mfd101

Wait and see, is my approach. I don't quite believe the thought bubble emitted by one Thai official. And the one thing I'm determined to avoid is double taxation between here & Oz. I already pay 1/3 of my superannuation (my sole income) to the Oz Tax Office so will be active in avoiding any more, including as necessary paying ONLY Thai tax. And, in any case, 9/10 of my income is spent on my Thai Khmer b/f and his impoverished peasant family. Any reduction in my income will mean reduced support to them ... Wunnerful Thailand!

Of course readers of AN know best.

My home is where my b/f is. Which is here in south Surin. If he predeceases me, it is arranged that one of his older sisters will move in as my caretaker in my old age. I am an Australian (by adoption). Lived there 41 years and still love the place and read 'The Australian' newspaper every day, but feel no need to visit there. My friends come here to visit and see the natives.

It may surprise you but I agree. However, ALL politicians tell lies or misrepresent issues or mislead The People when it suits them. In general, politicians who tell the truth and the whole truth all the time would NEVER get elected. By anyone. The world is complex and grey. The People can stand only so much truth.

Half the population lives in the Third World, the other half in the Second. Only a completely changed education system will achieve change, and that's a 20-year project at least, starting with kindergarten & working its way up to tertiary levels. Then there's corruption to be tackled, preferably by the non-corrupt (if you can find them). Think Batista's Cuba 1950. Think Fidel 1958. Hint hint ...

I'm sorry but I still don't understand why you imply that I am in favour of fascisto-military government, in Thailand or anywhere else. For your information, if I had been Thai I would have voted for MFP at the election last year.

I agree with your first part. Why you feel the need to add an insulting second part is beyond my understanding.

PVV - the extreme right party - received 23% of the vote on 22Nov23. It gained 37 seats out of 150 in the Dutch House of Representatives which was the most seats of any party. It then took until 16May24 for a new coalition government to be formed.

No, just as in Western parliamentary democracies (UK, Oz, NZ, Canada, Germany ... ), The People do not elect the PM. They elect members of the Lower House and the members of the Lower House then form a government (usually by forming a coalition, as I have explained above) and the members of the main party in the governmental coalition then elect their Leader who becomes the PM.

No. The party with the most votes gets FIRST GO at forming a government. If - after some time - it fails to do so (because no other party wants to join them) then the 2nd-most-voted party gets to have a go at forming a coalition ... which is what happened here last year. Those who still don't understand might want to look at the Netherlands where the extreme-right party 'won' the election months and months ago ... ie it won the most votes of any party but not enough seats in the Parliament to form a government. And since then it has been unable to form a coalition because of the same issues you find in Thailand - policy & personal differences and jobs-for-the-boys (oh, and even a few girls). Meantime the country is without effective government ...

Yes, besides they've installed a seismometer so everyone's safe.

Indeed, I agree. The problem with commentators above is that they seem unable to grapple with the notion that, as in every Western democracy, to form a government you need a majority of seats in the Lower House, and - in a properly working system - you get that only if you have received a majority of votes from the electorate. And a majority of votes means 50%+. It is not the same thing as 'received more votes than any other party'. There are plenty of examples everywhere - Australia currently for instance, Germany, Netherlands, Italy ... - where a government can be formed ONLY through coalition because no party has received over 50% of the popular vote. Indeed, that is the norm throughout all properly functioning democracies. One party winning more than 50% of the popular vote is rare. Passionate shouting that it's all evil & corrupt in Thailand - though mostly true - doesn't alter the facts of how ANY voting system works.

Voting for the PM (joint sitting of both Houses) is not the same as voting to form a government (Lower House only).

You can call it a farce and I wouldn't disagree. But you seem not to understand the difference between 'winning the popular vote' and 'having a majority in the Lower House'. The process and the negotiations following the election last year may be 'corrupt' but you still need a majority of seats to form a government, as anyone who has lived in a properly-functioning parliamentary system should know.

No. MFP won the most votes and therefore the most seats of any party in the Lower House. BUT it did not win a majority of seats, which meant that the wheeler-dealers of the other parties could form a coalition with MORE seats than MFP and with a MAJORITY of seats in the lower House and thereby form a government. Which is what happened.

I remember the then Governor of South Australia - a South Vietnamese refugee - speaking a couple of decades or more ago about the Sunday afternoon in the 1970s that his crowded, leaking old boat full of Vietnamese refugees entered Darwin harbour. A large yacht with near-naked Aussies on board was sailing out of the harbour. As they passed the refugee boat they raised their glasses and shouted: G'day Fellas! Welcome to Australia.

If you compare the Brits' handling of large-scale immigration with the similar Oz experience over decades, you'ld have to say the Brits don't come out of it very well. Oz is currently feeling some discomfiture with post-Covid immigration levels over 500,000 annually. But there is widespread recognition that many of the migrants are energetic young people with skills the Oz economy sorely needs. My experience over 40 years living in Oz was what a wonderfully rich (in all senses) country immigration had made of Oz, and sensible people on all sides of politics recognized this. I had many young staff working for me who had different coloured skins and unpronounceable surnames, but when they opened their mouths they spoke broad Australian. They were fine young citizens. Of course British circumstances - population & geography - are different from the Oz reality. But clearer recognition of the positive contribution immigrants make would be helpful.

And meanwhile in UNrelated news ...

Too gay-looking, you think?

3 May was a Friday. 6 May was a bank holiday in Thailand.

The map shown above is interesting. Path (1) - ship to rail to ship ie loading & unloading & reloading - makes little sense. But Paths (2) & (3) could work: Either rail to ship & on, or ship to rail & on. But you probably don't need a land bridge for that, just a decent port on the Andaman Sea with good rail connection to the north.

Another safe way for fugitive Russians to enter Thailand.

Every day now here in south Surin huge storms come charging towards us across the plains and hills of the weather map, only to part a few kilometers from us and move elegantly around us without more than 5 drops of rain actually touching the ground.

Anything to do with diet?

Or are afraid for their own life!