oneday

To "BKKstan" and "Solution42". You should clarify; were you told this verbally or were you handed a printout with the new regulations? You should ask for it in writing as this does not conform to the national law. If you were handed a printout you should upload and post that printout.

Yes, offices do their own thing in many little ways, but this goes way beyond just doing your own thing and it isn't little. Various offices or officers or commanders can throw curve balls, but this is a game changer for a lot of people in Nong Khai. I'll bet they don't have the balls to put this in writing.

I would strongly advise taking "ubonjoe's" suggestion and call 1111 to complain for those of you in Nong Khai who will have trouble with this new requirement. Nothing may come of it, but if you don't call then I can guarantee nothing will come of it.

"...The problem [the country's] facing here is that the winners are holding on too tight to their power, while the losers are trying to take down these winners. And both these sides are dragging the people supporting them into the battle," he added..."

A pretty darn good summary of this country's crippling affliction.

Why, what do they need them for? For their crack investigative skills. So they can declare building jumpers and hanging people with their hands tied behind their backs all "suicides". For their efforts in preventing untold numbers of deaths on the roadways of Thailand or so they can just continue to do the same old thing...which isn't much.

Nah, don't need them.

So if the weight of the buildings is causing the city to sink, that isn't going away EVER. Even if they stop building now it will not stop what is already happening from the existing buildings. If drawing too much water out of the ground is part of the cause of the sinking, well that isn't going to stop either. Building a barrier dam may do something for high tides (and that's a big maybe), but it will do nothing for the continued sinking of the city.

The only solution is to gradually move the city or somehow get a huge city size raft under the city to support it. Don't see anything like that happening at all and I really don't see them slowing this down.

Bye, bye Bangkok.

This government didn't do a darn thing until they stumbled, literally stumbled, on that grave site two or three months ago and then, and only then, did some dominoes start to fall.

However, I'm willing to bet that now the pressure is off, the traffickers will be back, if not already. Until this government shows they are doing continual night flights monitoring the jungles, where these guys set up camps, using IR gear from helicopters, I won't be convinced they are STILL doing all they can do. They also have to keep up the pressure on fishing boats to get them all registered and monitored to help prevent them from being used as holding pens for traffickers until they can sell them to someone.

I fear the US will upgrade them anyway to Tier 2 even though I'm willing to bet there are still lots of traffickers out there plying their trade.

Be very careful about thinking your children have Dual Nationality or Dual Citizenship. I'd do some research on this if I were you.

My research found that Thailand DOES NOT allow dual citizenship, but they also DO NOT enforce it unless you throw it in their face. The common thinking is if you DO NOT open your mouth about having two passports then there should never be a problem and everything will work as you want or expect with regard to Thailand.

Whatever passport you use to entry a country, that is the passport you use to leave that country. Don't make the mistake of going to some Thai government department and asking questions about dual citizenship and mentioning you have two passports.

Do your own research on this before taking my word or anyone else's word on this.

As someone else pointed out, the onus is on the police to be more tolerant and understanding of the public, given that the police are trained and the public is not. Everyone hates a cop that feels he can give orders like a God, such as putting out a cigarette. I've never heard of a law that says, "everything a cop tells you to do is the law and must be obeyed". Most people will obey a reasonable order/request, but I can easily see where she was coming from. She was ready and primed to fight and he knew it.

Everything was reasonably OK and it was almost over when the cop asked her to put her cigarette out. He absolutely knew that would push her buttons and he got what he wanted, he was expecting it. I hate cigarettes, but from my point of view that officer had no right to ask that she put the cigarette out and then turn it into a crime by not doing so. It was if he thought that was a lawful order so he felt he had a right to make her step out of the car and escalate it to a new level. That was over-the-top and I can understand her getting indignant. Of course, I can't and won't defend the rest of what she did.

...dying in jail...highly, highly suspicious.

Now, if we could only get them to pass some hate laws against women.

