blam

Someone must have advised him before going on air? Needed to pass the show onto his childern so they get paid?

I do want I want attitude not acepted by the courts.

but then what do I know.......I think they should bring nack Thaksin. Kept the country together longer than many over the last 50 years. People in the country liked him. Knew how to make money and kept the south in check.

OMG you are joking, RIGHT?

How to begin here? Taksin forced Chuan Leekpai out of office by lying to the newspapers? Hello? Taksin was Leekpai's assistant? Hello? The corrupted 'sensibilities' of Taksin knew no boundaries whatsoever. From telecommunications to public office. Cement companies to highway contracts. Murder by police in the name of upholding drug laws. Sales of companies while in office to avoid taxes. Land buying and selling to front as legal enterprise to cover money laundering (just like terrorists and drug dealers.) No matter how many poor people in Thailand this debased animal has paid off, he is still just that: A MERCILESS ANIMAL and a horrible EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING.

Samak couldn't hold the Taksin fort either, no matter how hard Taksin tried to get him to hold on. Billions are going to be lost by Taksin. IT'S ABOUT TIME, AND YES SO BE IT.

Yes. It was the courts' time to have made their play. And yes, it's time to close the book on Taksin.

Samak, go cook yourself and your badass Chiang Mai buddy a nice 'lad nah moo sen yai' , and go away, FOREVER.

I personally think that this process makes perfect sense. But then, I have been here in Thailand far too long to think otherwise. Samak knew he was doing something illegal, he was making money and lots of it, thought he could get away with it, he didn't.

"You do your crime, then do your time, ain't been nuthin before." Billy Idol

Simply for clarity:

Asia Times Online:

"Thailand's Samak out, for now

By Shawn W Crispin

BANGKOK - What anti-government protesters failed to accomplish, Thailand's courts have. In a landmark decision, the Constitution Court on Tuesday disqualified Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej from the premiership on conflict of interest charges related to his role in hosting two television cooking programs while in office.

The ruling will also eventually dissolve Samak's cabinet, which by Thai law will serve in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed within the next 30 days. The government's six coalition partners are expected to meet on Tuesday evening to discuss the selection of a caretaker premier. Former prime minister and Chat Thai party leader Banharn Silpa-archa is widely tipped to take the interim post. News reports also speculated that first Deputy Prime Minister and former premier Thaksin Shinawatra's brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, will be caretaker prime minister.

The decision is not expected to immediately defuse Thailand's escalating political crisis, but rather could intensify anti-government protests if Samak is eventually re-appointed to the premiership - as his ruling People's Power Party vowed to do before the verdict was announced. Despite the guilty verdict, Samak retains all of his political rights and his coalition partners have until now supported his stance not to dissolve parliament and call for new polls.

What is clearer is that Thailand's judiciary is showing unprecedented muscle in arbitrating the country's political problems."

(My emphases in bold)

re: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JI10Ae02.html

I agree with the Nation article today, Banharn Silapa-archa will deftly slip into the slot. Samak should be history. Decent TV cook, bad politico. Sawatdii krup Khun Samak.

Samak is history. George, hurry the eff up and get this to the top end of News Clippings.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30082993

I must be missing something here.

Months ago, was not the Samak government proven, in a court of law, to have corrupted the Thai voting process? (Yes, it was.) Therefore, this government is/must be illegal from the beginning and in its entirety?

The PAD is tired of waiting for the legal process of condemnation, and the obviously limited results, all of this while the ousted Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra continues to puppeteer the entire Kingdom of Thailand?

Hence, and basically, someone had to make a move. The PAD is in fact simply affirming the democratic state. It had to.

Umm, gee guys. Gosh. You would never assume that the 'condo sales failure' analysis may simply tie hand in hand with recent 'credit card payment failures' analysis? Thailand is in for a world of hurt... again. Anybody got dollars they want to sell? I've only been here 24 years, so heck, I wouldn't know anything about this, or not much anyway.

Don't take no wooden condos!

Check what's happening in Suk Soi 24. 12% sales rate?

Say goodnight Gracie.

