JoeLing

URGENT Enquiry needed to bolster confidence

If you have a couple of hours time, try reading the inquiry in to the Phuket disaster of One2Go.

Orient Thai should not even be allowed to exist anymore and the owners should be in jail since

a long time already and not risking peoples life's every time they board a plane.

http://www.investigateudom.com/

It definitely didn't bolster my confidence.

I feel Thailand should be avoided by all airlines until they manage to satisfy minimal international

standards.

Yeap, sure, sure. Same as he promised no coup

Careful Joe, i was taken to task by one of his forum fans who claimed he never said it or that he didn't want to be PM.

Na, I think he went to attitude adjustment

"the first thing to do is to arrest the domino effect."
I'm pretty sure, a bit of attitude adjustment for the press, then someone will pay
bail and domino effect is back on the streets in no time

It always amazes me how often Thai's can shoot their own feet without limping

them vending machines look like a good idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkHFW3jCH20

How comes they didn't advertise this venue?
Surly would have attracted thousands of tourist for a front row seat

Somebody, please take him to soi Cowboy or walking street Pattaya to cure him from his sexual frustration.

Thailand will be in debt to you for your services.

Costas, did you have an accident or have you been for attitude adjustment?

This whole thing is just so sad, the last thing you would expect in a plane crash is a co-pilot crashing it on purpose ! They need to look into other security ways in which a pilot can gain access to the cockpit during an emergency, I have no idea how they would go about it but there needs to be a quick entrance that only the pilot knows about.

No question, anyone dying in an accident is a tragedy but try to see the

bigger picture. This is just a stupid, unpredictable coincident and doesn't

happen every day.

The chance to die in an airplane accident is something like 1 in 11 million.

Since 1907 there has been 137'770 fatalities in air crashes. Of those 137'770

casualties, 449 (without 9/11) are considered victims of 11 Pilot suicides.

That's something like 0.33% of all air crash victims in the last 100 Years of

commercial air flights. That's about as many victims of pilot suicides in the

last 100 years, as there is people being killed on the roads worldwide whilst

I read and replied to this article.

Just the tabloid media makes more of it then it really is. Selling grief to

nosey people

Although the survey might not represent the whole sentiment in the country,
from what those numbers show to me, is not that most Thais favour the current
political situation but rather they have no opinion at all or don't dear to air their

sentiments.

Ask any Thai what's more important, achieving some kind of democracy or
the price of Som Tam, tobacco, alcohol and lottery tickets.

Dear Abbot, try a few of these:



It is a booth with a solar operated mechanism that operates by the insertion of cans,

pet and plastic bottles to be recycled and in return provides food and water in its

basins for strays.

We did ask the distributors, cat and dog can be subsidized with Som Tam too.

Why should Thais pay the same as farangs? It's their island. There should be a fee for farangs and no fee for Thais.

So you assume, Thailand belongs to the Thais?

Well the 10 top Landowners in Thailand own about 1 Million rai, approx. 2'000 km² of the available 513,120 km²

Just as in many other countries, the majority of Thais probably don't own anything, definitely not on Koh Poo Poo.

Now I'm absolute convinced, if one doesn't own the car he's driving in, the house he's living in, or the land he's coming from, he will give a s**t about the state of those things.

Never mind. Let's assume Thailand belongs to all Thais. As a host, wouldn't it be more appropriate to welcome people in to a clean "house" rather then blame them and make them pay for your own mess?

In fact, thinking down your line of: "Thailand belonging to all Thais".

If Koh Poo Poo belongs to Thais, I'm a global citizen and Thailand belongs to me as much as to the rest of the world. I'm very much aware Thai's do not consider themselves as part of the global community and everyone not Thai is an alien, nevertheless, Thailand does contributes to our global pollution and so should pay for the negative environmental impact they and their visitors allow to cause to my global home.

I was there once in '89, the bay where you dock was full of multi-colored coral of all types. I had a memorable slow glide 1m over a banded sea snake not far from the dock. I heard it's all bleached out or completely gone by now.

We go into pristine environments like this that have become delights to the eye and ear over centuries or millennia and within a decade or so we turn them into trash heaps by comparison. Then more hordes of mostly poorly-dressed, out-of-shape, poorly-behaving, almost exclusively low-to-middle-brow people with little sense of beauty and no sense of ugliness swarm around taking selfies of their selfish selves like they deserve to be where they are because they paid someone to take them there.

For evey baht in tourist revenues Thailand has made since the '80s, how many baht worth of natural beauty has disappeared forever (or at least until humans grow up or go extinct so it can recover)?

Fully agree but do not blame only the tourists, Asians in general do have a bit of a problem with tidiness apart from Singaporeans (at least when they are in Singapore).

I would say, if the owner of the house can't keep his home tidy, don't expect his visitors to take care too much either.

But who am I to tell Thai people how to keep their places clean, it's their land, their island, their home and I'm just a guest and if I don't like it, I can leave. Well at least that would be the advice I would get from half the posters on this forum.

No question, anyone dying in an accident is a tragedy but try to see the bigger picture.

