Nacho

On 5/7/2020 at 2:12 PM, VYCM said:

Geeze, where Luanda? 

Only 1 place worse Saudi Arabia. 

 

You working offshore on a rotation or stuck in a hotel/house? 

Stuck in Saudi here. I'm expecting it'll be a case of waiting for Saudi to open rather than Thailand for me...

A step in the right direction!

Are you all familiar with that expression?

if I were the Thai team trying to create a more positive tourist and Foreigner environment, where would I go to get instant feedback?

Thai Visa.

And what would I see?

Negative, cynical and counter productive comments .. including a "Dash of Bash"

My conclusion would be, "Nothing can make these people happy, even when we move in the direction they claim they want, they cry like a school girl who fell off her bike."

Never mind ... let's work on something else .. noting makes these whiners smile. EVER.

Suggestion: How about .. just for a change .. some POSITIVE FEEDBACK for them to read?

This is great for tourists who are doing the South East Asia tour. Most don't have definite plans, and this would give them more freedom to come and go. Many would likely spend more time in Thailand on their tour as well.

Next step is to follow the Philippines lead and make a retirement visa for those under 50. They would be required to show double the amount in the bank of those over 50. Those legitimately retired that are under 50, or offshore workers I would guess are typically bigger spenders than those over 50. Why not make it easier for them to spend their money in Thailand.

The guards won't be able to come to the police station to acknowledge the kidnapping charges because they are busy protecting the fugitive Suthep who can't go to the police station to acknowledge the murder charges because he is busy toppling an elected government.

Saying that. Yes the guards are in the wrong and illegally detained her. They had no legal right to do that.

But but but.... They were elected. But the Dems. But it's politically motivated.

Maybe it's political that these charges were not probed long ago.

It's part of the plan.The Democrats can't win elections so the choice for the old guard is either a military coup or judicial intervention.Suthep is doing the old guard's groundwork so that the country is as chaotic as possible.It's now understood a coup would be counterproductive so the chosen method of trashing an elected government is directed judicial activism.The courts have been packed with partisan yellow judges.

http://www.dw.de/military-undecided-in-thailand-conflict/a-17361237

Not worthy, Suthep, to dirty your hands or your supporters hands to detain a puppet like Yingluck.

Instead try to catch and bring to justice her criminal brother as he is the mastermind behind all wrong doings in Thai politics.

The "mastermind behind all wrong doings in Thai politics.".

You might want to rethink that one. I'm definitely no fan of Dr. T, but corruption and "wrong doings in Thai politics", was going on before Thaksin was anything more than a lustful gleam in his father's eye.

The question I have for you is when then should it stop if not now?

I myself am sympathetic toward the protesters, however it's crap like this that makes a movement lose its legitimacy. Why does practacly all these idiot leaders on any side come up with ridicules not to mention completely criminal ideas like this. Keep it peaceful please.

A breath of fresh air to read a factual and unbiased peice contrary to most of the rubbish written in the Thai English papers, and opposed to most of the foreign reporting that sounds like the writers have just arrived yesterday. Everyone can get the mind working and learn a bit from this peice!

we are human, we all do mistake

but its take a lot of courage to admit his own mistake!

The tax system definitely needs to be reformed in order to create fairness. If all were to pay tax it would help stop political parties from vote buying with tax payers money. Also nothing was mentioned about land tax. This definitely needs to get implemented one day. It gets talked about but nothing ever happens.

"They have been charged with intimidation to abolish the nation's administrative power, instigating members of the public to violate the law, gathering to create chaos in the country, and libelling representatives of foreign countries."

I'm not sure about the other charges but how can the DSI charge them of libeling representatives of foreign countries? Did these foreign representatives file these charges themselves because they feel they have been libeled? Or is this just the biased Tharit making charges up to fit his agenda?

Thida is a Thaksin paid stooge

Standard line from the Thaksin hater's.

I support change, I support new elections, I support democracy, I support one man one vote.

