seri thai

For your edification here's an extensive quote from Wikipedia on the Anglo-Siamese treaty of 1909

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 or Bangkok Treaty of 1909 was a treaty between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam signed on March 10, 1909, in Bangkok.^[1] Ratifications were exchanged in London on July 9, 1909.^[2]

The agreement, in which the Malay people were not represented, effectively dissected the northern Malay states into two parts. The area around modern Pattani Narathiwat , Songkhla , Satun and Yala remained under Thai control, while Thailand relinquished its claims to sovereignty over Kedah, Kelantan , Perlis and Terengganu (formerly Siamese tributary states) which integrated the British sphere of influence as protectorates. These four states, along with Johor, later became known as the Unfederated Malay States.

Originally Satun and Perlis were part of the Malay Sultanate of Kedah but only Satun remained with Thailand. Patani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Yala were historically ruled by the Malay Sultanate of Patani.

The British logic for sanctioning the continued Thai occupation of the remaining northern half of the Malaya was the perceived value of Thailand as a friendly buffer against the French in Indochina.

Both signatories of the 1909 treaty had previously agreed to the Burney Treaty in 1826. The Burney Treaty stated that Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu were Thai provinces while Penang and Province Wellesley belonged to the British while Thailand would not interfere with British trade in Kelantan and Terengganu.

My point is that the current "Muslim Terrorists" were also conveniently labelled "Communist Terrorists" a generation ago and the various organs of the Thai state have received a lot of USD for "combatting" this perceived menace to US interests. Unfortunately the muslim ethnic community has never identified as part of buddhist Thailand (why should it?) and the region has been viewed as a vassal state by the puu yai before and since it's incorporation. I do not condone the terrorist acts carried out there but we should recognise the origins truthfully and identify them as "ethnic separatists." (which doesn't bring in so many dollars)

The solutions to the problem will only be found in dialogue and we should not expect the current beneficiaries to bring anything to any negotiation anytime soon as civilian deaths do not impinge on their power or profits.

Readers should also be aware that the author of the simplistic anti-islamic tract posted in this thread is a Christian fundamantalist missionary with his own "peculiar and specific world view" or "axe to grind" as they say.

Pass the vitriol please. I'm thirsty.

Good to hear he is making the effort, and nice to have an English ambassador for a change.....

So what nationality was the last one?

The last one was British as opposed to "English".

Some little Englanders have an objection to this notion which is why they bemoan the losses of empire over their bottled beer to anyone unfortunate enough to be within ear or cybershot.

To paraphrase that rapacious imperialist Cecil Rhodes -To be born an englishmen no longer means "winning first prize in the lottery of life." (it never did!) Deal with it you sad specimens!

Many more Thais died building the infamous railway than the allied POWs.

Thailand at the time was undergoing a nationalistic period in which they wanted to reunite all of the Thai speaking peoples in to one country. That meant they wanted Laos and Shan territory in Burma, and even wanted part of China. The government was happy to cooperate with the Japanese and invade Shan state in Burma.

"plus ca change, plus ca meme chose" then?

They could go for prohibition and see how that works out. It cost close to 10.00 dollars a pack for cigarettes in the states and people still smoke.

I have been watching a very interesting docu about the US prohibition. Large profits were made by corrupt politicians in taxation before it occurred and in smuggling/licensing after it occurred....

I cynically believe this is all about incomes and nothing about health.

What can cause a bad image more than the current government.. Get a life and sort your own backyard out first.. corrupt government and ploice,, maybe the u.s Embassy should complain about this too

It was not the US Embassy who complained.

If they want some thing to complain about they should complain about their own Draconian visa laws.

The US is worried about losing influence in Thailand to China, particularly with the military and is doing it's best to keep the natives friendly at least until they get everything up and running in Myanmar. The Great Game is alive and well and being played by all 4 parties. The US embassy is just a mouthpiece for the Thai Foreign Minister. Whichever party he belongs to - until Bradley Manning gets back to work....

RIP Levon, thanks for all the great music.

A lifetime "Listening to Levon" .....gone to a great eternal jam session with Richard and Rick I would hope. Not RIP BUT PLAYING IT LOUD!!

Thai Algebra:

PoWerFuL fiGure + buRi RAM= ?

Far too tricky for me.

I wonder if Inspector Chalerm has his best shooters on the case?

Game Of Thrones indeed.

Banner Headline: Fugitive Former Premier Promises to Return to Thailand in Full Glory

Article content: "Thaksin reaffirmed he has no intention of returning from self-exile" in accordance with the plan set out by Kwanchai Praipana, saying he would soon make a glorious return to Thailand.

Good to see people only reacting to the headline without reading the content. Good to see "The Nation" has plenty of Pavlovian Dogs at thaivisa.

Ring 'dem bells!

