womble

They would be best to desperse the crowd at around 4:30am when people will be most tired.......

They should carry on negotiating (not that it will get anywhere), then send in the troops. Tear gas may be a bad idea, confined space, lots of people, small exits, could lead to people being trampled to death.

I still can't believe there are childeren in there, what are the parents thinking. The PAD leaders should tell all under 18s to leave. Although in Thailands case under 25's, as they still view anyone under 25 as a child.......

I just got the CAT wireless. Around 10,000 for the USB reciever and around 800 baht per month. Can use it anywhere except bangkok, very useful setup. Can use it on the ferry, when traveling as passeger in the car, and it's fast....

Just did test, 1015KBS download - 422 upload, that's good considering how portable it is.

Tomorow i'm having a CAT fixed line installed. Free instalation then between 1000 and 5000 per month.

Can anyone recommend which package is best and what speeds they are getting?

by cat wireless do you mean the Air Card or the Wilreless Modem?

Wireless Modem, had it around 10 days now, not a single interuption with service and speeds costantly high. I've decided against geting the fixed line installed.

I am going on a road trip tomorrow so will test it's portability.

I will report back after my road trip, anyone kow where I can get a charger that fits in my car lighter?

Those grenades were thrown by a "third" hand working for PAD, they are trying to force the military to step in.

Sorry to shock you there, but most of the rest of the world see this as an attempted coup against an elected Government. An unelected body ousted him 2 years ago and rigged the election and the courts and disolved his party and banned his supporters from gathering or protesting in Bangkok.

Actually the rest of the world see Thaksin as Yet Another Tin Pot Asian Despot.

citation needed......

They would also create many jobs as they would ensure higher productivity.

Problem is the Thai elite are worried about loosing their monopoly on rice wholesale and export.

At present they pay the farmers peanuts for the rice they produce, they are worried that the middle east will cut out the middle man and go direct to the farmers.

This would be great for Thailand aslong as the Farmers don't sell out. Instead they should form co-operatives, getting together in large numbers and pooling land and resources.

I would love to see the elite wholesalers cut out and the profits going upcountry to the people who work their <deleted> off and deserve better.

I beleive it's right that they shouldn't sell the land to the Arabs, but they should be able to go into partnership with them, using arab money to increase productivity. So long as the Thai farners retain a controlling share, they could in return promise to sell the rice to the Arabs instead of to the Bangkok Chinese/Thai oligopolies that have held them to ransom for all their lives.

It looks like the Thai elite are shitting themselves!!!!

This is scare mongering in order to bring about legislation to protect their interests. By all means protect the farmers, but the legislation should be made to allow FDI that strengthens the farmers positions and sees the profits going upcountry where it should have been going all along!

no it's a recession when you have three months of negative growth. Some define it as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP. Depends on who you are, but it's basically a contraction of gdp.

This has been discussed so many times..........

Ask any tourist to list the things they dislike most about Samui or Phuket, the one thing that always comes up is taxis. Some extremely powerful people must be making lots of $ cos the harm this does cannot be underestimated.

I wonder who controls the taxi mafia, anyone know?

he wishes to return and become PM to bring back the happiness of Thailand. He assures all the poor people they will be much happier under his leadership.

"It will be easy to solve the problems of the poor", he once said, but they are just as poor now as they were before his englightened leadership.

you could say they are poorer cos they are now in debt! And without him in the driving seat there is no one to bail them out. Before all they had to do was dive their traktors and E Dan to bangkok and he's give in and give them a reprieve on paying back their loans and facing up to their responsibilities.

You are watching to much ASTV.

Don't get it on true......

Utter rubbish comparing the troubles in Africa with the divisions here.........

The fact is the division is between two sets of wealthy Thai's dominated by Chinesse immigrants on both sides.

One group of Chinesse immigrants though has been clever enough to give handouts to the poor majority many of which coming from issan and are true Thai's.

What is sad is the true Thai people are allways controlled by a chinesse immigrant minority most of which have been here only severel generations.

There was indeed a backlash severel decades ago which led to the chinesse changing their names to Thai sounding names.

The sooner Thaksins frozen money is confiscated for good, the sooner the country can go about getting back to normal.

As long as that huge amount is sitting in limbo then those that can benefit from it being released will continue to tear this nation apart.

