mfd101

Incompetence + corruption ➞ endless waste of resources

Vietnam, China, Burkina Faso, Turkey ... intelligently-run dictatorships will always outpace incompetent pseudo-democracies.

Only the Chinese & Russians will be laughing if Trump actually makes his move.

My Aussie friends when they visit here in rural Surin comment on the speed of downloads here compared to Oz ...

Would be interesting to see. The fact is that Thailand does have well-trained killers. Just ask the various individuals who ended up floating down the Mekong when Prayut was the boss.

Optimism is one of Thai culture's main features. It substitutes for competence.

I should have thought BYD's real competition (outside China) is Toyota. Both producing high quality EVs & HEVs, BYD ahead on pricing.

Soon be p...g down in Cambodia.

Going to be fascinating to watch.

There is no doubt a long list of Third World countries whose guvamints have been overturned by the Western 'Great Powers' - Usofa, UK, France - for reasons good, bad & indifferent over the last 80 years. I suspect overturning the Maduro corrupt & drug peddling régime would rate amongst the higher-quality examples, particularly as the result was achieved without bloodshed, the victim being someone long since found guilty of assorted real crimes by the US Federal Courts, and large numbers of Venezuelan citizens cheering the result. It remains to be seen how this particular Trumpian adventure finishes up but jumping to judgment just because the author of the coup is one of humanity's more ghastly creatures is not entirely rational.

I'm assuming that ebooks from Amazon won't be affected ... In my case I charge ebooks to my Oz debit card, which has the effect - not particularly intended by me - that the purchase looks like it was made in Oz. So no Thai tax in any case (I think).

With Trump you have to distinguish means (usually brutal, often incompetent) & ends (SOMETIMES useful). Useful ends? Take stirring the pot on Europe, forcing them to pull finger in their own defence. A pretty good outcome so far, moving along at a good pace in defence of Ukraine & the Baltics. But the means produce major negatives for Usofa itself - reputation, unity, economics ... It will be interesting to see where the Venezuela adventure ends up. So far, most Venezuelans cheering ...

Perhaps you're right. Which might explain why the never-touch-the-Constitution types have to stage a military coup at least once a decade ...

Those against changing the Constitution - the comfortable city dwellers - will be out in numbers over the next 3 days to register. Those who would be in favour of change if given half a chance including information they can understand - many of them poor & rural folks - won't have a clue. Carefully designed to ensure that the outcome of the referendum will be no change to the Constitution.

Sure sign of an antique culture (cf Brits): social hierarchy dictates behaviours & outcomes.

Yes, I had the same thing 2 or 3 months ago. My b/f was away at the family farm & I got a blast later for opening the gate to 4 individuals wearing uniform but could have been burglars or kidnappers. He wasn't satisfied till he had later rung various contacts to check on their bona fides. Which shows what the locals think of those in uniform ...

We have one occasionally at a roadside place here in Prasat Surin after we've done our 5 rounds of the local lake. B/f orders. Yummee.

I think on reflection (and my b/f's experience of having to register) it's just the local headwoman keeping track of who's where as the locals return from refugee camping post-ceasefire on the border.

Quick! Watch carefully or you'll miss the improvements.

And (I think, if I'm not mistaken) there is also a connection between oral health and a healthy heart ...?

Only the overthrow of the Putin regime will bring peace.

Alternatively you could go back, say, 225 years to 1800, before British & French imperialism appeared in the region. At that stage the Thai empire included the WHOLE of what is now Cambodia, the WHOLE of what is now Laos, some bits of what is now Vietnam & a biggish slice in the north-west of what is now Myanmar ... My point is that ALL of these 'looking backs' are irrelevant. Depending how far back you go, you get a different answer. So in the real world of international relations - just ask the Chinese or the Russians - you start with where we're at now & you try to move things forward in your favour. And you can't please all the people all the time.

So anyone who's actually living in the 21st century is just fine. Business as usual.

Mmmm, just stirring the Muslim pot?

Seems to me that the auditors might need auditing. The symbolism of it all could scarcely be more pointed.