Ajahnski

Every member of the ROYAL Thai Police should be made to stand in front of a picture of His Majesty at the close of every shift and say out loud "I am proud of everything I did while acting in your name today" ... and when cases like this one come up they should be dragged to the palace to say it in person. Use Thai culture to change Thai culture.

That is an absolutely excellent idea. For things like this, they should make a spectacle of it by either making him do that in front of high ranking superiors or by recording and posting the recording.

I tried it while teaching in an English Program last year because of rampant plagiarism. 30 students in a class yielded 3 semi-original works and a bunch of copies with varying degrees of fidelity to the originals. I made them all write apologies to the King for lying and cheating. There was no support from admin, so the kids just wrote 3 semi-original apologies and a bunch of copied apologies with varying degrees of fidelity to the original apology to His Majesty for lying and cheating. TITS.

(My story aside, it is, honestly, an excellent idea.)

Recently Prawit commented that Yingluck was being followed by BiB b/c she is a "sexy woman".

Given how faithfully the RTP uphold the law, maybe he wasn't joking?

What a bargain! The last time immigration tried to extort me it was for 800 bht!

I guess I should be out committing real crimes instead of honestly following the horrendously translated "Thai Law".

And you wonder why Thailand is now getting closer to China and Russia and becoming less interested in improving relationships with the West, when foreign media publishes a second grade piece of journalism that damns the entire country. I mean, what does that article actually say and why is it newsworthy, a short piece that reminds everyone that nowhere in the world is 100% safe, sad.

really ? is it baiting ? by the way , does this vid remind you something ?

http://video.toggle.sg/en/series/undercover-asia-s3/ep7/377702

http://images.toggle.sg/images/01031601421170_640X360.JPG

Call it what you will, it's simple not an article that's worthy of a national UK broadsheet, it doesn't say anything, it's not newsworthy, it's a page filler. If you want to write and publish a serious piece on the subject then fine, something that is balanced and actually says something, the posted article is neither balanced, factual nor informative.

This is actually quite an important piece of journalism. In the modern 24 hour news cycle, people are bombarded with so much information that it becomes hard to remember everything. It's important to make sure people remember and consider their vacations thoroughly. It is important to keep pressure on the RTP, for that is the only way it will ever change.

The US should mind their own bussines and worry about Quantanamo

The US should close Guantanamo, however, that is a mere red herring and has no bearing on the disappearance of this person. Just b/c the US isn't perfect does not mean that we cannot challenge other nations to become better.

Thank you Ubonjoe. That's what I thought too?

Can you enlighten me as to how individual offices just make up rules that don't exist? I know that, on a practical level, it helps with the old tea-money two-step: (1) make a problem and (2) offer to fix the problem for a small fee. Beyond that, how can any country function when gov't officers feel free to just make up rules with no actual law to support them?

I sent in my 90 Day Report by mail on 4 Dec 2015 to the Kantang, Trang province office. Today, (11 Dec) I got a message relayed to me from a fellow teacher that they aren't accepting the TM 47 by mail anymore. I specifically checked the regulations before I sent it in (which don't appear to have been updated in a long, long time) and followed them. There was nothing in the regulations about ending mail service. This leads me to 2 questions:

1) Does anyone have any information regarding TM47 by mail? I've seen many posts where immigration officials from different offices say it doesn't exist anymore, and many are years old. Regulations or verified new posts would be appreciated.

2) Is anyone else having this problem? Kantang immigration has a well-deserved reputation for corruption, so maybe it's just our officers?

So here we have a lecturer at Mahidol telling students about the over ingestion of sodium and he is actually recommending them to use more sugar instead. I guess this guy didn't read the news or study about the over consumption of sugars in Thai society which already exists. What an idiot!

What she said is "to adopt a traditional cooking method of using sugar, sauce and spices that would be easier to control and reveal the actual amount put into food."

I don't know who the real idiots are here. You just focus on one word when the real point is to control what you put in your food. Sugar or sodium are not bad per se, it's the excess consumption that is.

Shouldn't people be required to take a reading test before posting ?

