Yunla

I'm happy with my crumbling old 1970s condo, so I don't really have a horse in this race.

I understand and respect Thai opinions and traditions on foreign ownership of Thai land and houses. I think that if there were to be a change, it should be for foreigners to own a single house and a small lot, for personal use only. I would not support an unregulated foreigner land-grab fest, which would obviously only make life even harder for Thais on modest incomes.

You get a free pet Unicorn when you sign up. It has rainbow wings and is a very loyal and trusty pet. And the more money you pay into the scheme, the more magic dust your Unicorn will scatter on the world, bringing peace and joy to everyone, and all thanks to your investment.

Making this nation officially the Hub of Unicorns.

Just don't fall for any of those fake Unicorn scams, which are just a cruel hoax.

Some of the best private hospitals in Bangkok not only bring in huge amounts of money from foreigners, those hospitals see people flying from across the world to have surgery in Bangkok. The nations people are flying from have decent private hospitals, but the truth is that Bangkok has some of the best specialist doctors in the world, and very high standards of hospital care.

I stayed in a private Bangkok hospital for three whole months about a decade ago, and on my ward I would spend my recovery time observing and chatting with the new arrivals when we met in the Hall. I met numerous Oil Sheiks, wearing gold neck emblems and impressive headgear, along with surgical gowns of course. I saw them arrive one after another for three months, along with their wives dressed in very beautiful expensive Arabic clothing of high status. They had travelled to Bangkok for surgery, mostly spinal or hips or other bone-related work. They came here because that particular hospital had several Thai doctors who are recognised as world experts on hip and spine surgery. Those Thai doctors often travel to USA/EU to give speeches at seminars attended by other specialists.

Obviously this thread title is somewhat vague, there are many different private hospitals, so it is hard to just give a blanket opinion on them all. I would say that Thailand has some of the best hospitals in the world, with some of the best specialist doctors in the world, and they provide a high quality service for patients who travel from all around the world just to have medical treatment in Thailand. Given the high level of care and quality of service, the prices are very fair in those hospitals. And they bring a lot of money into Thailand, at the same time as saving lives and giving people their mobility back. So I think Thailand should be very proud of its private medical services, which are in high demand by patients around the world.

The comments by Sirote seem to be right on the mark. The longer the junta stays in power without legitimate democratic elections, the more the international community sees that the Thai government doesn't trust Thais to participate in its nation's self determination and form of governance.

I agree with your analysis. I would also compare the situation under the last regime/s to a hospital scene, a victim left terribly wounded by an accident. The arrival of the current situation was an emergency response to save the wounded victim, it was ICU life-support and critical rehabilitation procedures.

Following this metaphor, it is actually extremely harmful for a patient to spend too long in the isolated cocoon of hospital, after the main danger has passed, it is very important for the patient to start learning to walk again unassisted, to eat normally, and to begin the return to normal life as soon as possible. This is often traumatic, the withdrawal of hospital medicines and ICU treatment etc. are very difficult, but it is essential that the patient is withdrawn from this as quickly as possible. Because the return to near-normal life, walking and eating normally and interacting with the outside world, are essential for both physical and mental recovery from serious injury. I would say the same for the return to near-normal democracy following essential emergency rule, and for very similar reasons.

Its the Soap-Opera cliffhanger ending this week. Tune in next week to find out what happened!

I hope its like the one with Bobby Ewing in the shower and we suddenly learn that the events of previous years were just a long dream.

Imho this story is more closely related to the Nigerian Prince Wabubu type of email scams, than it is related to transvestism, or the remarkably law-abiding behaviour seen in the vast majority of the transgender community. It is a serial-offender using false promises to con gullible people out of their life savings, very similar to the promises of Wabubu & Co to give you billions in gold if you just forward him a few hundred grand first.

Both scams are cruel and exploit the most basic human needs, the need to get money or the need to feel loved. I see the ladyboy/transvestite aspect as entirely incidental to the scam, it could just as easily have been a natal female using genuine photos to scam the guy out of his money.

