Maxi101

if there would be rightousness in the system there would be no protest.

If the large majority wouldn't have been kept down on education, chanceless to make a better living than low labour work like the nurturers of the big bumble bee (BKK).

There would be no way of whatever leader (call them corrupt or not) to instumentalize and chanellize the emotions of supression and unjustness for his own goals.

("yeah teach the stupid folks your understanding of democracy")

And then farrangs write from their cosy chairs and judge, when there is fire and protest.

The happenings of the last months should show the so called "elite" - what will happen if they won't change the system to be more just for the poors, the majority of the country - well, would things change without any protest?

Just to add something else you selfrightous folks.

Look at Greece, look at France, ... maybe Germany too ... what happened and will happen, if our dreamworld changes, our money worth nothing anymore ... and if we would be forced to send our children to labor or prostitution to make a living -

One can be suprised how quick thinks move.

If you want rant about my english - do so - I don't care, am no english anyway.

tssssssssssss

Off to the monkey house? There's about 95% of ThaiVisa going with them!

And why would that be?

... what makes me think is that the guy claims the german took him in a headlock.

Its quite a fighting style unusual for thai ( which is stabbing, kicking, running ) and very usual for western blokes.

So not everything might be a lie he claims.. in the end, nobody knows for sure - except there have been witnesses.

hmmm. my son has both thai / british citizenship so does this mean he too has to forego his thai citizenship

The son of a friend of mine got a German and Thai passport, but at the age of 18 (still plenty of years to go) he will have to decide, which citizenship he wants to keep. How old is your son?

Basically, but thats not exactly.

If he is the son by blood of the German citizen (his father) then he will be always German as we have the right of blood at the first place.

Therefor it depends on Thailand - and that choosing at 18 - with can last till 23 is German law which you didn't understood right.

Its implemented (and is citizenship after birthright = land) for children of parents who are BOTH foreigners and who are born in Germany.

And only for those.

Therfor that boy is from german view the only possibility to have 2 citizenships, as long Thai don't start trouble.

But if you have a Thai birth certificate - what could they do ?

maxi

Its depressing to read all that hatred, dissapointment and satisfaction about the situation.

Never forget, intelligent people are able to adapt - even if it means to leave...

... and still, like many, I loooove Thailand and my family.

Thats said after much more then just a year or two.

maxi

Mod: you can close this topic: the problem is already resolved in a Thai way.

the low season is canceled, now is always high season:

PHUKET CANCELS THE APRIL TO NOVEMBER 'LOW SEASON'

Local hoteliers and businesses in Phuket, Thailand have "cancelled" Low Season - April 15 through November 1 - and are renaming the period more appropriately Summer Season to better reflect the fact that Phuket is one of the world's top year-round vacation and second home destinations. The six-month international public relations campaign and internet promotion launching Summer in Phuket also looks to counter negative media reports about the effects of the global economic downturn and internal Thailand political issues. On the heels of Phuket being named the number one luxury destination by the New York Times in January

I got that Email from Siam Real Estate

well, like I said: To call for REVOLUTION is already a statement against monarchy and therfor its right to get him on this.

I really held breath once I heard it first.

Muttering like: "oh I meant it like this or so .... " would 't convince me...

maxi

.. no its not boring. The day he called for a revolution, I knew its clear that this is offensive against monarchy.

I think its right to get him on this.

maxi

Hopefully this incident will harm Phi Phi's reputation and more -( but I doubt it will).

Imagine instead of more hotels, an additional hospital - like some serurity craving farrangs wish for -, water supply, maybe roads and bars, greedy thais, corrupt police and trash and action...

there would be peace.

Finally.

Bitter is that it is very likely that Thai policeman or whoever - which are not involved - are easy on tending to make ghost responsible for the happenings.