Suthep the oxygen thief supports himself, his mates, his bank balance, and the idea that Thai people from the north are not equal to those from the south, Talk to your Thai wife/gf, she will tell you the same thing, Thai people from the south look down on any other Thai people and not the same, so how could Suthep form any kind of FAIR PEOPLES COUNCIL??? he wants an elite council at the cost of democracy, and Mark needs to take the dems too the elections and the people of Thailand will tell all who they want as the government...

The UDD is no more representative of the rural Thai population the the KKK. They are an unelected, undemocratic collection of Thaksin's paid stooges and propagandists, and any "reforms" that they ever suggested were changes to benefit the man with the money.

Absurd post and I realize you say it to get a reaction rather than to make a serious contribution to the debate, but if the UDD are unelected, Suthep's group are... what? Not only are they themselves unelected, they're also proposing that the elected government step down in order to be replaced by a selected council. So I hardly think you can justifiably criticize the UDD on that basis if you're supporting Suthep's group.

I can't understand why people get all defensive when people call the reds what they are, then use the but the dems, or but Suthep. 95% of posters on here can see that Suthep has lost the plot, but that doesn't change what the reds really are.

So you really believe the UDD are akin to the KKK? Seriously? And you think this is what they 'really are'? The idea that they're paid propagandists and stooges is wrong too. Motivations are mixed. Some are more idealistic, some are more mercenary. The grassroots autonomous red shirt networks are simply not detailed by the mainly anti-red English language Thai press. Just because something starts with the impetus coming from the top doesn't mean it remains that way. There is also strong pressure from below now. Just like Suthep's group, really - except Suthep's group's ideals include disenfranchisement in order to achieve a 'clean' government, something which I find neither just nor practical.

If you want to go on thinking things are as simple as you say they are. Go ahead. But it's not true. And it's a cop out.

No one would deny that the reds at the bottom of the barrel have legitimate grievances just as the current protesters as well as people who are in the middle of this fight. Unfortunately who do you think would be there as the voice of the thousands of reds throughout the country? It will be Thaksin's paid stooges who are more interested in themselves than of the actual movement. They absolutely manipulate for their own interests. And are no better than Suthep.

The system is broken almost all Thais can see this. They want change and many choose the side they see as the lesser of two evils.

This division definitely won't end with an election. It's highly unlikely to end with the peoples council reforms, not to mention the danger of making matters much worse.

I need to find a place to look after my 2 Great Danes and chewowa from Jan 1st to 5th. Anyone know of any places around Khon Kaen?

Thanks

What Suthep is trying to do is overthrow the government and change the system so that he won't have to answer for the 80+ murders that occurred under his command. He's due in court this month and he's fighting for his life. He probably can't flee Thailand even if he wanted to. I doubt that they will let him leave with the charges that he has pending. He has no choice but to fight for his life and he doesn't care if he drags Thailand into hell with him.

The fact is, Thailand and its people have voted and they chose Yingluck, knowing perfectly well that she's Thaksin's sister.

If people don't like her, she will be gone in the next election, don't worry. What you can't do is try to overthrow a democratically elected government to impose the will of a small minority.

Suthep is an anarchist and has done more damage to Thailand already than Yingluck could ever do in her entire term. Anyone that supports him, his anarchist and undemocratic views is not to be taken seriously anyways in a modern society.

It is going to be a long and painful road ahead for Thailand.

When I was a schoolboy, my mother could not afford the optional school uniform and I can distinctly remember feeling left out. I was proud of my school - renowned for its sporting rather than academic achievements - and wanted everyone to know I went there.

Wearing the blue and white blazer with its colourful badge with its rather pretentious Latin entreaty Ingredere ut proficias (Enter That You May Benefit) would have identified me as part of a winning team and provided me with some much-needed self esteem.

As well as promoting a sense of camaraderie, the wearing of school uniform helps reduce the peer pressure which can be so destructive at a young age. Not all parents can afford the cost of sending their children to school in the latest designer gear.

School uniform also has the virtue of being the least distracting form of dress for the classroom - which, after all, is where one goes to learn, not form potentially dangerous liaisons with the opposite sex.

The voluminous skirts and blouses worn at school by my two school age daughters were obviously designed to minimise, rather than accentuate, their nascent physical charms. They are smart enough to understand the reasons and do not object.

