jonclark

This provides the ideal opportunity for PTP to rid itself of some the more radical elements of the governments freeing up space for some of the TRT MPs that have just returned.

Whilst also throwing a couple of sacrificial lambs the yellows way.

Despite the despicable nature of this attack and the great loss for the immediate friends and family, It highlights one simple fact

Thailand is losing.

Pathetic,

Have these clowns nothing better to do?

Is it a question of inadequacy?

What next? Female circumcision.....

The headline should have read "Police housewives nervous husbands will want to play, as Police confiscate Sex Toys."

What a sissy getting his legal team and running to court to sue for defamation. Handle like a man instead more of the primate intellect pervading Thai political arena. One needs to have thicker skin when entering politics and realize that scrutiny is just the nature of the beast. Didn't see OBama filing lawsuits against Donald Trump or others when they accused him of not be elgible to be president. Now that was a BIG deal.

This is grade school bs that evokes even more immature responses. Grow some cajones and either admit (for once) and say so what or say false, apologogize for dude spending time and resources focusing on something so old and stupid and move on.

Candidly, his actions and MO for dealing with situation make it pretty apparent allegations are correct.

On the contrary, it is normal for Thais to sue for defamation, Thaksin is and has done this. What would you have Abhisit do, call him out in the street for a gun fight?

Haha, the Thai manner of handling politically charged issues works so well. Time to do things differently as repeating same course over and over could just land them in civil war.

To other posters, no. Not fight in street. I said what he should do. Suing for defamation just gives the whole stupid thing more power and greater attention.

Sigh - yes it would be nice if they did things differently, but they must preserve 'face' above all else.

As far as I can see the documents have the army (?) stamp on them - which I'd imagine makes them 'legal'. If not them the defence minister needs to review ALL of the documents for the last say 15 years of conscription and name and shame ALL the sons and daughters who have done the same as AV allegedly has.

What action will the defence minister be taking against the army for being part of such widespread, well known and accessable supposed pacticipation in the draft dodging?? Probably none, unless the army sues Jatuporn for defamation.

My view is the PTP knows Jatuporn has overshot the mark (widely) and knows he will loose the upcoming trial - which may result in a prision sentence or a significant fine - any guilty verdict against jatuporn will cause problems (a la red shirts) so they are desperatly trying to swing public opinion against AV and the court case by being as vocal in its accusations against AV as Jatuporn was. thuis appeasing the UDD

What role models the current government and the Thai police are for the youth of today.

In conjunction with a dysfunctional education system and the unregulated sewage that appears on TV, there is little hope for the youth of today in this world

Moruya,agreed, we know Thailand was a fuedalist society where the old saying 'do a as i say not as i do' is king. What Thailands older generation is slow to wake up to is that the youth has revised the saying to read 'do as i do not as i say'. So, alas the kids are copying the cops, politicians, TV stars, etc and the authorities keep spouting the same hot air which the kids ignore.

As my old gran usewd to say - actions speak louder than words.

Thailand where are your role models for this generation???

I can understand Thai and watched this on the Thai news yesterday. To start with the boy was stated as being of all thing's a Farang and that the watch was stolen by this lady from a toilet while he was washing his hand's. The boss of the place where she work's noticed this and told the boy that she had it. She first denied she had it but later gave it back, then he lost the plot and picked up a plastic chair and hit her but I dont get this she was old bit as to me she looked in her late 30's. How a day can make all the thing's change. TIT I suppose.

How the XXXX do you steal a watch from the wrist of someone washing their hands??

He probably took the watch off, washed his hands and walked off leaving the watch unattended, the toilet attendent then picked up the watch, which is probably part of her job - to remove unwanted things and took it somewhere

I wonder why no consideration has been given to the drought in North America and the flooding in China?

60 percent of the continental United States, the largest area since the epic droughts of the 1930s and 1950s has been hit hard. . Eastern Canada has been hit hard with the corn and fruit sectors on the verge of being wiped out this growing season. Both Canada and the USA are major agriculture exporters, particulalrly of grains such as corn, soybean, wheat etc.