Sounds cynical, but for unexplainable phenomena superstition is easily pulled by there

as explanation.

maxi

just spit balling here

it is not uncommon for people to get gastroenteritis on holiday and then become dehydrated from vomiting and diarrhoea. some people are able to rehydrate and keep those fluids in while others need to go on a drip. Could the fault lay at the door of the hospital for wrong treatments? Would dehydration alone kill someone so quickly?

I have not read the whole thread so if a cause has been determined forgive me.

I hope the family get answers and my sympathies go to them

Well while reading this all, I do so with a sick feeling - confused whats behind that - but the more as I have been in a compareable situation and surely was on the best way to die if I wouldn't have been brought to the hospital. That wasn't at Phi Phi island but in the deepest Esarn. Vomiting and Diarriah attacks - at the same time so sitting on the pot and vomiting happend just in front of me at the same time on the floor.

It happened in a timeframe of 2 hours and got so hard that I passed out and fell, shortly after got picked up and came back to sense. I got so weak in a very short time so that I even couldn't pull my trousers up or could walk straight (not one drop alcohol for all the cynical folks). My wife put me on a bike behind her (driving) and another guy behind me, caring so I won't fall.

20 min later at the hospital my blood pressure was very low (forget the numbers by now) but it was life treathening - then they put me on the drip and life came slowly back. Next day I was fine and one day after I could leave hospital.

I have been strong, boxing and sportive -and this happened some years ago, maybe that safed my life.

It happend so quick that I thought somebody did cut open my vains. And I had cramps. Besides, no body else had trouble.

Nothing compared to that poor women who lost their lifes, and Iam sure the circumstances are totally different.

I only state this - that it is known, that indeed such things can happen out of the nothing and it goes really scaring fast. I still don't know what it has been what struck me so hard.

I believed a long time that I got poisoned, but never found out.

maxi

... all this blaming and wannaknow better starts all over again.

We all know it is like it is.

Thailand is Thailand and where are many people come together xxx happens.

Thats just life.

maxi

Thaksin's options get fewer and fewer

Published on December 19, 2008

WHERE is Thaksin Shinawatra now? Somebody said he is in Panama, the southernmost country of Central America. Fewer and fewer countries are willing to welcome the fugitive ex-prime minister, with the political liability, criminal sentence and dubious financial transactions he carries around with him.

Thaksin would like to create the impression that he is staying in Dubai. But Dubai might not want to welcome him anymore. China and Hong Kong do not want to court trouble either by allowing him to enter their territories. Most other countries that have relations with Thailand are reluctant to play host to him because of his political activity.

He would like to return home as a hero and a victor, but that prospect is now almost zero. He cannot turn Thailand upside down. He has much less money than before. And money cannot buy everything. His friends and supporters are deserting him.

Thaksin now has to plan his movements carefully because he cannot stay in countries that have an extradition treaty with Thailand. So he will be hopping around to unfamiliar places like Panama or Papua New Guinea.

With the UK revoking his visa, Thaksin can no longer enter any Commonwealth countries. Singapore is caught in the same dilemma of not wanting to welcome Thaksin again. What would be the US response if Thaksin were to apply for a visa to enter the US?

His diplomatic passport has also been revoked. This passport, given only to present and past prime ministers and foreign ministers for life, allowed Thaksin to travel to any country without a visa. But that privilege has now been denied.

The Foreign Ministry was quick to act earlier this week when it was clear that the Democrats were settling into power. Thaksin's support base in the bureaucracy, police and Parliament is crumbling fast. The Thai authorities are now determining whether they will revoke his normal passport altogether.

Asked about the revocation of his father's red passport, Panthongtae Shinawatra said earlier this week that his father was carrying several passports with him and that he was not sure which country he was in now because he had no plan to visit him yet.

Thaksin has lost money in the global financial meltdown. Rumours have been swirling for some time that he has lost in oil-futures trading. Oil futures rose from US$80 (Bt 2,760) to $90 before hitting $160 per barrel. Now the future contracts are trading at $45 a barrel. That could have wiped out more than half of his staggering assets.