Where's my beer!

Whilst not a great fan of America it does seem to be one of the few countries that actively cares for its citizens abroad.

Whilst not a great fan of America it does seem to be one of the few countries that actively cares for its citizens abroad.

Unless his name is Joe Gordon.......

Which island beside Samui have airport ?

Phuket!

(But I'm sure Chuwit means Samui)The casino is already built in Chaweng, just waiting on some social "readjustment"

Relationship my ass, the bastard took video's to blackmail the girl , who was only 9 years old when it all started, hardly old enough to know right from wrong. By the time she was 15, she was completely brainwashed.

Some of you need to learn how to read, and more importantly to comprehend.

This is a terrible and tragic case of child sex abuse. When I read the initial reports my first thoughts were that the girl should be closely monitored on a "suicide watch". I believe this would have been done in a more "developed" country with assistance from a psychologist or social worker. Sadly the issues here are not clearly understood because of the repression of taboo subjects. I am sure the mother knew of her daughters depression and probably thought a few minutes away from her would be OK. There's no mention of a father involved with the family and I'd suspect the poor girl was preyed on because she wanted a surrogate father figure.

Sadly I think it's going to be a long time before society wises up to the social cost of suppression, denial and ignorance. Some of the writers in this forum don't inspire me to think so either...

My deepest sympathies to the remaining poor mother.

I could not agree more.

It is like a formula ((News) + (Conjecture)) x ((Ignorance + Hate)) = Postings on this site.

You all have over stayed your welcome.

Go back to the utopia you came from.

note that 'murder' not confirmed, MFAT says 'died'

Facebook - maybe not the most reliable source for a newspaper to quote from.

We all know what the BiB are going to conclude anyway...

Is there no topic, no situation, no moment of sadness that rises above the self-satisfying rush to Thai bashing?

Well Richard in BKK you know what you're going to read on this site since you obviously have your put-down stored in notepad to paste in reply to every comment you don' t personally approve of.

You are obviously a fine upstanding citizen with no vices to speak of but you really need to come up with some witty, original, worthwhile comments to make your contributions worthwhile. I disagree with a lot of the drunken knee jerk commentary I read here but at least it makes me laugh sometimes.

Your pasted pat reaction however offers nothing new or substantial. Please try harder or resist the urge to comment and save some electricity.

Thanks & Regards

Seri Thai

P.s. I will take it as read that you suggest I leave if I don't like it etc etc . So please don't trouble yourself with the "Ctrl V" shortcut unless you have a suitably witty riposte

its hard to think of another country that would allow a choice between a highly educated oxford graduate with an untarnished reputation and a cowardly, corrupt, convicted fugitive

TIT......

"Untruthful? My nephew Algernon? Impossible he is an Oxonian"

-Oscar Wilde

A profanity laced post which was derogatory in nature of Thais which derailed into a rant on moderation has been removed.

That's the funniest post I haven't read in ages!

Row flares over lese majeste complaint

By The Nation

Police have been tasked to prevent campaign violence and the Election Commission is expected to enforce campaign rules, including a ban on trying to attract swaying votes by smearing the monarchy, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

-- The Nation 2011-04-18

Is it possible in Thailand "to attract swaying votes by smearing the monarchy"? Could be wrong but that sounds like LM from the PM to me.

Dangerous times anyhoo-for any using Catch-22.

Fine, fine - oil companies (and their cling-on supports) are wonderful! All over the world we can see the re-investment of their profits into the regions they plunder...

You still miss my point. I am no tree-hugger, nor am I berating you or others for not donating. I question the practice of 'earning face' by making a small token offer which gets a mention in the press, but ultimately is insignificant to both themselves and the benefactor.

One company which I googled - Salamander Energy - is listed on the FTSE with revenues of $160 Million. This company donated $7,000 to the victims of the floods, in an area they are exploiting for financial gain, using workers from the surrounding areas. I ask just how far this money is expected to help?

And as to my donations, no I have not as I do not have money to spare. I live a Thai lifestyle here, not an expat life of excess. I see how much this weather affects real people who are living hand to mouth, amazingly they don't moan and bitch about things half as much as the people here. They do agree on one thing though, the oil exploration is not going to benefit them at all.

What exactly are the oil compaies in Thailand plundering ?....I stand to be corrected, but over the 25 years of O&G in the gulf oil companies have paid the Thai goverment somewhere in the order of $7-10 billion in royalites as well creating jobs, educating people and building infastructure.

Other synonyms for pluder are steal, rob, loot or pillage....therefore we have established that oil companies are paying for right to explore and produce O&G in the gulf, so they cannot be pludering anything

"exploiting" for financial gain has another name its called captialism, if there is no financial gain companies would not bother..or would you prefer we live in a communist country ?

