Sydebolle

So what is the government always crying about all those dirty farang who drew the Thai healthcare business financially into the abyss? I - for one - paid my dues into the Social Security Insurance of Thailand - according to the law. Interesting enough is the fact, that when collecting the pay out due to retirement, my birth year on their file was making me ten years old than I actually am. In addition, all contributions from 1985 to 2000 were not traceable anymore. A legal pathfinding might have resulted in clarity but the legal expenses would have been in no comparison to the amount in question. So, I assume, that Dr Thaksin either heals his problems partly on my financial input ....... or was smart enough to get his contributions, if any, out in time!

As the Italians say "attenzione a non essere detronizzato" ;-)

Can anyone share the phone number of the worldwide well-known culprit of those "environmental disasters" with H.E. The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, who quite obviously is either completely ignorant or smoke-screening activities like all his predecessors? No meeting is required, just enforce the law by the police, which is under the direct leadership of who? Guessing is allowed ;-)

Those around then will remember, that they built the QSNCC centre in a mere nine months as well as a long wall along Ratchadaphisek parallel to Soi 16 to hide the slums. Furthermore school classes were driven over to the new wall to "beautify" the concrete with children's paintings. To hide the fact over Bangkok's then already notorious traffic jam, the government declared a public holiday week and justified that with the statement, that "the school children could also enjoy the IMF conference". I was in charge of accompanying a European Finance Minister who asked me in the government-sponsored limo, what these discussions over Bangkok's traffic jams were all about as we were whisked through between QSNCC and the (former) Hilton Hotel on Wireless Road. The minister passed away, the Hilton manages another property but my memories over that Thai governmental hat trick remains a vidid memory ;-)

Well, that makes two of us. I remember the news on the Thai telly, while the radio would provide a - more often than not - delayed English soundtrack. Some funny moments were enjoyed by one and all. On the way to work in the morning I listened to the English news by Radio Thailand. It took a spoilt brat of a Phooyai to read the news, unfortunately they had not the slightest exposure to a native English-speaking person which had a more than entertaining element on the wireless. Agricultural produce like vegetables got verbally converted to furniture as veghee table; strawberries got announced as "sa-tra-bellee", a promotional support by the department of export on "pa-la-sa-teek" referred to plastic industrial issues etc. etc. etc. Still here, still enjoying while being slightly melancholic seeing, that the next generation is even worse on the issue of foreign languages and wondering, how they will manage the challenges ahead of them in the decades to come

The answer is simple = the government, phooyais and the local upper crust does not WANT to speak English and hence the underlings of the land have to follow suit. I met Thai teachers, major in English, who could not follow a basic English conversation; some years ago they cleared out most native-English speaking staff (the dirty farang again) and the rest of them is getting paid that little, that nobody in his right mind wants to work here. Given the fact, that the kids are glued to the telly being hammered with cartoons from the English or Japanese speaking world, they could just let those cartoons run in their original language versions. By the age of, say, ten or so, those children would be able to speak and understand both languages with ZERO effort; to teach them how to write and read would be soooooo much easier. But try to convince all those clowns at the education ministry. It remains a fact, that those in charge of improving education are the same people benefitting from the fact, that the education level remains sub-zero. I have never found out, what they do with Thai kids over 15+ years of education in primary, secondary and university levels except exercising three, four days prior to graduation to receive their degree with the ever-so-important-picture; fact is, that they leave the education process not being able to compete with almost any other ASEAN state. A poor certification of how the next generation is being short changed and the result is evident. The most sought after commodity here is semi- or skilled staff; Thailand has the biggest problems regarding Human Resources which makes sure, that the longer the more investors turn away to other countries in the region. Their call - really!

Ah, now I understand the Thai navy admiral who expressed his "preference" of submarines over frigates ..........

Only once the RTP is doing the job they are actually employed for, things might change. There is a reason, why Thailand toggles between 1st and 2nd most dangerous country to drive and the RTP is to blame for absolute ignorance and Baht-blindness in enforcing existing (good) laws! But here again, the Phuyais get their share of the highway heist - which explains the sometimes rather fancy exclusive cars parked at the police stations. Latter possibly inherited or won in the lottery?

Blue Diamond Affair - knock on the top floor for that issue. Never solved, left lots of collateral damage behind apart from the fact, that the Saudis banned Thai workers for an entire generation which has cost Thailand billions of dollars for the pleasure of the Blue Diamond and other heisted jewelry for the selected very few! Has anything changed since? Go figure ........... every intersection is your testing ground for what other places would call "highway robbery"! Albeit in much smaller denomination but evidently very fatty returns ;-)

