Yunla

Women, eh? Always keep you waiting.

She's probably trying to decide which eyeshadow goes best with handcuffs.

Many members of the Pheu Thai Party are planning to have a meeting with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, this weekend in Hong Kong.

Where he is in auditions for the coveted role as the next Bond Villain. Judging by that photo, he is the hot favourite, although may lose the role due to fears of giving children nightmares.

This is partly a religion issue, and the difference between East and West resulting from this. Philanthropy as we know it began during the heyday of Purgatory Theology, when rich people left their whole life savings to Churches, Poorhouses, Hospitals and food-for-poor schemes. The rich person was paying to have his time in Purgatory cut, a small amount of money would get you 40 days reduced, some very rich people paid for 40,000 years less time in Purgatory. If you believe in Purgatory or not, the social consequences of this were very positive, people tried to live good lives and if they didn't manage that they would upon death leave a fortune to the poor and hungry in society. This was because in Purgatory (a sort of Hell_Lite) you weren't spending eternity in the Cellar as it were, but you were still suffering for a good long time. Greedy selfish money-men were forced to drink molten gold in Purgatory, liars had their tongues nailed to the floor, murderers were hewn upon the block. These are real incentives to live a good honourable life, or at the very least to give all your money to poor people when you died.

I wouldn't be so sanctimonious about the East. Do you know what "tam-boon" means in Thailand? It's making merit, and millions (if not billions) of baht are channeled into religious institutions here for the purpose of earning a higher status in the "next life." Same motivations. Learn your hosts' culture, friend.

I wasn't being sanctimonious about anything. Re; the East, I spent decades travelling the East, and have many Buddhist friends in Thailand, Japan, Laos, etc. I can confirm that my Buddhist friends are happy to give small donations and spend time praying, but when they die their money will go to their family. A small sum may go to the temple, most will go to family. They believe they will be reincarnated regardless of donations.

My original post, which you totally missed the point of, was talking about the OP, the super rich, philanthropy. Put simply the only time I have seen the super-rich giving away *all* their money, was when they felt that they would suffer terribly in Purgatory. Did I "sanctimoniously" say that the West was better because of this - NO. I am fully aware of the crimes committed under Western religion too, and the suffering of people under oppressive sects in the West. My point was entirely about ; super rich, why don't they give away their money.

These Purgatory-fearing super-rich people gave away ALL their money, and usually not to Churches, but to actual poor-houses for the feeding and clothing of the poorest, or hospitals - it was essential that the money actually helped the poor, because Jesus said "'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." and so the super-rich of the purgatory-fearing era believed that ensuring all their money went to the poor, was a safe way to not suffer too much torment.

And these super-rich people of that era, they were not giving away their life savings because they were especially kind people who loved the poor - they were giving their money away out of fear of punishment, and the "its better to be safe than sorry" ethos.

This is partly a religion issue, and the difference between East and West resulting from this. Philanthropy as we know it began during the heyday of Purgatory Theology, when rich people left their whole life savings to Churches, Poorhouses, Hospitals and food-for-poor schemes. The rich person was paying to have his time in Purgatory cut, a small amount of money would get you 40 days reduced, some very rich people paid for 40,000 years less time in Purgatory. If you believe in Purgatory or not, the social consequences of this were very positive, people tried to live good lives and if they didn't manage that they would upon death leave a fortune to the poor and hungry in society. This was because in Purgatory (a sort of Hell_Lite) you weren't spending eternity in the Cellar as it were, but you were still suffering for a good long time. Greedy selfish money-men were forced to drink molten gold in Purgatory, liars had their tongues nailed to the floor, murderers were hewn upon the block. These are real incentives to live a good honourable life, or at the very least to give all your money to poor people when you died.

Let's be fair that sort of thing happens all over the world.

From gun and knife play to the so called coward punch aka king hit!

Most cases are alcohol fuelled.

This is true. People seem to assume that because it is a tropical paradise where people come for holidays to relax, that it should somehow not have the insane random violence that we see in all the modern industrial western nations. My friend Adam was left almost dead in an attack in North England, age 19, it was New Year's Eve and he was walking home quietly in the city centre after having had a few drinks. He saw a guy on the other side of the street, said "Happy New Year, mate!" with a big friendly smile, and the guy immediately ran across the road and beat Adam to a pulp, and smashed his head in with a brick. And that was just for saying "Happy New Year, mate" and being friendly. And that is not an isolated incident at all, it is just an example I remember because it was so stupid and needless. When I grew up in North England we were told to always look at our shoes when we walked up the street, never make eye-contact, because the person might take you looking at them as an insult and then they would beat you. And as you say, alcohol was usually involved.

