jonclark

I bet the ghost sightings are more truthful than the claim to be a five-star hotel.

"Mr. Danai Chanchaochai, said more people are using social media and many do not use correct Thai."

To which the audience replied "

For me the shocking stat in the bloomberg piecel was that the "shadow economy equals about 40.9% of GDP for 2014'.

With GDP being in the order of 12 trillion baht (very rough figures), that's an awful lot of money not being taxed and put back into circulation for the overall benefit of the country.

And that's a lot of money in the hands of god knows who.... possibly to be used to ahem..... 'lobby' politicians and pay the masses if required. Just a thought, because i bet it ain't all being spent on necklaces and Ferrari's.

Whilst I completely understand and appreciate the need for rice in Thailand as both part of Thailand historical and customary traditions. Mother nature is no respecter of such things.

The water footprint of 1 kg of rice is 1700 liters, so a 5kg bag takes nearly 9000 liters of water to produce. When you consider that the average daily water requirement for a person in Thailand is about 100=liters a day, That equates to 17kg of rice requiring the same water resources as a single person on average uses in Thailand every year.

Maybe a less water intensive crop should be sought?

For me the shocking stat in the bloomberg piecel was that the "shadow economy equals about 40.9% of GDP for 2014'.

Bloody Brits, They are comparing with U K. They would complain if their bums were on fire

If my bum were on fire i'd do a dam sight more than complain let me tell you good sir!

Love the way its directed at tourists, the locals can fester in the cesspit bogs next door.

Makes no odds really as most of the excrement will just be flushed out 1 km off shore of the local beach, untreated, for everyone to swim in when the tide turns.

Wouldn't mind a Sainsburys opening up.

15 months into the Military government and both extremes demonstrating why a military government is required.

Nice to see the usual responses on TVF modelling how polemic disdain is difficult to overcome, for effective reconciliation to occur.

Personally, I think Prayut should put the key representatives from both factions into a box and every few months let them out, like rabid, chained dogs to snarl and propagandize at each other and let the public see why the military government has a genuine responsibility to remain in power.

Then put them all back, while he quietly (maybe that's stretching the truth a lot), goes about cleaning the corruption from the darkest corners of Thai society.

If only there was an inactive government these key players could all be sent to manage. To lie, cheat and steal from each other. Like the village from that 60's TV show 'The Prisoner'

Indeed 15 months into a military government and nothing has changed, so do we leave the military government in for another 15 months, years, indefinitely? Will that make people 'reconcile with each other' or will they need more attitude adjustment?

The problem and paradox of having a military government, seeking reconciliation is that is whilst the military remains the 'people' have no option but to keep their old rabid leaders, as they, (the people) are unable to discuss, meet or elect new leaders as its been outlawed. So the Jatuporns, Sutheps etc can maintain that they speak for the people so the polemic remains. Bit of a poser really, wouldn't you agree?

"Reds vow response to Suthep"

Just what we don't need.

True, but put yourself in their place. How can they just sit idly by while the other lot are allowed to rub their noses in it? They HAVE to react.

Agreed but unfortunately when the Phue Thai and reds respond it usually means killings and violence.

I can not see the reasoning to allow the PDRC to make this group unless the current gov is hoping for trouble. Maybe to use as an excuse to stay in power. Maybe I am wrong about this assumption and I would hope the current gov wouldn't go to such extremes. But one has to wonder.

You know I wondered the same - that by stirring unrest in a very gentle way by using Suthep, - It gives the military reason to stay on, to push through further 'reform'. I hope my cynicism is proven wrong.

The problem with this specific situation is the vague wording and interpretation of 'political'.

If the content of your message is supportive of the military's aims it is rubber stamped as non-political and allowed (Sutheps clearly was a politically motivated message supportive of the junta) , however if the content of the message is even slightly in opposition to the aims of the junta that message will be stifled and deemed 'political'. That seems to be the broader definition in my view.

I would love to see the reds put together a 'foundation', just because Suthep hates to share the limelight with anyone, and as such he wouldn't be able to help himself , but respond and then it would be really interesting to see if his military friends allow that message to be heard?

Talk about using a mallet to kill a mosquito. Basically the entire adult population within a 300 meter radius must be inconvenienced in the vain hope the students don't drink.

Has anyone asked the students if they think this will alter their drinking habits? Or will they just walk farther and buy in bulk. The idea that this will stop or reduce drinking is just stupid.

Thailand is fast becoming a nanny state with top down declarations based on the whims of whatever pressure group is flavour of the week, to which the junta kowtows in a vain effort to show how popular and in touch with the people it is.

Well could ovet charge more farangs and dig well.

How would over charging farangs increase the volume of water??

The only way this ban would work is on the assumptions that the students are just too <deleted> lazy to get off their <deleted> to travel 300 meters to by booze, thus reducing the consumption of alcohol. The downside is that if this assumption turns out to be correct, it doesn't bode well for the future of the country. If the young future leaders can't be bothered to go 300 meters for a beer, they sure as hell ain't gonna be bothered to get a job 5 years down the road.

Why not just fix the planes up or scrap them?