Heh.

Mr. Wissanu admitted the ministry's website security was not state-of-the-art and is to be enhanced shortly.

Heh, well, that about says it for everything in this uneducated joke of a country. Even Albania has MCSEs and security CCNEs. Thailand just has a bunch of paper waving morons.

I celebrated my amazing 21 years in Thailand last month with an "Eff me get me outta here" toast. The place has completely gone to h#ll.

Thailand. My home, my nightmare. Over 50 million baht gone to the chang see khao.

Myanmar, Laos, Kampuchea, Thailand. Make sure you get it right, and don't kid yourself like I did.

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, or Goofy....? You be be the judge.

Penang, Malaysia: Non immigrant 'O' 1 year Multiple Entry = Success!

Absolutely no extra work involved whatsover, just a little more money required. (Your Thai bank book has to show a bit of something)

Travel: Fly Nok Air; Phuket - Hat Yai RT = 2100Baht; Minibus: Hat Yai - Penang RT = 500Baht (Firefly Air direct nonstop Phuket - Penang RT = 4,830 Baht)

Accomodations: Hong Ping Hotel 2 nights = 1380Baht (I stayed in Hat Yai a couple of extra days just for fun; Sakura Grandview 890Baht/night)

Food: Indonesian Ristaffel set = 150 Baht, Hainan Chicken Rice = 50 Baht, Tandoori chicken = 55 Baht, Biryani 50 Baht, Khoo Clan Dim Sum set 80 Baht! Malay "Kopi white" (coffee w/sweet milk) 10 Baht!

Visa complete: Non 'O' M 1yr: 5,500 Baht (+ agent fee 200Baht)...

The freedom and peace of mind this visa provides every single day? : PRICELESS!

Parvez Bookstore, Chulia St. Penang, does it again!

Thanks for your report jchen. Nice work. I am going to Penang for the non O Multiple next week. Parvez book store have a phone number? And where is that dim sum?

Porno sites hosted in Thailand? Hello, webhosting elsewhere is incredibly easy and stupid cheap right now, why bother with loading anything at all on a server in Thailand? This is simply a 20 minute work around here people.

Closing the barn door after the horse is gone...way gone, so far gone in fact, he's been forgotten and assumed dead... same as the brainpower of these NLA thinktank geniuses. Anybody with objectionable material on a Thai server these days is just as brilliant as they are.

Myanmar = Thailand = Myanmar... almost here.

Military style house cleaning, hup-to exercises, house to house triage, some good old fashioned SeaBee structure and bridge replacement readiness, and oh yeah, gotta remind those Singaporean dudes how to slide from a 100' platform on a 1" hair rope with a couple of slices of bamboo for the brake...

THEN: PARTY TIME!

Obviously this poor sucker didn't know any better.

World travelers in general have become lazy here. Thailand has always been a con job. From the minute you get off the plane, hotel greeters, taxi shills, etc. to the minute you get back on it. Keep your stuff on you. Don't trust anyone. That means, DON'T TRUST ANYONE, ESPECIALLY NOT ANYONE AT THE AIRPORT.

The classic Thai hit is the x-ray walk thru, International or domestic: You have already put your stuff on the conveyor belt, some @sshole, his wife & 3 kids in front of you, set off all the walk through metal detector alarms for some insanely stupid reason (digital cameras, toys, mp3 players, etc.) they make everything totally stop, but your stuff on the conveyor belt continues to go right on through. Yoohoo! Yellooo?! The x-ray dude has loads of time now, and has already sussed precisely what it is you have and where EVERY SINGLE THING in your luggage is located, (and of course there are 5 airport staff just standing around him doing 'nothing' as usual.) Yeah, this is not brain surgery here people it's really easy to get away with and there is a 99.999% chance you will never notice because you are focusing on where your gate is and are pissed off because of the moron and his kids. Sure this scenario can happen anywhere, but for some reason it happens here in Thailand A LOT, always has.

