plachon

the truth is thaksin tells the red shirts what to do, how to act, who to blow up or kill and yet all his supporters in here try to deny it when it happens, The reds do exactly what thaksin says, he orchestrated the 2010 uprising, he told them to cause as many deaths and burn as many buildings as they could, he orchestrated the killings in the last protest and told them again what to do. Have to wonder just how pathetically minded his supporters are or if they even have any regard for the the majority of thai people. Anyone that accepts anything thaksin says is an idiot same as those that accept what suthep says, way past time for all these so called leaders to be silenced.

Yes, there is something slightly ironic for this so-called icon of democracy to instruct his supporters to burn, pillage, rebel and destroy central Bangkok and other provincial centres (including 4 provincial halls and other public infrastructure belonging to the people of Thailand) under a Democrat Party-led government, but to sit meekly around and not cause any trouble whatsoever under a military junta-led government. I always tell my Isaan-born wife to refrain from labelling the Redshirts as "buffaloes", seeing it as too derogatory to his diehard supporters, but even I now am starting to wonder if the metaphor isn't too cruel to the poor old buffalo.

The only thing this bloke should be allowed to open is a can of coke.

Bike lanes for the south nothing but rhetoric and martial law for the north.

Nice one general the poor are surely to be thankful for such a genourus gift from you.

Guess unimportant stuff like health education welfare etc can take a backseat while the elite can play with their new toy.

Priorities right up there with Indian wedding planning!

"Bike lanes for the south"

Actually, as the OP makes clear ("around Rattanakosin Island in the capital"), this island is in Bangkok.

"martial law for the north"

Actually it was, and remains, for the whole country, not just the north as you suggest.

I'd also say, it's nice to see a PM who wears a helmet, when out on his two-wheeled transport, unlike a previous bad-example !

So wearing a helmet is some sort of morality statement to you. I can just see tarzan wearing his helmet while swinging through the trees. Get real!

Not at all, you totally missed that reference, although many longer-serving members will recall, what you clearly don't ...

Once upon a time, a decade or so ago, there was a Prime Minister & Cabinet of Thailand, who showed their one-ness with the ordinary people by touring Isaan on their flash motorbikes, Harleys and the like.

But although the law said, even back then, that helmets should be worn, and photos of the Great-Biker & his gang showed, they felt they were all above-the-law, or that the helmets might destroy the value of the photo-opp, as they wore none.

This was the subject of a certain amount of gentle hilarity, amongst farangs & TV-posters, at the time. All the Bibs saluting a group of people who were clearly breaking the law as they rode past.

Which also therefore explains the smilie, after the last line of my post.

No "some sort of morality statement" after all, but humour, of a sort.

Ah yes, remember it well, the Atsamat Model of reality TV.......when Our Dear Leader handed out 500 B notes to poor old ladies as his gift to them, to show what a benevolent and caring PM he was. Such an altruistic man, so no helmet was necessary as surely no harm could ever come to a veritable saint of the people and laws are just for the proles, right?

It probably would be cheaper to pay the farmers not to farm!!

This would actually not be such a crazy idea, especially in the case of rice farmers who do second crops with the subsidies in place. It could be a win-win situation, as the subsidy could be delivered directly to the farmer, based on some kind of cap so large farmers don't snaffle all the benefits, and it would avoid water shortages in many basins, whilst being a big boon to the environment (more ecological flows, less agri-chemicals poisoning land and water sources and resting soil for main rice crop). It would also allow freed up land to be grazed by livestock once more, thus allowing more natural fertilizer to enter soil and grasses to be turned into animal protein, allowing farmers to earn money from a non-subsidised product. Govt would win too, as it could reduce its overall bill for subsidies and try to get rid of the massive rice stockpiles on its hands at a slightly better price than in the past. Only losers would be the rice buyers and parasitic capitalist class of politicians and agribusiness traders who feed from the subsidised rice racket (some of whom will hopefully go to the wall in the current campaign against the ringleaders of the last govt).