All investors in the capital and financial markets have been burnt badly or gone bankrupt in the adverse market conditions. Thaksin is probably no exception. He thought that his investments would be safe with portfolio diversification. But Long-Term Capital Management, the super hedge fund, went bankrupt in 1998 in adverse market conditions even though it thought it had balanced all of its positions.

Thaksin is known to be a big gambler. He does not know how to lose or how to concede. He maintains a winner-takes-all attitude, which he brought with him into the business world and politics. He is now suffering from the boomerang effect. He thought that his wealth and political fortunes would rise forever. Now the financial markets and politics have gone against him.

He might also run into trouble with the UK authorities due to his dubious financial transactions, probably one of the reasons that his visa was denied. Thaksin bought Manchester City Football Club for more than ฃ80 million (Bt4.3 billion) and sold the club to Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi for ฃ210 million. That deal raised the eyebrows of the British authorities. What was "Sinatra" trying to do? That prompted them to take a careful look at his financial dealings.

Arabianbusiness.com has recently revealed that the UK froze Thaksin's assets amounting to $4 billion. "The UK froze his reputed $4 billion of assets, forcing him to sell Manchester City to Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour. To add to his troubles, his UK visa was revoked - oh, and his wife divorced him last week," the Arabianbusiness report said.

Strangely enough, nobody followed up on this story to either confirm or deny whether Thaksin's $4 billion has been frozen by the British authorities. That is no small amount. It is almost Bt140 billion, more than the stimulus package that new prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva plans to pump into rural areas during this time of economic hardship.

Writing his opinion piece, "Bhumibol, Thailand's Remarkable King", in the Los Angeles Times of December 11, W Scott Thompson also confirmed that Thaksin's assets had been frozen by the UK authorities. He wrote: "Meantime, the British have frozen Thaksin's assets in Britain and revoked his visa. So Thaksin's other asset - his rural popularity - can only decline."

Thaksin's dubious financial transactions and his two-year jail sentence in Thailand were the two main reasons, in that order, that led the UK authorities to revoke his visa.

With his dwindling assets overseas, Thaksin's wealth now largely lies in Thailand. But his Bt76 billion, about $2 billion, is frozen by the Thai authorities pending corruption charges against him. Thaksin is fighting fiercely to get this money back, which was earned from the sale of Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings of Singapore. But again the prospect of getting this money back is slim, with his "unusually rich" case going to court.

His wife, Pojaman, has divorced him. She knows all the financial details. They agreed to separate, at least tactically, so she can keep a portion of the wealth for herself and their children. Thaksin will use the rest of the money mainly to finance his political comeback.

Without any family obligations, Thaksin now has nothing to worry about. He can do things his own way. He has repeatedly sent out the signal, "Don't push me into a corner."

--The Nation

There are so many things just not true in this article...

Mr. Thaksin has more friends in Thailand then any one can think of...

Well I do have compassion with him and like him.

That time when he was at Kentuckies to eat chicken in order to fight the histerical behaior of the press.

Like a real daddy, he he he

I like him.

And I always thought that this Thai soap operas are just fictions.

My gosh ... do I have to change my view on this ..........

..end of money, success .. the only reason they give by so easy is the important birthday this week.

How would they look like standing at the airports then ???

Thats all

maxi

This has nothing to do with cooking in itself.

Its just the Thai way of a try to desolve a very, very difficult situation, which paralized the country the last couple of weeks.

Get time to breath and in one month, yet again understood in the Thai way, is a long time frame where many things can happen.

But there are plenty of oil-dollared up Russians, not to mention Chinese and Indians to replace the lesser numbers of westerners, and they are all in newly emerging middle classes who tend to spend and enjoy their newly discovered wealth rather than think of savings and gloom and doom. A changing market rather thana drying up one if Thailand can reap the benefit, which it probably will short of the odd civil war or two.

