allan michaud

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Another Thai military petty bust.

While I have serious concerns about the coup boys real intentions and busts like this may seem minor, it is still much more than we could EVER expect from the Thai police, who would just be seeking re numeration from the Kamnan to sweep it under the table.

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No pity for lenders.

Anyone know what the repayment terms are on these loans...especially in default?

Why should we pity money lenders? even official ones?

Why does patriotism need to be included? Not important and not helpful IMO. How about re educating your teachers as to how to teach? I don't see this making much difference if the teachers are as useless as they seem to be at present.

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I would think the best way to lower the cost of farming is to increase yields.
How is that Vietnam can now produce 5 to 700 kilos of rice per rai and Thailand is and has been stuck at 3 to 400 kilos per rai?
In fact Thailand is the lowest producing country in Asia.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6905e/x6905e0f.htm

There are allot of factors that come into play to determine yields, such as soil conditions, irrigation, planting etc.
We are getting between 500-600 kilos per rai, but my wife puts allot of effort into getting these yields. She cut way
back on chemical fertilizers and using mostly manure. Stopped the slash and burn thing etc. We rented some land a few years
ago and no matter what we did the most we could get from than land was only 250-300 kilos per rai. The soil was terrible.

Yes that's right, a lot of land is not good, the only way to improve it is massive work on composting, reducing chemical fertilisers. Too many farmers rely almost entirley on chemicals which in the long term destroy your soil. Most farmers have no clue as to how to improve their soil, they do not understand the natural process of how micro organisims convert naturally available chemicals like nitrogen into a form that plants can access, the fact that chemical fertilisers provide no biomass and reduce the number of micro organisims makes matters worse. EDUCATION IS WHAT IS NEEDED.

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All fine and dandy.....now sort our proper testing and licencing for mini-bus drivers, roadworthiness testing for vehicles and fit tachographs.....might be getting somewhere then instead of playing musical chairs with the parking.

Agreed, I hope they will get to some of the more nationwide driving issues too, as opposed to trying to improve traffic in BKK, although it's very early days yet. Given how long they have been in power I am impressed with what they have achieved. It's now a question of keeping these changes, I just can't help thinking the mafia boys will just change tactics and or everything will return to normal once the military are not watching. Only time will tell but at least they are doing something sensible to reduce traffic problems.

Are the Thai's funding this dam as they are the Xaraburi dam? If so then it will probably go ahead regardless.

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Could just make the farmers much more efficient... alt=clap2.gif>

It should not be too difficult to double Thailand's current rice production as they have one of the worst rates of ton's per hectare of all rice producing countries at around 2.6 tons. Vietnam manages well over 6 tons and Cambodia even tops Thailand with 2.9 tons per hectare.

The suggestions to get the fertiliser/pesticide prices controlled and to make land available to landless farmers so they don't get ripped off are also important. One of the first effects of the PTP rice scam was that land rental prices and fertilser prices spiked.

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He enjoyed hunting?

Yes, that Thompson Sub-Machine gun must be great when hunting? That is clearly an antique, it's got to be 80 years old. I googled "Messen" but couldn't find anything.

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Quite amazed their credit control system did not shut it off..... Looks like AIS has a serious issue with their billing system


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Which raises the question; they have a credit control system?

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So it's praise to the Prayuth government. Buttttttttttttttttt... How will the people in especially the northeast cast there vote when in about a year from now with elections yet another shinaparty promises them again high riceprices, way above international market price? Memories can be short then.

Time for a new party as the dems prolly will never get foot on the ground up north. Which I can understand.

I think you will find that populist policies like this will be banned by the EC once the next election comes around.

Eh? How do you plan to ban populist policies? How do you classify a policy as populist? Every policy of every political party would have to be studied and rated by the EC?

To quote the Americans today “In Thailand, we have a lot of beginnings that will hopefully come to fruition, but the report doesn’t look at promises. It looks at results.”

Seems like they know what the reality is on the ground. While officials continue to be major benefactors of this trade nothing serious will be done. Sadly it seems most Thai's want a personal slave to do their chores or more likely abuse when bored so i don't see any chance of change any time soon. Truly repugnant nation.

