mfd101

Optimism is the father of action. Too much optimism is a sign of incompetence.

Whoopee! Down to Lotus, everyone, to boost the economy.

Oh dear! The world (at least as we have known it) is coming to an end.

Just for comparison here in the provinces: I had a combined colonoscopy & gastroscopy done here last week at private hospital in Surin city. Unlike 'in The West' I was expected to stay in the hospital for the long 'cleaning' process (they obviously don't trust Thais to follow the instructions). Result: over 2 days + 2 nights in the hospital, polyp removed & pathology awaiting. All-up price: 50000 baht.

Of course.

Never heard of irony?

Send in a member of your Thai family to do the price negotiation. I am forbidden by my b/f to buy anything that's negotiable. So we browse 'independently' then, after conferring, he reenters the shop & does the deal.

Yes. Apple cider vinegar is often recommended by the experts. 1 tablespoon + water before each meal.

Bananas are (relatively) high in sugar. Better would be an apple and berries of all kinds (blueberries particularly good, also strawberries). Avocados & kiwi fruit are good.

Thai man. Sushi. Iceland. Multiculturalism at its best.

Not sure how that sentence makes any sense. If you have 'fears of economic insecurity' you would presumably work longer?

Yes. The problem is that everything is connected to everything else. Poor management at every level results from corruption and lack of education & training which results from lack of understanding and leadership which results from corruption and hierarchy and cynicism which results from ... If you were new in government and tasked with 'fixing Thailand', where would you start? You've got only 4 or 5 years at most to 'make a difference', for tasks that will take half a century to fix (but only 30 years if you were in South Korea or Taiwan). To make major changes quickly you have to use strong-arm methods, but - as we hope the military might almost now understand - such methods are in the long run self-defeating. But producing fundamental change within a democratic system is almost impossible except in unusual (eg post-war) circumstances. Just ask any Western political leader.

Empty words. Don't pay attention to the detail - there isn't any. The main thing is peace & goodwill, which is what such occasions are for. Symbolism is important in national & international affairs. Get used to it.

Well we can all be cynical, an essentially negative substitute for activity. Politics is about symbolism. When politicians make the right symbolic gestures, things can change and improve. Make the wrong gestures - those of passivity & cynicism - and nothing ever changes.

There is a reason why many many Thais don't pay income tax: As in my extensive Khmer family, many many Thais don't have an income at all. Or they have one that is invisibly small or one that is short-term or erratic and unpredictable ....

What is the real deal? Noone knows, least of all the government. But the likelihood of it affecting genuine old-age pensioners living in Thailand is small indeed.

There has been a view (since May) that the time for military coups has passed, a younger generation simply won't put up with the b/s any longer etc etc. We shall see but - for our own (powerless) sakes & mental health - we should remain optimistic.

Answer: Longer & longer as the sea rises.

They had no intention? So it was just an accident ...

Eh, Mr President, this is the new President of Taipei. His name is Settee.

(Yawn)

No longer profitable.

Which assumes that the person in question is behaving rationally.

Um, all the same things that might happen if you did it back in your hotel room or out the back at the loo of a restaurant - gun, poison, slash wrists, ...

As suggested above, clearly the handwritten 'suicide note' holds the answer to the questions ... If the note has disappeared 'gone missing' by the time the UK cops & Embassy start to lift their little fingers, then we & the mother will know the answer.