denomination of the world's biggest religion - a church that does not abhor wealth or flashy shows (just walk into any Catholic cathedral) - the canon of the church is not against wealth, not against possessions, not against taking private jets (the Vatican owns a fleet!) The Pope is also the de facto King of the richest country (per head of capita) in the world.

Whereas, the Theravada monks are disallowed by precepts they swear to Buddha, Sangha and Dharma to uphold whilst a monk.

This is apples and hotdogs (pears were too close). A better comparison might be a Catholic monastic order such as Monks of St. Augustine (Ordo Sancti Augustini) which denies monks the right to person possessions.

Wow. Thanks for that clarification regarding the details of one delusion as compared with another.

Uncomon cents - given the cheap shot you pulled here -

asking for clarification

getting it

and having nothing more intelligent to offer than some negative blanket platitude in response to it

- I want to say thank you in advance for any and all time you heretofore refrain from trolling Thai Visa.

Let's not forget that the real crime here is not that they chose/were offered to ride in a jet and/or carry a LV manpurse, but that they let themselves be filmed doing so. There's thus some intent underpinning the ostentation, which makes it particularly reprehensible.

Merely reprimanding the offenders rather than excommunicating them (or whatever word you use for 'kicking their ***** out of the institution' for Buddhists) basically broadcasts "go ahead, pimp like these guys, the worst you get is a slap on the wrist"

So how are Thailand's monks different than the pope?

What did you just ask?

Critics of the Thai education system say much more radical changes are needed.

YES! Like a percentage of teachers who aren't inept in the double digits.

But using devices that would normally be out of reach for the kingdom's poorest children is progress, even if it is only just one hour a day, he said. "They have the same opportunities as those in the city," Uthai said.

[laugh track]

The tablets are "just another tool" like a pencil, according to Jonghwi Park, an education technology specialist at UNESCO in Bangkok.

Wrong. You can't play Plants vs. Zombies or Candy Crush with a pencil. Tablets are more a distraction than a tool since there's clearly no plan for training the teachers to exploit them nor any overhaul of the sample's curriculum to reflect their integration. The tablets are well and truly a wasted opportunity. That money could've been used to train teachers or hire more competent ones, such as the Philipinos teaching English who do 10x the job most native Thai Matayom and Pratom teachers do.

But he added that the tablets would help by enabling students to "surf the world for knowledge".

Yes! YES! Because Thais are so curious about the world around them. It's breathtaking how much Thais from all walks know about the language and ways of just their immediate neighbors. I can hardly get through my lessons what with all the inquiries my university students are regularly launching at me. I mean.... just LOOK at the movies they produce here.

This will DEFINITELY help quench the passion that is the Thai craving for knowledge and understanding.

So all together now.

Please clean the beaches and put in adequatew ater and waste treatment facilities in all the resorts

What? Are you mad? That would require an investment in infrastructure that won't generate an immediate profit. Cannot.

I say again. Cannot. As the hotels on Phuket have demonstrated, foreign visitors don't mind swimming with feces. The new tourists from the middle east, China and India, don't mind because Thailand is still cleaner than the places they come from.

RIGHT. Besides, those new tourists from the khaek countries just want to shop next to their manatee-shaped wives and get real forceful with bar/massage girls rather than swim anyway.

Talking about the existing government, yes, many are not happy about them, corruption, and other matters are still running at an unacceptable pace. Scandals are running high internationally, irresponsible statements and snap decisions are starting to hurt, prices have rocketed, unemployment figures are starting to be a matter of concern, and many are living from 'hand to mouth'.

But despite all this, lets face facts, despite all the mishaps, corruption and other sensitive matters within its own ranks and public sectors are being made public and getting plugged one at a time, not just by statements, but by follow up operations and preventative measures. which is more than any other government has achieved in the last 20 years. 'Makes one think doesn't it?'

Yes, is it an increase in reportage or is it an increase in actual occurrence?

Taking the guy's amulet would make the rest of his life a living hell, and perhaps the roads a safer place for other motorists.

Just please send the cars out of the country.

Fecal transplants are the new black. You heard it here first!

I read about sh#t switches on NSFWcorp.com... is that where you got it?

Have yet to see an unfounded criticism posted on this thread... even the writer of the editorial shows numpty-headedness by putting this on the children.... by not having phrased it as "progress lies with CHANGING THE WAY WE TEACH our children" he's showing that he's a typical Thai all remorseful of the situation .... demonstrating awareness of what everyone knows is nothing but a hollow gesture...

How about this for a start in changing the day to day ways so fertile for mendacity and greed: When someone asks your name, you give it to them without hesitating and worrying "why are they asking me for my name?"