I think you miss everyone's point. I know how Thai people cook, and they put way too much sugar in their food. If the lecturer were up to speed (or even slow, as this info has been out there for a while) he would have, at the very least, made some qualification for amounts of sugar used, especially in main dishes.

Seriously, with all that we know both about the bad effects of refined sugar and carbs, how can anyone even think of recommending using it as a seasoning? Sugar sneaks in to add to the load of refined carbs that people get from the rice that they eat several times a day as well. This is a diet recipe for disaster.

Let's have a little sympathy for the Thai teachers. I am, and have a couple family members who are, so I get a different perspective. Most of them know that they are in a failed system, and, for many of them, the system has beaten them and claimed their spirit. They don't want it this way, but they are in a system where the one that speaks out has to find a new job. (And,surprise, they are suddenly blacklisted too!) My family members HATE the system, but they love working with the kids. They are doing the best they can within a failed system that does not listen to anyone with real experience.

Are there some crappy teachers - yes. I have a couple of those at my school, and a couple others who are just slightly more lifelike than zombies after being in this system. The frontline teachers would be happy to learn and try new techniques - they are used to applauding stupid ideas, so an idea that could actually work would be like stepping into nirvana - but only if Bangkok can stop getting in the way of teaching.

I have a good imagination, and often comprehend unintended consequences by just looking at a planning document. For the life of me, I could not have dreamt up the Thai education system UNLESS my goal was to create an ignorant and easily controlled populace.

And where would a Buddhist monk, who's sworn to a life of poverty, get 500K-Bht? All organized religions are money-making enterprises. Next topic, please

Irrelevant comment. Next time, just go to the next topic yourself without wasting our time.

Thanks for the positive comments. Yes, I'm looking for a contract in the middle east anyway. Also, I'm not dumb enough to think that ANY Thai, even a monk, would take advice from a farang, that's why my Thai relatives will anonymously (so they don't have 'accidents') meet and give the idea to the monks.

"Droll" - I like that!

I have no illusions about the piety of the Thai monastics. In general, I believe most are decent, but they also know their place and know not to buck the system. I ordained for a week last year, and, from what I can tell, our local monks are quite sincere. I also saw that the abbot is working hard to improve the monastery and make it a center for monks to come for longer periods of intense study. That being said, I've seen, from a different monastery, lazy monks, and I've read news stories too. Even though there are too many examples of bad monks, they are still revered in Thai culture, which is why they have the best chance of making a positive difference.

Thanks again for the responses so far.

Hello Everyone,

I have an idea that all of my farang friends and Thai family really like, and am looking for a suggestion of who to approach with it.

The idea is simple, as an anti-corruption campaign, sell buttons with a simple emblem - the Thai flag surrounded by an outline of orange. It will stand as a symbol for people who refuse to pay bribes. Orange/saffron is the color the monks wear, and signifies that the Buddha's teaching is all around us. That means the 5 teachings, which Thai recite regularly should apply to everyone, and the button would serve as a reminder that bribery is dishonest and breaks #2 of the 5. (Oh, and there should be a rule that gov't officers may not wear the button with their gov't uniforms, for a few reasons. That's getting ahead of myself, but anyway.)

Anyway, people really like the idea, and I've suggested writing it up and sending to Buddha Isara, the activist monk north of us. However, I've also seen that he offered a 500,000 bht reward for someone accused of lese majeste, so I don't know if he's really the best choice? It's difficult to find good information about the machinations of monk politics here, so I'm open to suggestions. If you have a better monk to contact, please tell me why.

I've had 3 family members, besides my wife, say that they'd translate for me already. I think this idea has legs.

It is in the work permit rules - foreigners from certain countries must be paid a certain minimal amount. If you look at ORDER OF THE IMMIGRATION BUREAU No. 327/2557, Criteria and Conditions for Consideration of an Alien’s Application for a Temporary Stay in the Kingdom of Thailand, there is, in sect. 2.1 a reference to a minimum salary table, which is in Annex A on pg 15 of the pdf. However, sect 2.1 is a general employee category. Teachers are covered under sections 2.6 (public) and 2.7 (private), so they are not covered, and, thus, can be paid as little as the directors can scam us for.