Yep, that was the glaring one missing from this law. I and I'm sure many others immediately looked to see if this law said "gender discrimination" and as expected it was missing.

How about giving job preference to destitute farmer's on upcoming water projects in their province...assuming their province will be getting a water project.

"...Substandard construction was blamed for the collapse..."

Great Sherlock like observation.

You forgot to mention the lack of money to buy quality materials and quality engineers due to too much kickback money going into one or more official's pocket.

She's thai regardless of id. Her mothers nationality is not in doubt. If you want to get her a passport then just follow the local thai embassies guidelines. Thai id card is not necessary

So simply because her mum is Thai, she's automatically a Thai citizen?

Its really that simple?

I thought there would have to be something on paper or something more than just mums citizenship to confirm?

Not even her name on the house book is needed to be Thai?

No, but to do a lot of things in Thailand that Thai citizens are entitled to, I've read many, many times she does need to be on someone's house book and I've read where that includes getting a passport, though there may be exceptions for a baby born in another country. I sure your local Thai embassy can answer your questions.

Nevertheless, if the need ever arose for getting something in Thailand be prepared to get her name on someone's house book and I think something registered at the local Amphur, then go get her national ID card. After this she should be good to go for anything she wants or needs to do in Thailand as a citizen.

Everyone here is right, her mother being Thai makes her Thai, but there is still paperwork to do. I'd get it done as soon as possible, because if her mother passes away (heaven forbid) things may get much more difficult.

If you are in Bangkok, just go down to the RTP HQ in Chidlom. There's a whole section for this. The service is free, but it takes a while.

No, it is not free. It cost 100 baht if you do it in person or someone else helps you.........BIG MONEY!

We are doing one right now for my fiance. Still waiting on the report.

It's been 3 weeks, which is how long it is supposed to take.

You can compare the instructions at the US Embassy in Bangkok to the Canada link the poster above gave. I didn't bother to see if they are the same, but two sources are always good. This link will immediately download a .PDF of the Police Clearance instructions. Naturally, your instructions are under the non-Thai section.

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/thailand/591452/iv/thaipolicecert.pdf

Looks like someone is taking a page out of Thailand's rule book or is it visa versa?

Get rid of the opposition so you are the only game in town.

"...and causing public disobedience and panic..."

Panic, are they serious? What drama queens!

And what the heck is "public disobedience"...that's a good one.

More and more control by the military everyday. It's hard to believe this government is serious about having elections.

In all likelihood these plants can probably be built in a manner that safe-guards the environment, but it would be expensive and I doubt they will spend that kind of money, nor do I believe they have the expertise to build safe plants.

"...Only Thailand deserved the special privilege of meeting them, he said..."

We all know why that is. Either they are the easiest to fool or, more likely, because they are happy to spin whatever story China wants because they a new "best buds".

Libel laws are all you need for the media. Heck, the existing defamation laws pretty much scare the hell out of the media already. Why more laws?

As long as the media checks their facts and has corroboration of the the facts in their stories then they should be able to publish. If not, then they will be sued in court. It's that simple. What is going on here is exactly what the media groups claim. The government is trying to put them completely under their control. It's a logical step for a government that has been heading in this direction consistently and steadily from the beginning of the coup.

You think they would admit it if they were using this software and spying?

Not this government.

Thai is much harder to learn reading/writing than as spoken. The English alphabet 26 letters, 5 vowels. 6 if you want. Thai has 44 consonants, 24 vowels, 4 special vowels, silent vowels and 5 tones. If you are a 20 year-old falang, possible. As a 68 year-old, virtually impossible unless you have a real gift for languages.

Constant practice of spoken Thai is a given. Thais can usually work out what you are trying to say by context, even when you get the tones wrong.

A Thai dictionary app on your mobile or Kindle is also useful.

By all means attend a school such as Easy Study Thai; however, nothing beats daily communication in Thai with the Thais around you.