There are warnings all over the travel magazines about this stuff but ignorant travelers still ignore them. Again, just plain lazy. When in Thailand, always make a good sign of the cross on yourself... spectacles, testicles, watch and wallet (diamond rings, cell phones, passports, etc.) Especially at the airports.

Lightning hit the house on Tuesday, fixed roof today. House still feels 'funny'.

Haven't seen anything rainwise close to last year, and it looks like the worst is over.

ratcatcher, mai mee bpang ha bro. Thailand, what can you say?

The storms of '82, 85, 91, 93, 96, 99, etc, were far worse, dunno what they were talking about 46 years for.

I just hate it when the clothes don't dry, gotta get a clothes dryer one of these years.

Phuket has it's own weather ecosystem and it has seen its share of phon tok (rainfall), this depression really was not one to think about. Or, maybe I am tired of the Thai newspapers overbuilding everything under the sun these days.

Old and in the way in Phuket.

Hornswaggle alert!

OK. What's better?

#1. The idea that the Thai brilliance in International finance has the Baht is beating up on the US Dollar?

or

#2. Thailand is the world's top tourist destination?

Vote here:

This one gets a letter to the editor. Somebody has to say something about how utterly RIDICULOUS these ideas are.

I know, I know, Thais congratulating Thais as usual. But this is getting out of hand, it makes them look like mind boggling blithering bufoons: ie. "I know, let's just make up some really far out stuff so we can all look cool to our mia noi."

Disgusting.

Hummph.

Promoting Thailand as a destination for "quality" tourist is great but they do expect some quality in the services at the destination.

How many of these "quality" types enjoy being hustled by the baht bus mafia when visiting the beach resorts I wonder?

The only option in Phuket is to rent a car or be subjected to the devious tactics of the rude, disrespctfull, baht bus cheats.

People with money don't enjoy being cheated all day and driven around in the back of a truck.

Agreed?

Umm, in a word, no.

There is no Baht bus here in Phuket, that's Pattaya Skipper. Tuk tuks (that would be those red things with wheels) charge rates all about the same: negotiate, TIT. There is a 'Patong Beach - Phuket Town' bus that is 20 Baht straight up (no BS and no ripoffs) Renting a car has always been the way to go here if you want to get out and see the REAL good stuff, has nothing to do with anyone cheating. Actually the vast percentage of independent tourists rent motorbikes.

Comprehension of the upscale tourist inflation statistic is simple: Travel agents in the Western European sector are selling super low discounted Air/Hotel packages to old people, the oldsters think they are going off to a big romantic adventure but end up in isolated 3 star hotels in Chiang Mai and Hua Hin. The Thai govt. doesn't care about the how or why, they just care about the stats.

If you guys don't do your homework here, why should the Thais? Heh.

I don't really understand all the doom and gloom on this forum nowadays, seems theres a lot of people whi just want Thailand to fail at everything, why bother posting here if you hate Thailand so much.

a phenomenon which jumped into my eyes the first day i joined this forum. the minority of these kind of postings might be justified due to some bad experience or unjust treatment. but the lion share of whining and derogatory attempts to place Thailand in the sewer is nothing else but disgusting.

we all must have had our fair share of shaking our heads and grinding our teeth, but there is always the alternative "if you don't like... LEAVE!"

Ah yes well, spoken as a true neophyte.

I have been here in Thailand for 22 years this May 4th. During that time I have pumped approximately 130 million Baht into the economy here by way of company generation and direct funding. As most super long term residents from outside the country, I have watched Thailand slide into its own self manufactured putridity. It really is a shame. Deforested, colluded, polluted, and the total denigration of the foreigners, all done by Thai politicizations and localized manipulations.

Thaksin Shinawatra took down PM Chuan Leekpai for so called 'corrupt activities', in the Sor Por Kor 4-01 land reform corruption scandal, and it was a lie. Thailand continues to live the lie. The government policy makers insist on the manufacture of behaviors that leave the impression of Thailand as Japan. It is not Japan Dr. Naam.

