Dove

Just a thought.

Religiously as a Buddhist we should not be taking sides - just walk on the centre line. Well I guess that is difficult in a world of wants and greed and ego. One man's ego sparked this fire, one man's wealth finance this trouble. That man must be very proud to cause so much damage. If only that man did not teach the others to be so materialistic to bring himself forward.

Well what can save Thailand today Democracy, Democracy to what extend? That law and order cannot be enforced, where citizens en mass have the power to search and block bully the weak.

Or perhaps a true blue socialist government might work.

Nothing can save Thailand today without bloodshed, it is unfortunate but true. Even if the current government steps down another group will rebel.

First thing first - get law and order back.

The people have to disperse or be dispersed by force. Warn and if the warning is ignored action has to be taken.

Policemen and soldiers losing their weapons should be charged with treason. The Kingdom has issued weapons for the protection of the soldiers and police. They must in turn guard their weapons with their lives. It must be remembered that these weapons can be used against them and against the freedom of the majority in the wrong hands.It is a big joke the whole is laughing at the Thai army and police losing their weapons. A real waste of the tax payers money. Offenders should be shot! Thieves of weapons should be shot too.

Politics cannot be practised if there is no law and order.

Whether there is law and order, again it is for the people to decide. Don't condemn the guys who have to shoot a few of the stubborn ones just to make peace for the country. They were told to disperse or be dispersed by force so is the way for law and order.

Perhaps if they had brought him back, many more heads would roll, especially those sitting on the fence and benefitting from both side. Maybe some people out there are praying that he does not come back. hmmm

Yet another Thai govt. website designed as if it was destined for children with a funny looking font.

Click around on government websites. Some pages look like school projects, overloaded with graphics, animated trains, cartoons and teddy bears that have absolutely nothing to do with the content, others contain dead links, and each ministry has it's own design and look, all the colours of the rainbow, as if they were destined for children. As usual, more emphasis is put on presentation, content comes second. Then it really makes you wonder about security when government websites are developed as hundreds of different projects instead of one uniform e-government project. This e-government project under Thaksin was highly praised but a total failure.

Open the link below and then open a dozen of links each time in a new window. Once they've all loaded, go between windows and see for yourself how each ministry seems to be from a different country, if it wasn't for the Thai font.

http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/th.html

Still a lot to learn when government employees openly argue in the media as to why they refuse to stop using Hotmail-Gmail-Yahoo for work, although part of that can be so that outsiders can access private/secret information by selling the passwords to highest bidders.

Many of the government websites are dead. At the cost of oil they should be exemplary by shutting these sites to save power.

Many Thai officials were riding the clouds, so to speak. There was a lot of hot air when Thaksin ruled. He first threatened the civil service and then uplifted the morale of the civil service and as a charismatic speaker he was , he conned many into selling their souls. Costing the country to waste much resources by unnecessary spending to highlight the governments works at least on the surface only.

Did you know that the government spent many hours on national agenda traveling to neighboring provinces to meet and meetings and up to day many of their hours are spent on meetings, fire fighting? Nothing still seems to work. It is just a waste of time. They work through lunch, work late but all for un productive reasons and government expense.

The Thai civil service is made up of too many old hard core managers that are unable to adapt but are holding on to their post and defending it. Many are old spinsters who do not understand what is family life. Many are myopic to understand that the staff wants what they want. Many are made to work weekends at the expense of family life and values, hence the many problems with youth, there is no parent guidance as the government practices poor parenting skills. Perhaps the new government would need to rethink their work policies and reform the self made heroines and heros.

Lastly I was fascinated to look at the bottom of the site is a telephone number that is never answered like most Thai government sites.

Just a waste of money.

Thaksin's "flawed perception" examined

A SCHOLAR reflected that ousted premier of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra's expensive

e-government initiatives may have collapsed due to his flawed perception of what constituted governance.

Tippawan Lorsuwannarat, a speaker at the Eastern Regional Organisation of Public Administration (Eropa) seminar being held in Brunei, discussed what she believed to be the mistakes in Thaksin's e-government policy initially intended to govern the industry, commerce, education and society of Thailand electronically.

Included in the mistakes was spending 97 per cent of a "very large budget'' on purchasing the technology and using the remaining 3 per cent for training people how to use the technology, she said. *Well done, Thakky...

The staff member of the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) in Bangkok, Thailand, estimated only 15 per cent of the e-government initiatives approved by Thaksin were successful, *because they were so splendidly thought out... and believed that this was due to Thaksin's failure to comprehend the intrinsics of e-governance.

*I'd venture to guess there's a few hundred thousand other things that Thakky fails to comprehend beyond the intrinsics of e-goverance.

