dre1247

Thaksin has been trying to overthrow Thai state during all this time, and now he asks why there's not much progress - he's the main reason why.

It is all about money and controlling the Thailand Wealth and power. And Thaksin probably knows he has lost them and just too stupid to accept it

No, not stupid, the man is sick he is suffering from a "narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)" the good news is it can be treated, but for that he must accept the fact first.

I copied this before, excuses if you think I am boring.

Megalomania is an unrealistic belief in one's superiority, grandiose abilities, and even omnipotence. It is characterized by a need for total power and control over others, and is marked by a lack of empathy for anything that is perceived as not feeding the self. Although megalomania is a term often ascribed to anyone who is power-hungry, the clinical definition is that of a mental illness associated with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

Narcissism is most simply defined as self-love. Though it is considered healthy to care about your own well-being and have a healthy self-esteem, when someone loves himself to the exclusion of all else and others become objectified to be used only to serve the self, this is no longer considered healthy or normal.

There are different psychological theories about how and why NPD develops, most of which relate to the integration of different aspects of ego and self as a child, and the nature of the parental roles in that process. Regardless of theory, NPD is characterized by extremely low self-esteem, which is compensated for by delusions of grandeur and megalomania, a narcissistic neuroses. With the propensity to act only on behalf of one's self, the unbridled need to feed one's ego, and the objectification of others to serve the power-hungry needs of megalomania, it is easy to see how this can be a recipe for disaster, especially when wrapped in a charismatic personality.

Among dictators, fundamentalists, and politicians we find those who view themselves as morally superior with the willingness to sacrifice, kill, or risk the safety of others considered inferior in order to assert their own agendas. Though there are legitimate circumstances in which leaders must exercise civil or military force, or religious zealots can profess solemn beliefs, the line between religiosity and fanaticism, between duty and megalomania, can be a gray one. This is how the term has become part of our culture's vernacular.

Megalomania is also sometimes associated with bipolar disorder; a depressive illness that is characterized by mood swings from extreme lows to extreme highs. During the latter cycle, people often suffer delusions of grandeur and feelings of infinite capability. They talk about unrealistic plans and goals as if these plans and goals are within their grasp.

NPD, megalomania, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia can all be treated with medications. If you or someone you know is experiencing manic moods, unrealistic delusions or antisocial behavior, professional treatment is necessary. Unlike a virus or cold, these disorders will not improve without treatment.

Maybe all we have to do is advise him to seek medical help?

Cab drivers and doormen the world over are scam.

That's a ridiculous generalization.

My father was his whole life with the Royal xxx Navy and traveled absolutely anywhere, I have no reason to doubt him. I guess he talked in general, but ridicules, no. You are not a cab driver or doorman are you?

has anyone tried the pattaya taxi meter cars yet and if so what are the prices like compared to bkk meters ??

No, but a friend of mine tried No. 6. Refusal and abuse. We tried calling the local police and the tourist police on various numbers not one reply.

My tactic in BKK was (good old days) to tell them clearly, after they started driving that I would only pay what was on the meter. They always switched the thing on very quickly. Cab drivers and doormen the world over are scam. Old one from my father, and he could know hahaha

There is no "correct" english spelling of any Thai word. It is entirely dependent on the persons perception of it pronunciation and converstion to something phonetically equivalent. e.g. falang/farang, Hatyai/Hadyai, etc, etc........

"falang/farang,", not so, Farang in Thai is written with a clear "r" or "roh rua" and not with an "l" as in "loh ling", falang is only spoken because most (basic) Thais are lazy to speak proper Thai. If you want to speak proper Thai listen to the news readers on TV. If your Thai is "bar girl Thai" everybody will understand you but if you are in business you are not being respected, only accepted because of your money but you will never know, nobody will confront you because of the culture of not "possibly make you lose face".

