avalonmick

Both the Reds and the Yellows are wrong, and they are right.

This admission from Sopon: ..."What are the key problems facing the government right now? Among many factors are its sinking credibility and lack of public confidence - due to its incompetence, blatant corruption, and its ignorance of public calls for integrity and the restoration of law enforcement." ... would, in a democracy, be perfectly valid reasons for agitating to get rid of the government at the next election, whether you are Red or Yellow.

The problem is, these puppet governments are afraid of fair and full elections because they might lose.

As a result, and very sadly, the country is now in a death spiral that will lead to the inevitable crash with numerous casualties [hopefully not physically hurt] in business, rural areas, and in the working suburbs of the large cities and towns, unless a true leader emerges soon to pull us out of this.

Thaksin is a failed experiment; he was never a true leader because he allowed self interest to rule his judgement and his decisions, so he should remain banished.

But where is our leader when we need him???

Why not just ban all skirts.

Trousers as women school uniform.

sensible suggestion, but then .. the french want to ban the burqua, so where do you start and stop politicians interfering with our right to wear, well, clothes

Not again, how often are they going to recycle this "problem"...

Politics 101: if you can't control the entire country and can't manage the economy to everyone's benefit, you choose the easy stuff with emotional pull to try to get a win. Elsewhere it's called dog whistling: you whistle about some problem that gets media attention then wait to see which dogs it sets yapping.

Perhaps here we could call it wolf-whistling.

I certainly hope that cinemas will enforce the film ratings. I recall watching the last Rambo film with a Thai family sitting behind me with a young child (4 or 5 years old) clearly very distraught (crying screaming etc) during some scenes that no child of that age should see.

The karaoke thing is a huge double standard, why crack down on that and turn a blind eye to massage parlours and go go bars?

Because the politicians don't own karaoke bars?

I really don't think there were more than 11 million tourists 48 years ago in Thailand. Or 47, or 37, or 27, or 17 or even 7 years ago. What a crock of sh#t piece of journalism.

They're probably referring to the drop percentage wise.

correct, according to TAT's figures, largest % drop

I had read the letter from Elite to its member regarding the extension of the 5 years visa and did have an opportunity to talk to reliable source of Elite card today at their office so I asked the question. Their admit and the letter was misleading and confirm that the visa will be extended for another 5 years for sure but the reason why they still have no clear answer is because the committee is still deciding on whether or not, and if so, how much fee, they will charge member for the 5 years renewal fee.

As when the card is approved, they didn't think about this issue before so there was no renewal rate for 5 years visa at the Immigration bureau. The issue about the renewal rate of 5 years visa was put in the committee in the last cabinet but as the cabinet has changed, the matter had to be re-submitted and now awaiting for decision and announcement. Again, they said 100% the visa will be renewed and it's only the fee that has to be decided.

My guess is that the worse case scenario will be Elite member will probably has to pay 1,900 Baht for 5 year renewal fee.

I did not ask about member that did apply for extension of 5 year visa before it expires though I feel that member should get benefit of the doubt as the term "life time privilege" could mislead some members to not pay attention to the visa renewal clause (if there was one).

I think that the content of the Elite letter to member was quite misleading but to be positive, at least the reality is not as bad as it seemed. As a Thai person, I am happy to see this outcome as I have no wish to see our government's credibility got more tarnished than this.

Naravadee Waravanitcha (nui) Sunbelt Asia Co., Ltd

Oh dear, and the last bit sums it up.

More tarnished than what? Is it even possible there is a smidgeon not yet tarnished?

Flour ( pastry .....or ..... Babies/Anne Fine)

Flout

Salvation for the poor

BANGKOK: -- State kicks in nearly Bt50 billion for economic fillip and to help needy make ends meet.

The government will pay water bills for low-income households that consume fewer than 50 cubic litres each month.

--Xpress/The Nation 2008-07-16

<deleted> is a cubic litre?

Can't they get journos who understand what they are writing about? Or at least an editor who does?

litre is in the dictionary, mostly British use, they used it properly. <deleted> is a jurnos?

Do British use "cubic litre"? I think with litre, we don't need cubic. Am I right?

Well what a side track that exposed a lot of ignorance about the most popular units of measurement on the planet.

However it is very important that the original journo gets this correct as a [cubic] litre is 1000 times smaller than a cubic metre, so 50 litres of water a month is bugger all and 50 cubic metres is quite a lot possibly more than even an average western family might consume. for the affluent westerners, its the amount in a reasonable sized back yard pool 2m x 6m x 4.1m.

This government is desperately looking for things to do that look positive and vote grabbing. This is a chnage you have when you don't want anything to change - least off all increasing competition in small business area.

Any government that believes handing out large sums of cash to rural villages without any form accountability or control will stimulate economic growth is floundering, trying to look competent while at the same time beating up its opponents behind the scenes by moving or sacking bureaucrats appointed by the previous government.

This populist policy by press release at its very best.