Contrary to Halloween's contention above, the arguments put forward for not proceeding with Don Sahong dam, are specific to the context of this individual project's anticipated impacts. These arguments have been carefully considered by a wide range of individuals and organizations, dating back to at least 2008, when a group of "Scientists concerned for the sustainable development of the Mekong River", sent a letter to a number of governmental agencies, including the MRC, expressing their concern about the impact of the dam on fisheries, aquatic biodiversity, downstream ecosystems and local livelihoods.

Many of the people who signed the letter are recognized experts in their field and since then, a number of other international organizations have expressed their concerns and opposition to the dam project, including WWF and the World Fish Center, which has issued a science brief on the "Don Sahong Dam and Mekong Fisheries". In it they state, "The Hoo Sahong channel, the site of the proposed dam, plays an especially important role in fish migration basinwide" and just as importantly, "There are no effective measures in the region to mitigate the impact of dams on fisheries".

In other words, if the Don Sahong project goes ahead, it will screw up the fisheries potential for millions of people dependent on them upstream and downstream. The project developers are ignoring the opinion of the best experts on Mekong fisheries, including their own consultant who was hired to conduct an EIA on fisheries, by going ahead with the dam and pretending that they can mitigate the impacts. There is no credible evidence to suggest that what they are proposing will ameliorate the level of damage that will inevitably be caused by the dam's construction. There will be numerous other serious environmental impacts besides, which at present are being downplayed by Mega First and the government of Laos.

More background information is available here:

http://www.savethemekong.org/admin_controls/js/tiny_mce/plugins/imagemanager/files/statement/10sep2014eng.pdf

http://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/don-sahong-dam

http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/say-no-to-don-sahong-dam

This is not about hydropower engineering and technology, but about rational options for allowing maximum development benefits for millions of river users and a healthy environment into the future, against much fewer benefits for a handful of investors and relatively small numbers of energy consumers in the short term. Don Sahong is an irrational energy project being pushed by a small clique of profiteers.

Funny there is no mention of how the process broke over the much larger Xayaburi dam with Laos refusing to agree to environmental studies requested by Vietnam and Cambodia and declining to sign the minutes of the MRC meeting. Also no mention of the case filed against Xayaburi I'm the Thai Supreme Admim Court requesting an injunction against EGAT and Exim Bank Bank financial involvement. That is what really holds the fate of the Mekong as the MRC has been proved toothless to protect the river.

Good points, but I don't think the MRC and its stakeholders see its main role is to "protect" the Mekong, but rather develop it "sustainably". As no one can agree on a common definition of what "sustainable" means in practice and the Mekong Agreement is a non-legally binding agreement, the individual countries that border the Mekong can pretty much get away with doing what they like with the river, using the unilateral path of development upstream in China as their ideal blueprint. Water sovereignty rules, especially for Laos, which is proving a smorgasbord of short term profiteering opportunities at the expense of the environment and society by all its richer and more powerful neighbours. In practice, however, there are some checks and balances at play between Thailand and Vietnam's development goals and aims, as these nations now start to exert a slight break on the mainstream activities of their smaller/poorer neighbours, although this clearly failed to halt the project's construction in the case of Xayaburi. Perhaps the judges of the Supreme Court can save the day on Xayaburi, if not the river's biodiversity and ecological health?

There must be a Thai town in Phnom Penh by this time with all the fugitives....

I would imagine the casino's of Poipet would be a good place to start looking. Phnom Penh is a little far from the action and less convenient for meeting friends and family than a casino within sight of the border owned and run by one's countrymen.

After you caught all the corrupt RTP go after all the unusually rich 4 star Generals. I wonder how much a promotion to General would cost here or a transfer to a staff position could cost someone.

A friend of mine paid more than $US one million for a promotion from Pol. Lt. Col. to Pol. General about three years ago. It makes me wonder why Pol. Capt. Chalerm stayed as a Captain.

How could a Pol. Lt. Col. ever accumulate a million dollars to buy a promotion.

