Dogmatix

It's obvious that the 200,000 who already registered with touch and go will be less infectious when they arrive than those who haven't and that the large numbers of fEuropean and American omicron carriers are more better than the relatively small numbers of African carriers who are banned completely. What brilliant clear thinking and planning by the Thai government.

The crazy thing is that they banned arrivals from Southern African countries due to omicron while allowing arrivals without quarantine from the UK which has far more omicron cases. A case of racism combined with greed, as tourism from Southern Afica is insignificant. Omicron will take off in Thailand after the New Year for sure.

By letting in travellers from the UK and other countries where omicron is now widespread without full quarantine, they are pretty much guaranteeing they will be heading back to 20k cases a day and lockdowns by the end of January. It seems crazy to block travellers from African countries which have far less omicron cases than the UK but I guess it is, as always with Thais, all about the money.

Omicron is coming on daily unquarantined flights from the UK. Cases will be back up to 20k in no time.

Good timing with Omicron starting to spread in Thailand. Great idea to ban African travellers while allowing travellers from the UK with 90k+ cases a day and Omicron already the dominant strain in London. Thailand will masks everywhere and lock downs by the end of January.

A friend retired after 20 years working in Thailand and bought an elite card to avoid the hassles of retirement or marriage extensions. One unexpected downside he found is that he can no longer get 5 year driving licences because the elite card 5 year visa is a fudge, i.e. a series of automatic 90 day extensions. Thai immigration law doesn't allow more than 2 year visas and the elite card was originally intended for frequent visitors based outside Thailand. I think that is a good example of how they screw up by taking short cuts and being unwiling to do the job properly by amending laws. Their culture is very much form over substance. Just make things sound good on the surface and they can attract stupid farangs to give them a lot of money before they find out they have been ripped off. Not much different from Thai bar girls.

All childish nonsense as usual conceived by born rich Chinese Thais who live totally divorced from reality and and have no idea what makes foreign tourists and ordiniary Thais tick.

They put him in Thong Pa Phum prison so it will convenient for the widowed mate of the panther he murdered to come and visit him.

The applicable law relating to foreign ownership of land is the 1954 Land Code which has a detailed section on the rights of foreigners to buy land under the bilateral treaties that Thailand had with major Western countries, Japan and Indonesia at the time. Since every one of those treaties was revoked by the mid 1970s, none of the original provisions for foreigners to buy land still applies. Foreign entities that bought land while the treaties were still in force were allowed to retain it. There used to be quite a few foreign entities owning land on this basis, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, East Asiatic Company and the British Embassy but nearly all have sold their land. The only one I know of today is the British Club in Silom Road. There is a clause added in 1999 that allows foreigners to buy a rai of residential land by permission of the minister under certain stringent conditions that had become impossible by the time the ministerial regulations pursuant to the amendment were issued because none of the qualifying investments were available any more. This redundant provision doesn't require PR. Since there is no law that provides for PRs under the investment category to buy land in their own names, I don't believe this has been done. If there were a law to this effect, I am that it would have attracted a fair bit of interest.

Others who applied recently probably have more up-to-date info but, as far as I know there is externally published guideline for minimum salaries for PR. However, they obviously have some undisclosed internal guidelines and historically we were given to belief at least 80k was required but 100k+ to be safe. I have never heard of a lower salary hurdle for those married to Thais but, of course, the fees are discounted for those with a Thai spouse, if you are successful.

The Israelis are always happy to supply this type of technology to Thailand and other non-Muslim countries.

Having PR protects you from rule changes which are a particular problem for retirees. So, if you plan to retire in Thailand, that is helpful. It is good for people with their own small businesses because Immigration gives them a lot more grief than people working for large companies. If you are not married to a Thai, PR is the only route to Thai citizenship. For someone working for a large company who doesn't plan to retire in Thailand and is not interested in citizenship, I can see the attractions are more limited.

No.

