sfbandung

Can we drop this British most dangerous place to live thing please?? It has almost no relevance to this topic.

And lets have a little decorum here, this was a human being and someone loved her. Where is your decency?

Hear, hear.

It's been while now, has she been identified yet?

"this 40th ceremonial incineration of illegal substances"

Ceremonial? Will the monks be there?

Of course, they organise the card game.

Of course. So it will be like songkran, without the water of course. Can't have someone raining on the "ceremonial incineration".

Aah, only in Thailand.

"this 40th ceremonial incineration of illegal substances"

Ceremonial? Will the monks be there?

ME never used the services of a lady of the night.

What about one during the day?

niether day nor night. Not really my scene and I'll leave them for those that need them.

There is an old saying that there is 2 types of occidentals in the orient, those that shag the locals and those that lie about it. Of course you may be one of those who consider running a tab (commonly known as "marriage" ) is not paying for it - if so you may be in for a rude surprise when the bill is presented. Having ruled out ladies of the night, I suppose you could also be batting for the other side (none of my business, I agree!)

G'Day Mick. I'd never realised that you just may be an Aussie!

And I think the "soft" in softgeorge says it all. Perhaps he dost protest too much.

The survey was conducted among 12.25 million people aged between 12 and 24 from 17 provinces nationwide from August 15 to September 14.

Sorry am I reading this right they surveyed 12.25M people all within a 12 year age span across 17 provinces in 1 day short of a month?

Taken from Population Pyramid 2000

Age Male Female Totals (M's)

10-14: 1.4, 1.4, 2.8

15-19: 2.9, 2.9, 5.8

20-24: 3.5, 3.5, 7.0

15.6M

That works out to 78% of the total demography in 1 month. Impossible.

Yep. Impressive sample size, but they polled on average nearly 500,000 "people" a day?

Sure. They polled over 300 people a minute, 24 hours a day, for a month.

You gotta love statistics. But it made for a good headline I suppose.

Doesn't sound intentional to me either.

Probably some acidic liquid fell from the construction above the station.

Well I was just trying to kill a fly that was running around on my computer screen which turned out to be your avator Duh!

Me too! I felt stupid after I scrolled down though ...

"Maybe not everybody wants Thaksin to return"

Really? Wow, who'd have thought?

Yawn yawn. More fluff from The Nation. I can just see the newsroom. "Pretty quiet today, bit light on for news". "Just write some more shit about Thaksin coming back, quote Chalerm a lot"

What a bloody terrible story.

I'm not sure why there seems to be a debate about abortion going on here. It appears she was full term, which isn't an abortion, she killed her newborn. Why? We'd probably have to walk a mile in her shoes to even begin to understand what the hell was going on in her head.

And as always there is the usual plethora of people rubbishing Thais in general and working girls specifically.

So I'll be the one to go to bat for the hookers again. Don't forget there are two parties to prostitution, so if you're going to get on your moral high horse remember that the customer is as much to blame as the girl. More so in my opinion, there's no chicken and egg dilemma here. I have no opposition to prostitution, it's a job, and on the moral scale there are many so called legitimate occupations much further down the ladder.

While I have little empathy for the young lady, printing her full postal address is just a bit too much information. Wouldn't here area have been sufficient?

On the money Mick. It surprised me too, almost looks like a deliberate attempt to discredit the whole family.

Cynicism abounds here as usual. Education has always been an elitist concept, quality education anyway. Good people and a cohesive, law abiding (largely, there are crims everywhere) society is dependent on many factors, education being one of them. The monks teach peace, harmony and tolerance (once again, largely) which is a vital factor in a safe and peaceful community.

I live in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea most of the year for work. Come and spend some time here and you'll realise that Thailand is a great place, far from perfect, but great nonetheless. Comparisons are odious as they say, but compare Thailand with other poor nations, not Australia, the US or Europe, and it comes up looking pretty good.

Just sayin'

Don't care how she gets rid if them as long as she does. Extra-judicial "no plop-plem".

Oh, and kill innocent ones like they did last time? If it is to happen once more, maybe you'll be on their list singing a different tune. Get a clue what you're saying, sheesh.

How many do you reckon were innocent, Cowboy? I reckon none -- or close to it. Collateral damage.

