jonclark

Bangkok governor job? He must be joking right.

He is about to go to Bangkok Hilton for extending BTS contracts by 30 years ILLEGALLY.

I wonder how much he pocketed from the multi-billions BTS deal.

Is your assertion based on evidence or media spin?? I'll bet the latter - innocent until proven guilty, just remember that

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

Nisa. I really want this to be true, because it would be good for the country, but during the last 12 months most places I've stayed in on my travels around Thailand (Krabi, Samui, Koh Chang and Ayuthaya) hotel owners, staff have complained ./ commented that there are less visitors here and business is bad. Maybe they are playing the sympathy card hoping for a bigger tip - I don't know

But i do know that my ears are hearing this news but my eyes are telling me it's not true.

I don't know but try to book a decent room in Koh Samet for this coming week-end. It is now the Low Season and every nice place on the beach is sold out.

I really don't see why there would be any reason to purposely put out false numbers. Every year the same accusations arise and if every year they are inflating the numbers falsely over the previous year (to save face?????) then not only would it have come back to bite them in the a@@ already but it would easily be caught because the numbers wouldn't jive with other things such as international arrivals at the airport.

If tourism was down, it would be easy to blame it on the global economy and no face lost (which is a unrealistic motivation to begin with) and it would allow the tourism departments to get larger budgets to overcome the obstacles and come up with promotions.

Thailand is a very well known and popular Tourist destination and around the 15th most visited country for international tourists.

Are the numbers accurate? None of us can know just as we can't know if the numbers are accurate for other countries but what we should understand is the same methodology is used to collect these numbers all of the globe and these figures are what are officially quoted in many non-Thai government publications and industry reports and I have yet to see a disclaimer that says Thailand's number should be questioned because of the culture of "face" or that they can't be trusted for any other reason.

Increasing income by 30% in a year for an entire industry is a massive increase given the initial scale of the income derived from the tourist industry in Thailand before this announcement. If I got a 30% increase in income derived from my porfolio of stock and investments in a year i would be amazed and delighted. Individual companies can perhaps do it. But an entire industry!! Good luck to them if its true, individual resorts, hoteliers and spa operators must be cashing in big time!

I sure love to know where these guys get the data. Just because there are 30 increase in the number of tourist does not mean the tourism income also went up by 30%. More tourist but they spend a lot less because the world economic problems

The average stay period for foreign tourists was 9.64 days with an average spending of 4,187 baht per day, an increase of 2.66 per cent.

Nisa. I really want this to be true, because it would be good for the country, but during the last 12 months most places I've stayed in on my travels around Thailand (Krabi, Samui, Koh Chang and Ayuthaya) hotel owners, staff have complained ./ commented that there are less visitors here and business is bad. Maybe they are playing the sympathy card hoping for a bigger tip - I don't know

But i do know that my ears are hearing this news but my eyes are telling me it's not true.

Thank you. There is so much fear mongering going on with the Thailand HIV thing, that it gets old after a while. I suspected a lot of the numbers are ill informed. Appreciate the clarity. Yes, if the man was American, he was on a moral high horse. 90% of Americans are.

There is no fear mongering as you put it. The trends reported on are what they are. Every year Thai military conscripts have their medicals and every year the numbers show that HIV remains present in a population group that should not have such a high incidence.

What does the author's nationality have to do with the sad fact that sex tourists contract STIs? Are you aware that there was a pike in syphilis cases reported in Germany a few years ago? It was traced back to sex tourists. Does this mean that the public health officials that were caught off guard by the syphilis cases were on a high moral horse?

BTW, instead of cursing the USA, you and all the other American bashers ought to get down on your frigging knees and give thanks. The majority of Thailand's funding for public health research and for HIV/malaria/TB initiatives comes from US organizations. Whether it is the Bill & Melinda Gates or the William Jefferson Clinton Foundations or the US CDC/NIH/Military it is US sourced. The Chinese and Russians don't contribute anything. And no I am not an American.

Indeed GK it is often forgotten that the majority of charitable, philanthropic or research organization active in the world are US based and the quietly go about their work trying to improve peoples lives. Good post! And no I am not American either.

Of more concern should be finding the sick bugger who sold the fetuses. As its highly probably that he or she has more, given the fact that he or she has just sold six for a million baht - seems like a rather sick but lucrative way to make money

"Chow Hok Kuen" A classic British name if ever I heard one...! Was it really necessary to have Brit in the headline?

Oh I don't know,Taksin Shinawatra is apparently a very common Montenegrin name??

This really shows how narrow the vision of the UDD really is. Everyday people are killed, maimed or injured in Southern Thailand in a wave of unrest triggered primarily (but not exclusively) by the massacre at Tak Bai mosque (which incidentally no one from the then ruling government has been held accountable for - uncannily similar the 2010 unrest in Bangkok) and the UDD moans about a crappy building being burnt down. What a way to show your solidarity with the suffering people of the South.