The British Embassy stopped offering this service many years ago. You have to get copies of your certificates certified by a solicitor or notary public in the UK, then legalised by the Thai Embassy in London. Then you can get a Thai translation done and have it legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Consular Section here. MoFA will only legalise translations if the copy has been certified by the local embassy in Thailand or by the Thai embassy in the country of origin. Since the British Embassy is a dead loss, the only option open is the Thai Embassy in London.

The Americans built the Sattahip naval port along with the nearby Utapao airport and airports in Korat, Udon and Ubon. I am sure hte Chinese would be very happy with all of them. The Taliban are very pleased with all the military bases builty by the Americans along with all the modern weaponry donated.

Omicron is on the way to spike those charts up again.

Germany should be on the red list anyway due the uncontrolled outbreaks there, much worse than anything that happened there last year, despire abundance of vaccines.Now it is classified as low risk by the Thais who only think about the euros well heeled German tourists are going to dump on them, not the germs they will bring.

It doesn't matter under Thai law if they actually intended to kill him. They tortured him in such a way that they knew there was a good chance they would kill him which makes them guilty of premeditated murder. It is not much different from playing Russian roulette on him with a revolver that has some empty chambers. In that case they couldn't argue that they didn't intend to kill him because they intended that the hammer should fall on one of the empty chambers. And murder through torture carries a mandatory death sentence in Thailand.

Of course the plods don't want legal casinos to take away the billions they make from illegal casinos. If they actually tried to prevent gambling, their view might be taken more seriously.

First of all, I hope Thaksin has prepared a room in the Dubai mansion for this daughter, in case she ends up following in her father's and aunt's footsteps. I guess Thaksin had to pass over his son, Oak. Too much of an airhead and too much baggage. Even though Thaksin controversially managed to get the Krung Thai Bank money laundering case against Oak dropped, it would be constantly brought up by political opponents. It was also widely rumoured that Oak was the reason that Thaksin waged the murderous war against drugs that allowed police to murder rival drug dealers as well as a lot of innocents including old ladies and young kids. People claimed he wanted to make drugs unavailable to Oak. Finally Oak is not a family man which also makes him vulnerable to aspersions. This daughter has some baggage too which opponents will make use of. Someone at the Ministry of Education was allegedly ordered by Thaksin to get the questions out of the safe for the university entrance exams and make copies for the girl's tutor. So she got into Chula despite not being terribly bright. There was a lot of fuss made by parents of kids who applied for the same course and were rejected as the scandal came out at the time. The other daughter I think didn't go to university at all but did a one year diploma in something undemanding at a technical college in South London. Then, if I recall correctly, there was a scandal because the parents put some income in her name for that year to avoid Thai tax but she wasn't out of the country long enough to get out of the Thai tax net, even though the Revenue Dept gave her the benefit of the doubt. They seem all to be intellectually fairly dumb. It seems to have pros and cons for PT. For the older faithful rural supporters it cements the image that Thaksin is still the owner of the party and will support it financially. It might bring some younger voters who are too young to remember Thaksin's leadership. On the other hand it is likely to put off middle class voters who would vote for PT, if it represented a forward looking ideological political platform that resonates, rather than merely a backward looking Thaksin owned vehicle whose sole purpose is to bring Thaksin back and will do any deal with anyone to achieve that. I can see it makes absolute sense to Thaksin, as he only cares about coming back and getting his confiscated money back. He doesn't give a toss about Thai people and is even prepared to sacrifice his close family members, if he feels risking their freedom or ability to stay in Thailand might help him get back.

I ordered with great difficulty back in June Moderna boosters for 4 people including myself and full courses for 3 more unvaccinated people from Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital. I was impressed to hear that the 3 unvaccinated ones were contacted by the hospital to make appointments for their first shots next week. I would think there would be a lot of influence wielders demanding 3rd and 4th shots ahead of the queue. Well done Samitivej!

He needs to appear to be doing something this time in order to call for an early election next year.

The corruption income generated to senior police and military is too much to stop this trade. Prayut could easily do this by knocking heads hard like the old dictator Sarit but consequences are too scary for him and Prawit to contemplate. Lip pservice is the safest way.

I wonder what the third shot will be like for kids.

“Paddy the Room” trading company. ????