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I don't need to read your article, especially when being produced in such a hostile manner. You make a grand assumption instead of making any sort of genuine attempt at understanding. Everyone who has the ability to read, probably knows Asian elephants are endangered. And Forest Elephants of Africa are even more so. I made it crystal clear about my opinion of so-called sanctuaries for elephants in Thailand. For a number of years, I lived near one of these places (a well-known, fairly large one) and I am good friends with one of its managers. I've had plenty of discussions and know more than I care to know. Presently, in Thailand, it appears that without these tourist attractions that lead to many abuses on the elephants, caring for and conserving these elephants in a sustainable manner isn't possible. But this kind of conservation leaves a LOT to be desired, to say the very least. There are programs in different parts of the world that have strict programs for allowing some culling of endangered animals, without the need of enslaving the animals. The proceeds go toward conservation efforts. There has been success with these programs (of course, some problems too, due to corruption) and I believe it would be a better alternative than the present disgusting model that maybe they could call a part of Thainess.... I won't assume you CLEARLY DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT numerous international culling programs of endangered species... but with the way you jumped off of your pedestal to come at me, it sort of appears to be the case.

Yes, I was being a bit facetious because the person was going on about how terrible it would be to cull them. Yeah, it would seem horrible, but if you let nature take its way, it seems even worse. So, I don't think culling should be out of the question because these stupid sanctuaries are out of control. Bring them to a sustainable level, whether by culling or allowing present animals in sanctuaries stay there until they die, but no additions unless for life saving (Don't let them breed in captivity!!! omg how stupid) and if culling is needed, well... maybe that's better than them suffering and starving. Culling or sell super expensive permits to hunt to bring levels to a sustainable place. And illegal killing should have massive penalties. But... we're talking Thailand... so I don't know if it's hardly even worth expert's time to try coming up with a sustainable plan. It will inevitably be a tragedy and some politicians and forestry officials/police/rangers will just get rich off of it. But I think a great first step would be to disallow sanctuaries to breed. That is insane.

I'd be willing to bet that a good entrepreneur would be able to make a go of a business model like that....

And yet, somehow their numbers don't seem to be dwindling as they are "rescued" and they are allowed to breed in these places, so these animals that cannot survive in the wild are born and held captive in slavery to tourist attractions. What a wonderful and caring place these "sanctuaries" are.... 😒

Could always just let nature take care of itself. They'll starve to death and their numbers will get to a sustainable point.

You've apparently never had any Russian friends.... Hard to imagine, even if never having had any Russian friends, that one could think that there's such a large group of human beings with no sense of humor. Context is everything. Cultural context makes things complicated, but it doesn't take away the human nature from people.

Coward? Or wise? I suppose you've convinced yourself that if you were Russian, you'd stay and fight. Why fight an adversary that wasn't threatening your home for a bunch of billionaires? Maybe after you see your friends sent off to be canon fodder by a bunch of inept egotistical imbeciles, you might think twice too. Unless one has a particular skill set or have connections, canon fodder is what you are. And even with skills, you are fighting for the whim of billionaires, who all think they are right on either side of the equation. Even if he were Ukrainian, I can hardly blame a guy for getting the heck out of there, although it's more difficult for me to imagine running away when your country is on the defensive and your homeland is under direct attack. But even so, the corruption is so disgustingly deep.... on all sides.... hundreds of thousands dead, for what? On second thought, maybe he is a Russian soldier. Maybe he's on leave for a bit and decided to enjoy what could be the last vacation of his life. Who knows.... not like these news stories tell us everything. But reading the comments in this forum, you'd think you could set international foreign policy and know everyone's motives and judge the action of any individual walking down the street at any given moment.

That was an odd comment. No need for immigrants, then trumpeting about how children who came from immigrants made such a great contribution to America? If they are Asian, the odds are extremely high (over 90%) that they are within three generations of the first immigrant of their family. I don't get it. Maybe you meant that America doesn't need illegal immigrants???

Not quite sure what a North American mentality could possibly be. I'm an American and I'm guessing that the average American mentality could be fairly different than the other 20+ countries of North America. Your 1.8 million baht comment is completely irrelevant to my comment, in which I said nothing about that, at all, and isn't something that even fits into what I had mentioned. I have no worries about what an American bank would do regarding stopping payments because I have no bank accounts in America, nor do I have any other "western account". Again, irrelevant to my point. I was doing exactly that, thinking about the average Thai, although that doesn't really have any bearing on my thoughts that it would be good to have such limits automatically placed on a minor's account. I don't think it is particularly relevant to my thoughts regarding freedom from governmental control over assets of adults either. How banks conduct their business in this matter should be something the government should keep their nose out of IMO. Banks are perfectly capable of dealing with it by themselves, or they go out of business or lose their clients. None of the governments business. Of course, that is debatable and if one supports a model more toward the ends of fascism or communism, then that would be rejected outright. Sure, go ahead and attribute that to "western thought". But I think so with the thought of the best for the average Thai in mind.

He can't, unless Congress changes the Constitution....