Does anyone know where the pharmacy that was in Mikes shopping mall Pattaya moved to? or can some one recommend a good a pharmacy in Pattaya where English is spoken and understood?pharmacy wanted

Fascino, Pattaya Nua, near Tesco Lotus

before you buy, get the discount card for 50baht

it will save you 5%

Well that's only a gimmick for they are definitely more expensive that other pharmacies. If you walk out of Villa Market to the right for about 10 meters there is a pharmacy, the lady speaks English, is very helpful and the prices are 20% cheaper than at Fascino and no discount gimmicks.

Big Red Shirt rally here in Korat today,, march on Prems house apparently. At least 20,000 expected.

http://koratfarang.com/board/index.php?topic=6105.0

I think I,ll stay in and bask in the glory of Sheffield United beating Sheffield Wednesday at football.....

Well, only 2000 showed up and wend away after being refused to get close. 2000 x 500 = 1000000 cash register pling pling hahaha

Thailand needs a moratorium on protests, at least for a while.

The laws are there. Also the law for the official who does not do his job to keep the law.

Section 215.- Whenever ten persons upwards being assembled together do or threaten to do an act of violence, or do any thing to cause a breach of the peace, every such person shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding six months or fine not exceeding one thousand baht, or both.

Section 216.- Whenever an official orders the persons assembled together in order to commit the offence prescribed in Section 215 to disperse, any person who does not disperse shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding three years or fine not exceeding six thousand baht, or both.

(3)Section 157.- Whoever, being an official, wrongfully exercises or does not exercise any of his functions to the injury of any person, or dishonestly exercises or omits to exercise any of his functions, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years or fine of two thousand to twenty thousand bath, or both.

So here you are, education and the rule of law and we all live happily ever after.. or not?

<snip>

Well, I was around. I remember very well that this all happened while I was on the bus to Pattaya (a 4 hour ride over a mostly 3 lane provincial road) and quite a few Thais had little transistor radios and were all listening. My Thai language capabilities were not spectacular those days but I picked up the excitement and that Prem, who was loved very much, was on the way with an army from Korat to Bangkok to fight. Wow, I still get goose bumbs right now remebering all this. That was life, living in the far east in a real thrird world country, they would never understand that back home hahaha Sorry if I get a bit nostalgic, but the good old days were really very different from now. I know it is not politically correct for most of you but I have been in I think 4 or 5 coups, and always life became calmer and better afterwards (at least for a while), a "despot of overly corrupt PM" was removed for good reason. Democracy, well for the time being it does not really work well here. Please do not use your western way of thinking and your western ideas as benchmark, it is useless, misguided and wrong. The same as a Thai would go to the west and constantly tells everybody there how wrong they do things because back home in Thailand we do it different, and, thats the only right way.... Get my drift??

Well, in the states, right now the hot news is that of a 20 and 25 year old went into an "ACORN" branch with a hidden camera and asked about getting government paid help with buying a house to host their "Prostitution biz, complete with underage girls from south america". The managers of the offices (they went to four offices throughout the states), wanted to help them, no one threw them out. Then the videos got posted on the internet, and now the company ACORN is under total fire, it has been getting millions of government money.... The people that broke the story, no charges.... The crooked government is finally cutting off funding to this company, they have no choice, the country now sees the corruption,, well, we saw it before, but now "they" have to do something about it. ITS ON THE INTERNET!

Ahhhhhh, America, you can compare it to finally putting on clean socks and shoes after wearing flip flops for three months in thailand.

Here is the site, if you were wondering... biggovernment . com

wow, and do they think it will do them more good for tourism than harm by sending the production company to jail? How about using that energy and the courts to I don't know maybe arrest the scammers, put a stop to the tuk-tuk crap, arrest any cop on the take....

WOW is all I can really say.

"to finally putting on clean socks and shoes after wearing flip flops for three months in Thailand"

That's weird, never heard that foreigners were forced to wear flip flops. I only wear socks and shoes, also a protection against open wounds and infections.