On a personal note, I've been here 2 years in the south. Starting salary everywhere is 30,000Bht/mo. I've heard from long timers that is was the same a decade ago, except 10 years ago it was a 1 year contract and included the mandatory 20 sick days and 10 business days of leave. Now, it's about a 10 1/2 month contract at the same rate, so the money has actually gone down, and our contracts only have 10 sick days of leave. (Because of the smog, everyone of us have been sick multiple times. Some of us are out of sick leave, and I worked sick for 5 weeks straight.) On top of that, since the contract is less than a year, it forces you to make an extra visa run, which costs us an extra 6 - 10,000 bht. I question the legality of all the contract changes, but, there's no use fighting it. All the directors know each other, and I know of a couple people who have been blacklisted already.

They have all this quality base product (and raw Thai latex is rated fairly highly).

Why don't they process it?

Make things with it. Stop hoarding and hoping the price will jump.

USE IT FOR SOMETHING!

They are leaving SO much money on the table.

The mind boggles.

Excellent point. Back home, we can easily get feeding troughs, buckets, water containers and other farm necessities made out of vulcanized rubber - like tire rubber. They cost more than plastic varieties, but they are extremely durable, and worth the price. What they have here are made of plastic, and, from experience with farms both here and back home, I think they are of much inferior quality here. I don't see why they don't make a push to process that rubber into usable farm supplies here?

Also, the king's sufficiency economy does speak to some of the other criticism's I see here. In the west, we speak more in terms of a holistic system, but the ideas correlate. Diversifying crops and building up a reserve for hard times are great ideas. However, they require advanced planning, which most simply cannot fathom.

As a friend once told me, "When you think you've reached the depth of stupidity in Thailand, that only means you need a bigger shovel."

Many of us know the history of the internet. It was originally DARPA-Net, designed to keep communications up in the event of nuclear war. The entire concept was based on dispersing the communication lines so that damage to one hub would not bring down the system. The very concept of the system relies on redundant duplication.

Further, we know that most early projections of the internet's reach fell far short of what happened. Maybe they will only get an 80% increase every year. However, if that's all they plan for, then they will never be prepared for a future where the web traffic doubles instead. But, if you just let each of the independent companies set up their own gateways and server farms, then you will have the capacity due to redundancy.

In the meantime, I've run out of shovels. I'm now looking for a backhoe.

Can anyone name any attempt by Thailand to be the hub of anything ever succeed?

human trafficking?

Sex tourism?

Again poor inept police work. From the beginning I was not convinced these 2 where guilty. Its clear now that they are not. They need to be compensated and the police need to

publicly apologize to them . They need to be granted Thai citizenship and be made whole again

And now the real murder is walking free

This is soooooo sad

Granted Thai citizenship? Do you want to make them whole or punish them for the rest of their lives?

This story resonates and has legs because everyone, retiree, employee, business owner, knows that 'there but for the grace of God go I'....everyone is only one vindictive or litigious complianant away from being in similar circumstances..

Most foreigners in Thailand want certainty: assurances that there is safety, tenure, freedom from harassment. Sadly, from the perspective of the individuals ( as well as for Thailand itself), there is a vulnerability , not only from vindictive whack-jobs but also government policy which can change at any whim or fancy.

This is a really bad news story for Dr Wym but also for Thailand

Bad news for Thailand? He was removed from immigration blacklist he was put on in 2009. Imo this is good news for Thailand and the current government.

99.99% of all foreigners visiting Thailand have no reason to feel uncertain here. Especially when they don't get involved in local affairs.

...he has been jailed for some days before he has been released...

That doesn't make me feel particularly safe. But oh well, if that's your feeling.

I can't judge your personal situation but I feel very safe when going through immigration. I know for sure they have no reason to block my entry into Thailand.

If you feel safe around immigration, then you aren't paying attention. I see legitimate teachers harassed all the time by our local immigration officials, unless they work for an agency as the agents pay tea money.

Of the theories in the original post, the red shirts make the most sense b/c there has been no claim of responsibility. They have been known to use indiscriminate violence in the past (bombing BKK protesters).

