dbrenn

Well, achmmm, these shots all must be first hand taken by Koo who now has

an all access pass for Red Shirt stage and technical departments.

And we can see her hob-knobing with all the good gentlemen of the 2nd generation....

And no 1st generation gentlemen are there doing anything against their terms of bail...

No one is feeding her pictiures, purposely with NO DATE showing,

since she now has learned to turn the shooting date off on her camera.

No, nothing to say she isn't being used by the Reds for her propaganda value here.

NOT!

Maybe, instead of employing the strategy of character assassination, you can take your own photos at the rallies and post them here. If you feel that these photos of Koo82 are fake, then please, prove your point by posting your own images from Sanam Luang.

Well said. Put up, or shut up, Animatic.

If that is the case then SJ, Plus, amongst others are equally, if not more guilty of political lobbying.

Hiow true. It's only called political lobbying when the 'wrong' side does it. What an epitomy of the hypocrisy that prevails in Thailand today. It's only a crime when you do it!

Nothing to do with lese majesty as is so often the case. these laws are absurd and are only used to silence (political) opponents. Today they are used against people like Thaksin and Gilles Ji Ungpakorn. Tomorrow they are used against Abhisit, Chamlong, Chuan and Sondhi.

It is just a matter of who is wielding power. As police and prosecutors do not have any honor at all they will listen to whoever is strongest on a particular day.

With the lese majesty laws Thailand is on par with other repressive countries in the Middle East, Burma, Libya and so on. In those countries the same kind of tactics are used to silence the opposition.

I am actually wondering why Anupong did not came up with a swimmer, his friend Than Shwe seems to be carved out of the same wood but is more creative.

That's a good observation.

When in charge, LM and contempt of court are very convenient tools to shut up political opponents.

It's hard to pick up the paper these days without seeing another LM charge. Abhisit and his military handlers are coming out in their true colours. It's such a hypocrisy, given that the pretext for the coup was to combat repression and censorship.

Very dangerous topic this. I will add some more although I think the previous poster did a comprehensive job.

เสือก "seuak" you nosy c**t. Highly specific insult and will cause a massive reaction. Don't use it.

ไอ้/อีตากเน่า "Ai/Ee dtak nao" You collapsed bowel. Stinky arse. Very insulting. Don't use it.

แรด "raet" rhinoceros. I'm not quite sure how this is used but I think it's gender-specific to women in which case it would probably be "Ee raet". Probably best not to use it.

Oh wow! I thought I knew them all, but I'm learning a lot of new ones here. "Collapsed bowel". Reads more like putrid arse. How descriptive!

BANGKOK: - More than 100 hotels and resorts are reportedly up for sale in Thailand as hotel occupancy plunges to historic lows on the back of the worldwide recession and the country's political turmoil.

Two cases of H1N1 influenza found in Thailand now pose yet another threat to tourism.

'This year is the worst for our hotel industry in 20 years,' Mr Chanin Donavanik, chief executive officer of the Dusit International chain, told The Nation daily this week.

The hotels for sale or auction range from five-star properties to small basic establishments, the paper reported. They are concentrated largely in Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

'Business is very, very bad, and the future looks absolutely bleak,' the outgoing general manager of the Mandarin Oriental, Mr Kurt Wachtveitl, told foreign journalists on Tuesday. He estimated that hotel occupancy rates were just 20 per cent across the board. The 72-year-old, Thailand's most senior hotelier and an industry legend, plans to retire next month.

'This is the perfect storm, for Thailand in particular - but wherever we (the Mandarin Oriental group) have hotels, in the first three to four months of the year, business is 20 per cent down,' he said.

'Nowadays, nobody is booking ahead. Now is the time when bookings come in for July-August, but everybody is waiting to see what the world will look like - and waiting until the last minute.'

The Oriental - consistently rated one of the world's best hotels - has 45 suites which are usually highly sought after, he said. But not one has been booked.

One problem even with affluent customers, is that they do not want to be stuck in the country - as was the case when 'yellow-

shirt' supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) closed down Phuket airport and took over Bangkok's two airports for several days last year in an attempt to force the government of the day to quit.

