Acharn

His ex-wife is in a safe house in BKK ????????

What about her jailtime ?

Is it allready forgotten?

I saw her "entre' " on the thai news,she was treated as a queen !

Everyone bowing as slaves (also police and military)

Is this normal?

What jail time are you talking about? She hasn't been convicted of any wrongdoing. There was nothing wrong with her purchase of the land on Ratchadapisek. Her husband was convicted of allowing her to deal with a government agency he had authority over, even though an earlier Supreme Court ruling said he didn't have any authority over it.

Yes, it's all been forgotten.

"a New Politics Party spokesman claimed that there was talk among some judges"

After such an assertion, it's impossible for the judges to work fairly. If they are kind, just a little bit kind with Thaksin, they'll be accused to have received money. Due to this yellow guy, now the verdict cannot be something else than the strongest severity against Thaksin. It's maybe what he deserves, this is not the question here. The question is that, one more time, the yellows manipulate the country and dictate their law.

Well, of course, in a perfect world the judges would render a verdict according to the law, uninterested in any false accusations. Indeed, that is how the courts always claim to act. Any suggestion otherwise is contempt of court, which I gather can be met with serious punishment. We rarely hear about people being arrested for it -- it's a bit like lese majeste that way.

I went to grad school with him.

Lots of pre-judgents here. The Mad Dog I knew was a lot of fun, but nothing dangerous. I never thought he'd lose his hair, but he doesn't look too bad.

I didn't know this guy, but I've known a couple of the other "gang" members, going back to before the split between the Pattaya and Bangkok branches. The guys I knew were kind of interesting people, but might have had some "substance abuse" problems. Actually, the gang did a lot of good for the orphanage in Bang Lamung, collecting funds for them each year.

Because those "some foreigners" will grow from ten of thousands of foreigners to hundreds of thousands of foreigners and then to millions of foreigners very quickly. If the laws in Thailand changed over night and foreigners were allowed to buy property, businesses, and live there permanently, there would be millions of foreigners living permanently in Thailand with one year. Anyone who has traveled around various Asian countries and non-Asian countries where foreigners were allowed the purchase land, business, etc. can observe and experience first-hand the damage done to the given societies, cultures, natural envirnment, etc. by the influx of foreigners.

Do you not see the damage done to Thai society where there are high concentrations of foreigners such as in Pattaya, Phuket, areas of BKK, etc. The destruction of traditional Thai culture and the natural environment are plainly evident to anyone who can think and analyse logically and rationally. Simple math> more foreigners = more cultural and environmental damage.

Maybe you prefer Pattaya...most Thais despise it and the foreigners found there.

LOL! Don't travel much, do you? Ever been to Vietnam? Ever been to Malaysia? Ever been to Singapore? None of them forbid the sale of land to foreigners. Are there millions of foreigners descending on them? I don't think so. The real reason to forbid foreigners to own land is to keep the price of land low for the wealthy Thais who force the farmers off their land. What one entity owns the largest amount of land in Thailand? CP Group. I have to admit I agree with your opinion of Pattaya, though.

,snip>

This article refers to, "...small rallies....." Last Sundays Khon kean rally filled to overflowing a 47 Rai chunk of land, 'cheek by jowl' as they say. Anytime the English Language Media plays with numbers concerning this movement, they are doing a great disservice to their readership. Ultimately, it is in no-ones interest to misrepresent the strength and significance of this Movement.

Again, to suggest that many are from the North and North East is probably correct. But by stating this repeatedly, it is again a misrepresentation. The 100,000 plus rallies in BKK almost double in size when the evening BKK crowd arrives. Again, it is in no-one's interest to misrepresent that fact.

<snip>

Well, obviously they think it is very much in their interest to try to fool outsiders that the Red Shirt movement is not very important. They fear that if foreign investors knew how strong popular feeling really is they would be frightened to invest here now. It doesn't matter inside Thailand, because not very many Thais read the English language press anyway, and anybody who's curious can find out the truth by talking to any taxi driver or noodle stall lady.

It is good to be aware, though, just how much the English language newspapers lie to make Thaksin look worse, especially The Nation. Sometimes I think they lie just out of habit. I was quite astonished to see them admit above that the PAD are "ultra-royalist." I think a reporter probably slipped something past the editor.

Just some questions? Something's I don`t understand and really want to know.

What is the fascination with these women that makes some guys go completely topsie turby and create a shit or bust situation for themselves, risking their mental, emotional and financial well being?

Why cant they find a normal partner, you know, boy meets girl, they fall in love and spend some years building their lives and finances together and live happily ever after?

What`s the deal here?

Please, can someone explain?

