bkkstooge

To bkkstooge, #24

Yes, some of the Vietnamese don't like China (even though a lot of them have Chinese ancestry, these are people who are basically a load of Chinese living in Vietnam) but Vietnam is a country that is becoming more and more economically linked to China.

The recent destruction of Chinese factories in Vietnam, due to the oil rig incident. Well, there was also property owned by Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singaporean companies that were threatened or attacked. And bizzarely enough, a number of JAPANESE companies were also attacked. Some people do feel, that the violence was a little bit to do with Vietnamese people disliking their country being dominated and influenced by the large foreign-owned factories. Yes, Vietnam is already reliant on China in an economic way.

There was speculation on yahoo news, that Vietnamese exiles in the USA (these groups hate the existing Hanoi government) helped orchestrate and inflame the riots. These Vietnamese exiles (similar to the Cuban exiles in Florida) want to destabilize the present Vietnamese government.

Hello Tonbridge

We're pretty much on the same chapter if not the same page here mate so I really don't want to inflame you or anyone else here. You're right to an extent that the Vietnamese are just Chinese living in Vietnam although you could use the same comparison and say that the English are just French living in England. They don't really dislike foreigners perse including the Chinese but for obvious reasons they have a strong distrust of large foreign corporations and most certainly foreign Governments. I worked for the Japanese Canon company at if memory serves 3 of their locations around Hanoi and the VN workers where to say the least militant (In much the same way Unions, shop stewards, closed shops etc.. were in the U.K in the 70s) always confronting Management, a few strikes unwillingness to go along with "motivational after working hours sessions" which from what I could tell was nothing more that shouting out the name of Canon's CEO and the name of the company then punching the air, can't say I blamed them for that. The VN community in the states well their heading towards 3rd even 4th generations now and the North Vietnamese really couldn't care less about them and as for destabilizing the Govt in Hanoi NAARRR sorry Tonbridge not buying that one. Which brings me to America and again the most surprising thing about the North VN people is they are NOT full of animosity towards Americans older generations and younger likewise, and I for one would think it a very very cool thing if The States and Vietnam could put the past behind them and create bilateral trade agreements and yes even ties between the 2 militaries after all the North Vietnamese soldiers are regarded in high esteem even by more than a few Viet Vets in America.

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To every who wants lynch justice. Maybe you prefer interrogation style like around 200 years ago where it was kind of normally to be tortured and confessions were forced. Think about how many thousands or even millions of people in our history were killed in lynch justice.

I don't want to play down what this man did. But violence ends in violence... the police has no right to torture suspects and humans fought many decades or even centuries for this victory...

That's right. Cops have no right to mete out any punishment. That is for the courts. Innocent until proven guilty or confessed in a court of law. Cops should only respond if threatened. Coward jerk.

Year right!!! That was a pay attention slap if ever I saw one.

If you're going to be a c*** expect to be treated like one.

The police have to deal with this sort of scum everyday and try and keep their cool.

Many police have families and daughters and would happily have put a bullet in this guys head yet he sits there unscathed.

So what's to critisise?

You guys are wired to the moon and have lost touch with reality. You'd think he'd been stoned to death not slapped rouind the earhole for being pig ignorant.

I couldn't care lesss if they sat this guy in a chair and plugged it in to get a confession if it saves the life of another young girl.

It is blatantly obvious this guy is guilty until proven guilty and that must bug the hell out of every policeman who has to deal with the piece of sh!t.

The only stir this video should have caused is people saying hit him again only harder.

What I saw in the video is a helluva long way from Pinochet style interrogation techniques. And as for all the "this could be used in Wanchai's trial by his defense team to get him acquitted" Yeah right in this country and in this current climate NO WAY JOSE and how it appeared to me (and I am not an oversensitive soul nor bury a machete in his head type either) was he was simply given a very enthusiastic clip round the back of the head by a cop, who a long with a few other million people in Thailand, was revolted by the extremity and details of this appalling crime.