I could agree with automatic limits set for children, but not for adults. And the limits should not be imposed by the government, but by the banks. Keep the government out of places they don't belong. If the banks are too stupid to put protections in place like this, then they deserve the losses. And if adults refuse to apply some sort of protective measures that the bank offers, the account holder should be held responsible, just like if you don't have insurance on your car. If you are at fault, you pay. If you are not at fault, the other party pays.

I'm guessing a "cdn bank" is "Canadian"?? I have controls set up on my American accounts (bank and credit cards) where I'll be notified for approval if a transaction is more than a specified amount. The amount is specified by me and optional. It is very easily handled by text message for approval (or maybe it was email... forgot now. It's been a few years since I've needed to give approval...). At any rate, all I needed to do was to click a 'Yes' or a 'No' button and it was dealt with in less than a minute. A small price to pay for safety controls IMO. The problem with this proposed system is that it doesn't sound voluntary. That's a problem, taking away people's control of their own finances.

Agreed. It's a great idea, but should be optional, not mandated by the government who seems to think that they know better than every individual situation....

Isn't that exactly the point? They don't. So, why not put a cap on it and if someone somehow gets control of their account, the ne'er-do-weller won't be able to fleece them in one fell swoop. (although, I think it should be an offered option, rather than mandated to be automatic)

Seems like a great idea to me, especially since the extreme majority of users in those age groups virtually never withdraw over that amount. But, I think it should be voluntary, regardless of age group, not automatically applied. Each account holder should be informed of the optional protection service.

Seems like a perfect opportunity for an entrepreneurial minded person to start a membership organization whose members submit to stricter regulations, which would in turn provide the kind of improvement in safety and customer confidence you mentioned. The company could provide membership perks beyond that too, like collectively bargained insurance rates, collectively bargained gas discounts, help with registration and licensing, emergency roadside assistance services, etc.... Maybe there is already a company like this? There is more than one company like this in America. I would think there'd be at least one company like this in Thailand... but I've never come across it if there is.

I've had good experience with Nakhonchai Air (maybe 4 rides?). It's been a few years since I took a bus, but I recall that they gave their drivers a breathalyzer test before setting out. In the end, the roads are a lousy deal. There are way too many hazards. And driving a big vehicle like that on those roads is sure not something I'd want to do.

I hope this isn't actually a "news" show. How can anyone take this "reporting" seriously with the getup those women have on? I feel like I need sunglasses to look at them! Bizarre....

They were charged for "public solicitation for prostitution in a manner deemed open, shameful, or disturbing to the public" and "handed over to the Chonburi Social Development and Human Security Office..." I suppose for their social development to learn how to solicit more discreetly and less shamefully?

And that commenter was probably seriously infuriated🤣

That's about as shallow of an understanding as I can imagine one to maintain, not to mention impossible to defend with any intellectual honesty. I suppose that would mean that I believe your understanding is about as ignorant as can be.

I have no idea what the statistics might show... but another dimension that I haven't seen mentioned (although it may have been), is one that a Thai friend brought up to me one time ago. He said that he felt bad because the police almost only pull over people in cheap cars or trucks (yeah, different context than motorcycles, but hear me out). He felt bad because those are the people who can least afford the ticket. He told me to pay attention in the future when seeing cars pulled over and see if you ever see an expensive car pulled over. He said it's rare. My experience since then shows the same. His idea (probably right) was that it was because people in nice cars might have connections, so the police are fearful of getting some kind of trouble from them. I had an experience that corroborated that when I was with a higher level government worker who just blew past police telling her to pull over. They didn't even chase her down. I was amazed! She even blew through toll booths that were physically being monitored by police, who also waved her to stop. No consequences. She said, just let them try and they'll regret it!😲 Another aspect that my friend mentioned re farang - the police believe that farang, or any other tourist, is rich enough to pay the fine without even being bothered, so they see it as a good opportunity to get their station's coffers filled (and maybe/probably even some personal benefit). They figure it shouldn't even upset the farang/tourist since it's such a small amount of money to them. And they were breaking the law anyway... so, no big deal. Just doing business.

They definitely have a variety of vocabulary to refer to people "of color", "with colored skin", or "black" people. But yeah, I agree with you in doubting that they meant "chocolate man" in any sort of racist way. It actually sounds complimentary, to me.

Wow! I pity you, not being able to relish the smell of bacon cooking in the morning!😟🥺😭

Well, looks are so subjective... That is something extremely difficult to ascertain anything by.... One of those subjective things would be one's experience or ideas about men of his age with full sleeve tattoos on both arms. The only men I've known like that of his age definitely led VERY questionable or outright immoral or violent lives at the typical age men might get full sleeve tattoos like that. I don't think you'll find many men over the age of 60 getting tattooed up like that. But, who knows... it could mean nothing more than he loves the art. And as you mentioned about him walking around for a couple of days - Since they found him "walking along Jomtien Beach, in a confused and incoherent state", it begs the question of his mental state, for sure. He just as well may have killed her and not even realized it as much as it could be that his story is totally true. Not like anyone on this forum can figure it out from a vague news article. But interesting to hypothesize anyway.... And amazing to see how some people come up with some pretty incredible hypotheses!🤯 It would be interesting to hear the final outcome of the investigation, but it seems that the news so extremely rarely ever follows through like that. I guess it isn't sensational enough.