I NEVER ask people about their personal business. I only hear what they volunteer. This friend has never volunteered any information on his income. I have heard from other friends, who are familiar with the way the RTP operates, that it begins as low as patrol officers who charge extra fees from businesses on their beat for extra services like keeping non-customers from parking in front of their business or keeping an extra close eye on the business when it is closed, etc.. Those officers keep some and pass some up to the next level which would be sergeants. The sergeants are collecting money from many patrolmen, keeping some and passing the rest up to the lieutenants, the lieutenants are collecting from all their sergeants, they keep some and pass the rest up the chain, and so on. The higher the rank, the more money from more sources so that by the time one is a Lt. Col., one is a dollar millionaire after a few years. All this is in addition to separate schemes, deals, scams, etc. that individuals and groups devise to earn money. Since many of these operations are illegal, they must pay a share to their superiors to stay out of trouble. There also bribes from all the illicit civilian operations including selling fake goods, pirated goods, prostitution, gambling, drugs, etc. and in many cases, the police are in partnership with these civilian criminals if the police are not doing them alone. There is a saying that if your business is legal, you pay taxes and if your business is illegal you pay the police. Civilian criminal enterprises that don't pay on time or don't pay enough get raided. You don't really hear about that many raids, do you. Walk around Nana and tell me if prostitution and selling fake goods is illegal. There is every permutation you could imagine. There are scams/schemes you would never dream of. Not too long ago it was reported on this forum that some policemen were planting ATM cards near ATMs and arresting and extorting anyone foolish enough to try to use the cards. Illegal foreign workers don't get deported, they get extorted. Add all this ongoing money-making together and the way the money is distributed and no one should be surprised at the kind of money the police are making. Have you never seen all the highway checkpoints where papers, helmet use, etc. is checked and bribes paid. These activities bring in millions of dollars a day and it is all distributed to higher and higher levels and it is all protected by higher-ups. Who is going to police the police. It's been reported that the police have been involved in just about every criminal enterprise in Thailand. Like I said, a police commissioned officer doesn't have to bother with any illegal business to accrue his money. It just flows past him and he is entitled to a share as is passes. Look at the billions of Baht found in the houses of the generals and colonels who were just caught. Just think how much they have stashed offshore. What got found was petty cash. Why wouldn't officers just a few ranks below have millions? Remember the monk with the private jet? He had a helipad outside his wat for officers to bring their cash for him to take offshore and invest in European villas and such. This is big business, it is well organized, and is happening every day. There is no way to stop it as it runs from the bottom to the top and if one is arrested, they are still many more to replace him.

Good, clear explanation of the patronage system of upwards accumulation of benefits. Who do you suppose is above Pongpat in the food chain and how much will that person have accumulated from their symbiotic relationship I wonder? And are we ultimately talking about two competitive parallel hierarchical food chains at present in the country, with one starting to collapse to the benefit of the other, older and more established chain or web?

Your wife appears to be locked in a no hoper married relationship, no home she can call her own, no financial freedom and all assets belonging to you. Some posters on here are complaining about Thai women relationships, but I can tell you that most western women with any sort of self respect would never entertain being associated with guys like the OP, let alone being married to him.

She could have a go earning her own money, like we (men) all had to do.

No woman with any respect for herself, needs to be supported by a man, she supports herself.

My gf can live off me for as long as she likes.

She can leave at any time, she can work at any time, I will pay for her education if she wants one.

(She just finished high school, I have suggested she now attends university at my expense)

The idea she can live off me then take a chunk of my money if she leaves is incomprehensible to me.

Sounds like you are after a pet (albeit partly educated), and not a partner in life. That's fine, but there is little real trust in such arrangements, as opposed to marriage, which is normally viewed as an equal partnership.

Issan is a big place. Headline is very misleading. Southern Ubon provence has seen way too much rain all season and even today when they are trying to salvage half a harvest another downpour set them back.

Why misleading.

"Drought in Isaan batters many areas".

If you look at the chart one might find "many" quite appropriate.

South eastern part of Isan (Buriram, Ubon) is the exception.

From your chart, I would say southeastern (most of Ubon & part of Sisaket), southwestern (parts of Buriram & Surin), central ( most of Mahasarakham & Kalasin), and northeastern (most of Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom and Nongkhai) Isaan have experienced above average rainfall this year. Everywhere else has had below average rainfall, but this does not necessarily prove drought. "Drought" depends upon many factors, not just rainfall. There are also several definitions of "drought".