The next will be the bridge to Petchburi and the Kra-canal. But, before HE the PM of the Land of the Semi-Divine goes splurging money on bridges et al, he might want to clean up the inferior infrastructure in his own land. There are millions of Thais without reliable fresh water supply, waste water is another subject as well as proper garbage incineration, education by mental abilities of the child and not the financial abilities of the parents etc. etc. On the note of his sons in the US I heard, that the Thai Ambassador to Israel suggested to her fellow citizen to wait with returning back to Israel until the conflict is solved (Mission Impossible - if you ask me). What she and the PM do not understand is, WHY Thais work overseas given the fact that you can take a Thai out of Thailand but you cannot take Thailand out of a Thai. In short, most of them are homesick - see Dr. Thaksin! If the overseas Thais would be earning the same wages, find comparable working conditions in Thailand, then all these people, with skills sufficient to work overseas, could be a human resource asset to their own country. But yes, the Phuyai system, the chauvinist interpretation of many things and pay-for-work would have to be in place. For the time being, the lesser educated Thais work in Israel in Kibbutz, Middle Eastern oil countries like Libya, Saudi Arabia etc., go pick berries in Scandinavia or in construction in SEA (like Singapore). If their education level is sufficient for those countries at an apparently much better wage than back home ............ your call!

100 is a nicer figure to look at and good-luck-wise would be 99. What happens to the 50+ airframes permanently parked in BKK, UTP and upcountry aerodromes? More roadside restaurants and exhibition monsters?

My prayers have been ultimately heard - let the Lord carry on the good work in all the other European countries ;-)

Well, his deputy and factual "great leader" Prawatch did better - he inherited a watch collection worth much much more, from a friend who passed. Now how is that for wealth increase ;-)

You donn undastaan, Misateh, this diffellent Chinese ;-)

As far as the Red Line is concerned, the THB 20 did not change a thing - me thinks. The trains run with 10%-20% load factor, if at all, as the head stations (Don Meuang and Bang Sue) are just too far to reach by foot. Passengers will not do this marathon with luggage and the entire concept shows, once more again, the absolute inability of planning. If you want to change trains (and Bang Sue is predestined for that) you need to be physically fit. The signage at Bang Sue could be improved when coming from the MRT; all of a sudden you have to turn 90 degrees right while the tunnel itself goes straight.

Maybe H.E. might address the issue domestically. If, i.e. I F all those workers would be given jobs on a salary level compared to what they get in Israel, Scandinavia or Northern Africa, or Singapore or Hong Kong, then ......... they might stay in Thailand enjoying much better life among friends and loved ones. Israel or any other foreign country has to deal with their own problem, so maybe it is time for Thailand to focus a little more on upgrading its work force and remuneration of the latter to an acceptable level. Many Thais do not live the life, they merely exist from one pay to the next. As the latter is that poor, the education so below-level and the soap operas such an escape of the harsh reality of real life ..... nothing will change. Ironically, the very same country, instead of concentrating on its own people, is busy with keeping fugitive PMs in a 5* confinement of unclear and certainly much more luxurious conditions than the average Joe in Bang Kwang or Klong Prem. The same leadership's primus-inter-pares on the navy "prefers" submarines without engines over anything else - of course the man is clean as a whistle and no repetition of the Rolls Royce bribery as with Thai Airways (which never got addressed domestically) is possible, as the said submarines come without engines to start with. So this certainly able head of Thai mission in Israel might not only warn its fellow citizen to delay but possibly tell the higher-ups to start looking into some local, long overdue, alternatives - me thinks ;-)

As we can take it for granted, that nobody in the navy took anything looking like a commission, it remains simply the "preference" of Navy Chief Adung Pan-iam. Since when are admirals, together with the rest of the uniformed circus, able to "prefer"? They should prove need, get the approval of the government and then look for the best possible option to close a deal. That might include the side-effect, that a submarine should have an engine - me thinks. But as long as the admirals, generals and other fellows in colourful clothes and funny hats defend Thailand's sovereignty by the "preference", it remains to be seen, if we do not see a repetition of the aircraft engine issue - although those airframes got some engines from Rolls Royce though ;-)

What a pity; I was lucky enough to take two bouncing checks to the court and managed to get them honoured and paid upon threatening to impound other assets. Regretfully the minimum bouncing amount had to be THB 100'000; I still have two checks just below that. But, as the saying goes, sometimes you win .......

I would have personally welcomed the Chinese counterpart as they cannot be more corrupt than those local crooks

What a pity but then again, the local boys do not want anyone else feasting on the monetary flesh pots of Thailand's highways ..........

In addition, Google's map on i.e. Laos is serious crap. Some areas have no internet signal either hence there is no reliable 100% working alternative, if you're in the sticks of Indochina. GTR maps can be ordered with David, the cartographer, directly at [email protected]

Honest mistakes, overtaken by honest misunderstandings ...... what a face losing farçe!

....... if it is constitutional - otherwise we just rewrite the constitution once more again until it fits our ideas ;-)

If the cabinet would focus on the really important things in this country .......... the less the government interferes, the more the market mechanisms can work. Another interesting fact is, for shoppers in i.e. Makro, that at times the customer is forced to buy at least five kgs of sugar. This has nothing to do with the difference of retail or wholesale but maybe it is a store operator's unique idea to increase sales.

Even worse then .......