But also I don't blame the victim for being fooled, if anything his behaviour was normal, he just wanted to be in love with a nice wife, and start a family. The con-artist was very cruel to exploit this man's natural impulses, and I hope that the sentencing will reflect this callousness and cruelty.

I'm not sure about the "40 years" thing, and in a country that relies so much on foreign visitors and their investments, and foreign trade, to separate this from the wider global economic picture is difficult for me. Obviously we are on the tail-end of major mismanagement by successive regimes in this nation, and I can only hope and pray that this new post-2015 era will see the end of mismanagement and wasted potential.

But the wider picture is that the global economy is more volatile and in some cases more fragile that I can remember at any time in my life. I recently sold two properties in Spain, nice places with sea-views, low price, no offers for several years. And similar experience in selling a house in England recently, plenty of interest but people can't afford even the knock-down low price. And this obvious belt-tightening seen in EU/US etc. can only have knock-on effects around the world, especially in tourist nations / trade partners.

I wonder if they've trademarked "Waspa" bars yet, chocolate and wasp bars in a smart blue wrapper with red logo. I bet they're looking into it.

I think this guy has a great business idea, and I wish him luck with it.

But I will still buy my insect food from the street stalls, because I like the unknown excitement factor, something that is harder to get when you're older. 7-11 snacks are a bit safe like green-slopes for nursery skiers, but the street stalls are where you get the real off-piste thrills and spills, and often the authentic traditional family business feel too.

Road safety / vehicle safety regulations, and driver training regulations, all need to be a serious year-round priority for investment and modernisation.

The tragic losses during this season, which are always completely heartbreaking to read about, are more related to the background issues that exist all year round, issues which just become more obvious during the holiday. These are urgent issues of critical importance, and real progress could be gradually made with enough focused investment and persistence. I do pray for this all the time, that there will be a major rethink of the background issues, and a concerted plan to resolve the problems, before too many more are killed or maimed out there.

I don't see what the fuss is all about.

A few comments on morality on social networks and everything snowballs into a lynching.

People need to chill. 2 drunk people who did what drunk people tend to do, mindless idiotic acts. Happens all the time when you mix alcohol and people overzealously trying to have fun.

Let them sober up in jail, slap a fine for indecent exposure and it's done.

No need to go on a self righteous racist witch hunt people.

These acts have nothing to do with race, nationality or morality.

It has to do with too much drinking.

I completely agree, there is no reason for floggings or w/e was discussed earlier. Just put some clothes on them, and give them an official warning.

I think this behaviour is not a good thing at all, but at the same time it doesn't count as a serious crime in the grand scheme of things. It is just something to be frowned on and discouraged, and to issue official cautions over.

I agree with your comment on child and domestic abuse and that Thailand is not a singularity as far as the world is concerned. I agree too that I personally don’t want to see people drunk and naked staggering around because it isn’t a pleasant view; however, it doesn’t give me a right and other cultures or societies might disagree with my view and they might find it acceptable; my view how the world should behave might be a minority view in their country.

I believe it has more to do with tolerance and people that travel a lot have to learn to accept that views on nudity or other moral issues might change form country to country and they have to tolerate that and the rules that the country has imposed on them.

Yes, civilisation can be considered from the view of the creation of boundaries and personal space. We are no longer a tribal species, which we were certainly in the beginning. Civilisation has brought us the concept of physical independence from the tribe, and the rights of personal privacy and ownership of our own bodies, things which were not part of our tribal origins.

The concept of using clothes to create physical boundaries, to distance one person from another, is a very positive modern tradition for many of us. As a woman, I am grateful for these social norms, they make me feel safer. And these are not new traditions, they have been around for centuries, the exception being some isolated jungle tribes.

What it boils down to, is that there are nudist colonies and topless beaches etc. in our modern world, where it is accepted that the rules are different, and that is OK. I won't go there, and I wouldn't take my kids there. And for those exact reasons, I don't expect myself or my kids to be exposed to naked drunks in a public street. It is not acceptable, regardless of the nation in question.