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More like another pawn, Not mister big! They never get them.

Better than the usual minnows.

Just over 1 kg is very small time. Now if they catch his supplier, that should be worth crowing about.

Hopefully the Americans take note of this when they announce their latest report on trafficking.

The wonderful land of the Crocodile Smile.

"Thai law provided all workers in Thailand with protection in relation to working conditions as well as related benefits regardless of nationality, she said"

I am sure the numerous Burmese and Cambodian's being held on Thai fishing boats will be glad to know this.

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One more steaming Thaksin sh#t pile being swept up....lots of steam coming off it on days like this....

In fairness it was a pile of steaming crap before Thaksin came along.

To get a clue who is doing a lot of the collecting of fees you just have to read the above line. "The operators formed an association to complain about such "fees" but were threatened with stricter law enforcement, intended to pressure them to continue paying the fees, the source said."

Threatened by whom? That would be the police I assume.

I am just thinking what her acceptance speech would have been like if she had won?

"I'd just like to thank my family and friends. I wish for happiness and world peace... except to the dirty red shirt scumbags who I want to execute"

Isn't that 3 farangs that have fallen off balconies this week? I am not suggesting there is anything dodgy about this particular deathl, but you have to wonder about the sheer number of people that so easily fall off Thai balconies.

Given how Thai farmers love to pump more and more chemicals on their crops, eating more fruit and veg may actually make the problem worse due to the effects of pesticides and other chemicals that affect our growth and intellect. It might also explain the seemingly very high rates of cancer I see in villages like my wife's.

"Drink more milk"... coming from the countries leading milk producer. I think scientists already proved we do not need milk after our very early years, it is most important to toddlers and in fact causes health problems for adults.

From what I see in issan, the average Thai villager has no clue about basic health and nutrition, many kids I know survive almost entirely on freeze dried noodles, which have bugger all nutrients. Too many parents are more concerned with how to pay for a smart phone than seeing their kids eat properly.

EDUC &lt;deleted&gt; CATION!

They need education to improve yield so they are competitive with the rest of the rice growing countries. Thailand's yield is around 2.6tons per hectare compared to over 6 in Vietnam. Even Cambodia, still recovering from 4 decades of war produces 2.8tons.

Also the vultures who upped the prices for land rental and chemicals could do with some reeducation from the Junta along with loan sharks.

And as someone else pointed out, laziness is another big problem. Rice farming is all about short bursts of work, they have plenty of time to 'work' to earn more money rather than spend thier time lounging around in hammocks all day drinking Lao Khao.

Stopping these morons from pissing their money up the wall on smart phones they cannot afford is going to be harder though.

For me it is hard to have sympathy with many of these people as they bring much of their poverty on themselves. When i visit my wife's village most of the men are drunk 24-7 it seems and are always on the look out for a free drink. Having slept on the streets on a few occasions due to a lack of money I know what it is like to struggle each day to eat, buying luxury items like smart phones and ipads is just not an option, if I can't afford to eat properly then I certainly am not going to piss it up the wall on drink like far too many Thai men.

150 million divided by 70,00 is Baht2,142, sounds like they got a good deal there then! I am sure I could get them a bit cheaper that that.

Outstanding, only in Amazing Thailand.

and the real money spinner is of course those mythical lottery numbers

"The villagers also told our correspondent that some believers asked the Naga for luck and subsequently won the lottery, while those who drank water from the construction pool quickly recovered from illnesses."

"There have been declines in arrivals from some short-haul markets, while many others are still doing well. Huge losses were seen from Brunei, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but inbounds from many countries rose.

European arrivals are up 7.6 per cent to 2.76 million. In April, arrivals rose from the Middle East by 17.6 per cent, Oceania by 14.1 per cent, Europe 12.3 per cent and America 1.9 per cent."

Honestly? These sound like total fantasy figures to me. However the request for extra money for TAT comes as no surprise. These people are total muppets.

"More courses on social responsibility and ethics should also become part of the existing curriculum."

At least they are trying to address the main problems of Thai society with this.