Does anyone know the timeline and order of events for the money to be confiscated for good. They should use that money on projects in poor rural areas, building schools and hospitals.

wouldn't it be ironic giving the $ to the very people who were bought off in order for a tyrant to amass such wealth all the while claiming he was only in power to help the poor...........

Is it really that dangerous to try and bring some nasty people to justice here? Are they that well protected?

Are the foreign crooks really that powerful? What is their major way of making moneys? ( all drugs I guess)

Should we just leave it? ( something very difficult to do surely)

Any suggestions please? ( sensible ones please- last time I posted my thread desended into childish pro- drugs, anti- drugs childish name calling bash )

Thanking you

Even if its tempting to go vigilante I would lay off the 'crooks'.

If they're doing any kind of 'business' that make serious money you can be sure they have police protection.

The best known example is probably Koh Samui a few years back where some brit and scandinavian biker\mafia types had pretty much taken over the entire island making money of extortion, drugs and real estate scamming. These guys had the biggest houses on the entire island and were only brought to court from a special bangkok task force. I would think especially local police outside bangkok can be very easily bought off considering they have to buy their guns and equipment themselves = buy the stuff for a new policeman and you 'own' him. Goes well with the tradition of master and servant in Thailand.

So yeah, dont try to bring these guys in yourself!

what a load of rubbish.............

Forecast trimmed after sluggish Q3

NESDB revises down projection to 4.5%

CHATRUDEE THEPARAT

The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) has revised down its forecast for economic growth in 2008 to 4.5% from an earlier range of of 5.2% to 5.7%, following confirmation of lower-than expected expansion of 4% year-on-year in the third quarter.

The agency forecast gross domestic product (GDP) expansion of 3-4% next year, down from 4-5% projected earlier, due to the impact from both domestic and global economic conditions. The projection based on the Dubai oil price averaging US$55-65 per barrel and world economic growth of 2%.

The state planning agency said third-quarter growth was driven by domestic demand, especially the agriculture sector, which grew by 9.9%, up from 8.6% in the second quarter.

The non-agricultural sector grew by 3.5% in the third quarter, down from 5% in the second quarter. Meanwhile, government consumption growth decreased to 2.9% and total investment grew by only 0.6%.

The poor third-quarter performance - lower than 6% and 5.3% growth in the first and second quarters respectively - also reflected a sharper slowdown in the tourism industry than previously forecast.

Hotels and restaurants in the third quarter showed 0.2% growth, down from 5.9% and 9.2% in the second and first quarters. In September, foreign tourist arrivals were down 16.5% while the average occupancy rate of hotels nationwide dropped to 45% from 60% in the same period last year.

The tourism slowdown reflected the high cost of travel as fuel prices were near record highs at the time, but also unease about the protracted political tensions in Thailand.

Thailand has performed poorly the last few years as political troubles hold the country back. But whilst the rest of the world falls into recession according to these figures Thailand can still expect growth of over 3%.

The drop in tourism arrivals is worrying tho and will lead to job losses. I'm also worried that manufacturing will take a big hit.

How reliable are these figures?

The government hid its plan to start the process of rewriting the charter under the cover of Asean pact legislation but the plan was exposed. Now it wishes to push for the charter amendment again on Dec 8-9, but will it survive until then?

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) declared victory after foiling the House-Senate meeting at the parliament yesterday. Although the alliance did not totally put paid to the charter-rewriting plan, at least it pushed the session back to Dec 8-9 which is close to the time when the ruling People Power party (PPP) is expected to hear a ruling on its dissolution case, possibly on Dec 15.

Although Parliament Speaker Chai Chidchob earlier claimed the parliament needed a meeting yesterday only to endorse the Asean pact legislation, he did not expect MPs to study the issue thoroughly before voting on it at all.

He scheduled Asean pact legislation as the second issue on yesterday's agenda. Its details had just been sent to MPs on Friday although it was set for voting on yesterday.

Importantly, Mr Chai placed the constitutional amendment bill that Dr Weng Tojirakarn, a pro-government activist, proposed as the first issue of yesterday's parliament agenda. Mr Chai included the bill, although that seemed to be illegal because Article 291 of the present constitution has not been rewritten to pave the way for any further constitutional amendment.

the rest can be seen here..........

http://www.bangkokpost.com/251108_News/25Nov2008_news05.php

Can you believe how sneaky they are, only a few days ago saying there would be no attempts at charter ammendments, then with the aid of Chai they try to sneak it in under everyones noses........