OK his birthday is over, but for those who really, really miss him try and watch this to the end.

A prat shreiking into a microphone to an empty room. Maybe he didn't pay his great red army enough to attend.

Laugh!!! I nearly bought an Elite card. and to the power of 10.

Let's rephrase that... Thailand needs China! America needs Thailand to keep a foot hold in asia!

The US has Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan on its side, I'm sure their foothold is plenty strong as it is.

Surely Vietnam should be included in the American stable? They are no friends of the aggressive Chinese.

But the Ho Chi Minh Appreciation Society in Vietnam is not going to want Washington turning Vietnam into an American army base.

Does Hanoi dislike Beijing more than it dislikes Washington ? It might be the case that Vietnam is even more economically linked to China than Thailand is !

YES, Vietnam has for the guts of 1000 years periodically fought the Chinese invaders. A famous folk hero Le Loi who was a very effective and early guerrilla warfare fighter and who used to write his name in Chinese characters using honey on the soft bark and leaves of trees near Chinese strongholds (Ants and what not would eat the honey leaving his name ingrained in the tree) in Vietnam in order to instill the fear of a supernatural power, this was of course around 4,5 maybe 600 hundred years ago And the recent destruction of many Chinese owned factories not to mention deaths of Chinese Bosses, managers as a result of China's encroachment on Vietnam's maritime territories (and a bunch of other places as well) should give you a sense of how the Vietnamese feel about the middle kingdom. And lastly when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in 1978 in order to put a halt to the truly demented Khmer Rouge border attacks. It was China who invaded (Yet Again!) in 1979 to support their mate Pol Pot and that most certainly did not go weel for the Chinese. And finally ( I know I've said lastly already ) after spending 7 years in Hanoi I could never get over the Vietnamese's non plussed reaction to Uncle Sam They really don't have strong feelings either which way.

Funny idea of happiness, braving boiling temperatures and crowds of people fighting over free food for a glimpse of some sorry-looking captive birds and beasts.

My Thai wife got it right when I took her for our first - and last - visit to what is probably the world's biggest, most humane and prestigious zoo, at Regent's Park in London.

When I asked whether she was impressed, she looked at me with a sad expression and replied: "Not really. It's just a big prison for animals".

I've never enjoyed a zoo since.

Your Misses sounds like a real sweetheart. Well Done Krataiboy

All of a sudden the US needs all the friends it can get. Russia, China, and Iran working against them. India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan working the other side. Saudis, Gulf states, and North Africa fomenting anti-American mischief. The French being the French. And, now, even the tamed poodle Germans getting upset. Not to mention the usual chaos and anti-gringo sentiment being sold south of the Rio Grande. Maybe some of the remaining Euro states are friendly, but none of them seem to matter much on the world stage anyway. Better take your friends where you can find them. Now, the Thai generals don't look so bad after all. In fact, I would say that it just might be the Thai generals who hold most of the cards right now. US might need to ingratiate itself somehow with them.

Jesus Zydeco this one borders on Uncle Sam bigotry from the last century. Lets have a look at what you said:

* Russia You are probably right there but who the hell wants to cosy up to Putin ( with the exception of Ukranian separatists )

* China When have things ever been good between USA and China? ( apart from a brief meeting between Mao, Nixon and Kissinger in the early 70s )

* Iran Things are a lot lot better now that Mamuhad Adineajad [sic] and George W Bush aren't around any more.

* India What's up there? Have I missed something!

* Afghanistan What did you expect?

* Pakistan It's been better granted but with all those drone attacks it's not a surprise really is it?

* Saudis + Gulf states with the exception of the Saudi Govt's concern over the (very slow moving) thaw with Iran Which of these Govts have been openly hostile to The USA?

* North Africa apart from the attack on the embassy in Tripoli a few years back What info do you know which suggests the whole of North Africa is enemies with America?

