Yunla

Probably the real number is double than that. I asked a Thai woman what is the reason for show up on first dates with a friend or friends. Custom? She responded that it is a custom to avoid gossips and misunderstandings, but also because Thai men will always try to seduce a woman if alone, in good or bad ways. She said that in countryside areas, many very young girls are raped by friends or relatives and never reported, and that is the main reason for teens pregnancy. This woman was a teacher in an elementary school, and she said that is one of the big issues confronted in the counseling department. Years later, I met an university foreign teacher, and she commented that is happening also with university students. Looks like that Thai men do not know what the word NO means, and Thai girls are too submissive to say NO more than 2 times.

By the way....looks like Thai women also have that attitude when are meeting farangs..... alone....just saying NO one time to not lose face....expecting to be "raped" anyway...Sometimes generalized bad actions became a "custom" in some cultures.....and are not easy to understand to foreigners.

I would like to second you on the point about rural areas. My best friend here in Thailand, a single Mum with two young daughters, she is born and raised in Issan and when her two daughters were born she packed her bags and moved to Bangkok.

In her words ; "Boys in province are very rough towards girls. I want my girls to grow up in the city schools, and far away from the province boys."

She went from working one job in Issan, to working three jobs plus loans in Bangkok to pay for the rents and schooling here. And she did all that just so her daughters would not have the same experiences that she had when she was a young girl in the 'province'.

I pointed out to her that maybe she was just unlucky in her own experiences, and that maybe city schools were no safer for her girls. She said that it was common knowledge here that big city schools are safer for girls, and that is one of the main reasons that mothers move from rural areas to the capital, despite the huge extra expense involved.

Anyone knows if the smoke reached the center of Bangkok? ie: Silom.

The worst days were Monday to Wednesday. That was when the smoke was like a thick fog in many places, and was very difficult to breathe. Today the air is a lot clearer here where I am, and we have had it really bad from Monday-Wednesday. I don't know about the city centre but by the evidence, the worst is over now.

Yay for generalisation and over-simplification. We had a similar report in the UK where "Leeds women are the happiest in the country" a few years back. This was based on some genius looking at how many shopping centres there were, and doing some measly survey. Having grown up not far from there myself and having hundreds of friends there, I can confirm that there are some very unhappy women there. Happiness is a state of being and it travels with you in your heart, it is not always related to your surroundings. Although the location can affect you, some people remain happy in the worst places on Earth. It is also not related to wealth, I have a close friend here in Bangkok who is a street-sweeper working hard in the heat and pollution every day, they are always cheerful and joking and happy with their life. These surveys are a grand logic-fail.

This shameful violation of the public's health needs to stop yesterday already. There are some corners that are not meant to be cut, and toxic waste dumping is one of those corners. Criminals who expose thousands of people to extremely toxic smoke, should go to prison for absolutely ages. A small fine is beyond a joke - it is a direct insult to the victims who are now going to hospital because of this smoke.

"We only want to arm people with intelligence and provide them self-defence skills and physical fitness training,'' Suporn said.

Also basket-weaving, flower-arranging and balloon-twisting.

"Ecstasy" drug in the UK in the 1990's was also laced with heroin sometimes. The phenomenon became known as "smacky pills" among users, and was short-lived because club-goers wanted to dance and not to lay slumped in a corner. But at the time the theory was the same as the OP, heroin was added to make the user return to the same dealer after becoming hooked. This backfired and dealers were forced to change back to normal ingredients - which were often dangerous in themselves. At the time I was volunteered into the drug counselling and basic medical service provided by some of these nightclubs/festivals, and I saw some very confused and upset people who were playing this tablet-roulette, popping pills that could contain literally anything. If you value your future life, you should never take any product that you don't know the ingredients of.

Security was tight with police and soldiers guarding the safety of participants.

The diplomats will of course get high security. But tourists will not, and given the recent spate of bombs being left in public places, I think the official statement to potential Songkran tourists should be "there is a current situation involving bombs and shootings in public places" and then the tourists can decide if they want to take the risk or not. I personally don't worry about these risks to my own safety, but that is my decision and based on me reading the daily news. Tourists may not be so informed about the volatile situation and sporadic bombings etc. and it is the duty of the state powers here to make crystal clear the current risk level to tourists travelling to public gatherings.

Tourism can be compared to a landlord renting a property to a tenant. If the landlord has a nice clean property with good security and facilities, the tenant will feel more happy about renting it, than if the doors are hanging off and the property is infested with vermin. This is not different to tourism, if you want to encourage tourism you need to "get your house in order" first.

The birds nesting in the tree outside my flat, who are currently feeding their chicks, are a 'canary in a coalmine' testament to the toxicity of this smog. When there are piled-up household binbags fires within a hundred yards of the tree, the stinking smoke does not disturb these birds and they continue singing and flying normally. But in the last four days, despite this area being quite a long way from this toxic blaze, the birds have been lethargic and instead of singing they are making a panicked keening sound, along with constantly picking at their feathers to remove the clinging pollutants. This tells me that the OP is correct in stating that this smoke is from burning toxic industrial waste, and far more serious than normal binbag-fires.

