AsianAdvisor

A simple Google search does not reveal a 'UK Billionaire' of that name.

A UK Billionaire is a big deal so it would show up in the Times Rich LIst and other press reports, so,it begs the question 'what is going on here?'

All we know is that weather patterns have changed - fact.

All we know is that it is it is a neutral year - neither La Nina or El Nino but we are heading towards an El Nino event - fact

Australian Weather Bureau

If you want to see how forecasters get it so wrong, read this article from Bloomberg about the drought from 2010 (headlined using El Nino when it fact it was a La Nina period!!). Then in 2011 we had the mega flood!

The point I am making is that we had a one in a 50 year event last year but, as we all know, weather patterns are changing so the prediction that was made by the gentleman in the article is pure puff.

No one knows for certain. But El Nino is a powerful climate event and we are moving towards another cycle.

You may wish to read this article which demonstrates that elderly white males are more likely to commit suicide. Its a known social phenomena and there are many reasons why.

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2006/ElderlyWhiteMenAfflictedbyHighSuicideRates.aspx

For the poor guy involved, may his soul rest in peace.

@ AsianAdviser,

I'm curious about your comparison to the IRA situation. Was there an external connection between the IRA and an ideological or radical religious group? I think a big part of the problem here may be the connection with a radical, militant Islam that ties "true believers" with a global movement. I understand that teachers in the local Muslim schools are trained and probably radicalized in places such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. They may be coming back and then making the schools recruiting grounds for more radical "true believers". Although i find your idea intriguing, it seems that the IRA parallels only go so far.

@ Khunming

You refer to parallels with an external religious/political group in my example of the IRA.

The conflict in Northern Ireland was/is a sectarian conflict between the ethnic Irish - Catholics and the Scots Irish - Protestant so there is a very religious element to the conflict based on dogma. So there are parallels in the conflict between Islam and Buddhism although I grant you that the Thai Buddhist is more the sinned against than the sinner in my humble opinion (although you would have to be careful about the role of the army in this analysis).

There was also a strong external funding community based on the Irish Catholic community in the USA which raised funds for the IRA and also exerted political pressure in Congress against what were seen as legitimate British interests in Northern Ireland. Although the IRA also established links with the Libyan Government that provided semtex that decimated physical targets in the Uk most notably London, and FARC, the revolutionary Columbian terror group rated as extreme by many intelligence agencies.

The point I was trying to make is that where you have two entrenched communities, each blaming each other for how they are being treated, conducting almost daily acts of terror and killing - you have to create a new paradigm and the only way that you can do that is through external mediation.

The real cause in the south centres around Malay identity both cultural and religious and in that respect the parallels with Northern Ireland are exactly the same.

Its time the Thai govt admits to the secret they have been keeping this past 8 yrs. This is an insurgency sponsored in part by the govt of thailands southern neighbour. With insurgents receiving training on malaysia soil, syria and libya. If thailand wants control of the southern provinces better bring in properly trained counter insurgent enforcement staff to deal with the situation appropriately.

Fully wrong, Malaysia is helping Thailand. Even Dr Mahatir has tried a mediation around a year ago. Malaysian people are too much busy by doing business and developing their own country, they need a peaceful environment, having paid an heavy tribute years ago to the racial divisions. The current motto is "1 Malaysia". Malaysia is actively hunting for islamist extremists, jailing or killing them (as recently for an leader caught in Johor Bahru area)

In the current HatYai issue, one Malaysian has been killed and at least 17 injured.

If you want to know about the conflict read this (conflict in Southern Thailand SIPRI paper number 20)

i wish i was wrong but this is in fact what some malaysian law makers are saying. You are correct that govt is keeping its civilians busy working to develop the country, just as they keep the opposition gagged or in court. But their military has not had a lot to do for several decades. An insurgency helps to give them something to do and keeps their generals from having higher aspirations. If you doubt this is true then ask any higher official in the malaysian govt

I will in 14 days time as I will have the opportunity to do so. Lets see if your comment is correct.

The only solution will come when the politicians have the will to reach an achievable compromise and the most radiant solution for that is what happened in Northern Ireland which mirrors exactly the same situation in southern Thailand.

In NI, the two former tribal leaders now run their own affairs and have reached a level of coexistence that was thought impossible to achieve during the height of the Troubles. This came about through the reaching out by the UK Government to the less radical elements within the IRA, including the Irish Government in all dialogues and telling the Scots-Irish that they had to conform or be marginalised.

And I should have added - the offices of a well respected and efficient mediator in Senator George Mitchell.

I cannot see that happening in this conflict - too much loss of face involved.

The Good Friday Agreement is a template for similar religious/cultural conflicts but I very much doubt that the Thai Government has either the desire or the vision to take a lesson from somewhere else in the world. There are many aspects of Thailand that I admire but the Thai view of the world stops at their own borders - the farang has nothing to teach them. I am constantly astonished at how little ordinary Thai's know how about modern world history.

The Malaysian Government is not to blame here as it is always desirous of maintaining community harmony despite the rise of Islamic awareness within the country. There is also the memory of the civil war of the 1940's and 1950's that I lived through when I was growing up as a child that maintains a constant reality check and the source of that conflict was essentially conducted on racial divides, a Chinese led insurgency.

Once again, having lived in the UK through the IRA insurgency and the constant threat of being involved in a bombing crisis, at least the IRA had the decency in forewarning people. It appears that we have a different level of threat in Hat Yai.

So let us hope that the Thai Government heeds the warning and looks at alternative political solutions .... but I am not holding my breath. Many more people are going to die because of limited thinking.

And I should also have added, the offices of Senator George Mitchell a respected international mediator without whose help it would have been impossible to make the agreement.

I cannot see that happening in Thailand - too much loss of face is involved and an inbuilt distrust of all non Thais when involved in internal Thai politics.

On Tuesday March 13th I flew to Hong Kong by Air Asia on their 6.30 am flight. I arrived at the airport at 4.00 am.

Some observations:

1 Air Asia check in is a horrendous experience in Bangkok even if you use their web check in service. You still have to queue.

2 Check in took 40 minutes even though I had no bags.

3 Presented myself at Immigration to find 2 Booths open - that is correct 2 Booths. The line queue was long and some Indian passengers - who are never known for their timeliness (lived there for 3 years) - were threatening a riot as I guess they were going to miss their flight.

4 After 20 minutes and a load of grumbling from other passengers, 2 more Booths were opened. I cleared Immigration in 40 minutes, one of the longest waits I have experienced. All I know that if you started grumbling at Heathrow, you would get a very firm reprimand from stern faced apparatnik.

Now I do not criticize Thailand. I like living here. I left England for other reasons in how Britain is governed which are far worse than the problems that I experience here so I am grateful, believe me. However, moving AirAsia from Suvarnabhum is extremely unhelpful given the relative lack of transport links at DM.

This may be the final push to get me to relocate to Hong Kong (sighs) as travelling from and to the SAR is a delight as everything works smoothly. As a frequent traveller, using the overpriced services of the other airlines on offer is not an attractive proposition.