oneday

Why anyone would want to be in Egypt during these troubled times, or any troubled middle eastern country, I can't for life of me understand. This should do wonders for what tourism they have left.

"...Col Winthai Suvari...said he had yet not received a report about Pravit's detention..."

Uh-huh, right!

If they can do it two days a month, then why not every day? Makro does not give bags to customers so they are way ahead of this game the government is playing.

Get serious!

Then work on some way to curb the use of double layering bags by street vendors.

R.I.P. young lady.

"...Police have said they believe the cause of death to be drowning, stating the girl probably fell into the canal..."

So, so, so typical. Too damn lazy to actually do a real investigation; like maybe talk with the friends she was playing with. If there was fowl play by any of the children there is a good chance one or more of them will look really guilty. It seems as if the police never want to do a real investigation or any investigation at all. With falang it's always suicide. No wonder people do not trust police. Life is incredibly cheap here.

"...She tells me normally a husband and wife don't always sit down and eat together for eg. But eat when they feel like it..."

My wife always gets upset with me if I have already eaten, because she does not like to sit down and eat alone. What your wife said couldn't be further from the truth. Most thais look forward to eating together. It's the best part of the day for many of them. I seriously doubt a husband would be left out unless he wanted to (like me). You know Thais are always and I mean always asking each other if they have eaten, "gin kao, ru young?".

Really, if it were me, I'd demand she get back on that pill that turned her into an angel and if not then leave as fast as you can because your life will be hell.

I'm sure God is very proud of the tolerance of his people on both sides of this conflict.

"...people...said they wanted the new 21-member of Constitution Drafting Committee to understand the wishes of the people..."

This is certainly as it should be, but the very last thing the current government wants. True Democracy is a nasty concept to the current government.

Debt is synonym to a Thai farmer, when was a Thai farmer NOT IN DEBT? year after year, decade after decade, those farmers

are always in debt, why? a million reasons why, will it be better? no, not the way the keep repeating the same mistakes

over and over again and learning nothing from it......

If I get your statement correctly, you are blaming the Thai farmer. I don't think most people would disagree with the statement that in general Thai farmer's are not a rich group of people; far from it. Of course, they will try to plant an off-season crop if possible; anyone would in their shoes. Are they in debt all the time, probably and most probably due to the horrible education system in this country and complete lack of appropriate help from the government departments who are supposed to exist for the SOLE purpose of helping the farmer.

What you have to say is extremely heartless and people like you are what's wrong with this world. No doubt you are sitting at your computer with plenty of food on your table and you've almost certainly never worked as hard as a Thai farmer.

Great article. Unfortunately, the people who can affect the much needed educational changes, never will.

What this man has to say in this article is very fair and very reasonable which isn't even close to what we have to listen to every day coming from the mouths of the people in charge of the current government.

All he says he wants is Democracy, which I fear this country will never get.

Obama is the worst kind of liberal. He is giving the country away and wants to let terrorists go so they can kill more Americans. I can't wait until he is out of office.

I wonder where the US would be on there sanctimonious human rights charts. Maybe they should try taking the plank out of their own eye before trying to take the splinter out of others.

Besides the fact you are comparing terrorists to people like those recently in the news, the Rohingya (apples and oranges), you would most certainly change your tune if it was YOUR country the terrorists have painted a target on. Terrorists have abdicated all of their rights. They are rabid animals and deserve to be treated that way.

Died from: "...a fatal neurological disease..."

Job: "...mixing cyanide..."

Doesn't take a neurologist to connect those dots.

Everyone knows Thailand and safety should never be uttered in the same sentence...oops, I just did!

Don't look now, the crisis is already here. If they keep drafting undemocratic "Charter's" like the one their own appointed people just rejected then the junta will be in power for a long time. One begins to wonder if this isn't what the people in power wanted all along despite Mr. P's protestations that he wants to retire.

"...Our country has clear rules and we have to follow the rules..."

That begs the question; are rules set forth by an illegal, non-elected government lawful? Especially if these rules impinge on the very values and foundation of a Democratic society? What we have is "rule of law" as it existed in the day of the caveman. If you have the power then all those without power must bow down to your rule; right or wrong. It is not good for the people, but it is very good for those in power.

So the air force gets an Airbus. Oh, the parties they will throw on that behemoth. Now the navy will ramp up their request to buy submarines again. Can't wait to see what the army will be getting.

Let's call a spade a spade..."anyone expressing an opinion against the junta".

Systematic pursuit, harrassment and prosecution by the people in power against those out of power. Just another form of corruption.

I guess it is beyond their capabilities to actually conduct a proper investigation...maybe an undercover operations, to catch the bad ones. Too many officials making too much money under the table...maybe.

"...the definition of insanity is

doing something over and over again

and expecting a different result."

What unnecessarily dramatic headlines. I'll bet none of these girls were there against their own free will, meaning there was no rescue involved. Somebody just wanted to make headlines to look good to the West for the next TIP report or someone didn't pay their tee money, but I seriously doubt it was done to actually uphold the law and protect underage children.

R.I.P young lady.

Brave lawyer.

"Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha,..., said Pichai was merely invited for meals and was offered lodging."

"...Prayut said he did not know how long Pichai would be detained..."

Two diametrically opposed statements by the same person. Why am I not surprised.

Even though it is accepted practice in the the US that all credit and debit(ATM) cards expire and that date is clearly marked on the face of the card, it would appear my BKK ATM card never expires. I've had it for 7 years I believe.

However, it is customary for all banks that I know of to charge a nuisance fee for their ATM cards. The Green bank can be one of the worst at this. At one time they wanted 800 baht for an ATM card because it was linked with some promotion and it didn't matter if you wanted the promotion or not.

The response you got is absolutely typical in this country. They, for the most part, have no real sense of good customer service so they could care less that you were unaware of the expiration even if it is, in a sense, their fault, because they did virtually nothing to notify you of your card's expiration. In our countries you would almost certainly have gotten a letter in the mail informing you and this is what I mean by a lack of good customer service sense.

It is also customary in this country that there are MANY things you CANNOT do except at the branch you opened your account at, unlike in the west. They are, in many ways, still very antiquated and backwards in their practices aptly demonstrated by their pathological use of the Bankbook. If you want the convenience of banking in two different provinces then you are better off opening an account in each province to avoid nuisance fees for transfers and ATM usage, whereas, you would never have to do that in the US and I assume the EU or UK.

You say it is partially the banks fault for not informing him even thought h would have seen if he used his card at some point. You say typically Thailand. For your information I am from Boston MA USA and the Department of Motor Vehicles in order to save costs ( and generate revenue) no longer sends out notices that your drivers liscense is about to expire. Forget and get caught get ticket and have to pay fine and replacement costs for new one.

Ah, a Thai apologist.

I stand behind what I say. Many Thai businesses do not have very good customer service practices (notice I didn't say ALL) and when logic is brought up to them as to why they should give you a break they just get obstinate and say "you must pay". If you don't know that then you haven't lived here long or you live in a bubble.

DMV departments and Police are two different agencies. One can't be held accountable for what the other does and so the police don't care.

In the case of the ATM and bank...it's all in the same business and under the control on that one business. Apples and oranges my friend.

And yes, I am moving home soon.