If the police cannot stop the extortion, then who will????????????

No, no, not cannot, it's will not. Different but the same

I guess teargas is out of the picture??

Hi

Im trying to get a job on a oilrig somewhere, and hope that somebody here could give me some help.

I am working in the windturbine industry, where I do all kind of jobs ,el,hydr,troubleshooting, ect.

it is onshore and offshore worldwide, the job is good but, the company, like us to stay on the job up to 3 monts at the time, with no chance to go home, and as I have a small child , I think it is long time to be away.

So to go on a rotation like 3-4 weeks on / off, would be nice.

I have all certificate to work offshore.

So any ideas would be nice

Thanx

In the good old days I ALWAYS found work in Singapore. ALL companies have offices there. As you live in Thailand this is close to "home" and they don't have to fork out a ticket every time. Go to the offices yourself, make contact with the secretaries they are your first hurdle. Good luck. PS there is lots of work in Russia as well.

Thailand wants to become number one in entertainment business in Asia

They are already, I laugh on a daily base about how things happen hahaha

Hi. I am not sure if this post is a good idea or not since it is not wise for us to talk about our political views here in Thailand but for some of us long term expats I think we do have a right to at least discuss it in a Thread.

I for one have a business here where I employ 18 Thai's and I pay tax and insurance etc for my workers so I am just curious what the rest of you think so I can get a better understanding maybe.

I am a Red shirt supporter and would welcome Thaxsin back with open arms right now. I know all about the corruption but I have NEVER seen one that wasn't corrupt anywhere.

On the other hand maybe the new PM deserves a chance as well. Ok he has no money or experience etc but.......

I am not American but I can compare Abhisit to Obama where as both were left with a disolving country where the former Priminister/President left the country in shambles and are expected to be mirical workers and make everything better BUT.....

So I actually feel for both of them.

<snip>

If this thread is allowed to stay here and is not a dangerous thing for us expats to discuss, I think it would be great to hear everyones opinion. If not then my next post will be from a jail cell. hahahha.

My experience: When I applied for my 1 year visa and then for my 1 year work permit, we noticed that my passport was finished 6 months from that time so Immigration told me they could only give me 6 month visa and when I got a new passport just to come in and they would extend it for another 6 months free. Thats fair enough. The work permit office said the same thing.

In May I reported to Immigration and showed them my new passport and was granted my extra 6 months visa no problems.

My work permit however was due on May 10th for re-newal. So now I had my visa and everything seemed simple except that May 10th was a holiday. On May 11th I was attending the funeral/Burning of a close friend but called the work permit office to tell them I would be in the following day. No answer.

I went in on May 12th early and showed them my new visa and asked for the extension of my work permit. The girl must have woke up on the wrong side of bed that day because she simply said "Work permit finished May 10th. Now you need to start all over again".

After explaining to her that 10th was a holiday and that I called the office the next day to let them know I was at a funeral and would be in the following day she still just walked away. (Chonburi Office).

I told her that if I couldnt get it that there would be 18 Thai workers out of a job and with the economy maybe she could just be nice.....Well you know the rest of the story.

Went to the highest Government agent and explained to them and was told "Not our problem".

So how is the future of living in Thailand gonna effect us all and what do you folks think about it all.

It is a MUST that you learn to follow the rules EXACTLY that's why they are there for if you agree or not is unimportant. Usually Thais don't like to take responsibility for something which enables another Thai to cut off their head. It is so much easier to say no, cannot than to stick out ones head, even higher up. UNLESS you let someone else do your laundry, someone who makes a living out of "helping" especially foreigners to get things done. Your mistakes were and what you should do is.

1 Try do it yourself, can but cannot, just accept it, even if you don't agree with it.

2 Bring arguments on the table as to why they should bend the rules for you. This makes them even more stand fast, now they get even more uneasy.

