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Maybe the doctors in Thailand aren't as proficient for the kind of mental illnesses that he needs treatment for?????????

That was an awesome reply! I had a good laugh, but then I realized that maybe you were serious and weren't purposely being ironic, mimicking something a sociopath might say....????? I'm not an expert on sociopathy, but one thing I understand is that it entails a lack of ability to empathize. It may be no skin off of my back on "who is in or out", but I do care about the people that it affects. And it affects MANY people, many of whom are quite innocently ignorant and suffer deeply from the likes of leaders like this guy.

Narcissist sociopaths like him probably believe their own fairy tail storytelling. On second thought, maybe psychopathic could be more fitting.

Delayed!? Say it isn't so!! ????

Nothing like flaunting your own vacuous vanity. The only thought that came to mind was - How stupid!

Will insurance pay out for a company that (apparently) allowed welding to be done by stored explosives!??? That wouldn't be the brightest business model.

hmmmm I can think of another kind of gross.....

Not sure what kind of Thai friends you have, but every single one of my Thai friends (other than one guy who is a clearly ignorant, uneducated, and untraveled person.) are disgusted by it. Having a private laugh about it would be the last thing any of them would do. It comes down to intelligence and character. I generally make excuses to not go to those places when my friends want to go because they were always are so irritated by it and ashamed that they ALWAYS offered to pay my entry for me. Actually, a few times they yelled (edit: "yelled" may be a bit of an exaggeration... spoke very sternly with perhaps a bit of an elevated volume) at the workers and refused to let me pay extra and paid for me, the standard price. None of those places had the balls to call the police. I simply stay away from any of those places. I have been to maybe a dozen or so, but haven't gone at all for the past 15 years because of this insane racism. And from my memory, I don't recall a single one being worth an entry fee of even 100 baht. PLENTY of very nice non-racist and even free places to enjoy.

His education credentials gave me a laugh. Bachelor's at Chula and then a pitiful MBA at an institution ranked in a tie for 89th! among other U.S. universities with programs competitive to his. And that university is expensive, of course.... He could have paid a cheaper fee to go to a top 10 program! But if you can't qualify to get in, then I guess cost means nothing. Reminds me of the quality of student from many rich families in "international" programs I've encountered over the years at the top Thai universities. Kids that are mostly utterly useless and don't care a whit about their education. They're just after that piece of paper that says they graduated from one of the top universities in their country. Speaking with some professors who were extremely frustrated that they couldn't fail their students (which they said could sometimes be over 50% of them if they could actually grade them as they deserved) was also quite eye-opening. Combined with other things I read about him, this guy appears to be just another one of the elite puppets. No surprise there.

I doubt anyone here is actually surprised, sadly. I remember a friend once told me something that I thought had some good insight as to why Thailand was where it was at the time (some 20 years ago). He thought the reason Thailand was more or less prosperous through the many decades since mid last century was due to influence (read: politics and money) from America (this is not a pro-America post. I don't believe there are any good arguments that America was there for altruistic reasons). The tens of billions of US dollars (a lot in 1950 money) pouring in to build up Thai military, police, and a bit of infrastructure (and of course lots of VERY fat brown envelopes among the Parliament) from 1950 and ensuing decades did some amazing things, obviously not all with good endings, but it did keep Marxism/Communism, which destroyed much of SE Asia, out. All of this along with propping up/supporting a young man, who had just recently lost an eye and who apparently had a decent moral compass (of course, there are diverse opinions on the matter). With these two major differences, along with many other things (the 1950's and 60's in Thailand was incredibly complex), Thailand escaped the disaster of all the nations surrounding her. These days, those two things are not clearly evident anymore, at all. And the corruption that all of that American "support" brought with it has created a whole other set of problems. This friend of mine thought that the mindset of the Thai is not so different from her surrounding nations, at all. But with these two major differences, they were brought in a different direction. Be that good or bad... these things are temporary and have consequences in many different ways. But, in the end, I don't believe a "democracy" can succeed with an immoral or corrupt people. If education means anything, it must elevate a people beyond Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Sadly, everyone knows the state of education in Thailand. It is no surprise that "democracy" is not finding success in SE Asia, just as it has had varying degrees of success in the "west". And I don't think it will until the people find their way out of corruption and this begins in the heart. It will be a long journey.

Nothing new or surprising to see here.... business as usual.

Looks not all that unlike how Burma runs things, just with more finesse. Or perhaps, I should say, how they ran things before the somewhat recent total dictatorial control and open genocide (which the world stands idly by, barely even paying enough attention to watch, all the while shedding tears and untold billions of dollars over, Ukraine), when the military ruled by keeping 25% military membership of both houses of Parliament (appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of the military), which conveniently needed 75% to pass anything through it. So... good luck getting anything through that the powers-that-be don't want. The people's voice is virtually meaningless, but puts on a good show and keeps the foreign market open and money flowing (for the elite, at any rate).

