EnglishJohn

After lots of problems with Thai electrical connectors, I ended up bringing extension strips from the UK and lots of plugs. Then I get one of the good quality (but extremely ugly) DIY Thai plugs (actually a USA type) and leave them plugged into the wall permanently. Then I changed the plugs on most things in the house to the UK type.

The English style are the best IMHO : never come loose or fall out and always make a reliable contact. The plugs themselves look nice, are cheap, are earthed and are individually fused.

The Schukos are second best - but you need a bulky and ugly socket if you want it to connect ground. They look like they are designed to accept a ground pin (screwed in) but I can't find any anywhere.

Rangsima said when he and about 30 other university students were released after the May 22 incident, police told them they would not be charged.

"Now, how can we trust these officers?" he said.

Maybe if you had kept your mouth shut after the event.

Thailand is going through a period of much needed reform - you are either with it or against it

It may not be ideal but is definitely better than people being murdered on the streets

You seriously believe your shallow justification?

Violent repression of a group of PEACEFUL students isn't the future Thailand needs. These were not riff raff, but the future leaders of Thai society who were abused. Your government did not do much when it came to General Manas did it? He was apparently protected for years and allowed to engage in alleged violent extortion and trafficking wasn't he? And yet here we have a group of unarmed peaceful kids who didn't harass anyone or engage in any violence, but merely spoke up and they are treated like violent murderers.

The good thing about an internet forum like this is that when I read a BS comment like this from some hypocritical numbskull incapable of forming any kind of balanced opinion, I can just skip right to the end.

The elephant in the room Mr Geriatric is that the whole reason for the coup was that the people these naive and gullible kids represent ARE violent murderers. The PDRC found that out. To imply these students have been treated like murderers is the statement of someone who cares little for the truth.

what I would like to know is why is the police chief above the courts?

good question ....

but my question : why an army is above an elected Government by 2 times already..?? (and more in the past )

.... errr ... because that elected government were using their terrorist arm to murder their own people for daring to exercise their democratic right to protest (and they were doing it peacefully).

Did you sleep through that bit, or did you conveniently choose to ignore it because it doesn't suit your aim ?.

When you people show you are fit for democracy, you might be able to keep it for more than a few years.

Make no mistake : corruption is so rife in Thailand that everybody in power is connected to the big players with money in some way or another. That's how they got there.

If this guy displeases Thaksin, he will suffer for it. Doors will be closed and all the perks after his retirement will disappear. Because if others do not follow Thaksins orders, the same will happen to them. The Thaksin audio tape proved this : they were trying to buy off Prayuth and his boss with offers of lucrative positions to ensure a comfortable retirement if they went along with the plan to railroad an amnesty bill using the NSC and another family crony (Paradorn) who was put there by Yingluck for that very purpose.

This guy is worried about what happens to him if he approves it. At least if he puts up some resistance, Thaksin might be lenient.

What a delusional post. No facts supporting the statements

Sorry, didn't you manage to read as far as the part about the audio tape ?. It's proved that Thaksin offers official's perks after retirement if they help him.

That is called fact. Unless your next step in your own deluded mind is to claim the audio tape is fake ?.

Make no mistake : corruption is so rife in Thailand that everybody in power is connected to the big players with money in some way or another. That's how they got there.

If this guy displeases Thaksin, he will suffer for it. Doors will be closed and all the perks after his retirement will disappear. Because if others do not follow Thaksins orders, the same will happen to them. The Thaksin audio tape proved this : they were trying to buy off Prayuth and his boss with offers of lucrative positions to ensure a comfortable retirement if they went along with the plan to railroad an amnesty bill using the NSC and another family crony (Paradorn) who was put there by Yingluck for that very purpose.

This guy is worried about what happens to him if he approves it. At least if he puts up some resistance, Thaksin might be lenient.

"...When asked if the government feared any opposition from people living there, Prayut responded by saying, "What should I be afraid of? If I was afraid, I would not be standing here..."

...and I'll have the whole military on stand-by.

No need.

If Thaksin is not sending the orders (and money) down through the chain of baboon's, the red-shirt thugs will stay at home.

