way2muchcoffee

The Government house is public property , so why shouldn't they be there? You have got to be joking. As a US citizen do I have the right to go sleep in the White House with George Bush? Can I go break down the door of the US Capital and live in it? Can I break down the door to Fort Knox and sit on the money because I am a citizen? There is no excuse for what the PAD has done. They have every right to protest as they were doing before but have now gone way over the line in breaking the law.

Sit-ins are illegal, nevertheless, they are a part of the arsenal of nearly every protest group.

Other illegal things protest groups do: disrupt conferences, block railroad tracks, chain themselves to trucks/tractors, boycott buses, labor strikes (not so illegal anymore, but certainly in the past), disrupt services, block roads, disrupt fishing vessels, spike trees, remove road signs, defy law enforcement officers, etc. etc. etc.

The 'disobedience' part of 'civil disobedience' means breaking the law, almost by definition.

What the PAD really want... an interview (scroll down)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JI09Ae01.html

As I mentioned the first time I pulled a link from Mr. Crispin I asked for it to be removed if it was a spoof. So if we assume it is an honest article.

Well it begs a few very obvious questions?

1. Who gets to decide the 70%? Why not 30:70? Why not 90/10? How about 0:100?

To be determined after vigorous and public debate I would imagine.

2. Why is he bothering to mention his negotiating stance on this website, when he still refuses to countenance any negotiation at the moment?

That is disingenuous. They have only set the resignation of Samak as a condition for negotiation.

3. Does he finally realise he can't win outright?

If this was a negotiation, I would wait until the next article arises and see if this middle? (slightly modified massively anti-democratic)ground moves even further.

Eh?

4. Why is his opinion any more valid than all the academics who got their degrees from overseas? Or the poor, ill-educated farmer for that matter? Since when did bankrupting a media business provide insight into the why's and wherefores of writing constitutions?

You mean SOME of the academics, certainly not all. Why are the opinions of those academics he chooses not to listen to more correct than the opinions of the academics he does listen to?

5. Would someone please explain to me why it is the voting system that needs to change as opposed to the legal system?

As the present government is primarily concerned with changing the legal system to favor cheating in the voting system, I don't think the two are separate issues.

6. Why can't Thailand have a pure democracy?

Indeed. Why can't any country have a pure democracy? Evidently the wealthy and powerful always get in the way.

I agree with some of the posters above. If a company sells me bandwidth then I am authorized to use all of that bandwidth. If they revise the contract and sell me bits transferred then that's what I'll pay for.

That's because most thai women are willing to put up with the jerks than farang women!

LOL - That's probably true. And vice versa as well!

Those stats are for divorces per country. In Thailand, that means mostly Thai-Thai relationships

and with those, separation & informal rearrangements are more frequent than formal divorce & remarriage.

These figures don't tell us anything about intercultural marriages.

Obviously. I was just playing....

Statistically?

Evidently marrying a woman from: USA, Russia, UK, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Portugal, Singapore, Greece, or China (and others) will result in a greater likelihood of divorce when compared with Thailand.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_div_...le-divorce-rate

Sure Thai men are crazier. You wouldn't catch me shimmying up a 30 m tree to grab a coconut, or hang out of a 50-floor window to clean it without a safety harness, or walk along a string of electrical cables as if it were some kind of high wire tightrope act. Not to mention wielding a scimitar, approaching a mob much bigger than yours, looking for a fight. Yep. No doubt about it. Thai men have some serious balls.

Never mind. There is no point in responding to baseless and base insults.

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The wife is bad with money, largely due to an inability to perform simple math sums.

this makes me want to cry!

Me too - I'm a math and physics teacher. I tried teaching my wife - but we quickly learned that doing that is bad for our relationship!

a teacher marries a girl who cant do simple math. now i am crying! im assuming teachers understand the value of education.

Low blow. Perhaps you might try having a little empathy, or at least sympathy. Some people actually grew up in circumstances where they had no control as to the level of education they received. This in no way means they are stupid. Of course I understand the value of education, which is why my wife, during the years we have been together has achieved a level of education higher than anyone in the history of her family. Yet, sadly, she still cannot do sums.

The wife is bad with money, largely due to an inability to perform simple math sums.

this makes me want to cry!

Me too - I'm a math and physics teacher. I tried teaching my wife, but we quickly learned that it's bad for our relationship!

I am handling things in a similar way as posters above.

Mother has passed away and father bailed when wife was a child. He gets nothing.

Grandmother horrifically abused wife during childhood. I would give nothing, except that the wife is duty bound. She gets about 2,000 per month on average.

Uncles, aunts, cousins get nothing regularly, but in times of serious emergency (sick child etc.) can turn to us for help. Usually we try to loan the money. Often it is repaid, but just as often not. I try not to sweat the small stuff.

Sister has a toddler, lives with the father of the child. He works, but pitiful salaries mean that he can barely support them. They need assistance in small amounts regularly. I am working on a plan to help the sister start up a small food cart so they can be more self sufficient. We have also discussed helping the husband set up a small shop so that he doesn't have to move the family around all the time - he is an itinerant construction worker.

