soalbundy

I'm referring to life in the present era, not to outliers in the past. Democracy doesn't really exist anyway, for that you would need a community of less than 5,000 people who could vote on every major decision, even the ancient Greeks didn't achieve that. Power belongs to those who control the means of production and the flow of money and they are the powers behind the throne, Liz Truss found that out rather quickly. If any one party or council ever produced results that were satisfactory to the vast majority of the population they would be in power for multiple decades. The day to day running of the country, any country, lies in the hands of the unelected civil service ('yes minister' is apparently a realistic view of government). It was Churchill, who though agreeing that 'democracy' was the best sorry choice of method of government, said (I paraphrase) " One could be led to dismiss democracy when speaking with the average voter" (look at the support that Trump has in the USA). So no, in this era it doesn't matter which party is in power, nothing fundamentally changes for the average person.

Mistake 1. was agreeing to a meeting with the husband, in what world was this going to end peacefully, if you must bonk another man's wife keep it secret.....rarely works though.

Nobody crosses William Tell and gets away with it. She is doing the right thing, some branches of the police only move when threatened with publicity or a lawyer, I imagine action will now be taken.

A first!

weeping is an exaggeration, life isn't a game that promotes fairness especially in politics. Life goes on no matter who is in power, the average Thai isn't going to be affected one way or another just because MFP gets to steer the helm, corruption will continue, mistakes will be made and the reality of give and take in the halls of power will ensure that for Mr. Somchai the status quo will be alive and well. Nobody ever found El Dorado.

He's not even Indian.

I wish I could give a $hit

I've been wrong about more important things before.

An early arrival. It knows something we don't.

She was stuck IN the lift at the 58th floor, it went there without her selecting it.

Blessed are the cheese makers

Might influence the TAT though as well as who is going to pay.

The market, the real economy, will decide the rate cuts, the FED can only respond. The FED has caused credit tightening to such an extent that money is in short supply in a debt based economy which means low demand for goods and debt delinquency, the result will be high unemployment. The FED will cut drastically, possibly to zero again, but due to the lag effect it wont help, too high for too long will cause the FED's reaction to be too little too late, even negative rates won't help, a world synchronized economic crisis is on the horizon which is what the inverted yield curves are prophesying.

Yeah, lower the price of ecstasy.

I think most expats would be of your opinion and yet many would willingly slip 300 Baht under a policeman's clip board (try doing that in the West) and I have seen many a falang jump into his car after 3 or 4 large beers, not obviously drunk but over the limit but they obviously drive better than the Thais and are more responsible, one of my acquaintances managed to kill himself by driving his motorbike in to the wall of his own house while drunk.

Once you accept 'it is as it is' life becomes so much simpler. In the West life is almost antiseptic, take the ULEZ (ultra low emission zones) in the UK, 20 mph maximum and the myriad of fines that can be given out for the most minor of transgressions and yet there are still 346 road accidents daily, in 2022 there were 1,711 fatalities, and 135,480 casualties of all severity. This is low compared to the 20,000 fatalities per year in Thailand but accidents still happen and no matter how hard the police control traffic they will continue to happen, how severe do you want the controls to be? My opinion is that there is too much in the UK and far too little in Thailand, there should be a happy medium somewhere without being too draconian. You can't wrap people up in cotton wool, life entails risk which should and can be somewhat minimized, the Thais don't quite see it that way, perhaps that is why life here is so much more vibrant than in the UK.

That's enough 'wai' now kiss my ring.

It's just a 'thank you'

God?

You would have trouble getting a doctors appointment on the NHS if you lived in the UK let alone living abroad, as for a dentist appointment forget it.

Where can they be found, asking for a friend who wishes to judge for himself.

What is a 'bad foreigner', presumably someone involved in illegal activities, in which case that would involve normal police work so why the need for a grand meeting?

No need for conspiracy theories, nutters abound everywhere, in the West anyone in the public eye is open to death threats from someone who feels his ideals have been slighted.

There is no country where corruption doesn't exist, in the West they have legal names for it, Lobbyist for example, or large party Donater. In Thailand there is no need for such obfuscation, corruption is often open and transparent, answered with a silent smile, a dismissive wave of the hand, the ease of being. In the West when 'they' are found out they resign, only to resurface later in a different post, the pack looks after its own. Asia is vibrant and interesting, I personally like it the way it is. Let us be honest, who among us is so pure that he wouldn't take advantage of a position of power, mice protesting about the rats consuming more cheese than they can.

During my 18 years here I've never been stopped and been asked to show my passport so I think the risk of that happening is low.