dcpo

42 minutes ago, hansnl said:

PTP "wins" every time because of the slight boons they give to the poor to get their votes while using that power to enrich themselves by every means available.

The good thing about PTP wasn't that they were a particularly effective or clean government, because they certainly were not, but that they were on a fundamental level accountable to the people. A mechanism existed for a group offering a better deal to the population to take their place. People talk about PTP buying votes, but who else would the rural poor have voted for? The party whose core supporters feel the poor are too stupid to be allowed to vote?

The problem in Thailand is they don't even react after the event. It's all very well hand-wringing in the media, but until the law actually starts holding people accountable for their negligence nothing will change. And I don't just mean the workmen, but the organizations that allow work to be done with such sloppy safety systems in place. Don't hold your breath though.

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Agree, and again I ask the question: 'Where is the National Police Chief?' Surely he should be making comments on these recent incidents to try to give some semblance of proper process and his personal professionalism and that of the force. Nothing!

Based on the form of the RTP, and Thai government in general, I imagine he'll step in at some point to deny that it happened. 

My wife is the kind of person they should be looking to employ. She has an MSc. from a good British university. She's not a super-brain but she's diligent and responsible. She gets stuff done. She works for Western companies and her bosses appreciate the good job she does. She doesn't want to work for the Thai government for three reasons. 1) It would cut her pay in half. 2) The career path is not based on merit. 3) She'd be mostly working with and for unreasonably self-satisfied idiots. 

Ironic that the 'PM' has been promoting Thailand 4.0 and the new vision for higher education this week.

These stories illustrate the problems with Thailand nicely. It's not that the rape happened, because rapes, sadly, happen everywhere. It's the fact that the guy had committed two rapes before and the taxi company didn't care to check. It's the fact that the taxi company are not held accountable for their lack of due diligence. It's the fact that the guy's eyes are blurred in the picture while the victim's details are spread around by the media. It's how much more seriously the authorities take the 'crime' of criticizing powerful people. It's sick really.

Well on the one hand some random people might have misremembered something. But on the other hand, despite the collective effort of tens of thousands of scientists over centuries, and after tests more intricate and thorough than the average person can even begin to comprehend, humanity might just be completely wrong about basic laws of physics. It's a difficult one.

2 hours ago, CelticBhoy said:

"He also said deputy rectors at 200 universities might quit their positions because of the NACC requirement for asset declarations."

 

That's a lot of academics out of work! But I guess they have enough money "stashed"

away to afford early retirement. Would I be right in guessing that if they retire then they

are no longer under the spotlight?

They just resigned from the deputy dean position. They keep their regular lecturer jobs.

Seeing as it's Thailand, they probably do have something to hide. But on the other hand, if we're talking about people with unusually large assets for their salaries...

This is just the Thai feudal system in action. Policeman's son kills a street vendor? Mai bpen rai. Billionaire's son kills a policeman? Ditto. Middle class Thais don't like this particular example, but most of them will take advantage of the system when it benefits them. And so the system continues. 

We all know the military do basically whatever they want because they have the guns. Article 44 is like a little cardboard sheriff's badge to give it an appearance of legitimacy. 

Reminds me of the group of policemen who kicked that unarmed guy to death a few months ago in Bangkok and some high up (the chief of police?) first said they weren't there and then that the guy died of something else and it was just a coincidence that it happened while the police were kicking the shit out of him. I wonder what happened with that. Nothing I imagine, same as will happen with this. 

1 hour ago, canuckamuck said:

The extremists are the purists who hide under the blanket of non violent Muslims. They have more power to expose the extremists than any other group.  Yet they seem the least interested in doing just that. It seems to be a kind of assent to me.

How do you know that? Intelligence services have foiled several plots. How do you know they don't get information from within the Muslim community?

47 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

I think what bothers 99% of non muslims is why the 99% of of peace loving muslims are always so extremely silent after each and every attack by the 1% of  non peace loving ones.  It seems to be a pattern lately. 

They're not actually silent though. I mean, it's pretty easy to find public statements by Muslim organizations and individuals condemning attacks. You must try hard to avoid seeing them, or just filter them out subconsciously. Do you want Muslims to contact you personally? When was the last time you made a public statement condemning something bad done by people superficially in your 'group' anyway? How many Catholics publicly condemned the terrorist attacks by the IRA back in the day? How many US citizens make public statements condemning the deaths of civilians in military operations?   

According to the 2011 census there are around 2,700,000 Muslims living in the UK. Unless I missed something dramatic there have been fewer than 100 people killed by Islamic terrorists in the UK since 2007 (including the tube bombs). For perspective, in 2007 alone there were 2,946 deaths on British roads. These terrorist attacks are tragedies, but clearly the vast majority of British Muslims are peaceful. I have Muslim friends and they are as appalled by these events as anyone else. When these people, these animals, attack like this they don't spare their fellow Muslims. They'll mow down Mohammed just as soon as John. This isn't a battle between Muslims and The West, it's a battle between extremists and everyone who disagrees with them. When you hold the vast majority of innocent British Muslims responsible for the actions of nutters and psychopaths you are on the side of the extremists. 

Boys will be boys eh? Slap on the wrist should be fine. They didn't do anything serious like poke fun at someone important.

Herbal 'medicine' that actually works got tested, analyzed, and had its active components extracted and sold in carefully measured doses  as 'conventional' medicine by pharmaceutical companies years ago.

There's a myth that Big Pharma is scared of herbs, but this is rubbish. Many producers of herbal 'medicines' are produced by subsidiaries of pharmaceutical companies. The suits who run them actually love 'alternative medicine' because it lets them make money without having to go through the immense effort and expense of bringing a drug to the market.

Of course, the way things are going, in the US they may not have to do that for much longer. So, have fun with that. 

Organized religion is and has been riddled with hypocrisy and BS everywhere throughout history. It's amazing so many people still feel reflexive respect for 'holy people' rather than reflexive suspicion. Symbolism is more powerful than facts I guess. 

Thailand has a pretty low bar for 'influential' when it comes to prosecuting murderers. "We couldn't possibly go after this guy, his dad's the deputy sheriff of Podunk". The law has short arms round here. Unless you piss off the wrong person.

It's hard for the Republicans to replace Obamacare because Obamacare is already the Republican alternative to the single payer system the Democrats really want. Obamacare was essentially designed by the Heritage Foundation, and first adopted by Romney. The fact that it suddenly became Conservative anathema just demonstrates how malleable Conservative principles can be.

I remember much was made by supporters of the shut down Bangkok movement of the 'fall' in Thailand's absolute rank in this index under Thaksin, despite this being significantly affected by the compilers of the list increasing the number of countries listed (so Thailand's relative rank was fairly similar). What do they have to say about this?

The public must reconcile themselves to indefinite rule by the military and their cronies. 

I've heard many Trump supporters say things along the lines of "we want Trump because people are laughing at America". What these people don't realize is that the reason people have been laughing at America is that we've always suspected that the American people are capable of electing someone like Trump. President Trump was literally a joke on the Simpsons 10 years ago. Now it' real. President Trump. Punchline to the great American joke.

2 hours ago, The man from udon said:

If the army had gone to arrest these scum the may of been dead by now.people keep knocking this military government but all I can see is they are cleaning up the country that is riddled with crime and corruption.

You're obviously not looking very hard then.

'Reconciliation' is Thai for 'obedience'.

There is nothing IS would like more than for the US to ban Muslim immigrants. 

Much respect to USD multimillionaire General Prayut for going after all the people with suspiciously large amounts of money. I can feel Thailand getting cleaner by the day.