lvr181

A new, "Fairness Program" is being developed to house accused criminals in private homes. You can volunteer to 'adopt' up to 6 of them from the time of their arrest until the court date. You must house them and feed them well and treat them with respect as they are innocent, no capital. It will be best if you have someone keep them company 24/7 like your wife or teen age kids. To volunteer for the program email your home address and a list of the food and beverages you will be serving. email your application to [email protected]

I can handle that humour.

Many posters cannot or do not understand. Tough s**t!

If there is a 'real' effort to enact reform, then all military, appointed, and elected officials should annually declare their wealth and relevant financial data. When, and if, there are elected officials in the future, there should be a requirement that their finances be placed in a 'blind trust' subject to annual disclosures.

Another way to fight corruption is to require all citizens to declare their bank accounts or other financial holdings when filing taxes and enact some form of capital gains tax. This would make it much more easier to monitor money laundering and other transactions that could point to corruption or unjust enrichment.

A nice idea but doesn't happen in cuckoo land.

What right do the dogs have to be on the street? GROW UP.

That's a bit harsh! I'm starting a protest movement for dog's rights! We'll wear brown shirts!

OP already wearing brown shirt or pants!

Ride faster or buy scooter or motorcycle or car - quite simple really.

"He decided to demonstrate his biking skills to his friends"

The guy is a pro and I bet his mates are still pissing themselves laughing.

They need to make it law that you can't hire a bike unless you have a motorcycle licence.

license doesnt prevent stupid

But pothole can

They want him towed out to sea in a boat with no engine?

Nah, silly idea! Send him back home as deck cargo on a submarine!

Where are all the posters that have previously argued that there are no Russian mafia in Thailand? Surprisingly quiet

Maybe because they finally got it through their thick skulls, how wrong they were? Or are they still acting like ostriches? Who knows?

EVERYONE should get off their "high horse". There is no perfect country or perfect form of Government. Every "way" has its warts and flowers and "abusing" others accomplishes NOTHING! Criticism with out viable alternatives does not advance humanity. Tend to your own problems and let others tend to theirs. Offer humane assistance where humane assistance is asked for.

Maybe this forum has allowed many hotheads to vent their feelings but it has not accomplished anything apart from name calling. Wow, success - NOT. Get a life folks, you cannot change history but try and make the future a bit brighter for all.

BTW, I am neither a U.S.citizen or a Thai citizen.

At least the US can take criticism. We can slag the place off all we want on here with no fear of vanishing during the night.

You could make it public you hate Bush/Obama and still be granted a visa... Important differences, I think.

Can take criticism? You mean like the with us or against us mentality when the war monger Bush invaded Iraq?

Which Bush are you talking about?

We don't need the US or the EU and if Japanese businesses pull out because of politics, flooding ow whatever we don't need them either.

In fact we don't need anybody as we have ourselves and Thainess and as a line in an old song goes " who could ask for anything more ? ".

Are you an ostrich with its head buried in the sand? You don't (seemingly) understand micro or macro economics!

The old-school legal method used to be ripping actual CDs.

Then Apple came along allowing you to buy and somewhat instantly download tunes ...even allowing you to change some into mp3s

support.apple.com: iTunes: How to convert a song to a different file format

Other online stores may allow a similar process.

Wow! You can pay Apple (such a wonderful company?) or do it for yourself for free!!

I can't imagine the seized items being destroyed considering the large gap between the monetary value of the items and policemen's salaries. so let's assume that most of it is released back into the market. Combine it with all other supplies that managed to get through (which I assume is most of the total supply, as seizures are only a tip of the iceberg), then it is clear that the rate of consumption of methamphetamine is enormous. Now how much of this consumption has led to problems? Can anyone provide drug-related crime statistics? I think that the proportion of consumption of illegal drugs that directly results in harm to society is so small that the strict and costly enforcement of drug laws may be a huge waste of taxpayers' money and may be inflicting more harm than the drugs themselves (such as imprisoned parents like those mentioned in the article not being able to properly care for their children). Please provide evidence to prove me wrong.

