thomash

Traffic laws are just a minor inconvenience for most Thais and as far as safety that is not in their vocabulary. When I drive in Thailand I always assume no one is thinking or looking and about 80% of the time I am right. It is dangerous enough driving in Thailand during the broad day light forget about it on New years eve with most people drinking and driving as they say it's an accident waiting to happen. So it is better to just stay home and have a good time at home or it just might be your last new years eve.

I wonder if the people they polled actually understood what the word creative means. Anyhow #1 was the rice-pledging scheme?? Maybe they mean scam not scheme in that case yes it definitely was the most creative scam!

At least someone is publicly addressing this problem but it is going to take a lot more then just some research and suggestions. There are a lot of factors in the poor education system in Thailand they have tried to solve it with putting more money into education but for the most part it has gone down the drain or should I say in to someones pocket. The people in the know who I've talked to about this problem, as I use to be an English teacher here, say most of the "elite" really do not want the average Thai to get a good education but prefer to dumb them down in order to maintain their power and control over them. So then they really do not care that massive numbers are dropping out of high school or that they are getting an inadequate education. Meanwhile they send their own kids to private school and to overseas Universities.

"Citing insufficient manpower to cope with the southern crisis" I do not think it is insufficient manpower but insufficient brain power! What about the thousands of Thai army soldiers who are just hanging out at various army bases throughout Thailand who just seem to be bored to death?

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

For that yo happen, the Buddhist Monks have to stop being corrupt first.

Unfortunately, there are many, many examples of monks who preach water and drink wine and who absolute behave as un- buddhist as many "normal" Thais.

Yes that goes on in all organized religions just look at the Catholic Church and their sex scandals but hopefully you can find some who are not and would support this type of movement but most likely nothing will be done and it will just be corruption as usual in Thailand.

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.

Not having encountered Buddhism before coming to Thailand, I was of the understanding that bribery is what Thai Buddhism is all about, i.e. pray and leave an offering and ask for what you want. I give to you, you give to me. Is that not correct?

I think your confusing corruption with charity

That could also be a description of what goes on in a lot of Churches to so that really is not about just Thai Buddhism, but actually it is called giving a donation.

Thailand needs to either negotiate somehow with the Muslims down south, say maybe a state within a state type of deal or if not that then treat it almost like a war zone and do house to house searches but instead they are doing neither, kind of just sitting on the fence. But one thing they definitely need to do is get the military back in charge down there instead of the incompetent and corrupt police!

Oh yeah they would also need to set up a system and actually enforce it that would both prevent corruption and punish corruption along with independent over site to prevent even that system becoming corrupt. But I am afraid this is all to logical of a solution for the Thais to actually do.

I think the only hope to possibly stopping the massive amount of corruption in Thailand and changing the general Thai attitude that corruption is okay is for the 2 most highly respected institutions in Thailand, namely the Royal family and the Buddhist Monks, unite to do a massive campaign against it. They could really promote how Un-Buddhist like corruption is, how much it hurts the country, your fellow Thai and the Thai culture in general. Someone has to put their foot down to stop this and those 2 institutions are the only ones that have the moral authority to be successfully at doing this as most Thais in general do listen to and respect those 2 institutions . Otherwise I think it is hopeless and will only get worse.