EBlair48

Aren't we????

Just this morning a report of an attempted ATM robbery and a violent attack on a security guard.

So? That is 'a rash', and the numbers are up compared to previous years?

I don't have stats for you, but this is the buzz in the police community right now.

Stats not being kept, or disclosed really tells us crime is increasing, if it were down, that would be made public. Traffic fatalities and drownings are also kept a secret.

Just imagine authorities behaving in a similar way in your home countries, " No, you don't need to know anything.. revealing it makes us look bad." they would be fired and possibly indicted for dereliction.

The rich will not be held accountable, nor will the officials who profited by handing out " permits". It isn't about stopping corruption, it is about making sure only the right people profit and the poor people know their place.

I truly wish I could say more along what I really think but not landing in a martial court does weigh in. I am very very glad to have begun the process of extricating myself from this country. While it is now painful and will be a costly maneuver, financially and emotionally, I think a year from now, I will be glad I did.

^ Plenty of lazy people all over the world. Difference here- it's considered normal and to expect otherwise is unreasonable.

It is my opinion these type of amateur crimes will increase as the money runs out for the thousands put out of their beach jobs. There will also be an increase in robbery upon persons with a corresponding amount of injuries.

But it was very important to get small businesses, lounge chair touts and masseuses off the beach and get the message from the junta- we are in control of your life.

Is it that time of the year again already? Seems this story comes out once a year, maybe to get page views up here on TV .

The story has always been WILL be investigated, this one is new..there are "no complaints...." So here the law needs not be enforced because ... Well I guess land owning foreigners are considered desirable aka rich.

Gee..How many foreigners are looking over their shoulders at the Thai Company they set up to buy a house?

Or to buy land, or to start a business, etc. Could be some nervous, sweaty palms in Phuket about now.

Why? According to this report, the DSI does not consider it to be a problem. Talk about selective enforcement. Not too long ago pre military dictatorship, it was reported that ALL companies with foreign shareholders would be investigated, now, oh well no foreigners are breaking the law. What a load, check out just about ever single foreigner company that owns land and find the fake shareholders ...

And is more evidence supporting my claims the recent enforcements are all about targeting low wage Thai workers.

It has nothing to do with beach clearings.

It's seasonal. Been happening low season after low season and some years a particularly worse.

I remember about 5+ years ago when the attacks on the Kata/Rawai route was the knockdown robbery capital for a while.

I know EBlair48 is having a love affair with the beach clearings and making the whole ordeal a class war but saying crime is on the rise due to the beach clearing is a stretch.

Stretching? Well I find your view a half- marathon of denial.

You will argue the nuking of hundreds of businesses and the loss of thousands of relatively well paying jobs ( not 300 baht a day but 600- 1000 baht) on Phuket over the last 8 weeks or so will have no affect whatsoever on crime increases?

If you say Phuket has low unemployment isn't reasonable those businesses were counted in the mix. But, now that they are gone...no effect?

Even if so, if there is a glut of jobs - If you were making 2 to 3 times the minimum wage for the last several years, or even a decade as one restauranteur I know was, is it fair to ask you to now be happy with minimum wage because suddenly obscure rules, ignored for decades are enforced with a 30 day warning?

So what else is it when low income workers are targeted, but wealthy owners of encroaching resorts are not? How is it not a class war?

What is it when foreigners enjoy breaking the law with impunity regarding land ownership through nominee companies? Or taking prostitutes out of bars? Some laws enforced, other not. Seems to a bit unfair and blatantly clear to me the enforcement is ALL about class.

Can you argue the wealthy in Thailand do not truly consider themselves above lower waged citizens, even denying them their vote!!

"Let them eat sand !!"

Help ! I have a display cabinet with an old style lock that froze up and I broke the tooth part of the key inside it anyone have a suggestion as how to pick such a lock or how to retrieve the broken off part?

Actually the lock was broken before I even tried to unlock it. I think someone tried to break into the cabinet last time I was traveling and had a house sitter- as the guiding pin was no longer straight .( It worked fine the day before I left. )

After I got the pin straight, the lock was frozen. I sprayed lubricant in and I guess just put too pressure on the key, and the tooth part snapped.. I cannot see the part.

The one locksmith I can find will not touch it as he's afraid of breaking the glass.

