kurtgruen

Well, people on both sides are getting tired and the sooner this will finish, the better. May the best man win

Shocking would be an understatement. However, depending on the circumstances this sort of thing may not be that rare, even in our home countries. Here's an account of a famous incident in NYC in which a young woman, Kitty Genovese, was attacked over a period of 30 minutes - her screams were heard by numerous people but no-one came to her aid and it's not clear that any calls were made to police until quite late: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese The British among us will remember the Jamie Bulger case where a small boy was kidnapped by two older boys and taken (sometimes dragged and hit) to a railway yard to be brutally murdered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Bulger). Almost 40 people witnessed them on the 2+ km trek (some seeing the boy kicked and punched) but no-one took an real action.

This sort of thing has come to be known as the 'Genovese Effect' or 'Bystander Effect' and is due to several factors such as the ambiguity of the situation (people aren't sure what's really happening) and diffusion of responsibility ("I'm sure someone else more capable is already taking care of it"). There's also the related idea of 'social proof': if no one else moves to act, we are less likely to do so also... we look to others to help determine what's going on and what needs to be done.

Psychologists have done a lot of experiments on US samples and find the same sort of thing. My favourite is where seminary students were rushing to another campus building to give a talk when they passed a man (really an actor) who appeared to be in physical distress, perhaps having a heart attack. If I recall, only about 10 percent stopped to help. The talk they had been assigned to give concerned the parable of the Good Samaritan!

Based on research on this phenomenon, psychologist Robert Cialdini suggests that if you ever find yourself in need of help from passersby, you should target a specific individual ("hey, you in the hat!"), indicate your specific problem ("I think I may be having a heart attack"), and specify what needs to be done ("please come here and call an ambulance for me"). Apparently, your odds are much better than simply crying out 'help' to the masses...

Thank you. It's nice to get something constructive coming out of this.

Our condolences to the families of those teenagers. Very sad indeed!

Our restaurant is right across the street from a major intersection and we see people on motorcycles getting hit all the time and the local Thai people always come running to help.

I remember having trouble with my petcock on the Harley and ran out of fuel. A Thai man on his old motorbike stopped, ask if we needed help, went about 10 miles to buy some gas and brought it back for us and then refused to take a cent from us, when we wanted to give him a bit of money, for his gas and for helping us out. I Forget where that was, but not even in our own town...somewhere in Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai Province.

So not all Thai people are the same and not all people in the World are the same. There are good people and selfish people everywhere in the World.

"as well as intelligence analysis" If they analyze her intelligence, they will be out of luck

Nice to see Jat and Nut have got their bails back.

Now, what's the minimum number to constitute a rally?

Good question, bigbamboo. I guess it depends on who you ask. Always has been that way, throughout history...

For example, in WW2, to be considered a Fighter Pilot "Ace", you had to have 300 victories, later, in the US, a Flying Ace, was somebody, who had 5 or more victories to his name.

So with that in mind, maybe to Jat and Nut, a rally means two or more people. So if they are both not sick that day, they should be able to achieve Rally status.

Well, the two big parties agreed to send representatives, that is certainly a positive thing. Let's hope, they come up with a win-win outcome.

Somehow, it is difficult for me to expect a lot of synergy as the outcome of the meeting, but hopefully we will all be pleasantly surprised

Seen the FB page...another Red Terrorist groupy. She thinks, that the terrorist Ko Tee, is a hero. Shameful, for a former Thai citizen to post such hateful things and images against the monarchy.

I am waiting for the rats to leave the sinking ship, but I guess that some rats just aren't that smart

Considering that those so called super rich, the ones who have built business empires, have provided employment for many on the way to making their fortunes it could be said that they have already contributed to the wealth of others and in most cases to the country as well.

Sure it would be good if the really wealthy ones would give to good causes and quite possibly some do without making a show of it like those mentioned in the article.

Some of course never will, however many of the rich are still contributing via the aforementioned employment and indeed their efforts are what keeps this country going in spite of ineffective and incompetent Government.

I have heard that argument many times, but that only applies, if workers are paid decent, so they can advance themselves economically, socially and mentally (spiritually, if they so choose) and as long as they are provided with good medicare, including a good dental plan, a good pension, when they retire and safe, positive working conditions, with reasonable working hours.

