Godders

Why do we keep pussy-footing around with the murderous tobacco barons and their parasitic accomplices in the marketing and advertising industry and the mass media?

The lobbying system must be even more effective than we realised. How else could governments continue to sanction sales of a product - laced with a drug said to be as hard to kick as heroin - which kills and cripples millions of smoking addicts across the world.

A gentle rap over knuckles from the Thai health ministry is gesture politics. Manufacturers of these aptly-named "coffin nails" should be made to feel the full force of swingeing new laws banning the sale and promotion of cigarettes containing nicotine.

Their profits and assets from this evil trade should be seized and diverted into public coffers to offset the cost to the taxpayer of providing care and compensation to victims and their families..

When I took my one of my daughters for a chicken pox vaccination at a leading private hospital in Hua Hin recently, the elderly physician suggested I bring her back in 12 months for a second injection - to protect her from a cancer-causing virus transmitted exclusively by sexual intercourse.

My daughter has just turned eight.

So much for sex education Thai style.

Article 44 req'd, that'll stop the buggers fornicating ;-)

. . . and not just the buggers.

Dear old Thailand, welcome to the 20th Century.

"There is no incentive to register, as in Thailand there is no unemployment benefits paid like in

other western countries,..."

The unemployment benefits here are through the Social Security system.

It's for people that have been working and become unemployed, not for new graduates.

Is there a western country that pays new graduates that haven't worked?

Yes my home country... England

If your over the age of 16 yrs & unemployed (ie employment seeker)you can apply for social/welfare/unemployment/job-seekers allowance type of benefit according to your circumstances.

Hell they even pay immigrants who go there to do sod all day except knock-out another baby & have never worked or paid a penny in tax!!

Thats why I got out of the place !!

I can imagine how much you must be missed.

For Pete's sake, you lot, stop bitching and just tell General Fixit. Job done.

If Thailand is serious about being a player on the international stage, it should adopt adopt a globally recognised secondary education system based on IGCSE or its US equivalent.

Continue merely to tinker with the present antiquated set-up, producing qualifications only recognised in Thailand, will ensure the Kingdom continues to language in the lower regions of the Asian and world education league tables.

This man, whatever you may think of him for exploiting the affections of an impressionable young student, is no pedophile. The girl was under age (just) but years into puberty. A pedophile is attracted only to pre-pubescent children.

The promise of consulting the nation on EU membership was an election ploy and a sop to anti-EU Tories. Now back in office with a workable majority, and stuck with the referendum he doesn't really want, Cameron will pull out all the propaganda stops to ensure he gets a "No" vote to pulling out, irrespective of whether or not he gets any "concessions":

If I'm wrong I'll eat Paddy Ashdown's chocolate hat.

You'd think somebody of his age would know that happiness is a transient emotion and that you can't return to people something they have never had.

What courageous young people. These young democracy seeking students are prepared to stand up for the basic human right to freedom of speech! They are not terrorists and yet by peacefully demonstrating they are arrested for being a threat to National security because they have a different point of view to that of the military backed government. This has now become international news and certainly does not show Thailand's military rule in a good light. I wholeheartedly support them and their fight for freedom of speech throughout the world.

" basic human right to freedom of speech!" And who says this is a basic human right? In every country in the world you will be arrested if you say certain things in public, although what it is you say to get arrested may differ between countries. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, etc.etc. are stifled in every country based on what is seen as the greater good, or what the 'majority ' want (even if that majority is often well under 50% in many 'democratically ' elected countries. Other OP are calling Thais cowards for not expressing more opposition. But in fact it's because most are Happy (including Isaan populace) with the stability, relative peacefulness, progress in challenging corruption, etc.for a change.

Some OP talk like "democracy" was decreed from the start of mankind by some imaginary god. .

You need to get out more.

Silly idiots. Why didn't they just buy lottery tickets instead?

. . . concern over the huge concrete infrastructure of 19.5 metres wide with a height of 2.8 metres that will be built on both sides along a seven kilometre strip from Rama 7 bridge to Phra Pinklao bridge.

OK, you investigative reporters - which member of the Cabinet just happens to have a relative in the cement business?

Maybe a more telling questions to consider would be.. how is debt repatriated? or how are loan defaulters dealt with? (by law) in Thailand?

You can look out on any road outside your window in BKK and see thousands of new expensive cars getting around, but if you look beneath the surface they say that personal debt in Thailand is getting to the point where its off the charts crazy.

