SamMunich

Suthep has been dividing the nation with his speeches every night for the past 4 months.

This is the result. I hope he likes it.

It's his only achievement in 4 months.

ShannonT, are you a dentist? Your avatar implies it...

Or are you in love with Suthep's teeth?

If we can believe the figures given in the NATION (see TV "rice farmers now reliant opn 'low' market prices), then we have 1.91 million farmers, who participate in the pledging, out of which 550,000 got paid and 1.36 million are still waiting.

Now when the government claims it will pay farmers, EVERY SINGLE FARMER will think HE is certainly amon those that get paid. And until he knows better, he will keep his mouth shut. That is the policy of the government to stop protests. And why they will always say, more money will be coming forward in short time. But the farmers will get short-changed.

A newspaper headline blared "Farmers get paid" and it turns out these farmers were something like a few thousand among the 1.36 million unpaid farmers. Did that newspaper get a new substantial advertising job from a government supporting company? That is something like 2 in 10,000 farmers! From 700 million Baht out of 130 billion Baht due.

I really wonder, where all the farmers are, that were so vocal about getting paid "by the end of next week"? I can't imagine, that so many of them are so stupid to believe the governments claim to pay out all of them in the next few days or weeks. From what money? From re-allocating the salary budget of the civil servants in Thailand? From getting the 60 billion back, that were syphoned off via Hong Kong?

davejones23

A coup just before the government and the UN can officially call for reconcilliation talks.

Convenient, eh?

sent from my hippo phone

I thought I read that Yinluck said no to talks with Suthep. I'm not on either side, but Suthep is willing to have talks from what I read. Yinluck said no. A TV debate would allow all Thais see what's being said on both sides.

A TV debate?

Nah, Yingluck would loose out to Suthep in every way. She hasn't gotten the experience of debating somebody like Suthep. She would look sooo old compared to him, that her spin doctors are all and completely against something like a one-on-one discussion. That's also why she wants to have a lot of support staff around her, who would do all the talking and she just sitting in between them, quiet.

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Sorry to correct you, but people like her or her family are never going to die on the battle field. They always make sure they got a horse or a car or a plane to get out before they could get burned. Remember the Marcoses? Remember Taksin's (then still) wife and the many suitcases on the way to SIngapore? And these suitcases were only for the black money...

The ones dying on the battle fields are always the small people, the farmers, labourers or simple soldiers. Like now the farmers, who got cheated out of their due money. Expect many of formerly independent farmers to sell all or part of their land, because... life must go on and the family needs to be fed and cared for. And a lot of red shirt politicians will come out of this with a lot more land to their name and the names of their family.

if you think Chalerm is stupid, then it might be the same thougth that many others have, but it's also informal and thus legit...

For the rest about how to find the news via Google I can only agree with you...

Going on like this the Red shirts wil soon run out of muscians willing to play for them.

In terms of sales of the music I'm sure this action by the red shirts will only push the figures up...

Secession is just another of those weird ideas of the some red shirts, like Dab Daeng's joy over killed Thais at the same occasion.

Seriously, if anybody would propose that for real, he/she might get lynch'd by the vast majority of all Thais.

Beside that it would be pretty stupid, because a lot of upcountry money would be gone without the industry around Bangkok and Central Thailand. Where are most of the Isarn workers employed? Who will then send home money?

So there is no point of getting excited, it's only unseful to counter the Red Shirts in an discussion... like here on TV.

Have been in Chiang Rai recently and I was pleasantly surprised, that at least in that province the Red shirts don't reign without opposition. I came across several places, where BlueskyTV was on, and not in secret. Or where the newspaper topics were discussed with sympathies for the protesters.

Actually I never understood, how the Northern farmers could support Taksin, as he was the one to push through the bilateral treaty with China, after which Northern Thailand was flooded with cheaper Chinese agricultural produce.
In effect this killed of a lot of northern farming business and income. And nobody dared to complain about it...

There is now no distance between Yingluck and Thaksin. Even the pretense of that has gone. Thaksin's disdain for the independent agencies and the courts is now being enthusiastically adopted by Yingluck. Is this the example she wants to set for the country - that the independent agencies and the courts can be simply ignored ? Is that what she wants to convey to the people ? She has now been reduced to create an inner world for herself - a world that now apparently includes airport tarmacs where no protesters can express their displeasure. In addition to a constitutional vacuum, she has created for herself her own vacuum - her own world - as her public appearances now have to be choreographed so carefully that they keep her away from any sound that even remotely resembles a whistle.

For one, this is in the tradition of the likes of her brother and Somchai Wongsawat, who fled to CM before being thrown out. He even didn't leave the "Mu Bahn" of his wife's residence... until it was all over,

What I'm wondering is, what will happen, if the courts will decide against her. Will she be automatically dismissed or what is the correct procedure? Can she still simply ignore the courts and continue to act as if she were still Caretaker? And what is the legal situation after March 4th, when the "30 days after election" are past?

if the army is really here to protect the country then they need to step in and remove Suthep immediately. he is only interested in anarchy and starting a civil war. if he is allowed to continue then i see no way for this to be decided peacefully. we are approaching sad sad times for Thai people. My wife and I are contemplating our departure from her home for our safety.

Oh my, if you are really so scared, maybe you better watch from the outside.

OTOH this is not an unusual situation, what we have here now,- only the latest and lasting longer than normal.

I wonder how many of the TV red shirts are married and living in north and northeast Thailand, vrs the TV Yellow shirts living in central and southern Thailand.

We should conduct a survey.

