lujanit

What are the odds that not a single one of the sentenced will spend a day in jail?

You may already know this, Dave, but whatever you do, do NOT install MacKeeper for housekeeping. You have probably already been bombarded with spam popups telling you that you need it, but MacKeeper can do serious damage to your MacBook and is very difficult to get rid of once you have installed it.

Very true. A free and very useful utility is OnyX. Just make sure you get the version that is compatible with the OS you are running.

We are having a horrendous run with iCare Seacon. iPhone 6+ still under warranty had a slight bend in it. Took it to them and they said they would replace it for 14k baht. I said this is still under warranty but no go. Since the phone still worked fine we just decided to live with it. Photos were really crappy though. A few days later we discovered that the camera was covered by Apple's camera replacement warranty. Back to iCare. Manager said he would not accept the phone unless we paid the 14k for a replacement. So we paid. They said within 14 days we would get a text message telling us when the replacement arrived. No SMS so on day 15 we go in and ask what is going on. We are told they no longer send out SMS's and we should have looked up the repair status on the web. Thanks a bunch for not telling us that in the first place.

Turns out they had the replacement phone on day 5. Refurbished, not new. The phone won't turn on so it goes into the back of the store for 30 minutes. The girl comes out and tell us the refurbished phone is faulty and they will have to send it back to Singapore for another replacement. No apology for the inconvenience.

Two questions arise from this.

1. Wherever the refurbishment was done they obviously did no quality control check to see if the phone worked. Why not?

2. iCare obviously also did no check when the phone arrived. Why not?

This is not the first time we have had a problem with this branch but that is another story. I highly recommend anyone who has a Apple problem avoid this branch like the plague.

Does anyone have an email address to which I can complain to Apple directly?

Soi Nana could well be Soi Arab now. So many arabs staying in hotels all the way to the end of the soi.

The history of why marijuana and a whole lot of harder drugs are illegal in Thailand and many other countries is rooted in the US Department of Narcotics. Most people will have never heard of Harry Anslinger yet he had more influence over the general population of the world than almost any other person. His actions set up the drug cartels and the corruption surrounding the supply of all banned drugs.

Thailand and many other countries were threatened with being cut off from US foreign aid if they did not adopt US drug policy. Initially Thailand refused to ban opium smoking stating that it was a long standing tradition and less harmful than prohibition. Another tactic was to tell countries which didn't want to adopt US drug policy that they would not be allowed to sell their goods in the US.

I highly recommend you read Chasing the Scream, the first and last days of the war on drugs by Johann Hari. This book is well researched and a real eye opener as to the truth behind why a lot of drugs are banned in the world. I found this book a difficult read because the truth can sometimes be overwhelming.

Thainess is very good at contradictions.

Let us just hope that the rain falls in the catchment areas of the dams.

They have a choice. Either comply, or, lose their European markets.

Wrong. It is every Thais inalienable right to make a living regardless of whether their activities are legal or not. Farang just don't understand Thainess. Sell illegal drugs openly, obstruct footpaths with illegal stalls, human trafficking, selling 'higher paid' positions in the RTP, fishing without legal permits, taking undersized fish, cops paying themselves reward money, district officers demanding money for approval of construction projects, IO officers daily accepting money to 'accept' sub-requirement documentation, encroaching on National Parks to build a speedway, mafia run tourist islands, cops being killed by HiSo and not being even charged with manslaughter . Hell I could go on forever with this list.

Accept it. Thainess = corruption = face and corruption is a way of life here.

Read the OP. "In the meeting, the governor concluded that the nine-day per month ban on fishing in the Gulf would be reduced to five. He said that Weera would put the fishermen's demands to the Interior Ministry via a teleconference later yesterday." So now we have unlicensed boat owners who engage in human misery, who catch illegal fish making demands and the Interior Ministry are going to listen to them. Thainess = bah jing jing face saving as long as you pay the piper.

So here goes the spin that no Thai was involved. At least that was predictable.

This is a very good result although not all that surprising given that Thailand has been in the international spotlight for various reasons of late. For Thailand, its police and justice systems have become a bit of a farce. If this verdict had gone the other way the international criticism would have been immense. The trial was always about power and the face that goes with it. At least someone in the right position worked out that some loss of face for the Navy was better than having the international media spotlight Thailand in a less than favourable light.

