sidneybear

Hope springs eternal. People have been saying that after all the coups I've lived through. Thailand has its own way of keeping itself on an even keel.

Well, all those pot smokers are in for a rude awakening if Thaksin's lot get back in. Funny how all the junta huggers on this forum have disappeared too.

This is an odd claim for airlines to make, as they are used to checking passports and visas at check in and could easily see if someone is a non-Imm, PR or a citizen quite easily. This all looks like deflection - the real culprit for falling arrivals being the airlines themselves, having doubled their prices since Covid.

Déjà vu. Fast forward a few months and we'll see yellow shirts on the streets, then Pheu Thai kicked out, then a coup, then back to the start.

I'd end a friendship like that. Life's too short.

Functioning democracies are hard to find anywhere these days.

Now you're just resorting to ad hominem attacks and rudeness, because you've lost the argument.

Ever since I first started living in Thailand, back in 1990, there have been all these prophesies of doom, that Thailand was going to hell in a handcart, from all these culture shocked farangs. Here we are, in 2023, and life goes on. Thailand has come a long way, and will continue to prosper.

Well anyway, we're into the etymology of where the term Asian Tigers was coined. Regardless, Thailand has a robust economy that is the envy of its so called superiors.

It's difficult to think of a truly democratic country anywhere in the world right now, regardless of what CNN might say. Most western countries, for example, have a couple of main parties, propped up by huge corporate and individual donors and marketing machinery - when they get elected they then do all do exactly the same things and have identical policies that benefit them and their mates. The smaller parties are drowned out and are unable to raise sufficient funding to compete with that. It's like a cottage industry trying to compete with Coca Cola. Yet, despite its democratic failings, the West always stomps around the world, wagging its collective finger and lecturing other countries that have their own culture and systems of government. It's a giant sized hypocrisy, designed by the west to keep the rest of the world under its steel boot.

Asian Tigers. I remember them. A gigantic credit fuelled asset bubble that imploded in 1997. I haven't heard that term used since, although while we're on the subject of credit fuelled asset bubbles, the West looks so very vulnerable to a similar bust right now. Anyway, there are no more Asian tigers. Thailand hasn't done too badly since that bust though. It's got a growing middle class and people are much better off now than they were back then. For all its political instability, Thailand has quite a healthy balance of agriculture and industry that would make many deindustrialised western countries envious. It's tough everywhere, but Thailand's economic indicators compare favorably.

Very true, and good advice to all.

Semantics. The government was chucked out. It doesn't really matter whether the military does it, or the judiciary does it. Actually, if you include judicial removal of a PM, you could claim four coups I've lived through then.The first one in 1991 when Chatichai was deposed by Suchinda, who was himself forced out following the Black May riots (terrifying, I was there). Then Thaksin. Then Yingluck. Then Niwatthamerong, who was a bit like Thailand's answer to Liz Truss. Blink and you missed him. Have I missed any coups Eric? There have been a lot of them. Thankfully, the powers that be now keep Thailand on am even keel.

Well, there are good ones and not so good ones. Businesses are kind of like that. Lucky you if you've only had good experiences. I've had some bad experiences of insurance companies trying to renege, and so have lots of other good folk. I haven't heard the term "cobblers" for a long time. Makes me feel homesick ????

Mate, I was there. Three coups I've lived through in Thailand, so I don't need to read about them in Wikipedia. And I do think we're into semantics here because the military most certainly did chuck Thaksin's lot out. Twice.

I doubt it. It's pretty obvious that Thaksin is just a rabble rouser who's out to make a buck. He couldn't care less about Thailand.

Spot on. Insurance companies are profit making businesses, so they have a knee jerk reaction to try to wriggle out of paying, hoping that claimants will give up. Good for you in insisting and getting a payout.

There was a day when I might have done that. But then I came round and saw the errors in my thinking, and how I had fallen for Thaksin's skillful PR and marketing. I cringe when I think of that, because admitting we're wrong is difficult, and I'm glad I did it.

Absolutely I don't hold Thais in contempt. What's better: a stable government that respects and promotes traditional Thai values, or; a bunch of thieves who are conning the public, causing endless riots of the kind we've seen in recent years? If you reflect on that, it's you who needs to question why you support the imposition of vile and degenerate western culture onto Thailand, simply because you believe what you see on CNN.

Socrates said that democracies inevitably decay from within and fall over into tyrannies, just as they are doing in the west. In fact, the west resembles more of a kakistocracy than a democracy, which is paving the way for its own demise. Read Plato's Republic if you have time. It's quite revealing on how states evolve and decline.

Wise words. Thaksin is a businessman and is skillful at PR and marketing. Other than that, he has nothing to offer Thailand, because like most businessmen all he's looking for is a return on investment. He isn't a socialist, indeed he has no political ideology beyond enriching himself. Thaksin's party screams nepotism, all his sisters get put up for elections, such is his disinterest in varied opinions or excellence in the job.

Democracy doesn't seem to be working too well in the West. Whomever you vote for, you get marginally different flavours of the same thing, despite politicians presenting as polar opposites and getting people all worked up. Generations of the same family running for president and being supported by one or the other of two insuperable main parties. The list goes on: the West isn't qualified to lecture Thailand on democratic principles. Vote buying is common in Thailand. Village head men dishing out Thaksin's cash is more of a plutocracy than anything else. One of Thaksin's stooges or siblings will get 'elected', then sensible people will intervene and chuck them out, just like the last several times.

Oh dear. Another one who goes ad hominem because he's unable to join the debate.

Your wife's family and mates do not a country make.

They might buy more votes, but they won't be allowed to stay in office for long before the conservatives that guard Thailand's delightful culture chuck them out. You'll see them scuttling back to the airport with bags of loot before long. Either that or they'll be thrown in prison.