Thait Spot

I thought the high speed rail was removed from the table....

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How did that photo make it into the paper?

All the entire country wants is an honest and apolitical police force.

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The latest TAT advert clearly states that Thailand is bordered by Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to the north and the Gulf of Thailand to the south

I would have though that replacing single tracks with double would be a good step in upgrading the rail network.

There may well be other factors - such as which guage to use and what rolling stock is the future.......

The Wrath of Chan

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Its interesting to note that he uses the word "shotguns" but the dead and wounded were shot with high calibre rounds

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I think they should make every effort to stamp out drugs....but it will not be 100% effective. It's a bit like poisoning rabbits back home in Oz. You will get 99% but the others will slip away and start breeding somewhere else.

Interesting analogy - however people who deal in drugs are more like cane toads

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The BMA have just announced that they will be dredging all drains and canals in the Chang Watana area as a "Flood prevention" measure.

I wonder if the newspapers will be able to publish any news of what they find under the new censorship laws?

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Your new bitter and twisted persona does TV no favours.

Get over it.

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If anyone thinks that the NCPO has rice as it's number one issue then they are misguided.

They have done a superb job of sending the 2 warring sides home and stopping conflict so far.

Whilst they dismantle the Thaksin Network and replace it with people who can perform without allegiance - and whilst they clean up on weapons being held by factions - they are putting a reasonably independent "cabinet" in place.

The reconciliation so far has been tentative - like fighting school boys who have had their heads banged together and told to make up - but once the reasons for red and yellow get put down on paper and worked out I think things will calm down.

Then Reform is next on the agenda - and the whole nation is waiting to see what that will enatail because that will be the key to elections.

Rice and other farming issues such as rubber will be a background task. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see some form of formal "farming landowners companies" formed with workers listed as employees and elligible for social services to bring their income up to the state minimum if their crops fail or the prices are low.

I like your thoughts on what you call "farming landowners' companies". It sounds very much like farming "cooperatives" that we have in the USA, but they are not government sponsored but privately organized.

I'm wondering too about just what kind of "reforms" will be considered and enacted. Certainly there will be at least lip service to curtailing corruption and vote-buying. I hope the reforms focus on being inclusive - providing for and encouraging the maximum number of citizens to vote - rather than exclusive - limiting voter eligibility through qualifications and restrictions.

I don't know much about the US cooperatives but if there's a model that works then it sounds good - and I think much better than having farmers rely on the state. There needs to be a working incentive to get the farmers out of bed and doing something constructive.

Reforms could cover a massive sphere of subjects from outlawing "colour" groups, having an independent court to deal with parliamentary misdemeanours as soon as they happen, outlawing populist policies where they are unfair to certain geographical areas or cost more than say 5% of the GDP, much stricter penalties for corruption, clearer policies on what court handles what, clearer lines on what the DSI is able to take on etc etc.

How many others did the monk's thugs murder?

Are you suggesting that the deceased was murdered in Chaengwattana and taken into town to be thrown in the klong?

I don't think that's a particularly Holmesian deduction.

If the body turns out to be unrelated to the protests I'd expect you to eat your words

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I mentioned this in another thread yesterday, someone is going to have to make a brutal decision soon, as the rice stocks are not dwindling they're increasing, and nobody has killed the scheme, the farmers ARE going to have to halt their production, and if the scheme is dead, they have to go back to using the Millers, who know they can drop their buying price, simply because the supply outweighs the demand, it's economic suicide to continue subsidising the farmers, whilst unable to shift the current stock.

Some countries have been known to burn excess subsidised agricultural produce in order to avoid further impact on market price. Rather painful though.

If they burn the missing 2.8M Tonnes that will be resolved without damage to the environment

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What a complete bonehead - made me late for my appointment.

Nobody thought to stop him?

4.00 a.m., doubt anyone saw him with the curfew and all.

Good point!