They only want one thing and don't care what they do to get it. Ethics and principles (the ingredients for real 'democratic' protests) do not come into it.

Sorry, but with Jonathan Head as the spokesman this organisation has zero credibility as an unbiased organisation.

People like this using the 'Human Rights' banner to disguise political propaganda make me sick. It's low and it's shameful : two of the strongest attributes in reporters I suppose.

I couldn't, and am not allowed to, disagree with you more. While he might not always write what is popular with some people, his and the BBC's, impartiality is well respected.

The you sir either do not know what happened during the protests or you did not read his reports on the BBC.

Because I did - and his deliberate omission of key facts was a disgrace. I could not believe someone could misrepresent the truth and live with their conscience. For example, if 10 people protesting peacefully got killed by the UDD terrorists he would write something like "Violent anti-government protests which left 10 dead".

Check up online and you might find your faith in the BBC is misplaced. They have a clear political agenda these days and most stories are designed to guide opinion in a certain direction.

Sorry, but with Jonathan Head as the spokesman this organisation has zero credibility as an unbiased organisation.

People like this using the 'Human Rights' banner to disguise political propaganda make me sick. It's low and it's shameful : two of the strongest attributes in reporters I suppose.

Most probably were half of them just bystander, women and children.

While bombing them also all the goods, houses, animals etc of many families destroyed.

So most probably by killing 5.000, they turned 20.000 people who didn't care and just wanted to have a good life into sympathizers.

It is just amazing how little the USA learned since they supported the Islamists in Afghanistan when it was against the Soviets.

With all these billions of taxpayer money spent, they could have made the region rich which automatically reduce all fanatic tendency.

Or they could have invested it into alternatives to the oil from this region. Without western money they would ride their camels like 2000 years before. Just need a fence around.

Or just not doing anything would be better....Saddam Husein, Gaddafi and Assad took care of the problem.

Any actual facts for any of this ignorant blather or is it just rhetoric from the comfort of an armchair ?.

I personally would rather die in the cause of a fight to rid the world of these scumbags than be butchered in the Town square in cold blood by some power-crazed pervert who now has my daughter as a sex slave.

Freedom isn't free.

Am sure the motor-bike did something to wind-up the car driver.

Car driver intended only a minor injury on the motor-bike riders.

Maybe the motor-bike rider should do more with the 30,000 Baht reward, i.e. buy a safety helmet.

This is the small minded thinking that plagues Thailand today.

I don't think anyone can call judgement on this one.

I reckon that guy has a lot of enemies, and his 'reward' will cost him 30,000 baht + a few bullets.

The car driver showed no regard for the woman on the back of the motorbike : she could have been seriously hurt.

The story of him being completely innocent of anything however is the only thing we can be sure of. It is definitely a lie.

One country is defending itself by rebels backed by Russia.

I'm sure both sides are fighting a brutal war with not much mercy from either of them - but at the end of the day Russia is making it happen.

In the midst of the barbarity and bloodshed on the ground, it is impossible for the locals to appreciate what is happening at the higher level.

So anyway, because it's lost point 6 of 1% of alcohol and it has 10ml less beer and is 6 baht more expensive than some beer no ones ever heard of, you won't drink it anymore?

I think his point is that it doesn't taste the same any more and he is right.

That 1% alcohol really does make a difference.

I found Horse in the local Tesco a few months back and found I started buying it more and more.

In the UK bottles of budweiser went from 330ml to 300ml (no price change) then from 18 bottle a box to 15. I just noticed the box I got yesterday only has 12.

All in the name of a bit more profit ...

Any outcry from the locals about this ?.

Any village meetings demanding to know how it could have happened ?.

Any people rushing forwards with information about who the cold blooded murderers are ?.

No, I thought not.

I hope the Army get lots of pictures of every dead soldier to show at the next investigation when someone local gets killed in a firefight.

I got as far as "Thammasat University" then stopped reading.

I have never read anything from there which is not totally biased. They are a disgrace to education establishment's - which should be politically neutral.

This is no surprise at all : whenever the MP's were up to their dirty business, Yingluck was somewhere else for this very reason of deniability.

