jamhar

*sigh*

So why did i work so hard and spend all that time in engineering school?

Charging 25 million tourists a couple of thousand baht each when they arrive at the airport will probably cover it.

A change in visa cost like that would probably be reciprocated by other nations on Thai travel abroad.

Also a drop in the number of visitors to Thailand because of the visa entry costs, (5%?, 10%?)

would quickly negate any benefit from the increased visa tax.

I would strongly suggest a cost/benefit impact study prior to any action like this

but hey, its your country, knock your self out.

For me, there's always Cambodia ,Vietnam, ect. as an option

Another Meth Bust Storyl

Another day, another meth bust story

So many lives being destroyed

One thing bothers me about this story, (yes only one).

How did he end up wandering the airport for first 4 days!?

I think he became indignant when informed that he could not catch his final connection to the US.

and voiced is opinion to the Thai staff in an very "UnThai" like manor.

At which point he lost the assistance of the Thai staff, and he was on his own.

Given that he was a med student, with parents living in California, and had the means to take a year off to go find himself

I'm thinking that his parents are doing well enough to have put him in a bangkok hotel if necessary.

And get him council to help resolve the issues. That seem the prudent way of resolving the issue.

At least that's what i would have done, if it was my son in that situation.

But that didnt happen. He ended up wandering the airport for 4 days.

So the wandering seems to have been self inflicted.

He CHOSE to self wander, instead of getting temporary visa, and a cheap hotel

that's the way I see it.

Then when the State Department official came to help him or ask questions,

he chose again to not answer any questions. (if you want council, get one dammit)

So, at that point what can the state department official do,

other than to go back and see if he could figure out what the xxxx was going on.

And with the US being a half a day time zones away,

any correspondence asking for clarification would have a 24 hour reply cycle at the quickest.

And this uncooperative numbnutt didnt seem to be a priority, nor the only responsibility for the US officials in bkk

And so what happened, happened.

I did notice when questioned by the customs officials once finally arriving in the US,

There was no note made whether he had a council present during the questioning or not.

Is this guy a threat? After the fiasco he unleashed on himself, probably not. He's too visible now, for anything other than a decoy.

At least the Boston brothers had the smarts to blend into the surroundings.

OK a second thing puzzles me,

How did a numbnut like this get into a US medschool?

He refused to speak without a lawyer. So the determination of his status, (citizenship, ect) had to be verified. Without verification, there is no requirement to allow entry into a country.

If I walked up to any US boarder entry, and was asked questions by the boarder police, or immigration official, and i refused to answer any questions without a lawyer, I would expect to be denied entry, until my lawyer arrived, or they could verify my status independently.

I've heard that term before, but I can't remember where. Do you know the origins ?

LOL

The Citizen should have been allowed to return to his country and sort out any issues there.

http://www.un.org/en...index.shtml#a13

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 13.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

He was allowed to return, just not with out checks and resulting delay.

If you cooperate, the checks can occur quickly

If you want to exercise your rights to not cooperate

you get what you get.

More recent numbers on medical tourist to thailand

I'd like to see data one way or another. I have yet to see ANY data regarding the number of farangs in government hospitals, nor data on farangs traveling for hospital care in TL.

Edit

1.6M foreigners treated Thai hospitals each year

500K (est) to be medical tourists

Still data mining..............

Immigration is an interesting subject. What affect will it have on the processing of refugees and the detention centers?

Exactly my thought. I seem to recall the past government promoting the "give us your tired, your hungry......" approach to refugees. I personally thought it was a mistake at the time. This isn't the 1900's.

I seem to recall that 1.3 tons of crystal has be confiscated over the past year,

so if my memory is correct, the 3 kilos are a drop in the bucket.

And could have very well been a decoy.

I guess a group hug is out of the question, huh?

So does this new government mean a change in the immigration policy for Oz?

I know Americans almost universally view Australia and Australians favorably, however, that positive attitude isn't always returned, at least based on a lot of my experience with Aussies in Thailand. I was quite surprised by this negativity and remain perplexed by it.

