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On 10/2/2017 at 2:55 AM, elgenon said:

In your culture. In my area of my country they are indeed "bikers". To each his own. Your use is more precise but the fact remains.

I am a cyclist. I am not a biker. End of story.

On 9/30/2017 at 8:32 AM, elgenon said:

Years ago they put in bicycle lanes in CM, with blinking lights on the border too. Same same. Why would they think they would work in BKK after that? I think giving a biker more of a misplaced feeling of safety could be dangerous. But it would be nice if it worked. But enforcement against all the encroachers (my word) is still a dream.

 

Guess they want Thailand to be seen as more of an international city that is becoming more environmentally friendly. Oh well.

 

They should start by making pedestrians safe.

Just for the record: We're cyclists not 'bikers'. Bikers ride motorbikes.

On 9/29/2017 at 9:52 AM, tomwct said:

I agree 100%! I would never ride a bicycle in Bangkok because of the Thai Drivers. They'll run you over without blinking an eye. It's like dodging cars on a crosswalk. You take your life in your hands every time.

That's not the point. Skilful and experienced cyclists can ride in traffic. I have ridden in Denver, London, Bangkok, Paris, Delhi and so on. The point is that the Thais build these bike lanes, as they have done in my home city of Chiang Mai, and the motorists park in them, motorcyclists used them to ride the wrong way, street vendors use them to sell their cr@p and so on. So it's nothing to do with cyclists not using them or it being unsafe to ride in Bangkok, it's to do with the Thais who obey no laws. I shut at the motorcyclists who use our lanes to no avail. With the Thais there is no point in having any road laws. They do what they want. Free spirits all.

4 hours ago, yellowboat said:

If Thailand would offer the same freedom, educational and financial opportunities that China offers its Citizens, that would be at least a step in the right direction.  They don't.

 

Who should decide where Thailand should turn its face ?  Should it be the current bumpkins, as they are doing such an amazing job forming committees, panels, sub committees and other talk fests ?  

 

Thailand under democratic governments worked better.  It had direction.  Business was vibrant.  People had hope.  People had fun.  Today is very different.  Thailand has purchased a small amount of security at the expense liberty and opportunity.   History will point towards the army as those held Thailand back from developing, not the Shinawartas. 

Since when has Thailand had a democratic government? Under Thaksin? No way he is an autocrat and didn't use the word 'democracy' until it was suggested by R Amsterdam as a tactic against Abhisit. Under Yingluck? You must be joking, a proxy for a run-away doing as HE bid? Is that democracy? Don't make me laugh. Democracy is dependent on the rule of law, not just votes. Rule of law under Thaksin? Go and read the history and research the facts then come back and tell us, eh?

The western media continue to show this woman as a lass persecuted by an unfair justice system organised by the military without mentioning the enormous damage that she did to the country at her "brother's" behest. How people can continue to support these criminals beggars belief. Te truth is, off course, much darker but the sad thing here is that people continue to believe the manipulative propaganda distributed by the King of Dubai (sic)..........Thailand is a much better place without these two. Off course it would suit greater powers to have them in situ but far better for Thailand to ignore the pressure from the USA and keep its face turned towards China.

1 hour ago, Eric Loh said:

Yes and the red shirts shot and killed their own people with bullets from the military. 

Yes Eric. Precisely what happened in some of the cases.

4 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Of course.

 

Money number one.

Thaksin's money off course!

2 minutes ago, realenglish1 said:

Well now you have it The lives of Thais are not as valuable as Rice is 

 

Abhist not held accountable   with 90 people dead and Yingluck has to flee the country because of Rice

 

Does this sound a little twisted 

No it doesn't simply because the arch manipulator is the one responsible. It would not have been in the Abhisit government's interest to mow down "90 protestors" (sic). As he took a softer line the game was to make it appear as if he was responsible....spin, spin and yet more spin and the Kwais (including right-wing farangs) swallowed it hook, line and sinker. More fool them for supporting the exiled sociopath.