However one might reasonably expect the boys in brown to be enforcing said curfew at or around Asoke?

If anyone thinks that the NCPO has rice as it's number one issue then they are misguided.

They have done a superb job of sending the 2 warring sides home and stopping conflict so far.

Whilst they dismantle the Thaksin Network and replace it with people who can perform without allegiance - and whilst they clean up on weapons being held by factions - they are putting a reasonably independent "cabinet" in place.

The reconciliation so far has been tentative - like fighting school boys who have had their heads banged together and told to make up - but once the reasons for red and yellow get put down on paper and worked out I think things will calm down.

Then Reform is next on the agenda - and the whole nation is waiting to see what that will enatail because that will be the key to elections.

Rice and other farming issues such as rubber will be a background task. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see some form of formal "farming landowners companies" formed with workers listed as employees and elligible for social services to bring their income up to the state minimum if their crops fail or the prices are low.

What a complete bonehead - made me late for my appointment.

Nobody thought to stop him?

The real reason that foreign governments are worrying is that in a month or so, everyone will want a Prayuth in charge and the facade of politician expertise will have been shattered in a giant iconiclasm

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Nah, not many citizens on this planet like curfews, detainment without proper legal procedures and limited freedom of speech. Although for citizens in some countries this might actually be an improvement. Luckily the number of countries concerned isn't that big.

I think that given a world where drugs are out of control, gun crime is horrendous, political correctness rules, whacky immigration policies are screwing things up and youth cannot be brought into through discipline line that you'd be surprised.

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It's impossible for us to know what the deal is what the inventory was and where-we just get this balouny from the nacc, the NACC is totally unreliable, all of it's agents were appointed by the 2006 coup and wicha machum who heads it an anti-democracy pad/pdrc fascist who said that 'elections are evil' and that 'power must be transfered to the courts'

it has an obvious agenda to use bogus cases to overthrow democratically elected governments and slap political bans on anyone who might win an election.

Yingluck's lawyers stated that this 'missing rice' is a farce and they had evidence to support their claims, but the nacc used bogus 'post audit' accounting and rejected their evidence-or something to that effect.. we have no way of knowing because this country is now a military dictatorship and their is no transparency, we just have to believe whatever the 'independent agency's' tell us

DO you really think that Yingluck had people go into these warehouses with forklifts and then made off with 'millions of tons' of rice which they then 'secretly sold' in 'fake G2G deals' and then they pocketed the money and sent it to dubai or whatever the ridiculous story is.. it's a joke and so is the NaCC.

The reason the rice pledging 'corruption' case exists is to make sure Yingluck doesn't run in the next election, whenever it eventually happens and win, she will win any election by a landslide and that would be an embarrassment to the coup so we have to have this fake corruption case to get rid of her.

Didnt the PTP government and YL make a statement about a week before they were ousted that they were not missing any rice and it was just a clerical error because the missing rice was in government stock. Now the NACC states that their really was 2.8 mill tons missing. Shouldnt the headlines be " another lie by YL and the PTP unfolded in the rice scheme" ?

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Buying either non existent rice or cheap rice from over the borders gets money for not much. You will see articles in the respected foreign press.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/10618134/Burmese-smugglers-get-rich-on-Yingluck-Shinawatras-13-billion-Thai-rice-subsidies.html

And shipping rice out the door to China in secret deals as well as selling rice multiple times into the scheme can make you rich.

The net effect of such action would be a massive loss and stockpiles unaccounted for. Surprise, surprise.....

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Thanks Ian, this is what I love about TVF, there ARE topics that people can have dialogue with, without wanting to stab each other to death with ice picks!!

Not rice picks?

After 10 years here I have managed to avoid performing a Leon Trotsky on anyone.

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The real reason that foreign governments are worrying is that in a month or so, everyone will want a Prayuth in charge and the facade of politician expertise will have been shattered in a giant iconiclasm

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Welcome to the Klaus Barbieque

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