The party disolution case is on dec 15, they now promise 8/9 december to debate important matters relating to asean legislation in chiang mai of which they are the host and the chair.

More proof that they care nothing for the country or it's image, only changing the constitution in order to get the thai execs off the hook and Mr T back in order to get his $ unfrozen so they can all share it out............

truly unbelieveable!!!

The good thing about Thaksin is his mouth, I should imagine they will soon get fed up with him in Dubai.......

At the moment all he cares about is getting that impounded money back.

It is soon to be the case where the $ is siezed for good, something big will have to happen soon and he has said it in as many words.

Eigher the king will pardon him and then he can come back. Next he will use a vote to become PM and then get his $ back.

The second way as also said by himself is the people do it for him. He will mobilise thousands to call for an amnesty which will also facilitate him coming back as PM and getting his $ back.

Burma certainly have their own animist beliefs, consider the 37 nats.

Government House damages estimated at Bt100 million

The cost of damage to the Government House and lost items is estimated to reach Bt100 million, Government Spokesman Nattawut Saikua said Wednesday.

He said he received reports from officials who went to retrieve documents and personal belongings in the Office of the Permanent Secretary found many items were missing including computer notebooks, cash from merit making ceremony, cash belonging to state officials, walky-talky, mobile phones, royal decorations, and handy drivers.

Absoltute disgrace, couldn't the leaders have taken an area to store everything and lock it away? There must have been some extremely important and maybe sensitive documents and material in there. The leaders must have known that and should have had an immediate plan to keep everything safe from the start. Laptops could contain anything, this is a matter of national security. Forget the material things and the cash for a minute (which is bad enough), and think about exactly what secrets could be hidden behind those walls.

Also can anyone enlighten me asto what on earth a "handy driver" is???

By the way this is just one office they are talking about...........

"Thai police stationed on the island have since been handing out leaflets warning visitors against swimming, especially in the latter part of the day and early evening." aw

Can someone explain this. As far as I am aware jellyfish float around slowly so if they can sting early morning or evening then they can also sting daytime as they wouldn't have moved far in that time.s

Or perhaps daytime they sit on the bottom, rising towards the surface at night to feed.

Can anyone in the know clarify.

To me this is quite worrying as I do lots of spearfishing, often in the water for 4-5 hours at a time, I don't fancy meeting one of these.......

yes i've been on a plane from bkk-samui with siam reap airways written on the side before......

The PTA and the government will launch a road show to China in mid-December in a bid to lure in more tourists from that country, he said.

<deleted>, why do it in China, Chinese dont spend any money, they just walk up and down Bang La Road and walking street in Pattaya.

They come on package tours and stay in the types of hotels owned by politicians. Many of the politicians are of Chinesse decendence and have good connections with China. Therefore their hotels have good links with chinesse tour agents, and any increase in chinesse tourists will help with occupany rate increases in hotels that they own or have connections to.

I've ordered my new gun, a 55" Wong Hybrid with mid handle. In the end the lifetime warrenty swung it for me.

It should get here next week, then i'm heading straight over to Andaman side for my first attempt at bluewater spearing,

can't wait!!!

Possible work permit issues..........

As if you find anything it's financial can, could be construed as working.

and superglue your money to the Kratong. :-)

should make amusing watching, maybe also put some perminent dye on it.

lol

I just got the CAT wireless. Around 10,000 for the USB reciever and around 800 baht per month. Can use it anywhere except bangkok, very useful setup. Can use it on the ferry, when traveling as passeger in the car, and it's fast....

Just did test, 1015KBS download - 422 upload, that's good considering how portable it is.

Tomorow i'm having a CAT fixed line installed. Free instalation then between 1000 and 5000 per month.

Can anyone recommend which package is best and what speeds they are getting?

My mother is looking to come out to Thailand to live, i've told her to apply for non o, she's not sure if she qualifies, she's over 60, what paper work does she need?

She also lives 5 hrs from Madrin, so can it be done by post?

Also is there anywhere you can download the application form in order to send passport by post?

if she came on a 30 day visa on arrival, is it possible to get non o from malaysia or anywhere else.

Any help will be much appreciated.....

W.

So what is the fastest and most reliable service, is it CAT? Does anyone have contact number?

cheers,

W