Traditional Thai tourism: Load ALL the family in the pickup, bring the speakers, bring the booze, park at the beach, get wasted, crank the volume, have a few verbal altercations(optional), get more wasted and then leave. Remember to leave said beach in a worse condition than when you arrived(not optional). I live at the beach...if you're upcountry, replace beach with waterfall, river, lake etc.

You forgot to emphasise the obligatory step of leaving all your trash in exactly the place you consumed it (bottles, plastic bags, plastic plates, cutlery, waste food, tissues, etc, etc), imagining the Thai beauty spot waste fairy will magically clean it up for you after one's departure. Or maybe some of the groups I've seen do exactly this don't even rationalise that much, just not giving a flying <deleted> what happens after they desert it in situ?

I guess she's achieved her goal of being remembered as a world class fiddler now.

But bang goes the skiing career and not a great addition to her CV.

I did have quite a bit of admiration initially for her inclusion in the Olympics, but now I know how it was achieved, it leaves a sour taste about her sense of entitlement.

Have you though about nipping over the river to Laos and buying one of the brands of Boloven coffee (e.g. Lao Mountain Coffee)- some of the best in the world, IMHO. They might stock Vietnamese coffee too (given the high resident popn. of VNMese), and probably much cheaper than same stuff in Thailand.

The snake may well have taken a tooth hold on her hand.... but it's highly unlikely, without full body constriction, it could have taken her down the latrine.

In addition, how did Khun Rampeung know there was a snake's nest in her loo?

Sounds a bit out of the ordinary to me.

Sounds a fangtastical story to me.........

Oooo . . . that photo makes my skin crawl and I ain't referring to the Thai guy on the right.

At least he didn't hug and kiss Prayuth, like he did when he met Ghaddafi.

Thai at heart post # 5

Please note, nowhere did the 1tn baht make any mention of misappropriation. This subsidy was so big and for so long, it achieved this without any significant theft.

And as yet, not probably a baht to Yingluck herself. So.

Good luck to the prosecution.

Should be an easy matter to find the money trail to Dubai as opposed to little sister shouldn't it?

Um, considering Thailand conducts international business through the international clearing system, I am amazed they haven't found this gargantuan theft already.

Isn't 1tn baht enough to.make the Burj Dubai fall over.

You think the shins would actually be so stupid to steal from this?what did they say last week after the 3mn tonne scaremongering. 100,000 tonnes from 58,000,000 purchase. O.0? How much missing?

They have NOTHING to pin on her directly. Nothing.

And that's always been the beauty of being a prime minister in Thailand surely? You can get away with policy corruption without ever being brought to book. She may never have personally profited from the rice scheme, or maybe she did, but she used it as a system of tacit bribes to the Shin political network nationwide to keep them onside, well-fed and complicit in the game of wholesale kin muang that was going on under her government. It worked for her big brother and previous PMs so why shouldn't it work for her. The main difference was the size and audacity of this particular heist on the public purse. And there are many that think it is time this pattern was broken and PM's should not be above the law, as the baht stops with them over policies.

Darn....my favourite Sakhon Nakhon dog eatery gone to the pigs.....

That final bit about Thais not normally eating dog meat is a bit of a porky. Apart from Isaan, where you could argue most of the clientele are Lao ethnicity, rather than Thais, some of the most popular areas for dog consumption in Thailand are apparently in Phrae, Phayao, Lampang, Chiang Mai provinces apparently, where they most definitely are "Thai" ethnicity, by most simple definitions. And to pretend that people didn't eat dogs before the Vietnamese brought the commercialisation of dog markets into the Northeast, would be naive at best. Dog has always been a popular dish in Northern and Northeastern Thailand as far as I can discern, but only at the local, village level and not for sale. That is why your average Isaan family would rather take a bucket for their mangy mutt than money, giving the traders a tidy profit and avoiding the feeling of "barb" for selling off the family pet.

