John Drake

Better, more up to date story here: https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/08/09/breaking-news/massive-wildfires-devastate-lahaina-wreak-havoc-across-2-islands/

Find out what the law is for this sort of behavior back in their home country and then apply it to them here.

How is a caretaker government authorized to surrender this much Thai sovereignty?

Sounds to me as if people can't figure out who to backstab and who to backstab for not backstabbing. I give up. Can't figure this stuff out. It's all beyond me.

All directed towards the new tourism minister no doubt.

I'll take your word for it. It's a world with which I have no experience, nor do I want to.

That would be worth paying money to see.

Sad life when your idea of a holiday is to fly half way around the world so you can go to a seedy bar, get drunk, and get in a fight. They could have done all that for much less money back home.

I don't go to bars. I've never gone to bars. But if I did, I would still think it's never a good idea to go out around 1.30 am to places where violence is just a tick away from happening and the surroundings are seedy and suspect.

Bangkok Bank says they can produce statements on site but only for six months. If so, perhaps order eight months of statements in April for, say, August extensions this month. And then go in the day before you go get your extension and get a statement covering the period since April. Possible?

Maybe put a tourist office in one the areas with a vibrant, growing population, instead of a declining crime area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area

Good news. No need to increase the 800,000 baht in the bank needed for extensions.

Chicago? They'll be lucky if they don't get murdered on their way to work in the morning.

I was wondering about something like that. Why not after a couple of weeks announce a cabinet reshuffle and bring in MFP under a similar partner sharing agreement as first intended? Kick out the others. They would have the votes to do whatever they wanted.

There but for the grace of god . . .

So it could still blow up in their faces.

So everything has played out just as Chuwit said it would.

Srettha just pulled the pin on a handgrenade and left it in his own pocket.

555 Maybe he can have two of the young ladies from Thai Elite meet him at the courtroom door and escort him to prison in a Mercedes.

It's interesting, isn't it, that the targeted reason for this is to get rid of biker gangs. And the specific incident that kicked all this off involved German biker criminals who were participating in island property negotiations with a German real estate tycoon. Do these sound like people who would have any problem at all coming up with three or four million baht to keep their criminal activities going? Just for the heck of it, I looked up the prices for Harley Davidson's in Thailand. They run from around 600,000 to over 3 million. I don't think raising the deposit requirement is going to help "filter out," as Big Joke put it, who he regards as riff raff. https://www.harley-davidsonbangkok.com/pricelist-2022/

Well said. Many retirees feel the need to police other retirees and want limitations on Thai visas and extensions--as long as it doesn't affect them. Why anyone would think it's a good idea to increase the amount of money held in deposit escapes me. They want to have access to less of their own money??? And see it put in non-insured accounts??? Just to get rid of people they consider "trash," as someone put it the other day. How is it going to help people to take out insurance, pay hospital bills, or other emergencies, if their available funds are reduced by another million baht or so? How is it going to help Thai businesses if there is less money available to spend in the country?

A couple of instances to relate, because you are not alone. Just this week, I had two packages delivered separately from the same store in Arizona. For some reason, one package went through Zurich, while the other one went through Tokyo. Tracking told me one arrived at Laksi on 28 July and was out for delivery to my PO Box. I picked it up from my PO Box on 2 August. I asked sorting clerks if my other package might be in the back, because tracking said it had arrived on 1 August and was out for delivery. No, they said, it would take another day because of the yet another holiday last week and this week. Today, I returned. Still no package in my PO Box. I ask the sorters again. It took them 30 minutes but they did find it. They had just not got around to putting it in the PO Box after four days. Lesson learned. Be persistent in a polite fashion--as you appear to be doing, too. I kept my thoughts to myself, said thank you, and left with the second package. The second instance. Or instances. I also get other people's mail at my home address. In particular, if it is addressed in English, it's frequently left in my home mailbox, and not because I'm the only farang in the village. It's because the post office substation, which is different from the office I use for my PO Box, can't seem to read English. But they know I'm somewhere around. Why? Because a couple of years ago, after waiting on a letter from immigration for six weeks and two books for three months, I finally found the Taling Chan post office no longer delivered my mail, and it was going to this new substation. Apparently, mail addressed in English is a problem (this is why I got the PO Box in the first place). It took several calls and pleading, but once they looked, they found everything and delivered it within a couple of days. But as I say, now while I send all my mail to the reliable main post office, the substation frequently sends me packages and letters addressed in English to other foreigners. I dutifully return them to the main/reliable post office the very next day and explain the mistake and where the mail needs to go. I still get English addressed mail nonetheless. To their credit, Thais in the village, when my packages used to be misdelivered to them, would telephone and bring it over to my house. Long story, I know. But my recommendation is to get a PO Box. Mine only costs 500 baht per year. And as my first story indicates, you can at least get people in the post office to track things down more easily, if the packages don't go out on some route but remain on the office premises.

No, I said nothing about Chinese university rankings. My comment was about the low rankings of Thai universities. China is ambitious to create good universities. And the ones in Hong Kong already were well regarded--at least before the PRC crackdown. But Chinese academics were also desperate, which is why their promotions and incentive payments have been tied to publication in Q1 journals, which are primarily English language. If you're interested, you can check here: https://www.scimagojr.com/ And here is some interesting information about the development of research in Chinese universities: https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=CN

I wonder how much these faculty members paid. A few years ago, the going rate for Chinese faculty to purchase Q1 published articles in English was US$50,000. That was eight or nine years ago. The other trick in China was simply for academics to take other people's published work, put their name on it, and send it to a different journal. Thai universities don't really do much international research, especially outside of medicine. That's why they rate so low in international rankings.

Two other PTP nominees in line first