z12

You are mistaken, their gang of 3 had been attacking tourists for 2 months.

From the OP.

"Natthapong confessed that he, his girlfriend and another friend had robbed and attacked tourists walking alone about 20 times in the past two months to get money to buy drugs and go out clubbing."

You appear to have not read my post but instead chose to selectively respond to a portion of it nor have you picked up on the underlined word FOREIGN tourist. Again there is no indication the 20 were FOREIGN tourists and actually good reason to believe most were not as I explained in the previous post you are partially quoting.

In case you are still missing the mark here ... tourist from all over Thailand visit Chaing Mai in what I would guess are significantly higher numbers than foreigners.

That is a bit of a leap. It is highly doubtful they would be targeting Thai tourists "to get money to buy drugs and go out clubbing."

Really? How do you suggest they knew this was a Chinese tourist as they approached and attacked her from a motorbike? Maybe before clubbing here on the head they first ask her to speak to verify she was not Thai-Chinese.

20 successful attacks would mean they had been able to determine the difference quite well, probably from studying the area and the tourists. There is more than just visual and voice indicators that you are a foreign tourists. And since they wanted big baht for drugs and clubbing, they would want to make sure they picked a tourist most likely to be carrying big baht. Do you see any Thai citizen tourists "walking alone" from OP?

Keep in mind too that there is nothing in this story to indicate the 20 attacks occurred to foreign tourists. In fact it is probably unlikely they were targeting "foreign" tourists based on this story as this was a Chinese women which would be difficult enough to tell from a motorbike but since there are plenty of Thai-Chinese ....

You are mistaken, their gang of 3 had been attacking tourists for 2 months.

From the OP.

"Natthapong confessed that he, his girlfriend and another friend had robbed and attacked tourists walking alone about 20 times in the past two months to get money to buy drugs and go out clubbing."

You appear to have not read my post but instead chose to selectively respond to a portion of it nor have you picked up on the underlined word FOREIGN tourist. Again there is no indication the 20 were FOREIGN tourists and actually good reason to believe most were not as I explained in the previous post you are partially quoting.

In case you are still missing the mark here ... tourist from all over Thailand visit Chaing Mai in what I would guess are significantly higher numbers than foreigners.

That is a bit of a leap. It is highly doubtful they would be targeting Thai tourists "to get money to buy drugs and go out clubbing."

Were there any animals in the lift ??

Maybe a cougar.

Keep in mind too that there is nothing in this story to indicate the 20 attacks occurred to foreign tourists. In fact it is probably unlikely they were targeting "foreign" tourists based on this story as this was a Chinese women which would be difficult enough to tell from a motorbike but since there are plenty of Thai-Chinese ....

You are mistaken, their gang of 3 had been attacking tourists for 2 months.

From the OP.

"Natthapong confessed that he, his girlfriend and another friend had robbed and attacked tourists walking alone about 20 times in the past two months to get money to buy drugs and go out clubbing."

pros·ti·tute

1. a person who engages in sexual intercourse for money; whore; harlot;

Yes and marriage is the most expensive and legal form of it.

Horace Tabor: "Wait a minute! You can't buy a woman for money."

Mad Jack Duncan: "You just try and get one without it."

Paint Your Wagon (1969)

There is a lot of talk on here about wolves in association with the violence being shown by certain dogs. The thing is that there are very very few instances of a Wolf attacking a man. Wolves were hunted to extinction in the UK and many parts of europe due to superstition and incorrect tales of wolf attacks (The child's story of Little Red Riding Hood being a prime example, of our distrust of them). Wolves kill other animals for food and steer well clear of humans. There have been many types of canine that have contributed to the very diverse array of dogs we see today. I would rather have a wolf as a pet than a pitbull. Dogs that are aggressive have been bred that way.

Much like shark attacks, they happen but not often.

http://en.wikipedia....tacks_on_humans

I'll take the RTA over mr T.

What was the meeting about? And with whom?

No idea, but if it wasn't something 'odd' then there wouldn't have been such odd responses from the Govt. direction to this.

Thaksin's lawyer chipping in and saying that he thinks everything was probably above board means what? That he has no idea and hopes it wasn't something bad or if it was that it will not be found out.

*sigh*

Clowns.

Maybe she was making a reservation for a private intimate Valentine's Day celebration, with whom is the question?

He would still be in the prostitution businss had he not been arrested.

Chuwit Kamolvisit is a controversial Thai politician who was once the country's biggest massage parlor owner. After an arrest in 2003, he went public with his claims of having paid large bribes to hundreds of police officers. He then sold some of his massage parlors, formed his own political party and unsuccessfully ran for Bangkok governor in August 2004. In 2005 he was elected for a four-year term to the Thai House of Representatives, but in 2006 the Constitutional Court removed him from parliament. In October 2008 he again ran for governor of Bangkok as an independent but was not elected.