Actually i think the correlation and causation is more in IQ and education. With the red shirts on the lower part of the IQ tree. With a few exceptions of course.

That is pure guesswork.

While I think, that the red shirt supporterrs don't see, where their own advantage lies I have to point out, that IQ has no correlation to the location of the pople within a certain radius and within basically the same culture. You might make a difference between Thais and people, who live some totally other place, but that's not the point here.

Problem with the red shirts (at least here at TV) is, that they perfer to believe a power-hungry (in Thai: bah amnart) criminal more than their own past education, which once taught them, that substance comes before looks/packaging and to think analytical and not stick to Thai style rote learning...

People like Dab Daeng are a totally different thing.

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SamMunich:

Unbelievable, but true: We found a point of common thinking. Actually the issue of educational and social development is overdue since a loooong time. My believe is, that this would have gone different, if there hadn't been the bloody coup in 1976. People and polticians were in a different mood or attitude before 1976. Afterwards nobody dared to mention anything like that for fear of being branded a communist. Those in power at that time enjoyed it, that there was no criticism and no social movement. And that kept going like this ever after, under Pa Prem, Chatchai, Suchinda and whoever was in charge. Sure, the dumber the people, the better they can be controlled and directed.

School only provides very little value for the pupils and then kids of poor people can't even afford to attend school.

Eventually nowadays we run into BIG problems, because the population is not educated enough to provide, what modern manufacturing needs. Starting from 2015 we will see lots of foreign workers coming into Thailand, on both ends, the cheap labour as well as the educated workforce... from abroad. What a pity!

And that is criticism ALL politicians have to share.

And without a major reduction of corruption and a new accountability for the use of taxpayers money, we will not get anywhere...! And with Taksin at the steering wheel, there is no chance of any change.

Good night!

Folks I read here all the time the question, what Suthep wants to change?

How about using our own brain cells and figure out, what is wrong?

* Do we want corruption?

* Do we want nepotism?

* Do we want squandering of public money aka taxes?

* Do we want politicians, that are lying and cheating?

* Do we want a better education for all?
* Do we want a more even income distribution instead of the boss takes nearly all?

* Do we want all Thais having the feeling, that life in Thailand is worthwhile?

This is just a 5-seconds brainstormign result, but I'm sure there are much more things we want to change and which we can agree on.

To support a person like Taksin is certainly nothing to go for. He has already more money than he can spend in the rest of his live.

So why help him to get even more? We also know, how money can be spent...

The government does really not have anything to discuss with the facist-movement.

No, they only need to talk to themselves... and Dab Daeng!

Sounds to me like a good business idea,- at least in Chiang Mai:

Post information, that a known ant-red-shirt artist will show and then let the red-shirts, that will come like moths to the light, start eating and drinking and you make a lot of money from those red-shirts, that are not poor farmers but the "I-got-rich-as-a-red-shirt" kind.

Commerce Ministry is confident it would sell 1 million tons of rice monthly... and tomorrow is christmas eve, right?

They came up with this "headline" for months now, but they are maybe just too dumb to actually sell the rice, business people, that these civil servants are.
It might work like that in their office, but to simply declare rice to be sold, when you haven't found a buyer nor fixed a price (and not talking about cashing in the cheque!) is major BS. Offering to auction is not already sold!

In fact everybody would be glad, if - after two years or so - they managed to sell off a chunk of what they have in store. This way they would not need to use taxpayers money to pay the farmers (30%) and the millers, storage owners etc (70% of the budget)...

Costas2008:

"she said in a shaken voice, “Won’t they allow even a space for me to stand?"

NO.

I woul say YES,- as long as that space is in Dubai or Montenegro or...

IANF wrote:

to leave would be to admit to be forced out by a small band of nasty thugs by using fear and intimidation , and the overthrow of democracy by Sutheps terrorists

May I suggest that you spend a day with the protestors in Bangkok. And then tell me, are these sons and daughters of Thailand's soil really terrorists? Also tell me, where on earth did you get this idea from? You know it's utter and complete nonsense. I know you only have 250 posts so you are a newbie here. But surely, before making such definitive statements you should do some research. That would tell you that you have reached the wrong conclusion. Or perhaps someone asked you to post this misinformation?

(incidentally "Sutheps terrorists" need an apostrophe, otherwise it is a bit meaningless.)

Not to object to your post, but the number of posts is a very vague indicator of how long somebody is in Thailand. In the end the content counts, not the number.

bloody hell i wish i never bought the minimum wage into it...anyway getting back to yingluck..

This minimum wage hike was a truly bungled thing!

Workers can (and do!) earn much more than the 300 Baht, if their productivity is high enough. Unfortunately the average Thai productivity is among the lowest in the region. Most workers think they get paid fo the time being on the job, not for the work they are supposed to do. And I'm not making this up, that is my experience in several Thai companies over several years.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not only siding with the protesters, I'm also all for people getting enough money to make their living (and then some more), but the way in which this minimum wage has been implemented has been the worst possible kind.

It was announced a full two years before it was actually enforced (well, relatively) and the first thing that happened? The prices of everyday goods like food etc. were soaring up some 40% or 50%, even before the higher wages were introduced. Reason: "You get a new, higher salary/wage, so we must raise the prices" was, what you could hear everywhere. So not only was there no gain for the workers because the cost of living jumped up to the same level as their new minimum wage. Even worse, the prices were up long before the people could pay the new prices.

So in fact, the Yingluck government totally screwed up this minimum wage raise. But on her level of income you don't know about these things... And one thing to keep it this way is the condition, that anybody standing for parliament has to have a university degree, so you all stay among yourself. And screw the poor!