I remember back in 2010 (pretty sure it was that year... kinda all blur together), during the red-shirt protest out in Sanaam Luang, in front of Thammasat Uni, where I, unfortunately, needed to be everyday and also lived nearby... passing through checkpoints every day, and later where also dozens of people were killed, I was wandering through and up on this huge screen they had erected, was Thaksin broadcasting a speech to the red-shirts telling them how he would be coming back to fight with them! The people cheered wildly! I was thinking... what a joke, these numbskulls actually believe him! Yep... as you said, the garbage he says is always accompanied by smoke and mirrors, AKA lies and deception. Is it ok to say that about a criminal in exile? Or can even scum like him file suit... probably.... oh well, go ahead, be my guest.

You'll notice, in context of my comment, "woke" was not being used in relation to the event itself. It was in reference to the law, with its attendant causes and consequences.

The most hilarious thing to me about this article is the careful avoidance of saying where it happened! hahahahaha What a joke. These ultra sensitive libel/slander laws make common-sense life unlivable. Just so stupid.... You'd almost think that they'd like to be mentioned because it appears that they handled it promptly and nobody got hurt, so they could tout their security for doing such a great job. Sure, it broke... stuff happens, things break, can't prevent everything. They could show off their pristine maintenance records.... But nooooo gotta cordon things off and don't let anyone take pictures!? hahaha too late! And people from above could take pictures anyway. This law has made everyone's thinking turn upside down and start doing irrational things. That's what getting woke does to you. Turn everything into a victim mentality.....

Now if THAT isn't a protected occupation for Thais, it sure should be!!

Now that's some extremely surprising news! Worn out screws... i.e., deferred (meaning "zero") maintenance. Whooda thunk it!

Number 23 on the list - "Street selling". I've never thought of buying a street before! I might want to look into that! But seriously... There are ENDLESS numbers of foreigners selling wares on the streets! The number of Burmese selling in the markets in Chiangmai and other northern cities sometimes makes me wonder if there are any Thais selling. And I imagine in provinces like Sisaket, Surin, Sakaew it is similar with Cambodians, and in Nong Khai with Lao people, and so on.... But stick a farang in a street booth and see how long before a stop is put to that travesty of protected job hijacking!

Don't they make cobblestones?

I read the article that was linked. What else do you expect is to be done to "follow the story"? A link would be nice to whatever article you may be referring to that shows what you allege.

What makes you think he wasn't willing or going to pay? I guess you could make that assumption, but it is unfounded according to the article. Nowhere did I read that he refused to pay the required extra 100 baht to be dropped where he wanted to go. There was only a claim by the insane driver (whatever anything he says can have any trusted value is questionable) that the passenger was uncooperative and was discourteous during the journey, which apparently made the driver feel justified to kill him or in the least, threaten to do so. Swinging (allegedly) an iron bar at someone's head should be thought of as no less than aggravated assault and perhaps stretched to attempted murder by an aggressive prosecutor. At any rate, that driver should suffer much more severe consequences than a pittance of a fine.

Wow... that's pretty amazing! Perhaps you always stay in very posh places? Not sure how you could have avoided seeing that. I don't disbelieve you, just find it amazing because I've also been in Thailand a bit over 2 decades and have seen railings that I thought "Oh that looks a bit low" countless times! Especially in condos and hotels.

You're not condoning "the injured party's stupidity"? What stupidity? You have some inside information that nobody else here can know from the article?

Yes, I'm all for avoiding the court system! Anyone with an iota of knowledge of what goes on in America knows all too well how insane that gets. But when somebody's life gets physically threatened... any society, I would think, should take that quite seriously. Docking somebody a days wage, or so, for such a egregious crime, surely couldn't appear reasonable to the average person, could it!??? Does anyone ever think how they'd feel about it if that were their mother being attacked? It appears not....

At the VERY LEAST this driver should be arrested, fined (much more heavily), fired from his job, and blacklisted from working alone with the public. The man is obviously a menace to society. Going off into a tirade and threatening (or allegedly even taking a swing at someone's head) with an iron bar!? Regardless of whether or not that tourist said something offensive or not, this driver needs to go away and not come back. Obviously, nothing remotely close to justice will happen. So unbelievably absurd that the article would say this pitiful 1,000 baht fine is a "show of justice for tourists"! OMG..... I think "justice" needs a redefinition for some people.