Brother, same mom but different father, is a bit of a mess. He's young and needs guidance. I am trying to represent a positive male role model for him. He is living with us at the moment, but is working 12 hours per day, six days per week to help make ends meet. His salary doesn't equal our expenditures for him, but he is trying. He recently enlisted in the army and will be called up to report sometime in the next 6 months. When he does he'll make a starting monthly salary of 7,500 and the army will send him to school to finish high school. Hopefully he'll learn some better discipline and responsibility through the experience. He's welcome to stay here as long as he's working and contributing until he gets called up for the army.

The wife is bad with money, largely due to an inability to perform simple math sums. She gets a daily allowance, or sometimes an allowance to last a few days. She handles the bills at the end of the month.

[i am extremely sorry for them. But I blame their educators for not telling them corectly.

Would you care to expand on your idea? What would you have their educators tell them? What did their educators tell them? What was incorrect? Your statement is highly provocative and I'm trying to understand.

Tragic. Fortunately they weren't killed.

Oh it's always the same old anti-thakisn brigade with the same old sky is falling 'vote buying' stories.

You know as well as anyone, the Isaan and Northern voters (the majority) would vote for these guys with or without ANY money. You just won't admit it publicly.

Then why spend the millions of baht, if not billions, buying votes if they were so secure in a victory?

State of emergency announced

State of emergency announced

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30082269

It seems the world seems to have forgotten what democracy means. They don't teach it in schools anymore or something?

Democracy is more than just having elections!

If a government does not act in the best interest of the people and does not do the will of the people, then it is not democratic.

Neither does propaganda and corruption make a democracy.

It seems elections seems like the magic word to be accepted by the "international community". So even Egypt has elections... Only really ignorant people would call Egypt a democracy.

Isn't one of the duties of a civics-minded person to engage in the overthrow of a corrupt government?

Excerpted from 'The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America'

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

What's wrong with compensating poverty stricken people for their time when they go to support a cause? Obviously they can't afford to take time away from work without causing extreme hardship for themselves and their families. The middle class protesters can afford to lose a day's pay or take a sick day. The types of jobs the economically disadvantaged people have do not provide such benefits as sick days and holidays.

Isn't criticizing the judiciary illegal in Thailand?

What I'm curious about is whether and how much to tip the food delivery people (McD's, KFC, BK, Pizza Company, Food By Phone, Chef XP, JJ's, Subway, Zanotti, etc). If there is a delivery charge of 20-80 bt, is it necessary to tip? When I don't tip these guys I feel like a cheap charlie, but when I do it seems unwarranted. I always get this queasy feeling when the delivery guy knocks.

I tip them about 40 Bt, just cos it wouldn't feel right not to, especially when it is raining

I usually go with 20 bt. Sometimes, if I'm in a bad mood or if the driver is surly, I'll just give him whatever coins there are from the change. The raining point is good - I always tip 20-30 bt in this case.

What I'm curious about is whether and how much to tip the food delivery people (McD's, KFC, BK, Pizza Company, Food By Phone, Chef XP, JJ's, Subway, Zanotti, etc). If there is a delivery charge of 20-80 bt, is it necessary to tip? When I don't tip these guys I feel like a cheap charlie, but when I do it seems unwarranted. I always get this queasy feeling when the delivery guy knocks.

A tip is a sign of appreciation not a right as some people in the US seem to think. A cheeky bitch in Vegas came to complain to some frinds of mine because they didn't leave a tip every time they got a drink!! Unbelievable !

It is a Thai forum so this is largely irrelevant, however, service staff in many states of the USA pay income tax on 10% of the total bill of the customers. The government assumes a tip and charges income tax, which very nearly makes a tip a 'right' in my book, at least in the USA.

Regarding your argument for tipping a server. Do you also tip the shoe or clothing salesperson who brings the various sizes for you to try on? Do you tip the bus driver for driving you across town? I could come up with others, but I'm sure you see the point. Tipping is about cultural expectations. When in Rome....

What we have here and now in Thailand is a situation where by less than 0.1% of the voters are mounting a campaign of civil unrest and violence in an effort to force their will on the other 99.9% of voters.

Your post is well-written and fairly well thought out. Why would you end it with a meaningless statistic that you can't possibly defend? The fact of the matter is that nobody really knows how many people the PAD represent.

My American friends were shocked when I didn't give a tip in a bar, we went in ordered at the bar, drank at the bar etc. why the hel_l should I tip a girl who just opened a beer bottle? They get paid wages right? Anyway back to the orientals, I tip about 30 Bt in a normal eatery but when we go to our local Italian and drink win etc. the bill come to around 3000 so I would be embarrassed if I didn't leave 100 Bt. I would give 10% but the wife would kill me.

Inconsistent. Why would you even bother to tip a server? All they did was bring a plate of grub. Don't they get a salary, even if it is only $4.00 per day?

I have a quasi-humidifier we never use. It is basically a fan that also sprays evaporated water from a reservoir. I bought it at Makro for around 2500 bt. Wish I wouldn't have as it sits in a corner collecting dust. It is far too humid here already for the contraption to have much effect. Any offers?

For those who have not read this interview I strongly urge you to do so. Those who think he is fighting 'the people's fight' might find his enthusiastic admission of being 'the elite's defacto spokesman' interesting.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/ID27Ae01.html

I'm curious. Did you read the article? If anything the interview indicates that Sondhi sees himself as the de facto spokesman for the middle class, not the elite. Whether that is true or not may be open for debate. I suggest you re-read the entire interview.