kareona

2 hours ago, Ulic said:

Only in Thailand would someone believe that someone paid 12,000 baht for a cup of coffee. 

https://blackivorycoffee.com/

$40 a cup Black Ivory Coffee

9 hours ago, fruitman said:

Where do they sell cups of coffee for 12.000 baht?

Well, Black Ivory Coffee is around $40 (say 1200 bath) a cup..

https://blackivorycoffee.com/

There are hundreds of cruel premeditated murders in Thailand every year. All of them get a royal pardon after the capital punishment. Why not this time? That's the question.  

There are more than 500 prisoners condemned to death in Thai prisons, nearly half because of drug related crimes. 

Wait! Please show some sympathy for this poor man, Suwit Tongprasert (which means 'Good Thinking' and 'Glorious Gold' 'Wit' just like in English ). He has severe backpain and sits in a wheelchair,  and will  be admitted to a hospital for years, just like Kamnan Phoh.  

We are the law! Obey! Or else......

43 minutes ago, graemeaylward said:

I am reminded of that wonderful chorus from Les Miserables, "Do you hear the people sing", when a group of young students rise up against the government of the day. Part of the lyrics say " Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see? Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free.". I wish these brave young men and women every success in their struggle against oppression and hope that their courage will give others hope and a desire to join their movement for democracy!

Sent from my X98 Plus II (C2D6) using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

The Thai version of 'Do you hear the People sing?' by the band Fai Yen....

1 hour ago, Eligius said:

What a total, absolute moron the Leader is - to say that the demonstrators, who are calling for democracy, are blocking democracy. The only person blocking democracy is Prayut himself - and his band of authoritarians.

 

Good to see that Thanathorn (of the Future Forward Party) went to visit the imprisoned protesters. Where was the great 'democrat' Abhisit? Where were all these other 'new young parties'? I am beginning to get more respect for Thanathorn, as he is actually walking the walk and not just talking the talk. Of course, it is a long, long walk and much can happen ...

 

The good thing is that through their idiocy, the junta are calling down negative world press coverage upon themselves. This might - just might - encourage and inspire more and more Thais to stand up and take their country back. That is my hope  - a very slender one, it is true, but still a degree of hope.

Ajarn Sulak  Sivaraksa went to visit the prisoners too. 

On ‎26‎/‎4‎/‎2561 at 7:43 AM, connda said:

Actually, it has more to do with the role of money and wealth and money's impact on the fabric of the community of monks.  Wealth?  Yeah, unfortunately.

The Sangha, and by extension the Dhamma, is starting to unravel.  The days of forest monks and meditation masters barely subsisting on the handouts of rural farmers whose destinies and fortunes were tied to the eccentricity of weather and crops has been replaced by a debt-fueled society that is flush with cash, consumer toys, and bling.  And unfortunately, that pseudo-wealth is impacting not only the laity, but also the life's of the average monks.  How often do you see monks at malls and department stores?  How many monks do not have smart phones, computers, and personal electronics?  Most city and village monks that I know have personal electronics and spend a lot of time using them.  The average monk nowadays is more absorbed by the electronic minutiae of applications running on iOS or Android then by sila, samadhi, and panna; more absorbed by Angry Birds and Line Chat then by morality, meditation, and wisdom!
And how many Buddhist temples in Thailand are now charging money in order to visit the temples, or to stay at the temples, or to ordain at the temples as opposed to accepting the freely given contributions of the laity?  Many!  The Sangha has moved from living off of the generosity of the laity by accepting freely given contributions (dana), to that of a business model where actually charging for services is becoming the norm. 
This is completely counter to the tenets of Buddhism.  It's a corruption.  The corruption of money has moved from subtle to simply in-your-face in the decade plus that I've lived within the country.

The Sangha, and by extension the Dharma, are in peril. 