The airport closures struck at the heart of the economy - especially tourism. Mr Wachtveitl called it an episode customers will 'remember for the rest of their lives'.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNew...ory_376550.html

I feel sorry for all the people that will lose their jobs. Shutting down the airports was such an incredibly stupid thing to do.

I recently tried to go and watch a few fights at Ratchadamnern. I was told that I have to pay the 2000bht 'farang' price. This was despite me living, working and paying tax in Thailand. I also speak and read Thai to a basic level and communicated in Thai with ticket people. The Thai prices are even written in Thai script which I pointed out to them. What annoys me more is that they don't pay foreign fighters 10x the wage of the Thai fighters....

I am an English teacher here and live on less than 40k a month. Besides being extortionate for someone on Thai wages this also made me feel very angry as it was only because I am white that they wanted to charge me this. I begrudgingly used to pay this price some years ago when I came here as a tourist which i believe although unfair was all part and parcel visiting another country (even though it's still dam expensive). However, now that I live, work and pay tax here I really believe this is simply racial discrimination.

I am thinking of writing a letter to the stadiums explaining to them why this pricing system is unfair and that if they lowered the prices a lot of farangs that live here would go a lot more regularly. I would probably be wasting my time but I feel their ignorance should be pointed out in a constructive manner.

I have often found with entrance fees etc more often than not when I explain that I live and work here they let you in for the thai price more often than not. If they don't I calmly explain that this is not fair and I will not be supporting their business with my money. Taking the easy option of paying to save the hassle only fuels this type of discrimination. I will be voting with my feet...

Working and paying tax as a temporary resident won't entitle you to local rates in other places too. In places like Australia, the US and the UK, for example, you need permanent residency or citizenship to be eligible for local rates on education. Holders of temporary resident visas pay the foreign rate.

The only way around this problem is to get your PR (which can sometimes get you the local rate), then citizenship, wwhich always gets you the local rate. Annoying though it is, complaints about dual pricig laways fall on deaf ears. No one gives a dam_n how upsetting it is - you pay or you don't go in.

He's set an astounding record of "Firsts" already...

Yes, First Thai Prime Minister to serve out a full term and then be re-elected with another landslide.

The problem for him is that for every positive First... there's 3 negative Firsts

eg.

First PM to be convicted of a crime

First PM to be sentenced to prison

First PM to have back-to-back political parties dissolved due to their electoral fraud

So the corrupt junta and their installed government would have us believe. Let the electorate decide on that one, at the humble but exact ballot box

PM warns The Red News not instigate violence

Published on May 16, 2009

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva Saturday warned The Red News, whichi is a new newspaper of the red-shirt movement, not to distort information to instigate rifts and violence.

Abhisit said anyone or any group can use its media as long as it will break the law.

He said if the newspaper presents distorted information, it will create damages to the country and violate the law.

The prime minister said the government did not harm the people but simply wanted to return the country to normality following the Songkran riots so the red-shirt movement should not try to use the issue to instigate more rifts.

The Nation

-- The Nation May 16, 2009

article here

>>>>He said if the newspaper presents distorted information, it will create damages to the country and violate the law.<<<<

Ha ha ha!

Just curious - In order to substantiate its claims to be Thailand's leading English language "business newspaper", when is our high brow and intellectually forthright Nation going to hire a proof reader to improve its dreadful standard of English? If it can't afford a proof reader, what does that say about its journalists? I mean, how much do proof readers cost in Thailand?

Red shirts erected a stage and put up tents at Sanam Luang on Saturday afternoon in preparation for their rally to parliament on Monday.

Leading UDD members at the site said second-generation leaders would talk on stage until 11 pm Saturday night.

Leaders said red shirt members would stay at Sanam Luang until 8 am on Monday morning, when they would gather to march towards parliament to demand democracy and follow on the works of the national reconciliation committee.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/14...-at-sanam-luang

-- Bangkok Post 16/05/09

As most have read this also in Nation and BP, I myself as my sole opinion don't believe much that Bangkok Post prints due the fact they seem to make it obvious their supporters of Team Red and Mr Thaksin...