The chance to die in an airplane is something like 1 in 11 million. Since 1907 there has been 137'770 fatalities in air crashes. Of those 137'770 casualties, 401 where accounted as victims of Pilot suicide. That's something like 0.29% of all air crash victims.

So, over the last century, the average of airplane accident fatalities over one year would be around 1288 people, about the same as any given day die on the roads world wide. The 150 people who died in this latest incident is just about the same as the amount of people who died in road accidents in the last 3 hours worldwide and no one talks about it on a global scale.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with air safety standards worldwide and would prefer if governments and the car industry would spend as much in road safety measures as the Airplane industry does on airsafety.

Is this a new article, or was it from last year, or maybe the year before?

It's an old tradition here.

It's called "Copypaste Journalism" or "Groundhog Journalism"

If I had bought a Newspaper in Thailand in 198whatever and kept it,

I still could read the latest news in there, every single day.

Just occasionally I would have to change names but hat doesn't really

matter, I can't remember Thai names for longer than 24 hours anyway.

What a strange name: "Sgt Charnchai 300,000"
Suppose could be worse, he could be "A boy called Sue"

Now I wonder, how much did "Sgt Charnchai 300,000" get paid for his part of the job?

Once again, an outstanding, professional job in journalism

The one thing that many of seem to forget, especially the likes of Costas, is that if we Farangs don't like the way things are going, we can always leave, the majority of the voting Thais cant!!

There isn't a single expat here being forced to live here, we have the choice to leave and go home.... the Thais don't.

Of course, no tread on TV would be complete without the obligatory:

"If you don't like it, you can leave and go home"

In the same context:

Should you not like the haircut of your wife today, go back to your ex.

"The charter has undergone more than a dozen rewrites in the last 80 years, either by democrats trying to consolidate parliamentary power"

Just the Democrats? Don't think so

...........................

I tried very hard but I can't see the place where it said "Just the Democrats"

Maybe you go back and read that article again ....... and again!

Whenever there is an EITHER there is an OR as well.

"The charter has undergone more than a dozen rewrites in the last 80 years,

EITHER by democrats trying to consolidate parliamentary power

OR counter moves by the royalist elite to create a more pliant democracy"

At least, if you want to quote something, quote it properly.

I wonder how Thailand will try to white wash, negotiate and clarify this issue.

As it so nicely said on the end of that article:
"If Thai authorities are unable to take swift and decisive action ......
then expect all Thai carriers to enter a period of isolation and contraction in 2015."

I would go even further and say:
"If Thai authorities are unable to take swift and decisive action in tackling
human trade, graft, corruption and human rights issues, then don't be surprised
if Thailand enters a period of isolation and contraction over the next few years"

It seems the approach was OTT. Better intelligence and investigative work would have avoided this waste of resources. Must be very upsetting for people in that community.

You sound like the naive idiot who would put the Samui Police to do the investigation. The RTA came in unexpectedly and overcame the local police before they could send out warnings

No, I don't agree with the raid being over the top but yeah, better intelligence would probably have had a much bigger effect.

Maybe use of northern Police and Army to have a raid here in the south would have been more fruitful too but calling people

idiots for some fairly reasonable comments, is not much short of being an idiot yourself.

I heard rumors about the raids already the day before and I don't even live on Samui !!!

Nice, I know local police that was surprised, they even chartered an special night ferry, so the locals would not know, and I live on Samui....

Ohh sure, I do know some local police that were surprised too

And whilst world media and especially TV members and Facebook communities

are mulling over the latest slip of the tongue of or general, his machinery works

quietly in the background clearing up any opposition.

So as long he keeps himself in the spotlight with silly and funny quotes, no one

cares what's going on elsewhere within his "administration".

Nice move Mr General.

Tjeez, you mean he does it on purpose? He's really a politician? Lots of posters are currently telling me the opposite. Obviously they're wrong

Politicians want to be re-elected and do not really make such

silly comments as out general has done again and again.

On the other hand, a strategist would most likely use smoke

screens to hide their real intention.

And whilst world media and especially TV members and Facebook communities
are mulling over the latest slip of the tongue of or general, his machinery works
quietly in the background clearing up any opposition.

So as long he keeps himself in the spotlight with silly and funny quotes, no one
cares what's going on elsewhere within his "administration".

Nice move Mr General.

I meet "Gappies" in the 80's and I meet "Gappies" in 2012 when I was last time in Koh Poo Poo.

They have been going to there since decades. Possibly people back in time did rather travel

and experience different cultures whilst today's tourist give a s**t about culture and just travel

wherever the weather is nice and booze is cheap.

Now looking at 1987 photos and compare them to 2012 photographs, I can't see a single bar

that is even close to anything that was there nearly 30 years ago.

phi-phi-then-1.jpg

I can't see a single bar that is even close to anything that was there nearly 30 years ago.

You must have an amazing eyesight to see any bar on either of those photos!

Especially the old one, given you can only see coconut trees where the most bars were built pre 2004.

