mfd101

1 hour ago, sjaak327 said:

In a normal democracy I would agree with you. However the current bunch was not voted in by anyone, so therefore the Thai citizens didn't get the government they deserved, it was shoved down their throats. 

It nevertheless took power with a great deal of popular acquiescence (which is NOT the same as popularity) & in a cultural context (hierarchy, corruption, cynicism ... ) that made the coup possible.

My general point is that it's not just democracies (real ones) where the people make it or let it happen.

2 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Thais will just take it without any action. Placid surrender, it's what we've seen the last five years. They have the "government" they've deserved. So junta can ram it sideways down their gullets any which way they want.

I fear you are right, though one can never predict when violence may start with some small incident and then take off uncontrollably (cf the French Yellow Shirts at the moment).

Every country gets the government it deserves ... in the sense that it is the culture of the people that enables & 'authorizes' governments to 'take office', and that applies even to the most authoritarian of régimes (eg Nazis, Stalin, Mao ... ). So all adult citizens bare some degree of responsibility for the outcomes.

I'm looking forward to the 21" as a Xmas pressie this year. My MacBook Air (on which I'm typing this) will then retire to my travel bag.

Last iMac I had was a 1996 model in Canberra, which I gave away when we left Oz for Surin in late 2015. Did sterling service. No problems (other than my levels of competence) over nearly 20 years.

Corruption produces incompetence. Incompetence feeds on corruption.

2 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

The fall of America's once highly regarded education system does not support your assertions...

Oh dear. And I thought I was agreeing with you!

2 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

The US leveled the field in all schools years ago...doing away with schools that pushed high IQ students to reach their full potential. 

 

The results are in...college entrance exam standard testing had to be lowered to meet the demand of uneducated people leaving pubic schools...morons now are scattered throughout all levels of government...including the US Congress...US schools rank around 30th in the world...this is the price one pays for equality in education...minorities are so proud of the new dumber culture...???? 

The dumb ones will remain dumb whatever you do, and the bright ones will be bright & largely self-taught & will rise to the top of any system whatever their origins & whatever you do. Which leaves the in-betweens - the great majority - for whom a decent high-quality, stretching (competitive) experience can make a real difference.

And here was I thinking that 'caretaker governments' are not supposed to ... oh well, mai pen rai.

I reentered Thailand at Don Mueang last Tuesday, coming from Vietnam with my Thai b/f. Retirement extension. First time for me entering DM from abroad so I was a bit nervous about the things one reads here on TV - long queues & awful Immigration officers particularly females.

I was thru in 3 minutes. Airport at around 1730 practically empty, apart from some noisy Chinese tourists who were guided into Chinese-only areas of Immigration. Only 1 person ahead of me in queue. My female Immigration officer wasn't exactly friendly but not notably rude. Asked where we were staying before heading on to Surin. My b/f meantime worked thru the Thai-only machine 3 or 4 metres away. Taxi room had only 3 or 4 people ahead of us. No sign of returning Songkran hordes on the expressway into town. We made it to checkin at our Asoke hotel 60 minutes after touch-down. Which seems to me like some kind of record.

Massive introduction of solar panels feed-in to old power distribution systems is, as Australia is discovering, a MAJOR TECHNICAL headache (quite apart from the usual conspiracy theories mentioned above). Requires massive new investment to prevent the whole system from crashing.

Would be interested to hear from anyone with knowledge of the current sources of power generation in Thailand. Presumably coal & hydro? in what proportions?

24 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

... even with very good drawings, twice I had to pick them up on misreading them. ...

 

My son bought land and house in a new moo bann, buyers had the option to, increase the overall size etc.,  as long as it was within proper building standards. My son increased the overall size. moved walls to that he could have a big internal western style kitchen. Eventually the builder said he was concerned he misunderstood the drawings, extra 3 phase wiring, many extra power points, 2 points for water and drainage;  he asked 'this is for a kitchen; it's way too big, waste of space' etc. Son had to insist that it be built to his drawings. Months after the building was completed a kitchen company completed the white cabinets black marble tops and installed  a black glass hob, exhaust fan, oven, double ink, big fridge, big micro-wave etc. The original builder looked at all of this and took numerous photos. His brochures for his next moo baan featured the same photos and (from some feedback) was a strong selling feature.  