2 hours ago, Chris Lawrence said:

So they overstepped their authority. Isn't that the same charge the ministers and Mrs T were charged with.

 

At the end of the day someone gave the order to shoot. 

 

This is not a red or yellow bashing tweet, but questions as to who gave the order need to be answered. There are 80 families out there that will never have a loved one come home. If the General is to be fair, both sides of politics need to be accountable.

People are easily taken in by the fake news that surrounded these events. Fact is many of the people who died were not shot by police or military; that armed forces' guns were used can be easily explained by the raids that certain red shirt supporters carried out on military and police stores. You only have to look at the various speeches, evidence (such as u-tube) and so on to see that making martyrs of innocent people was part of the overall Red Shirt strategy. Not a new idea but one that was used here to try and label Abhisit and his cabinet 'murders', whilst avoiding the issue of Thaksin's extra-judicial killings of more than 3000 people during his term in office. Indeed when you organise such a mass occupation and encourage your supporters to violence (of which there is much evidence) then people will die or get hurt as a natural consequence. Only die-hard ideologues supporting the reds refuse to see this and continue to spread the lie about 80 or 90 innocents "being killed on Abhisit's orders" when in fact any dispassionate view would question the truth in such a statement. In these situations it's always best to look behind the headlines. Personally I get fed up of the right-wing myopic farangs who continue to spread these lies on behalf of that would be dictator now resident in Dubai.

1 hour ago, baboon said:

I did read it and it is exactly as I described it.

You think so? How sad!

19 hours ago, baboon said:

You talk about taking a dispassionate view then launch into a lengthy phillipic against one side. Bang goes your credibility there...

If you take your blinkers off and read my post with an open minds you'll note that there is no polemic. Only facts.

16 minutes ago, southcoast said:

You say "especially when there are many hundreds of thousands of INNOCENT people fleeing actual harm in their home nations" how do you know there ALL Innocent!!! a lot of them are NOT Asylum Seekers they only come to the UK to do harm to innocent people. They don't have ID or passports so how the hell do we know who they are! Answer = WE DON'T. How about all the problems in Paris, Brussels and London., innocent people being killed. Think about it.

If she does come to the UK least she will be the ONLY Asylum Seeker in the UK that wont be claiming for "free medical, free accommodation, free food, free television, free clothing, free schooling and all the other freebies they get, the list goes on and on thus dragging the economy down even more. Its funny that they travel through 6, 7 or 8 country's to get to the UK, ever wondered why! (probably not).

Please note, this is NOT racial discrimination this is common sense, I am married to a Thai lady and I don't think you have a clue what us Brits have to pay out for, how many hoops we have to go through to get out wife/girlfriend over here, (I know its our choice) I presume that the money we pay out for this privilege goes towards the freebies that are handed out. Most politicians through out the world are corrupt so don't think she, maybe, the only one.

And finally if you think she left with out on her own then you are sadly mistaken,  she was HELPED out of the country. How the hell did she get a private jet to Singapore, not with out a lot of help. Wonder if they asked for her passport at immigration ?.

If you really worried about asylum seekers having a raw deal maybe they can stay at your place!

The sooner Thailand gets back to a democratic country instead of being run by the military the better.

That's my rant over for the day, if you disagree with my comments ( you will I know) that your problem not mine, end of.

When was Thailand ever democratic? Makes me laugh when people keep posting "Get Back to a Democratic Country" when the Government that the General dissolved was no more democratic than his. OK people "voted" for Yingluck. I accept that. But I don't accept that her Government, run as a proxy for her "brother" in Dubai, was democratic. Neither was Thaksin's. The facts speak for themselves. People have voted for dictators like Hun Sen, Mugabe and so on. And they weren't democratic either.

11 hours ago, z42 said:

Asylum. What a joke, she is guilty of at the very least criminal negligence, or looking the other way to frankly unchecked corruption by those in her party. As a UK citizen I would be disgusted if she was to be granted asylum, especially when there are many hundreds of thousands of INNOCENT people fleeing actual harm in their home nations.