The smoke this week was dense and made me suffocate and feel dizzy, when I went to the shops, so I can only imagine the effect it has on these beautiful birds. It is shameful that we inflict this kind of event on species who can not just reach for a handy face-mask like we can, and are forced to suffer the full effect. Carelessness is not an excuse, it is a major failing in itself, and these dumps need to be made safe for the good of humans and for the other species we are greatly honoured to share this planet with.

Victims 'travelled voluntarily'

But in most cases they were promised higher wages and better lifestyles, promises which evaporate like faerie gold when the victims reach their destination.

Technology and especially the internet truly reach their empyreal pinnacle in the field of tracking and exposing this evil trade in human souls, a trade which has most likely existed since the dawn of humanity, but has only recently had its filthy underbelly exposed thanks to the availability of cameras and the web. Now it is up to the people with the real money and power to start using this tech-based evidence to uproot the whole rotten tree, roots and all.

However, he said he also was not certain if the attack was motivated by the current rising political tension.

So basically he accepts that so many people hate him enough to riddle Toad Hall with bullets, there's no way to pick out a suspect among the long list of people who are willing to pop him.

"Corruption is a response to economic desperation"

I don't agree with this. The most corrupt are the people that already have money and power.

The people that are subject to "economic desperation" are not in a position to be corrupt.

Face it. the higher your position the higher your salary and the greater your opportunities to be corrupt.

Yes my full sentence was "Corruption is a response to economic desperation, and also is caused by the option of breaking laws with impunity." Two factors. Lower-mid level corruption, street-level scams and crime, is often a response to absolute poverty, while high-level corporate and state-level corruption is prevalent because of the loopholes and the knowledge that you can bribe your way out of jail - acting with impunity.

The two factors also overlap at the lower-mid level, while at the top it is mainly the impunity factor that encourages corruption. Obviously this is speaking for the large percentage of corruption - there are also people who will engage in crime regardless of the risks, they are greedy and addicted to larcenous behaviour, and will take risks even under more strictly regulated systems like in the West.

Temporarily ??? measured in decades or centuries?

I meant temporary as opposed to permanent. I have great hopes for Thailand being a prosperous and successful democracy in the future. But not in my lifetime, lol. But all the pieces are there already, all it needs now is a leader who can focus on putting them together. I don't share the view of some people that Thailand is corrupt by nature, as though it were DNA corruption or something. Corruption is a response to economic desperation, and also is caused by the option of breaking laws with impunity. If you satisfy the economic needs of people, and regulate harshly against corruption, crime no longer becomes a worthwhile option. I believe that with the right leadership and given enough time (multiple generations) this nation can crawl out of its current impasse and become hugely successful and calm.

your breathing in toxic smog. unless you have a vacum seal on you windows then those chemicals are going to get in. i know it sucks, but if not for your sake for anyone who lives with you, get out of that area.

I thank you for your concern, you are very kind. And yes, the chemical smell is overpowering as soon as I turn off the AC. My normal life is to use the AC very rarely, as I don't feel right squandering energy on just keeping the flat cool. But since the fire my AC has been on most of the time because the room stinks when I turn it off.

I live alone so you needn't worry about other people being forced to stay here. And I'm personally not bothered by these matters, I'm ready to meet my Maker whenever that time draws nigh. But like I say, I am very worried about the local Thai people who have to work at their street stalls and soforth. What worries me most is the reports of toxic waste being dumped at that site, so what the local people are being exposed to is far worse than normal household refuse / binbag plastic smoke.

My prayers are with the passengers and the crew, and their poor families who must be in anguish. My prayer-group has been meeting a lot to pray for these poor people. It is the uncertainty that makes it worse, there is no closure for the families and they can not embrace the grieving stage as they do not know what has happened.

Obviously this was a hijack, there is no doubt about that. For what reason is very mysterious to me, especially in this volatile global climate 2014. But I try to focus my energy on praying for all the poor people involved in this tragedy, instead of trying to understand the sordid and cruel reasons behind this hijack.

what are you waiting for? get out of there!

No I'm staying here, I just keep the windows shut tight and the aircon on full blast. I am severely disabled and my flat is fitted to enable me to cope with my disabilities and my illness. Hotels are a nightmare for me and so is travel, so I will stay here until we are forced to evacuate - which hopefully will not happen.

I'm very fortunate in that I can stay inside until it is over, however I feel sorry for the locals who have to go out and work in this poisonous smog. I worry about their health, especially the little kids.

I hope this was an accident and not arson. That would make it easier to deal with. But even so, they need to regulate these dumps very strictly to protect all the local people and their children.

I live fairly close to this dump, and the air is like thick fog and stinks of burning plastic. If I switch off the aircon, I can smell the burning plastic through the closed windows. We have been told that while we are not being evacuated now, if it gets a lot worse we might be.

Also my local Thai friend group have speculated that the fire was started deliberately, or that there were discarded bomb-making items which then ignited by accident. This cloud of smog is highly toxic, and it would count as a poison attack on a large section of Bangkok, a city despised by certain militant types. As this is the largest dump fire ever recorded in Thailand (according to one report I read) it is obviously not normal occurrence and some people are asking if this was a sort of toxic strike against citizens living and working here. I never reach conclusions unless there is evidence, which of course will not be possible to get in this case, but I do wonder about this event especially when I can't go outside at all for X number of days.

Luxury! We used to dream of livin' in a sandcastle!

"Please don't probe my ankle, it hurts like anything."