* France This one pisses me off and is well basically a lie ( I'm a Brit who happens to like the French)

* Anti-Gringo sentiment South of the Rio grande Christ you make Cormac Macarthy's Blood Meridian characters look like Henry Fonda ( Great Book )

* Germany it has been better but once this CIA double agent /Tapping Merkels phone BS blows over It'll soon be forgotten.

* Your last point about the mending a few splinters in a bridge with the Thai Generals is relevant but inspite of a few garbage comments from Kerry I never thought the bridge between America and Thailand had been torc

hed to the ground anyway.

Wow!!! Talk about head up the pooper.

But just for you.... everyone in the world loves the USA and all its dominence. No problems with the future or the USD or the economy or the fact that every man, woman and child in the US owes the rest of the world half a million USD thanks to your excessive printing of worthless bills.

The truth is.... enough of the world are sick and tired of the US and over the next 2 years I guarantee you we will be looking at a completely different global landscape both politically and economically.

Read my post before this one... This is not BS, it is happening now.

Also the link at the botom that shows this article is also very interesting. As a matter of fact I will paste it here just for you.

http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/2014/q2/russia-china-deals-move-us-dollar-closer-collapse/

It's up to you if you want to read it or not, or if you want to keep your head buried where the sun don't shine.... But some good advice if you have lots of money sat in the bank in USD..... Move it into Yuan.

Thanks for link it does look interesting and I admit to some generalization in my previous post although there was a lot of it in Zydeca's post but was there any call for toilet humour rudeness and the link only covers China_Russia not every other country mentioned in Zydeca's OP.

I am of an "opportunity for all" persuasion, so what ever political party is closest to that would be my preferred party. Many posters on here from both sides take the time to check the information delivered to them by their favourite site. The trouble is the ones that post most either deny whats really happening here or they just believe whats served up.

I know Thaksin is not the messiah and hes corrupt to the core like most of the PTP, I also know the role of the players in the opposition and they are just as corrupt....all of them....and I mean all. I just wish that people would try to confirm, whats dressed up as news, is not in fact just propaganda.

So you ( and you are been a bit vague city ) do not believe any of the stories about weapons being found and all these stories are fake stage managed events used for max propaganda purposes. Including the finding of and ballistics match with the weapon that was used to murder that little girl in Trad. YES/NO?

All of a sudden the US needs all the friends it can get. Russia, China, and Iran working against them. India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan working the other side. Saudis, Gulf states, and North Africa fomenting anti-American mischief. The French being the French. And, now, even the tamed poodle Germans getting upset. Not to mention the usual chaos and anti-gringo sentiment being sold south of the Rio Grande. Maybe some of the remaining Euro states are friendly, but none of them seem to matter much on the world stage anyway. Better take your friends where you can find them. Now, the Thai generals don't look so bad after all. In fact, I would say that it just might be the Thai generals who hold most of the cards right now. US might need to ingratiate itself somehow with them.

Jesus Zydeco this one borders on Uncle Sam bigotry from the last century. Lets have a look at what you said:

* Russia You are probably right there but who the hell wants to cosy up to Putin ( with the exception of Ukranian separatists )

* China When have things ever been good between USA and China? ( apart from a brief meeting between Mao, Nixon and Kissinger in the early 70s )

* Iran Things are a lot lot better now that Mamuhad Adineajad [sic] and George W Bush aren't around any more.

* India What's up there? Have I missed something!

* Afghanistan What did you expect?

* Pakistan It's been better granted but with all those drone attacks it's not a surprise really is it?

* Saudis + Gulf states with the exception of the Saudi Govt's concern over the (very slow moving) thaw with Iran Which of these Govts have been openly hostile to The USA?

* North Africa apart from the attack on the embassy in Tripoli a few years back What info do you know which suggests the whole of North Africa is enemies with America?