Can only keep repeating that this idiotic woman is NOT THE VICTIM OF ANYTHING THAT WASN'T OF HER OWN MAKING. She is fleeing rightful criminal prosecution, and that should provide no grounds for asylum whatsoever.

 

This is bsolutely true. And those that think otherwise are victims of their own delusion. Delusion comes from a firm belief in one side or the other. If you ake a disappasionate view - ie perhaps both sides are as bad as each other - then you'd also come to the conclusion that the rice 'scheme' was initiated by her 'brother' in order to win popular votes. The worst thing about it was withdrawing the rice from the world commodities market thus forcing the price up. Hey, is it a good idea nto increase the price of the basic foodstuff for most of the world's poorest people? Those who support the Shins must think that's OK because they don't give a damn about the poor people, they are just interested in manipulating those that can bring them power and even more obscene wealth. Political Asylum? Well, the UK has bought into the lie that Thaksin has perpetuated over the years that he is a victim of an unjust political and judicial system. If you repeat a lie often enough then people will believe it. Indeed he's really a human rights abuser responsible for the extra-judicial killings of 3000+ people in an unjust war that was targeted at drug dealers but caught quite a few of his political opponents in the same net. He wasn't a democrat and neither was/is his 'sister'. He was/is a dictator furthering the cause of USA interests in SEAsia and she is his puppet. The truth is  stranger than fiction and one that cannot be denied by the Shin-ideologues that support him. Being opposed to the Shins does not mean supporting the General. The Shins may have been elected but does that mean they ran democracies? The anti-democratic nature of both Shins' time in office is pretty transparent to those who want to see it. I would be furious, but not surprised if the UK granted her asylum.

20 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Guff.

 

The 'Bitter Medicine' policies of the second Chuan Leekpai Democrat government in the 90's was to pay for the losses after the Asian financial crash and were directly aimed at the poorest regions of the country, and all the while in the late 90's the rich got richer. 

 

The poorest people in the country still remember and hate the Democrats for that, hence they remain unelectable, even today. 

 

Thaksin was so universally popular because he reversed that and recognised the needs of the rural poor, when others had just tread on them. 

Not at all. Thaksin found out that he could make a heck of a lot of personal money by exploiting the poor under the guise of "supporting" them. The Rice scheme was no differet from many of his other failed and dishonest scheme. I have no idea why rational farangs do not understand that Thaksin is a manipulative sociopath and succeeded in getting his "sister" into a big mess as well as the country. To me the whole Shin era is so transparent .....to support him is to bend to ideology instead of taking a balanced view of all the events and understanding the fundamental dishonesty that lays behind them. And before you or anyone claims that I support the military...No it's nothing to do with supporting one side or another. To take an entrenched position is to deny the facts as they are. And your understanding of the Chew on Leek Pie policies is incorrect.

Yingluck always swore that she would not run away. A bit like her so-called brother then.

4 hours ago, gummy said:

what a farce ?

 

Why?

3 hours ago, choff56 said:

Bringing global attention to the Thai repressive military junta and a very corrupt justice system. Good move Yingluck, you appear to have Prayuth in check.

But the Rice scheme was not a good move. The problem with people who firmly sit on one side or the other of the fence are blind to the facts. The rice Scam was an attempt by Thaksin to bet on the world price of rice, forcing rice prices up on the world commodity market and making million of poor peoples' basic foodstuff much more expensive. He did this, through his proxy "sister" so that the Shins would benefit from the support of the farmers. Backfired because India and Vietnam filled the gap in the world rice market and the price remained stable. Like many of Thaksin's scheme this did not work. This is the basis of this case. It has nothing to do with the General or the Dictator family. Bot are as bad as each other simply because that's the Thai way. But what Thaksin attempted to do with this commodity was an utter disgrace and the independent prosecution would have fairly judged this either to be the case or not the case. The Shins run away as usual. I'm sure the General would to. That's the way of the world. But please don't make such silly comments choff because they simply bear no relation to the facts. All they do is expose your ideological position.

