Ricardo

While the logic seems inescapable, that riots and yet another State of Emergency ought to weaken the Baht on world-markets, this is Thailand and therefore one must expect to see the Bank of Thailand continue with its damaging policy, as exports & tourism & the local economy crumble. They do have the Reserves to be able to hold this line.

So I for one am not holding my breath ...

Love the double standards.

Home roost come chickens to. Anagram time

Chickens may come home to roost, but I somehow doubt Thaksin will do, after inciting this mess in his homeland.

As to double standards, I thought the governments stated preference to leave DTV on-the-air, rather than the kneejerk action of pulling anything they didn't like, was a step in the right direction. Pity that it turned out like this though ... another blow to hopes of more media freedom.

I must admit that seeing on TV pictures of that fat monk, hitting what he thought was the PM's car, clashed very much with the normal image one has of somebody who wears orange. Very disturbing. Hopefully his superiors will also have seen it.

It ain't going to happen. The red side does not have enough support - that is willing to carry on long term - and the present government is starting to copy Thaksin in order to get support from the poor. Also, Thais really don't want to fight each other if it can be helped.

Good calm common-sense from UG.

But it never harms, to keep your options open, so perhaps get your daughter's UK-passport sorted, which then gives you the option to hop over the Malaysian border with your family for a 90-day visit, should the need arise.

I myself take the more-expensive option of keeping all my dependents' UK and Thai passports current. Just in case.

The deposed prime minister said he will return to lead his supporters, if a coup takes place.

But hadn't he said before, he would return immediately to lead his supporters, once the first shot had been fired ? So where is he then ? Still sitting safe in the bunker ?

Well I maybe the first farang to be injured, my gf and I were in a taxi and going to a pub for dinner we past a heavily fortified house on Sukhumit 33, turns out it's the Prime Ministers house. The driver asked what I thought of him, I said that I think he is doing his best and should be given a chance, oh the injury, a jab in the ribs - I never learn.

'Friendly fire' claims yet another victim !

For once I agree with you, comparing Thaksin with Abhi is like comparing a great director like Kubrick or Spielberg to a good looking but mediocre actor like Tom Cruise.

Great dictator, not director, surely ? Where is Charlie Chaplin, when there's another great film, for him to make ?

Policemen have been putting on red shirts and joining the demonstrations.

Which perhaps explains their lack of action, down in Pattaya, as events unfolded ? But aren't the police & military supposed to be in real control, with Abhisit just their puppet, something doesn't add up with that theory.

If Abhisit opens fire on civilians, he's gone. He's gone anyways, just faster that way.

Civilians? Civilians don't break up international summits, civilians don't steal APC's, civilians don't cut off passage ways to hospitals. civilians don't take over roads and highways, civilians don't try to kill heads of countries, civilians don't run amok etc. With an SOE, these are no longer civilians. The enemy will be dealt with.

Perhaps by "civilians" Rainman really means the International Terrorists, currently running round wearing Red Shirts, and carrying pictures of their still-absent hero Thaksin ?

I would propose the creation of a new medal, in honour of their heroic deeds in Pattaya, to be called the 'Battle-of-Pattaya Non-Participants Not-Very Cross', this might be awarded with first or second-ranking dining-privileges, as appropriate ?

I passed (going into town) a parade of Red-Shirts (coming out of town) near the City Hall at about 2.30 this afternoon. Some 300 people with motorbikes & pickups, displaying pictures of Thaksin, were occupying both lanes north-bound, with a long tail-back of normal traffic behind them, as they moved towards City Hall.

Several of them were directing traffic at the intersection with the 2nd ring-road, since there didn't seem to be any BiBs in the area, must have been time for PC Plod's tea-break !

The mood seemed fairly good-natured.

Army Police & Civil Servents = Coulor Blue ????

Who the hel_l are the dudes in blue? They are intent on mixing it with the Reds so at a guess Pad paid heavies??

There's nothing like a State of Emergency, for bringing out the rumours, is there ? The PAD went home four months ago, and little has been seen or heard of them, since.

I think it was established on the Pattaya SoE thread, that the blue-shirts seem to be controlled by Newin, in some way. I agree that it's interesting to see this new group emerge from nowhere, perhaps it is part of his long-term party-operation, but that would make them ex-supporters of Thaksin/TRT/PPP/PTP wouldn't it ?

The situation is becoming more violent and out-of-control daily, which can't be good, hope that it cools off and nobody else gets hurt. But where is Thaksin in all this, didn't he promise to return immediately the first shot was fired, to lead his supporters on-the-streets ? So where is he then ??

Action is scheduled for 31st April. TiT.

If you weren't a rich farang tourist, you wouldn't be able to afford to fly or have things worth stealing, so it wouldn't happen to you, it's really all the farangs' fault.

Or sideways promotion, to paid inactivity, so that no incompetents lose face ?

"..It suggests that voting is not a secret affair in Thailand ..."

If that is the case, then the real problem would appear to securing the integrity of the confidential/secret voting system. Everyone should be allowed to vote privately with no obligation to explain their choice and things will work out as they should ultimately. The 200 baht for your vote would seem to add a circus sideshow element to the process but otherwise be irrelevant.

Agreed, the problem is when you can just look through the window of your village-hall, and see who is voting for whom, and whether they are doing as they've been paid to do. This does sometimes happen locally.

It seems to me that if an individual MP buys votes, then that should be a problem for only that particular MP, but that when one/some of a political-party's executive-committee/leadership are actively involved in arranging for vote-rigging, then it ought to become a problem for the whole party-organisation.