I realize you're just trolling, but as none were found guilty at a trial, ALL of the people killed were innocent.

.

Hear, hear.

I'm as anti drugs as anyone, but as usual the rule of law must apply.

And 80% of what? To quote that number indicates that they have some how quantified the trade. Which of course they haven't. Political hot air and bullsh1t numbers as usual.

This oft talked about (in this thread) family who won the lottery and were executed for being suspected drug dealers. It reeks of urban myth. Does anyone have a link to where it was reported reliably?

I am surprised that with the human rights abuses that that place in Thai jails, that any western country would extradite here.

I would have thought that killing someone and chopping up her body would be considered a human rights abuse. While he is not guilty until proven in court, the Thai government would have to have established a compelling case in order to justify extradition ... of course the only court that really counts is the ThaiVisa fact-free forum.

No offense to the victim or her family and friends but, wouldn't human rights abuse be if she was chopped up before she was killed?

No death penalty for Karas! Let him serve out a life sentence with NO parole!

It would be nice for the courts to find him guilty first.

That said however, it doesn't look good:

It was his girlfriend

The room apparently had blood everywhere in the bathroom

He checks out at 3 in the morning with a load of "heavy suitcases"

He flies out the next day

Confesses to a previous crime whilst in jail in Canada so his sentence is increased while they argue about extradition

No matter what she did, or who did it, she was a 24 year old girl and nobody deserves what happened to her.

<Satire warning!>

That settles it then.

Thai Visa posters must organise a coup immediately as clearly we can run the country much better than anyone else.

There is usually three of us so the taxi is actually cheaper and drops us off at the hotel. I haven't tried the ARL yet but next time I'm commuting on my own I will. I love Skytrain so I'll at least give it a run.

BTW, every taxi driver I've had responds quite well to "Chaa Lohng!!" in a terrified voice. And I've never had trouble with fare arguments in the meter cabs.

".......... to let Thaksin come home without having to go to jail.................... it's the only practical way to bring back political peace."

Yes, it's called appeasement. Peace in our time. Followed by WWII.

Appeasing thugs has not got a very good track record of success.

I reckon it's a non-article.

You don't think the Chamberlain comparison is a little over the top?

The Government are not better than the loan sharks.

Load em up with debt, own their souls.

Yep. Absolutely crazy.

Interestingly enough, also in that thread, were the words of an unknown at the time.

He's blossomed into the current Foreign Minister.

Curious as to what happened with this as I found no mention of the Reds or PTP following up on this aspect.

He could have single-handedly requested the pardon himself and then the Reds would not have had to wait for millions of their petition signatures to be verified (half of which were invalid).

btw, the bizarreness of the Foreign Minister was evident back then for his other comments.

Pheu Thai MPs say he is Thaksin's relative so petition is valid

Pheu Thai Party MP Surapong Towichakchaikul said he is a distant relative of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and he had signed the Thaksin pardon petition.

Surapong said the petition was valid because he, a relative, had signed the petition.

Earlier, the government said a petition must be signed and submitted by a relative.

Surapong said his aunt is married to Sathien Shinawatra, an uncle of Thaksin.

Surapong said the petition was also signed by Prakit Shinawatra, who is a cousin of Thaksin.

Surapong said it was the first time that he disclosed the information that he is a relative of Thaksin. He has been keeping it secret for fear that someone might attach him as using connection to gain a position in the party.

-- The Nation 18/08/09

Bizarre indeed.

For my two bahts' worth, and I know I'm simply agreeing with lots of you above, but the petition should not be submitted at all for the obvious reason that it forces the monarchy to become involved in politics.

I'm a boring old bastard, but the rule of law and judicial process must prevail, particularly in this case. Thaksin's party and family are back in power, there is no better time for him to return and face the music. He may even win some respect from his detractors. Nobody, anywhere, likes a coward. And that's what you are when you run away. If he truly loves Thailand then he should love the fact that it is a thriving deomcracy with an independent judiciary.

I think a better title for this article would have been:

"Pheu Thai Paymaster Payap Prepared To Push PiThaksin Pardon Petition"

The Nation is basically a partisan rag? I'm finding their editorial fairly one track.

Populist policies are popular, hence they get people elected. Whilst the article is hard to follow and contradictory, the gist I'm getting is that it will piss off somewhere between 2,400 and 60,000 people.

