BangkokReady

I don't think the boyfriend discovered the baby on the fire escape.

Girls like a bad-boy, they just don't think he'll be bad to them.

They might abandon Prayut, but that doesn't mean they will abandon whoever is in charge and not pick the guy the guy they want. I hope they do select Pita, but I think it's wise to at least consider that fact that it could go another way.

The senate has chosen him?

A really positive outcome. Especially with the "B10,000 for everyone". I'm actually quite impressed, not to mention releaved.

Odd that the headline claims that there was a monk at a polling station when the article says that there wasn't.

So what does he mean when he says he "respects the results"?

Yes. When they name him as the new Prime Minister, he will absolutely respect their wishes.

If she was in a relationship with a 44 year old drug addicted convicted sex offender, then it's reasonable to suppose she may have been involved in drugs. I was commenting on what the father of the boy claimed, so take it up with him. It's only natural to wonder where the parents were in a situation such as this. Just because she has been murdered, doesn't mean one cannot discuss or speculate on the details. There is nothing shameful about what I wrote. Shame on you for such a stupid comment.

A nasty business. It said he was in prison on sex-related charges previously. And her, probably addicted to drugs to boot. I wonder what her family made of it all. Maybe she was seeing both the man and the boy and the man found out.

Any reason this wasn't posted to the main news forum? Seems like a pretty high profile case.

I don't think tanks and guns control how schools are run by corrupt directors. I think Mr Coolfrog is perhaps suggesting that the system of corruption that permeates all levels of Thai society is prevented from changing by the military government. I disagree.

Sure, but there aren't enough of them.

It's interesting that transgender people (apparently born in the wrong body) so often act like the gender that they were born as.

You are obviously free to have that opinion, but everyone reading your comment will think that it is completely illogical and irrelevant. If the previous governments did nothing about road safety, claiming the current government has done nothing to make the roads safer is meaningless as a criticism, unless anyone is claiming anything different. Saying that the current government has done the same things as the previous governments is not the savage indictment you appear to think it is, even if you are "not interested in the previous government". This stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum.

The previous governments didn't either. Neither will the next one.

Thai people don't care about road safety. No seatbelts, no helmets, kids riding loose in the back of a pick-up truck. Many Thais even actively enjoy driving/riding dangerously. Nothing. What could they do? Nothing. How? How? The police can't be everywhere all at once. Public transportation is already very affordable. It's simply more convenient to have your own.

As harmful as social media is, it's actually one of the few things that seems to be making a difference in Thai society. Unfortunately, we have the other side of it in Western countries, where it isn't the little guy standing up against the big guy anymore.

I think you're misunderstanding me. Thai people generally don't want the police to properly enforce the law. That is my point. They enjoy not really having to follow the laws themselves and, particularly when it comes to road laws, they don't really want the police to do much. If "Western style" law enforcement magically appeared in Thailand overnight, the general public would be horrified, even though it would, eventually, greatly reduce deaths and injuries on the roads and make them function a lot smoother. If laws were suddenly properly enforced on the roads in Thailand, millions of Thais would suddenly find themselves unable to use a motor vehicle for at least a year as they are immediately arrested and charged for a variety of traffic offences, probably on the first day. This would lead to a lot of job losses and the economy would likely suffer drastically. Thailand has a culture of a wai, a fruit basket and a payment to the family of the victim solving most legal issues. When the police get tough on anything road related, people often respond that they are being too harsh. When a police officer catches four children riding on one motorbike without helmets and makes them do a few jumping jacks and sends them on their way, back on the bike, he is applauded. There needs to be a cultural shift before proper law enforcement can begin.

There'll be no law enforcement until Thai society wants it.

Who wants to be the first person to not benefit, only claim base salary, have to pay full price, pay full tax, follow the procedure fully, wait the normal wait time, etc.?

Yes, the way "face-saving" culture works, Thais generally don't ask questions in the first place, then once they realise someone is making an excuse or was embarrassed by the subject, they immediately drop the subject, making some of of excuse like it was a misunderstanding or they were only joking. (You can actually sometimes experience this in real time when you're talking with a Thai and they realise that a question has made you feel awkward.) I think as well as not causing someone else to lose face, there's a kind of self-preservation thing where they don't want to make someone mad as there might be consequences. And, of course, they would hope that they would be afforded the same level of face-saving should they be the focus of the conversation. You can't really blame them for it, it's the culture they were raised in. Yes, I think everyone knows about it. It's similar to the face-saving thing. Everyone just knows to not mention it. They're senior staff, and the junior staff are probably doing corrupt things of their own also. It's the kind of thing where no one is going to complain as they might hope to end up in that position in the future. They're both deeply ingrained cultural behaviours and there's clearly a reciprocal self-interest element.

Sometimes people have different feelings about certain nationalities or races and this affects how they treat them, regardless of what the actual individual is like as a person.

This only proves that at some point this sign was printed and it was subsequently displayed in this window.

It would probably be "Thais Rolling In Dough As Ten New Bakery Shops Open!".