Insight

Actually, if you notice the farang guy in the photos above taking the photos... he appears to also be holding some kind of clothing item or dress...perhaps the clothing she shed.

My wife, in looking, suggested that the farang guy is probably the husband or similar for the lady farmer... Perhaps that's where she got her ample cleavage from...

dam_n... Well spotted, sir!

Ditto that!

Suppose we better brace ourselves for an outburst of how foreigners are corrupting Thailand's wonderful, sacred ways and coaxing once innocent girls into such extreme protest measures, from whatever over-funded ministry of stupidity....

Good to see the Thai protest spirit evolving somewhat....

More bile, more bile............

We need more bile.

Try looking at the cabinet.

I thought The Guardian's opening paragraph was ace. However it's just been completely trumped by that AP headline.

An clearly inept Prime Minister, Chalerm (and son) with their undeniably dubious mafia-riddled history, Nattawut who publicly stated he would take the blame for the later burning of Bangkok, and now the lovely "crony" Nalinee who has been given the job of promoting the image of the country!

I'm almost starting to feel sorry for those on this forum who are tasked with defending Team Thaksin. Almost.

They haven't got the first clue, have they?

Would somebody please tell them most people with a clue find their reassurances, mainly in the form of denials, anything but reassuring!

All governments promise more than they can deliver. But until the Democrats can figure out how to compete in the NE, the Thaksin mob will run the government, for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps a large amount of hidden-camera-uploaded-to-YouTube action covering what the Democrats are exposed to when they attempt to campaign up north might help shed light on this problem...

There appears to be much resentment brewing over this payout. Plenty of photos circulating on Facebook right now showing red shirts abusing soldiers and civilians, along with the burning town hall buildings. (Stuff this forum has seen many times before)

It'll be interesting to see what form this resentment manifests into, if at all.

Ms. Yingluck, please listen to Khun Drew; your brother did and it helped Thailand emerge from the '97 Asian financial cataclysm.

I agree with the general content of the letter. There should be 100% support for the content of this letter, especially amongst foreigners. Really, what's with you blokes?

Ethical conduct has much to do with who I decide to give my support to.

I know, I don't fit in here.

The Nation finally produces an article which has legs.

I'll get my coat.

Well she's clearly excused then.

Carry On Shinawatra'ing.

Why do you all pick on that ONE none- sensical sentence in a non- sensical article?

It's the rabid sheep reflex, they can't help it.

Of little concern is the fact that PM is not the party leader

It is one thing to obviously not be the party leader, it is a quite different thing to come out and say it.

And you are surprised that people pounce on it?

It is one thing to obviously not be the party leader, it is a quite different thing to come out and say it.

How can I put this? She is not Party Leader of the PTP. Yongyuth Wichaidit was elected Party leader on Dec 7th 2008. That is why he attended a meeting of Party Leaders.

There , that wasn't so hard was it?

But don't you think it might do her already bottom-of-the-barrel credibility some good if she actually turned up for such a meeting? She represents the Phua Thai party to many in this country - supporters and opposition alike.

(Yes, yes... We all know who really represents the Phua Thai party. But if he didn't exist we wouldn't need "reconciliation"....)

"Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra declined the invitation because she was not a party leader although she said she was willing to join the reconciliation process at a later date."

Speechless!

A relatively sane and somewhat reassuring article ruined by that absolute jaw-dropper of a sentence.

W. T. F. ?

But I thought you said "Rest assured, that even the harshest of critics are safe to continue drinking at their local beer bar."...?

So we are safe, as long as we don't go highlighting specific (well known) examples...?

I wish you would be more consistent.

Your post is nonsensical. If you are referring to the video of the obviously unstable chap waving a stick on the street, it has no relevance to yours or anyone else's seating arrangements at your favourite watering hole.

My experience has been that the people offering unsolicited advice on how to fix things usually have no actual first hand experience nor have they ever met the people that make the decisions in this country. I suggest you attend one of the functions and meet some of the privy councillors and cabinet ministers. It's an eye opening experience. If you have your medals or national decorations, wear them.

So unless we've met the "people that make the decisions in this country", whether they be from the "amart" side, or from the consistently "controversial" Phua Thai side, we're in no position to comment...?

Might as well close down the forum and go back to our "watering holes" then. Can't wait to catch up with Jeff, personally....

Subtle threats of reprisals on anti-Thaksin posters if he ever gets back! You've got to love the Red apologists and how they believe 'democracy' and 'free speech' should work!

There are no subtle threats made in this thread, only the apparent hysterical claims made by some to throw the focus of discussion off the topic at hand. Rest assured, that even the harshest of critics are safe to continue drinking at their local beer bar.

... where they can enjoy strenuous debate with characters like these:

The stick-throwing action still has me in awe to this day.

Easily impressed then. Quite the feeding frenzy in here. At least I am consistent. You did read my previous comment, right?

To date we have seen some incredibly foolish and what I think were mentally ill people, join the redshirt and yellowshirt protests. The Thais treated them remarkably decently all things considered. I don't think there will be similar restraint from either side next time. I don't think some foreigners realize how delicate the situation is in respect to some foreigners agitating on behalf of their preferred side in the dispute.