It is worth it to learn to communicate in Thai. Many falangs refuse to communicate in anything but English, and that's their loss.

I very much disagree with you on number of vowels. You will get different numbers of vowels from different sources, but the most common number is in the neighborhood of 32. However, I also disagree with that. After a LOT of studying and I mean a lot by reading different sources I came up with 80 different vowels when you include the combination vowels. Of those 9 of them are very rare so call it 70. I'd be happy to list them here for any disbelievers.

You would be doing yourself a huge disservice by not studying the vowel combination of which many are commonly used.

Also there are 44 consonants, but two are obsolete.

At 68 it is possible, but as I said before, you really need to be committed to learning.

The Thai people that will have a better chance of understanding you are the ones that are around falang a lot. The further you get out in the rural areas the better your pronunciation needs to be.

You cannot remove the cover on any version of the S6. Beginning with the S6 and E7 Samsung decided to go the iPhone way and so these phones are sealed. In all likelihood all future Samsung phones will also be sealed. You can remove the SIM card and there is a second slot for an SD card or another SIM card on the side of the phone.

If the S6 gets wet from being around a pool, river, waterfall or beach then I doubt you will have problems, but if the phone is completely submerged then all bets are off. I would certainly be more careful around saltwater. So there is a good chance this phone IS water-resistant, but I wouldn't want to bet on it being water-proof.

"...Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Kariye and other plaintiffs in the case, filed a motion in April saying the government still hadn't provided them with enough information about their placement on the no-fly list..."

Too bad. Fry his (a#@ss)/behind , revoke his citizenship and send him to Afghanistan.

"...as long as her request is approved by the court..."

So a misleading headline by technicality. The NCPO doesn't care (ah-huh), only the court cares.

"...They (PTP) can go abroad as usual by requesting permissions from the NCPO..."

So they also must ask permission. What isn't being said is if that permission will be given.

So we really don't know anything.

First of all, learning Thai takes a real commitment. If you aren't ready to give 100% then don't even bother. I'm 62 and I learned a bit until I got tired of learning. I went to a local school at a library here (not Chiang Mai) for a while. I also taught myself to read with computer aids and a couple of different websites that are good. I'm also a programmer so I created a program in Excel that was like a flash card system for learning to read. It took me one month at 6-8 hours a day to learn to read. I can read about 80% of what I see, but it's still difficult telling where one word ends and another starts. There are many, many clues that help, but those clues are something missing.

Reading is simply a matter of memorization, but there is a lot more to memorize than you'd think. Almost all the consonants take on a different sound at the end of a syllable or word as opposed to when they are at the beginning of the syllable or word. So you need to remember two sounds for each consonant. It's worth it though, it really is. Once you have the sounds down you can read a lot of Thai because it's phonetic, though there are some exceptions...there always is.

The best website bar none, IMO is: thai-language.com

Learning Thai is a never-ending process. If you set yourself a goal of learning just two new words a day you would have a decent vocabulary at the end of one year. Pick your two words for each day and make sure you practice them ALL day. That is how you lock them into memory. Make them very relevant words so you have many occasions to use them again and again. Or learn common phrases. Or learn groups of words such as colors or the months of the year or days of week or numbers using a flash card system. Make it yourself or find something you can download for your computer or buy something.

Every time you are out and want to know the name of something ASK and remember it.

The best advice I can give you is this. For every word you learn YOU MUST learn THREE things about that word:

1. the word

2. the tone

3. and the length of vowel.

The tone and length of vowel especially are much more important than you would think. Without learning all three Thai people will have a difficult time understanding you. And you need someone to help you learn how to do a decent job of pronouncing the tones until you get it right.

For me mid tone (our normal speak), rising tone (like a question) and low tones aren't that difficult, but I have a difficult time with falling tones and high tones. They just aren't natural for us.

Good luck.

"...were groundless because surveillance on citizens was illegal and ran counter to national police agency policy..."

...as if this country were being run by a lawfully elected government.

We believe, we believe...