seminomadic

Good article. Points out that:

1) She isn't really Thai, and wouldn't know/understand any existing Thai social movements any more than you know who the favorites are to win the Mongolian wrestling matchups in Ulaan Bataar this Sunday.

2) She's daft anyway, unable to distinguish age from social movements

3) Used the most boilerplate answer in that milieu, basically mouthing a Whitney Houston hit, because of #1 & #2 above.

Beauty is a premium, but it's reasonable for the respectability of the whole thing to have contestants prove they're not dumb as a post. It would be an opportunity for TVers to pile on Thailand if she'd been educated here in TH, but because she's educated abroad, she's a special kind of stupid. Ought not to win.

2 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Oh good, not just bigotry and hate based on appearance then. 

 

Just good old fashioned prejudice based on looks.  

 

Oh wait, that’s the same. 

Yay!! Mr. Probity is here to virtue signal so that the world may be illuminated with his Shining Light of Unblemished Righteousness!

10 hours ago, seajae said:

typical thai driver, indicate and think it means they have automatic right of way and can pull out in front of another car or simply cut them off, looks like they learned their lesson the hard way that they have to wait till the road is clear/safe for them to do so

Exactly. Also worth noting that the middle lane has no cars in for what looks like maybe a few hundred meters.

If the van driver wanted to pass / continue driving faster that the truck, there was nothing in the middle lane obstructing him as you see during and after the automotive gymnastics. A true moron.

It's not like tourism is exactly bad in Thailand them being pretty much #1 and all; however, it could be so much better.

I think it's only a matter of time before another viably comfortable, convenient tropical Asian country with nice beaches etc. pulls ahead in creative thinking vis a vis their own tourism industry along with English and Chinese skills not to mention service-mindedness (meaning beyond just the 5-star hotels) to take the brass ring from the complacent Thais.

YES! Continue to raise awareness of this serious problem!!

"I sense a feeling of dissatisfaction among the nation’s youth in particular who are yearning for change in some of the established order."

Uhhmm.................................. really?

Do you want to offer any substantiation for this 'sense', even if anecdotal?

I read the title and imagine the PM in an Aztec getup.

28 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Doesn’t negate the need for better strategies. 

For all your 31k posts, it's amazing how you're able to put on display a near complete lack of understanding for law enforcement. The cops doing this, including the videos of their actions being posted, is a deterrent to people disobeying cops when they're told to pull over for better or worse.

You've offered no alternatives, just aggrandize yourself with your perennial goofy self-righteous "so much more moral, above it all, as it might be, and everyone else on here" posts.

Time to get off the computer, son.

Nipit et al.: How do you change a culture? How do you inspire, make or force people to do their job with integrity as opposed to seeing what angles of your position can yield you extra cash, regardless of the legality or morality of it?

A colleague of mine actually worked to overhaul the Hanoi police from pocketing the bribe money gotten from fining helmetless motorcyclists. How did he do it? Convinced the commissioner to mandate that they write tickets, but then pool the fine money which was divided between the officers at intervals. In short, work with the corruption but legitimize it for record keeping's sake and divide the bounty so everyone's still incentivized to do their job.

Solutions like these are new and imperfect but they work. They are gotten by looking at examples from other places around the world.

What has Thailand's navel-gazing gotten them? *Several* anti-corruption ministries/departments that do little more than use taxpayer money.

People who jetski are morons.

3 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Apples and oranges. You can't compare other nation's Lese majetse laws to Thailand. Most are simply on the books and meaningless. Thailand's is very much active and draconian. 

Sure I can. I just did. Maybe you could outline the connection between the actively-used LM laws and lack of development beyond platitudes like "with knowledge comes power"?

6 hours ago, rkidlad said:

What exactly do they want? A smarter population who will drive the economy and at the same time still never question the system? It doesn’t work like that. With knowledge comes power. 

 

As as long as you have silly defamation and lese majeste laws, you’ll always be a developing nation with a truly awful education system. 