You need to inform the school immediately of the situation; if you don't you are equally as guilty as the student and his mother.

A nieghbour of mine directly across the road is sending her son to Melbourne Australia to finnish his last year of High School and then wants him to get a job there. (his sister is married to a farang and lives there) He could only get a student visa. Anyway to get into a government state school he has to complete an exam. A fairly basic exam with general knowledge questions about both Thailand and Australia mainly designed to test his understanding of the english language both written and verbal. He can't speak a word of english so the parents sent him across to our home armed with the exam and 200 baht and through my wife asked me to complete it for him.

Children learn first and foremost from what they see their parents do. They learn to speak, how to behave, religion, etc from the family. Until parents behavior changes, children have little chance of changing attitudes.

I refused because it is cheating and how is it it going to benifit him in the least. He got another nieghbour to do it for him for 500 Baht (a thai) I asked the question of how he is going to cope in Australia and apparently his parents have told him when he is there either get the brother in law to do his assignments for him and pay someone else.

Basically what I am saying is, here is a perfect example how some parents actually teach thier children how to get through life, by cheating and bribing others.

Rubbish I refused to become involved in thier little scam from the start. I would rather watch/hear of him crash and burn and learn a lesson the life outside of Thailand is very very different.

Clearly you are already involved. Sounds like you are behaving exactly like what you are complaining about.

Do the right thing or get off your high horse.

As Edmund Burke said "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

But, perhaps you are just not a good man.

Jesus, dude... take it easy on the guy. Kilgore, your post count belies a dreadful lack of either knowledge or experience of Thais in Thailand ...You're the one on the high horse but even worse you're clearly not attuned to how resentful and how gang-up-on-the-farang-y they get when you deny them a favor on anything near the ballpark of moral grounds. It causes them a loss of face and to foster the sentiment of "I asked for help, he said no, he's not on my team" unless of course Chooka masterfully finessed the denial with some excuse that let them save face and not cause them to think he might look down on them.

Are you not aware that proactively stonewalling the kid from going to Oz... if the mom finds out... just might result in Chookie getting stabbed to death?

His passive take of letting the kid fall flat on his face might not be the most noble but it is savvy and he's even right to have some schadenfreud when the kid hits a big wall and learn that there are limitations on the Thai BS.

I'm betting we get the identity of the Kok Wua Men in Black before we know who pulled the trigger on Seh Daeng. Let's look at who had motive to kill/shut him up. SD had attacked a prominent general's office with a launched grenade, was a rogue, active duty officer, and believed to be running his own private army. The Democrat-controlled government looked at him as a leading insurgent and violent leader of the demonstrations that were blocking downtown Bangkok and a direct representative of Dr. Thaksin. The Red-Shirt leadership was not happy when SD announced that his authority was greater than theirs, whose many interviews contradicted their message, and who seemed to be running a parallel insurgency. Who had the ability to kill SD? The Red-Shirt mob leaders were not military types and may not have controlled any of the Men in Black. Also, I cannot imagine what resource they could appeal to for this. The Government has no military experience nor the kind of loyalty to keep an assassination secret afterwards. They certainly had no allies within the Police. That leaves the Army. The Army has expertise, training, secrecy, and control of the area. Why? SD had publicly declared he would attack the army and then he did, he was not obeying any authority within the army, he caused the army to lose great face. Eventually the votes to take him out exceeded the votes to let him be. These are things that were in my thoughts at the time and nothing much has changed since then. I'm not saying it was good or bad, necessary or unnecessary; not my business or responsibility. I will say that none of the above players were very surprised or angry when he died.I would be interested in reading other angles/points of view. I surely don't claim to know who or why.

Thaksin has deep enough pockets to pull off something like this. Seh Daeng, from his POV, was taking things in a direction Thaksin may well not have wanted let alone been able to control.

Dunn't matter that the assassin didn't have control of the area, he didn't need to:

"Whoah dude... where you going with that trombone case?"

"I'm gonna clip Seh Daeng from the roof"

"24th floor.. turn left and then there's a little jog... turn right... you're there. Let me get the elevator for you."

I'd like to ask other TV'ers:

Between this article and yesterday's piece on the 7k-more-cops-and-volunteers....... in your years of following BKK news have you ever been able to recall a wind-up to the school year that involved this much mental/municipal/ostensible bracing for traffic congestion as this year or is this business as usual?

Petty beyond pathetic

I think the only way to save what wildlife we still have on Planet Earth is to convince the Chinese that eating other Chinese people increases your sexual powers.

best post i've seen on any forum.

Notice how after the roll in the hay at 1:30 she can hardly walk..... the guy's gotta be hung like Charles Barkley.