Angry that police dared to arrest him, he publicly released the amounts of bribes he had regularly paid in the past, along with names of the high ranking police recipients.

http://en.wikipedia....uwit_Kamolvisit

What I posted is the norm of course and even if the military is not running the country post coup d'etat, the civilians they allowed to run the country would never charge them.

Thailand has their own way of doing things and I doubt they would ever charge nor convict any military of a failed coup d'etat. Though it is hard to see how any military coup d'etat could fail, who would stop them?

If the Scot has an ounce of romance in him, he will send roses and a thank you card to be delivered post mortem.

.....along with a letter from the embassy saying the review of her visa application was successful.......

And a cheque for 2 million quid crossed "a/c payee only"

Mysogeny at its cruelest. Ha ha ha!

She is a misandry.

DocN, on 17 minutes ago, said:

nicky1982, on 52 minutes ago, said:

Now many people will not like to hear this, but I am going to say it anyway. For the most part, these girls do have choices. The bottom line is that they can have jobs in restaurants and hotels earning a decent living and enough to get by. The salary for your average unskilled worker is anywhere from $100-300USD per month. Now when you compare that to a western salary it may sound like very little. The reality is that many people in Thailand live happily on these low salaries, and some of them even send half of that salary to help their family. The average bar girl can make more in 1 day than most people do in 1 month, so it is not surprising that some find it tempting. Another thing to consider is that in rural Thai society, this is not looked at in the same way you might view it. A girl going back to her village telling stories of sleeping with middle aged men for large sums of money, does not get ostracized and ridiculed. In contrast she might be treated like a hero, a pioneer.

May all very well be.

But that "have a choice"- picture with the "easy money" gets pretty shattered, when you know, that most of the "girls" are straight on their way into alcoholism (or other, even worse addictions) just to do this job.

I know some bars and some girls: none of them is even halfway sober, even when they start their evening.

I have seen the nice "thai boyfriend" accompanying his "GF" to a "job interview' in a GoGo bar...1 week later he was back with another "GF".

What about the girls from Laos or Cambodia- you know, the ones that always have to hide somewhere, when the police makes one of their announced raids...

Just saying

And what about the constant whining/complaining 'It's never the Thais' fault'.

Just sayin' ...

Who is???

Me???

I don't think he means you, I think he is talking about the thais.

The only reason there is Prostitution in thailand is because foreigners keep going there, No foreigners NO prostitution......Simple really.

i read some were, that over 80/90% of the sex trade in los was utilised by thais

Yes, that is correct, that guy has been drinking too much evian water, naive.

You can tell from my Signature where I stand on Chuwit. Sure he had a bad past, but because he faced several death threats from the police I seem to recall, he has decided to front it out. He is the only politician who is not a hypocrite here because he is not hiding his past. All of the other men in power have contracts closed in these places; it is ingrained in the culture. He is not pretending the problems do not exist though; or faking big surprise. So I say good for him. I would also guess that the information he has on all the properly powerful people in this country with evidence as well, means he is fairly safe. After all, why kill him if the whole system will collapse straight after wards? I do have a feeling though that the casino's, dodgy contracts, sex trade, drugs et al is all run by all the big old school families and if they were all exposed, there would be a collective shrug of their shoulders saying "yeah, we did it all, and will keep doing it. So what can you do about it? Call the cops? the army? they're in it with us so go tell someone who cares". This is the most sad part of it all. In the mean time, Chuwit is the best person in Thai politics.

They will use the "do you know who I am defense".

No more soapies for Chewie, aarrgghh

Soapy Clip of Coyote Girls Become Viral in Thailand

http://www.thaivisa....__fromsearch__1

Blah blah blah .... once again for this guy we see nice rhetoric....

Not supportive of prostitution but if it was stamped out then tell me the plan to employ the thousands of workers currently in the trade.. tell me the plan to support the thousands of families and children that have money sent to them each month.

Tell me the plan to maintain tourist numbers.

Again Im not advocating prostitution is good or right just saying it is so ingrained in Thailand that you just cant wipe it out without expectation that their will be extreme follow on effects.

A moral dilemma question.... girl with elderly mother,sickly father and two young children in North East.. she works in BKK. Sends money home each month such that children are fed clothed and educated, father has medicine and mother has enough money to put meals on the table and make a home.

Girl doesn't particularly like the job but knows she has no alternatives up home and rationalises that doing what she does is the best thing for her family.

