chrisrazz

Aside from the brutal nature of the case, the thing that struck me in the report was 'She had a part time job selling vegetable juice on her Facebook page.' This is a damning indictment on the rates of police and other government services pay in Thailand in my opinion, and, is the reason for the myriad problems within the system of government in Thailand. (Note, I use the word 'service', which in the Thai context is non-existent). Raise the pay, raise the bar, remove the time servers and crooks now! They could start by using the word 'service' to define the role of such agencies ie. Royal Thai Police Service.

I think this ranking can be viewed in a similar light to last year's Asian of the Year poll.

I hope he got a receipt.

^{. They visited 55 provinces and asked 26.87 people in each location????}

Perhaps Bill will be less interested when he discovers he will have no control over his money. Also, may I suggest he apply some thought to making sure Microsoft products are less susceptible to viruses.

There ought to be investigations into his conduct in Thailand. If he has any charges to answer locally, he should be tried and punished locally, then extradited to the UK.

Whilst I applaud this development, I do however, wonder what will happen to the loot.

'Navy's submarine acquisition plan can wait'..... until the sea level rises to the appropriate depth in which the sub is capable of operating.

Another industry that Thailand cannot compete in. So, the powers that be will apply the Thai logic of protectionism.

Thus ensuring IT in Thailand falls even further behind.

I thought martial law meant no gatherings of more than 5? There were 5 of them.

What Prayuth really means by martial law is that not a single person may criticise me or challenge me. If you do, you'll be locked up!

If you read the rules that they endorsed under this martial law then you can see that protesting against the junta is forbidden under this martial law...

Try this stunt in any other country, for example have 5 protesters run up to the stage where Barack Obama is holding a speech and count how many of them are shot by secret service as potential threats.

Anyone trying to pull this kind of stunt in the US would never got anywhere near Obama. Just goes to show the competency level of the Thai security services. If the army can't guarantee the security of their junta leader, what hope is there for them running the country?

These days, every time I read a thread on this site, an image of Nelson Muntz enters my mind, complete with his catch cry 'Ha Ha'.

Unfortunately for Thailand, 'Country of Origin' is stated on all products in western supermarkets. It is easy for discerning shoppers to decide what they buy based on their personal moral and ethical standards. If you are aware that a purchase of an item was a product of slave labour, and that your purchase of said product implied that you supported such behavior you may leave the product on the shelf. Unlike Thai officials, supermarkets chains are no mugs, when stuff does not sell it's taken off the shelf. Thailand's solution to this is criminal defamation. The other issue that flies straight over the head of Thai officials is that unlike Thailand, western supermarkets operate in regulated, competitive and unprotected markets. They spend a lot of money trying to influence and exploit public sentiment and will act in ways to protect THIER interests, good and bad PR will impact these interests. Thai officials, on the other hand......

Off topic perhaps. It looks like it's open season on Thailand now. Channel 9 Australia, not really known for sensitivity, is airing a reality show called Foreign Embassy this weekend. The stories are based on the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. The promo story relates to a guy who was the victim of a hit and run, following which, he was robbed and left for dead.

The police will announce a reconstruction of the beatings soon.

If I recall correctly, the Red Shirts did not want a blanket amnesty. They wanted the international criminal court to investigate the 2010 debacle. Why they changed this stance one can only speculate.

Proving it's not these two Burmese lads is fairly easy. Once it's proved it's not them then, hopefully the real culprits are caught....

Unlike you Franky, the British police won't decide who is guilty or innocent before actually knowing.

They already know. MI6 exists for a reason & they are not fools.

For this reason, I suspect that Cameron felt compelled to 'chat' with Prayuth. I seriously doubt Cameron would act on the basis of a petition, though it helps to make him look good.

Given that currently there are no MP's does that mean there is exponentially less corruption? This is just the start of the 'softening up' period to provide reasons to reduce the voting power of the poor in the North and NE.

This has always been a bugbear of mine. At my place, sticky rice is a rather long process, requiring an overnight soak, followed in the morning by preparing a charcoal fire to steam the rice in a conical bamboo basket. The array of dishes that are prepared to accompany the rice also take considerable time to prepare. I doubt this amazing new development will get much traction amongst the sticky rice traditionalists, who, given the fact that they still insist on eating this way are not entirely time poor. In fact, when you add the time for hunting and gathering required for such 'cuisine' time is not really a consideration. This new contraption will just give them an additional 10 minutes of not doing much.

If there are 4 or 5 'influential' families, and, the murderer/s is commonly known amongst the locals to be from one of them, that leaves 3 or 4 other 'influential' families whose activities and profits will be severely diminished, and, given the nature of these types, they will seek recompense or revenge. The 'authorities' need to administer real justice now. As a cynic, I believe that further payoffs will be made in order to cover up another murder or two, something along the lines of 'backpacker murderer commits suicide'. Case closed.

How about a new game show titled 'Who wants to be HiSo?' where contestants lie, cheat, steal, threaten, form alliances with other wannabe's to buy/threaten/blackmail their way to power and influence. Winner takes all! Now that's a Thai reality show.

Well the police were blaming social media for delaying the investigating... I strongly suggest that the same social media has the ability to turn Kho Tao into a ghost town...

I like this. The idea led me to speculate that there are going to be some very pissed off locals, who given their reported violent nature, may well seek recompense for lost revenue. If the real culprits are known, perhaps justice will prevail in the end, just not in the way it should.

Why anyone expects the RTP to be police amazes me. Mostly they are bullies, they are racketeers and corrupt. There can be very few who have risen to their rank on merit, therefore incompetence can be the only outcome.