Perhaps if the UDD started to pressure and demand those in charge [both at a governmental and military level] at the time of the Tak Bai slaughter to be brought to justice and face criminal charges at the ICC (like they demand of abhisit and suthep) they would get more votes in the South and then they wouldn't have to build pointless pavilions.

Tak Bai was a human rights crime of the worst kind.Thaksin was PM at the time but nobody suggests he was involved in or directed the operation.His comments afterwards were however crass and an honourable man would not only have taken responsibility for the army's crimes, but perhaps resigned as well.The comparison with the army's human rights crimes in 2010 is however misplaced.The ruling politicians, Abhisit specifically, were very closely involved with the army's suppression of the redshirts.

Incidentally the army senior officers involved in the Tak Bai killings have been brought to trial.They were tried by the Songhkla Provincial Court and found not guilty since they were just doing their duty, and in any case could not be held liable because they were operating under an emergency law at the time.

If the army weren't responsible for Tak Bai (as they were working under emergency law and following orders) surely they weren't responsible for the killings in the 2010 as they were following orders, doing their duty and working under emergency law??

Both incidents are similar inasmuch that they both involved armed and unarmed civilians rising up against the rule of law and in both cases the police were completely ineffectual in bringing either to a peaceful conclusion. In both instances someone higher up the food chain (probably a politician) gave the initial order for the army to get involved, however we all know those individuals on either side of the political divide are teflon coated.

This really shows how narrow the vision of the UDD really is. Everyday people are killed, maimed or injured in Southern Thailand in a wave of unrest triggered primarily (but not exclusively) by the massacre at Tak Bai mosque (which incidentally no one from the then ruling government has been held accountable for - uncannily similar the 2010 unrest in Bangkok) and the UDD moans about a crappy building being burnt down. What a way to show your solidarity with the suffering people of the South.

Perhaps if the UDD started to pressure and demand those in charge [both at a governmental and military level] at the time of the Tak Bai slaughter to be brought to justice and face criminal charges at the ICC (like they demand of abhisit and suthep) they would get more votes in the South and then they wouldn't have to build pointless pavilions.

I think those three little piggies are upset because they didn't get any of the pie.

Have you told your mum?

.

Instead of building a dam, how about investing in making buildings more energy efficient. The level of insulation on buildings in Thailand is zero, just as you can insulate to keep out the cold, so you can insulate to keep out the heat. Glass is a shockingly poor insulator, yet most of the modern condo being built in Bangkok have huge single pane glass windows. an astonishing waste of energy.

It's not that we need more energy to sustain our lifestyles, it just our lifestyle and sense of fashion result in an increase in the % of energy wasted through inefficient design, and use of materials.

I personally think the value of energy is too cheap and as a result we have become complacent about its use. If the price of energy were to be put up by 20 times, people would use a lot less of it and use it more effectively and efficiently.

Does Thailand have Muslim? Very few if any.

Have not met many (or any) wondering around Siam Paragon with a full face mask. Not like Dubai Mall.

And your point is what exactly??

Arguing that vegetable prices at many places were not high and fruits had become cheaper, especially from the "upstream" (farm price), Yingluck said she had instructed the commerce minister to keep goods prices at "mid-stream", which includes transport, rental fees and profits, and "lower-stream" - the retail price - to be lowered according to the market mechanism.

Sorry this doesn't make sense? The market mechanism is (in my understadning) driven by market (economic) force, such as supply and demand. What she is asking the commerce minister to do is bypass this an 'impose; a flat fee for goods, which is not lowering the price of goods according to the market mechanism

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From a cynical person:

I will decode the political "politico-speak" for you then.

"upstream prices"....what the farmer gets for the produce

"midstream prices".....what the middleman gets. Added cost plus a "decent profit margin"

"lower stream prices"....what the consumer pays at the market.

Therefore the consumer eventually pays the entire cost of the system. This is called "market forces" by capitalists.

What she is asking is fdr the middleman to hold back on their margin of profit temporarily to "stabilise" the market prices.

My opinion......Not a chance in the world that will ever happen.

You should write for the Nation - Your version makes more sense - cheers

Arguing that vegetable prices at many places were not high and fruits had become cheaper, especially from the "upstream" (farm price), Yingluck said she had instructed the commerce minister to keep goods prices at "mid-stream", which includes transport, rental fees and profits, and "lower-stream" - the retail price - to be lowered according to the market mechanism.

Sorry this doesn't make sense? The market mechanism is (in my understadning) driven by market (economic) force, such as supply and demand. What she is asking the commerce minister to do is bypass this an 'impose; a flat fee for goods, which is not lowering the price of goods according to the market mechanism

Rank Country Public debt (% of GDP)

62 Thailand 42.3

Greece nestles just below Zimbabwe in the list. Only 58 places to go to reach the same position. The government would have to break spending records for a 20 years to get anywhere this situation. And this makes no allowance for the Thai economy growing.

http://www.indexmund...aspx?c=th&v=143

Government borrowing is restricted by law in Thailand. It is PTP's that this should be changed and that some debt can be shuffled off the books, which is only fooling themselves. I expect an increase in ranking is imminent.