RIP to Jack, my prayers are with his family, and with the others injured in these Songkran attacks.

Abhisit noted that the prime minister was trying to create a misunderstanding that she was being unfairly treated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission on the rice pledging scheme because she oversaw policy matters and was not concerned with policy implementation.

She should not implement schemes if she is not sure of the mechanisms that keep the scheme secure and successful. Even ignoring the fact that it is honourable for a leader to be at least interested, even involved, in the actual ground-level work and not just the top-level signatures on some papers, if she had decided to just sign her name and let others make sure the process ran smoothly, she should have made sure beforehand those other people / groups were responsible and law-abiding.

This is something she can't wriggle out of, she failed either way. Failed to be more involved in her own policy, failed to ensure the other people involved were working in the interests of farmers and Thailand as a whole. And this is all assuming it wasn't intended as a scam from the start, and the larcenous syphoning of funds has gone according to plan, in which case of course she failed the nation on a much grander scale.

Hard to buy into his solution to end the current political crisis. These "zooticians" are fighting for power because it gives them the right to bleed this country dry. Even after they achieve their goals and they come to find out the country is already in economical crisis, it won't matter. They will just find some ways to squeeze some more and to bleed it drier. They are all just for their own selfish end no matter the means are.

It's time for the silent majority of Thais to stand up and just say no to this zoo-politics. If there is any Thai who still loves his or her mother country, he or she should get up and say No to the PTP and No to the Democrats! Biggest two-faced culprits and liars in modern Thai history! And take the biased media together with them too to the garbage dump!

I agree completely.

Every single one of my Thai friends says the same thing which boils down to "we are sick of both red and yellow sides" and they want an end to these extremist brigandry parties, and the arrival of new moderate parties with new leaders who are going to put Thailand first. They have been saying this to me for years.

Re; the economic collapse and how that can force new clear-thinking moderate parties to become dominant here, I see this as the only way. Thais can see that the constant red/yellow brigandry and political inertia going on for decades, is breaking the economy and crippling development. The decision to return to the political middle-ground and seek consensus among moderate progressive parties, will certainly be consensus resulting from emergency. It will be the only option left, the only question is how far and how hard the nation has to fall before this emergency consensus arrives.

Thailand’s Source of Strength : His Majestie's system of self-sufficiency economy.

Very interesting article. Despite what some of you may think about Mr. Cartalucci being biased, in this article he explains very well what is the best source of strength that Thailand has, as a sovereign nation.

And that is, precisely, what Mr T, the greedy money-maker tycoon, and his associates want to destroy for the benefit of their business empire.

http://journal-neo.org/2014/04/09/thailand-west-tearing-down-old-world-to-build-a-new-one/

Very true. Desovereignisation is the essential first step, followed by deindustrialisation, fragmentation and social implosion. After that you can asset strip and junk the nation's infrastructure and turn it into another IMF debt-slavery workhouse.

Patriotism, pride in sovereignty and the nation's historical lineages, especially when persons in those lineages are worthy of great respect, is a powerful self-defense mechanism against the borderless and unaccountable corporate flying-citadels that orbit this unfortunate planet like big grey vultures.

May our most beloved and illustrious HMTK enjoy great health and happiness always.

He has done so much for this nation, unlike Amsterdam and Co. A tree is judged by the quality of the fruits, and in this article I can only see one person worthy of great praise.

Are you Thai?

My legs and shoulders are made in Bangkok. That makes me half-Thai. It also sets off all the alarms in all good airports.

Also my father was Thai although I have never met him. My mother was Swedish and an Asia-backpacker in the 1960's.

But I myself had the great fortune to grow in the care of the social services on a coal-mining estate outside Leeds UK in the 1970s and 80s.

Please feel free to ask me more irrelevant and offtopic personal details, I will tell you my whole life story for the price of a coffee and a bag of crisps.

Mr. Kittisak later crawled out to front porch, crying for help. However, the man died before any help could arrive.

A horrible way to die. RIP.

My prayers are with his family at this time.

you are praying for someone who was going to gamble in a temple carrying a loaded gun? It was loaded,that means it was intended to be used to take the life of another scumbag like himself. He has removed himself from the gene pool and done the world a favour.

