mfd101

I wasn't aware of that. Name? Availability (eg Lotus)?

The sensible approach would be to ban Nestlé from using the word 'coffee' to describe its products.

Full of sugar. You'ld do better with Australian.

Thailand needs to learn to expedite justice rather than having cases drag on for years or even decades. Firing squads at dawn could be a useful innovation.

Probably not. Western racism & condescension at work.

(1) Swivelling to the Swedes. Don't need the more expensive F16s any more. (2) Negotiating on tariffs. (3) Combine (1) and (2), et voilà!

So the wheels keep turning.

I am shocked. I'm going to have to make my second short black of the day!

All non-Usofans everywhere need to be adjusting their attitudes and thinking about the state of the world and its evolution for the next, say, half-century. Uncle Sam declining economically & strategically, and not just relative to China but absolutely, and that's not going to stop when Trump leaves office (whenever he does). China on the rise, the new top dog in the pack. And though it won't be all smooth for the Chinese, there's nothing obvious that is going to stop that rise. The US & Europe are already falling behind in many areas of technology. The Chinese social and construction developments (trains, bridges, AI in daily use ... ) are breathtaking. For this Oz, an interesting process of world-view adjustment is under way.

Lovely uniforms and impressive rows of medals but. Clearly more attuned to wartime duties than to running an economy and reforming a nation's culture.

Not a list that gives one much confidence in their ability to ensure sensible management - including technical functioning - of the airline.

Think back to the 60s, the 70s, the 80s and on and on ... Fashions come & go, sometimes with remarkable speed. Mostly they're harmless, just foolish. Others however ...

Who are the major owners?

I wonder what a police general (no. 😎 has to do with the price of fish.

Trying to be practical for most of us: Eat mostly your own cooked meals at home and cook with OLIVE oil (and best only with the high-quality ie expensive brands).

Not that you'ld notice, but come back in 50 years and we'll have a better idea (assuming the advancing Gulf of Thailand hadn't already made any answer redundant).

So who's going to audit the auditors?

Plenty of tossers 365 days of the year. Just not water tossers.

It's never too late for more study tours and more envelopes. The only way to get it done in the lifetime of most of us here on AN is to hand the whole project to the Chinese & just tell them to get on with it without let or hindrance.

So what would appropriate punishment be (apart from: Strung up by his balls for 3 weeks)? I'm thinking: - 10 years in prison without bail or early release, for attempted murder - loss of d/l for life, DIC - ฿1 million compensation tbpaid to the injured old man & his wife - ineligibility for life to any government employment, elected or otherwise.

Ditto. Just coming up to the 15 years mark. Have passed thru Melbin once on a trip to take my b/f to NZ to visit family. No wish ever to return, for either visit or stay. But I still read the Oz every day and take an interest in the politics of comfortable mediocrity.

Cultural change is the key expression. I can't speak about all Thais because I don't know enough but what I notice here amongst the Khmer peasants and in my own family is great reluctance ever to accept responsibility when something goes wrong. Even just in the house, some minor mishap and - even though it was clearly b/f's fault - in the space of quarter of a second it will turn out that it was my fault. Only if I get angry and show it will b/f giggle to display contrition but without actually admitting that it was his fault ... Spread that across a whole culture, daily reinforced by Buddhist passivity & autocratic politics, and you get what we see on the roads.

Every year Songkran gets bigger & better. Woops, worse.

If Usofa is clever (which it obviously isn't under the current idiot leadership , but arguably hasn't been for most of this century) and if its friends & clients (eg Oz) are clever, then everyone can eat their cake & have it. That is, they can enjoy polite and useful & profitable relations with the growing new world power while maintaining their traditional friendly and profitable relations with the old. But currently that's a long shot ...