sidneybear

I was the MD of a US Thailand subsidiary company for a while and had to go to the Labour Court a couple of times. I always found them to be fair in both directions. I had to let go a couple of employees: one was refusing to work and we reached a settlement with her at the Labour department (an initial step before going to court); the other was falsifying delivery records and sued us when we fired him - we countersued for damages in the same amount and he ended up getting nothing.

Your crystal ball is exactly right.

Me neither. Thailand now has a left wing house and a right wing senate. Nothing much will change.

You're smart enough to know that. Unlike a lot of people here who think that Thailand is a carbon copy of the west.

In the wonderful world of Thai politics, that won't matter.

Precisely. They'll last a few months, just like those who went before them.

Right. We've been in this movie before. At least Thaksin's lot seem to be a spent force, and these western worshipping lefties that have replaced them will soon find out that they won't be able to keep their promises.

Right. Forced out one way or another.

There you go again. Rather than offer a rebuttal to the point I made about pseudodemocracies, you revert to childish rudeness, psychobabble, and ad hominem attacks. You're incapable of serious debate. Regardless of what you say, Thaksin's lot will get the boot, and I'm looking forward to it.

It was with my best mate. I'll never forget it.

Democracies are so 1900's. They've been replaced by pseudodemocracies all around the world. I'll concede that they look the same on the outside though - we still have parties with different names that we can vote for.

That or a judicial thingy. It's the Thai way.

Bangkok on LSD

You seem to take everything at face value. Next you'll be telling me that a party that calls itself 'The Conservative Party' must by definition hold traditional conservative values, and that a party that calls itself 'The Labour Party' must support the unions and the working classes. Do you also believe that politicians tell the truth all the time?

"This time is different" is ground I've covered before with you and is what people have said all through the years. Time will tell, and it won't take long.

If you chat girls up and make them laugh, you might get laid. It's the same everywhere.

Maybe that's because you're nice too. Thailand tends to reflect one's own temperament.

Flown ultralight aircraft

Indeed. In the UK, for example, we get a choice of two identical political parties to vote for. At least Thailand's present different approaches.

They'll win in the end, just like they always do.

True. Starting a business involves understanding risk. Weed is controversial and most politicians want to get rid of it - even Amsterdam's famous coffee shops have been scaled back. Anyone who starts a weed shop should only do so with money they can afford to lose.

He'll last for six months maximum, before he gets ejected.

That's the knee jerk reaction when we think about accident prone Thailand, and I'm inclined to think it myself. That said, I've worked with Thai industry quite extensively, and I've noticed that Thais are capable of working to very high international quality standards, given the right supervision, and take pride in such work. Airlines, for instance, are comfortable placing regional maintenance facilities in Bangkok, and many of those (excellent quality) Japanese cars are made in Thailand.

About time too. Hopefully the world will move on.

It's sad that this 34 year old succumbed at such a young age. That said the chances of a 34 year old dying of covid, even if unvaccinated, are just 1.4 in 10,000, or 0.014% https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/covid-19-chart-updated-with-omicron-risk-of-death The chance of dying in a road traffic accident in Thailand is 32.7 in 100,000, or 0.0327% https://www.who.int/thailand/news/detail/03-01-2023-a-new-year-s-resolution--for-life#:~:text=In its most recent global,per 100%2C000 population (2018). I think that this poor man was incredibly unlucky, but I don't think that Songkran celebrations nationwide should have been cancelled.