If the glass need to be broken out so be it , it can be replaced but I will still need the lock removed and replaced.

Thanks

Or just plain ol' tired when you find yourself happy others have lost their choice !

No, just happy when the law was finally enforced, rather than when it for sale...

I might be able to get on board that sentiment, but I don't see officials being questioned in their roles. I also am not convinced some places are still operating that if the law were indeed enforced evenly, would not be.

Jet skis for one.

Anyway Laypang or North Bang-Tao is, er... was my beach of choice I like lounge chairs and big umbrellas and I drive a motorcycle so dragging a lounger, a large umbrella and a cooler with ice beverages and a lunch I will need to either fix or procure before hand just isn't doable, and then sharing it all with ants if i want to find shade under a tree, while dogs pee on my towel when I go into the water, and no fresh water shower available is, simply to me and to the two dozen tourists I have queried, no fun anymore.

Oh and no more wonderful evenings watching sunset while sipping a frozen margarita. No more campfires and quiet reggae , no more of all the things I moved close to that particular each to enjoy.

If I want nothing like so many here seem to, then aren't places like the Similians a better choice? Or wouldn't it have been better to have kept Sirinart Marine park natural instead of installing a very loud disco , then that could have been the all natural beach, although it was filthy from the mobile vendors dumping trash and the Thai picnic leavings ...

Before there was a choice now there is none and it didn't need to be that way .

^ so you agree it is related to the beach clearings?

I have personal reasons why I stay.

That bitter line is worthless. Whenever someone tries to invalidate my opinion by telling me it is based on a perceived personality flaw rather than my observations of what to me seems to be, well a coup of the rich over the poor- I know we've hit the end of the discussions.

I had read on another Phuket thread a post you made about a million dollar property you own in California USA, to me that's a sign of wealth.

Apologies if I am mistaken.

^ Why do you think the Army is responsible?

^ I hadn't noticed but good spot. I am of the opinion it is only the beginning. Do you also think it is correlated to the mass business eradication?

Welcome to the new Thailand :-(

Hmmm.

Wish there was a middle ground (no pun intended). Maybe it's time to buy a picnic hamper and cool box!

Loved camping when I was young and broke.......

I still enjoy an evening at least once or twice a week with my wife, my dog and my favorite beverage along with some food on a beach mat just down the road from my house. Much more relaxing than sitting in some bar or restaurant! I guess you are really old if you can't enjoy that!

Or just plain ol' tired when you find yourself happy others have lost their choice !

Just go to the Pullman or another business owned by the Bangkok elite. None of those have been cleared. Just ensure that you make a booking however. They are very busy now that all of their competition have been demolished with a bulldozer.

Talk about beating a dead horse!

Do cliched to death emoticons ever work to shut people up?

That horse may well be the one already out of the barn.

It doesn't say where the baby was, in the store, on the motorbike or in the car. I remember once riding with a woman who's 4 yo was standing on the front seat banging on the air bag . When I mentioned how the child could be killed in a number of ways doing this, I was told to not worry so much. Safety just doesn't really exist and I wish more tourists were made aware of this- they are like lambs to a slaughter ..

I hate dentists, had one slap me around when I was kid as I was crying too hard to keep my mouth open.

You should certainly make sure the now absent and pregnant boss knows about it. Maybe even complete the procedure for you or pay for you to go to one of the hospital clinics. If it were me I'd be typing out the complaint right now to send to the appropriate authority. Maybe the dentist had prior complaints.

Walking along Patong Beach early in the morning and having the eyesores of the Jet Ski operators tatty old plastic chairs and other assorted 1st class junk hitting the eyes is not a good look...they even chain the junk up to trees so no one can steal it...would have to an insane person to want to steal it...we have to bring our own chairs etc to the beach daily ...why cant these notorious rip off merchants do the same

Also it would be another win if they could cart the garbage collected along Beach Rd to another not quite so public place as the beach end of Bangla Rd before they spread it out before sorting it

Maybe old habits die hard or maybe it is just a little education

Right compete thugs who did more to damage the 'ol precious reputation of Thailand more so than any other group. Complete rip off artists, yet allowed to continue and even stake natty claims to trees. What a load of BS !!.

