John Drake

JKN worked well because it inhabited a profitable niche, importing Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indian television. It also tried to export Thai series. But then someone dangled the bright shining jewel of Miss Universe in front of Anne's eyes. There was no one in the company to say, "no." It's an entirely family run business.

I thought everyone agreed that the Thais (and Filipinos and other SE Asian farmworkers) were innocent bystanders. What's there to negotiate. Just hand them over. They're not part of this war. Why is "negotiation" even a factor, here? They know where they are and how to get them out. But Hamas is simply extending the agony and terror for as long as they can get some psychopathic satisfaction out of it. Let the Thais and third party nationals all go.

Then why didn't they get all the Thai workers back? What's this game being played by holding some in captivity?

Prayuth handled this sort of thing better than Srettha.

There are at least three Kinokuniya stores that I know of, all within walking distance of each other in central Bangkok. I don't know how they stay in business.

Thailand doesn't have a culture of reading (and increasingly neither does a lot of the rest of the world). And it happens at both ends. Teachers and Thai university faculty don't read (or write articles) and the general population doesn't read or buy books. If you ever want some empty space to relax and breathe at the mall, go to Kinokuniya.

Article seems to suggest there is only one airport in Mexico. Must be crowded.

What is so telling is to go and look at the income tax topic (now 140 pages and growing). People are talking about turning their lives upside down, moving out of Thailand, or relocating for half a year, all because their worldwide earnings they believe might now come under Thai taxation. Wouldn't have happened with Prayuth, because of no need to pay for the digital wallet boondoggle. Prayuth essentially was committed to preserving things as they are, which included immigration but for a couple of minor adjustments.

Because the US embassy is utterly indifferent to troubles its citizens encounter in Thailand. The ambassador is too busy taking photo ops at tourist sites.

Plenty. And that's the problem.

The only confusion expats are likely to encounter post Prayuth is that smack between the eyes the new tax law interpretation is going to give them. Happy now?

After nine years that 130,000 per month would be about 1.4 million.

On the face of it, this looks like a fairly mild accumulation of wealth over an entire career. Would rather have millionaire Prayuth, who didn't bother with doing much to expats either at immigration or with taxes, than a bunch of billionaires.

Does it matter? Seems that the only thing that MFP is interested in these days is in purging its own members.

Seems to me that they can afford an Elite visa.

Pretty good returns. I can see why the Chinese are willing to risk it. Slap on the wrist fine and a free trip home are the only penalties.

Get another luxury wing of the hospital ready.

How could it get more complicated? You've got bodies by the score and the English is going to be scarred for life--one way or another.

This sounds like an episode of The Saint or Sam Spade.

Too many people on this forum and elsewhere gleefully celebrated the ousting of Prayuth. Fact is, for those of us on retirement extensions, he was the preferred option. For almost a decade, he mainly left things alone. He was dedicated to the status quo, for everything, including us. And however much it may hurt some to admit it, Prayuth did a better job balancing between China and the West than the current China uber alles government.

I, too, make my own pizza. If you want to season to taste, try tomato paste, instead of tomato sauce.

It's okay with the desktop. On my phone, however, the ads obliterate everything else, and I can't close them, because they're oversized and will not reduce.

To China's credit, its officials actually speak up and advocate for their interests. Compare that to the US Embassy, which does little but sit back and absorb abuse and mostly goes quiet whenever their citizens are dumped on. I'll never forget the incident four years or so ago, when a Chinese tourist was slapped by Thai police at, I think, the airport. It resulted in Thai officials almost crawling with apologies and special Thai honor guards meeting tourist flights from China. Check in on the US Embassy's twitter feed some time. The ambassador seems to spend most of his time visiting tourist sites and talking about the great Thai/US partnership. (It must come with the job description, I guess, because I saw Americans in China complaining about the US ambassador there doing the same thing and sweeping everything else under the rug.)

And today was the warmest I've experienced here in the Bangkok suburbs since the middle of October.

Never a dull day with this guy.