Otherwise, it's just pure selfishness on the part of the rich, exploiting people to get ahead.

I think it's hard to justify billions of personal wealth, when you have workers, who barely survive and who cannot provide for their families adequately.

The sad thing is, the system is set up, to reward the selfish and punish those, who choose to share the wealth and help those less fortunate. (often companies go broke, when they are doing choose to do the above, because others will compete with slave labor practices and undersell them.

As a human race, we have not come very far

Not another mass rally.

Last time, Jattuporn said he would bring 500,000 people, the red side could not even post any pictures afterwards, because the only thing they had a lot of was Toilets, hanging up in the air.

I will be glad, when all this is over, just so all the rhetoric will stop and we can go back to real news

This is getting funnier by the minute. Good thing, that this whole farce will be over soon and most likely, long before any other attempt at holding another election.

Looks like things will come to a head soon.

So far, things are developing as expected

Will all 20 of them show up for this rally, too? The Great Sea of Red?

That is just so sick. I have been watching Bluesky.tv off and on for the past few days, enjoying the beautiful, peaceful Songkran gatherings and the good music and entertainment. This man was doing his job, protecting innocent demonstrators. I hope they question the shooter "real good".

Sad, when we live in a Country, where the actual police only cares about collecting bribes and kickbacks and handing out helmet tickets for cash, but refuse to uphold the law and to protect peaceful citizens.

Our condolences to the family and friends of the victim.

He was shot because he was trying to break up a fight between other guards. Suthep's drunken thugs fighting and killing each other. Luckily there were no innocent bystanders harmed this time.

Very unlikely, as there was no booze allowed at Lumpini Park, during the Protesters Songkran Celebrations. Everyone was checked for booze, as they came in. I think you are thinking of the drunken Red mobs, not the peaceful, sober and happy Anti-Government protesters.

Actually, I think the article addresses corruption and it's results pretty good, but the headline could have been more appropriate.

BTW, don't let a few Songkran haters on here spoil your fun and don't let the ice water scare you. After the first few "buckets" of cold ice water down my shoulders and neck, yesterday, along with "Happy New Year" Sawatdee Pee Mai wishes, it was all good. Did about an hour or two of water fights, on the road, with the rest of the crew and then went inside to relax. The only regret I have, is that I am not 20 anymore and don't have the energy to play in the water all day

This is the last time for me as I stay in Thailand for sonkram madness. Most of my friends have already left Thailand on Saturday and traveled to other countries in Asia. I was stupid not to go with them as I did last year. Starting very tired of all the problems here with constant political problems and a complete invasion of the Russians. Does anyone have a good suggestion on where to move. Thinking of Vietnam or the Philippines might.

Don't let the "water" hit you on your way out

Some of the anti Songkran comments here are exaggerated.

I have never seen a report of a motorcyclist dying due to having water thrown at him. If it has happened it is certainly not a frequent occurrence.

According to this "Nation" article http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Road-death-toll-in-Thailand-among-highest-in-the-w-30202066.html an average of 71 citizens die on Thai roads each day (year round).

According to this "Nation" article http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/39-killed-on-roads-on-day-one-of-Songkran-holidays-30231431.html a total of 39 citizens died on Thai roads on the first day of Songkran 2014.

And, according to this statistic for 2013 http://www.richardbarrow.com/2013/04/road-accident-statistics-for-songkran-in-thailand-2007-2013/ a total of 321 citizens died on Thai roads during the 7 days of Songkran = an average of 46 per day .

Conclusion: Compared with the average day, fewer people die on Thai roads during the 7 days of Songkran.

BTW, I am not arguing in favour of a 365-day Songkran festival.

Reason for edit: clarity

Good point Chickenslegs. Nice to see some statistics interpreted.

People who are scared of everything (including their own shadows sometime), want to keep passing laws to take away more and more freedoms from other people. Of course, a fearful personality will remain fearful, unless one works on himself (inside) instead of trying to change to world around us to fit our idea of right and wrong.

Someone always has a "true" horror story, of something terrible that happened, using it to justify the tightening of rules and laws. Let's face it, people die every day. If we don't want to see people senselessly hurt or dead, maybe we should stand up and cry out against wars, instead of something fun like Songkran.

Remember, things all started years ago, when Thaksin tried to get rid of Khun Prem's office. That was the beginning of the end for Thaksin.