If recession takes hold in west, china's exports plummet. Without FX generated from western customers, building demand weakens in China and less demand for resources like oil., cement. India's boom will fizzle too as markets for Indian goods and services wither. Russias oil reserves are what? 17 years or so? Again, if west hits recession, europe's demand for russian gas wanes. Leaves us back at the old reliable maket, the west. Unfortunately, the geniuses at TAT assumed they could replace westerners with others. Long term mistake. Should be trying to keep some of the westerners instead of driving them off.

Westerners tend to be less discerning than asians when it comes to visiting countries in chaos. The Chinese and Indians that appreciate the danger of chaos, will steer clear.

Many hotels in Thailand now wants Russian tourists because they stay longer (usually 14 days) and spend more money in hotel than westerners. And oil money goes to government so and has nothing to do with Russian tourists.

They might find out that to clean up the mess will be expensive .... ups

Referendum plan wins little support as Thai crisis drags

BANGKOK (AFP / 29 minutes ago) — Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej found little support Friday for his proposal to hold a referendum to resolve the stalemate with protesters who have occupied his offices for 11 days.

Samak has refused to step down or call snap elections, insisting that he would stay in office in order to defend democracy.

He has proposed holding a referendum to defuse the crisis, but critics slammed the plan, arguing that the balloting would only drag out the turmoil and risked sparking new violence like the clashes among rival protesters that left one of Samak's supporters dead early Tuesday.

Speaker of the Senate Prasobsook Boondech told reporters that organising a referendum would take at least one month.

"The problem of the country is immediate and needs to be resolved as quickly as possible," he said.

The opposition Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said on the website for the Thai Rath newspaper that the referendum would not resolve the stalemate.

He proposed that Samak dissolve parliament and call snap elections, something the premier has forcefully rejected.

Thailand's people are deeply divided by the protests, with one survey of 16 provinces showing 50 percent of respondents supported the movement.

Some things are worth fighting for. Haven't we gone overboard with this "avoid violence at all costs" idea? Yeah, violence sucks, but sometimes it's necessary. Are they gonna let the whole nation fall apart because they're afraid somebody might get hurt or die? Most free, democratic, stable nations in the world lost many lives in the pursuit of establishing their constitutional democracies.

They let the PAD sit in the months and months "'cause they were afraid of violence!"

They let the PAD take over the PM's office and govt house "cause they were afraid of violence!"

Now they don't want a referendum because it risks "sparking new violence".

Oh cry me a river!

Surround govt house with 50,000 unarmed soldiers, and starting from the outside of the crowd pick them up one by one and ship 'em away. Yeah, some fights might break out and somebody might even die! Is the chance of violence worth it? Yes it is.

oooooh, you MAN you!

Well, no reply for 4 hours. So I guess it's agreed. The police/army is over-sensitive to the possiblity of fighting. And maybe thats understandable given their bad reactions in the past couple 'o decades where they really did step over the line by just open firing on protesters.

Tear gas would certainly be acceptable. Last week when the mob tried to take over government police headquarters it just boggled my mind that people complained about the tear gas. Why did the police deny it? OF COURSE they should have used tear gas, for crying out loud!!!! What rational government in this world would NOT AT LEAST use tear gas if their police headquarters were in danger of being overrun???

That idea with the referendum is indeed a smart move, as it shows clear the weak point in the PAD pattern and force them to show face and their true goals - to change the system to shut up the majority.

A referendum, would clearly show that PAD is the minority and that all the stupid farmers are not as stupid as Sondi and Co think they are, only because they vote who cares at least a little for them.

Of course if they vote like the PADs wish - they would be all very, very smart.

Uhhh ......

maxi

This article is quite something,

so why the heck he announces all that anti democratic stuff.

Or is this denunciation ?!?!?!

maxi

Uhhh stupid me ... the notes say:

Notes

1. Sondhi Limthongkul is the founder of the Manager Group, which through its holdings owns Asia Times Online.

stay on the carpet Kurt

This article is quite something,

so why the heck he announces all that anti democratic stuff.