There are lots of developed countries with lese majeste laws so while I share your frustration with Thailands seeming fixation on it, it's not as on-point to development as the fact that Thailand's system - and by that I mean nearly all of Thailand's decision makers in the civic realm - is full of incompetents. And I DO mean complete muppets. Real dunces. They've gotten their job by any combination of family status, family connections, bootlicking, ruthlessness and/or just having stuck around long enough. In no field have I noticed a critical mass of manangerial- or executive-level types who reached it after having worked at the ground level for long enough to know what competency at multiple levels means.

For most of these nabobs, they could give a flying F what happens to those under them or the people paying taxes that support their ministry or the customers that support their company. 

I sincerely hope Mr. Tuang Untachai met with Mr. KOSEN with good intentions and continues to press this issue. Dollars to donuts, though, this was a photo opp and nothing more.

14 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

The 30 baht card wasn't Thaksin's idea at all. 

Really? not at all? Please tell us whose it was then. Can't wait to hear this.

It's not impossible that TH will reach "developed country" status in 20 years, but it's not something you can actually plan.

Lee Kuan Yu did it for Singapore in about that frame of time. 

It's called having a truly great leader lead the country, and said leader must not get kicked out by these jealous types.

As for me, I'll believe it when I see either 1) Even 10% of Thais in any given public space reading a book/kindle instead of LINE/FB/vid games

or 2) a critical mass of Singaporeans and Malaysians coming here to look for work (vs. being placed through their own multinationals)

Why are police not naming the SUV driver? Don't these articles always mention the perp?

Anyone else suspect she's excluded from the practice cuz having an SUV points to being hi-so? 

Thai guy clearly doesn't know who George Harrison was and how he handled a similar situation.

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

He said the collapse of bridge’s neck section could include an insufficient number of scaffolds to support the bridge’s weight, incorrect assembly of scaffolding, the use of the wrong materials in making the scaffolds or subsidence in the soil underneath the scaffolding. 

 

 

Or, the person/s who were suppose to make sure that all the above will be 100%

safe and secure were slacking  on the job...

My money's on that last option becoming the official attribution... involves the least loss of face for any/all involved.

38 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

 

The opinion writer assumes that Prayut wants a deal that is fair to the Thai people.

 

I think Prayut simply wants a deal that is good for him personally.

 

VERY different things...

 

Agreed.

The writer takes a strongly self-righteous stance. Dollars to donuts the writer who complains of the current president "who cares little about democracy and human rights"  also got pissy about the previous one whose opposite stance about a military in junta being in power here with comments like "not my father" and "doesn't understand Thai political culture."

Attention either Mr. Liu or translator or Nation journalist: The term is not "the island area", it's maritime Southeast Asia, dunce.

Why bother pixelating the guys face out in the collar photo but show it on an inset?

22 hours ago, Katipo said:

they must understand the US agencies involved would have been doing all they can in the circumstances. Some gratitude, and a discreet apology would not be out of order.

NOOOOOOOOOOO    WWWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Apologizing would involve a loss of face. And I'm sure that's below their dignity, even if done discreetly.

If this is the work of PM Prayut, then well done. Inheritance taxes means that all the spoiled ***** in this country who never worked a day in their life might actually have to work one day rather than live off of daddy's mountain of money. Assuming they can't find a loophole. Which is an enormous and likely very fallible assumption.

At least he's trying to reduce the injustices. Keep trying.

Has anyone ever tripped with a (100%, not half-farang) Thai? 

Would be grateful if we could circumscribe the thread to intimate experiences of hallucinating with Thais, rather than "No, but I once saw this naked guy in Ko Phang Ngan vomiting and swinging from traffic light he musta been on something maaaannnn..."

What are they like on hallucinogens? How does it compare to/differ from hallucinating with Westerners? 

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have no plans on doing this myself or dosing anybody with or without their consent. This is straight-up curiosity what your experiences have been.

Thanks in advance.

Thank God my wife's not from Isaan.