Yann55

4 hours ago, rumak said:

well,  at least i learned a new word today.    how to use, hmmmm.   "look, you little wastrel, i told you i don't get on my knees" !   

Hahaha see ? you didn't ru as mak as you tought then !

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

Yeap.. she raped herself and right aftre shaved her own hair, that's makes plenty of sense if your an Iranian rapist..

And your post makes perfect sense if you're a Western racist...

Words like Iran/Iranian, Muslim, Arab, Indonesia/Indonesian, Malay/Malaysian seem to cause an alarming number of members on this Forum to lose their sense of fairness and ability to consider a situation with a minimum of objectiveness.

Not to worry. Big Joke will solve this in no time.

SHAME ON YOU, Aung San Suu Kyi.

If you believe in Karma (but do you?) then you should know that it will eventually come back at you and bite you hard in the derrière.

22 hours ago, keith101 said:

And why would Musk even come to Thailand .

To recover his cute little submarine ?

Fannnnntastic !!

Congratulations Khun Sumeth !

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

 

The 50-year-old father of one of the women, aged 22, had earlier told reporters he suspected that his daughter might have contracted HIV from a dirty tattoo needle. His story is in itself contentious, however, because the death certificate he showed reporters states that she had been HIV-positive for more than one year.

This bit speaks volumes ...

Denial is alive and well in Thailand. HIV is still considered a shameful disease here, just like in the rest of the world, no matter what people say. I feel sorry for this father who has to deal with the loss of his daughter and the shame, because he didn't put that shame into his head, society did.

I remember the early 1980s in the West, when so many young men suddenly died of 'pneumonia'... 'a lung infection'... a 'long and painful disease' and no one dared pronounce the dreaded word. Is it easier today in the West ? Not much. Trying to figure out the psycho-social mechanism behind this massive, worldwide denial would require thinking out of the box, and to this day, very few people have done that.

2 hours ago, gunderhill said:

What  image? most people I know back home know Thailand for one thing and one thing only.

Can't see what you're referring to ...

Tuk-tuks ?

Tom Yam Goong ?

Temples ?

Art Galleries ?

Classical Music Festivals ?

Litterature ?

Hey !! The only job we foreigners are allowed to do without a work permit here in Thailand is to ruin the image of Thailand.

Now this [&ù*£"@*] minivan driver is stealing our job, and that is NOT FAIR.

Mai dee, mai dee rok !

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

I would have described her as a chubby housewife with short hair.

Who in their right mind would take a woman looking like that back to their room?

The kind that are gullible enough to believe her when she says : "no daleeng, I no wan money because I like you vely too mutt, and me no ba girl."

25 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

And the leaders of extremist Islamic groups don't kill people because they are Muslims, they do it because they are psychotic sectarians, much the same.

I agree, yet you have to reckon there is a subtle difference : Extremists (of whatever religion) claim that they're carrying out God's will (which they know because they have brunch with him every Friday/Sunday/whatever), whereas Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot didn't scream urbi et orbi that their murderous actions were made 'in the name of atheism'.

Of course they claimed other grand motives, which were eerily similar to extremist religious agendas (all about establishing a norm and then deport, imprison, torture and kill anyone who doesn't fit in).

What history remembers, however, is that these guys were indeed psychotic, egomaniac and sectarian, and that historical circumstances put them in a position of such power that they could roll up their sleeves and get to work, resulting in millions of deaths (45 millions for Mao, 25 for Stalin, 13 for Hitler - + war casualties).

Nowadays there is a ready-made notion that massive massacres throughout history were only originated by religions, with an emphasis on Islam, and you are quite right to point out that both these ready-made ideas are simply not true.

Intellectual honesty requires, however, to acknowledge that those who did not kill in the name of God were not doing it 'in the name of atheism' either. The fact is they all saw themselves as Gods, were worshipped like Gods, and were unfortunately much more real and dangerous than God.

1 hour ago, Lupatria said:

Which planet are you from, to call this culture?

Boy, 9, who was brutally beaten by monk 

This comment of yours post is remarkably offensive and dishonest.