Last week, China was hit with some of the worst rainstorms and flooding it has seen in 60 years. In Beijing at least 37 people died this past weekend. Rural farm areas have been washed out. In May in 26,170 hectares of crop lands were destroyed. Then in June another 982,400 hectares of farmland were hit.

Ok, some will say, yea, but its not Thjailand and its not rice. Well, commodities are all linked and what North America and China cannot supply to the market will be replaced by alternative grains and alternative suppliers. This year India benefited from a fantastic deal on Iranian oil that allowed India to subsidize an agriculture sector heavily dependant upon oil. Next year may be very different if India cannot access cheap oil because India will be obliged to respect the trade sanctions.

I am not excusing poor management, but in a global economy, one country's catastrophes are another's opportunity.

Grasping at straws there GK China and N America will rapidly bouince back with a minor dent in exports. S America will no doubt be on standby = often forgotten that S America is a massive exporter as well - cheap too

The station's deputy superintendent Lt Colonel Panom Chuathong said the teenager was stressed and crying all during the night he spent at the station.

"His aunt was with him," Panom said.

Oh, boo <snipping> hoo! I hope this little sh!t rots in jail, unfortunately that probably won't happen.

So he hit a woman who was trying to steal his watch .............. "I found it on the footpath"

More a problem of excessive force than anything else.

No. He hit a woman who found his watch !!

Once again, the apolitical Prayuth lays out his neutral stance

"The Army has forwarded all documents, which were the outcome of the 1999 probe, to the Defence Ministry and I am not in a position to judge who is right or wrong," he said..................

.......................He said he would like to remind Jatuporn and his supporters that their attempts to sway the judicial decision might lead to a charge of contempt.

He said the government should be mindful that state media outlets were being used as the mouthpiece for Jatuporn.

About average for a guy who stated in his first interview as Army Chief that he didn't hate red shirts.....................

So does that mean he must hate the yellows then? such is the political polarity here!

If everyone is given an amnesty where is the deterent (i.e. punishment) to prevent this happening again ten, fifteen years down the road? A simple solution which reflects the simplicity of the voting people.

I think with artcicle 291 being changed PTP long term aim is to have taksin to return as presdient of a republic. Ahh well good luck to them and Thailand I will have no sympathy for them as they wallow in their self pity when it all goes tits up.

The "live-fire zone," and a previous news story indicated that it was a very high powered rifle like those used by the security service. Over two years and still no ballistics report. The outside world is supposed to believe that this is not rigged. Did the ballistics report show a Barrett M107 or another such high powered rifle?

The ballistics report will never see the light of day someone in the government (past or present) or in the army has buried that report.

same pathetic responses from the same people, yes the army killed nobody, they were not even there with their blanks, no live ammunition but that didn't matter anyway as everyone there deserved to be shot blah blah blah ad infinitum,

No doubt if this was a yellow shirt shot then all the witnesses would be stellar and it would be impossible for someone else to buy such a weapon,. he was a nice guy that had just been to 7/11 for his old mother as she needed some milk and he was murdered in cold blood on his way back

some of you need to catch on to yourselves, it is quite sad really that relatively intelligent men can't see past the end of your noses. As for witnesses you will see that the van driver is a witness after having been shot also, and there is a recording of the incident, hey maybe speileberg was paid to make the video, he is secretly a red

If all the above sounds far fetched it is no more far fetched that the drivel written in this thread up to now

Carra you are right - the army was there with live ammunition firing at some pockets of well lets just call them less than passive demonstrators - in fact the army even puts up 'live fire' signs in some areas to warn everyone of their intent.

Given that back drop i think it would be interesting to look at the circumstances of all the people involved in the incident just prior to the shooting.

BTW about the headline which implies - the security forces shot a cabbie - which is misleading. Did the security forces know he was a cabbie or did they know him as a demonstrator. In which case -security forces shoot demonstrator is less emotive and more accurate as a headline.

Chart Thai Pattana opts out of vote -

Bunch of pussies

Does anyone know what the cabbie was doing when he was shot? I take it he wasn't dropping off a fare....

Was the van traveling at high speed towards a military line / position with the intent of smashing through the line? or had the van taken a wrong turning and he was asking soldiers for directions?