She said that e-governance was normally misconstrued with 'e-government'. The term refers to paperless systems of administration allowing painless access, storage and dissemination of data across government agencies.

"E-governance links e-government and its broader environment in the political, social and administration context,'' she explained. Her paper clarified that "governments are institutions which contribute to governance''.

In 2002, Thaksin launched the ambitious project Information Communication Technology Master Plan , with an expected completion date of 2005.

The main objective was to implement an electronic government that extended to industry, commerce, education and society in Thailand. Unfortunately, Thaksin had completely disregarded the need to develop a knowledgeable culture amongst Thai citizens to prepare them *so much for being a man of great vision... for the upheaval and he had only considered "official'' satisfaction, she said. For example, Thailand's legislative system was ill-equipped to defend citizens against frauds.

"Because people didn't understand [something as basic as] how to protect their passwords, 900,000 baht was stolen by government servants.''

The lack of standards across government agencies to accommodate data-sharing, a dearth of public cooperation, and the low computer and English literacy of most residents in rural areas, eventually led to the humiliating demise of Thaksin's major e-government projects, she said.

- The Brunei Times

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Thaksin's legacy... Incompetence coupled with greed...

I simply agree about the misappropriation of funds on e-government projects during Thaksin's time. There are those in the civil service who could not wait to jump on the band wagon for their own personal gains. I came across this site of the Department of Land Transport while searching for information on transportation license.

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/

The main feature of the Lamphun Land transport office website features the ambition of it's head to further her goals. I see no other government sites featuring the so many pictures of a person making it look like a personal website. First her face is shown on the right hand corner of the page then featured again in the pictures in the pages listed below. I am told that she is the head of the department and promotes safety. I am told by my friend that she speaks in public regularly and appears in the news like a spokesperson herself. Whatever it is the acts in the pictures are personal and the message projected is totally false and undesirable.

Further at the cost of fuel, the government is spending it on their staff to visit shrines and offer offerings to monks at the expense of tax payers.

I cannot imagine a government department so proud of displaying to the world on the internet of its abuse of funding within the thin disguise of attending to safety education and government forums.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/style_images...icons/icon7.gif

Perhaps it is people like this that will go far in a Thaksin regime.

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-75.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-74.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-65.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-64.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-62.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-61.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-57.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-56.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-43.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-42.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-36.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-50.htm

http://www.dlt.go.th/lamphun/news/news50-49.htm

Please spend government funds wisely and not for personal goal!!!!

Annoyed lady Dove.

If she were killed by Thai I cant imagine how  Thaivisa user  will ridicule thai people here.

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Well said Remmy.

Now where have all the righteous Farangs gone? Where is the outcry for a fair trial? Where are all the long emails making wild accusations?

What a difference a Farang murderer makes? Some kind of farang justice eh?

Yipee, free KFC chicken sponsored by Mr. T in Chiang Mai coming soon again.

PM not support Thai labourers to work abroad 

OMAN: --  Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said today that he does not support Thai labourers to work abroad, but his administration would, instead, promote the export of skilled Thai workers.

...................

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In the Middle East it is not good for Thai domestics, nor Filipina / Indonesian or others. Subject to rape, abuse, so on. But as for limiting the export of workers to skilled tradesmen ...... I used to send back about one third of the people provided by the recruiting company, as being useless. We tried to set up our own recruiting company, but this was against Thai law.

The vast majority of Thais working abroad are unskilled / semi-skilled. These are bringing in valuable foreign currency, instead of watching rice grow.

What does this man think? That he can compete with Filipinos in mechanical trades? Never. Compete with Malaysians at IT work? Never.

The Thai worker has one thing going for him - you show him what you want - exactly - wind him up in the morning and he will work all day. But don't ask him to think. (Don't ask the Filipino to think either - you will be in deep trouble!!)

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Fully agreed.

Thailand's elderly population in crisis 

BANGKOK: -- The number of elderly people in Thailand being left to live alone has almost doubled in recent years, while 61 percent of old people have no income and a proportion receive no welfare benefits from the state, according to a shocking new report published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) today.

The report, based on surveys carried out in 1994, 2002 and 2004, shows that the percentage of elderly people living alone leapt from 3.6 percent in 1994 to 7.4 percent 10 years later, with significantly more women living alone than men.

The report also found that 61.6 percent of elderly people have no income from employment, while those who worked generally do so in the agricultural sector. 

But even those in work receive little money, with monthly incomes falling to an average of Bt3,100 for those living alone.