Allowing girls to wear what they like at Tammasat or any other Thai educational establishment is unlikely to reduce the terrible toll of around ten thousand school-age girls who become pregnant every year in a country where abortion is illegal and there is no welfare state to help under-age mothers to cope.

Unsurprisingly (to me at least), two of the nations which have the worst records for school-age pregnancies are the US (bottom of the international league table) and the UK (fourth from bottom) which have no dress code. This may not be a clear case of cause and effect, but I suggest there is a link.

If wearing school uniform helps prevent just one young girl from getting pregnant prematurely, with the resultant devastating effects and her and the young father's life, then long may this old-fashioned Thai trend persist.

More important than any dress code, however, is for the Thai government to address the failure of sex education at Thai schools - which I gather amounts to a total of only about eight hours up to the age of 16. Talk about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing!

Thai parents must shoulder some blame for leaving their children's sex education to schools which have consistently failed to deliver the goods. Ultimately, it is THEIR job - not a teacher's - to ensure their children are protected from the consequences of sexual ignorance.

The article has nothing to do with grade school children, it's about university students (young adults and in some cases older adults) having their own choice in what they wear when furthering their education.

I came across this article a while ago, and this topic reminded me of it. Maybe it would be a good idea for Thailand to look at some other countries education systems to try to improve their own. Or being the Thai way of not wanting outside help. look at their own private schools for help in improving the public system.

Education: Teach to the best

Today, Finland is regularly ranked as having one of the best-performing education systems in the world. The country's literacy rate is tops, its math proficiency second, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international trade group. Students from elementary through high school are among the world's best in test scores.

A generation ago, that wasn't the case. In the 1970s, Finland's schools were among the worst in the developed world.

What changed?

The problem was attacked on all sides, says Pasi Sahlberg, a former official in Finland's education ministry.

The country invested heavily in teacher education, requiring master's degree-based, five-year qualifications instead of three-year bachelor's degrees. Child poverty was addressed with meals, health care, dental care and counseling -- all free of charge for children. Finally, the system pursued what Sahlberg calls "intelligent accountability" that combines standardized testing with teacher assessment and school self-inspection -- with an emphasis on the teachers, not the tests.

Where did they get their ideas? Actually, they got a lot of them from the United States.

And yet Americans are forever lamenting the state of their schools. As Diane Ravitch, education historian and former assistant secretary of education to President George H.W. Bush, points out, we've been fretting about the American system and looking enviously over our shoulders for decades, whether it's to Germany, England, the former Soviet Union, Japan or China."Within your 15,000 districts and 100,000 schools you have probably all the educational innovation that anybody needs to build good schools or well-performing districts," he says. "The Finnish education system owes a lot to these American ideas."

"We have this narrative that we're failing, failing, failing. The rest of the world would like to be like us, and we're saying, 'What's wrong with us? We're so terrible.' It must be some kind of American inferiority complex," she says.

Yes, of course there are schools with problems. Some districts have been damaged by cheating scandals, others suffer from poor facilities. The battle to improve test scores, led by federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, has provoked criticism (including Ravitch's). Some officials want to give more money to charter schools at the expense of the public system or offer "school choice" through vouchers.

Finland, which is small, homogenous and has less income inequality between rich and poor, managed to completely remake its structure. Is that possible in the polyglot, poverty-pocked United States?

It's already happening. West Virginia has instituted some of Finland's ideas -- some of which, of course, originated in the United States. Sahlberg believes they can work throughout the country, but they have to start with respect and training for the teacher.

"I think there is far too much loose rhetoric criticizing public school systems and blaming teachers in the U.S. that has no ground," he says. Finland has such respect for teachers that the job is now seen as being "on par with other academic positions, such as lawyers and doctors," he says. But it's because the country invested in the profession and continues to do so.

Ravitch adds that society has to join in. "There's a youth culture that's very disobedient, and the laws are such that it's very hard to maintain any kind of standard of discipline, and everybody blames the teachers," she says. "But it's kind of a vicious circle, because you have a lot of parents who are not particularly responsible either. The most common complaint at schools is if there's a parent night, there are many schools where nobody shows up."

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/02/us/american-exceptionalism-other-countries-lessons/index.html