As to your last paragrpah.....you said you had a Mercedes ?...but now say you do not have money spare to make a donation to any cause, but here you are on your soap box, preaching that people and companies who have made a gesture irrespective of the amount are so bad....think the technical term for this is called hypocrisy

You really took my statement literally?

No, I do not own a Mercedes; in fact I do not own a motor car at all. I merely used the metaphor to highlight the difference between the net worth of the wonderful generous corporation and the local people affected. The one baht is equivalent to the $7,000 donated - it is meaningless so why bother to donate anything? At least by not donating they are showing how much they truly care.

I don't claim to be anything, I am certainly not preaching here, I am however questioning the motives behind the fantastically generous offer. You seem to think it is generous anyway...

So driving a "Metaphor" eh? just as bad as a Mercedes IMO.

Just to weigh in here - as another oily expat (and part-time tree hugger)I lived in Samui for a number of years (and was there last week during the floods)Everyone I spoke to asked me about the pollution threat "to their island" from oil companies. Most are blissfully unaware of the drilling and oil and gas production that goes on just over the horizon and powers their hotels, bars, jakuzzis and discos. In my 25 years in Thailand the worst environmental ruin has been carried out by developers and house owners. A once beautiful island in the GOT was ruined by local greed and avarice. The run-off from construction choked and killed Chaweng Reef some 15 years ago. Last week I watched the rivers of mud run down the hillside where trees have been cleared for construction of holiday "dream-homes".

The local Jao Por have reaped millions from central government for infrastructure and continue to plead poverty, launder it and ask for more - at the same time conducting compulsory whip rounds for money to protest the exploration for power resources in the hope of another back hander from these energy companies.

The whole thing reeks of ignorance, hypocrisy and ultimately a lack of care for the environment and the future. Oil companies may not be holier than the rest of us but they actually behave a great deal better and more responsibly than most in this region at least. Bear in mind they are very conscious of their corporate image to their shareholders whereas the local Jao Por are answerable to nobody.

Let's see how many people are still hugging trees when the lights go out and they can't charge their mobiles....

"In many cases they are old enough to be their father" ( or grandfather) but hey, I'm not casting stones.

"If these people don't have enough money to retire then they shouldn't be here and become a burden to Thailand," I'm not sure how farangs who don't have 800,000 baht in the bank can be a burden. It's not like in the U.S., where a quite a few Thai's draw welfare checks and food stamps, which they don't have in Thailand. I would need an explanation on that statement please.

How about they put that proposal on a nation wide ballot. Think it would fly?

For those of you who have woken up and found this mornings news troubling there may be a loophole to be exploited in the Nakhon No Whea byelaw reproduced below:

My loose transliteration follows:

เป็นเวลาหลายปีที่ผ่านมาเมื่อหลายตอนนี้ผม 23

ฉันได้แต่งงานกับหญิงม่ายที่เป็นคนน่ารักเป็นได้

แม่หม้ายนี้มีลูกสาวโตเป็นผู้ใหญ่ที่มีผมสีแดง

พ่อของฉันตกหลุมรักและเร็ว ๆ นี้พวกเขาก็มีแต่งงานของเธอ

โอ้ผมคุณปู่ของฉันเอง

ฉัน granpa ของฉันเอง

เสียงมันตลกฉันรู้ว่า

แต่มันคือเรื่องจริงดังนั้น

โอ้ผมคุณปู่ของฉันเอง

นี้ทำให้พ่อของฉันบุตรของฉันในกฎหมายและได้เปลี่ยนชีวิตของฉันมาก

ลูกสาวของฉันถูกทำให้แม่ของฉันเธอเป็นภรรยาของพ่อของฉัน

หากต้องการความซับซ้อนเรื่องแม้ว่าจะนำความสุขฉัน

ฉันเร็วเป็นพ่อของเด็กผู้ชายแข็งแรง

ทารกน้อยของผมแล้วกลายเป็นพี่เขยเพื่อพ่อ

จึงกลายเป็นลุงของผม แต่มันทำให้ฉันเสียใจมาก

เพราะถ้าเขาเป็นลุงของผมแล้วว่าเขาทำยัง br'ther

ของลูกสาวผู้หลักผู้ใหญ่ของหญิงม่ายที่ยังเป็นแม่เลี้ยงของฉัน

ภรรยาของพ่อแล้วมีลูกชายที่เก็บไว้ที่ทำงาน

และเขาก็กลายเป็นหลานของฉันสำหรับเขาเป็นบุตรธิดาของฉัน

ภรรยาของฉันตอนนี้แม่แม่ของฉันและมันทำให้ฉันสีน้ำเงิน

เพราะแม้ว่า'เธอเป็นภรรยาของฉัน, เธอเป็นยายของฉันเกินไป

ตอนนี้ถ้าภรรยาของผมเป็นย่าของฉันแล้วฉันหลานเธอ

และทุกครั้งที่ผมคิดว่าทุกคนก็เกือบไดรฟ์ผมป่า

สำหรับตอนนี้ฉันได้กลายเป็นกรณีที่แปลกประหลาดที่สุดที่ฉันเคยเห็น

เป็นสามีของคุณยายของฉันฉันคุณปู่ของฉันเอง

My loose transliteration follows:

Now many many years ago when I was twenty-three

I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be

This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red

My father fell in love with her and soon they too were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life

My daughter was my mother 'cause she was my father's wife

To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy

I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad

And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad

For if he was my uncle, then that also made him br'ther

Of the widow's grown-up daughter who was also my stepmother

Father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run

And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son

My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue

Because altho' she is my wife, she's my grandmother too

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild

And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild

For now I have become the strangest case I ever saw

As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa

Oh I'm my own grandpa

I'm my own granpa

It sounds funny I know,

But it really is so

Oh I'm my own grandpa

Bangkok Pundit did a piece on this a week ago. As Abhisit was born in the UK and his parents werent diplomats then he is a British citizen, whether he likes it or not. No proof anywhere that he has ever revoked his citizenship. He has never denied it, except to say he paid overseas student fees when he studied at Oxford Uni. ( But this doesnt mean he isnt UK citizen, just that he didnt live permanently in the UK.)

No Thai journalists are going to start bringing up the subject of where their leaders were born and whether they are still citizens of the UK or USA.

and he didn't have a Thai education, shocked.

ps is my comment all right or does it fall foul of TV rules, can we talk about Thai leaders?

As a rule of thumb I would say only elected ones....

If Abhisits parents had diplomatic status he may well have been registered as a thai national in UK. However I believe they were working in private practice and therefore he would probably have picked up British citizenship. If so he should have revoked it at 18 according to thai law.

Certainly a huge case for safe sex education I would say. But as already blogged, furnaces can't be down for too long (bad for cremation business), so if the backlog now is 1,000 (let's say in a week) begs the question how many of these take place in this country annually? Scary thought but with the bar trade as it is, 5,000 hot bods in Pattaya at any one time - once a month mistake and multiply that by Patpong, Cowboy, Nana, and all the other savoury areas let alone Phuket, Chiang Mai etc., and the numbers may not be so staggering and that is only within the sex trade! What about the hi-so's and giks of the rich???

so there are only two social levels of female that exist in Thailand, prostitutes and those who sleep with rich men behind their wives' backs? There are no women in relationships or marriages with thais or foreigners who may wish to have an abortion, or school, college or uni girls who may require abortions. Your post unintentionally gives an insight into what I can only presume is another expat with a seriously uneducated view of thai women and the country at large. - think before you write, it matters.

After mulling over my thoughts on this story I finally feel compelled to weigh in for what it's worth.

The dead, tragically, are dead but how did it come about?

The state that offers minimal support for abandoned mothers?

A society that passes the responsibility for child caring onto the elderly, not the parent?

A culture (Thai and Fahrang)where the male considers contraception against child birth to be the responsibility of the woman

A consumer society where sex is entertainment and contraception is used primarily because of personal fear of an STD not responsibility for the potential child?

I'll make some personal observations here. In two marriages I have had two wives who informed me that they could not conceive (one fahrang, and one thai.) I am now the father of one fahrang and one thai son! I have been in the fortunate position of being wealthy enough to care for both. As both were unplanned I offered the mothers the opportunity of an early abortion which they both declined. I am now a proud and happy father of two wonderful sons aged 22 and 4 years.

My second wife has two children by a previous husband who decamped at the prospect of supporting 2 children, a wife and a mistress. So I also have two step-children.

The point here is that my education and upbringing imposed on me the moral duty of social responsibility and my education allowed me a career with sufficient income to meet those responsibilities.

Therefore what is lacking and at the root of the horrors in this thread is the teaching of humanist ethics, consequences and education, not the rule of law or religious ideals (catholic, buddhist or whatever)

I would also add that every male contributor who has indulged in casual sex or prostitution is partly responsible for the problem. Be careful when you stare into the abyss, lest it stare back into you....

Flame away bar-boys, you know who you are

Discussion of The Monarchy in a political context is a violation of Thai law. Do not even think of making it part of this discussion please.

My point, exactly!

Don't the courts deal with lese majeste?

"We already have a democracy under the monarchy. Other countries may have democracy but they don't have the institution of the monarchy like the one we have."

If the translation is correct, thats my quote of the year :jap:

I do not quite support the view. I think we are not to be blamed. Only Thaksin & the Red-shirt are to to blame. Without them, there will be no bombing & arson attack, and the death of 91 people this year. I am open to different views.

No, you're not! :jap: