nakhonandy

"During the inquest, experts testified that the victim died of a wound from a high velocity bullet like those used by security forces and there was no evidence of any other group in the area," according to a criminal court judge.

How many other guys have access to "high velocity bullets and weapons' to shoot with? Being a soldier means you're trained to kill before somebody else's killing you. The poor photographer was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Those guys should know that bullets go their own way, doesn't matter who'd fired them. Who else would go between two groups using guns?-.

How many times does it need to be said - there were not two groups using guns. The military were the only ones firing as stated by 4 witnesses who were there at the time and accepted by the inquest. (although two of the foreign witnesses didn't give evidence as the Court decided they already had enough to record a verdict.)

That's the strange part. There was evidence, videos and news reports, of red shirts shooting at the army as the army moved up Ratchadamri. The didn't only shoot guns, but grenades as well, as evidenced by the reporter and soldiers being injured / killed.

True but from all the statements there were no armed Red shirts around where this happened, only civilians.

This happens when the army is used to do what is in fact a policing matter, the army are not trained for this.

Unfortunately the police are not either.

When we moved to Thailand my daughter was about 10 and had been educated at a private school in Australia that made an effort to get children to question things, in particular what was taught in the classroom. We thought we would do the right thing and enrol her in a bilingual school to learn Thai. Most of the teachers were Thai and at our first teacher parent meeting I was told that she was a bright girl but disruptive in class because she asked too many questions. My one and only experience of Thai education. She was quickly moved to an international school with farang teachers who encouraged this.

I now see the results of this attitude in my Thai staff, virtually non existent initiative and a total fear of questioning anything even if they can see it could be wrong.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Pretty well my experience but with my now wifes Thai son.

She was/is a responsible parent and I asked why she put up with this, simple no money no choice.

We moved him to a better school not costing a fortune where he is encouraged to question things and his level of education has soared!

They are not all bad but a lot of improvement is needed.

This sort of thing happens, yes.

All Thai men carry guns???? None of the ones I know do.

I must mix with the wrong people.

My spidey sense tells me an acid attack is coming to a beauty contest near you.

Personally, I'll take a no make-up, dark skinned, Isaan pig farmer's daughter over one of these plastic, souless, wanabee hi-so tramps anyday.

Couldn't agree more.

My wife said of course I am not a guest, married a Thai, live here. Part of the family!

Must be one of her good days!

No pet shop that I know about and my wife and I go there a lot.

Yes they are different.

My wife is always doing something to me that involves a little bit of pain. Because doing this shows that she loves me!!!

Odd bit endearing also.

Don't blame the teacher this is summer school and half the kids don't turn up.

If they checked every absentee with a phone call then that would take half the day

This Is obviously the drivers fault. He parked and locked the vehicle without checking if there were kids still inside.

I he is a school employee then it is job is to make sure the kids are delivered to class.

Though why a parent would send a 3 year old t to school unaccompanied in a van is beyond me.

Of course blame the teacher as well. All kids should be checked on and off. As for the statement that she went back to get something, why alone?

I am constantly shocked at what people without any personal experience of Thai prisons or the so-called justice system here write about doing time in Thai prisons, so I'm writing a veritable essay, even though it may fall on deaf ears. I personally know a 24-year old university student, the recipient of awards for good citizenship with no priors, doing 20 years in maximum security for a white collar crime she didn't commit because the police were bribed to falsify the report, her lawyer didn't show up, and the judge refused to allow an appeal.

Do you know how many scam artists there are in Thai villages taking advantage of people's ignorance of the law? The so-called village lawyers may be no better than the scam artists. If you have to defend yourself in a Thai court without an attorney, how well do you think you would fare, regardless of your innocence? All it takes is a group of Thais to organize a case against you--your fine upstanding citizens think nothing of perjuring themselves for the economic advantage of their family, and I wonder if it is even a crime in the LOS.

How many arm-chair justices know that Thai law guarantees the prisoner 1.5 square meters living space, which is the absolute minimum, compared to 10 square meters in the USA? Yet Thai prisons are overcrowded 3X the legal limit so the average prisoner gets less than a square meter for living space, and there is no legal recourse to hold the government accountable.

Do you have any idea how crowded that is? Prisoners literally have to walk on each other's bodies to get to the open hole in the corner that serves as the toilet for 50 or more inmates in a 20 square meter room. Do you have any idea how hot that room gets with bodies literally stacked like sardines in a can? This is against Thai law and any kind of humane standards, regardless of whether it is women or men. Westerners often get sick and die under these conditions, but Thais accept it without complaining, and so it doesn't change.

Without a good lawyer, the court ignores first time offenses or extenuating circumstances. A person simply riding on a motorbike with a friend who has a few hits of speed can get a 10 year sentence under those brutal and illegal conditions. Poor women--single mothers in particular--are more likely to be the victims of guilt by association, given their abject poverty and the way they are condemned to subservience to whatever man will help them survive. You can talk about equal rights when a man who gets a woman pregnant is kicked out of school and forced to take care of the baby! Or when a man submits to a life of prostitution to take care of the baby and the grandmother who winds up raising the baby.

Women are obviously more likely to commit crimes of survival, especially when they have a newborn baby abandoned by a brutal alcoholic father. What legal options are provided by Thai society for them to survive? The UN seems to recognize that babies abandoned by the mother--to pay what you all seem to think are her debts to society-- are more likely to continue the cylce of crime arising from ignorance and poverty. How is that paying off any debts to anyone?

