Plus

Otop was not Thaksin's idea - he copied it off Japanese.

Implementation was all his, though.

In tourist areas they might do ok, but this kind of stuff was on sale there long before Otop, and it will be on sale long after, and they don't particularly care what it's called now. They just use the Otop name for tax purposes. Outside of the beaten track the original One Tamboon One Products can't sell shit, that's why they used to set various Otop markets and fairs aroudn the country but now they can't sell shit at those either, as most of these products are copycats. And if the government doesn't organise those fairs and promote them on national TV, they are ghost towns.

The OTOP buzz has worn off long ago, now they are surviving on their intrinsic values or whatever it's called in marketing.

I have absolutely no idea what the Otop TV channel is supposed to achieve. Thai shopping programs are not the most riveting stuff, there's a reason they put them on air only way past midnight when no one is watching.

To say that it's som kind of a "masterstroke" requires a very high degree of adulation for the person.

I've posted the same question in a couple of other birthday related threads, but here it goes again:

The attendance was very very short of "majority" of Thai voters (about 16 million), and their petition is in one-two million range.

There just aren't that many reds they believe themselves. Certainly not enough to claim some sort of a democratic mandate.

Beside that this "Petition" is deemed to fail right from the beginning,

who is going to check the genuineness of all the Signatures?

There are rules and procedures regarding pardon petitions, I don't think reds give a shit about any of that.

It's just a publicity stunt, they have no idea what are they going to do with it and who they are going to submit it to.

Running around with it making noises about being ignored will surely put some pressure on relevant authorities but I doubt their petition will make any legal progress.

Have you ever questioned why Abhisit and friends jettisoned the program so fast?

I don't know what you are talking about, visiting a big Otop store was part of my Phuket tour program just a couple of weeks ago.

They are doing rather well and I don't think they are scared of Abhisit in any way.

My source said the former NCCC did not raise their own salaries.

I don't know what your source means, they've been tried in court and found guilty.

People strat them in general because it's the only place they can - only mods can start topics in "news".

Results of the paycheck?

Right now the unemployment figures about a million lower than projected. At least in some part the money spent on buying stuff kept manufacturers in business.

Otop provides employment, too, but it should pay for its own promotions itself. Otherwise it's unsustainable.

I recon the government direct support for it runs in tens of billions of baht, and it's about time they should learn to stand on their own feet - it's been what, five years already?

This money doesn't fall from the sky, btw. It's money taken from other, productive Thai businesses and taxpayers. How long are they supposed to be robbed of their earned income that is spent on preventing Thaksin's pet project from bankrupsy instead?

Isn't it about time he should start paying his own money to promote his schemes, if they can't sustain themselves. From that point of view, I welcome his investment in Otop channel.

I've seen lots of Koo's pictures of the birthday bash. Celebrations were held all over the country.

So, how many people were there in total?

I guess well below a hundred thousand.

They've also been collecting pardon signatures nationwide for a month, and they were supposed to publicly announce the results on Sunday as well. How many have they really got? Is it really over a million? Two million? Now they target five million.

Do they ever pause and think that to claim a majority they need SIXTEEN million votes. Where are all those "majority" supporters?

>>>

Bottom line - while the numbers might fluctuate in response to Thaksin's PR campaigns, the red movement is a clear minority, and they fall out with mainstream society further and further.

I was referring to this:

"Bt1.050 million: The amount spent by the "People Missing Thaksin" club while celebrating the former leader's birthday at a restaurant on Bang Na-Trat road."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/07/28...cs_30108490.php

Try this from the Thai band Big Bang... Mee Panda (Panda Bear).

The song is two or three years old, it's not about this newborn baby.

I don't think it was a 500 baht a table fund raiser. I think someone just footed the whole bill, and that's how it got into the news.

Or maybe the owners reported total receipts for that day to the media.

Otop has many problems, all stemming from the fact that villagers were practically forced to become businessmen, without any skills or training, and with general fail rates for the first time businesses, what else was expected?

There are many established businesses that took advantage of OTOP promotions, including free advertising from the government, these businesses keep the overall sales numbers up and let Otop promoters keep a brave face, no one wants to admit the failure of their beloved Thaksin brilliant idea. Rich folks were conned by Elite card, poor folks by Otop. Some benefited, others can chalk it up for experience.

