Cadbury

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

".....Master Card.... had ranked Thailand as one of the top tourist destinations."

What a joke! A credit card like MasterCard deciding which is a "top" destination. 

Thailand is a top destination for making bags of money for MasterCard from tourists.

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

"....many other areas such as natural conservation, tourist service, air transport and pricing had also improved significantly".

And so says Foreign Ministry spokesperson Busadee Santipitaks with his grandiloquence of the tourism wonders of Thailand.

1.Like the natural wonders of Pattaya for family entertainment.

2.Tourist services offering buses which crash daily.

3.The unmanned immigration counters at international airports.

4.Tourist rip off prices as compared to local's prices. And the taxis in Pattaya and Phuket which refuse to turn on the meters. All big significant improvements.

Everything in Thailand has improved since the military junta took over. Even corruption, incompetency, censorship  and injustice.

I think it is more a case of the media not so much focussing on the gory details but giving the deserved attention to the fools of policemen who have been honeying up to the girls and humouring them. I refer in particular those policemen who have just been "transferred".

The PM would be better off applying his bullying skills on those police who find it difficult to behave themselves in front of the media and thereby giving the police force in general an even worse image than they have already. 

A case of mistaken identity. Governor Suebsak Iamwichan is totally innocent.

Someone (read fall guy) was at the big party and allegedly big noted himself in front of the underage girlies and claimed he was Governor Suebsak Iamwichan. 

A convenient story if ever there was one. 

On ‎25‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 10:04 AM, AhFarangJa said:

 

With his eye for detail the PM got involved and did his micro- managing thing and banned motor show lewd dancing.

35 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

...Thailand sits at 118th with a 4.0 score.

Isn't Thailand 4.0 that same magic number that the PM keeps on talking about. 

The government seems to have some fixation with doing things that take 20 years (+). It all started when PM Prayuth announced he was going to fix corruption within 20 years. There have been more recent announcement that the government is going to do this or that in 20 like only the other day the PM made the prediction that he was going to make Thailand a food industry "superpower" in 20 years. I seem to recall Madame Tourism also predicted she would eliminated prostitution within 20 years.

It is usual for governments to only plan ahead for as long as their term in office. 

With all these 20 year plans it is a sure sign this military government has a strategy to be around for another 20 years, or more.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

"....in the interest of public safety"

The military is just making sure their "surveillance eyes" are always watching everyone everywhere. Whether they be for public safety or their own safety.

7 minutes ago, Luckysilk said:

So international arrest warrants work !

 

Now what about the Red Bull murderer ?

Seems international arrest warrants only work for people who have no money.

36 minutes ago, Thechook said:

Human rights council not playing the Junta game so they have to go and be replaced with our people who will shut up and follow military orders.

Spot on. They don't have uniforms or a peaked cap or a chest full of undeserved medals and are not dripping in braid and ribbons. They have to go!

It is only military people who have the milk of human kindness within them.

7 hours ago, robblok said:

I see the defense budget is up, compared to 2014, i like to know the percentage spend on the military in 2014 compared to now. The real amounts are meaningless because if the total budget has grown or decreased then it does not say anything. Putting those numbers in there only shows bias if they don't show the percentages too.

 

I am against increases in military spending (in a percentage of the budget), and I believe they have rissen in a percentage of the budget but would like to know the real figures. I looked but could not find them. 

I respect your valuable comments on the budget. But the most important number of all that is not being mentioned in the budget news is the deficit.

Last year (2016) the budget deficit was 390 billion baht. Good luck to anyone in trying to find out what the 2017 budget deficit is. What with new submarines, tanks, new attack fighter planes, high speed rail links going all over Thailand. Not to mention the newly approved salary increases to high office officials. Ongoing rice subsidies won't help the budget even though the PM has self proclaimed immunity from such subsidies.

Cash flow might become a problem in the advancing years unless more foreign investment equities are "acquired" by stealth under Article 44. Foreign owned gold mines for example.

My bet is the next budget balancer in the future will be a casino gambling tax. 

A two hour speech by PM Prayut reminds me of a haunting poem.

I saw a man

Who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

I wish that man would go away.

15 minutes ago, Smarter Than You said:

"Thaivisa was just for retired expatriates to troll each other”

              

 

 

I have noticed over the past twelve months that a lot of the long standing "retired expats" have disappeared from these columns. Maybe they have moved, become bored with the repetitive banter or died or ill or have just been moderated into history by enthusiastic moderators. They will be missed.

One thing for sure is that many of those "retired expats" brought a lot of wisdom, humour and common sense with them to these pages. Unlike the quality of the above highly creative post by Smarter Than You that inspired my response to the lead story.

Perhaps Smarter Than You (the name alone says a lot about the person) is one of these new breed of quality readers/contributors referred to by Dan Cheeseman.  

4 hours ago, webfact said:

“We need to overhaul our manufacturing structure or else Thailand will not be able to compete against other nations,”

This is the first cruncher statement. Thailand is being left behind already as foreign investment moves into neighbouring countries which offer a more secure base as compared to a military led regime that sometimes shows little respect for foreign investors. e.g The matter of the Australian gold mine that was stolen by the government and which is now the hands of international law courts..