* France This one pisses me off and is well basically a lie ( I'm a Brit who happens to like the French)

* Anti-Gringo sentiment South of the Rio grande Christ you make Cormac Macarthy's Blood Meridian characters look like Henry Fonda ( Great Book )

* Germany it has been better but once this CIA double agent /Tapping Merkels phone BS blows over It'll soon be forgotten.

* Your last point about the mending a few splinters in a bridge with the Thai Generals is relevant but inspite of a few garbage comments from Kerry I never thought the bridge between America and Thailand had been torched to the ground anyway.

Thanks for the reminder, just called the local shop and got them to drop round 10 slabs of their finest ale.

I have been chuckling and smiling while thinking about this post from time to time since I first saw it yesterday. TEN SLABS

Hell fire spoonman that's one helluva thirst you got there.

Thai soapies make me sick when I watch them. The lack of any real/believable story line or the fact that, as mentioned, they all follow the same ridiculous story line makes me wonder if they have infact followed the same formula the American soapie writters have for many years.

Best thing to do when the missus is watching is tune out!

Have you ever listened to Thai music? they recycle the same words, just change the singer, tempo and rhythm.

And most Western songs are about what? Sex, Alcohol and Drugs, bitchy relationships.

If you would understand thai language and would really know thai life (not a "farang lives in thailand life") you would know that many thai find them self in these songs. If you like it or not you should accept it.

Music should make people happy. If it makes Thais happy then let them be happy.

Errr Music doesn't have one purpose only ( to make you feel all nice and warm ). Joy Division, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, The Stooges anyway back on topic Thai TV Soaps personally I think they aren't so much an insult to your intelligence more an absolute VIOLATION of your intelligence, however and there are some notable exceptions ( House of cards, the new Fargo 1st season and a few more) I really don't think too highly of American and UK TV crappy reality shows ( Have you seen Big Brother in the UK? Jeeez what a pile of ****) cooking competitions and yes crappy soaps. Never liked Corrie or Eastenders, or those imported abominations from down under.

Nice to see how many people are out there and crying for democracy but raise their hand for lynch justice, I could probably get everyone to confess a murder with torture even if he or she hasn't committed the crime. Achievements in human rights are going down and society slowly falls back to cavemen style, what a wonderful future.

Calling for lynch justice is an occurrence in every country developed, undeveloped, etc... When a nation is horrified by a revolting crime. Not sure about who's shouting for democracy. And as for us all going back to some Mad Max Apocalyptic cave-man existence. Mate you need a beer. Cheer up yeh miserable old sod.

Something bad happens down the line, the top guy falls on his sword. As it should be.

This wouldn't have happened before the coup. No matter how high you are, if you screw up, you will be held responsible. Well done!

How exactly did the top guy screw up?

He ran a train service that allowed a passenger to be raped and killed comes to mind?

Your answer is complete nonsense! So he should be held personally responsible for everything that any one of thousands of employees might do? Perhaps you can reveal to us your plan for stopping bad stuff from happening in the world.

Far from it Mate!

in many countries Politicians who are usually blameless in these situations resign on mass when there's a terrible tragedy (Japan Passenger plane crashes) Granted there isn't a high death toll here but as must be clear to anyone this crime has quite understandably outraged a great deal of the Thai population.This guy is much more strongly connected to what happened and by rights should have resigned bearing in mind Thai accountability or lack of that was never going to happen So the General did the decent thing.

Just exactly as it should be. Nuff said

ChrisY1 and Guesthouse seem to beaten me to it nevertheless I want to say my 2 peneth. This publicity stunt is at its very best a highly inappropriate and insensitive photo op and at its worst ( What I believe it is ) an mean minded and extremely cynical exercise in self promotion by a bunch of vacuous trollopes done up like a dog's dinner.

Glad to see 2 locations in Isarn getting into the top 3. Unusual for TAT, usually they undersell or flat out ignore the North East.

If indeed the politician, whose name has been withheld, turns out to be Chalerm then I will be thrilled at the prospect of seeing this scum in handcuffs and hopefully the authorities will round up his scum sons as well.