Just my view point and opinion..not intended to insult anyone just the way I see half of the rubbish that is printed in papers, as no matter the reasoning we all must remember the fact papers are in the sales business and not always in the best interest of the country as in a whole or with in the origin of the country's Unity !

Well you are quite right that the Bangkok Post and the Nation print mostly rubbish these days - they are both but shadows of their former selves, have sold their souls, and are reduced to campaign magazine style sensationalism and propaganda.

The Bangkok Post supporting the reds? Now, where did you get that idea?

I was walking along the road (suk) area soi17 and I didn't see an ash tray anywhere so I put out my smoke in one the the lightpoles with the holes in the sides. Wrong on my part. I know this is not my country and I should have put it out and back in my pack. Next thing you know it's like I robbed a banks or something. I was hounded for about an hour. During that time while standing on the sidewalk/walkway I almost get run over by a motorbike. The police didn't care about that though because a motorbike could only harm or kill someone on a walkway. My cigerrette was a much more important issue. I had no money on me but I did have eye drops. Next thing you know they are trying to say I need a prescription for these and it's considered drugs. In front of me is a homeless guy peeing on a tree so I thought for sure they would arrest him and leave me alone. Thank God my lawyer was one block away and came quick to help me out of this mess.

Hard to believe. A lawyer got you off the hook? If you drop litter, it's clear cut: you broke the law and you have to pay a fine. There's not much a lawyer can do to argue that you were innocent.

You had no money, and the lawyer came and got you off scot free and you didn't have to pay him either? Now that is an unusual lawyer ...

I'm considering whether I should get my wisdom teeth removed (4 of them, all impacted!) in Thailand in a hospital or dentist, from what I heard it is cheaper than getting it done where I'm currently at (Syd, Australia) which is over $2000 and waiting list. How much is it in Thailand and is it best recommended to get it removed there? (I'm going to Thailand in few weeks for about a month)

Thanks for any feedback

Going back 10 years, I had impacted wisdom teeth removed at the Vejthani hospital. This involved cutting into my gums and removing the teeth, which were below the surface, then stitching my gum together again. The cost was 8000 Baht, and the operation was done extremely well by the dental surgeon there. Such was my horror of dentists, I elected to have all four removed at the same time to get it over with, and I went to a nearby pharmacy and swallowed some valium and painkillers before going in.

The operation was painless, the wounds healed well and have given me no trouble since.

Dual pricing in the US....esp in education is still alive and well

Tuition fees...

Out of state students pay more than residents of the state - even tho they are holding the same citizenship

International students always pay more.....many times - up to 3-4 times than the normal tuitition fee

been there... done that

Nothing to complain, that's just the way it is

Same in Aussie too - citizens and PRs get cheaper rates for education.

This is one man we do not need I would rather have Taksin back as PM

Right - Chamlong is a firebrand. All he could ever do was stir up a mob.

No, they weren't.

They had nothing to do with Foreign Business Act.

Two simple quesitons for you:

- Prove that CDR/CNS was behind it

- Show any sign of nationalism in their manifesto you implied in your post.

You made the allegations, your job to prove them.

I haven't had this kind of 'yes they were, no they weren't, so there' argument since I was a child. The CDR were quite public about their views on how foreigners rights should be curtailed, to the utmost alarm of the expat and business community at the time.

For you to deny that ever happened is just plain silly.

They went under CDR and CNS, but PAD leader SONDHI was NEVER in either.

General Sonthi was.

Their nationalistic rants was nothjing more that rally round the flag rhetoric,

scary for farangs, bbut nothing more than local race baiting to solidify one more branch of support.

Did it amount to much, nope. Just air to fill papers and influence the not so bright...

Sondhi L. was not a member if the junta (to which Sondhi Boonyaratgin belonged), but he did support their actions in toppling the elected government of the day. Sondhi L. also favoured the corrupt and ultra nationalistic General Saprang for the top army post, which eventually went to Anupong.

That's the fundamental flaw in your viewpoint - on the one hand you want rights to live in Thailand and you vilify corruption; on the other hand you support a movement that advocates ulranationalistic corrupt generals who are against foreigners having any kind of rights, and who caused utter chaos to the economy upon which everyone depends.

Is purchasing the post of PM any better than taking it by force?