No I am praying for a family who lost a loved one.

As for the gun, and your claim it was for taking lives, it may have been intended for self-defence, which most guns are.

May our most beloved and illustrious HMTK enjoy great health and happiness always.

He has done so much for this nation, unlike Amsterdam and Co. A tree is judged by the quality of the fruits, and in this article I can only see one person worthy of great praise.

I pray for the swift and comfortable recovery for these two injured gentlemen.

A cowardly and shameful attack.

I don't think Suthep cares about legal charges of any kind. He is old, possibly sick, and has had a 'good run'. I believe he is intent on becoming a historical hero figure, or die / be imprisoned in the attempt. The fact he is willing to ignore the moderate political ground and the lives of gullible people in the process, makes me concerned about the danger that his 'end of the walkway' mentality poses. I don't like the PTP one bit, and I consider Thaksin an agent of a predatory international cabal, but I want to see them voted out of power by the emergence of powerful moderate parties who are selling progressive Thailand-first agendas. I don't want to see an old loon who doesn't care about consequences, drunk on his own rhetoric, pushing the nation further apart. I want to see moderate groups uniting the nation on the debate of critical issues in the moderate sphere.

Mr. Kittisak later crawled out to front porch, crying for help. However, the man died before any help could arrive.

A horrible way to die. RIP.

My prayers are with his family at this time.

“Since we follow democracy-- which is accepted by people worldwide-- it’s the same as a victory for us. The next battle will be a new chapter in the history of Thailand,” he said.

It is accepted by people worldwide, especially in Dubai where we have one person who trusts us - maybe more. We were too busy to count. But loads of people worldwide, Dubai is just one example of this.

When I was reading this and spilling my coffee when the laughter shakes got too much, I suddenly started thinking of the old guy in that "Absolutely" sketch from the late 80s~ when he is sitting alone in his room talking to his dinner. "What's that? I don't even bloody like peas - you're only on the plate coz you're a challenge! But I got you outnumbered! I gots my teeth, I got Nipper, Gnasher, Chomper, and Steve!"

He added, "Although I cannot serve my country as a soldier, there are many other duties I can do to serve the country ... I will help our nation by being a good citizen, with good thoughts, good words, and good deeds."

I actually cried when I saw those dogs behind bars in that truck. Even if you don't love dogs as much as I do, you would have to accept that those dogs could be in loving homes where children would run home from school every day because they can't wait to cuddle their best friend who is standing there all day waiting for the kid to come home. It feels stupid saying that dogs are not cattle, and they should not be farmed for their meat or hides, because it is so obvious to anyone who knows about dogs and cattle. I'm a vegetarian in any case but I understand that people want steaks and cattle-hide products, and I also know that if I'm trapped in a fallen building or a snowdrift there won't be any cows rushing to the scene to save my life, it will be dogs - man's best friend.

"We need to fight now or the power of our vote will be taken away forever by the elite."

Re; this quote and all the combat-training in the OP, this really is some blindfold-wearing situation. They are not risking their lives on the streets - and the lives of others, for Yingluck or the PTP, or even the votes that were cast. All the power and money is Thaksin, so when you do your martial training and take life-insurance incase you die in the "protest", you are doing all this for a spineless suit cowering safely in his desert kingdom many miles away from the bloodshed in the streets. This is the problem, the reds are not risking life and limb for democracy, or even for Yingluck, they are doing it for a total scoundrel who shouldn't even be trusted to sweep the road.

I agree with the OP and other posters with regards to the votes, it is wrong that people's voting is violated in any way, be that by toppling an elected party, or by blocking voting stations. But I disagree with the solution of violent seiges, and also with the idea that the mass-poverty agrarian people should continue to back PTP after PTP have clearly demonstrated they are monopolicy and literally only exist to benefit the dune loon.

People backing the Dems / Suthep, should really look at forming a new party and aim their policies at the moderate voters. The people who vote PTP should do the same, make a new party with new leadership, representing the struggling working and middle classes all across Thailand. There are a lot of people who would be energised to vote if there were moderate progressive main parties, and if they both compete over the moderate progressive issues, this competition - like capitalism - will force them to push their game to higher levels in order to compete for votes. This is the spirit of democracy ; progress through consensus, which can only be achieved in the moderate political "sweet spot" - this can not be achieved by giving emergency mouth-to-mouth to keep dead parties alive forever, or taking to the streets as martyrs to protect those rotting relic parties.