The planes may be OK, however, Thai and the whole industry in Thailand does not have enough qualified staff to certify them which is where the the latest problem has arisen with other countries safety authorities.

I wonder if aircraft QA and Inspection is a reserved for Thai job category. If they lack qualified and appropriate staff then surely the sensible way forward is to remove this as a reserved occupation and bring in foreign staff.

Hang on - Have I got this straight..the contractor hadn't finished the bridge, but it was still going to be opened?

So once opened despite being unfinished one can assume it would have been used to cross the river. Sounds like the collapse is a blessing in disguise.

If I hear of another news report in which the PM "urges everyone to understand" or words to that effect I might just break down into tears.

I just imagine a poor EAL teacher trying to get his mattayom 5 students to 'understand' the use of the present perfect tense in an English conversation. No matter how hard the teachers tries to get the students to understand, the teacher fails to grasp that the students have their own ideas and find the teacher both boring, dated and irrelevant.

Yet he still persists with trying to get them to understand. Maybe the teacher should try to understand his students first?

I think that there should also be an additional water tight caveat to this charter;

That all future coups, leaders of coups and subordinates are to be deemed illegal and illegitimate.[unless Thailand National Security is directly and explicitly threatened by a foreign power]

Clearly this caveat is required as this charter is so good, that any future coup which undoes its good work (provided the charter is supported, agreed on and passed in a referendum) must be illegal as you cannot have; a fantastic charter supported and written by the military to ensure democracy on one hand; and the military staging a coup because the charter they 'wrote' was crap and allows abuses of power on the other.

Oh hang on.....didn't that happen before in 2006?

In this context - who gives a crap if politicians are banned or not - The Charter(s) are worth less to the military than the paper they are written on. And they should know as they seem to have written a number of them, all of which they scrap at a later date because those charters are not fit for purpose!

Visit most Bangkok Malls and other than restaurants, food halls and Big C , Lotus most actual shops are doing very little trade.

The condo owner is responsible for doing the report.

From the immigration act."The house – master , the owner or the possessor of the residence".

But would I be right in assuming then that if you are a home owner / master and do the 90 day reporting as part of your non O extension there is no need for a seperate report?

Also would having a Tor Ror 13 (yellow book) suffice - although not issued by immigration.

if you give out credits, it has to be spend

new tv, iphone, motosay, maybe a truck paid off over 30-50 years

priorities

if it is so "hard" , just go work in the factory like everybody else

no need to grow anything if you are unsuccesfull at what you are trying

How many factories do you think would be willing to take a 50 year old farmer with no qualifications or experience on the minimum wage, over a 25 year old Cambodian or Burmese worker at 200 baht a day and perhaps more experience?

Lets remember that the demographics of most farmers are older generations, most of the young have turned their backs on farming for as you say factory work or city life.

Before they those farmers can even think about getting other jobs they will need retraining.

Sure I bet some have made some poor financial decisions, but most of them lack quality formal education from 30 odd years ago most probably, so they can be forgiven when some sweet-talking, sales man manages to get them to sign up for a truck they can neither afford nor need.

The truth is probably that the majority of farmers will never be in a financially viable situation to actually repay any of this debt. So really what is the point of it. Perhaps the kindest and most sustainable thing to do it just file for bankruptcy and write their debts off.

It is a lot of money by Thailand's standards to write off, but of that 388 billion baht how much will be re-payed in the next 5 years? The banks could take their land, but most rice farmland has no access to potable water or electricity and has no direct direct road access, so is pretty low in monetary value.

Wipe the debts, take the hit and put in places measures to stop it happening again.

Rice farming in Thailand seems to be financial suicide, I am not a farmer, but there must be more profitable crops to grow.

Tsk - why let the truth get in the way of a work permit application

Welcome to the Chinese Republic of Thailand

The military really has no room to complain. A coup which removed an elected government (yes that government was crap and corrupt) and installed the NRC and their political bedfellows at the helm now worries that the people are going to over throw it. [However in typical fashion no actually evidence is provided to support this assertion].

I'm sorry but if their claim is true and the NRC is looking for sympathy then their combined IQ really must start with a decimal place.

"economic and military bilateral relations between Beijing and Bangkok continue to strengthen"

Any blind fool can see that China by far is the great beneficiary of those ' bilateral relations'

so far Thailand is the one that spend the mega bucks with China, and if China holding the

Chinese tourists as a bargaining chips,,, well they can have them back....

but what can you do when all leaders of Thailand are of Chinese origin and pretty much in China

pockets from birth?

Since the coup Thailand doesn't have many worthwhile political allies who are willing to go on the record and support the government which is understandable as a military coup (whoever valid the junta dress it up as) is still against the political wind of most nations whom Thailand has allied itself historically with. So Thailand it seems has found itself politically isolated on the global stage and in need of friends, and up steps China. Be interesting to see how it all changes (again) after the elections. I am sure the US is already thinking of how it will reassert its leverage in the country, and Beijing will be thinking how it can prevent that also.

Oddly thought I can't help but feel the submarine deal will back fire, it is a colossal waste of tax payer money, and no doubt the navy will ground one in the gulf of Thailand at some point and then the infighting will start.