3 Quite a few officers have (on a daily base) to deal with foreigners who do not really know how to make them (officials) at ease. Even if we say their English is good they don't think so them selves and hence they are apprehensive when it comes to foreigners, and rightfully so for they usually have an aura around them which a Thai translates as trouble. Not to mention the various accents. I even have a problem with understanding some Australians, Kiwi's, Brits and Americans, what you think about Thais. Actually learn at least spoken Thais, they respect your effort (be careful, no bar slang Thai 555)

4 Don't try to get it for free, spend a little on a broker and you live very peaceful without stress.

I could go on but will not now.

Good luck.

I had heard that early on in his business career that he received some lucrative contracts for computers from the police. Can anybody verify this information.

It's in her testimony - establishment of Shinawatra computers. Her father was the police general and the company got a contract supplying all police stations in Thailand.

Should that not read "a" police general? I think there are nearly 400 of them?

"but a mans word should be worth something" for honourable people yes, for charlatans no. I am operating in the E Seaboard and there are plain crooks in abundance here, especially in the real estate business. I am in the prelim stages of setting up a web site highlighting those bad boys as many as possible. This is for the un expecting and (too) trustworthy new comers to take heed. I know of people literally lifted of hundreds of millions of baht, and no I am not joking.

But, unfortunately most new comers only trust their own country men (and women) not realising how criminal they are.

May I make two polite suggestions

1) Buy your wife a gun and find a good builder to turn your house into a fortress.

2) Get someone to proof-read your site. I found your posts to be unclear and if its just me, I apologize in advance, it must be MY lack of communication skills.

Dave

Hi Dude (American perhaps), My wife doesn't need to support me in this, I am allowed as a Thai citizen to buy one myself. If I would write in my own native language (which is not Thai) you for sure would not get it. And if you would be able to write as good in my language as I do in yours you deserve an Oscar. Now, no more polite suggestions please LOL

Is corruption getting worse in Thailand?

Nice attempt at subtly pushing your (sick) hidden agenda. But I just wanted to let you know that, if you had read the news (you and Caf are buddies? ), you would have understood that the actual crime in this case happened when the name of Thai PM was Thaksin Shinnawatra.

The couple worked on the festival in 2003 and operated it from 2004 through 2006

Now who is pushing agendas here. What a rude post, go wash your mouth and your hands to and clean your key board.......

Let's try to keep it civil and not flame others.

There are a lot of implications in a case like this. For example, how might this affect other business ventures, since most contracts are done through greasing some palms?

How does Thailand look internationally, although it is hardly a huge international story, because of this?

Is corruption getting worse in Thailand?

No, it only is more exposed lately probably through the availability of local and worldwide news over the internet.

So let me get this straight.

If you have to give a bribe to a Thai ( cop, amphur whatever ), then it is you that have committed the offence?

Answers on a postcard ( or the back of a postage stamp) : Has any Thai ever not blamed a foreigner?

Don't you just love the law.... The Penal Code of Thailand One can buy it in any bookshop at a courthouse, Baht 400 if I remember one page in Thai one in English.

(1)Section 147.- Whoever, being an official having the duty of purchasing, manufacturing, managing or keeping any thing, dishonestly misappropriates the same for his own or the other person, or dishonestly allows the other person to misappropriates the some, shall be punished with imprisonment of five to twenty years or imprisonment for life, and fine of two thousand to forty thousand bath.

(2)Section 148.- Whoever, being an official, by a wrongful exercise of his functions, coerces or induces any person to deliver or to procure a property or any other benefit for himself or the other person, shall be punished with imprisonment of five to twenty years or imprisonment for life, and fine of two thousand to forty thousand bath, or death.

DEATH gentlemen, thats right hahahaha

Good, now nail the Thai witch queen over here.

Nail? How can you write that, she has told us vehemently, many times, that she did not do it, you don't think the lady lies do you? She now has to share the spoils to get away.

