Narratio

I've always enjoyed watching Thai politics in action, sort of reminds me of reading about British politics in the 1700's. There's just as much name calling and bitch slapping, just not so many executions.

So, if I understand this correctly, the Thai government has a year or two's rice supply in storage at mills and silos across the country (which they haev to pay storage costs on) and yet it's buying kilotons of rice from rice farmers at 25% above market price? And probably borrowing money on the international money market to do it?

Okay. It's not the silliest thing I've ever heard but it's got to be in the top ten. I assume they got the idea from the EC's Common Agricultural Policy?

Must agree with tragickingdom.

The idea of Charoen picking up Tiger is not good. I remember one of the Carlsberg shaftings, didn't know it was 3 times though.

Lizardtongue has a point.

The stewardess passes you your drink and a packet of peanuts. You pour the drink down your throat, unzip your pants and pour the peanuts into your underwear... That has GOT to cause some concern to the person sitting beside you.

Yes, there is incompetent politicians in every government in the world, but this country seems to have found a way to gather them all under one umbrella.

Would this count as another Hub? The Hub of Political Incompetence?

I will sheepishly admit to enjoying the political ping-pong with its lawsuits and counter suits that the various Thai governments engage in so publically. It gives me a much better understanding of Thai soap operas.

Colour chart please! I've lost the ability to tell the difference between a white lie, a black lie and a lie that is something more mid greyish.

So, who will proclaim Thailand the "Hub of Lies"?

Agree with KerryD - I spent over a decade working in the Mid east and yes, $75 -100 USD was the going price in Dubai for a short time. I left there in '96. At that point there was a large influx of Russians & Ukrainians, we generally lumped them under the heading "ex-Black Sea port military hookers". I've heard since that the Chinese were also moving into the market.

Oh yes, the sex trade is still alive and flourishing in the mideast.

Sorry, I'm still perplexed at new evidence being sent in an "irrelevent manner".

Anybody understand what was meant by this?

Possibly that it was put in an old shoe box and left on the steps of government house, delivered by a tribe of Bantu warriors, or maybe gypsy dancers delivered it while Flamenco dancing through the Hall of Justice?

The Nation has an eclectic bunch of translators.

Obviously my medication is low as I'm still a bit puzzled by the concept of a 'sin tax'... I mean, in the Bible, the Book of Romans somewhere (I forget) it says that "the wages of sin is death". So committing a sin gets you paid in 'death' and thus the government will now tax death.

Hmmmm. Even for the Shin' clan that seems a bit much... NURSE! More medication please!

Oddly enough that was the contest. Having a non-Thai parent is cheating, gives the child a totally unfair advantage you see.

As I'm waiting for my medication to really kick in I find myself wondering if Yingluck is going announce that she will ensure that every child in Thailand has access to a farang parent in order to improve thier English skills... Farang in a box so to speak... Hmmm, maybe the medication has already started working.

Two ways to look at it.

As the posters above suspect or that, as only this one den was raided, it was a 'throwdown' or disposable den, known to have no decent money but still allowing the cops to be seen to do something.

My vote is for disposable with a photo op'. Meanwhile the bigger money at the other places disappeared back into the wood work.

I'm still looking for a "Duuuuh!" Face slap icon.

.

Okay, I'll settle for this. "Thai Government to stop corruption!"

"A good example is the 1997 financial crisis when the Thai policy rate shot up to 21 per cent, but capital did not flow into the country. This was because investors were not confident in the Thai economy."

Ah yes, I not so fondly recall the time. The country was indeed in meltdown, HiSo's selling the family jet, people running away... Where's the face slap icon?

Once upon a time I'd have thought it odd that the 5 agencies didn't pass the information around, if only to try and use it as a way to absorb other departments manpower and budgets into thier own investigations.

Yet here it's noted as being all privacy and wall building, keep the information private and allow face to be saved. So what's the incentive to actually share information, apart from this MoU?

The saying who watches the watchmen might be appropriate about now.

A cousin, a secretary, a wife, an ex-wife (you have to admire the precision and fact finding ability of reporters at The Nation - either that or the family is closer than one would think)... and an Uzi toting physically impaired (partly paralized?) Senator... Hmmmm.

The only way to make this a better story would be for them to be part of Taksins clan, the story to have taken place in a Bangkok disco and then have thier chauffeur confess that it was he who did it, not the Senator. That is, after a driving trampage through the city and escape to, say, Singapore?

Heck of a movie.

I appear to be in a minority. For anything in Thailand I use my CSLoxinfo email address. I'm pretty sure that'll never be blocked.

My Yahoo address is a legacy account, anything I've signed up for before 2000 and my Gmail address is for everything else - either I have no problem or my problems are solved.

As cannoball said.

On the big projects there's a usually a crane engineer, a guy who has used cranes and understands them. He selects lift areas (where to locate the crane for length of boom and maximum wieghts to be lifted), advises upon the hard stand requirements (got to reinforce the gound otherwise the crane just drives itself downward), access and loading areas ( where to drop off loads so the crane has minimum lift and swing) and finally, that most beloved of things. The mechanical checks and certifications.

A crane has a whole bunch of different checks to be made on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Ranging from the hydraulics of the lifting engine, through cables, shackles and chains, instrumentation from as simple as the inclinometer (gives the angle of the boom) through to stress gauges showing actual loading.

And all of these have multiple signature check sheets, none of which the project architect or lead civil engineer ever see. The crane operator and whatever maintenance there is see them, review them, track them and report on daily crane availability. If there's any error, these guys are supposed to catch it as part of thier daily checks. Then you get to fill out a work permit listing loads to be lifted and where they're being deposited, usually a time scale for doing it as well.

Crane wrongly located, hardstand not prepared properly, a larger than known load, boom extended past it's carry point, equipment failure on the crane itself. If there's any error, this is where it lies, and there's a paper trail that should high light it.

It must be said, CCTV doesn't deter anybody. The gold shop have had them fitted for decades and everybody knows it. But they still get robbed with alarming regularity. CCTV is an excellent tool for figuring out most of what actually happened after the event.

But, if the western nations havn't the ability to grab information off them in real time and send police to the scene of an on-going crime (or set up some sort of software screening to do the same), I do not think Thailand could.

The time schedule of 4 months to set up 10,000 cameras, complete with repeater stations, cabling infrastructure, server rooms, monitor stations etc is almost impossible. Getting teh bugs out of teh system and operator training alone will take twice that.

But it's a nice facility which I suspect the police will not use.

It still reads like a not-so-subtle advert for Facebook

Hmmm 38Baht to US$1'ish So, 4.2Mn Baht... A US$1.1 million traffic circle, is this really what I'm reading? There has to be more to the costing. PLEASE tell me there's more.

Dissenters will be sent to a PTP Reconciliation Centre for cognitive purification. Nobody can stand in the way of Unity.

While I agree with you, it's very much a '1984' statement. For the more youthful, I'd recommend something more Star Trek / Borg'ish, try - "You Will Become One with the PTP" or "You Will Be Assimilated", that kind of thing.Have to aim for the younger market!

So, if I understand this right, there is no 'Happy Ending' for 'Happy Hour'... Darn, just when I need a beer.

Could it be that's the real plan, to make sure everything hits the Big Mango?

I can see it now, secret midnight up country cabals, plotting thier 'Walls of Vengeance'. Directing every single cubic metre of flood water into Bangkok in revenge for the all the little slights and insults suffered over the years.

Yes, it all makes sense!