I can't stand the idea of an ELITE(ist) card . Christ I can remember when it came out the 1st time round and Thaksin took ages to pay CNN the fee for a blanket advertisment campaign which lead to at the very best mediocre sales. It appeals to the basest, most snobbish form of (YES) elitism ( a word which has been so over used in the last 8 months). TAT should scrap this snobby BS card once and for all and wake up and be honest with themselves about the type of tourist Thailand attracts and implement tourism strategies from that point onwards.

I find it hard to believe that there was a PTP slush fund specifically used for the services of the MC taxis. However it does seem, having used both motorsais and taxis regularly in the past 3 years in bkk, that there are many drivers/riders who are UDD supporters maybe not fully paid up members but vocal supporters. Consequently this does appear to be the main reason why this Govt has come down on taxi drivers Motosai taxi gangs so hard. Oh and thanks for the link Fab4

Vietnam workers are hardworking, learn very quickly and are multiskilled, unfortunately there are Vietnamese pickpockets and other petty criminals who are also hardworking, learn very quickly and are mutiskilled. Remember the Lady GaGa concert where Vietnamese pickpockets flew in especially to ply their trade in the concert arena or that Vietnamese woman who fed drugs to gang of street urchins as payment for pickpocketing cellphones wallets etc.. at Victory Monument.

I just don't get it!!!! What is the problem Kerry (USA) has with this Junta? This current leadership's coup stopped (it's a stretch to say civil war) bloodshed on a large scale occurring on the streets of Bangkok and quite probably other major cities in Thailand too. It paid farmers (Not Hi-So Yellows) there desperately needed and owed money. It is enforcing laws which have been ignored for so long that they practically had to have the cobwebs blow torched off them and as a result have improved the quality of many Thai persons lives. The streets and this is not hyperbole have become so much safer not just from bullets and bombs but from rip offs, petty crime Christ even traffic incidents. The USA has supported countless regimes which have had a god almighty dreadful record of horrific human rights abuses including dictatorships here many moons ago. Obama/Kerry's foreign policy activities have been a spectacular failure one after another after another. Syria which is coming damn close to Cambodia circa 1975-1978 in terms of unfathomable lose of life ( hell they couldn't even get the UK to back their intervention there and the UK with 1 exception Wilson-LBJ 1968 has been dog to their master since WW2) , Ukraine ( Putin a man I find truly distasteful has played Uncle Sam like a plastic whistle), Iraq which looks like it is going to descend to a level of hell even it has not seen before, Egypt where the USA supported democratic elections-the Muslim brotherhood got in-stopped supporting them-overthrow of democratically elected Govt- supported that- replaced by military rule which has sentenced hundreds of people to death and jailed western journalists BOY!!! you did a helluva good job there Kerry, Nigeria, have those poor little schoolgirls been returned back to their Mums and Dads? I could go ,on but I think I've gone on enough but now we come to WHY Thailand ?

A: Thaksin has more clout with the Govt/congress that we can imagine (Not buying it)

B: The USA Govt is moronically singular minded about democracy ( Again not buying it Look at Ukraine)

C: The USA Govt receives all its info from a heavily biased western media and that stupid woman in the Embassy (Truly hope it isn't this answer)

Answers D to Z like I said I don't know I JUST DON't GET IT

Some claim are red movement peaceful, but in true there are terrorist and children murderers, since few weeks a lot evidences have been collect, now I wait the arrest of the big boss...

Now let to see if Charupong "free red shirt country" organisation will be more peaceful than red shirt terrorist group !

Let's see if it lasts a month or even a couple of weeks.