Yes, one of the problems that arises regularly is simple ignorance of how a 'Western' house looks and functions.

For example, If you have builders or workmen who have only ever washed themselves by crouching down with a hose in the out-back dunny, then you may get the problem of leaks around a 'Western' shower because they haven't understood that a falang stands up to shower so water travels much further. I encountered that living in The Trendy building in BKK a few years ago on the 9th or so floor, where the shower was over the bath ... but no provision for the water spilt around the bath to run into the bath rather than across the bathroom floor.

Similarly, little understanding of the need for so many electric power points in the kitchen, or indeed anywhere. And they often end up in strange places (like near the ceiling).

Then there's the weird logic problem. Took 3 goes in our kitchen to get the marble bench top at the right height. Never occurred to the workers that, to accommodate the dishwasher, they could always lower the (concrete) floor under the dishwasher, rather than make the  bench so high it was unusable by a small Thai and difficult to use by a falang.

20 hours ago, villagefarang said:

We were onsite everyday when we built and there were things which needed to be handled nearly daily.

Yes, you need to supervise every minute of every day. If they can steal tools or supplies, if they can do deals with suppliers to overcharge you & pocket the difference, they will.

31 minutes ago, RotMahKid said:

Why you think Google, Amazon, One web and Space X all want to bring satellites in orbit for spreading internet worldwide, They don't do it for free, the all do it for profit to reach the billions of people that don't have internet Yet.

That's why the government here in Thailand and other companies here do it also, for Profit and political reasons.

So don't think they all do that because they like you so much, they just need customers and votes!

But for the customers - whether you & me or the locals - it's not the motivation that counts, just the end result.

Perfection is not achievable in this world. Just to see sensible & steady progress in rural Thailand is a godsend. With the technology increasingly in place, cultural change & economic progress will follow - but it will take a decade or 2.

And then Thailand will be like everywhere else and tourism will come to an end.

6 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

It uses the term 'reference number' not 'password' when I do transfers.

After completing the first part of the transfer to your Thai bank, they send an e-mail with the 'reference number' to include for the second part of the transfer, that is from your home bank to TW.

 

This reference number is your membership number and remains the same for each and every transaction.

Mine begins with P------.

Yes, I agree. They don't ask for a password, they simply need a reference number (that THEY give YOU to quote when you do the transfer from your bank to TW) so that, when your payment appears in TW's account, they know who it's from. Indispensable to the whole operation, I should think, & no threat at all to your security.

In an authoritarian state that is still weak enough to feel the need to go through the motions of democracy, it's pretty uncomfortable and really only a short-term proposition to straddle the barbed wire fence that separates the authoritarians from the true democrats.

States in crisis have no middle ground. People have to choose.

And what happens when the monsoon arrives?

You win some, you won some. You han'some, you winsom.

3 hours ago, Kieran00001 said:

37.2% voted to leave, it was a minority choise as they are about to find out.

If I were a Brit, I would be a Remainer, but - as has been made clear on many many occasions in just about every democracy in the world - if you don't vote, not only do you not count but you don't get counted.

We live in interesting times.

In the short term Prayut will govern by decree & ignore as much as he can the facts that (1) he will have little or no control over the lower house and (2) the upper house as farce will be obvious to all.

But, down the track, this will mean that he will enjoy no more legitimacy after the election than he did before. Indeed, less in fact, because even his supporters can count & will recognize, at least in private, that he did not win a fair & democratic election.

As happens so often in Thailand at the individual level, so socially: The culture of appearances rather than truth & reality means that few problems are ever solved, which builds up a head of steam that eventually causes an explosion of rage & violence. It will only take one idiot military officer to order the troops to fire on a student demo to set the whole land on fire. Once again.

38 minutes ago, SpaceKadet said:

So many people complain about BA. Obviously you have never tried Saudia 10-20 years ago.... That was sometimes an unforgettable experience.

I remember flying something Saudi in 1990 from Riyadh to HK on the way home from a recce in preparation for the 1st Gulf War. As we roared down the runway for takeoff, men were standing in the aisles smoking & women were ripping off their black robes, chadors & face masks to reveal their Christian Dior dresses & jewels underneath ...