When a PM does absolutely nothing while MP's get about the corruption, gross negligence is about they only charge they could ever be guilty of. She betrayed her country and her people while she did this : she is guilty of much more than turning a blind eye.

"I believe in Lord Buddha's teaching that everything is impermanent. Things are born and then they are gone. So are the passports."

No, really, I am not bothered about the passports.

For a man with such an ego and who wants to come home so badly, travelling the world as a Montenegrin is a lesson in humility none of his ill-gotten wealth can help with.

Good news--Thaksin is no longer in charge.

Bad news--The majority of the Thai people still want democracy.

How will the junta deal with this?

You are having trouble keeping up with all of this aren't you ?.

When elections are held (the most free and fair Thailand has ever seen), will you stand up at Democracy Monument and shout "I am a gullible idiot" ?.

Because I have not seen or read a single thing to make me believe otherwise up to this moment.

In a country where a deputy PM can get drunk then make sexist remarks at women in Parliament with absolutely no consequences, something like this where nobody involved actually cares is pretty much irrelevant.

Thai media just report what is in front of their faces (as long as it won't upset the big boss who is always mixed in with someone political). They NEVER campaign for what is right, do investigative journalism to expose corruption or report things which might invite trouble.

I doubt many Thais care at all about this.

I'm not normally a conspiracy theory advocate, but given the nature of all the misleading information we were given as this story developed, my own opinion is that this aeroplane went somewhere where the people who put it there really don't want anyone to know. And they are powerful enough to make it stick.

I personally do not think the USA would take out a plane of innocent people as they would never get official approval for something like that - which points more towards the Chinese. I would suspect the USA to have a good idea what might have happened - but for some reason (certainly political) it has been made top secret. Maybe they don't want the Chinese to know they know.

I for one don't buy the story of it following a course to avoid all radar contact so that it can be dumped near the Antarctic as part of some suicide or terrorist plot. But the Australians are obliged to treat it as if it did.

I'm pretty sure the Pheu-Thai/Red-Shirt plan is to keep quiet and be good boys until the Army are out then go back to business as usual.

They don't own the police right now so they can't get away with their dirty business of threats/intimidation etc. etc. etc.

It's almost painful to watch it all happen when you know they have no intention of changing. You can't develop ethics or morals overnight.

Outside my condo in Bangkok, nobody pays any attention to the lights. Traffic doesn't stop until the guard goes out and pushes the wheeled barrier in front of the traffic.

Then the 'automatic' barrier comes down.

It's good to see that the army and navy are getting on top of everything. Article 44 gives them that power. And immunity from prosecution. Fantastic.

So are you telling us the guy will not get prosecuted because of article 44, or are you just talking horse sh*t ?.

Thanks for reminding me why I respect people who supported the coup much more than those who whine about it.

The point to note here is that it looks like the police bureau car park was being used by the terrorists attacking the protestors. Very convenient : police can guard the entrance to ensure nobody gets caught.

Just like the roof of Chalerms department - strenuously denied until the UAV footage proved it.

The incumbent government using terrorism against it's own people .... about as bad as it can get.

Why is it Thai people are unable to think beyond the end of this week ?.

The current situation is largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It will be gone in a year or so. Right now we have a bunch of unqualified ministers doing jobs they have no real clue about just because the PM trusts them not to sabotage the bigger plan. Considering this, things could be a lot worse.

The big question is about what comes next : whether effective reforms can be implemented to remove much of the corruption in Thai politics, or whether the snakes will use their cunning to circumvent the rules and take things back where they were.

700 Million population ? I think someone has their figures completely messed up. Try a tenth of this !

I think some-one can't read and comprehend

With about a 700 million population, The Region offers a huge potential market - Asean New Zealand Business Council

I think that foreign businesses should be more concerned about Thailand when a certain person can no longer be treated in hospital

Yup - with the pillar of righteousness removed from the picture and the polar opposite in it's place, I would not bet on anything in the LOS. Let's be thankful the Amnesty bill disgrace happened first.

All part of the melting pot we find ourselves in now I suspect.