In any system like this there must be a correction sooner or later, no matter what the market is ..unless of course, Thais have perfected some foolproof system that is bubble-bursting free

A previous poster talking about real estate and land prices was interesting. I believe the rates (money paid by householders to government for goods and services) on private property is virtually nothing here. I guess thats how people can still survive here (allbeit poorly) and are able to sit on real estate while having limited income.

(If i owned a house in Australia but had no income or savings to rely on, i would probably be forced to sell the property after two years, just to pay the government its yearly rates and taxes. And unlike the rich dodging taxes, you cannot swindle your way out of that one.)

Interesting that the Thai cut interest rates recently. I think they know something is coming and have followed the policy that every other country has tried already. Its a last ditch effort when you've tried everything else but all is still going to Sh7t.

I believe worldwide, our governments are not telling us the real story about the debt problem. They simply do not want people to know, as they dont want to be held accountable for doing nothing about it.

Thailand will have its turn soon enough i fear (but hope i am wrong) The next one will probably be so big it will make the tom yum goong crisis look like 10 baht falling out of a hole in your pocket

I believe worldwide, our governments are not telling us the real story about the debt problem. They simply do not want people to know, as they dont want to be held accountable for doing nothing about it.

You said it, buddy. Only about three per cent of all the fiat currency in circulation is backed by a tangible asset and there is a quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble out there waiting to go pop bring us a banking crisis which will make the economic sunami of 2007-8 look like a ripple on a millpond.

It has been calculated that the odds against becoming infected after having vaginal sexual intercourse with an HIV positive woman partner is over a thousand to one. The odds are substantially higher, of course, if one indulges in anal sex, as many homosexuals and bi-sexuals do habitually, or if one takes drugs and shares needles.

HIV tests vary around the world and, astonishingly, it is possible to be positive in one country which uses a particular test and negative in another which uses a different commercially-produced diagnostic kit.

There are still many distinguished scientists who are sceptical about the evidence that the so-called HIV virus (never properly isolated) is responsible for lowering the body's immunity to the range of illnesses classified as AIDS.

What one can say for sure is that the war on AIDS, rather like the more recent war on terror, has generated a multi-billion dollar global industry, employing countless thousands of people in the private and public sectors and making massive profits for commercial enterprises.

I have spent a great deal of time trying to make up my mind about the evidence presented by both sides of the HIV-AIDS debate, and yet I still find myself sitting uncomfortably on the fence in a number of important areas relating to the discussion.

The statistical evidence concerning the disease in Thailand looks impressive on paper.. But where is the on-thee-ground anecdotal evidence one would expect to find cropping up everywhere if the disease is as widespread and threatening as we are told.

In two decades of living here, I have known only three Thai people who have allegedly contracted the disease and subsequently died (though I have no idea what the autopsies, assuming any were held, showed to be the cause of death). One of these was a woman sex worker, one a trans-sexual and the other a man whose sexual preferences I do not know.

Over nearly two decades here, I have yet to come across a confirmed case of a falang resident or visitor catching HIV as a result of having vaginal sex with a Thai sex worker - despite, in many instances, a very high incidence of sexual activity over many years and not always using a condom. One stud in particular had unprotected sex with literally hundreds of sex workers and eventually summoned up the courage to ask his doctor for a test because he was convinced he must have the disease. He didn't.

This kind of evidence, of course, doesn't necessarily prove anything. It is possible that all these men stupidly "risking it" for so long was atypical and, have just been incredibly been lucky. Or could it just be that the danger to heterosexuals posed by the so-called AIDS epidemic being exaggerated by interested parties for political or commercial reasons?

Don't just flame me (as I am sure many will) for casting what I feel are legitimate doubts - give me some at least some anecdotal evidence - I have masses of the other stuff from just about every source you can think of - to help me become a little more. . .( I was going to say positive, but you know what I mean) one way or another.

i too know a guy who has had sex with literally 1000,s of sex workers without condom and not caught hiv ( or so he says )

Can't be the same guy, surely. Christian name starting with a G?

It has been calculated that the odds against becoming infected after having vaginal sexual intercourse with an HIV positive woman partner is over a thousand to one. The odds are substantially higher, of course, if one indulges in anal sex, as many homosexuals and bi-sexuals do habitually, or if one takes drugs and shares needles.

HIV tests vary around the world and, astonishingly, it is possible to be positive in one country which uses a particular test and negative in another which uses a different commercially-produced diagnostic kit.

There are still many distinguished scientists who are sceptical about the evidence that the so-called HIV virus (never properly isolated) is responsible for lowering the body's immunity to the range of illnesses classified as AIDS.

