sibeymai

How about a committee to adjust the Thai alphabet (?) - so it's not so confusing, redundant, difficult.

There are several 'dead letters' and too much redundancy. Does it still need a half dozen symbols each for the P and T sounds? The vowels (sela) are just as bad in the redundancy dept. Thailand's scholars could do what Japanese and Europeans have done - adjust their alphabet to be more sensible , and thereby spelling of some words to make them less archaic. Ok, won't happen, but just wanted to mention it.

I asked a little Thai boy, which was the more difficult class at his school, English or Thai. Right away he said Thai. Ok, it's just one kid's retort, and maybe he likes his English teacher better (or it's a more laid-back class), but it could be indicative of why Thai students spend a very large proportion of their study time trying to decipher their own language.

Absolutely agree. And try using spaces between words for further simplification.

If two Thais speaking together fail to understand each other (a common occurrence in my experience) then it would appear that there could also be a a problem with the language as well as the alphabet.

Unfortunately, any such moves regarding the alphabet or language will be stopped dead by conservatives crying out for the need to conserve the cultural heritage and purity of Thailand. With such thinking by those in control Thailand is destined to become a backwater with a stagnant culture. Surely it is obvious that culture and language in particular is in a forever dynamic and evolving state and to try to preserve it at any given time is futile.

"To produce quality students in the second decade of Thailand's education reform,...."

Second decade of reform ? When is the first decade going to begin ?

I can't recall any meaningful reforms in the last 10 years. It's statements like these which unfortunately tend to prove Abhisit is no better than the rest of the politicians and public servants in Thailand, or most countries for that matter, who seem to think that just saying something makes it happen.

With Thailand's education system so obviously broken how hard can it be to make some positive impact? Even a small improvement would have a big effect. That nothing happens even under someone with Abhisit's educational credentials is damning evidence and speaks volumes about the true motives of those in power with regard to the poor and disadvantaged of Thailand.

Should have gone mushroom picking in Mullimbimby instead.

50,000 bt for no license ?

Henceforth to be known as Mr. Stoner.

My ex developed a knife habit which she found hard to kick. Even got me hooked to the point I'd look forward to the stealthy commando style home entry and the disarming tussle. In the end it just got too easy and the adrenalin charged excitement wore off to the point that having one's life threatened became routine, so I divorced her. Now I live a boring life devoid of any excitement. God, how I miss that girl !

Why are there multiple bruises when the video shows only one hit ?

Anyway, caning on the ass is for wimps. The teachers in my days could hit the fingertips....six strikes on each hand for the worst offenses. Stung like all hel_l and left no bruises though the fingertips swelled up. Usually we deserved it and necessary for discipline since it wasn't a Catholic school so private visits with the priests was not an option.

I'm surprised that Norwegian fraud laws are such that the guy is held responsible, assuming the guy didn't pass on his PIN to the thief.

If however, he tried a number of unsuccessful transactions (as stated in the report) entering his PIN in front of the guy then that lets the bank off the hook. Customers have the responsibility to take reasonable measures to ensure their PIN is not visible to others in the vicinity.

Since thieves use cameras to record PINs as they are entered and skimmers to record and reproduce card data almost immediately everyone should shield the keypad from view every time they enter their PIN at an ATM or POS terminal.

The Japaneses make excellent tongue kissing training videos. Some of the techniques are spectacular and last for 10-15 minutes at least.

Thanks for the reply.

Neither sounds appetizing on a gourmet restaurant menu. Also this is a local fish so Nile sounds.. so far

Anyone who thinks "Tilapia" belongs on a gourmet restaurant menu is fishing in the wrong pond, IMHO.

True, flag waving will not make the problem go away...but it will give the soldiers something to shoot at.

The Taliban solution may be the best...blow it up.

....bet the captain gets a lot of requests to "swing the compass" (I'll go and have that banana now)

Gives a new meaning to the nautical expression "gunkholing".

Some people believe they have the right to choose to die. Saying suicide is selfish implies that others have more right to demand people keep living. It can't be argued that others have more rights over ones life than one self.

Why would a Farang who intends to control a Thai company use a Thai Director ?

Because companies formed with a farang director attract more scrutiny from the relevant Thai authorities than when forming a company without a farang director (eg. source of capital).

Besides, any director can be replaced at any time by a vote of the majority Thai shareholders so being a director, even a sole director, doesn't provide an effective means of control.

It has been suggested to me that this method is an effective way for a farang to maintain control of a Thai company. Do you agree ? Or are there other methods to maintain effective control while complying with Thai laws ?

Company shareholding constituted as Thai shareholder #1 (41%) as sole director, Thai shareholder #2 (20%), farang shareholder #3 (39%). Farang shareholder holds a signed undated unconditional letter of resignation from the director (Thai shareholder #1) and a signed undated voting rights proxy transfer from Thai shareholder #2 allocating voting rights to the farang.