I will say it again, as I have many times on this board (now tantamount to a dare): Ask any Thai to find Thailand on the world map, invariably they will point to North America. Again, it really is a shame. Pure abject unadulterated ignorance. It is a bad sign that the hidden agenda seems to continually point to the 'Myanmarization' of Thailand. ie. "Just keeping em down here boss" as a way of accepted life here now.

"Ignorance is no excuse". Every court judge in the entire world says those exact key words just before sentencing the guy who's defense is "But I didn't think I was doing anything wrong!" Well, again, ignorance is no excuse Dr. Naam.

Thailand is losing market share in every sector faster than a puffy faced 40 yr old Bangkok so-pahnee. This is not doom sayer crap Dr. Naam, just ask Motorola, Toshiba, Sanyo, Sharp, Western Digital, Intel, Toyota, Ford, and Nippondenso. The big list continues this year as Microsoft rethinks its strategies for its erroneously devised but freshly built facility. Doom sayer indeed.

And, once again, it really IS a shame.

And, to whatever you might be thinking: I have a beautiful home in Phuket on 20 rai with a 180 degree view of the Andaman Sea~ an incredibly beautiful and ceaselessly amazing Thai wife~ 3 very successful grown children~ and 2 large vegetable gardens that occupy most of my time. These words don't come from a guy with sour grapes, just a real assessment of 'the now' and the immediate future. Be afraid Dr. Naam, something is going to happen. We old guys just see it coming before the newbies do.

Old and in the way in Phuket.

Hi all. Let me introduce myself, I'm a Thai who has been reading this forum for quite sometime now but mostly in the threads discussing politics. I consider myself a techie in a way. Here's my analysis and a small history+review of the broadband internet (or just internet) in Thailand.

Let me start by giving you a brief history of Thai broadband from the date it started. I gave up 56kbps back in late 2003 when ADSL by True (the local net one first) was just emerging. This was one of the first affordable broadband internet for us. Back in those days, international bandwidth was not a problem as users were still required to pay per hour for "international" internet. If we refer to the NECTEC Internap Map, Thailand had about 3-4gbps of international bandwidth. However, in mid 2004 True offered @truehisp accounts giving unlimited "international" internet. During this time, from a 2.5mbps line I subscribed, I would get about 1.5mbps off-peak and 700kbps peak. BitTorrent and other P2P applications were not shaped (i.e. the ISP's did not put a device which de-pioritised P2P traffic/data). This was acceptable.

However, as times went by the internet speed deterioriated. This was because the number of internet users had grown exponentially (and I meant degrees of ten folds) from mid 2004 to late 2005. Many ISP's emerged including CSLoxinfo who began offering consumer ADSL packages in late 2004. This put constraints on the ever limiting internet gateway. As of year end 2005, Thailand had 7gbps international bandwidth. The fastest growth in international bandwidth came about in late 2006 up till now. As of March 2007, Thailand's international bandwidth has grown over two times since year end 2006 (15gbps vs 7gbps). In my opinion, this was also sparked by the Taiwanese earthquake that Thailand could not only depend on links to the US (such as NTT and Teleglobe). Many links such as the TIS (Telecom Italia Sparkle), C&W (Cable and Wireless UK), FT (French Telecom) were put into place. Thailand now has about 30-40% of it's total bandwidth going through these three international IP transit carriers.

So looking at these figures, it becomes obvious that broadband connection has only become "properly" available to the main consumer market for a maximum of 2-3 years. This is a very short amount of time considering the other places such as the US has had it before the turn of the centuring making it 7-8 years minimum. This is more than the twice the amount of time. (I have my own views towards reasons, influenced by politics, of why during those 2-3 years it didn't grow as fast as it should have.. but that's another story).