Maybe this will give the junta reason to clamp down and assume power longer. However, maybe they are just frustrated and pissed off that there have been no elections yet? If the general is such a great leader, then he should have the credentials to stand for election by now. I think he would get a lot of votes just b/c he ended the violence in BKK.

They may believe that he's just a tin pot dictator, and this will put the pressure on. (Of course, if he would just allow some freedom of speech and assembly, then people could at least air their grievances and get some pressure release that way. That's part of the reason for the first amendment in the US - it's a pressure release, and, without that, people are much more likely to 'blow up.') By not claiming responsibility, it makes the gov't look inept. The gov't, in turn, is likely to crack down, but they can just plant some more bombs. Pretty soon, you have what looks like a full-blown revolt to a dictatorship.

That leads to the general losing face in the international community, foreign aid drying up, tourism drying up, foreign investment etc. and the gov't becoming a pariah. The general has already 'officially' left the military, so, if he dons fatigues again, it will look like Thailand is backsliding in a major way. This puts him between a rock and a hard spot, and then gives the red shirts room to say 'remember how great things were when we first got elected to power in the 90's?'

As long as they don't claim responsibility, it's a win for them, and an even bigger loss for the govt.

It's not a bad plan. Nasty, but not bad.

Firstly, the photofit of the suspect could be Thai.

Secondly, the only reason that the pier bomb didn't cause casualties is because it bounced off a railing.

If the suspect wanted to get rid of it, why did it get armed and triggered? It was meant to kill.

The amazing thing is that this kind of stupidity is readily accepted and printed. How gullible must the local journalists be to not have follow up questions like yours? How gullible must the population be to accept such garbage as truth.

Why did it get armed is the wrong question. You have already had your question answered - now just move along and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I can understand your frustration. But it is always said that: "If you are in Rome, do as the Romans do". Most of the problems that we are facing now have been created by some of these very unscrupulous teachers. Most of them are here with fake papers here and there. Some of them even go as far as faking the TOEIC (Testing Of English for International Communication). When they do things like these and they are discovered, why will they not scrutinize every paper or degree that are presented to them? Why will they not tighten the rules or bring in new ones? Kurusapa is asking from teachers who are coming for the second 2 year teaching permit to contact their universities to get a confirmation letter send to Kurusapa well ahead of time before their coming to get the second 2 year teaching permit. This was not applicable before. But since any Tom, Dick, Jack or Harry can get anything in the name of a degree in English and present to them (and they have started discovering this) why will they not make things tough? I even still feel that they are not very strict. If they were then many of these so call teachers will be in prison. If you leave, what will that change? Of course there are guys out there who will work even for a lower salary. They can replace you with ease. If you have all your papers ready and genuine, you will not have any problems with the Thai authority.

What we are seeing in the field is the opposite. There are too few teachers, and WAY too few with legit degrees. We see this as teachers, and have been told this by our admin. Yet immigration keeps making problems. The only ones willing to work for a lower salary are unqualified to begin with.

Further, teachers with fake degrees going to prison? Do you even know what those words mean? If a fake gets caught, they get deported. Why would Thailand waste judicial and penal resources when they can just make them leave.

Lastly, I do have papers ready, and they are genuine. That does not change the fact that immigration appears to be making up rules on their own. If you want to be a shill for Thai corruption, please go find another blog.

Thank you!

That 'not more than a year language' should not be read to give front-line officials unfettered discretion. It just opens the door for abuse (and extortion). I'll look through the links you gave me and see if I can find something more. Thanks again.

I'm hearing many farang in my area are making plans to leave. 3 of 6 English teachers in my dept are actively looking and preparing to leave. Even one of the Chinese in our school openly told me that she doesn't like the way immigration treats us, and plans to leave at the end of the year.

"Is this real life? Do I really have to report my address when I move?"

Immigration Act.

Section 38 : The house – master , the owner or the possessor of the residence , or the hotel manager where the alien , receiving permission to stay temporary in the Kingdom has stayed , must notify the competent official of the Immigration Office located in the same area with that hours , dwelling place or hotel, within 24 hours from the time of arrival of the alien concerned.

"House Master" means any persons who is the chief possessor of a house , whether in the capacity of owner , tenant , or in any other capacity whatsoever , in accordance with the law on people act.