The theory is that should the director perform any action which the farang disagrees with the farang can pre-date the director's resignation letter to invalidate the director's action. The director's resignation will prompt a shareholder vote for the appointment of a new director and with the proxy allocation from Thai shareholder #2 the farang controls 59% of the votes and may therefore appoint a director of their choice.

Is the above method legal under Thai law ?

Another method I have heard of is where the farang shareholder is allocated preferential voting rights on their shares when the company is formed. For example, Thai shareholding 80%, farang shareholding 20%. However, the farang shares are preferential and allocated 5:1 voting right. Therefore the Thai shareholders can exercise 80 votes and the farang 100 votes. In this method the farang needs to ensure the directors can not issue additional shares to offset the farang's shares so undated signed resignation letters for all the directors is also required.

Is this method also legal under Thai law ?

Any other legal methods for a farang to maintain control of a Thai company ?

Thaksin try to benefit the phone users himself and his cronies by dropping the cut taken by TOT & CAT for doing nothing. he was badly burned. Now, no one dare to touch TOT & CAT for that reason. Not even Mark or Korn. Else, double standard.

There, corrected that for you.

TOT, CAT, and all the sticky fingers in the pudding are very much holding back Thailand and the Thai people. It's not just foreign companies that are tired of this never-ending stupid mess of corruption, it's everyone else too. Every Thai should be tired of it. Thailand already has laws that prevent the "sellout" of Thai companies, but even that Thailand is unable to enforce - isn't AIS Singaporean now, and how can that be? A strong country defends it's laws.

If I remember correctly the concession reduction only applied to AIS, not DTAC or others. It would seem that nikster's correction is appropriate. Indeed Piengrudee is providing a good insight into why Thailand increasingly has more in common with Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar as opposed to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and even Indonesia.

Truly it is a race to the bottom with, it seems, the Thais enthusiastically cheering on.

With Telecoms development retarded and the tourism industry decemated it must be time to throw a spanner in the works of the still successful auto industry.

Have a small house on an unattended farm. Shortly before it became unattended the cottage was broken into and some valuable tools were stolen. I removed the remaining valuables. It has been repeatedly broken into since with some remaining items stolen. The cottage has been used for drinking and drugs and other "social" activities. Recently the electricity cabling from the street and internal was removed. I have since padlocked the door so the only entry/exit has to be by forcing a window. Evidence points to people in the immediate vicinity but not necessarily neighbours.

So, in my experience, if you can't keep your eye on it almost all the time in all likelihood you'll loose it. I have a great distrust of all Thais now as a result of this and other experiences.

Air France's safety record is second worst to Aeroflot. More than 1,600 passengers lost. I wouldn't fly an airline with that kind of safety record.

1) My first bit of constructive advice is, don't send the gf 200,000bht.

2) My second bit of constructive advice is never get involved with the financial problems of Thais you hardly know.

3) Listen to the sister-in-law and repeat after her, not my problem.

4) These scams always have a very short lead date (in this case 2 weeks) to put you under pressure.

5) If you cave-in and offer to pay the loan, make it a condition that the chanote on the house has noted on it that you hold a 200,000bht loan on the home, registered at the land office and you hold the owners copy of the chanote so effectively you own the house, they can't sell or take out another loan on the property, one of the few ways a non-Thai can sort-of hold a property title.

PS

Repossession of a house is very hard for anyone to do in Thailand, very rare, takes years, in other words I don't believe the notice exists or was ever posted on the door. (and if my wife had tried this story on with me, I would have laughed in her face)

Wot he said - Emphatically!!!!!

Couldn't agree more.

(ps. If you've a real need to blow 200,000bt send me a PM. 200,000bt will also get you lots of new GFs on your next visit0)

I wonder what "persuasive" methods the BIB use on a 20 year old to make her recant so quickly. I'd have thought if she stuck to her story provided it was plausible there would be little the BIB could do. Certain rules of the game have to be observed to win and the insurance companies are always improving their game. Not a game for inexperienced or unprepared players.

Did you say "jelato" ? What flavour is that ?

Who thinks up names here in Thailand.

Mate has a "kaze', short for "kamikaze" no doubt. And then there's another one called "Smash".

Very appropriate.

The shakedown setup is something all foreigners in Thailand need to be aware of and guard against. For the well intentioned it's easy to be trapped and can cost upwards of 1m baht to get out of.

There is likely to be more than a few innocents doing time in Thai jails right now simply because they couldn't prove their innocence or buy their way out.

259 people found gambling across 76 provinces, or 3.4 people per province. Makes you wonder why the BIB bother.

Still, it's a better success rate than the Customs Department's record of finding 31 drug smugglers out of more than 10 million passengers at Suvarnabhumi in 2009.

I'll wager the BIB will hit the jackpot and clean up if they play their cards right and the odds go in their favour.