Significantly, 66.3 percent of respondents said that they had problems living alone, with 31.6 percent citing the lack of people to look after them and 20.8 percent speaking of loneliness.

Pointing to an increase in life expectancy from 64 years to 75 for women, and from 58 years to 68 to men over the period of the survey, the report predicts an increasingly ageing population, with average life expectancies hitting 78 and 71 years for women and men respectively next year.

However, the report notes that this increase in life expectancy comes at the cost of poor health, with one in three elderly people reporting feeling ill in the month prior to being interviewed for the survey.

Nearly 52 percent of respondents reported chronic health conditions, rising to 62.9 percent among people living alone.

However, a small but significant proportion of elderly people - 3.8 percent - do not receive any form of welfare or medical benefits from the state, and the report admits that this could pose problems in the future.

The report calls on the government to campaign for families and communities to look after their elderly members in order that Thailand's ageing population can enjoy a good quality of life.

--TNA 2005-04-29

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I was told that in Thailand the grown up children would look after their aging parents and supply money for them, I guess that's not the case ?

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Problem is that yhere are many Thais that are not married. So they don't have children. This problem will worsen in the next 10 years as the number of singles become senior citizens and are not finacially dependent. many tody think that this not a problem as they intend to retire as monks or nuns.

Guess the government best beware of a potential burden to the state.

PM pledges two new pay rise for govt officials 

BANGKOK: --  Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has promised two more pay rises for government officials over the next three years.

The prime minister said that government officials would get their first promised salary increase next year, while the second pay rise would be followed in 2008.

The Thai leader made the pledge during a workshop on government action plans, in which he chaired at the Government House today.

The action plans of government agencies were based on the government's policies presented to the parliament this week.

They include poverty eradication; human and social development, enhancement of national competitiveness, efficient management of natural resources and the environment, constructive international relations, development of the legal and justice system, promotion and development of democracy and civic society, enhancement of national security, and adhesion to basic constitutional policies and norms.

At the workshop, attended by top executives of all ministries, Mr. Thaksin urged government officials to work to the best of their abilities for the public and the nation over the next four years in return.

--TNA 2005-03-26

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An inevitable payment to gather friends and colleagues around him to continue to fight the "good fight"

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Efficient management - greatest joke I have heard. The government seems to be haviing problems scheduling meetings, my partner seems to be always on call for emergency meetings or at the last minute. Last week we were suppose to spend some much needed valued time together for the weekend when she suddenly turns around and tells me that she is unable to as she has a meeting on Sunday in parliament. This is not the first time that she has been asked to attend meetings at the last minute, it appears that everything is done adhoc. With the new government she seems to be working later and is putting on weight due to late meals and lack of exercise. The civil service seems to have little understanding and respect for personal time. I hope that she will leave the service, no point working for slave drivers. I truly hate the new government as it is causimng much undue stress on the realtionship for some politician's agenda. We can't seem to plan our own personal time anymore.

Thailand’s divorce rate increases

BANGKOK: -- Thailand’s divorce rate has risen significantly over the past decade.

Thailand’s national statistics released on Monday has shown that the divorce rate among Thai couples has risen over the past ten years.

In 2003, the average rate of divorce was 1.28 couples per thousand people, compared to less than one couple per thousand in 1994.

The number of couples, registered as husband and wife at governmental registration offices across the country has also dramatically declined.

According to the figures in 2003, the number of registered Thai marriages was only five per 1,000 people, a fall from seven in 1994.

The largest fall in registered marriages was in the country’s north-eastern region.

Only 5 marriages per thousand were registered in 2003, compared to 8, ten years ago.

Government statisticians fear that these figures show a weakening of the family institution in Thailand.

The statistics shows a gradual lose of faith in the family, according to government officials.

This could lead to other society problems, they warned.

The government has been promoting a return to family values in order to preserve a loving and peaceful Thai society.

--TNA 2005-03-15

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As the Thais become more materialistic, there will definitely be a loss in family values. Would a Thai rather spend 3 hour with his/her family or earn 3 hour overtime? Who wants to have children, you can't afford to raise? Children are a burden. The husband is a burden, the wife is restriction. The Thais just want to break free. Today in Thailand, there is only "I" not us-our family. In the farming community the more children the more workers, in city living, it means 1 more mouth to feed, 1 more to educate. With all the entertainment which woman wants to look after her husband, which woman wants to get tied down looking after children? Which husband wants to sleep with the same woman each night when he can afford a change every month if he had money. Besides, who is having sex to have children?

The LOS is losing its soul, it is being sold to the devil.

my 2 cents....

I think thaksin is trying his best in a difficult situation.

the guy is trying...