I have to agree somewhat P. I have met some Aussies here there seemed, lets say confrontational, towards Americans and the US. And in the few times I've seen it or heard it, I try to step in and remind everyone that our history is long and connections are deep.

I have 2 groups of data on Aussies, the ones I met in the US. (quite a few actually) and the ones i met here in TL. In the US, its a universal hug fest. Here in TL, I would say maybe 1 in 4 Aussies i meet are US confrontational. (not hostile, but just confrontational) but i just roll with it. After several beers i generally win them back over . Maybe its the rowdiness of the bunch in general that comes to TL.

I'll ask the next rowdy Aussie about it and see what I can get It will be a good excuse for another beer

.....

As a political junkie I look forward to this campaign for the sake of it. I generally favor Labor in most instances abroad although they tend to be less than charming towards the US than the Conservative or Liberal parties abroad. Gordon Brown was awful towards the United States but John Howard was off the deep end as another of Bush's lapdogs, I think it's fair to say. I recall survey polling in OZ during Bush's presidency that said Aussies thought Howard's government followed the US too closely in foreign policy. Gilllard however was very cooperative and supportive of Prez Obama's "rebalancing" to the Indo-Pacific geostrategic area. So it's rarely a case of black or white.

Australia is obliged to support the US as it is reliant on the US for strategic defense, intelligence sharing, protection of sea lanes for commerce etc

Hopefully its more of a mutual interests, than an obligation.

It may not mean too much to the people of Oz, but as an american, i can tell you that there's a genuine feeling of connection between the people of US (at least myself, my friends, and colleagues) and the people of Oz.

I've said it before, its a small fraternity. Only a handful of country's get that almost family like treatment from the US public. And we get the sense the feelings are mutual..

So yes hopefully its more of a mutual interest and not a one sided, obligation.,,,,,

of course their is mutual interest, but the bottom line is that Australia needed a strong defense posture when the UK pulled out of Asia after WW11, look up SEATO and the ANZUS treaty. However, obligation is a strong component e.g. if Oz had followed the NZ government decision to ban nuclear armed US warships from it's ports and waters or ordered the removal of Pine Gap (on the cards at one time) you still believe the US would have had a warm and friendly relationship with Australia

Americans have the same feeling towards the Kiwi's still, so yes, I think we would have.

But as the Philippians have found out, its easy to be idealistic until reality hits you in the face.

Luckily we didn't have to face that situation with Oz.

Listen WE don't like our government sometimes. But we try to work it out, and if not, we stick with it a little longer. We try to make the situation work, and after that, we VOTE THE BUM OUT. just as you do.

Also in defense of our mutual friends in the north Atlantic, They didn't abandon anyone. You know quite well after years of being bombed, the country needed to rebuild. There was nothing left in the tank. The US had the resources in the Pacific, so we stepped in to help those who stood with us, when it wasn't easy to do so, along with anyone else that needed it.

It would be easy to agree that its just the people between us that ties us together. But that would be a cop-out. We (the fraternity) make tough decisions when its not politically advantageous to do so. Like allowing the nukes save harbor, when it was the politically fashionable thing to do to say no to all nukes. But it wouldn't have been the right decision in my opinion. You stuck it out. Thats what we do.

Thats what binds our nations together. Not the lifting of beers in good times, hell I can do that with GW Bush! But its having each others backs when its not popular to do so. You hold that line when you're taking a beating politically, because its the right thing to do. Its supporting each other during the harshest of times that binds us.

I'm going to stop before someone starts singing kumbaya and asks for a group hug Plus after my proofread, I think i covered just about the maximum number of cliches possible! I'm out.

I just wanted to point out, that its mutual respect that binds us, not some perceived obligations.

This is interesting.

Is there or has there been any other PM who appointed themselves Ministry of Defense? I dont recall ever hearing anything like that before.

.....

As a political junkie I look forward to this campaign for the sake of it. I generally favor Labor in most instances abroad although they tend to be less than charming towards the US than the Conservative or Liberal parties abroad. Gordon Brown was awful towards the United States but John Howard was off the deep end as another of Bush's lapdogs, I think it's fair to say. I recall survey polling in OZ during Bush's presidency that said Aussies thought Howard's government followed the US too closely in foreign policy. Gilllard however was very cooperative and supportive of Prez Obama's "rebalancing" to the Indo-Pacific geostrategic area. So it's rarely a case of black or white.