So why does Thailand not just buy more bandwidth to the levels of the countries in Europe? The answer to this is distance. The larger the distance, the more it will cost to lay the under water cables, the higher the cost of bandwidth. The world's largest internet exchanges reside in Seattle, New York, Amsterdam and London. The data has to flow through undersea cables (submarine cables) in order to go to these exchanges where most of the web servers (or servers in general) are hosted. Thailand as far as I'm aware has four submarine cable landing. These are APCN (dated back from 1998 landing in Petchaburi; this cable is reaching it's saturation operation limit at 5gbps), SEA-ME-WE2, SEA-ME-WE3 and FLAG (Fibre-Optic Link Around the Globe). Thailand does not have the APCN2 landing point (the newer and much higher capacity (5gbps vs 2.6Tbps!) Asia Pacific Cable Network that was put in place in 2004 linking countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan together). The number of cables landing pose a limit on the amount of bandwidth that the country can have. So why not put more cables in the ocean? It's expensive and since it goes through/under international water, it must be a joint international effort.

This brings in the idea of CAT not allowing ISPs to have their own international gateway. This is because it is not feasable. CAT jointly invested with agencies in other countries in laying some of these cables including the APCN which was a joint effort mostly between the ASEAN countries (+ Japan, Taiwan and Korea). It would pose a threat to network stability should everybody (e.g. True) want to have their equipment connected directly to these submarine cables. Plus, the use of these cables for the purpose of peering (internet traffic exchange) is governed by rules written by the agencies that paid the money to lay the cables. The ISPs (such as True) did not pay to lay these cables. Satellite connectivity is unstable (vunerable to weather conditions) and latent. The amount of time for the data to go through the Earth's atmousphere and be relayed back down is a heck of a long time (say 1-2 seconds). The standard in the relaying times of submarine cables of 200ms (0.2s) to US West Coast, 230ms (0.23s) to the UK, satellite communications obviously lags behind. This makes them inappropriate for main uplinks for international bandwidth despite what some people might say.

To conclude, consumer broadband internet access in Thailand is growing rapidly from what it started from back in mid 2004. Given the amount of grown it had in the short amount of time it has had during the past 3 years, it still is in its infant stage. Statistics clearly show that the growth has been accelerating and is still accelerating. Given 3-4 years despite the foremensioned difficulties, I strongly believe that Thailand will catch up in terms of internet service with other more developed nations in the region such as Singapore and Hong Kong (I consider Hong Kong as not China sorry) within the next 3 years.

Thanks for reading

Pavee

PS

When people say companies such as CSLoxinfo have their own international gateway (as they seem to have implied on their website about their Singtel link in Network Status), this remains at most an urban myth. What happens is that they are buying this bandwidth from CAT IIG, but they're buying it on a dedicated scale where the international link to mapped to them 1 to 1. To convince yourself this, try tracerouting (start > run > tracert www.singtel.com) from your computer to Singtel's website on CSLoxinfo. The hops of CAT IIG Service is still there.

PS2

Thailand has better consumer internet connection than Malaysia (believe it or not). TM (Telekom Malaysia) has a monopoly on ADSL media (the actual line) whereas Thailand has TOT, True, ADC, CAT, TT&T and Samart providing the media.

PS3

Don't believe too much propaganda about the downtime of CAT IIG True claims when comparing to TIG on its website.

Sorry to jump in here so late. It is only because the Internet service here in Phuket has become so drastically bad that I had to go looking for a vent. This thread is actually in Google.

Thailand will never be anything close to Singapore or Hong Kong today. They will never even be anything close to Malaysia or Vietnam today either. The reason: Liars, cheaters, inside system nepotism, and bandwidth control manipulators.

The working staff at all of the Internet service providers got their jobs by being someone's cousin or nephew.

It is possible to receive an MCSE (Microsoft) cert here, because you can use cheat sheets. It is NOT possible to cheat your way to a CCNE, CCNA, or Cisco Security cert. Well now, guess what? Thailand has NO THAI CITIZEN THAT HAS ATTAINED ANY THESE CISCO CERTIFICATIONS. They say they have, and have them on their business cards, but when you go to check, the certification registration numbers are nowhere to be found in the engineer placement logs. If you then look further into the CISCO engineering logs, and physical address locations of certified engineers, the entire country of Thailand is nowhere to be found there either. I won't squeal on the fine SYSOP at TTT that forced me to understand this, (he didn't know anything whatsoever about 'frame relay' or basic large network packet management when I talked to him,) so here we are.