A just legal system determines the debt of the felon based on how much society has actually invested. It is hard to talk about the debt of someone who has been abused and misused her whole life. The UN mandate seems to recognize that women are more often subjected to sexual abuse and economic exploitation than men, and these circumstances should reduce their debt. In many cases it is society that owes the woman--and her baby--rather than the other way around. .

Civilization requires investing in the youth--and their families--believing in the potential of people, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, to repay that investment through creative and useful activity. It is not about "paying debts" by being tortured at public expense in inhumane conditions.

Agree 100%.

They really need to look at reforming the entire penal system.

I know there is talk of dishing out less custodial terms for minor offenses and using anklebands etc.

Remains to be seen if this happens though.

Its great to see all the usual PADI police preaching about the PADI standards and procedures. Whether he should be wearing a weight belt when free diving. What defines a scuba suit. The PADI buddy system should be enforced. Also discussions on whether it is illegal to spearfish whilst scuba diving. shallow water blackout. But the same preachers are bar fining girls and wearing knock off goods plus paying tea money to police. PADI Standards? No double standards! Now if you are basing your information on any Thai or Farang newspaper it really is a lost cause. Unless you were there its pointless speculating

Not quite sure why people advocating PADI standards have double standards!

Anyhow these are not just PADI but general diving practices.

Also what has that to do with bar fines etc, how do you know what these people do? Now you are speculating.

Agree with the last part though, nobody knows what happened. Probably never will.

My only experince with the tourist police is when they were stopping all motorbikes on Sukhumvit in Pattaya together with the normal police.

They were quite helpful actually.

Also for a change it was all motorbikes and not just farangs!

If Thai people were just a little bit concerned with Mosquitoes (Thet don't get bite by them, very rare, mosquitoes are aftar Farang blood and smell!), it would be great. Somehow they don't care, they continue to leave water outside where mosquitoes can multiply by ten.

Not sure how you can state that Thais don't get bitten by Mosquitos, they certainly do, at least where we live.

Incidentally this article is referring to Thais that have caught the disease.

The problem is in Thailand there are always large areas of stagnant water (rice fields) a bit outside the house is hardly going to magnify the population by much is it?

Like others have said it is endemic.

We can't change it, that is up to the Thais.

As my wife pointed out everybody just accepts it as a part of life so I don't see this changing soon.

Innoculation?

We have two floors, living in a raised area around Nakhon Sawan we don't have any water/flood issues so the downstairs is open (well with a temporary bedroom for us) while the upstairs will be three bedrooms bathroom etc.

The big advantage is privacy, if the family turn up and I have had enough I can just go upstairs and chill out.

It also has the advantage that when my family/friends come from Europe I have room for them.

It is standard conctrete downstairs and "treated hardwood" upstairs. Pretty standard really.

Costs, land given to my wife by her father when he died.

House existing, only costs modernisation.

I looked at knocking it down and rebulding on a larger scale, about 1M, no more.

My advice evaluate all options/prices and take your time.

OK this is good news, us divers have been pushing for this for a long time via Project Aware etc.

Problem is, will it be enforced and how? Who will enforce it.

It is not only shark finning, when that caused uproar the fisherman just kept the whole shark and slit the fins off in a warehouse, same result!

The big prblem remains the rising population of middle class Chinese, both in China and elsewhere who consider it family pride to offer Shark fin soup at a dinner.

Until this is addressed it will be a problem for some time to come I am afraid.

Unscrupulous people will still try to make money from it banned or not!

Actually this makes a lot of sense.

Maybe they could use the extra hours the teachers have to train them!

Agree with the rubbish about scouting and marching also, anything such as that should be voluntary.

Hardly dealing quantities.

Just a bit OTT by the cops as usual for a Farang.

I suspect if you eliminated China from the trade, the others would all fall like dominoes too.

True, that is for sure the main market. For all animal products actually.

Unfortunately very few Thais give a s**t about wildlife in any form. Odd as the majority are Buddhists.

They seem to care more about scabby soi dogs than their natural heritage.

This is not just Tigers but also Ivory, Sharks etc.

Education and sanctions are needed to end this.

If the threat of sanctions is real then they will have to do something.

As others pointed out it will hit them where it hurts the pocket.

They should have hammered them about the sharks/manta rays also. That is a far more serious problem.

Love the photo, much better than the usual serious faces, pointing police etc.

The russians seem to be enjoying it anyhow.

Just read the story.

What is a good seat for an exam?

16 years old and already shot someone, he is heading for a successful future!!

As a policeman or politician.

I should have thought about that. No brains, no responsibility.

You have a point.

300 Baht in Chonburi.

Sorry I gived wrong information( 273 Baht) picked it up from here :

http://www.nateelaw.com/news.htm

its 300 baht now across the country.

however bar staff can be paid less as there is also commission structure, ie cut from the drinks sold.

i wonder though does the 300 baht include the food? there is no law which states employer must provide free food for staff.

Employer can always pay 250 and 50 is food, so monthly salary of 9000 can be made into 7500baht.

Sorry little off topic

You are right I believe.

A friend of mine in the restaurant/bar business said the minimum wage was flexible for him as they do indeed get comissions.

Having said that they were getting the equivalent of the minimum wage anyhow as were many of the girls in the more populated bars.

the minimum wage should have no real impact on prices.

As I noted before there are still a lot of places busy and with low prices, the high priced ones are usually empty!