If Thaksin want to provide them with free advertising on TV - fine. If he wants to charge them for that - good luck with that.

July 16 was the date the case court started its procedings. The verdicts is scheduled for November, I believe, if everything goes according to schedule.

Is it the restaurant in Bang-Na where they spent a million baht on food on that day?

That Otop can't even be a proper shopping channel - they don't do delivery or sales over the phone.

Besides, who's going to pay for it? Are they going to attract advertising for a channel advertising other products?

Or is it benevolent Thaksin himself who'll pay all the production and broadcasting costs? That'd be nice.

It is nice to see I helped you understand the reality of OTOP 'Plus', being a small-economy program providing support for many hard working people. Nice to see you stop dumping on it as you did in other posts.

What are you taling about? What and where did I dump on Otop???

That Otop can't even be a proper shopping channel - they don't do delivery or sales over the phone.

Besides, who's going to pay for it? Are they going to attract advertising for a channel advertising other products?

Or is it benevolent Thaksin himself who'll pay all the production and broadcasting costs? That'd be nice.

Reds think that if they have a lot of people saying that white is black, it will really change color.

One or even five million signatures to support unlawful action won't make it right. The numbers are a testament to their inability to see the reality.

They seem to drift far far apart from the rest of the Thai society. Maybe Thaksin should buy them an island where they can do whatever they want.

I realize you are not to be reasoned with 'Plus',

Errrm, why? Don't have enough arguments?

I don't want to go through your posts point by point because that would veer very very far off topic.

As for Otop - let Thaksin promote those chilli pastes and coconut cakes all he wants. I'm saying no one would watch this program, that's all. It's not like Thais have never seen Otop products, they are everywhere, people buy what they want or need.

As for competition to UBC - you can't be serious. Thaksin can't get licenses to broadcast the good stuff - movies and sports. As for free to air channels - go check the relevant forum here. There are hundreds of them already with dozens of satellites. There's no money in it, no pays for them, they are not in Thai so there's no market for them here either.

Wow, a channel to promote OTOP products? HBO and ESPN are shaking in their boots.

Live broadcast from poor Thai villages is another must see. I guess sponsored by Beer Chang. Maybe Government Lottery Office, too.

Main sponsor of Thai poverty channel should be PTP party, though.

Watch out for your calorie intake when you are drinking cold beer.

Say you drink a liter of a very cold beer, and, as your body warms it up from, for example, 6 degrees © to normal body temperature - 36 degrees, it uses 1000gx30=3,000 calories.

A liter of beer itself has only about 500 calories, so you are 2,500 calories short.

A cheeseburger gives you only 300 calories, and so is a slice of pepperoni pizza.

Whatever you do - make sure you get enough food intake to go with your beer.

Cant see this happening in reality. Think it more likely that at some stage an agreement will be reached between the players in the game and then an election held after which it wont matter who wins to the players.

Can't see that happening either.

If it was all just about power sharing between the players, they would have settled it long time ago.

Now people are involved, too.

Stopped reading Bangkok Post when they swiched to the new version.

It used to have all auto/tech/news stories on one page with a clear layout, but there too many clicks all over the place to find anything now.

I liked Open Source column and Round Up, and home and international reviews were hilarious.

Wanda is a fine soldier, but I can read only so much about those registry clean ups and alternatives to notepad, and plush but tasteful offices, and Ratchada kao tom discos.

I'm actually think of getting Macbook Pro if the drop it in price before release of a new model. I guess it will be fine operating system, but the users suck big time.

This is not the whole story folks. The real "surprise" has been blocked and avoided. This English Language Media misdirection is mind-boggling. And you Farangs lap it up, taking it all at face-value - unbelievable. Where are the reports on the television channels, the primary content of the "surprise".............

From the top story on Nation's front page:

9.30 pm: It's official, again, that the "big surprise" is Thaksin's plan to set up "global TV networks" to promote Thai Otop products, broadcast reality shows about Thai poverty and possible solutions, as well as provide education programmes for Thai students.

Still pathetic.

I've had it installed once, didn't work properly.

As far as I remember it's supposed to be .net platform for Linux, not for Wine - so I can install some Windows software in Wine but if it relies on .net, Mono is of no help.

On Wine site it says .net simlpy doesn't work and hasn't been tried for several years already.

Don't remember exactly what was wrong with Mono, or even on what distro I tried it out.