Therefore, Thailand cannot attain ANY standard of service here because there are no people here that are real Network Administrators. Farangs do the job for them. And, most farangs bail out of the system within 2 months according to the people at the new Microsoft facility outside of Bangkok. The CAT is a rat's nest, both physically and mentally.

[rant]This place is the worst Internet provider in the world, even Zaire and Morocco have better service for better prices. Period.[/rant]

Love Songklan!

I've lived in Thai for 20yrs, love the party. You can make it safe and simple:

://Chiang Mai: get off yer stinkin motorbike and walk dumas. Don't hand me the crap about, 'Yeah man, like I gotta go to work n everything, like yeah man'. BS, and total wuss crap, get over it. Khon Chiang Mai have a great time, so should you. Everywhere you go: small black pail required.

://Bangkok: after the judicial announcement banning watercannons, the cross index price went up by 100%. Now, overstocked consignment vendors have to dump them at less than last year prices. (TIT, remember?)

://Phuket: it happens a day earlier than everywhere else, and is one day only. A hoot! Lotsa kids and easy good times! Always make new Thai friends (heh, if you catch my drift.)

Quit yer whinin, stay off the road, and have a blast. Very fun stuff people!

Old and in the way in Phuket.

Now as indelicate as it is going to sound...

What a buffoon this turkey is:

Thai History 101a:

1. Does anyone remember the days of the 'saak phom' barbershops and OT? 'OT' meant 'OverTime'; you go in, speak of what you need, they would close the curtains and perform oral sex. Teenage boys would save up 100 Baht and go get some OT. It was everywhere, especially in the north. In fact, in Chiang Mai you can still find it. Get a haircut, get some h#ad. In this case, probably takes less than 25 seconds to find it.

2. An old joke in Chiang Mai is: There used to be many places in town where you would just pull up on your motorbike in early evening and several girls would appear as if by magic. You chose one, and off you went to the strategically placed (ST = short time) bungalow down the street. 200 Baht and 'kin khao' (order room service dinner.) The joke? Everywhere you see a 7-11 in Chiang Mai is precisely in the EXACT LOCATION where these pull up spots were. Southland corporation: good market research guys!

3. Joke number 2: We used to say that porn wasn't needed in this country at all. They didn't have to make it illegal, now did they? You could find the real thing in less than 5 minutes and it would cost less than a girlie mag back home.

This Myanmaresque banter from the head guys in badly tailored uniforms is getting annoying. Thailand means 'Land of the Free'... time to get on with the free elections and get these 'Thai History 101a' flunkies out of there.

Cloudy morning here in Phuket, slept in today. Got up at at 11am. Made coffee, checked email, checked personal websites, checked thaivisa.com.

11:15am: The myocardial infarction was terminal.

11:30am: In fear of mia yai, mia noi decided to check me into Patong Hospital then ran off with Thai boyfriend.

11:45am: hospital gave me the boot and told me to stay away from thaivisa.com for a while... no prescription issued for being a complete fool either.

Thanks George, needed that! Perfectly executed and horrific as hel_l.

Nicely done bud, XLNT stuff!

Tall grass that looks identical to rice without stalks, grown to maintain the steep muddy hillsides after they realized that they couldn't just leave the harvested corn plants to mold in the ground year after year. They planted it everywhere they grew corn on the slopes last year. All along the sides of the steep river valley canyons too, like the Mae Kok, from just outside of Chiang Rai, all the way to Tha Thon and beyond. Check your map, it's a long way.

Turning brown tall grass into the soil on a steep hillside to prepare for the next corn planting would be a massive undertaking. The easy answer: burn it, of course, then turn it under. That's the way they have always done it, and that's the way they do it now. Rice farmers and the hill tribe's swidden agriculture, same same, they just burn it. Now, of course, there is far too much of it. Nobody ever thought about the smog. Especially not the head honchos pushing gasohol.

On the front page of the BK Post newspaper yesterday, you read first about the terrible smog of course, and in the very next article you read about how the price of gasohol had dropped to 2.75 Baht cheaper than regular benzine. Nice bit of irony there.