Oh and it is a safe bet that this post will be a red shirt free zone

The bbc's Jonathan head seems to think not, articles a bit old but it gets the point a x http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27735992

The BBC's Jonathan Head isn't so much a red shirt sympathizer as an out and out red shirt supporter His coverage of the PDRC protests and marches was at best sarcastic, jaded, uninterested and on occasion out and out lies ( the second report from Udon Thani in which he interviewed that woman and what she said was an absolute lie ) he literally has to travel to a back of nowhere swamp in Udon to find anybody who shares his opinions and then proceeds to give mist eyed, hand wringing coverage of red shirt issues. Bearing in mind what is happening right now to proper journalists in Cairo he should be counting his lucky stars he still works in Thailand.

It might be nice if Jonathan Head would now, in the interests of balance, go and interview people in other parts of Thailand. But then he would have to rationalise their relaxed, or even welcoming, attitude towards the martial-law & coup ?

The impressions one received in the UK during the takeover, from his efforts for the BBC & from reporting on Sky-News or even Al-Jazeera, compared to what I actually found when I returned to North-West Thailand, was quite noticeably different.

Perhaps the journalists got carried-away, in the apparent heat-of-the-moment, or perhaps their sources had been less balanced than one might have hoped ?

No doubt they will rush to set matters straight, now that the police are finally investigating more of what went on, during the anti-government protests ?

I hope so Ricardo but I won't hold my breath. Incidentally that Thai guy ( I am sorry I can't remember his name ) actually does give straight and balanced coverage on Channel News Asia and the reason why, one can assume is because he is Thai and does not have a western journalist's agenda.

They have evidence, so likely they know who is involved in some of the cases, all they need is to round up a few of them and make them squeal, which they certainly will do, and I hope it ends in an almighty domino topple and leads right to the door of the UDD leaders.

We all know that they have been implicit in all these murders, and we also know on who's word.

Let's all hope that as I suspect, the names Jatuporn. Thida, Nattawut, Surapong and Chalerm come out in the wash... The biggest bonus names will be Thaksin and Yingluck.

The UDD is deffo going to become an outlawed organization, and I doubt they will be able to just reinvent themselves under a new name.

Would also be nice if certain police are named as being involved in both the actions taking place and the cover ups and who ordered the investigations to be stifled.

The 'red shirts' are coming to their end.

SCUM!!!!!

The bbc's Jonathan head seems to think not, articles a bit old but it gets the point a x http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27735992

The BBC's Jonathan Head isn't so much a red shirt sympathizer as an out and out red shirt supporter His coverage of the PDRC protests and marches was at best sarcastic, jaded, uninterested and on occasion out and out lies ( the second report from Udon Thani in which he interviewed that woman and what she said was an absolute lie ) he literally has to travel to a back of nowhere swamp in Udon to find anybody who shares his opinions and then proceeds to give mist eyed, hand wringing coverage of red shirt issues. Bearing in mind what is happening right now to proper journalists in Cairo he should be counting his lucky stars he still works in Thailand.

Sounds like you are advocating a similar Cairo experience for journalist in Thailand.I can see nothing wrong with his reporting.At least he gives the facts and doesn't try to tell the readers what he thinks they want to hear.Perhaps you would like to mention some of his coverage you found to be sarcastic,jaded, uninteresting,and lies. And as for "that woman" where were you in the room when she talked to him? Just to finish up.Can you tell me your criteria for determining who, in your esteemed opinion, is a proper journalist?

Describing working class PDRC supporters as ULTRA right wing elitists, sarcasm when reporting the payment by the Military Govt to desperate farmers J Head quote "which is ironic really when you think about the criticisms of PTP populist policies", and as for that 2nd report from Udon What that red shirt lady said simply cannot be quoted here and if you'd seen it you'd know why. And to answer your question an objective, enthusiastic journalist who puts forward all sides of a story, which involves conflict, with equal measure J Head simply does not do this.

Yikes - I had no idea - I regularly give these kids 20 Baht on the road next to Khaosan since I thought I was helping there families with the money - Gee I feel real bad now that I was actually aiding this trafficking...And also stupid that I did not think this situation through.

That's why I like this forum, members and viewers actually do learn necessary and informative information.