It's not how power is gained for me it is the reasons for gaining it and how that power is used once gained.

LOL....So basically if a red or yellow shirt walks up & pops one in the elected one

your ok with that.............As long as after he gains that power he makes good use of it?

Well some people here are OK with that idea - turning power over to people who are represented by the 'educated' class, indefinitely, and ignoring the democratic popular vote.

The anti foreign ownership rhetoric that was coming out of the CDS was reported in all the paper after the coup, including the Bangkok Post and the Nation. Changes to the Foreign Business Act were proposed by the CDS generals and yellow lot..

No, they were not.

And what is CDS anyway? I assume you mean CNS - the junta, comprising of Sonthi (the general) and seven other members.

Yes, they were. You will be telling me that Thailand is south of antarctica next.

It's CDR, which stood for Council for Democratic Reform (in tanks, ho ho), not CDS or CNS (which was a later name for the group). The CDR were the original post coup junta - Sondhi, Saprang, Anupong et al. Their nationalistic manifesto revolved around little more than 'saving' thailand from foreign ownership. Their indiscriminate targetting of foreigners owning anything, and abrupt policy reversals, caused an enormous amount of nervousness to the foreign business community at the time.

Funny how so many foreigners behave like lemmings - they supported a political movement that was talking about running them out of town, just because of the Thaksin knee-jerk response

Funny also how you deny what was in the news from all sides at the time.

It's paradoxical that so many foreigners fall for their rhetoric

Because the rhetoric isn't there. You created it yourself.

You have a very short memory, which doesn't seem to extend any farther back than Abhisit's installation. The anti foreign ownership rhetoric that was coming out of the CDS was reported in all the paper after the coup, including the Bangkok Post and the Nation. Changes to the Foreign Business Act were proposed by the CDS generals and yellow lot that made it much harder for even small time foreign businesspeople to operate. Changes were proposed to prevent collection of profits from share transactions, then abruptly reversed when the stock market tanked. The generals meddling in economic affairs was all over the front pages of newspapers from all sides at the time.

I am not an influential army general, nor am I a former CDS member, so I flatly deny your charge that it was me who created those anti-foreigner policies.

It's slowly but surely getting that way that over-all it’s much cheaper for me to live in the UK.

I pay heavily to live here but at what point do I say enough is enough?

In Thailand i rent a house for 15.000 Baht per month.

In the UK I own my own house.

In Thailand my lady costs me somewhere in the region of 20.000 Baht every month.

That’s 35.000 Baht or 700 pounds worth of outgoings I don’t have in the UK.

The annual visa shit is another story.

Contrary to belief, the cost of living in the tropics doesn’t come cheap.

I've had twelve wonderful years here but!!

Is it time to bail out and go home?

You could always sell your house in the UK, buy a condo in Thailand and call it quits with your girlfriend.

Whenever I think of the UK, the first thing that comes to my mind are dark Winters, slate grey skies and driving freezing rain.

Actually, it's not all that bad over there and I do enjoy visiting there in the Summer, but I couldn't live there again.

Each to his own I guess. But think it through - after 12 years you will get reverse culture shock back there, and you may wish that you had never left Thailand. You might start to miss your girlfriend too. The economy in the UK is prerry bad at the moment too, so (if you need to work) factor in that you might need longer than usual to find a job, perhaps a lot longer.

Sorry but comparing Thaksin and Obama just doesn't wash - the two names don't belong in the same sentence.

I agree with you however that vote buying is widespread, particularly in Thailand - as you say it usually exists in one form or another, and as much as i hate it, i'm realistic enough to accept it's something we can do little about.

Vote buying however wasn't the most worrying aspect of Thaksin's time in power, and it wasn't vote buying that put the country in danger of being entirely at his mercy for a considerable time; what was, was the depth to which he had infiltrated and interferred with all the bodies, organisations and institutes that are there to keep things in check and in balance. The extent to which he did this was i believe unprecedented, and made it imposible for democracy to function in a clear, healthy and transparent manner, and impossible for him to be held at all accountable for his actions. Is that a phoney argument? No i don't think so. I think it's a very valid argument and i'm baffled as to how someone who claims to love democracy so much seems to dismiss these issues as being unimportant. Or how someone can't see the link between Thaksin's dismantling of democracy and the coup.