What one can say for sure is that the war on AIDS, rather like the more recent war on terror, has generated a multi-billion dollar global industry, employing countless thousands of people in the private and public sectors and making massive profits for commercial enterprises.

I have spent a great deal of time trying to make up my mind about the evidence presented by both sides of the HIV-AIDS debate, and yet I still find myself sitting uncomfortably on the fence in a number of important areas relating to the discussion.

The statistical evidence concerning the disease in Thailand looks impressive on paper.. But where is the on-thee-ground anecdotal evidence one would expect to find cropping up everywhere if the disease is as widespread and threatening as we are told.

In two decades of living here, I have known only three Thai people who have allegedly contracted the disease and subsequently died (though I have no idea what the autopsies, assuming any were held, showed to be the cause of death). One of these was a woman sex worker, one a trans-sexual and the other a man whose sexual preferences I do not know.

Over nearly two decades here, I have yet to come across a confirmed case of a falang resident or visitor catching HIV as a result of having vaginal sex with a Thai sex worker - despite, in many instances, a very high incidence of sexual activity over many years and not always using a condom. One stud in particular had unprotected sex with literally hundreds of sex workers and eventually summoned up the courage to ask his doctor for a test because he was convinced he must have the disease. He didn't.

This kind of evidence, of course, doesn't necessarily prove anything. It is possible that all these men stupidly "risking it" for so long was atypical and, have just been incredibly been lucky. Or could it just be that the danger to heterosexuals posed by the so-called AIDS epidemic being exaggerated by interested parties for political or commercial reasons?

Don't just flame me (as I am sure many will) for casting what I feel are legitimate doubts - give me some at least some anecdotal evidence - I have masses of the other stuff from just about every source you can think of - to help me become a little more. . .( I was going to say positive, but you know what I mean) one way or another.

What a match-up - the Islamic State v the United States

In one corner, a bunch of armed-to-the-teeth fanatics with a reputation for inflicting death and destruction on anyone rash enough to resist their quest for world domination.

And in the other, IS.

My better half spends most of her spare time exchanging photos and mindless chat with her mates on Facebook. She'll be thrilled to bits to learn she is helping to raise the country's GDP. Personally, I'd rather she had more time for raising my expectations of dinner and a bit of rumpy-pumpy.

It's just PR, to keep the Americans and Europeans happy, like those crushed CD's and burned ivory. The time to really start worrying is when the Trans Pacific Partnership deal is signed and Thais will have to pay the full Big Pharma price for drugs and medicine etc instead of being able to buy generic alternatives made here or imported from India.

That's when you'll really hear the pips start squeaking.

So how do Thai students go overseas for post-secondary education get in the door of a USA College/University, and yet graduate!

Could it possibly be because Thai and US educational standards - never much to rave about, admittedly - are beginning to converge? Even in the UK, once the envy of the world for its academic excellence, thousands of university students are virtually unemployable.

Don't take my word for it. Ask the business leaders on both sides of the Pond constantly complaining about the poor quality of job applicants - or the scientists working on a new generation of robots to replace the human morons churned out by schools and colleges.

This is what happens when, in the interests of political correctness and dogma, words like failure and competition are erased from the educational lexicon - millions of young people leave so-called higher education with qualifications not worth the paper they are written on.

It's pseudo-egalitarianism of the worst kind, manifest in Thailand and coming any time soon to a Western campus near you.

Welcome to the educational New World Order.

Yep, another great idea from the team that gave you compulsory attitude training for anyone who thinks outside the politically-correct box. Who better to teach kids the virtues of non-violence than a bunch of people trained to kill with their bare hands in 12 seconds.

When did you take a stroll last time in a western city and saw "lots" of hot women? I can tell you that the myth of the "tall, blond, blue-eyed sexy woman" in Sweden i just that, a myth. Maybe it was true before i was born but not anymore. But on the other hand in Thailand i can drag my feet around any shopping centre and see quite a few very good looking women. But then again, i have a severe case of yellow fever.

The trouble with Swedish women is that even if they are slim and pretty when young they invariably grow into female versions of Mr Cube. I guess that is why there are so many Swedish men in Thailand.

Since five or six Thai guys turned up quickly to even the odds, you can bet the Chinese car driver was in a fact a local Thai-Chinese with a mobile phone. Do Thais ever fight one on one (Well, one and half on one as in this case)? Hopefully, the German bike rider's partner got the car number and we will soon read of police "rushing" to arrest somebody.

And to think I'm worrying myself sick about who will look after our pet cat while we holiday overseas. . .

For some reason, the phrase whistling in the wind comes instantly to mind.