z42

If there is one thing the Thai army is good at, it's shielding wrongdoers from punishment and covering up crimes committed by its own. Along with staging coups and being involved in dodgy procurements it is the only thing it has been consistent in. Pathetic outfit at best

And this is the shit show that is current practice for international diplomacy.

Nobody will even touch upon the appalling human rights situation in Thailand. All govts worldwide truly care about is economic benefits.

I can only hope Prayuth gets a hot reception by activists on the ground as anything more simply won't happen.

36 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

This is something we all know to be true. Thais are appalling at English, even most of the teachers can't speak it. Rote learning of anything does not teach you how to learn, just how to remember, which is of no practical use in real life. One wonders how they can bring this to reality, when foreigners who can speak it properly, have such a hard time getting employed?

Being able to speak is 1 thing. However conveying the knowledge in English to a Thai with very limited (if any) retained knowledge of English is very bloody difficult.

You multiply that by 40 times and add in a few Thais who have some knowledge and you have a typical Thai English class.

While the kid in the video is a highly competent speaker it is unknown what his other English skills are like. I am personally privileged to work with some kids who possess equally impressive speaking skill, however their other skills are much less polished.

The main flaw with the Thai system in its present form is that it targets only 1 skill area primarily, reading.

The 3 other main skills (listening, speaking, writing) are simply not activated (or even targeted) anywhere near often enough.

As a start, a focus should be placed on developing sub-functional English that can be utilized readily in a wide range of situational conversation. This can be practiced and honed in direct conversation or written interaction.

And it is the interaction that is a chief cause of slower development, almost nowhere outside of big tourist cities will Thai students ever get a real chance to practice talking to foreigners very often.

Could go on, but that is my 2 cents on this issue

And yet the cops are instructed to go after and haul in people who (rightly) criticise the government's lies, ineptitude and abuses of power.

However as probably the majority break traffic laws to varying degrees when they use the roads it is hardly a surprise when the numbers of dead and wounded is so ghastly

It's so stupid that defamation is being treated as seriously as large scale embezzlement.

Other than to protect crooks and to silence whistleblowers and activists criminal defamation laws are completely redundant 

Just another cog in the giant farcical machine.

A simply dreadful human being. I would love just someone to call him out on his bs on 1 of these campaign jollies. But all the people in the photo are plants and it's pathetic that they (the older ones anyway) can't see how much of a pathological liar he is. 

Some of the people he is photographed with don't appear to look like they know the difference between right and left, let alone right and wrong. Painful

Sadly it appears that ship has sailed. With personal attitudes and govt approaches like they are currently it is going to get so much worse.

Such a shame what is such a beautiful country is being decimated so rapidly by its own inhabitants

Excellent piece by a very brave and astute writer. Personally I find the crass hypocrisy from those higher up the social ladder incredibly tough to stomach.

It would almost be funny if it wasn't so disgraceful

Dreadful form. The toilet in mixx disco has the attendants who massage shoulders while you piss.

They are uninvited and react rudely when you tell them no. I can imagine drunken out of towners maybe taking exception.

Pure speculation of course.. I can imagine some serious downplaying of this at any rate.. A few fines, wais and away you go should do it ?

You also have to look at the soaps and music videos. Rejection is almost exclusively met with a desire or acting out of violent vengeance.

Thai lads in my experience are either incredibly decent or complete nuggets. Very few tread the grey between sadly

I simply can't envisage what his asylum requeat papers would say. How could this crook possibly fit the bill?

If he gets in Germany needs to have a serious word with itself. Idiots like this deserve to be rotting in jail and no place else

I fail to see what a farce election would achieve other than emboldening the very regime who orchestrated said election rigging. I see huge oublic demonstrations before anything resembling a real election is held

It will take an age to show results because nothing has actually been reformed. Once the military boot is taken off the country's throat things are going to revert back to normal because bribery and backhanders always win the day, and taking them is a national sport here

What a dreadful waste of life. I have massive sympathy for the victim and her family.

I just can't get my head around how immature one must be to shoot someone dead over rejection.

These horrendous crimes happen far too often in Thailand, more so than any other country i've seen yet

To call these individuals neandarthals would really be a massive disservice to neandarthals.

And those junk helmets they were dishing out. I'd sooner take my chances without than wear one.

And those production values...... ?????

I have my doubts about an election taking place, I personally think we'll see huge clashes and protests before a real election. But this article is bang on the money, Prayuth and the other plastic generals alongside him are a living joke now.

If we ever see election campaigning where serious scrutiny could be placed on Prayuth's manifesto / aims in an open way I would cry laughing at his ability to actually debate stuff. He seriously has all the smarts of a plank of wood, almost anything political you can tell just goes straight over his head.. A truly pathetic and tragic figure, I wonder how long he'll be tolerated for yet as the wheels have (arguably) already come off

A wolf in sheep's clothing, nothing more. What a high % of these charlatans in orange get up to is truly immoral and incredibly far removed from actual Buddhism.

It is very clear that very few Thais, and fewer monks truly understand what Buddhism amounts to, and actually adhere to it.

It's a giant fraud and shit-show ?

Despicable. So many red flags in this story.

How can the fines be negotiated without it being just a shakedown? Surely the fine is non-negotiable.

Am sorry but it is clear who has form. Thais in a uniform appear to be unable to help themselves.

Good on the travellers for putting the heat on the perps (to a point)

Couldn't expect any less from such an abominable outfit.

I hope they get bail because they will be forgotten about quickly once they are locked up.

Out of sight, out of mind is definitely the Thai way

The ruling junta have been an absolute and utter abomination. Everything they have touched has turned to shit, and their ham fisted attempts to appear as if they are fighting corruption can not stand up to any honest scrutiny whatsoever.

The authoritarian approach to many things (example street food, peaceful assembly etc) has made the country lose much of its sparkle, it is sad because people who were doing alright before the junta came in are now doing it extremely tough through no fault of their own.

Any more election delays will get many many more people on the streets, I don't think the junta can help itself from putting more delays in.. It will get uglier before it gets better

Well as he has been a very vocal critic of the junta and their escapades it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to decipher that some serious leaning on the BP was done behind the scenes.

The BP as the major English language news outfit has been scathing recently, I hope it doesn't let up anytime soon

Yes this kind of thing isn't exclusive to Thailand. But what is most shocking is that we never find out what punishments are given to the perpetrators. By the look of the pic with the perpetrator with his identity hidden, it is hard to comprehend what the cops' agenda is.

I think this is a failure of the system, without a clear pattern of deterrent punishments been shown to be applied puts those most at risk in even more danger from predators.

This is a textbook case for mob justice imho. How could this poor girl ever learn to trust a man (or anyone) ever again.

Tragic beyond words