There is a lot of baht involved here. Plenty to grease the right hands. Being a retired Army General he will know the right hands, otherwise why would he come back?

The test is a simple pass/fail one. Pay and pass. Easy!

The only thing known for sure is that the BIB have no clue how to handle this investigation.

This is an very short list. I can think of many more cases which should be on display. Then again vested police and politicians interests are a no go area.

I really enjoyed Chang Export. They are getting rid of it. What stupidity. I would suggest that Chang did not do a properly conducted market survey. Putting all your eggs into one basket seems commercial suicide to me. This move explains why you could buy Export in a 2 can pack for 95 baht when a single can was 50 baht. Trying to get rid of stock. I wish BeerLao wasn't so damn expensive here, all that import tax to protect the mediocre local producers.

The RTP have no idea of what is going on. The sketch of the suspect could be anybody, any nationality. Has the RTP considered disguises? Forget face and ask for outside help. Damn that will never happen.

If tourists are indeed the target think of the carnage a late night bomb of a similar size used at the Erawan Shrine would do at Nana Plaza.

The truth is you are not entitled to an opinion in most cases. To quote Patrick Stokes, a philosophy lecturer at Deakin University ""I'm sure you've heard the expression 'everyone is entitled to their opinion.' Perhaps you've even said it yourself, maybe to head off an argument or bring one to a close. Well, as soon as you walk into this room, it's no longer true. You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to what you can argue for."

The only thing Thaksin might try to argue for is his 'entitled' power to murder (war on drugs), rape the treasury and turn ordinary hard working Thais into slaves to feed his money machine. He is a megalomaniac and the Thai people should consider him a blight on their community. The sooner Thais get over this <deleted> the better the country will become.

Thaksin is a convicted criminal on the run.

There should be an interpol arrest warrant out for him. He should be returned to Thailand in shackles and made to face all the other charges against him. Stripping him of his cop rank should be easy, just do it as the Nike ad says.

But money talks and he has made too many 'influential' red shirts rich. The gravy train must keep running.

Last Saturday I had lunch with a group of Thais who all agreed that they could care less about the US and what they think or do. There was open hostility towards the US and it's interference in Thai internal affairs. The consensus was that Thailand was far better off with Prayut running the show than either the Yellow or Red shirts. These Thais were quite happy to let the NCPO run the country for as long as the NCPO wanted to.

The Thais I was with are all university educated, many educated outside Thailand and some hold down influential government/quasi government positions. They all speak English fluently. Granted maybe not your average under educated Thai, yet it does show that there are people who think for themselves and don't believe everything in the news or on the net.

And they don't give a rat's arse what the US says. I heard the word hypocrite used more than once (referring to the USA).

This is a huge change to the normal state of affairs. Sacked over being placed to an inactive post. I bet this sends the shivers down a lot of corrupt cops. I can only hope that successful corruption charges are brought and when convicted assets are stripped and a long goal sentence is issued.

Still I dream too much.

tattoos (except religious ones) is a clear sign that the individual does not have a mental ability to get an education. so why teacher should waste time on him?

A troll who has a satire streak.

This is confusing. As I understand it, the visa is valid for 6 months but the tourist must go over the border every two months?Is that correct?

Yes. The visa will be valid for 6 months and the maximum stay at any one time is 60 days. Not that much different to other countries. That is the way I read it anyway.

I don't think this visa is going to generate the numbers the Government expect. Poorly thought out given the 5000 baht fee and the fact that a visa run will have to be completed every 60 days. Becomes pretty expensive when you count all the costs involved. 5000 baht plus a visa run every 60 days. Ouch!

There is no way this new visa will allow anyone to stay 6 months without leaving the country at least once maybe twice (maximum stay 90 days or 60 days). Otherwise Immigration would have to organise themselves to be able to handle 90 day reporting for a tourist visa and that will never happen. Just think of the mess trying to prove your address.

What would be really good is if Immigration abandoned 90 day reporting for people on Non-O and Non-B visas.

As others have said the devil will be in the detail.

From http://www.dutycalculator.com/country-guides/Import-duty-taxes-when-importing-into-Thailand/ "Imports with a CIF value up to 1000 THB are exempt from duty and VAT."

I have used ebay for quite a number of years and never had to pay any duty although my purchases are small value. Postage times can sometimes be a bit slow although I have learnt that items shipped from Hong Kong arrive quite quickly.