My statement was robustly fair, especially since I was not taking sides. In respect to the chap featured in the video above, subsequent to investigation, he was treated as someone that was mentally ill, which spoke to the compassion of Thai authorities and the presence of foreign diplomatic intervention on behalf of an embarrassing foreigner. This is precisely what foreign embassies counsel against.

I am not going to engage in tit for tat by posting images of foreigners at PAD protests as it serves no purpose except to highlight the foolishness of anyone that becomes involved in these protests. Aside from it being illegal it results in significant collateral damage to the safety of other foreigners.

But I thought you said "Rest assured, that even the harshest of critics are safe to continue drinking at their local beer bar."...?

So we are safe, as long as we don't go highlighting specific (well known) examples...?

I wish you would be more consistent.

Who needs The Biggest Loser, when you have Thai jails and (not so significant amounts of) bail money....?

Mafia Thailand. Can't help but feel sorry for her.

Well I'm glad a few people on here are swimming against the tide, expecting any rally on behalf of the demands of Arisman - the man suspected by many of coordinating the M79 attacks into the multi-coloured protesters at Siam (amongst other allegations on this thread) - to be peaceful.

Such a belief is against the typical behaviour the red shirts are now renowned for, both in Thailand and overseas, and against the predictions of the odd security analyst here and there I am in contact with.

But if the usual pro-red lot on here believe they'll act peacefully, well I suppose that's some good news. Personally I'll be staying well the expletive away.

Got to admit - the AJAX-based posting feature is ace (posting without reloading the entire page). Just how a modern forum should function.

I fear change.

Especially when it kills the Android/Mobile version, and kills the forum dropdown box on the desktop version (priorities should be in the order stated ).

Going to give the look'n'feel a week or so before having a rant. Seems like many websites are now moving to this clearer, spread-out format (Gmail/Google Reader etc), which suggests that it is popular and preferred. Can't say I see the attraction personally to the old versions.

Humbug.

If somehow the Red shirt support base could be turned away from Thaksin to a Democrat/Red Shirt coalition I think the chance of progress within Thailand would be truly favourable. One wishes that the Shinwatra's would all just be vanquished from Thailand for good. Puff thats fairy dust. Where an environment wallows in corruption then it is ripe for scum like the Shinwatra's to fleece it.

Will there ever be a protest group demanding changes to the law involving freedom of expression, while also being utterly against Thaksin's very self-serving interference in Thai politics (and by that I mean a belief shared by every member)?

Unfortunately I don't think it's likely to happen anytime soon, which is a massive shame for Thailand.

Anyway, I'm off to read up on the current goings on of the "grass roots" red shirt movement on this thread. These are people with a real purpose!

The only good thing about this is to be reminded, yet again, of what the red shirts stand for.

And it clearly ain't "democracy"

Disband the Yellows and the Reds will disappear because they will have no reason to exist.

What "yellow's"?

The only thing which will reunite those guys is joining the common cause against Thaksin's attempts to flaunt justice, as we seen not one month ago.

The PAD barricades around Government House were mined with explosives as were the Red Shirt barricades"

Given this comparison, we're not talking about a raw eye witness account made at the time...?

Based on the above sentence it sounds like it was made a few years after the airport occupation, after the red shirt riots even, and yet another finger-pointing "they were just as evil!" exercise.

Yawn.

Hanuman, no matter how well we blend in, I wonder if we create an "observer effect", would topic conversations be the same if we were not there? Or are red villages more politically aware, less parochial?

Well the people I was with were proud to proclaim themselves red shirts, but most of them weren't 'hung up' on any of the issues. The political conversations weren't more than 10% of the total chatting during the 5-6 hours I was there. I just brought it up here because it was so clearly different from what we often hear from posters on TV that yellow villagers in red shirt villages live in fear of violence for expressing alternative opinions and this clearly was not the case in this red shirt village.

There were one or two of them that obviously did have opinions on national level politics so I would agree with you that those kind of people are more apparent in red shirt villages. This isn't really surprising though, as many commentators have said that for all his evils, Thaksin was the catalyst that brought heightened awareness of and interest in national politics to rural villages for the first time.

Interesting (and somewhat reassuring) feedback, cheers.

Did the "yellows" there have any comments on the branding of the village by the "reds"? Reason for asking is I can say with absolute certainty the "yellows" (read die-hard PAD supporters) would take absolute exception their areas being publicly branded in a similar manor. That said, I also believe the regular, uni-educated anti-Thaksin types I know (much more numerous) also wouldn't be as passive as the "yellows" you describe either.

Maybe it's just daily city tensions adding to the stress.

Thank you for posting.

I'd like to take this moment to salute Oberkommando for his efforts.

/edit to add, I'd love to see all far-right attitudes removed entirely from both sides of this unholy conflict. Unfortunately their adoption seems to drum up far to much valuable anger for their despot, ethically void leaders for it to go ignored by them.