flarefade

...what I'm saying is that to all but a handfull of students of arcane indian wisdom, the four-sided vortex represents nazism. Perhaps we could all use some 're-education'.

Sadly the NAZI has stigmatized this ancient symbol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

My heart bleeds for the symbol.

2 out of 3?

...what I'm saying is that to all but a handfull of students of arcane indian wisdom, the four-sided vortex represents nazism. Perhaps we could all use some 're-education'.

OMG look at his earring! This guys was lost long time ago and grew up very sad prob..

Well let all the stories begin again (lol)

By the way i see Thai also with the same symbol on a T-shirt but little know what it is here.

The swastika is an important symbol for Hindus and Buddhists. The oldest evidence of its use in the East is from more than 2,500 years old.

Moron who probably thinks 'cheerios' is something other than a breakfast cereal?

When I first started coming to Thailand about 8 years ago, there were always adverts on Television for those Mozzie machines that blow smoke (I think they use diesel don't they) and you use them in the garden etc. Since coming to live here for the last 5 years I have never seen the advert again. Does anyone have one? are they any good? if so where can I buy them?

Ubiquitous everywhere ... Burning of wood, plastics ... Etc. some theorise it is a cause of climactic change as well as smog.

Giving "carte blanche" to pesticide manufactures will create a health problem many orders of magnitude greater than any threat from Mosquitos. People who are not used to living in the tropics will not fully appreciate this.

The evidence isn't about what he looks like but what he did, murder a young women in cold blood by stabbing her not once but 17 times to death. In any country especially Thailand this deserves the toughest sentence, death by lethal injection.

Trying to remember Hitler's quote about iteration making something true. Best forgotton, I suppose.

I'm sure he must have a criminal record in his home country .

People with a criminal past should be stopped at the border , never allowed to enter.

Bubbala is jealous

Whenever someone says something like "I'll call you today or tomorrow to resolve this" about something as serious as a passport, I would make it a practice to get that persons complete name, phone number and email address and contact them on the third day if they haven't already contacted me. Also I would have asked for clarification as to the meaning of "this" as in I'll call you to resolve "this".

As it stands now, all the OP can do is show up at the Embassy on the appointed day and maybe start from ground zero on the whole process of getting a passport. I look forward to a full report from the OP after his visit to the Embassy tomorrow.

Well, I broke down and called the Embassy, and was connected to Mr. Andrew who confirmed that it was that warrent from Florida which was holding things up.

(so is it just an excuse, not the real issue?)

Expressed my mystification; I thought bygones were bygones, I heard not a wisper from Florida for ten long years, during which time I had no problems having my passport re-issued (2002) and then (2009, I think) pages added in Chiang Mai.

I expressed to Mr. Andrew a need to confirm the legality of the warrent, as I think it may not have existed until I enquired about the case (and got the all clear) in 2008, 3 years after the "statute of limitations" if that means anything.

For a normal passport renewal, the "2-weeks" is an average time, it is not your follow-up appointment time. They will call or e-mail you when your passport is ready for pick-up and you don't need an appointment for it once it's ready, you just go in and pick it up during operating hours. You are supposed to have your old passport, however, which they cancel when you pick up your new one. In theory, you will need your old passport to enter the embassy. You should call them to resolve this.

Wasn't the OP's passport missing?

the way I read it, They kept his old passport. This happen to a freind of mine. It turned out he had a oustanding arrest warrent for an old DWI in Florida and soon afterward he was deported back to the States.

(you have friends?)

Actually I (probably) have a bunch of warrents from a bunch of states, all over 13 years old, not the least of which is a "Birth Warrent" and a "Bachelors Degree" Warrent. None of them have ever been problems.

I haven't gotten a traffic ticket in 10 years.

The thing in florida was about a $20 flare launcher which I pointed at some police in an unmarked car (I thought they were hoods) 13 years ago.

Why now, and why are they acting so dodgy?

Parking ticket, 13 years ago. Anyways, there should be a statute of limitations on it.

I've had my passport replaced (10 years ago), had pages added to it, come and gone from the US and other countries dozens of times, never a problem.

