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I can't see the problem,if they have a Thai id card they are Thai,Thai is the official language in Thailand so Thai should be spoken in Thai institutions in Thailand. They can speak Khmer or Lao in their villages. At school in England we were given one across the hand with a ruler for speaking slang which i agree with, how else were the children expected to learn the queens English if they only speak slang at home. These days with Lib / Lab in charge the standards of education and with it speech, have fallen drastically, every idiot can get into university these days,it used to be a badge of excellence.

This has nothing to do with adhering to the Thai language and everything to do with this 'admin's' relentless push toward ultra nationalism. Remember we you aren't.

The project will also promote home-grown performing arts such as mor lam

Really? My neighbour's Isaan wife was complaining that mor lam had been removed from the tv schedule listings.

One by one the police corrupt big shots are getting uncovered.

This is why they supported Thaksin, Yingluck and the rest as they never bothered them in their mafia dealings.

About time this police force has been investigated and dealt with.

My worries is why don't they fire them but put them in inactive posts while they still draw their salaries.

Hope this will change soon.

Hmmm, wonder what happened to those soldiers 'helping to interpret ' for that Russian couple on Phuket ...

And why is this 'news'? Only the seriously stupid fell for this.

There must be a lot of seriously stupid people then.

Oh believe me, there are. A cursory glance through any expat forum will confirm this.

Any proof Billy still breathing?

Good. A bit of reciprocity. Not much, but it's a start.

And why is this 'news'? Only the seriously stupid fell for this.

Hallo...? You can get it anywhere for 15 000 B. I have been around asking today.

But I think it's too expensive, so I guess I'll have to go and stand in line and do it myself. Done it before. Nothing to it.

Take a camp bed and a primus with you.

Utter chaos today, took more than 1 hour, looks like the day of "in-out in 5 min" are over

Only an hour you say?

I went on Friday afternoon to do my 90 day report at Patong. After negotiating the road at the side of the office in my car (never again!) and failing to find somewhere to park, I eventually made it to the office to be told the computer was down and I'd have to return on Monday.

So, as I had to go to Phuket town this afternoon, I decided to do it there. Big mistake. What a zoo that place has become. Standing room only inside and out, I asked the volunteers how long the report would take. They had no idea, just told me there were four officers working. Given that there must have been over 100 people inside, even taking into account the fact that some may have been waiting for passports to be returned I reckoned on at least a two hour wait. No chance. I'll take my chance tomorrow morning instead.

I was so surprised at how busy the place was. It was never that busy when all the processes took place on one floor. Are they deliberately making things more difficult for long-stayers?

I did amuse myself for the few minutes I stood there by watching the staff in the office diligently entering the information from the departure and arrival cards onto their computers. I suppose they have to start somewhere to work their way up the ladder to hopefully forge a career in extorting cash from unsuspecting foreigners.

The refugee camp that is now Phuket Immigration, coupled with the beach fiasco, does indeed appear to follow the Thai thinking that 'if the foreigners weren't here, we wouldn't have any problems'. Perhaps the General has Phuket in his sights as his own personal holiday retreat, much alike his counterpart in neighbouring Burma.

Ordinary worshippers are partly to blame presumably for allowing themselves to be conned into believing that lavish gifts, money, pimping young family members etc is an acceptable, even necessary, way to make merit.

And blessing their cars. Every time I visit a particularly scenic Wat there's some farang fool there with his teerak wanting her new Solus blessed.

Way to reform Thai Buddhism, do away with the Animist bits.for starters.

Is he appointed to give advice on how to drag the judicial process endlessly and how you escape justice here when you belong to the class of the rich and influential? I am lost for words.

You need not be either rich or influential to have your case drag on endlessly or escape justice here. Just a few thousand baht would cover it.

nice bunch of sycophants in that photo

Apart from the guy with a face like a robber's horse at the back.

This is what google translate says ความสมบูรณ์

Well, Google translate.

My paper dictionary says "สมบูรณ์" means "completeness", "perfectness", "healthiness" but also "well-fed".

For "integrity" it offers "ความซื่อสัตย์", "ความจริงใจ". May be you can find these Thai words in thick dictionaries but they are not well known by Thai people.

'Jingjai' or 'Jaijing' is widely used as someone who is honest and trustworthy.

Not only question of money. Question of values, as well.

Thais don't mind to kill => check in the prison => your sentence will be far lower if you kill your neighbor than to if you carry 100 gr of drugs.

Obviously in a street, GOD is the CAR. Not Buddha and first of all, not the pedestrian which is just a human being. A driver is more than that, it's a human being able to by a CAR. His value is higher than a pedestrian.

Nor need money or end corruption to drive with respect to the pedestrians or cyclists.

In some country pedestrians have the priority and the driver will care and respect them. In Thailand a driver can do ANYTHING to a pedestrian or a cyclist just because he has power but, one more time, it's not a question of money but of value => he could be rich and respect the poor. Or not.