..somebody mentioned that thaksin is a dictator.  ..my response to that is - I rather have him running the country than the drug dealers.

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Have you considered that he may have contributed to the problems.

So you actually appreciate that his family is getting richer.

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I know that before 1992, in thailand, every 4 years, the way regimes changed was via coups.

I also know from reading the newspapers that overall thailand is better now than before.

I know that drugs destroyed china in the early 20th century. so, I know that I wouldn't want the drug dealers in control anywhere in the world.

so, overall, I think thaksin has been good for the country.

now, if you ask me if he is perfect? well, I don't know. I know that I certainly am not. frankly, I have yet to meet a perfect person, or a perfect country. have you?

like everywhere, there are problems here. but just complaining is not going to fix problems. ..what do you suggest needs to be done to fix the problems?

constructive criticism is the road to solutions.

I think the key to many problems the world round is - education. ..which is something that does not happen overnight. we are looking at generations. with proper education, awareness is acquired. and hopefully, peace from within.

I believe that people in general are good. that most of the problems in this world are due to miscommunication, or misunderstandings. and that the internet is a valuable tool for peace.

naive? maybe. I hope not.

..just my 2 cents.

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Yes agreed people in generalare good but this guy is evil to the bone. He may not be a drug addict but he is shrewd. A wolf in sheeps clothing. He is a Hakka a chinese dialect group that is known for their shrewd business deals.

Anway this man is getting the religious thai people to embrace the wrong values i.e. money. He claims to be a staunch Buddhist, let me tell you that if you are a staunch Biddhist you cannot be a politician and practice the teachings of Buddha.

Yes he has cleared the streets of the drug lords but look at what he has done to the south, his hard handed ways has brought on only more deaths.

Let me remind you that this is the man who is bullying the civil servants, making them work long hours, and threatening them with pay and staff cuts. This is no way to treat the people who are managing the country. The consequences can be drastic.

my 4 cents worth.

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my 2 cents...

I believe the solution to the problems that civic servants are having can be summed up in one word - unions.

most rich people will never volunteer to share their wealth with poor people. that is the nature of rich people.

so, poor people need to form unions. the power of unions cannot be underestimated.

america went through a period of time during the early part of the 20th century where there was child labor, and unfair labor practices. the formation of unions helped to make things fair.

so, what can forming a union do in helping the civic servant get better pay, better living standards, you ask?

well, let's say company 1 has 10,000 people working for it. company 1 is treating it's employees like slaves. all a union needs to do to get company 1 to start paying better wages is to threaten to boycott the products produced by company 1, or better yet, one day the 10,000 people decide not to work.

if the people of the company don't work, the company doesn't make money. get it?

if the union of the people is strong, company 1 will decide to share it's wealth with them. otherwise, company 1 will go broke.

..and if there's one thing rich people can't stand, it's being broke.

in america, they have so many unions. if you interested in the subject, just do a google search.

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Good idea!

Don't know if unions are allowed in civil service in democratic Thailand .

If not I will vote you for PM if you can get the toxin out and change the law.

Let see him shave bold and serve in the temple as a monk in the coming rain retreats.

my 2 cents....

I think thaksin is trying his best in a difficult situation.

the guy is trying...

..somebody mentioned that thaksin is a dictator.  ..my response to that is - I rather have him running the country than the drug dealers.

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Have you considered that he may have contributed to the problems.

So you actually appreciate that his family is getting richer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know that before 1992, in thailand, every 4 years, the way regimes changed was via coups.

I also know from reading the newspapers that overall thailand is better now than before.

I know that drugs destroyed china in the early 20th century. so, I know that I wouldn't want the drug dealers in control anywhere in the world.

so, overall, I think thaksin has been good for the country.

now, if you ask me if he is perfect? well, I don't know. I know that I certainly am not. frankly, I have yet to meet a perfect person, or a perfect country. have you?

like everywhere, there are problems here. but just complaining is not going to fix problems. ..what do you suggest needs to be done to fix the problems?

constructive criticism is the road to solutions.

I think the key to many problems the world round is - education. ..which is something that does not happen overnight. we are looking at generations. with proper education, awareness is acquired. and hopefully, peace from within.

I believe that people in general are good. that most of the problems in this world are due to miscommunication, or misunderstandings. and that the internet is a valuable tool for peace.

naive? maybe. I hope not.

..just my 2 cents.

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Yes agreed people in generalare good but this guy is evil to the bone. He may not be a drug addict but he is shrewd. A wolf in sheeps clothing. He is a Hakka a chinese dialect group that is known for their shrewd business deals.