Australia is obliged to support the US as it is reliant on the US for strategic defense, intelligence sharing, protection of sea lanes for commerce etc

Hopefully its more of a mutual interests, than an obligation.

It may not mean too much to the people of Oz, but as an american, i can tell you that there's a genuine feeling of connection between the people of US (at least myself, my friends, and colleagues) and the people of Oz.

I've said it before, its a small fraternity. Only a handful of country's get that almost family like treatment from the US public. And we get the sense the feelings are mutual..

So yes hopefully its more of a mutual interest and not a one sided, obligation.,,,,,

2.9% of the population addicted

1.7% of the population went thru rehab in ONE YEAR

YIKES!

If the numbers are true (please say no )

Then we have a train wreck in the makings

In a under developed country

with insufficient LE to enforce the illicit drug demand, supply, distribution or importation sides

and a government with corruptions issues

...

This cannot end well.

and the niger-ian man, .......

Am i reading this right?

Does anyone know where "downwind" of the incinerator is?

what ever he was on,

I want some!!

Personally, i'm a purist

I like my women, naturally female.

But hey, to each is own.

One funny story from Cambodia

At Angkorwat, i got talked into going to a ladyboy show

(It was part of a tour)

And a couple of them looked pretty cute

After the show, we were leaving the auditorium.

To my surprise we had to run the gauntlet of the ladyboys from the show

most of the other guys on the tour bus made it out unscathed

but I made the mistake of making eye contact with the one i thought "could be cute"

Well I got pull over, talked into a photo, and bla bla bla

I thought i was just being open minded, but then they asked for tips

I made my mistake #2 and pulled out my mini wad of cash

( the mini wad is the one i pull out for purchases, not too much)

Well it was like a feeding frenzy, the ladyboys all jumped in and in under a second (maybe a slight exaggeration)

My hands were empty! The cash was all gone.

When i got to the tour bus, the other guys were just laughing at me.

"better you than me bro" was the general comment i got.

Lessons learned. Be VERY alert around ladyboys!

lol dont try F430

They are not listening.

Let them believe what they want to believe.

Being on a no fly list for an American trying to return home from a far off place like Thailand is different than a no fly list for a domestic U.S. flight. There, you can just drive or take a bus.

How do you get to the U.S. from Thailand without flying? The U.S. government if they are going to deny such boardings in Thailand needs to provide a way for citizens to get home, even if that means to jail or Gitmo.

Agreed JT

But the point is that in this age and time, there are security risks associated with flying.

If you cooperate with the security people things normally go smoothly

If you decide not to cooperate, be ready to find some other means home.

This is true for domestic AND international flights.

"The U.S. government if they are going to deny such boardings in Thailand needs to provide a way for citizens to get home, even if that means to jail or Gitmo. "

The individual decided not to cooperate. He needs to take responsibility. He should have called his lawyer (he said "not without a lawyer" correct? The dude needs to man up. He brought it on himself. He wanted to take a hard stand, And he paid for it. He got what he wanted.

I bet no other person on that flight objected.

just my 2 cents

Wahoo! its officially a pissing contest!

Reading all the posts here from Americans defending "their way", makes me proud to be European!

Proud of???

Edit

animatic

Why would a med student, taking a year off, visiting Pakistan and Indonesia, joining a "conservative" Islam mission, draw suspicion?

I saw no reference to his taking a year off to go to Pakistan and Indonesia,

only Thailand is mentioned in the article.

"Motiwala, whose parents are of Pakistani origin, was not told why he might be on the list. A likely possibility, however, is his contact with Tablighi Jamaat, a conservative Muslim missionary movement based in South Asia.

He took leave from medical school last year, traveled to Pakistan to visit relatives and went on to Indonesia to work with the group, whose members go around the world proselytizing for Islam."

Seattle Times Article