 

Money trees made of 20 THB bills - Chiang Mai province, Thailand

That's true. Before the new Sangha Law of the dictator Sarit Thanarat in 1962 which did bind the Sate and Buddhism very closely together most temples were ruled by the village communities in a rather democratic way. They took care of each other. Monks were teachers, doctors and advisers in general. You could splash water over a monk during Songkran. Monks walked around in forests and villagers and did not hide in temples. Good old times. 

26 minutes ago, martijn12345 said:

 

exactly. I dont get why every year they make a big deal over these numbers. If youbdivide total deaths a year in traffic by 52 the average week is much worse than this Songkran week.

No. The figure of 23-26.000 traffic death a year in Thailand is the WHO estimate. But the WHO counts also the death in the ambulance and hospital up to 4 week after the incident. The Thai authorities gives only the amount of death on the road which is approximately half the WHO number. So to compare you have to double the Thai figures  and than you will see that the Songkran days are 50-100 percent more dangerous. 

The word used is the ' stupid' memo was โง่  ngo:h with a falling tone, mostly translated as 'stupid'.  But it points more to somebody's wrong (political) opinions and ideas than to a low or weak intelligence which is in Thai more often expressed as ปัญญา อ่อน panyaa ohn.  Intelligent people can say 'stupid' things too. 

6 hours ago, JOC said:

Tried to google the generous billionaire Patthavart Suksriwong.....

 

He doesn't exist....!!

 

You would think the a wealthy businessman would be somewhere on Google....But zero, zilch, nada...

So another lie?

 

 

His name is Pattawat Suksriwong. While I was working as the Director of Human Resources Institute of Thammasat University, he worked at Telephone Authority of Thailand. He approved to organize people development at Telephone Authority of Thailand. Later, he owned business and became rich. I believe that both of them are true friends.

https://www.gotoknow.org/posts/645206

Oh, this problematic phonetics from Thai words and names......

11 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Thaksin is playing mind games with the junta and succeed. His prediction is not entirely new revelation but just an extrapolating the 2011 results under the MMA system. PTP not going to lose any of their seats in the North and North East. The 220-230 seats are money in the bank. They may even win some Central and Bangkok seats from the Dem. Question is which medium size party will give them a majority that will keep Prayut out of the equation. Any coalition to keep put Prayut is good news. Even better if the coalition get the support to change the constitution. Never say never.

Amending the Constitution is nearly impossible. The Constitution says that at least 20 percent of the members of ALL parties have to agree. If only one party of 4 members votes against the amendment and all 496 other members vote for, than the amendment will not pass.  

8 hours ago, sungod said:

So the whole forum is going crazy about Yingluck's looks, not a single comment or remembered about any good policy she introduced, speaks volumes.............

OK. In 2012 Yingluck raised the minimum wage from 200 and something to 300 and something baht. A raise of 50 percent!!!

3 hours ago, pornprong said:

Hmmmmm....

 

https://prachatai.com/english/node/5608

 

http://zway2go.com/thailand-army-corruption/

 

Then of course there is this...

 

 

The election is going to be a landslide....Prayut knows it.

                                       

This is even a bigger problem. Medical expenses for civil servants are 5 times higher than expenses for the Social Security Scheme (employees) and the many in the Universal Health Care system.  It is outrageous asking for more co-payments in the Universal System.

Well, in some of the video's the soldiers who were savagely beating young men spoke Thai. 

5 hours ago, zyphodb said:

I'll believe it when I see it, The Gov. aren't interested in how many plebs die...

Indeed. More than 80 percent of all road deaths are motorcycles riders: mostly poor people. My son has a few rich spoiled friends who drive expensive cars from age 15 because their parents judge that driving motorcycles is too dangerous. They, of course, are a danger to this motorcycles.

11 hours ago, robblok said:

For sure it was the middle class i was there too friends of mine (Thai) who are certainly not elite just middle class got tired of YL spending all the money on the rice scheme and the amnesty of her criminal brother. I understand that, they are the ones paying all the taxes and don't see much back of it and because they are not a majority have a hard time to do anything about it.