I'm sure they're shaking in their boots at the miniscule electoral ramifications. Apart from the fact that almost every elected government on earth make outrageous promises to get elected. Then they break them. This at least is one area where Thailand is exactly the same as developed nations like Australia, the US, UK, Europe etc etc etc.

Oh my Buddha! The politicians have been lying again!!

Please get it right. That nice Mr Abhisit and his angelic party of Democrats never lie, never do anything wrong, and run the country in the most fair and impartial way imaginable to the educated well heeled (and only they count as everyone else is a moron who shouldnt be allowed a vote) and would never dream of supporting anything that might be against the interests of the people and only lose elections because that devious square faced man splashes the cash and all the intellectually challenged who shouldnt have a vote have been totally brain washed by legions of red shirted hypnotic genii with cloaks of invisibility so all those nicey nicey isoc men who only want to ensure the best for the people cant actually see them and protect the people of limited intelligence from being exposed to their wicked ways

I'm sensing some sarcasm here ...

Funny post though, ta.

The Nation is basically a partisan rag? I'm finding their editorial fairly one track.

Populist policies are popular, hence they get people elected. Whilst the article is hard to follow and contradictory, the gist I'm getting is that it will piss off somewhere between 2,400 and 60,000 people.

I'm sure they're shaking in their boots at the miniscule electoral ramifications. Apart from the fact that almost every elected government on earth make outrageous promises to get elected. Then they break them. This at least is one area where Thailand is exactly the same as developed nations like Australia, the US, UK, Europe etc etc etc.

Oh my Buddha! The politicians have been lying again!!

I love the stoushes on these threads.

Is it naive of me to think that if he came back, went to the clink and applied for a pardon from there that public opinion might shift a little his way?

Or is there too much chance that he'd then have to spend the next two years there? Or that he really believes he's innocent? The law looks pretty clear to me. He (his wife) did it. It was against the law. Or does he adopt the Nixonesque position that if he did it, it isn't against the law.

Sometimes the arguments get very complicated when the issue is relatively simple. He was found guilty under law, he can only legitimately be found innocent under law. Saying the judicial prcess was flawed gets us nowhere, the only other option we have is anarchy. We tried that and it was nasty.

He's not looking at 2 years, he's looking at life, and if the terrorism charge can be proved, which prima facie wise he is absolutely guilty of, he's looking at death. That would be a good day for Thailand.

Strong words. I'm trying to stand a little further from it than that.

Peace in Thailand would be nice. But these attempts to circumvent the due process of law run the very serious risk of pushing that further away.

I love the stoushes on these threads.

Is it naive of me to think that if he came back, went to the clink and applied for a pardon from there that public opinion might shift a little his way?

Or is there too much chance that he'd then have to spend the next two years there? Or that he really believes he's innocent? The law looks pretty clear to me. He (his wife) did it. It was against the law. Or does he adopt the Nixonesque position that if he did it, it isn't against the law.

Sometimes the arguments get very complicated when the issue is relatively simple. He was found guilty under law, he can only legitimately be found innocent under law. Saying the judicial prcess was flawed gets us nowhere, the only other option we have is anarchy. We tried that and it was nasty.

Somebody please send the good dr a free tablet and a fb account.

And a copy of Angry Birds!

Perhaps he could ask for pre-signed pardons on a roll of perforated sheets - then he could just tear one off when required and fill in the appropriate crime.

Ronnie Biggs was popular in his day. I wonder if a petition signed by 2 million UK citizens would have got him out of Belmarsh? At least, he had served some of his sentence, and didn't have a string of other offences waiting to be heard.

Quite true. And it should be noted that even during Biggs' self imposed exile, and his pseudo "folk hero" status (a la Ned Kelly in Oz) there was never any question of him not facing the music on his return. A fundamental respect for the judicial process remained throughout.

Regardless of what side of the red/yellow fence people sit the law simply must prevail. Yingluck seeking a royal pardon for her brother, or simply passing the petition on to HM would be a huge mistake.

The coup makers of the past are restraining themselves and so far paying respect to democracy. A stunt like this may provide many of them with an excuse to push for an undemocratic change of government again.

I'm surprised it's not 9 out of 10.