Job does have one bright side in that she feels she might be able to meet a nice guy of suitable means whereas back home she has no chance.

So is it wrong waht she is doing ? Lesser of evils???

It reads a bit fairytale and rose colored glasses i know but actually have met some girls who are there for better life for their family and children. Yes there are the hardcore ones and the druggies and the game players but my point is that without some alternative plan for these people who do exist as written what do they do ??

Here's an alternative scenario - girl with elderly mother,sickly father and two young children in North East meets a guy who says he owns a restaurant in Bangkok and will take her there where she will earn enough money for her whole family - when she arrives in BKK, after quiting her textile factory pittance of pay job in Isaan, she finds she is a prostitute - her choices, walk home (no accomodation) and let her family fend for themself, or become a prostitute and have to pay off her coach ticket, accomodation and bar stall rent - the rest she sends home - now caught in a world she can't escape from until eventually her tips and what she managed to squirrel away (or if she is lucky some guy farang/Thai/Asian takes her as a mia noi or maybe even GF) gives her the ability to escape. Now she is probably in her late 20's of above and what does she have to build a new life from?

Are you assuming that the picture in your last few lines happens with the vast majority of prostitutes?

I very much doubt that to be true, and especially in the brothels (which are by the far the majority) which cater to a Thai audience.

No, I make no assumption at all - merely put an alternative slant on the quoted posters "prostitution as a way out of poverty" scenario. I am not involved enough in the prostitution world to know how they recruit wholesale, but I do know this happens - I met a farang in CM once that was a Pattaya bar owner and he was telling us how a group of Thai men do this "trade" - i.e. getting girls from Isaan to come for legitimate jobs that end up sitting on bar stalls. The guys run the girls and just pay a barfine to the bar. He seemed to suggest it was a common practise, but again it is only heresay and may not even be true (although I have heard this before from other sources too).

I would suggest it is more likely to be true for Thai only brothels than in Pattaya bars - it is easier to lock them in with accomodation and other "fees" and keep them away from relationships - would also make it easier with Thais dealing with Thais.

You are correct.

The trafficking of Thai women into Japan for sex services is well organized under the control of Japanese and Thai agents, linked to the criminal world of both countries. The agents in Thailand will organize everything, including passport, visa, air tickets and basic Japanese language training. The agents in Thailand earn income by selling women to agents in Japan, and the agents in Japan make a profit by imposing a debt on women.

Recruiting women and girls for prostitution was fiercely competitive. In the rural regions, agents are usually local people or relatives and friends of local people who recruit directly from the villages.

http://www1.american.edu/ted/thaiwomen.htm

and from another poster on thaivisa

It is almost a monthly occurence up in Chiang Mai that kids are abducted. It used to be a lot more frequent a few years ago, (In my village many parents wouldn't even let there kids out on the street - They were terrified of those minibuses with the blacked out windows, as there was so much fear of them stealing kids) and it is well known that a lot of these kids end up maimed and put out to beg! (and admittedly - some were even sold by their own parents!) By the way, I have a ten year old for sale at the moment - he is a PITA, and eats me out of house and home plus the electric bills for his computer and PS3 are busting the bank - going cheap! Any offers?

This one is too obvious... The poor lady doesn't appear intelligent enough to realise she is simply making an utter fool of herself.

It appears she's married a wealthy guy, shown her true colours and he's been smart enough act. She is simply a woman scorned and trying her best to save whatever face she could possibly have left after her attempts to get her fingers on some of his wealth have failed.

This woman is an embarrassment to all the honest, hard working and loyal Thai ladies out there. My wife is disgusted by her behavior.

Exactly, yes, I bet all the Thai ladies are mad as hell at her for making a global spectacle of herself, which will reflect back on all Thai ladies.

On St Valentine's Day this year, 19 couples will register their marriages at the Giant Royal Flora Wheel and receive gold marriage certificates. Uppatham Nisitsukjarern, who heads the Project Management Office of the International Horticultural Exposition Ratchaphruek 2011, said the couples, chosen from a campaign about love, would not have to pay any fee.

Is this supposed to be the "feel good" part of the article?

"See, we do have normal love in Thailand. Not just crazy-old-ugly-beer-belly-warts-and-all-farang-marrying-a-girl-1/3-his-age-with-no-English-skills-or-even-a-junior-high-school-education-and-not-of-legal-drinking-age type love! Truely, this is Amazing Thailand!"

Smiles everybody... you're on Fantasy Thailand!!!

Sadly mia noi PM clone will not be registering her marriage on Valentine's Day, so no gold marriage certificate for her. Maybe she will be spending Valentine's Day in the hotel she was spotted at recently.