Even though you can't imagine it... One year ago Thursday:

Thailand destroys almost 6 tons of confiscated narcotics and marijuana

http://goo.gl/Tkg9GG

Check the photo. And even though you can't imagine it... roughly the same will happen again this June 26, which is Thursday. Imagine that!

OK so some drugs get destroyed by a public display of burning with big colorful signs indicating the drug street name and amount. Maybe they even have free entertainment and food at such events for spectators and especially media. I still suspect that a proportion of seized items do not make it to the annual burning, and that the amount that does get burnt is still only a tiny fraction of the total amount consumed each year.

If the drugs were as dangerously toxic as the authorities and media have made them out to appear, the authorities would not be destroying them in such as a way, and instead be disposing them very carefully like radioactive waste. Can you imagine radioactive waste being publicly destroyed by burning in an open fire like is often done with seized drugs? The reality is that a lot of the illegal drugs are nowhere near as dangerous as they have been made to appear.

It was crazy to have made laws against many of the now-illegal drugs in the first place (as there were very little input from the scientific/medical community in creating the laws and they were created more out of hysteria and racial discrimination). But it's even crazier to then strictly enforce the laws with zero tolerance and continue to stubbornly do so for so long (around half a century) when the evidence has been clear that they haven't been working and have instead resulted in many other negative unintended consequences that may be causing more harm than the drugs themselves would cause.

I suggest all of you to read The Alternative World Drug Report to gain a wider picture of the the costs that are associated with the enforcement of the stupid drug laws. Here is their conclusion of the chapter "Wasting billions, undermining economies":

Drug law enforcement is exceptionally poor value for money. At a time of great economic stricture, spending billions of dollars a year of scarce public resources on demonstrably ineffective and counterproductive drug policies appears impossible to justify.

But it is not just about the poor value for money of current spending, and its opportunity costs in terms of investment in health and social development. These policies, and the criminal markets they have created, have a direct negative impact on the economies of producer and transit countries – by deterring investment, harming legitimate businesses, and undermining governance through corruption and violence. In a globalised world, this has a knock-on effect for any company – or country – seeking to do business in affected regions.

Despite well-intentioned attempts to restrict access to drugs, it is now clear that with easily cultivated agricultural commodities grown in a world with no shortage of poor and marginalised people willing to produce, transport or sell them in order to survive, short of ending global poverty and drug demand, there is no realistic hope of eliminating supply.

The emotive nature of the public debate, fuelled by populist drug-war rhetoric, has pushed meaningful evaluation and rational debate of alternative approaches to the margins. But it is important to recognise that the war on drugs is a policy choice. That is why political leaders across the world are beginning to call for other options – including less punitive enforcement, decriminalisation and models of legal market regulation – to be debated and explored using the best possible evidence and analysis. Without question this should include assessing the economic impacts.

And that report would not be biased?

Perhaps it does show that "crime pays" (despite what some people say), look at the many people employed e.g. enforcement authorities and the judicial system et al.

The war on "Drugs" is a cosmic hoax. Never worked, never will. People are going to do what they do. Alcohol, Cigarettes far more destructive.

Complete waste of resources and money. Legalize.

So much easier to find a way/justification to do nothing than a reason to tackle the problem.

Yes, cigarettes and alcohol are drugs also, unfortunately legitimised but at least the authorities can try and price them, if not off the market, then making them them less desirable to purchase. Either way the taxpayer picks up the tab for those who use "drugs" and who do not/cannot cope living in the real world.

And before anyone gets a holier than thou attitude, I tried marijuana once, big deal, didn't bother again and I do drink alcohol from time to time but not to excess.

Hi Guys,

 

I'm not for long time into Thai Visa, but what I read until now a lot of unqualified comments and speculations(gossip) in all forums.

 

I recommend in general stick to the facts:

 

Facts: 1. He did'nt weared a belt, for this he got already his punishment.

 

           2. High speed, but we don't why.

 

I will give you the follow possible scenario:

 

He got a call from his family bad news.

 

Caused of thess he drove to fast, not good but happend.

 

For example he got a heartattack and this was the reason the car got of the road, could also be happend with lower speed.

 

I recommend to all of us, first touch the own nose before you throwing a stone.

 

Unfortunately is our world full of hypocrits, who forgetting their past, being in a similar situation and was just lucky bastards.