In my 30 years of living in and visiting a small Isaan village, I have never, ever, seen or heard of anyone eating dog and I think it must be at least 10 years since I last saw a dog-catchers' van doing the rounds.

Well, all I can say is you can't of got out and about much or must have lived a very sheltered life in your wee village. I've been served and/or eaten dog in all 5 provinces I've lived and seen/heard people eat and like dog everywhere I've gone. It's a bit of an open secret and joke for a lot of Isaan men to have a nice bit of dog on a cold January night. Black are tastiest/best, supposedly. Last time I was up in Sakhon Nakhon (2013) there were several new dog meat eateries opened up in rural spots, all aimed at a Thai clientele, not Vietnamese. Regularly seen the dog catching songtaew around up until 2010 also, but haven't been back much since. There have been a few more crackdowns on the business in the last few years for sure, but it is still there if you look hard enough. Tha Rae, Sakhon Nakhon is ground zero for the traders.

Darn....my favourite Sakhon Nakhon dog eatery gone to the pigs.....

That final bit about Thais not normally eating dog meat is a bit of a porky. Apart from Isaan, where you could argue most of the clientele are Lao ethnicity, rather than Thais, some of the most popular areas for dog consumption in Thailand are apparently in Phrae, Phayao, Lampang, Chiang Mai provinces apparently, where they most definitely are "Thai" ethnicity, by most simple definitions. And to pretend that people didn't eat dogs before the Vietnamese brought the commercialisation of dog markets into the Northeast, would be naive at best. Dog has always been a popular dish in Northern and Northeastern Thailand as far as I can discern, but only at the local, village level and not for sale. That is why your average Isaan family would rather take a bucket for their mangy mutt than money, giving the traders a tidy profit and avoiding the feeling of "barb" for selling off the family pet.

Yes I flew RT Bangkok - Beijing- SFO last month. I must say that along with Air India - Air China is among the WORST airlines that I have flown in my 45 plus years.

Terrible food, lame video selection on the flights, sniping flight attendants that chastise you for watching video on your cellphone and demand you turn off even when it is ok to use laptops and tablets. I could go on and on. I also had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to some old guy that smelled like a horse's ass for the trans-pacific leg. But that could have happened on any airline.

I hate to say that even Delta is much better than Air China - and that is saying alot considering US based airlines are some of the worst customer service-wise in the world.

Much better options are JAL, Korean Air, ANA, China Air(out of Taiwan NOT China), Cathay, and Thai Air(even though they are usually very expensive for International flights)

Then there is the nightmare of going through transit in China.

Even though I was in transit and getting on another plane out of the country - China makes you wait in line and go through passport controls and stamps your passport. WHY?

I am only in transit for an hour or so.

Then even though I had already gone through security in Bangkok and again the other way in the USA , I had to go through full security again. And if you thought the TSA was bad - just experience these Chinese Nazis.

After I went through a metal detector - this guy insisted on giving me a full clothed body search. When he reached into my pockets and almost into my pants, I yelled at him to lay off and almost slugged him.

Complete utter jerks on power trips. The first time he even wanded my passport I was holding. Did he think he was going to find a mini bomb in the pages?

It is because of this experience I will NEVER transit through China again. It is worth it to me to pay the extra $100-$200 or however much more to transfer through non-gestapo airports in So. Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc. where you instead wait in a sterile transit area for your transfer, do not have to go through a passport control, and do not get humiliated by Nazi-like guards.

Funny, sounds just like my experience transiting through Atlanta, Georgia on way to Mexico. Never again, after all the hassle of those Yankie Nazis for which you have to pay for the pleasure of their visa for not even setting foot in the country.......

Ayuttaya using elephant for tourist ride it's really cruel as hook use to control on ear and over working during weekend where you can see many tourist, need to boycott such moved to return poor elephant to Myanmar forest where they belong, still lack of laws to protect such great animal .