And the beer swilling bit? Let me explain. Anyone who denies that the recent chaos and instability has had any effect on tourism and business in Thailand really can't be doing much more than sitting around swilling beer. Even the Nation concedes that chaos is bad for business, and that's saying something.

I don't think that anyone denies that recent chaos and instability has had some affect on tourism, just the level to which it has is in dispute. Those against the coup are obviously keen to play the affects of it up, those for it keen to play it down.

And yes, I can vote and you probably can't, which seems to bug you.

LOL You must be mistaking me for someone who cares about your personal circumstances. I can assure you i have absolutely no interest in your details or stats, or for that matter anyone else's details or stats on this forum, as far as a political discussion goes.

As we have already agreed, anyone can say anything about themselves on the internet, so proudly declaring that you can vote and rushing to assume that others can't is a daft thing to do - not only because there is no way to substaniate any of these details - but also because it has no bearing on contributing to this forum. Having the right to vote doesn't add or take away anything to an argument put forward here. It's irrelevant. You though seem to think of it as some sort of a trump card to flash out to put people in their place. How very sad.

First you say that you accept that people spend money to get elected. Then you say that we can't use Thaksin and Obama in the same sentence and that Thaksin's vote buying is somehow different. Answer me this: How much did Obama spend on his campaign? Would he have got elected if he hadn't spent a nickel? Show me a pol who doesn't spend a fortune getting and staying elected, and I will show you a perfect world, with free beer and unlimited tottie.

You are contradicting yourself again.

And, there you go bringing up the fact that I can vote again. You seem to bitterly resent it, so why do you keep bringing the subject up? .

Is it Abhisit's fault if no court has issued arrest warrants for the PAD leaders or do you guys suggest Abhisit should take influence on the courts?

I would think that a PM would have enough power to have an arrest warrant issued for someone that occupied the government house for 5 months and the airports for a week, no?

But then again, you can't prosecute those who made you PM, that would be treason.

Well said. The government is hypocritical.

Prepare for the onslaught of the yellow Thaivisa mob.

Funny thing is, when the yellow CDS/CNS deposed the elected Thaksin government, their manifesto was very nationalistic, and they were changing laws to curtail foreign ownership rights. Not just the big biz of Thaksinian dimensions - even the little guys who made modest investments were targetted. As if that weren't enough, they were openly calling for the dilution of the popular vote.

It's paradoxical that so many foreigners fall for their rhetoric and blindly support their sinister anti-democratic ends, just because of an irrational hatred of Thaksin. Life under the yellows might not be cushy at all for your average Joe Farang.

http://www.g7hno.co.uk/stupid/10catz.html This is what I think of your "poll" SJ

As much as I would enjoy the rewards of owning the Bangkok Post, I don't... hence, it's not "my poll".

Looking at the Bangkok Post these days, all you might find is a mountain of debt

For whatever reason it was delayed

...the "reds" will declare the delay as their victory!

Well it is their victory. Actually I don't know what the won (maybe they won the golden banana for bringing Thailand one more step closer to be a banana republic), but they did it.

They have successfully turned Thailand back into a 3rd world country...

/remark deleted Webfact

Yeah right. Couldn't agree more. Street rioting, closing down airports, laying siege to summits is costing Thailand its reputation.

Not only a red phenomenon though. Did you hear about a group of people who closed down the airport and caused a load of chaos long before the Pattaya summit?

Poor old Abhisit. Nobody can be bothered coming to his keynote shin dig. You can imagine how the conversations went

Abhisit: "Oh, pleeeeeease come to my summit Mr. Foreign Dignitary, so that I can appear relevant to the masses! We have encircled the conference centre with battle tanks, snipers and a few infantry divisions, with helicopters to evacuate you just in case, all to make your stay in Thailand a pleasant one"

Mr. Foreign Dignitary's secretary's phone: *click*

No great fan of ex PM Somchai, but why can't the country move forward and let bygones be bygones.

Hard to do when considering...