All is well.

I went into the United States Embassy in Bangkok, gave them the fee, required photos and forms and walked out with a slip of paper that read on one side "Your passport will be ready for collection Two weeks from date of application", and had the address and phone number of the embassy on the other. It was personally autographed by "Andrew".

So why am I worried.

Truth be known, in between the submission of the paperwork, and the collection of the slip of paper there was a bit of drama.

The number "115" (my number) came up on the monitor, I went to the window and Mr Andrew said something to the effect of

"there is an issue, and until we resolve this issue we cannot return your passport or give you any passport at all"

Ok, a bit of a shocker because I have no clue what he's talking about... issue?

It gets even better

Mr Andrew

"Where are you staying? Don't worry, we aren't going to break down your door or anything"

(a fresh issue? still, I have no idea)

I answer "Banglamphu"

Andrew "Where is banglamphu?"

He gives me the slip of paper, and says

"We have your phone number?"

I answer "yes, and email"

"We will call you today or tomorrow to resolve this"

End interview.

Almost two weeks go by, no word from Mr. Andrew. Where is my passport, in some embassy drawer, forgotten?

Given that "Andrew" didn't call or e-mail I can only assume it was a bad joke of some kind. Clearly not very much concern here for the security or safety of Americans abroad here, Mr Andrew appears to have the luxury of being able to take a passport (illegally?) and not worry very much about it, or think that he may be called into account for it.

Tomorrow (in theory) I should go into the embassy and pick up my new passport.

In the event that it is not there, and no call or response comes from the consulate by tomorrow what should I do?

What's all the ruckus about? Just let him back into Thailand and the people greet him with open arms.

Depending on which side you're on, "open ARMS" will mean different things ;-)

i feel the same thing too. Let him come back. Solve and clear all these legal issues.

I just wonder if in his mind does he really has the courage to come back.

Coming in is easy, going out this time....is going to be "climb the sky" in our saying.

Because he suddenly has a Thai passport will not generate him stepping on the next flight to Thailand.

He wants all changes dropped and an assurance they will not / cannot be brought up again before he steps on the plane - that's why the push for amnesty rather than the passport.

SIlly. There is an unlimited capacity to create political nuclear waste, and only limited capacity to clean it up. Thaksin should know that.

You will see the government equate passports with Thai ID cards because they will try to suggest that his nationality was taken away from him ie. he can't prove he's a Thai national and how every Thai National should defend the right to retain their nationality. The government will conflate these issues as much as possible in order to justify the return of his passport.

I think you are right and that it will then seem to a lot of people that his opponents are making a fuss over not much. There is also the subtle PTP won the let the country decide election and people expect Thaksin to get spomething from this and dont expect the losers to say no to everything. What will the losers agree to? A passport would be an easy one. If they keep saying "no" to everything it undercuts them with the middle. The same as if Thaksin gets a thing or two to continually ask for more undercuts the government with the middle. It is a balancing act but one helped by Thaksin and his side having a whole range of options while his opponents seem to have only no way to say about everything. The first hand is a lot easier to play and those holding it have shon they ar ea lot lot better at playing the game too, so they have a big advantage. We shouldnt forget that most people are not absolutist on the Thaksin conundrum. In fact that position seems to the position of only th emore extreme of his opponents who rather unfortunately have grabbed the agenda of that side leaving by some of their actions their (earstwhile?) more liberal allies openly aghast at their tactics and even being unusually critical of some of the more authoritarian ones recently

The election was not a referendum on waiving one man's jail time. Politicians love to claim they have a 'mandate' for everything when they get into office, but voters don't get to pick and choose which policies they support. Strapping a turd to a pile of populist sugar and then claiming that the turd was what people actually wanted is an ancient political tactic.

Issuing a passport to a criminal fugitive undermines the rule of law and is an unacceptable breach of governance, particularly from a relative. You can put lipstick on the pig if you want, but it is still a pig.

And Richard Nixon did jail time. Wrong. "Criminal fugitive" is a byword for the politically unconnected.