I m afraid there is not a lot of forest left in Burma for the poor elephants to return to. Nor in Cambodia, Laos or SW China. The sad reality is, that the forests (or what's left of them) are in such a poor state that for most elephants in captivity, there is little chance they will ever be able to return to a natural habitat, even if they could survive without their handlers. It's a cruel Catch 22 situation for an elephant in Thailand, and their best hope is for a kind mahout, working in an elephant camp that gives them good conditions, vetinerary care and the chance for some respite in surrounding jungle and rivers/lakes, when they are not working.

Ain't you over the top

This one,

But woman talking to an older man as indicated by these two words.

(อ้าย เจ้า)

I wondered if the first word was not a Lao transliteration attempt at the English word "postpone", as in "how about postponing it, older brother?" spoken by a younger woman to an older guy she looks up to? Am probably talking <deleted>, but it was my first thought on reading the sentence.

The rent for one rai of farmland have gone up in some parts 100% or more than before the rice pledging scheme.

Many farmers that used to use crop rotation started to just growing rice because of the high price. The effect were that more fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides were needed resulting in a higher production cost.

And still some blame the junta for canceling the rice pledging scheme and don't understanding that a government can't buy a product at +200% of the market price!

If the farmers want to blame anyone then they should blame CP as they at the moment stands for 50% or more of the food industry/retail in Thailand with production of chicken, pork, beef, rice, fruit, ready made food and so on, they control the whole change from farmers-factories-outlets (7-11, macro etc.). I did see a survey about the fish farms in Tak and Kamphaeng Phet provinces (Ping river from Bhumibol dam to the beginning of Chao Phraya river), about 85% are contract farmers for CP! CP is one of the biggest food companies in the world so this company alone have a higher impact on the market price than any Thai government!

And of course, CP are in need of protection from foreign companies who are prevented d from entering the market in Thailand.

While everyone was apparently terrified of foreigners entering farming, CP was busy laughing all the way to the bank.

While I would not disagree with the notion that CP has been prevented from exposure to "free and fair" competition from foreign transnational agribusinesses, I would reject the notion that had Thailand opened its doors wide to every company under the sun, that the situation for Thai farmers would have been better. They would still have been indebted to agribusiness and pouring chemicals onto their land and down their cramped livestocks' throats at the rate of knots, but the main difference would have been there would have been far fewer farmers, as the land would no longer be in any farmers' hands but they would all have been tenant farmers or moved out of farming altogether. Now, this latter may have been a good thing economically for those households, as small-scale farming can be a deadend occupation in a modern, industrialised economy, but the simple fact is that there are other benefits from farming than simply "maximising efficiency" under a neo-liberal agricultural model, as trends towards organic farming and de-intensification on ecological grounds in the post-industrial Western world are demonstrating.

CP has profited handsomely from its protection and dominance, for sure, but the problem is not so much the lack of other CPs, but the model of farming and wider economical model promoted that is the core of the trouble in Thailand. This needs root and stem reform, which would then solve the cause of the illness, not just its symptoms. Unlikely to happen, however, under present political malaise.

Well I beg to disagree. I was in a market I. Thailand with 3 participants. The govt, and two foreign joint ventures. The joint ventures exported, the Thai did domestic.

Prices rose princely due to competition with the govt the port of last resort for the farmer. These markets need more competition to squeeze supply volume and to scrape margin off the middle man.

Having one player with such a massive scale and dominance is never going to be good with the farmer. They need to have more demand in the market and allowing foreigners is is one surefire way.

CP is supplying who? Foreign companies. These foreign companies would love to have another significant supplier in the market too to play off on CP. But of course CP is never going to let that happen.

As I said, there are bigger structural problems that need to be addressed first, if the problems of the agricultural sector are to be wisely addressed. Letting in more foreign competition is not the immediate or universal answer to ordinary Thai farmers' woes. Having a debate about the future of farming, with farmers themselves given a prominent voice, would be a good start. It may turn out that many want nothing more than to get out of agriculture and into a nice, steady waged job in a factory, in which case they should be helped. At the same time there may be many others sweating in a factory, who would like nothing more than to return to the more independent lifestyle than farming offers. Then one can turn to the questions I raised about what model of farming should be encouraged on the land - intensive agribusiness or a more sustainable form of farming?