A visiting friend of mine somersaulted over a parked SUV at an unlit area of a busy road. He managed to take a photograph of the car driver wiping the spot where my friend's bike had hit it, oblivious to my friend lying in the road. Then there are the sitting rooms of many rural houses used as garages for their on tick spanky new pickups, whilst the family sleep on the floor around it.

As an aside, I was chatting with a local motosai driver when a car hurtled past ignoring all and everything in it's way. 'He can because he has money' was the response to my @#$%! No amount of driver education will ever get past that mindset.

Bail refused in Thailand I thought most people who commit the most heinous crimes on the planet can just walk out the door after the firs court appearance or bail hearing then just pop across the border and take it from their on your way to strike again.

What you say is mostly true I think. But the key to this circumstance is that the bail was raised. He didn't just offer to pay so he probably isn't rich or elite or from a family with power. Which is probably why bail was refused

Wrong. Bail is almost always granted no matter one's circumstances. It's the very poorest who are unable to raise it who are banged up.

It's also worth noting that the reason this made 'news' is simply because bail was actually refused for this most heinous of crimes. Can you imagine that in the West?

Typical 'Quality' English tourists.

Not sure from whence you hail, but am guessing from your racist remark, no Thai would refer to you as 'Pu dee Ungrit', ... fill in your nationality if only to ignorantly blanket denigrate yours'. 'smug whistling gif'.

He really said that?

I mean I agree with him that polls are worthless. They say what the pollsters decide they'll say by framing the questions to get the answers they want.

But to say pro govt polls only?

Really, he said that?

Got to be a khaosod interpretation of what was said.

Between the junta allowed media and the junta, what to believe?

BTW <deleted>

How many times have we heard this? unfettered Capitalism perpetrated and encouraged by ALL sides.

I hope that once caught, these thugs will discretely disappear, similar to how the situation was dealt with 15 years ago when teen gangs known as the tigers and samurai started to become out of control.

They are like packs of wild feral dogs, once they gain numbers then extremely difficult to eradicate.

Considering these thugs are using deadly weapons, armed and dangerous, than they have to be considered a threat to the national safety, similar to terrorists on the rampage and not just boisterous youths misbehaving.

This requires the Dirty Harry approach and no pussy footing around.

Ah, bless. This is by means nothing new. What happened to them in the past then? And how does it compare and contrast to the society the Thai, whether they like it or not, and are responsible for today's feral youth?

TB it is a known fact that a (disputed) large amount of money was lost in a policy that abysmally failed to meet its stated aims. As this is hardly a good result for the people of Thailand, the claim is that as PM she was negligent in the management of this policy. The alternative, you probably won't like, is that she did so intentionally.

As the policy was a re-instatement of a known failed policy with low achievement and high levels of corruption, the latter has reasonable worth, IMHO.

I keep seeing this word 'lost'. What is lost? Nothing. It's sitting somewhere. Where? Why has the present Incumbent been unable to find it. With all his resources. Laughable.

I will tell you where it is not, in the government's bank account. Where did it go? That is up to the EX PM to tell us, not the incumbent (who has a pretty good idea, that's why she is being charged with negligence). It certainly didn't go to the poorest rice farmers it was SUPPOSED to help.

No, it wasn't 'supposed to go to the poorest rice farmers whom it was supposed to help' , it went exactly where it was supposed to go, in the offshore bank accounts of the Taksin/Yingluck maladministration.

That having been said, the current lot have no real interest in this other than it serves their purpose of making their opponents look bad. As if that were necessary. Imagine this country in 10 or 20 years' time? Horrifying, isn't it.

This happens in most countries so let's not jump on the bandwagon and start bashing Thailand as usual!

"This happens in most countries' is getting to be the most excruciatingly stupid excuse for a meme, ever.

International pressure and condemnation of Thailand's efforts to clean up this ugly problem is finally having an impact...kudos to the Thais for finally taking human trafficking seriously...nasty business...

Yeah.

TB it is a known fact that a (disputed) large amount of money was lost in a policy that abysmally failed to meet its stated aims. As this is hardly a good result for the people of Thailand, the claim is that as PM she was negligent in the management of this policy. The alternative, you probably won't like, is that she did so intentionally.

As the policy was a re-instatement of a known failed policy with low achievement and high levels of corruption, the latter has reasonable worth, IMHO.

I keep seeing this word 'lost'. What is lost? Nothing. It's sitting somewhere. Where? Why has the present Incumbent been unable to find it. With all his resources. Laughable.

Thais are too dumb to vote? What a truly pathetic argument. I'll tell you who's dumb - the idiots who fall hook, line and sinker for the idiotic Junta propaganda about vote buying affecting the outcome of elections. Thais know who they want running this country, every election for the past 15 years proves that point. You my friend are the uneducated and uninformed not the 15 million Thais who consistently vote for a better future for themselves and their families.

I'd go with that apart from the ' uneducated and uninformed not the 15 million Thais who consistently vote for a better future for themselves and their families'.

There is and has never been the choice for the majority to choose between the Pasha and the Populist.