Well that is all possible, but I am sick and tired of the Nation peddling this alarmist b*******s that PTP will tip Thailand into the same situation as Greece in a few years.

I agree with you there seems to be an almost pathological conspiracy that PTP will cause Thailand to collapse under the burden of public debt. I don't think that is going to happen.

But I do think the government needs to urgently tackle the levels of personal debt that many ordinary folk find themselves up against. And unless that is tackled and people are educated about personal debt, domestic demand will (like US and UK) continue to be fueled by individuals borrowing money to drive the consumer economy. And that could cause significant problems in the long term, but unlikely an economic collapse

The Drugs trade is a many headed hydra, remove one and a new one springs up to continue the supply

it matters not one jot about the teaching materials, the timescales, the quality etc.etc. All that matters is that PTP have kept their promise, the details of the promise are unimportant, because the politicos can blame that on someone else.

I am sponsoring 3 children so that they may attend a Mahatthai school in Kumpawabi. I was not aware of any government subsidy for school uniforms / supplies etc. How does one go about applying for these benifits?

"The government's subsidy for uniforms is Bt300 for pre-school level, Bt360 for primary, Bt450 for lower secondary and Bt500 for upper secondary levels, while school supplies are subsidised at a rate of Bt200 for pre-school level, Bt390 for primary, Bt420 lower secondary and Bt460 for upper secondary."

You don't have to ask for it. It is automatic. At the beginning of each year, during matriculation ("mop tua"), the parents will be given the money in "cash", and the parent/guardian will have to "sign" that they have receive it. Each student will need to provide a receipt back to the teacher with in limited period (usually around 2 weeks).

Many people complain that 500 Baht is not enough to buy, typically 3 sets of uniform (including scout, PE, a dozen socks) plus school. True. More like 1,000 Baht is needed if you shop at Tesco/BigC (not Siam square). But the uniform seems to last 2 to 3 years, and you get the money every year (eg. 2x500 to 3x500 Baht). So in my case, during the 2nd year, my child still can fit his old cloths, belt PE, scout uni, etc. All I need is a pair of new shoe and some socks. Shoe is 79 Baht each at Tesco right now, and sock is around 69 for half a dozen. I end up buying a lot of stuff that I don't need for the whole family just to be able to produce a receipt of at least 500 Baht. This includes student shoes for the whole family (since is is so cheap), and some spare student shirts (59 Baht each) to be used as pajamas.

For the school supplies money (unlike uniform money, this is given out each term), our kids already have everything from last term, so we waste it on scientific calculator (about 200 Baht) which Thai kids are not allowed to touch in school, and tons of pen (5 pen for 4 Bahts, yes you hear it right, less than 1 Baht per biro at Tesco right now), just to get the receipt to return to the school.

My boys in govt school, and my girl in a christian private school. Both got them (uniform money and supplies money), plus free books (even in private school)

The fee in govt school is 100% free, and I have to pay some in the private school (less than 10,000 Baht/year).

I heard that international school kids get nothing.

Some of them get GCSE's / A levels or an IB Diploma, hardly nothing and with those sort of school qualifications they will certainly be above our kids in the food chain in the future. Guess our kids should get use to the cheapest things in life.

"..would involve PAD's speakers and academics who will sing instead of giving speeches."

Isn't that one of Taksins tricks????

Tell you what, Yingluck is starting to look pretty knackered - wonder when the grey hair will start to show!!

Think Thailand should stay the hell out of Myanmar's internal affairs - After all Thais detest foreigner becoming involved in theirs!!

Of course I could be wrong but doesn't all the Ya ba come from Burma?

And most of the Cocaine in the US comes from Columbia and look at the mess there,caused in part, by US / CIA involvement

How many allies does Thailand have? The Kingdom is proof that arrogance and hypocrisy have costs. Openness to Myanmar is essential to Thailand's development, should the former country's government succeed in its reform aims. It's premature to assume that Burma is a real opportunity, as that country is well known for arbitrary seizures of property and assets. Nevertheless, Thailand is in decline and has been for nearly a decade. The country is so uncompetitive that the only interested investment party is Japan's economic development fund.

Very soon Thai companies' "cheap laborers will return home" making life of those companies much harder to employ "cheap illegal worker" in the inflated, more expensive becoming Thai economy....

Good on them Thailand exploits a large % foreigners. Only recently the Phuket governor banned a Burmese music concert as he thought they would fight amongst themselves (like the animals they are??)and told workers to be at home by 8 o'clock.

Maybe Thais will become Myanmar cheap illegal workforce? Now that would be a turn around.

If your moving into an apartment you need to check out the connection within the apartment as some (not all) apartments run a single line into the building which then splits into the individual rooms, so when all the residents come home and us the computer the bandwidth disappears very quickly and it grids to a halt. In effect 1 internet connection services 20 rooms (+ reception and the manager office!).