 

People like this makes me sick. 

 

 

 

Uh?  No speculation in your commentary?

A "possible scenario" is speculative.

Of course we do not know (at this time) why he was speeding, but his speeding cannot be justified. Look at the result!

Their goes more Australian jobs, I dont blame companies for moving off shore , The government needs to remember they have a population that needs work to survive .Australia is fast becoming the hub of unemployment.

Exactly right! thanks to Abbot and his cronies the companies and upper management will all go offshore with no loss in wages and exploit labour markets in foreign countries. Meanwhile more and more Australian families are losing their income and ability to put food on the table. Australians can't afford to work for 10 dollars a day it is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live. What the Australian government should have done is do what most countries do and support local industries and put massive taxes and import duties on imported goods. All too late now and there are some hard times ahead for many Australians I fear.

Some truth in what you say but ALSO nobody (individuals, companies or Governments) can keep borrowing and not face the fact that borrowing costs money, that has to be, one day, repaid. We (Australia) now belongs to a world economy and we need to work smarter NOT harder.

Just saying.

Edit: Added word

its much cheaper to learn from others mistakes.

Always has been and always will be! Unfortunately stupid people (and many others) are NOT learners.

The quality of politicians is definitely not getting any better!

I hold that immigration is far more corrupt than the police -- and no is talking about getting rid of their corruption....I wonder why.

Because corruption is endemic in Thai society and will not change anytime soon.

I suspect corruption is in all Asian economies not just Thailand?

Edit: Added content.

Hope the "idiot" recovers okay, learns to wear a seat belt (if fitted) and drive properly!

A post condoning the abuse of this child has been removed as well as the replies.

Good on you - there can be no reason for abusing children!

To my mind, a priority is to weed out all the unproductive fat-cats in the upper echelons, and institute a proper chain of command. One only has to see some relatively small-time crook captured and there's a photo-opportunity for a half-dozen or so of Colonels and Generals to stand there looking smug; whereas in reality they had next to nothing to do with the apprehension. How many generals are sitting in 'inactive posts' when really they should be retired and pensioned off? Asking them to participate in this pruning is ensuring it won't happen - they are not going to put forward a massive redundancy plan to reduce the top-heavy structure.

A guide, a police chief in each changwat, a colonel in each amphur, a major in each tambon, and majors/captains to run bigger stations. Special divisions and branches to scaled accordingly. I think they would be guided by looking at some European police commands.

No no no. That cannot happen. The "authorities" would rather re-invent the wheel than improve it! Cannot learn from farang way - hell no! Farang does not understand Thainess. OMG.

p.s. My highlighting and bold text above.

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein.

Hat like that, Guilty!

At least it is pointing the right way, unlike many young farangs!

Sorry, I digress.

Edit: Extra comment

A perfect of, 'who watched the watchers'? When the police are in charge of the investigation and they are the guilty, there is not much chance for justice in the Land of Smiles. One must, as do most Thais I know, trust Karma.

Has Karma ever "punished" the guilty before they have committed another crime?

Just wondering.

Rococopy, which is a Microsoft utility. Easy to script with too many features to mention.

Robocopy - in case someone confused.

The list of advantages of Mac is a long one. I sold both window and Apple computers for four years in a large computer store. How about for starters I have never had use anti virus/malware software on my Macs. There are many reasons sales of Macs are increasing while Windows machines are declining and Apple has become the most valuable company (by far).

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

A Mac devotee? Windows runs on FAR MORE machines world wide than Macs. Therefore why not "hack" the majority, you are likely to get more results?

Microsoft is a software company, Apple is a hardware company, and that probably leads to a difference in valuations. MS cannot get its software made by cheap labour in Asian countries and then charge a premium price for it. Not everyone can afford to pay over the top price for Macs. Windows desktop sales may be declining in the home computer market but are they in the commercial market? Apple is very good at bringing new technologies to the market but they did not invent/conceive them all. Moses had tablets hehe... And they were featured in the film, 2001 A Space Odyssey. In the mobile market Android systems far outsell Apple world wide. MS missed that market. Lots of "fors and againsts" for both companies.