45 minutes ago, kaorop said:

Yeah halloween you go man, make sure every thread you can post in is about blaming the shins for something, never mind what the thread title is ! Oh sorry forgot you already do.

Rice farmers are asking for help, because they are struggling, they referred to YL and that pledging debacle as something that did help them.....which has little to do with the corruption further up the chain...Thats what this topic IS

Read my post about what this scheme was about. I ain't kidding.

7 minutes ago, kaorop said:

Yeah halloween you go man, make sure every thread you can post in is about blaming the shins for something, never mind what the thread title is ! Oh sorry forgot you already do.

That's not necessarily true. This is an issue that can be debated without taking sides. The facts are so transparent. In fact I reckon it was a pretty dumb thing to do....don't you?

25 minutes ago, halloween said:

Forget the junta for a while, the topic is the rice scam. Why didn't they just GIVE the poor people the money? B10,000/year for the 15 million Kittirat said needed help without the messing about with rice and the corruption involved?  Cheaper, much more effective, but no agency fees for mates and fake G2G deals - where's the fun in that?

According to Loh, you're my mate. Hello?

The problem with people who take sides is that the truth is always inconvenient. Off course, this is not a question about the junta, this is about the rice 'scam' set up by Thaksin and administered by his stool pigeon, Yingluck.

It is clear, not only to me but also to many other impartial observers, that the rice pledging scheme was based in an attempt to create a world shortage of rice, thus forcing the price up. If this had happened then there would have been two outcomes:

1) Poor people the world over would have had to pay more for their staple diet

2) Thaksin would have won his 'bet' with the rice and from what I understand everyone (except those in (1) above) would have benefitted. Thaksin and his cronies through their own personal interest and the farmers who may (or may not) have been paid for their rice pledged at the higher cost.

That this did not happen is, thankfully, due to Vietnam and India who leapt into the void by increasing their exports of rice thus foiling Thaksin's attempt at bribing the farmers and in the process lining his pocket.

What also didn't happen was good management of the pledged rice. Inferior rice was shipped across the Cambodia/Laos borders and pledged at the higher price thus making a mockery of this scheme and rice was badly stored causing tonnes to rot away.

And the sting in the tail was that there was not enough money in the system to pay all the farmers: so only the farmers in Thaksin's heartlands were paid. The junta promptly found the funds to clear the debt to the farmers created by Thaksin and his incompetent 'sister'.

This is what happened. Chapter and verse. I don't care if the junta organised this scheme, I don't care if Thaksin organised it, I don't care if Uncle Tom Cobbly organised it: It stank. And whatever Thaksin's fanboys claim, they cannot escape the facts. If the Junta had organised it I would have made the same criticism of them. The whole scheme was disgusting.

14 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Talking about sucking the life blood from the nation, give it up for the junta government. They did lots of sucking up of the treasury reserves and left it almost empty and created the biggest budget deficit than previous government and sucked it all up for the increase in defense budget. Now that not in the military SOP rather SOP of a handful of generals. 

Hardly the issue Eric. But a neat diversion

Try the bicycle shops: Full of knock-off clothing and parts. Knock off cycle parts in particular are dangerous: I have seen wheels collapse, a frame break and in my case a seat post knowingly** sold to me by a cycling official who should know better. Very dangerous and Thailand is full of it.

**known by him but not by me.

11 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

Farmers all around the world complain about prices, but with no farmers there is no food so a compromise has to be reached hence subsidies which other countries pay there farmers but here the money just ends up in corrupt pockets including farmers but mainly the HISO.

Well, there's one farmer who fell hook, line and sinker for the Shinawatra con! Makes you laugh....well it would if it wasn't so sad

9 hours ago, Get Real said:

I am truly speechless!

Why speechless? It happens here all the time.

Quite a good rehash of a press release. But not good journalism.