I live in Phuket now, been here for 2 years, but lived and owned homes in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for 18 yrs before moving here.

Umm, I am sorry if I sound like a dumb @ss here, but isn't that the areas where they grew all that corn for gasohol? What are they supposed to do with all those millions of tons of chaff? Some people actually knew this was coming a couple of years ago.

Also, they were growing that fake rice to cover the hillsides where they grew the corn last year, what in the holy blazes were they supposed to do with ALL THAT dead material when it grew itself out?

Northern Thailand has been a smoke pit this time of year every year for the last 50 years, ever since they started farming hom mali. Now it's corn and fake rice. Again, <deleted> were they supposed to do with the 10,000 % of added left-over chaff? Compost it? Eat it? Sell it? Or shove it in the face of Chiang Mai and all the whining farangs(?) and forget about it. They didn't make that much money from it anyway.

Government management brilliance at work again. This time it's going to take a little time to pin the tail on the donkey. People just want to deal with the smoke, and forget about where the fire came from in the first place. Masterpiece of Thai planning. Why do other people see this stuff coming, and the Thai MPs just tell you the reasons it won't?

Another version you may not of thought of? Corruption at its finest rules again. This IS Thailand.

The following is a post I wrote here at thaivisa.com on February 23. This post is now far too long and I apologize, please bear with me now:

I went to Betong last month. Great little town., it's on the Thai/Malaysian border a few hours west of Yala city. Also, we did manage to go to Yala and Pattani just to see what's up. It is hard to like what you see. Not so much in the city, but in the surrounding rural areas: The Thai government has literally GIVEN these people everything. Electricity, water, telecommunications, transportation, highways... everything. But the local people have made a mess of it all.

Betong is essentially Chinese, about 65%, and is a very nice, very clean little town. It is very unique and has a great history, but now, the Muslims want the Chinese out. The Muslims want their goats and their unbelievable squalor (read below) taking over the streets and they want the Southern Thai dirty lazy lifestyle to rule the town.

Fact: The roads to everywhere in the far south have large blockades with riprap broken concrete and crossed steel spiked tubing protruding, they are imposing & effective and sit in the middle impeding all traffic. There are sandbag protected huts off to the side of the roads surrounded by concertina wire and small artillery, just the tops of helmets and guns sticking up are visible. There are units of heavily armed soldiers walking along the roads every few miles. Soldiers with M-16s hanging out at the 7-11s are commonplace. The airports are surrounded by hastily made chain link fences with high density large-loop concertina wire, and the runways are essentially ringed with gun turreted trucks.

So... Hey people, it LOOKS like a war zone down there already. If somebody wants to call it a 'civil war' zone, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination at all, and it actually sounds more correct according to what you are seeing.

...

Traveling: As far as I could see with my own eyes, my wife agreeing, is that the Muslim villages are dirty, very very very dirty. I felt like saying, "Hey, if somebody' just comes in here and blows this place totally to h#ll, nobody is going to miss it. Not for an instant" It is that disgusting. But, I am an educated man, and have traveled the world extensively. I tried to look into the self righteousness of the local Southern Muslims as simply uneducated but spoiled, and tried to see beyond their mess. The normal Islamic world is not nearly so extreme. Here, there are kids and good people that happen to be of the Islamic faith, and it is an awful thing to think of what is is going to happen in the near future. But listen, there is something going on here that is out of control, and it is NOT THAI, and NOT OF THAI ORIGIN. It very much reminded me of places that I have seen in the poorer areas of Egypt.

...

Unfortunately, the situation looks grim, and I have a feeling that this will end up like every other Muslim versus (name your religion here), the perps are going to destroy it all by themselves. And, they will take anything and everything of value and destroy it as well.

The Buddhist Thais should get out of there, the Chinese should sell their businesses and get out of there, the Muslims are going to destroy it. It almost seems that certain.

What can the Thai government do? This situation could take Thailand right down the same road as Bosnia. If they strong arm, they lose, (ethnic cleansing?) if they placate they lose. It really is a lose lose situation.