I doubt that many gap years went to P P in the 80s as they wouldn't have had enough money. Certainly none visible in 96, though they may have been on the farther away cheap beaches.

Well, I'm sure you do have pictures to justify your claim that the same bars have been build up again?

As for "Gappies" not being able to afford traveling in the 80's dream on,

Thailand was considerate cheaper to travel in the 70's and 80's then it's today.

Most student's back then had their student fees paid by the governments and

not like today, ending up with 1000$ to pay back in Student loans.

Most backpackers then, traveled to see the world, today I hardly see "backpackers",

most of them turned in to "Gheto-Packers" traveling from one tourist gheto to an other

in order to get drunk (Well, applies mostly to Australian and British Gappies - other

countries do not have that binge drinking mentality)

I'm for it if it keeps the gap year pissheads away. They have done most to ruin the place.

Let's keep them all on Hat Rin. That place is so ruined it will never be OK again, while P P might come back from the dead if those responsible are kept away.

There was "Gap Year" tourists on Phi Phi ages before the Tsunami and Phi Phi was still OK.

After the Tsunami, when most inhabitants on the island lost everything and even before the last victims were identified, the vultures descended on the island. With nothing left but their lives, many started to sell out their places for peanuts and the island has changed dramatically in the 10 years.

It's Thailand's greed, selfish and short shortsightedness who destroyed that once paradise, not the tourists going there.

Koh Lipe will be [is] the next victim of that selfish greed and I recon, in due time, one national park after the other will open up and be exploited. Off course, all blame will lie on those "stupid Chinese, rude Russians or other piss head Farang".

I first went to P P in 96 and not a gap year pisshead in sight- it was brilliant.

Went back a few years later and the gap year crowd had invaded- the rot had set in and it was no longer a great place to stay.

Went after the tsunami, and there were packpacker volunteers helping rebuild the same crappy bars as had been there before which ruined it.

Haven't been since as I was too disappointed with the same garbage being built as pre tsunami.

However, the biggest ruination of P P had to be the out of control numbers of unmuffled longtails driving up and down the beaches ruining the ambience. Plus the large numbers parked on the beach on the west side.

I agree that it is the Thais that have ruined the place with greed, but they wouldn't have built all those crappy little bungalows all over the place if the demand wasn't there, and that demand is mainly gap year backpackers, as I see it, just like Hat Rin and all the other once nice beaches over run with party bars and other such excrecences.

I meet "Gappies" in the 80's and I meet "Gappies" in 2012 when I was last time in Koh Poo Poo.

They have been going to there since decades. Possibly people back in time did rather travel

and experience different cultures whilst today's tourist give a s**t about culture and just travel

wherever the weather is nice and booze is cheap.

Now looking at 1987 photos and compare them to 2012 photographs, I can't see a single bar

that is even close to anything that was there nearly 30 years ago.

C'mon guys, show a bit compassion for our Prime Minister.
I fully understand his outrage.

If what you expect from a decent motor show is this:

and you get this:

Wouldn't you be disappointed?

The use of nominees in Thailand gained popularity a decade ago when the sitting PM normalized them as his way of skirting dastardly legal rules. To clarify rules concerning the use of nominees, judging by this article, if you are a small player, you are in deep trouble. If you are a billionaire - carry on as usual.

I'll try to find the article, but some time back the current government stated they were going after these nominee companies because Thais were using them for "dastardly" reasons, as you stated. So it's not just foreigners who are doing this. I'm sure plenty of locals use this structure to hide illegally gotten gains?????

Large part of the company is "owned" by Thai "dummies". Those are Thai citizens abroad or in the Kingdom who have nothing to do with the company. They sign some documents and do not get copies or other proof. They get paid for it. Depending the value of the land/home or of the company and depending the number of "dummies" the amount varies. They sign an undated document too in which they withdraw from the property.

There are lawfirms that specialise in this practise and make very good money from it. The firms monitor the dummies a bit. If one dies the document in which he/she withdraws from the property is backdated and the stake is transferred to another one.

This fake ownership apparently is used too by Thai owners of companies who do not want to be held responsible for the (criminal) activities of the companies.

Many high end real estate properties owned by farangs in f.i. Phuket are owned by a company that on paper is owned by dummies but the farang stakeholder has power of management, can decide about all concerning the property.

The general said about a half year ago he wanted to deal with that irregularity too. Including with the leasehold practicies that are used in ways that were not intended. It could even mean that if the government really takes actions like this farangs could lose their home and land overnight without the possibility of getting financial compensation. Only the real estate involved will be worth at least hundreds of millions of euros/dollars, if not billions.

Under the circumstances the latest coup was a good thing for the Kingdom I think. But the military is more nationalistic than any other significant group, so we farangs should watch out for things to happen. We are a way to make easy money. Nothing more, nothing less. Only if the farangs would leave Thailand en masse and the millions of western tourists would stay away, only then a change in general attitude could perhaps come.

Spot on

I feel the present foreign business act is just state sanctioned theft on foreigners.

As you say, real estate in the billions but I recon, that might be just the first step

and nationalization of big international companies could follow.

Will wait and see