The EC ban on the party-organisation, and the 5-year sending-off of its leadership, but not the banning of every innocent member-MP, seems a measured-response to encourage parties not to indulge in this behaviour, unfortunately TRT failed to learn this lesson in time to save PPP. Hopefully PTP will not continue the mistake.

Saw in TV. Bule shirts have gun and trown the rocks into red shirts.. don't be fooled by this source. This source own by Yellow leader Sonti Limthongkul. They lie and tallking to make Thai innocent red shirts look bad. Blue shirts form by Yellow shirts and PAD ( Navin) and gorvenment. This group was seized the airport and armed.. they are vilolence people and gave money to Yellow shirts to protest against last government.

The Nation newspaper is obviously owned by the yellow shirts and shows a one sided view of what is happenening in Pattaya at the moment

Do either of you have a source, for the claim that 'The Nation' is owned by Sonti Limthongkul, or the PAD ?

The Nation newspaper is obviously owned by the yellow shirts and shows a one sided view of what is happenening in Pattaya at the moment

:D The nation is owned by former friends of Thaksin.

You mix that with the Manager group which does NOT own "The Nation".

Quite.

And a welcome to all our new posters, however please note that when you make things up on TV, you may be 'called' on it.

The reds took down their baricades a while ago and traffic is back to normal. Apparently someone convinced them not to piss off their friends.

(The other red thread is broken).

Perhaps someone told them, there might be an Aids-Awareness Parade somewhere else, so they went to support it ?

The timing of their action, just before the biggest tourist-fest of the C.M. year, is surely unhelpful to anyone whose job depends on tourism ? But at least they backed-off. So that's all right then.

There doesn't seem to be any option, for "None, as I have my own private jet", for the barflies amongst us ?

Abhisit is hosting ASEAN Summit Plus 3 in Pattaya at Royal Beach Cliff Resort.

The reds protested there yesterday with no weapons as usual but were turned away by groups wearing black and dark blue using rubber strings to shoot glass balls.

The reds went back to gather near BigC.

Nuttawut said 10 minutes ago that there are groups wearing black and dark blue having guns, knifes, bombs and other weapons trying to stop the reds. The reds are calling more reds to come and help.

The red leaders who are at Pattaya now said there are no reporters from regular TV channels.

Abhisit government last night at 23:00 had order from court to catch red leaders for causing traffic problems.

Now no police is out to stop black and dark blue people.

George just posted an article, in a separate thread, reporting that the Red Shirts are carrying "giant firecrackers, molotov cocktails, sling shots and batons".

And the Red Shirts are also reported elsewhere to have attacked foreign reporters, which perhaps explains the lack of media, on-site ?

This suggests that the situation is not as one-sided as Koo believes. Hope that it stays calm, as armed riots might make it impossible, for the military not to intervene.

this conversation is not moving forward for me when some people just dwell on trivia and picking apart the bits of posts they don; tlike like the oysters form a chicken... That is not debating, that is bone picking.

Perhaps we're just not the right sort of farangs, we must be here for the wrong reasons, but at least we're all despised by the locals unlike yourself ?

Or perhaps we really do share your desire for a move towards increased democracy here, but don't think Thaksin is an essential part of the process, based on his record ?

You have to admit it's quite a change of direction, from saying "democracy is not my objective" while in-power, to now being a fighter (from a safe distance) for liberty, fraternity and equality.

Red Shirts smashed the window of one French journalist's car on the road from Bangkok to Pattaya, and at least two other groups of journalists were roughed up by protesters on their way to the summit.

- IndoAsian News Service / 2009-04-10

And the Red-Shirts peaceful fight for Democracy continues ... with their usual thuggish-behaviour for people they might not like.

Not that they've yet occupied Swampy, just blockaded Chiang Mai Airport last week and attacked the PM's car in Pattaya, but at some point aren't they going to look just a little bit like the alleged 'international terrorists of the PAD', if they continue to act this peacefully, in their attempts to disrupt the ASEAN-conference ?

It started a week ago, up in Fang, I believe the kids there think it ought to be a 2-week-long festival !

The only responsible solution is to dissolve the house and call for new elections.

Why?

So that the PTP can poll 40%-ish of the vote again, proclaim a 'landslide victory', and form a legal opposition in Parliament, then declare the whole process undemocratic and rigged, thus progressing democracy erm ... erm ... erm ?

If a new election is the only responsible solution, doesn't that mean it was irresponsible of PM-Somchai not to do that, last November ? Or perhaps playing golf & going to karaoke in Chiang Mai was some new version of responsible behaviour, previously unseen in power, which would have helped the country focus on its response to the global economic-crisis ?

Given the apparent number of Robbin' Hoods here, even discounting career-professionals such as the politicians & BiBs, one might have expected there to be better facilities for them ?

I guess they must just hang-out in whatever's left of the woodlands, traditional behaviour for these informal-groups of freelance wealth-redistribution-consultants, I understand ?

Whence sometimes emanates the strange sound of people practising Robbery With Violins.

You may have guessed that it's a very quiet day, here in Mae-Jo, for those of us too timid or wise to go out on the streets during Songkran.

I suppose that our time has just not come yet, but hopefully it will.

But preferably after a Good Old Full English Breakfast, then we'll be ready, for whatever life throws at us !

Speaking by phone from a train platform in Tokyo, Mr Udom said he didn't think the listing was related to safety issues, but rather to the fact that the EU commonly blacklists carriers who don't own their own aircraft, even though operating leased aircraft is common in Asia.

This would merely be hilarious, if it weren't that this guy sets the policy on safety-issues & maintenance, for his companies.

Just how credulous does he think the travelling-public are ?

Presumably all the flights to Nicaragua were fully-booked ?