Taking it further further, sovereign risk can be of major concern to foreign investors as applied to the consequences for business profits of sudden change in government taxes, subsidies or regulations and ownership of investments.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He said that instead of using technology, employers had relied on migrant workers from neighbouring countries over the past decade.

This is the second cruncher statement which again highlights the neglect of (new) technology by industry in favour of cheap imported labour to make more money in the short term. In other words immediate GREED instead longer term planning and re-investment of profits.

Unless something changes then there may well be serious consequences that could take it's toll on the economy of the country. 

1 hour ago, Orton Rd said:

Thais have so little to be proud of that he will probably be due for a medal

Yes he might well be issued a medal and good on him. A special release "Top Gun" medal which might just start a medal trend to add to all the other fashion medal trends.

If that happens then we should expect to see all military, air force, navy and police personnel wearing their newly purchased Top Gun medal alongside their parachute wings.

5 hours ago, spiderorchid said:

Those derelict rice paddies rely on rain, constant rain. They possibly  have it now, at least they do in Prachinburi where the buffalo are not munching the grass in these paddies anymore.

They are locked up and fed dry fodder previously harvested.

Constant rain means the paddies become viable. The other crop is tapioca, also plantings are in full swing.

 I think you need to get out more to understand a few basics of agriculture.

Your post is not only ill informed and possibly supremist, it is a post lacking in true facts and to be frank. Quire dumb. Misspelling are deliberate 

If you had bother to read my post properly you would have noticed I was referring to the North East area and not your beloved Pranchinburi area. But I guess reading gets a bit difficult at 2 am in the morning after a few too many cordials.

I read where Pranchinburi is becoming more a deepwater rice growing area whereas east of Udon has areas where there are constraints of rainfall variability, drought, submergence, and low soil fertility.

I have eyes when I travel about the country east of Udon Thani and I see more rice paddies lying fallow, uncultivated and unused than those paddies which are growing rice. You obviously have not been in the area I refer to so how would you know. Get off your Pranchinburi bar stool and go there and see for yourself. 

In any case the main subject of my contribution was more to do with the bizarre 20 year predictions of the PM.

Well that's good news for PM Prayut. He will be able to brag about that to President Trump on his upcoming visit to the US when they discus copyright infringement. Doesn't matter a rat's that every other market in Thailand is doing the same thing that Rong Klua market isn't doing anymore.

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha vowed to make the country a food industry “superpower” in the next 20 years

This has a familiar 20 year ring to it. Wasn't it some little time ago that the Great Master announced he was going to eliminate corruption in Thailand in 20 years? And I seem to recall one of his dunces said that prostitution would be abolished within 20 years.

I have a sneaky suspicion Thailand might become the "superpower" of gambling within the next 20 years. 

Looking at the derelict rice paddies I saw in the NE just a month ago doesn't equate to being the "superpower" of food.

I think he needs to get out more rather than parading in front of cameras.

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Pol Col Torsak offered apology for his subordinate saying he has questioned the officer and he claimed he had worked hard for a long time and was fully exhausted.

 

Fully exhausted from writing from writing bogus tickets all day and putting the cash in an envelope to take back to the boss Pol Col Torsak.. 

18 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

'An aging society is one in which the median age is increasing.' Thanks for the clarification, I'm sure.

 

Thailand does, though, have members of a government, well placed to provide input. 

Yes but unfortunately in Thailand there is no co-relation between age and maturity; particularly with males. Thus within government there can be a bunch of old farts who are still mentally in transition from adolescence to adulthood but who are making serious decisions that affect the Nation. 

Some might argue that the multitudes of happy smiling police involved in this case might need some psychiatric evaluation as well.

The visit will be a tumultuous occasion for the people of America and the City of Washington. Prayut will be warmly received as the motorcade passes through the ticker-tape parade in his honour. 

All the UN Human Rights delegates will be right up front to show their appreciation for what he is doing for the people of Thailand.

30 minutes ago, webfact said:

"......the names of more than 90 police officers appeared on the arrest report"

And the names of more than 90 police officers were entered on more than 90 overtime claims submitted with the arrest report.

22 minutes ago, Smarter Than You said:

Prayuth is just a dispensable front man.

It will be interesting is seeing what happens to Prayuth if Prawit's health takes him out of the game.

You may well be correct; it will be interesting. But I don't think Prayut sees that he is dispensable.

I think he sees it as more like everyone else around him is dispensable. If those around him like Prawit drop of the twig then so be it. Lifestyle excesses by Prawit such as trips to Hawaii are more likely to be the cause of his downfall. The liver can only take so much.

PM Prayut loves being the boss and is addicted to that role. There is no one who can lever him off the throne. 

Get used to it all you Thai people. Farang can take it or leave it and many already have.

Thailand is becoming an economic and social basket case.

44 minutes ago, natway09 said:

50 to 1...... Bit of an overkill if you ask me

An overkill yes but not altogether surprising. I think it is all about justifying their overtime chits.