The clean up will not be complete until the jet ski thugs are totally out of the picture. They should not be able to even talk to the public. There is nothing but contempt for the law on their part and their actions over the last few years has been totally disgraceful. If this issue is not put to rest for once and for all, respect for our new PM will go out the window.

General ... PM this is a task that only you can resolve, just do it and gain everyone's respect. This is the worst of the worst !!!

I haven't quite figured that one out yet, nor the three taxi stands still operating near me , one with a satellite dish and sofas.

What do Jet ski operators at Patong have over the Army that has allowed them immunity from recent crackdowns. It is a very interesting question

I really love the way how the Authorites work with people and try very hard to keep calm.

I learnt from my Thai family that some (if not most) of these squatters already had other business and substantial well located business's just up the street from the beach.

So if that were true then these guys saying they lost their jobs and such as a result of the cleanup are not being straight ahead.

The game goes on.

Regards

I learned from the 30 or so I asked on Bang Tao the last few days - no money, no job, no happy.

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Love the bit about the lawyers.

“Business owners alone will be allowed to talk with officers. If lawyers try to represent them, we will remove them,” he added.

Says it all

I don't know of any 'poor' business-owners at NY beach. Everyone that I know who owns a business there drives the latest car and lives on a private estate...

The only poor guy is the nice guy who drives the samlor taxi - don't think he has any business premises.

Anyway, after the demolition of many businesses, if these 2 poor men are allowed to keep their business premises, then I guess they will become very rich men in the near future....

sure they aren't in debt? Could be a used car glut soon.

After the Generals return to barracks in a year or two business will be back to usual, sadly.

Sadly I expect you are correct.

To me this takeover of the government has been in the planning for quite a while. I doubt they are going to allow it to go back to "business as usual." I should end it there as I don't want TV or myself in any trouble with the rather draconian laws here that limit free speech about certain persons… With that said, I don't personally know of any Thai that is against it. All my family and friends are very happy with what has happened here in Thailand.

You have mentioned you are wealthy Is it fair to assume your wife and friends did not lose jobs ? And there is also the law about not critisizing the actions of the army do you think the average Thai is cowed by that? Rather like a blanket Lese Majeste it seems

Note to the working girls....STAY AWAY FROM MEN FROM THOSE 4 COUNTRIES ask to see a passport before tou lay them or they might be laying u out 4 good.... just a thought.

You do not want to be touching their property and you do not want to be holding conversations and inhaling any moisture coming from them either.

Please stop reporting such bullshit . Controls are essential ,however, confidence in Thai controls is a horse of a very different color.

Yeah chloros, the pale green horse - morbidity

First mistake : with signs asking them to identify themselves to us.

We are currently having a rash of burglaries, motorbike knock-down robberies, bag and phone snatchings, probably due to all the unemployed beach workers. It's probably due to that.

Where are you at? I'm not seeing an increase from English language media reports, of course they may well be asked not to report it either and these kind of statistics will evaporate as did traffic fatalities and drownings.

Let's hope phase two is the actual clean up of the beaches which the vendors neglected to even consider. Plenty of army chaps needing experience of cleaning up rubble and trash, than phase three, hire the vendors to keep the beaches clean on a daily basis.

Brings up a good question; where is the money coming from to pay pay for all these extra troop deployments. Where are they staying ? And ditto paying vendors Hundreds of businesses destroyed, thousands of workers no longer paid, no longer buying and the goods that were taxed, like liquor -are no longer. Should I trust the junta to have thought of all this?

Not likely.

Walking along Patong Beach early in the morning and having the eyesores of the Jet Ski operators tatty old plastic chairs and other assorted 1st class junk hitting the eyes is not a good look...they even chain the junk up to trees so no one can steal it...would have to an insane person to want to steal it...we have to bring our own chairs etc to the beach daily ...why cant these notorious rip off merchants do the same

Also it would be another win if they could cart the garbage collected along Beach Rd to another not quite so public place as the beach end of Bangla Rd before they spread it out before sorting it

Maybe old habits die hard or maybe it is just a little education

Right compete thugs who did more to damage the 'ol precious reputation of Thailand more so than any other group. Complete rip off artists, yet allowed to continue and even stake natty claims to trees. What a load of BS !!.