scorecard

Thank you.

Well my Thai son has a buddy who has a royal title and the guys mother an even higher royal title and she was a senior official in the Finance Ministry. When the village fund was announced she was told she needed to sign certain documents. She said she would review the documents and quickly discovered numerous laws and regulation plus serious ethics were being broken. She refused to sign, resigned and walked out on the spot. Then for several days intimidated. She told her family she was shocked at the attempts to divert large amounts of funds to red shirt operatives and various 'friends' and more. And shared that the benificiaries were not the poor local folks.

And many many others share your frustration. But please don't keep bashing your head against the wall. There does seem to be a possibility of change re the senators next May, but yes it's a frustrating waiting game.

Thanks, is that on the ground floor? Near where?

Only if you want it to be. Personal choice.

To Billd776 Seems to me you are arguing with yourself. You have asked whether it's all OK for the military to take over... more times than I can count. And lost count of how many times members (incl. me) have agreed 'IT'S NOT OK'.

"As for you sealioning that kind of shows the paucity of your approach to this issue." ?

There's always the 'help yourself' (chuay eng) activity. Still part of my 'schedule' at 78.

Well seems to me that nobody is suggesting he current picture id OK and nobody is suggesting the military should hold such power.

... or 'perhaps a definite maybe depending on ...' and depending on whether the lease has expired for the private jet and he can't affords to renew it or pay for the fuel/pilots/landing/parking fees? But never mind he could always do a trump and ask his naive/poor followers to give him big donations.

Is there a dedicted / marked GRAB / BOLT pick up point at CM Central festival? Any suggestions of a point which is easy to find for the driver and would reduce possibility of confusion? Thanks.

" It seemed to me over the past 20 years teaching in universities that it was quite common for people to be employed by a university as a lecturer on the basis they were writing a PhD. This was usually just a compilation of plagiarised material and Google." 1. Please share some evidence of this. 2. 99% of doctors of medicine don't have a Ph.D. , they have an MBBS degree and to get that degree they don't do research near the level required to gain a Ph.D. Of itself an MBBS degree is the study of known / proven facts in regard to the health of the human body. There is no requirement for MBBS students to make earth shattering discoveries or new never seen before theories.

And 99% of medical doctors have NOT been involved in researching and discovering valuable medications.

And reinforced that the military are untouchable, even by a sitting PM.

Sure but 99% of medical 'doctors' are not Ph.D. holders. They complete an advanced / specialized degree MBBS which is way under a Ph.D. However by long standing protocols they are given the courtesy title of 'doctor'. A Ph.D. candidate must complete rigorous research and typically it relates to something peviously unseen / unknown. MBBS candidates learn what is already known and well proven and in 99% of cases prescribe medicines that are created from long-term research conducted by a pharma. company, not by the local doctor.

Sure, but recent reports indicate that Putin needs to be very careful of accidents.

Agree, there's also the aspect of high value, the thesis should introduce something which: -Is new thinking / innovate and will, if implemented improve life / improve health / improve the way treatment is delivered etc. -Or, is a previously unseen high value addition to something in existence. You mention "...apparent lack of any real meticulous academic integrity.", and "apparent lack of any real meticulous academic integrity." South of the LOS there's positive examples of this. I'm aware of situations where staff (employed to be very highly innovative by developing cyber interventions) were submitting conceptual ideas which weren't 'explored' because the uni involved struggled to find / put together a dissertation committee from across the world who were capable of analysing /critiquing the submitted work. The uni involved realized that it was not appropriate that the work 'sit and rot' so they went public with a result that a number of peers of the candidate offered to become a committe and their discussion proved to the uni that they were capable of quality analysis / quality critique of the idea submitted. On the other hand I've seen / listened to local dissertation committees who just accepting the submitted work from the candidate and 'passing it' because it was submitted. The worst example was the son of the lead of the dissertation committee submitted a very simple idea but it was instantly 'passed' to please the committee leader. Attempts to say that there as no unseen value were quickly silenced. But some level of the above happens in many universities.

But first question: can they read English?

I saw some of this when I was lecturing, with a twist. Ph.D. candidates simply copying extremely simple survey work, perhaps even conducted by several people. 'Bundle' it together and submit it as a Ph.D. submission. The worst was a survey about the populative of vehicles designed/manufactured in Europe. Problem was the 'finding' of the survey was based one 1 (one) completed survey. And the questions were 'loaded' rather then 'open' questions. I was asked (by e.mail) to check about 15 proposed submissions and comment. For every proposed submission I commented that the work was totally unsuitable, didn't follow Thai or international standards on how research should be structured, hadn't followed recognised research protocols, produced nothing of great insight and was very poorly structured in terms of flow and focus. I recommended that these and furure Ph.D. candidates attend perhaps 3 or 4 lectures to be conducted by 2 lecturers (in team teaching t) to give the current and future candidates a much better understaning of what Ph.D. means and how to prepare and present suitable work. The professor who sent me the original e.mail was shocked and insulted and commented "Why didn't you rewrite the 'work' for the candidates". My response "That would mean that the new content / presentations wasn't the work of the candidates which would be totally unacceptable". She didn't respond.

We buy the 1 liter UHT packs. The taste is a little different but very drinkable and good for coffee, corn flakes etc., (just my opinion of course). We have 3 adults and 4 kids in the house (Thai son, his Thai wife and their 4 kids and me), 17 down to baby. They all love fresh chilled milk, 2 maybe 3 glasses every day. Poured from the 1 liter UHT box they noticed the taste was a little different but they drink it without hesitation.

Further, there ws a time, decades ago when local snr. police chiefs could give farang they knew were capable/genuine etc., a personal letter saying that 'this' farang does not need a WP.

I have no argument with what you say, I'm sure for a long time he's has access to various news and other gov't reports. And he can of course access these reports etc., anywhere in the world. And no doubt he's informed of all sorts of details / analysis / insights which many Thai and many farang don't know exist and therefore don't / can't access.

I can't share a specific police order or similar. I can share, when I had my PR application interview with a senior Immigration officer (he spoke advanced English)(27 years ago) I asked this question specifically. He had no no hesitation to answer "YES". Since I got PR I have applied for new WPs and renewal WPs at least 15+ times. On every occasion the Labour - WP officer looked at my Certificate of Residence book and searched for something and found it. Certificate of Residence book passed back to me, no comment. After I retired from work I was offered a lecturing position at a Thai universty School of Business. The dean (spoke excellent English) said "We will get a WP for you". I responded "I have PR". She had never heard of PR, I showed her my PR book and explained what it was. She asked the HR lady to come in, also spoke good English and said "Mr xxx has PR and she gave the book to the HR lady (with my permission) Can you please call the main HR office and check if he needs a WP. The HR lady took my PR book to the main HR office and asked. They didn't know so they called the labour ministry. And the answer was "YES PR holders must have a WP".

Are Arab hooligans / street racers etc., on Thai retirement visas? Didn't know that.

The subject wasn't VISA CHANGES. Actual changes to VISAS is from government policies / decisions, approval by cabinet therefore in the Royal Gazzette. Actual changes to VISAS is not from gossip. Ongoing on again / off again Statements / comments made by the paymaster etc., re his return to Thailand is not official and is not 'approved' by gov't / cabinet etc. It's social news / gossip, therefore not in the Royal Gazzette.