Section 77 : Whoever fails to comply with the provision of Section 38, shall be punished with a fine not exceeding 2,000 Baht. If said person is a hotel manager, he shall be punished with a fine from 2,000 Baht to 10,000 Baht.

It is law but rarely enforced. Although immigration seem to be enforcing it more and more these days. When you arrive to stay at a hotel the hotel will inform immigration. If you stay at a private residence the "House Master" or "Owner" should inform immigration. If they don't the fine is up to 2,000 baht. So you got off lightly with 800 Baht.

This is a cleaner version than the original translation from the Thai gov't that I read. The version I read included a clause that mentioned renting a room. That little addition made the entire section read as though it applied to commercial transactions only. (I went to law school, and I know how to read laws.)

I got the same shakedown, but the Kantang immigration office would take care of the problem for 'only' 800 B. How nice of them! I told them they were corrupt and demanding a bribe, made a little scene to make them lose some face, and left. (BTW, my Thai wife was with me, and she was 100% in agreement that it was a shakedown. They got even though, and made problems for the entire dept at my school when we went to get our visa extensions.)

Also, there is no clear instruction to new foreigners about the 90 day report. It's almost as if they were trying to create situations where people would get in to trouble? Thankfully, those brave Thai gov't officials are willing to buck the system and 'take care of' problems at reduced rates!

This is the newest Police Order 327/2557 basis for extension of stay.and Immigration Bureau Order 138/2557 documents for extension of stay.

This is great! Thank you very much.

Now, do you have an order that tells how much discretion they have for giving stamps? I.e., can they actually do the 90 day at a time? Last year, they stamped us to the end of our contracts.

Also, does Thai Visa have a page with these translated orders on them? I've searched online, and could never find anything newer than 777/2551. (This is very frustrating. I learned how to research law, and how to use the free gov't sources. The lack of sources here is aggravating, and the plethora of non-functional gov't websites is infuriating.) Thank you.

Is anyone aware of new requirements for teachers from immigration, or if there is a new Order from RTP giving them extended authority? This is my second year teaching in Thailand. It is widely known that there are some "questionable practices" in our province, but things seem to be getting out of hand.

The most current document I can find for immigration requirements is RTP Order 777/2551. It gives criteria for consideration for teachers -- a Non-IM visa and a request from the school -- but it does not give a list of documents that can be required. The previous order (606/2549) did give a list of documents they could request: application, passport, work permit, and request confirmation with employment details (the contract). Unfortunately, that order was repealed by 777/2551.

Our local immigration office is demanding transcripts and certificates (diploma) from the schools we went to, and they are examining them quite thoroughly. This is something that Krusapa (ministry of education) has already done. This is the first year they have done so in my new school. (They did this to us at my school last year, but we thought they were just trying to make problems because I had previously made a scene when they demanded a bribe from me a month prior.) All of my fellow teachers and I have legitimate degrees. However, they refused to accept one teacher's legitimate degree, but readily approved a degree from an non-accredited, online school that he is taking enrichment courses through. Further, at one point, they were demanding original, sealed documents. Many schools will only release those documents in person, which would require a trip back home to get them. After three teachers threatened to quit, our admin went to immigration and they agreed to accept copies.

Further, to make things more difficult, our local immigration office is only issuing 30 and 90 day stamps. The first stamp is for 30 days, and they are sending agents to the schools to take our photos at the schools. Now, they are telling foreigners (Non-O and Non- that they will only give 90 day stamps, and that we have to come, in person, to do the 90 day registration. It seems that they keep changing the rules week to week, and I doubt that they have the authority for any of this.

So, to make the question precise: does anyone know where they get this authority? Has there been a new law passed by the NCPO/Parliament, or is there a new administrative Order from the Royal Thai Police? OR - can anyone even refer to a newspaper article indicating these changes?

Lastly, if all you have to say is something along the lines of 'This is Thailand,' 'Gov't officers make their own rules,' or 'tea money,' then please don't respond. We are getting some serious harassment here. I don't know many farang here, but I know about 10 (over half) are actively looking and planning to leave the country b/c of this.