Cat Boy

Santa Claus is imaginary. This is an actual person, an adult of legal standing, who got himself so inebriated as to pass out in the middle a parking lot. That's a choice. Not an accident. There are safer places to pass out, like a sidewalk, at home, or inside the bar/club he was drinking. At the very least, he rejoined eternity, on a stretcher DOA 'Nuff said

I always reflect, some mother's little boy, some child's father. Of course we don't know the circumstances Still, such a senseless death RIP

I feel empathy for the 14 month old baby whose head was crushed, fatally injured, a few days ago, having been dropped from a motorcycle driven by the baby's drunken father. For this accident, I feel nothing, other than compassion for the Bolt driver to whatever extent guilt over partial negligence will remain in his psyche forward. Still, perhaps it will inspire presence and great caution

Blackouts have their privileges Who hasn't woken up in in intensive care with no recollection only to discover 6 years have past

I expect that goes without saying

Any other petty personal grievances you'd like throw shade on publicly? Jews? Female drivers? TSA? Newark, New Jersey? Can't wait to hear 🫣

"Happens to you all the time"? 😳 What kind of world do we live in that it's not perfectly acceptable (and safe) to pass out, blind drunk, anywhere, anytime, even in the middle of a parking lot. Who'd a thunk? In all likelihood, though, the investigation will find a determination of shared negligence and thus comparative liability

Exactly, and yet everyone is all up in arms about a few weed shops and the occasional smell of cannabis in the air, when alcohol fueled, drunken bar fights, traffic accidents and fatalities of pedestrians and domestic violence are so common as to hardly be worth mentioning.

And yet alcohol NEVER comes under the same scrutiny as weed. Note all the coded language of "Family Friendly", "Community Standards" and "Premiere Tourist Destination" as if weed is somehow the epitome of moral degradation whilst alcohol resulting in street violence, traffic fatalities and poverty (from family income diverted to drink, rather than food, rent, etc), isn't. When blatant hypocrisy ceases to draw attention corruption thrives.

This is NOT an issue or a situation unique to Thailand, rather it is global and widespread in every continent, including so-called developed, high GDP countries, like the US with massive inequality, lack of education or opportunity, poverty, lacking social net child welfare and homelessness. This young girl's situation has become known through the outreach of her teacher and now the kindness of others offering support neither she, her grandmother or mother had before. One must wonder how many thousands of others like her, not just in Thailand, but across the globe, continue to struggle on their own, on the streets or shunted into the child welfare adoption / foster care system only to suffer, in some cases, further damage through physical and mental abuse.

#1 Whats your point? #2 Who cares?

You're making a distinction without a meaningful difference to the context of the story of the crash that killed 270 nor this, apparently, sole survivor. If an Irish person had gained British citizenship, would you be be equally butthurt about some perceived challenge to YOUR British-ness? Its NOT about you. 270 people are dead for crying out loud. Who gives a FF about your Britishness?

I ride a bicycle 🚲, every day, in Bangkok for the past 14 years. Obviously bicycles have their own dangers. Still, one cannot live one's life in fear. With that said, highway mortality rates in Thailand are indeed alarming, and haven't improved. Largely these deaths are motorcycle drivers, and their passengers, more often than not adolescents, and mainly in provinces. Years ago I got a Thai drivers license after my US license had expired. I thought if I ever went back to the US on holiday, I'd have to rent a car, so feeble is public transit there. With that said, I never used it, not once in 6 years, not in the US, I never returned, and not in Thailand, why sit in traffic, and it's not safe. If I never drove an automobile again, I'd be fine, I've got my bicycle, that's enough

Statistically, it would appear the data you've based your comment on is incorrect. https://gigafact.org/fact-briefs/do-red-states-rank-higher-in-violent-crime-rates-than-blue-states/

That's entirely subjective. You do you. I stand by my choice. I'm not judging yours as "misguided", just not something I care to be a part of, I lived there 44 years, that's enough. You can have it. If anything, Vietnam, Taiwan or even Portugal might be a future backup, but not the US. If anything, healthcare makes that absolute and irreversible.

Your only reference is to deaths per capita, by which I presume you mean murder, which, is roughly, as you say, analogous. However in virtually every other aspect of theft, minor and violent crime, and drug use, Thailand far and away outranks the US in terms of safety. My feeling of safety is not an illusion, though caution is always important as it's easy for anyone to fall into a false sence of security. See crime statistical comparison across the board for Thailand vs the US : https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Thailand/United-States/Crime

The war on Street food in Thailand began with the coup against Yingluck, and ironically that was the same year, same time, that Thailand was declared as having the best street food in the world. Those early cringing policies of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) were aimed at Singapore-ization of Thailand, particularly here in Bangkok. Fortunately that has not come to pass, still, a decade of military rule, still shows, even in street food culture

Agreed, I feel safest being a hemisphere away from the US. With each passing year since coming to Thailand in '05, that feeling grows. And the very first aspect of Thailand I felt at that time was safety. Having been violently mugged in San Francisco in the mid-90s, it would be impossible to overstate the importance of safety in day-to-day life and well-being. Its too bothersome, and expensive, to renounce American citizenship, and obtaining citizenship elsewhere has its own challenges, with Thailand virtually impossible, still, at 1,900 baht a year for a retirement extension of stay, Thailand remains near and dear to my heart, my forever home, disregarding the accident of birth having been born in the US.

That and his remarks disparaging "dirty foreigners who don't shower" will be his enduring legacy

With "Drunk foreigner" in the headline, one must assume Brit until otherwise identified differently. (Just kidding Brits, a dose of your own sarcasm 🤭)

A Russian "tourist", if deported, might soon find themselves sent to the front lines in Ukraine. One would expect better self-awareness given the potential for repercussions both here in Thailand and back home in Mother Russia.

Unsubstantiated conjecture that adds nothing beyond racist undertones

Sure, in a perfect world, no one would ever misjudge safety or make a mistake. I've seen children do this all my life on their bicycles and young adults (and oldsters recalling their long lost youth, doing wheelies. A kind or a stern warning from the police is appropriate. Netizens figuratively with pitchforks calling for a public hanging is beyond the fray. That's this ranks exponentially orders of magnitude lower than say, border tensions with Cambodia 🇰🇭, goes without saying. Neither of which I'll lose sleep over. Its a small incident. Sure, better, more consistent enforcement not just so-called "crack-downs". But this tiny local incident is the very definition of social media run amok over "a storm in a teacup".

Only in the Asia Now parallel universe

Big whoop, so he did a wheelie. 🥱-->😴 Your leap yo "killing someone" is beyond absurd What if he was carrying a nuclear warhead? 🙄 Chill out