"the colourful politician said he would go to the US Embassy today to provide information on human trafficking."

Why go to the U.S Embassy what has it got to do with the U.S, They aren't the worlds police or have authority in Thailand.

The guys intentions are probably good but I get the feeling that he may have signed his own death warrant. I lot of powerful and currupt people in Thailand will not like what he plans to do.

The streets do need to be cleaned up a lot with prostitution in your face 24/7 and the image doesn't really fit that of a family holiday destination.

Does that mean the US embassy gets a 20% cut?

Amazing Thailand. Coups under the latest constitution do not constitute a criminal act.

From an earlier post:

Article 15 of the proposed constitutional amendment covers this bizarre anomaly (see below and taken from a longer piece at:

http://asiancorrespo...titution-draft/

15. Defence against Usurpation

• Create a separate section in the new constitution concerning the “Nullification of the Legal Effects of a Military Coup d’Etat”, whose content is drawn from Nitirat’s proposal concerning the nullification of the legal effects of the 2006 coup.

• Citizens have the right and duty to use any means to resist against attempts to take away the supreme power from the people (usurpation).

• Specify that usurpation is a criminal act, and that after the supreme power of the people has been returned to the people, the usurpers must be prosecuted. Allow the period of prescription to start when the supreme power has been returned to the people.

Perhaps this explains why Prayuth has been so outspoken (and which would have seen him fired from his post in any normal country) on this matter and by wrapping up the constitutional amendments with Article 112 lese majeste reform, tries to conceal his desire to keep military coups legal.

"Coups under the latest constitution do not constitute a criminal act." - Incorrect. Under the latest constitution, the 2006 coup does not constitute a criminal act. It does not make any reference to any other coups - past or future.

I'm sure usurpation is already a criminal act, but that won't stop the people performing the next coup from making their usurpation legal.

Military coups are not legal, unless the people performing the coup make their coup legal. Be realistic! Someone who performs a coup will not put themselves up for legal justification.

Goodness, coup d'etat is LEGAL when it is successful,

and NOT legal when it fails, then you will be charged and executed.

The difficulty here is in defining who is a prostitute and who isn't. My first encounter with my Thai wife was a financial one, in other words I paid her to have sex with me. But I could just have easily have become married to an estate agent, a hotel receptionist, a manager of an Internet cafe or an optician. I did not pay for sex with them, but all these ladies had one thing in common, they intended to meet and marry a farang to improve their lives and the lives of their families. All are graduates including my spouse. They were from Chonburi, Sri Racha, Bangkok, Phuket and Khorat so no preponderance of Isaan

Can you truly differentiate between these 5 ladies? At the end of the day they will all cost you money in one way or another.

But that's life. Ladies from all parts of the globe sell their bodies in one guise or another. Even women who are of independent means often turn to their male partners for financial support.

Prostitution is here to stay. In UK it's endemic. The important thing is to make sex as safe as possible, and to try to dissuade very young people from engaging in it.

Marriage is the most expensive form of prostitution.

Then start from the top, and start with yourself Chewie.

"Chewie here tells me you're lookin' for passage to the Alderaan system?" Han Solo "Star Wars"

When you tip a waitress or barmaid, is that payment for the sexual gratification of her serving you?

Rather than discuss Mr. Amsterdam, how about some attention be given to his statement. Do people agree or disagree with this;

The Yingluck administration is not fully in charge of this country. We all know it. We all know the Army has a veto over what happens here. Let's not pretend. And therefore I understand that were this government to [sack General Prayuth], it would be removed militarily without hesitation," he said. Nevertheless he wished Prayuth could be removed

I agree with him. The military is still calling the plays and that is why there cannot be any progress on key issues such as corruption.

I agree with that statement.

Well, that makes it conclusive, then. Do you have any reasons underlying this belief? Would anyone care to address the issues of nepotism and cronyism, or are they verboten topics when we talk about corruption?

Well g'kid perhaps you could provide the list of human rights organizations which you say support amsterdam, perhaps that might help to build his credibility?

Not this one.

Human Rights Watch has branded ousted Thai prime minister “a human rights abuser of the worst kind”

Thaksin’s human rights violations.

Thaksin presided over extrajudicial killings during the notorious “war on drugs”. HRW says 2,500 people were killed during one three-month period at the start of 2003.

Thaksin told the Thai military to employ any means to suppress an insurgency in the south of Thailand.

Thaksin Suppressed the Thai media.

"Chuwit Demands Govt Take Action To Stamp Out Prostitution In Thailand"

Translation, the tea money cost is going UP.