 

Its like being a farang and being invited to diner made to pay for it without having a say in what is eaten too. So I understand their grievances. 

 

I hope there are MANY checks that keep the new government honest. Any steps taken against corruption are to be applauded. The junta however did not take too many steps against their own corruption (one of their largest failures in my eyes as I am anti corruption).

 

But setting up special courts to deal with corruption is great... trying to speed up the judicial process is great too as its far to slow here. 

 

The junta did a lot of do as i say instead of do as I do. But still it made great changes and corruption will be harder for the next government. Too bad it can't eliminate it completely, it might not even make much of a dent but its better than doing nothing. 

Only about 20 percent of tax revenues comes from personal income tax paid by about 18 percent of the population. 80 percent of tax revenues is from VAT, corporate taxes, excise duty and some others which are paid by all Thais. So you are dead wrong that only the elite and middle classes pay taxes and have therefore an exclusive say on how to spend it. 

Prayut was speaking during his trip to Angthong province, where he met with flood victims and offered them moral support. 

Why  are all of you criticizing Prayet? He gave the victims moral support. What more can he do? Did you? 

13 hours ago, Jonnapat said:

iesExpect to see the usual envelopes passed around as the election nears.

Nobody has the power or will to stop vote buying, that's why it will never be 'free and fair's.The fattest envelopes usually win.

The Democrats spend as much money as the 'red' parties and do not win. If the Democtat Party gives an Isaner 2.000 baht he will accept it and vote for Pheu Thai. The whole vote buying story is nonsense. 

14 hours ago, WhisperingJack said:

An election is inevitable, but will it be free and fair?

Not a snowballs chance in hell!

Elections are the framework of a democracy and if you look at history it has been shown many times that democracy does not work in an uneducated society.

 

However TIT..............anything could happen

 

You mean...like in the United States?

4 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Totally agree Jim, But she wasn't removed by any coup. She dissolved parliament and became the caretaker PM. She was then removed by a court for an illegal abuse of power before the coup. The Shins PR team and sadly lazy journalists must think being removed by a coup sounds better as it represents her a a victim rather than a wrong doer.

 

The only things that was massively increasing under the Shins was, surprise surprise, their family fortune. 

 

If anybody thinks Thailand would have been better off under a Thaksin owned PTP once they got their hands on that 2.2 trillion baht loan they're living in cuckoo land.

'The only things that was massively increasing under the Shins was, surprise surprise, their family fortune. '

Do you know why the family fortunes of the Shins increased (they doubled) from 2000 to 2006?  That's because most of their fortune were in shares  and the stockmarket rose 100 percent from 2000 to 2006,  and telecommunication even more. If all the Shins would have tended only their gardens they would haven been twice as rich by 2006.

Are Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian work migrants in Thailand (perhaps 2-3 million people) also expats? Or is this name reserved for high-paid Westerners? Why so?

Thaksin enjoyed spectacular growth in his fortune whilst PTP were in office. Now it seems to have stagnated since they were replaced.

The world financial markets and economics must be in bad shape then, if even the genius inventor of Thaksinomics can't make a bob or two more

You are so wrong. Thaksin's fortune doubled between 2001 and 2006. His money was for the most part in stocks and the value of the stockmarket doubled between 2001 and 2006, even some more for electronics. If Thaksin would have been growing mushroom in that time he would have been as rich.

He added that all details, including the obtainment of the MBT-3000 tanks, will soon be presented to the government for acknowledgement.

Thus confirming the military is not accountable to the government.

They never were accountable. The defense budget is the only one never scrutinized in parliament. The military get its money and that's it.

Monks too..........from Prachatai:

Military intimidates pro-democracy Buddhist monk

Submitted by editor4 on Thu, 12/05/2016 - 14:12

http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/6151