Or is this denunciation ?!?!?!

maxi

Uhhh stupid me ... the notes say:

Notes

1. Sondhi Limthongkul is the founder of the Manager Group, which through its holdings owns Asia Times Online.

He has to play his role in the game like anybody else, and his role is to show that actions like that can't succeed. For the sake of future ( uhhh ... maybe now I sound naiv ) maxi

if you think your sound naive i agree. samak is playing the role of a stringpuppet. the name of the game seems to be puppet theater and his role is correct: peaceful civil disobedience is not tolerated by his puppetmaster in manchester. it has to be broken by all means or turned into disgusting bloody violence. all for the sake of a bailjumping fugitive, not much left over for his people or for the sake of the future, like you try to call these outdated feudalists.

America founded democracy but limited the vote to land owning males...

really?

you really think that?

what about the Greek ? never heard of them ?

America, like all democracies, is not perfect, but is without a doubt the best form of government going.

Separation of powers. Systems of checks and balances. Electoral college. Military leaders subordinate to civilian leaders. States' (provinces') rights. One would hope Thailand would adopt some or all of these principles.

Hopefully Thailand, like America, will learn from mistakes and continue to move forward the principles of a democratic monarchy. There is corruption through and through the opposing parties, but the democratic principles are more important than any individual or group.

All of this current discussion of people not being worthy of a vote and a majority central government by appointment is just plain wrong and people should oppose it. My fear from these current problems are that there will be more steps backward than there will be forward, with respect to the democratic movement, and that citizens will suffer because of it.

we know you are smart ... pls stay with the subject, its hurting my eye to read all that stuff...

One hires paid thugs - the other pushes old ladys at the front.

well well ....

The state of emergency also prohibits news publicity in a way that terrifies the public.

Doesn't that mean this order is in violation of itself? Obviously Samak has only concern for himself, and have no clue what a HUGE negative impact the declaration of a state of emergency means to the rest of the world, especially investors & tourists. Samak's short-sighted efforts to save his own neck will be at the expense of all of Thailand.

Samak obviously intended and wanted this to happen. He & the PPP paid for buses to bring their supporters in from the North so they could deliberately start a fight and cause violence.

The PAD have been demonstrating peacefully for weeks and continue to be peaceful.

100% of the trouble is due to Samak & the PPP who organized and deliberately intended their supporters to cause the recent violence that now gives them the excuse to attack the PAD.

Samak Ow Pai!

OK Samak is an ....... but to underline peaceful demonstration while disrupting and endangering the whole country is just naiv.

What you expect - that he just backs off?

Naiv again.

He has to play his role in the game like anybody else, and his role is to show that actions like that can't succeed.

For the sake of future ( uhhh ... maybe now I sound naiv )

maxi

Something really bothers me. A number of people here question the intelligence of Mr. Samak. If he is so stupid and you are so smart, why is he Thailand PM and you are nobody ? Please explain

with absolutely no pleasure i explain that to you and other in-toxin-ated readers:

1. he may be intelligent (iq wise, i just don't know) but he is stupid enough to be the stirrup holder and puppet for tax-sin (or toxin).

2. you seem to fall into the same category, coz if you were 'smart' you would follow samaks puppetmaster and watch some football abroad, were it is so peaceful and you are save to travel without disobedient protesters and unions. but please don't stand in the wrong fan corner (for your own safety!)

3. if my name were 'pierrot' i would better rap sarkozy's nuckles than those of some poor thais who want to end corruption.

4. samak took only a few month to show his mainly evil intentions: amend the constitution, take toxin back, pardon him, lift his ban, unfreeze his billions..........nothing for thailand, all for the man who bought the uneducated masses with empty promises or with the money he stole from them

5. and finally just for your way of thinking: do you really believe, that 'intelligence' and greed and sheer power-hunger would make a good leader (like the 'great doubtless highly intelligent leaders' hitler, stalin, mao, gwb, marcos, saddam and so many others, who often started with support of the 'powers' and the masses until they've shown their true ugly mugs.