It could be an interesting Saturday. Reds in BKK, Yellows standing between two jumpy armys, and heaven only knows what the boys in the southern provinces have lined up for the day.

Yes Scott you're right, it's becoming ridiculous a moratorium on protesting would be welcomed by 98% of the thinking population I guess. When "freedom" is endangering it should be curtailed, period.

Does anyone know who sells Plantation Shutters with the 3", 4', or 5" louver slats? Prefer VINYL but could live with wood if quality made.

Need to use on Sliding Glass Doors.

Thanks in advance for any information.

Home Pro in Carrefour Pattaya Klang has a selection shutters, looking is free:)

Well, most of the "bar-girls" ARE "regular" girls... From my village I know of many girls,who go to look for a farang-husband,and the only way they know how,is to work in a bar for some time.Actually in the same way,that we farangs look for girls in the bars,because we do not know how else we can find one.By the way,the more,how to say,upscale girls,are normaly not so interested.At least not in some old fat farang.And why should they?!After that,they return to the village (or to the husband´s homecountry),and sometimes it works out,sometimes not,as with all other marriges.I know also from the many years I spent in Pattaya,and the many girls I got to know,that in most cases, they are "regular" girls.Albeit,there are ALSO lots of not so nice "ladies",and even with a trained eye,you can pick the wrong one...Kind of a lottery...And I just have to add(by experience) :So it is also in Farangland!!!

My two cents after living here permanently for 34 and married for 22 years

1 You don't usually find a diamond in a garbage bin, and PTY is a garbage bin.

2 If your wife originated from a bar, the first thing she will do when there is a fight is to go to that bar driving the point home that you actually are a long stay client.

3 Bar girls are usually "high maintenance" with unreasonable expectations compared to ehhhrr non bar girls.

4 It takes only 30 days for a newby in a bar to learn the ropes and this can never be turned back.

5 Rarely do these marriages last, except when living abroad with their husbands.

6 Living apart (for work) makes the relationship last longer, the test is 24/7 together.

7 Big age difference is asking for trouble. They all deserve an oscar for acting the lovely wife, meanwhile waiting for Joe to kick the bucket.

7 Of course there are exceptions.

Could go on for a while.

Army uneasy about PAD's Preah Vihear protest plan

By The Nation

Published on September 14, 2009

The Army yesterday urged restraint when the People's Alliance for Democracy demonstrates on Saturday at Preah Vihear Temple for the eviction of Cambodian troops and villagers occupying a disputed area near the ancient site.

"Shall we be careful about the protest since such an activity, despite good intentions, could affect operating strategy on the ground?" Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaeowkamnerd said.

People should be confident in the Army's ability to secure Thai sovereignty over the territory, he said.

The conflict should be solved peacefully through talks, not by force, he said, adding that it could be settled by the joint border commission.

The PAD led by Veera Somkwamkid plans to call a rally this week to demand the removal of Cambodian troops and communities from the area.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya inspected the overlapping zone adjacent to the temple.

He met Cambodian commander Cheat Dara and some Thai field commanders. He told the commanders that his government wants to maintain good relations with Cambodia and would employ peaceful means to resolve the claims over the area.

He also visited military and border police outposts in the area including Phu Ma Khua, where military skirmishes last October and in April killed seven soldiers on both sides.

Kasit, who is a former PAD member, also questioned the group's motives.

"I have explained several times via both the PAD's ASTV network and the national network of Channel 11 that the best way to solve the problem is through negotiation," Kasit said.

"We cannot use the military to take over the contested area," he said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said his government would not do any thing that could concede sovereign rights over the territory.

"We will do our best for the national interest but we should prevent misunderstandings that could lead to clashes and losses," he said.

-- The Nation 2009/09/14

Why not declare the area off limit for protests?

Technically, they have a right to open fire...

Yeah but if this is true, burning him is not. But wait for the other side to report, if they do.