I do have quite liberal views on many things, and believe in personal freedom. But when person A imposes their nakedness on others in public, while it is his/her personal freedom to do so, it is violating the personal freedom of person B who wishes to not encounter naked people in the street. It is a one-way problem too, because person B isn't going to upset anyone by wearing some smart clothes. So really it is a case of respect, respecting the boundaries that other people feel comfortable and safe with, especially children who should not have to see naked drunken adults in the street.

Re; domestic abuse, child abuse, etc. these things happen in every country on Earth. They are more common in "civilised" nations than people believe. Some nations like the UK for example, there is a long history of 'looking the other way' and being 'buttoned up' and not speaking of such things, but they happen daily in those civilised Western nations. And also abuse is not even relevant to this story, at all. This is about public boundaries, the rights of citizens in public, not abuse.

Re; people getting drunk and parading around naked in public, be that in their home nation or when they are honoured guests in Thailand, it is shameful behaviour. I can sum it up as "I just don't want to see it." I don't want to see people being naked drunks, when I'm walking up the street. That is my right, to go about my civilised life without seeing those things. I have earned that right, the right to live a quiet civilised life. That is not the same as being a prude. There's nothing wrong with nakedness, or even drunken nakedness, but there is a place for those things, and that place is in 'private' not in 'public.'

RIP Noi, I hope that her family and friends have a loving group of people supporting them at this tragic time.

There is nothing that saddens me more than to see youngsters die in the bloom of their life, when the future is just opening its arms to them for the first time. I also feel that the inpersonal nature of words on a computer screen, does allow for conflict between strangers to spiral, and that in many cases if the two people had met socially in a restaurant or something, they might have had a great time and become friends for life.

I can only pray that many young people will read this tragic news story, and take great care in social networking. If enough people read the story and see how pointless it is to fight anyone, especially complete strangers on the Net, maybe lives will be saved in the future and this terrible incident will have had at least some positive effects.

RIP to the poor gentleman, and my prayers are with his family and friends at this tragic time.

Suicide is generally not a personality condition, although it can be in rare medical cases, most commonly suicide is the nexus-point of a myriad of negative experiences, which overload a person's willpower and sense of equilibrium.

In the words of Michael Stipe in an interview a long time ago ; "It is really, really hard to be a human. We need to give ourselves a break."

We don't know how many negative experiences have piled up ontop of any given person, but what we do know is that human beings have a very advanced spectrum of senses, including all the normal animal senses, coupled with full 3D colour replay of all memories, good or bad, which can return at any time and play out in full cinematic stereo effect. How we deal with the negative experiences and memories, does depend slightly on the person, but I would suggest that if any person is exposed to an overwhelming amount of negative experiences and memories, it can overload the other senses entirely, including that most precious sense, common sense.

We can not understand, much less judge, anyone other than ourselves, because we have never walked in their shoes, it is just a tragedy when people become overburdened with sorrows, and can not bear the weight any longer.

I thought the Catholic church did away with Purgatory years ago. Maybe it was Limbo. Raised Catholic I was raised with the belief that if you wore a scapular all the time you would go straight to heaven. Different beliefs in different diocese.

Yes the purgatory era ended a long time ago, the Reformation was in part caused as a backlash to the way purgatory was being used to generate wealth, and to the concept of buying your way out of punishment by giving away your wealth to poorhouses in your will. It went further of course, with chantries and soforth, people paying choirs to sing for them for years after death. It was a big business. I'm Anglican and we do not accept purgatory, as a rule.

My point, which was spectacularly missed by some posters, was just that the only time I have heard of large numbers of rich people giving away all their wealth, was when they did so out of fear of purgatory. They would literally write out wills with lists of poorhouses and hospitals and soforth, and give all their money to those. And did so out of fear - not out of genuine compassion in many cases. And this was the first, probably only, mass-philanthropy.

In later eras, wealthy businessmen gave large sums to workhouse orphans etc., and set up schools to feed and clothe the children of workhouse women. Those men were actiing not out of fear, but out of genuine compassion and a belief that society meant more than just random scattered people, and society required children to be educated and well fed. My point was really that those men were far fewer in number, and they didn't give *all* their money away - unlike in the purgatory era.