Two people were killed and nearly 500 injured that day

The pair face a charge of wrongfully exercising their duty resulting in injury, which carries a jail sentence of up to 10 years.

By all appearnces, he apparently e gave the blanket order to people who hated PAD big time,

to clean them out, and didn't say anything considering moderation or how to handle it.

We have seen the results.

It is appropriate for this to be investigated front to back, top to bottom.

All this makes for a great conspiracy theory. You should write a novel about it one day, just like Michael Moore - the writer who blamed George Bush for knocking down the World Trade Centre.

Agreed with other posters here - all this silly witch hunting is doing is opening wounds. If the govenrment is really serious about reconciliation, it should try letting bygones be bygones. Abhisit should try going to the people who matter, the citizens of Thailand, rather than all this futile lashing around looking for a scapegoat for the fact that it hasn't got anything done. The dems will say that Thaksin caused the Tsunami next, if they thought that it would buy them a few more months of feeding time, anything to shift the focus elsewhere.

And if they believe so strongly about purging Thailand of all these criminal elements, how come Abhisit grovels to corrupt old generals and almost kisses people like Newin in public? Whooops! I forgot. Newin the Banned got Abhisit his job

oldsparrow มหาลัยพายัพ

No, the one I mean is at one of Chula Institutes. I think his analysis is too much rely on the surface appearance of the movement and may be he is too idealistic to include some natural situation in this country. He had been grown up in the US for more than 15 years and can’t consider the concept of social influence that many be don’t go along well with the international standard of democracy. I don’t’ mean that all influence is evil but it can be some explanation for Thai democracy.

Just small example:

One rich industralist is a well known in the province. His business is 100% legal. He contributes a lot to public charity, when villagers’ kids got sick during the night he send a car to take them to the hospital. People can burrow money from him with no interest. Many times people have difficulty with official on their right or paper processing, the man talk to the officers for them, you see that in Thai society the villagers don’t want to sue the gov officers and cause hard feeling.

One day the man became MP candidate. Of course he got elected, why not? He now can help his people more. The people hope that he don’t only fulfill his elected role as legistrater, the more he secure national resource to the locality the better the man. Of course, life is nothing but prioritisation.

On day the man change political party. No prob, every party has only duty to look after the people. Stop that rubbish that he is bought and paid to vote whatever for the new boss. Even if it is true, what is wrong about that? He should get something back for his hard work. If the new party monopolise the country, what wrong with most Thai people they think, we will never reach that top 1% of wealth anyhow. Some said rubbish like uphold the free race, develop common infrastructure for future of all. Let’s support those few who share TODAY money with us TODAY. The country account book has always be red anyhow. I go to vote. It’s REAL democracy.

So

• The man like Newin, Banharn and Sanoh ALWAYS get positions.
  

• 
  
• Hospital offer 30 Baht treatment with crap quality, almost go bankrupt and in need to open part-time clinic for those who can pay more (thank the past average).
  
• Only the boss close circle have top job. Work for me and you can survive too.
  

• 
  
• Only close circle travel with official envoy to international trade talk. In fact they almost become CEO Ambassador (if there is no Coup)
  

• 
  
• Only close circle became CEO provincial governor, appointed directly from the boss and can control all other agencies in the area
  

• 
  
• Some village kids got scholarship to study abroad. The majority just spend money and in poor prospect of graduation and come back to work for the public. Less position for those good student who really won the exam to get higher education.
  

Etc.

The way it is and the way it is going to be.

And no, I dare not talk of vote buying and organised protesting. I never see the receipt.

Who or whose behavior is to blamed? Almost pointless to talk of the core of this situation, it’s so natural.

Just listen to any one politician THROUGH TIMES and you will see what he really is.

Yep - that's politics in a nutshell. Same in Thailand, same the world over. The rich ane powerful end up getting elected, because they can afford the marketing and the indicements necessary to get the rack and file to vote in their favour. But we still need one man = one vote. Even if the votes are influenced by marketing, the people retain the right to choose someone better, as may come along.

There is no better system than democracy that I can see. What worries me is the PAD / yellow lot and their stated aim to dilute the popular vote. That would set THailand on an an irreversible course towards true dictatorship, where people lose the right to kick out any politician who goes too far.