Dogmatix

I think Mr Rak is in for more serious trouble, when and if they find him. Other Thai media reported that people found that none of the firearms were registered and therefore possession of the ammo is also illegal. This is quite serious even if threatening a tourist may not be. Apparently they also found a swordstick which is also an illegal weapon.

Only 180 charges to foreigners when there are hundreds of thousands there? How Thais charged?

Bhumjai Thai is also set to do well in the election and increase its seats. Althtough their power base is in the NE, especially Buriram and Srisaket, they have been aggressively targeting the South, particularly Democrat held seats there, which explains why the Dems did a volte face and torpedoed the second reading of the Cannabis Bill after supporting the first one. Although Anutin is a venal individual and messed up big time over vaccines, cannabis afficionados have to hope his party does well enough to be in the next government and for Anutin to get the public health ministry again. Closing all this shops and businesses would create a huge backlash but Thaksin wouldn't care, if he got enough power after the election. He would present himself as the saviour of the nation's youth as he did in his murderous war on drugs which left many children and youths dead or orphaned, as police went on a killing spree to protect the drug dealing networks they sponsor and eliminate competition, as well as drive up the price. Police and police affiliated dope dealers ae hurting fro the legalisation of cannabis. Prices of their yaabaa have plummeted as users switch to a legal and readily available alternative. Also bribe money from shaking down cannabis dealers has dropped to zero. Thaksin is always supportive of police gangster networks He is also still out for revenge against drug deealers in general for supplying his son.

Was walking around Sukhumvit Soi 11 and 13 yesterday morning and the proliferation of weed shops is impressive. No need for the mobile shops at all any more but there will big losses of investments, if the next government decides to ban it again, as threatened by Thaksin. Let's hope his daughter doesn't become PM after the election, although the military will send her off to join daddy and aunty Yingluck, if she gets too uppity.

Subject to the same measures against smoking tobacco in public under the Public Health Act, not in restaurants, bars, shopping malls or anywhere it may cause a nuisance to others. Most regular bars and restaurants don't allow customers to smoke cannabis in their outside areas. But places like Soi Cowboy and othe girly bar areas have no problem with customers lighting up at their outside tables. Pop along for a drink and a smoke even if you have no interest in the girls.

This is an advertorial for cosmetic surgery clinics.

Probably didn't know about that one. But indeed the US exercises a double standard in demanding extradition for one hit and run driver, while refusing to extradite another one.

This means negotiations are ongoing. Otherwise just swoop down and arrest them after making vague statements like we are doing our best to find out who they are.

Can't wait!

The first part already happens. Applicants for a Por 3 license to acquire a firearm are fingerprinted and checked for criminal records. The other stuff doesn’t happen and cannot easily be made to work effectively in Thailand due to corruption. Indeed some applicants with multiple licenses already have been asked to photographs of how they store their weapons. But these were only people who applied themselves, rather than through an agent or gunshop, and omitted to pay the express fee. Thaksin’s minister of the interior Sanan, a man noted for his high level of corruption, took the Bkk gun licensing from the police as he said there was too much corruption. He moved it under his personal control at the ministry in a department that was oddly set up for hotel licensing. Unsurprisingly the corruption continued unabated at the new hotel licensing office which later dropped the hotel business.

Cabinet approved bill just before PM dissolved parliament. So no way for bill to go any further. Just like the last one that was shelved before the last election. This must be just an election campaign statement.

No. It’s term is 5 years designed to allow it to vote in two PMs.

Poorly written article. There is no time to pass any new laws anyway, as Parliament will be dissolved any day now. So it will up to the new government. The last bill to amend the Firearms Act got shelved by the coup government which had absolute power with no parliament. Not how this bill is different from the one shelved by the first Prayut government but I think that one also had the 180 day amnesty for illegal guns and ammo. So it is probably cut and pasted from that. In that case it is not a response to recent shootings which were mainly done by police and soldiers. I am sure the bill does nothing to restrict their gun ownership.

I filled up the the blue book in a couple of years and had several white books. Once I presented the white book to UK customs when they demanded evidence I really lived overseas to get a largish VAT rebate on an auction commission. The officer demanded to know why it was only a duplicate residence book as stated on the cover and asked to see the real one, not that much of it was comprehensible to her. In the end they refused to give the VAT rebate anyway.

My first tabien baan after I got PR was very difficult to get and took months. Then the owner of the apartment building refused to let me have a copy of the book. The solution to this problem was to go to the district office and get an official certified print out confirming that I was registered at that address. These certified copies are accepted as evidence of tabien baan everywhere but are only valid for three months. So I had to keep going back to the district office to get a new one. I later found out that you can get them at any district office. I was very happy to get my own tabien baan eventually and stop having to keep on getting a new certified ccopy. The yellow tabien baan has been around for a long time but was originally issued mainly to stateless people. It was only commonly available to expats after they amended the law in 2008 to require district offices to issue them to all foreign residents.

A friend is applying for citizenship and asked me about an interview required at the local police station he found mentioned on the Thai citizenship website. I have never heard of this. Does anyone know anything about this?

You definitely have to resolve this issue. If you can't find any Thai (or foreigner with PR) willing to put you in his TB, then you must buy a condo of your own somewhere in the Kingdom.

I hope they put this in the new ministerial regulations - required a selfie of candidate standing outside his or her embassy. if parliament had wanted this affidavit thing, wouldn’t they have included it when they last amended the law in 2008 and 2010? Seems to be over reach by bureaucrats.

It was inevitable that Western embassies would want to disentangle themselves from this nonsense after the MOI started trying to put pressure on them to follow up and revoke the citizenships after receiving the letters of confirmation of Thai citizenship. But countries that are an anally retentive about dual citizenship, eg Germany, Singapore, China, India etc, must be more than happy to comply. They account for a large percentage of applicants.

555. I met a girl in a bar in Bangkok many years ago. She was living in Germany with her German husband and had persuaded him she need a few months holiday to look after her sick mother. Nothing wrong with her mum and she couldn't stand more than a few days in the village. So she came to Bkk to have fun and make extra pocket money. She wrote hubby a letter every few days and mailed the letter inside another envevlope to her family in the village who would mail the letter to Germany with the local postmark. We had a great laugh about her little subterfuge while chatting in bed together. She also told me she would visit a Thai friend who was married to another German in a nearby town and stay for a few days. This was a larger town with a lot of night life and she and her friend would perform with guys on stage in a local sex club which she really enjoyed doing being a bit of an exhibitionist. I think this story is not at all unusual.

Before the 1996 prostitution law came in that restricted the prostitution age to 18 or older, police were busy arresting tourists they had set up with hookers claimed to be under 18. The tourists were shaken down for cash, even though the law was still under discussion and sex with a minor under the age of 15 (statutory raewas the only underage offense on the books. In fact there have been very few prostitution cases prosecuted to do with minors under 18 but over 15 because the hirers just paid them more not to testify. I wonder how this new law will change that.

bho definitely an extract.

Probably just an ID glitch then.

Yes, definitely a Thai ID card, not a pink card as laser number on back is required. And yes, it does work for a Thai ID card. Search function for unpaid fines only goes back to March 2022. So presume they are not going to try to collect those. Pity I started paying them a couple of years back in anticipation of this system.

A 1st world passport is a nice thing to have in your back pocket, even if you don't feel an imminent need for it.