Also in Asia, I have great respect for the many charitable people who give back to society, during life or in death. I have never said Asians are not generous, on the contrary I have always said that Thai people have shown me great generosity and kindness. Only that it is not the norm. I don't know any of my friends who will leave their wealth to anything other than their family.

RIP to the dead kid, my prayers are with his family. I hope they have a supportive group of friends to comfort them at this tragic time.

This crime is murder, premeditated as they chose pre-event to go out carrying weapons of murder. There is no reason to carry a knife unless you intend to kill or seriously injure somebody. They should get jail time life-meaning-life, and it should be broadcast loudly as a warning to others.

RIP to the gentleman who was working hard to support his disabled brother. My prayers are with his poor family who must be devastated.

The killer should get fifteen years at least, as it is not only "reckless driving", if he was too drunk to speak or stay awake then his decision to go racing around in his car is beyong reckless, it is murderous.

Owning heavy furniture is not murderous, but if I get drunk and start throwing furniture from a high balcony, this is murderous as there is a good chance of somebody being hurt or killed because of my actions. If somebody was killed I would expect to do time for manslaughter at least, and my feelings of remorse when I sober up don't mean anything. Alcohol is an adult drug, and if you take it you are expected to be of adult age and to behave like an adult, with adult rules and consequences.

Don't give up, sail on!

Always good to see a positive story of a person 'bouncing back'. More please.

I contribute to the schooling of my best friend's two daughters, who attend schools here in the capital. I will pick up this extra fee, but I will do so knowing that it is fundamentally due to mismanagement not necessity. I do see the investment in their education as a worthwhile one, but I would feel happier handing over the extra loot if I had confidence in how the economy is being managed, or had greater faith in the people running it.

Sounds like what happens in Mexico a lot. Kidnap the victim, demand ransom from the family, then kill the victim anyway. The Mexican guys are fond of cutting off the victim's head, and sending it to the family, if they did not get the full ransom, or if they feel it was not delivered in a timely manner.

Its a good example on several levels. Mexico was a tourist haven in its heyday, and now it is frequently shunned by hi-so and family tourism due to lawlessness and violent drug gangs etc. Thailand should really look at Acapulco's golden tourism era versus today where it boasts the second highest murder rate in the world, and realise that most tourists want serious policing and zero-tolerance towards violent criminals. Tourists need to feel that the citizens in the nation they are visiting are protected by strict laws against kidnap and violence, and that those laws will protect the tourists too.

RIP to the Malaysian gentleman, my prayers are with his family, and I hope that they will see justice in the form of life-meaning-life sentences for these three evil killers.

Thaksin wants everyone to forgive and forget.

In any case he should be asking forgiveness of the individual Thai people who suffered because of his actions, not asking members of the political sphere to do this forgiving process. Forgiveness is a very personal act, and can not be done by proxy or on a macro scale. For example I do not have the moral power, even if I wished, to forgive him for ordering extra-judicial executions of innocent unarmed citizens. Forgiveness would have to come from the grieving members of each individual family.

As for the "forget" part, I can honestly confirm that I look forward joyfully to the day I can entirely forget this miserable excuse for a human being.

What is wrong with this picture is the effort they put into analysing the statistics every year, but the lack of effort that is put into road-safety regulations, vehicle standards regulation, and driver-training standards.

It would be far more sensible to spend a lot less time counting the dead and injured, and spend a lot more time enacting and enforcing strict laws on dangerous driving, drink driving, traffic-etiquette lessons for young children, strict driving tests, tough laws on motorcycle helmets, and overhauling the vehicle maintenance regulations so that all cars, lorries and buses are truly roadworthy.

It is a mammoth task, but it is one of the few areas where shortcuts can not be made. Songkran is the crazy week, but the rest of the year is far from sane on the roads, and the state needs to take off the cottonwool mitts and start regulating roads, vehicles, and drivers. It would be good for the economy in the long run, the safer roads will keep workers alive longer, attract tourists and investors and this will eventually pay for the huge investment of money and effort required to overhaul the current system.