If you had taken the time to read my post (#12) beyond the first line and understand it, you would have spared us this piece of pure stupidity, but hey, why let intelligence and honesty deprive you from the pleasure of launching a vicious and crass attack on another TVF member ?

I have been on this Forum long enough to know what kind of comments you make, and way too many of them are in that same spirit. Pathetic.

A great video. Thanks for sharing it Jonathan.

6 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

Lock the parks up at night, and stop allowing these gay men free entry.

As stupid posts go, yours I must say is right up there on the top shelf ....

18 hours ago, mok199 said:

pattaya has no beach anylonger...it is a boat launch/ jet ski rental ,where they mix the fuel ,fuel the boats,repair boats ,herd the budget tourists and pose for selfies....

Actually, Pattaya does have one very nice beach, and it's called Dongtan Beach (in Jomtien). However, right now, the local authorities are busy destroying the features that made it wonderful and unique.

Around the world, tourist beaches usually have a road running along, the two simples motives for that being :

1/ The land along the beach is normally public property, and

2/ It's usually flat, which makes it easier to build a road.

These two factors mean that a road along the beach is the cheapest and easiest solution, since we live in a world where vehicles have become wildly important, to the point where they are often given priority over people (a visiting Martian watching the earth from a safe 30000 feet above ground would likely assume that they are earth's inhabitants).

For that reason, a beach without a road full of noisy, ugly, dangerous and polluting vehicles running along is a rarity, a wonder, and should therefore be preserved at all costs, especially if and when a large number of beautiful old trees grow on it (here mostly Badamiers - chebulic myrobalan - and Filaos - casuarina equisetifolia).

In the early 2000s a paved path was built along the back of the beach, as well as narrow paved alleys that meandered between the trees. It was perfect, a walker's and cyclist's dream, and it was mostly free of motor vehicles because at the end of the path, a few steep steps made it impossible for cars and motorbikes to go any further. To make the message even clearer to the usual polluters, the entrance to the path (on the South end of Dongtan Beach) was closed with a barrier from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

This being Thailand, the rules were bent, some vehicles did get through, the steps at the North end were vandalized by motorcyclists determined to pass no matter what... but, on the whole, it worked, and it was fantastic.

And then, ta daaaa .... in 2017, enter the usual : opportunity, greed, stupidity, corruption, short-sighted policies, nepotism... before you can say Somchai's your uncle, the bulldozers arrive, the chainsaw massacre is in full swing, and concrete reigns. The paved path will soon be a two-lane ROAD, and more than half of the trees will be history.

I have lived in this country for many years, and there are lots of things I love about it. But there is a dark side, and this Dongtan Beach Disaster is definitely on that side. Including the fact that most of the locals seem to have only two reactions in the face of this environmental murder :

1/ Apathy : yes it's horrible, but there's nothing we can do about it, big money and big power are at stake here, and we're just small fry.

2/ Sympathy : it looks nice, doesn't it ? Where I come from (Esarn, usually), roads are a blessing, so yes, I love roads, and I don't like walking anyway.

Honestly, cigarettes are the least of Dongtan Beach's problems at the moment.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY !!

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Thaksin has his business in many countries and he has to travel all the time. Yingluck often joins him for the trips. Thaksin wants to teach her about doing business,” the source said.

Well, he sure taught her well about how to do politics, especially the art of using fragile democratic institutions to claim legitimacy and then diving head first into the trough.

He wasn't so good, however, at teaching her how to avoid getting caught. But he makes up for it by teaching her how to scream "these accusations are all politically motivated" afterwards. And it works !

Where business is concerned, this guy who many people surprisingly (and naively) regard as astute, experienced and discerning has actually botched an impressive number of business ventures, and in the ones that did make him rich, the (ab)use of his political power played a major part.

Personnally I'd rather stay away from such a 'teacher', thank you very much.

2 hours ago, Benmart said:

Norway would do well to deal with an elected government in such matters.

An 'elected government' such as the Chavalit, Chuan, Thaksin, Surayuth, Samak, Abhisit or Yingluk governments?

...Who were, as we all know, totally devoid of corruption...