Anway this man is getting the religious thai people to embrace the wrong values i.e. money. He claims to be a staunch Buddhist, let me tell you that if you are a staunch Biddhist you cannot be a politician and practice the teachings of Buddha.

Yes he has cleared the streets of the drug lords but look at what he has done to the south, his hard handed ways has brought on only more deaths.

Let me remind you that this is the man who is bullying the civil servants, making them work long hours, and threatening them with pay and staff cuts. This is no way to treat the people who are managing the country. The consequences can be drastic.

my 4 cents worth.

my 2 cents....

I think thaksin is trying his best in a difficult situation.

the guy is trying...

..somebody mentioned that thaksin is a dictator.  ..my response to that is - I rather have him running the country than the drug dealers.

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Have you considered that he may have contributed to the problems.

So you actually appreciate that his family is getting richer.

So, who can enlighten us all on what civil servants can, and do, earn for their labours?

What about goverment ministers - are these top jobs in terms of the pay scale?

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What do the civil servants not do?

What needs changes are the people on the top from the directors and above. Many think putting more hours mean working hard. Problem is that they fail to understand what working smart means to achieve a better management of the ministry and how to work effectively and efficiently.

There are departments duplicating jobs to justify their keep. Once upon a time when the terrorist threat first appeared, a director from Bangkok sent all his officers to the bus terminals to monitor and look out for suspicious activities. Surely this was the job for the military and police. What the director did not realize was that he was endangering the lives of his staff as they were not suppose to be doing this kind of work.

There is also bad co-ordination amongst the civil services as the right and left hand are not in synchronization i.e. they do not complement one another.

Corruption well, who is guilty? Is the civil servant more guilty then the public that feeds or the civil servant that lives on it?

Why not punish the donor double?

It always takes two hands to clap.

Anyway what is corruption? The clerk who has a free lunch or the general who gets a free trip to China for 5 days at the excuse of buying bombs for Thailand that actually needs only a day visit to Mongolia say or a minister who is treated to game of free golf or as they say it for diplomatic reasons.

On the otherhand there are the civil servants who are really earnest about their work and are unfortunate to be in the wrong department. The truth is that there are some really good people around but how do you pick the good apples from the bad ones.

Well, get rid of the sour cream on top.

Another thing, many are terrifiied now with the threat of being posted to the south. Just like the German soldier who were threaten to perform or be sent to the Russian front in the 2nd world war as seen in Hogan's Heroes

Bloody tyrant. It is not enough that some goverment servants are slaving because they fear the loss of their jobs now he has to add more misery.

I have friend who complains that she has to drive to meetings at other offices and with the rise in fuel it is costing her an increase in her expenditure which she cannot claim and her department does not have enough transportation to bring them to other offices. Take note that goverment officers are paid peanuts.

Just like any business man he cuts operational cost by reducing manpower and declares growth. Where is the justice in this world of frauds?

This pain in the back is exploiting the goverment servants for the pride they take in working, not all of them though but those who do are suffering.

And they say that they like him hmmmmm

Sore throat silences PM

At last!!

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Aren't we all blessed. May he forever lose his voice. Everytime he opens his mouth someone suffers.

Now can aTsunami warning system mean more business for Shinsat- A satellite company owned by you know who?

He is nothing but an opportunist who takes advantage of the Thai egos. The majority of the Thais are simpletons who fall for the 1 share for you and 1,000,000 share for me scheme.

Mai Pen Rai.

Good for some who are going to take advantage of such incidents for their political goals by appearing on TV and pointing to scenes like as if they are experts and telling workers what to do. Maybe their popularity might go up to 99.9% for the next election or could this also be a computer error

So the Thaksin Rak Thaksin (TRT)party will come in again, when will they learn to read the signs from the spirits? When the TRT came in there came the bird flu, southern violence, and the last great warning a Tsunami!

Drugs have been eliminated, now corruption, poverty next? Lets hear it for the Prime Minister Walter Mitty err Thaskin

"Let's do it his way" (Frank Sinatra).

Shoot 'em all dead. No more corruption.

Next shoot all the poor - no more poverty. java script:emoticon(':P')

smilie

With Thaksin's Airbus and spaceman episodes, I would like to request a song "Fly me to the moon" dedicated to him on Radio Bangkok.

One strange thing I observed about Thai culture when I visited the Grand Palace with a female friend last Sunday.

At the gate she was asked to borrow a pair of trousers becuae her trousers did not reach the angkles although it was beyond her knees.

Why the double standards when long skirts that the goverment servants wear did not reach the knees and were more exposed than a person with 3/4 pants.

Do the Thais have a fetish for women in 3/4 pants?

Would there have been so much interest if a Thai couple was killed?