The role of the van and its occupants needs to be explained in order to see if, as alleged the army's decision to shoot the van was 'justifiable' as it posed a direct threat to their lives or if it was the cold blooded murder of a Thai citizen trying to find his way home.

Hi,

To everyone critising me (Pakpinya) and Marquie - the author - I just want to tell you 'adults' that some, if not all, of you are just overreacting. Do any of you know us in the slightest bit? Do you know exactly how our lives work, who we speak to and in what languages? You don't, so why be all cringy and annoying by doing so?

Not going to mention anyone specifically, but I don't speak English to everyone, I speak Thai to my Thai friends, my mother and my family -apart from my sister- and I AM fluent Thai, if I wasn't then I wouldn't be taking my IGCSE Thai would I? I just have a bad accent and I'm unsure of what some words mean, and as I am more familiar with the English language, I prefer to read English books, watch English programmes etc. But it doesn't mean I'm completely ignorant and totally ignore the Thai culture. I do watch Thai news, converse in Thai etc. I just don't feel as comfortable as doing so as I would in English.

And to call my friend Marquie, the author of an article published in THE NATION, ignorant and foolish is just so below you. Just because she's a teenager and has achieved more than some of you in life already, or achieved more than your own children is no reason to judge her so quickly. Or is it because you're jealous of her? Hmm... I don't know

And some of you are forgetting that we, as students of one of Bangkok's best International Schools obviously don't even KNOW some of the..... less-known international schools in Bangkok. And we aren't talking about every single Thai student specifically either. Perhaps for those of you with children in international schools, maybe the school isn't as well-known. Because the well-known schools such as Bangkok Patana, NIST, ISB etc. will definately have this case of Thai kids being more comfortable in English.

And so what if we are? Who are you to judge? It's a part of our lifestyle and its just plain rude to judge someone like that, how would you like it if a random stranger judged you and your lifestyle after reading an extract from a newspaper

A word or two of advice.

Your staunch defense of your work is appreciated

.

However you were a little bit naive if you honestly thought that when you or your publisher publishes an article (on any topic); your writing would not attract any criticisms as part of a wider discourse . If something, for example this article, is put into a public internet forum you will get a range of extreme responses, Don't take them personally, that’s just the way the world works. Authors need to 'accept' (but not privately agree with) the critics of your work. Don’t call your critics ‘jealous or under achieving’ if replying to them, it lacks class.

The number of posts shows your article has its merits as a good discussion piece.

.

Good work though keep writing.

International schools are there to cater for expat parents who want their children to continue mainstream uk / us education whilst the parents have to work abroad without breaking up the family unit. Internatinal schools are not there to teach the native population. And in the greater scheme of things Thai is a minor language and treated a such.

I think before the author goes on the rant she or he should have considered this point. She / he should have also consider the O net results for that last few years which show that only (about - [from memory]) 25-30% of mainstream Thai government school students achived the pass level for Thai, and those students had been speaking, reading and writing it in school since they were probably five years old. And in these schools Thai is a much more important aspect of the curriculum.

I wonder what percentage of the adult population today is able to read or write to M6 level? Perhaps the author of the OP would be willing to take the test??

I think the litmus test for all of these new developments is the % of these new condos that have lights on at night. Passing many of these condos on the way home each night the lights are off in the individual rooms. Next time you drive down Suk at night just see how many condo rooms have lights on. My bet is you can count the number on one hand. Which means many are unsold and if they are not sold the money to build them remains unpaid.

A friend of mine related a similar story about the condos in Beijing except that the Chinese authorities actually employed someone to go and turn the lights on at night, to give the impression of occupancy.

Thai police are looking for two Portuguese men who have left the country??

How did the Thai police reach this conclusion about the nationality?? One would presume it was through passports - which have a name, so why not give the Canadian police and the family the names so the suspects can be questioned and either arrested or discounted from the inquiry? It seems as so often is the case that the authorities create an unprovable scenario and then walk away.

Despite what is says on the birth certificates of all Thai police men I am convinced they all have the maturity and professionalism of a 14 year old boy.