Islamic extremist whack jobs have done it again, and they will keep on doing it as long as the real world hasn't returned to the Islamic extremist's dream of a new stone age. I don't have an answer here at all, only the idea that it going to get WAY worse before it gets better, terrorism will the flash point, and it looks like it is already here.

Sorry for any typos, it's late here in Thailand

That road from Betong to Yala is long, and winds nauseatingly up and down the mountains there. That information, that that it is nothing but sharp curves and up and down steep hills, is not on ANY map nor is it in any tour guide that I have seen. Well, yep, we almost ran out of gas, had to stop for an emergency, late afternoon, 100 Baht hand hoser at a motorcycle nam mon shack. While we were stopped, the look we got from the local young dudes there was enough to make us force it into something any Indy 500 pit crew would be proud of. The young guys are obviously pumped up on something akin to the old Bangkok strawberry Ya-Ba, but in this case it's a nasty high caused from an out of control religion. That's right, it is totally out of control, and the Muslim society is doing nothing about it. Those young dudes had crazy blood in their eyes and h#ll, I'll tell you, it was pretty damned obvious,

I truly believe that the Thai police and military could get a handle on this; if they just went in there and started doing a lot more. Go into the villages, take pictures, get thumb prints, shut off their water, shut off their electricity, search every motorbike, put more patrols on that road... TAKE THEIR <deleted> GOATS AWAY FROM THEM, make arrests, lots of them. The Betong Chinese have figured this stuff out a long time ago, and have dealt with it locally, immediately, and directly. They are ruthless in the way they protect themselves. The Thai government should do the same.

I am sickened and disgusted with Yala Province, it is time to stop doing things in a Thai way, and start acting like the local Chinese: the Thai Govt. should get down there and ask how the local Chinese have managed to do such a good job of maintaining themselves in Betong. At this point I am sure that the locals have a pretty good idea who the perpetrators in these latest incidents are.

Go down there and get them. Enough is enough. The Thai way is not working.

Thaksin's strategy, in 2001, of removing the locally administering Thai military (85% Islamic), and replacing it with Thai police regulars (99% Thai Buddhist) is an unmitigated and wholly self manipulated disaster. How many times can you say the word 'stupid' in one breath?

I must have been out of my mind to go down there in the first place. Chuan Leekpai, HELP, where are you? (the echo long lost in the distance.)

Old and in the way in Phuket.

TITV it is.

"Night Owl", where are you when we need you? Your old prophesies in the Bangkok Post are all coming true.

Call it what you like. Cheer that they 'waied' then magically came back to life with a different name at midnight. Make me sick.

They folded a long, long time ago.

You think there's an editor or reporter there now - or even a year ago - that has the guts to be really "independent"?

Wake me up when an iTV reporter or a T-ITV reporter - or any bloody Thai reporter - has the goolies to start asking why so many Thais with such low salaries seem to be living such high-rolling lifestyles. Will never happen since most of these kids would be reporting on their civil-servant parents!

Sure blame Thaksin - blame yoursleves rich little Thai news reporters...where did mummy and daddy get THEIR money, hmm?

Oh and by the way, don't think that daddy is immune because he wears a golden tie when he gets in his Merc to drive to his 40,000-baht-per-month job. What goes around comes around - eventually.

Report that you little p++cks.

Extremely well said thaigene2. Perfect.

Uh oh, here it comes again. I remember when:

I remember when there was no real Thai TV. Then it was all military music in the morning and sign off with a picture of 45 mm howitzers at night, (snowy nothingness all day.) Then it was a cartoon show in the morning and nothing all day, then a news program at night... howitzers Then, blah blah blah (need a vomit smiley here) on and on.

iTV was the shining light. They got fat and dropped the ball a long time ago. Good luck to them. (But honey, I really wanted to be a good boy! sob)

Thai TV is just about as good as TVLao, but at least TVLao doesn't show b!thch slapping and arguing all day and all night... disgusting waste. Time for TVTibet to step in and show them how it's done: cartoons in the morning and a news show at night.

Thai TV is terrible at any standard.