Simple. It's a case of apples & oranges. Your idea of boy meets girl is based on meeting someone "local", i.e. of the same mentality and roughly reproducible way of thinking. Both are not the case between a Western guy with an Asian lady. Doesn't necessarily mean that that's always something negative, but it's a major mine field.

But then, the real deal is that most men are prick-driven... It's either hormones or the brain, but there's no multitasking with the two. I'm unconditionally in this category as well -- that's not bashing anyone!

(reason for edit: typo)

It's interesting that so many western men who would pay (or already have paid) thousands of pounds/dollars for a diamond engagement ring, in keeping with western culture, have so many problems with the Thai custom of Sin Sod.

I remember many years ago in a discussion on /sin sod/ somebody posted a link to this story. Since then it's been reposted in many places. I love it.

My thought when I started reading this thread was that sometimes the family uses a demand for a huge /sin sod/ to tell the suitor that his attentions are not welcome, without causing him to lose face. My thought was that quite possibly the lady did not want to leave Thailand, and this was her way of getting out of a situation. Since the OP has come to an agreement that may not be the case, but I wonder how much he's really discussed this with her and has he really listened to what she was saying.

Anyway, I am not Thai so I cannot pronounce on what is and what is not Thai culture, but I've lived here a long time. My understanding is that the proper way to go about this is to have a /phu yai/ represent you in the negotiations. For a Thai man that would be his father, or a patron of higher social standing if possible. This shows respect for the lady's father. In the case of a language teacher, it would have been smart to talk this over with the principal/headmaster of his school and see if he/she would act for him (I'm not sure it would be proper for a woman to act in this role, but she could at least advise him). It may have been this lack of a go-between with sufficient standing that caused the father's initial demand. When the OP tried to continue negotiating that may have made the father feel that sufficient deference/respect had been shown to him. But who knows?

I once read an anecdote, probably in a book about Thailand. Some farang was speaking to a Thai on the phone and the Thai gave his name. The farang said, "How do you spell that?" The Thai guy said, "Well, how would you like to spell it?"

The above references to Sanskrit and Pali and Indian alphabets are interesting, but I think they miss the point. The Thai sound represented by the letter in the Thai alphabet called /woo waen/ is what professional linguists call a "bilabial fricative." It is made by bringing your lips together and making a buzzing sound with them. The sound is not either /v/ or /w/, but to farang ears, depending on the context, sounds loke one or the other. I've found that in most cases when I use either sound it sounds to my Thai listener like /woo waen/ and they know what I'm trying to say. The human language processing mechanism is a marvelous thing.

When I listen very carefully to a Thai producing the sound, sometimes it sounds to me kind of like /fw/. By the way, the perils of trying to use the latin alphabet to convey phonetic information -- in my representation /woo waen/, /woo/ rhymes with "law", and /waen/ rhymes with "man."

In Thailand, the consent age for PAID sex is 18.

In Thailand PAID sex is forbidden by law at all ages.

This is wrong.

The 1960 act on suppression of prostitution has been repealed by the 1996 act.

Read it, nowhere is being said that accepting money in exchange for sex is forbidden.

Perhaps you misremember from what the NGOs were urging during 1996. If you check out ThaiLaws.com you will see:

"prostitution" means sexual intercourse, or any other act, or the commission of any other act in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner in return for money or any other benefit, irrespective of whether the person who accepts the act and the person who commits the act are of the same sex or not;

...

"Section 5.

Any person who, for the purpose of prostitution, solicits, induces, introduces herself or himself to, follows or importunes a person in a street, public place or any other place in an open and shameless manner or causes nuisance to the public, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand Baht.

Section 6.

Any person who associates with another person in a prostitution establishment for the purpose of prostitution of himself or herself or another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not exceeding one thousand Baht or to both.

If the offence under paragraph one is committed on account of compulsion or under an influence which cannot be avoided or resisted, the offender is not guilty."

The part that this discussion is concerned with is:

"Section 8.

Any person who, in order to gratify his or hersexual desire or that ofanother person, has sexual intercourse or acts otherwise against a person over fifteen but not over eighteen years of age in a prostitution establishment, with or without his or her consent, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of one to three years and to a fine of twenty thousand to sixty thousand Baht.

If the offence under paragraph one is committed in relation to a child not over fifteen years of age, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of two to six years and to a fine of forty thousand to one hundred twenty thousand Baht.

If the act under paragraph one is committed in relation to one's own spouse, and not to gratify the sexual desire of another person, the offender is not guilty."

So prostitution is illegal. I remember in December 1996, when the law was promulgated, some people were unhappy about Section 5 and especially Section 6, and some NGO (and, of course, the cops) said, "Well, we needed to have the power to arrest them so we could help them."

if the federal bureau was involved means, that the crime was going for long, was drastic and on a large scale - surely there would be enough evidence for the prosecution. It well might be a show case for the prosecution to stamp out on foreign bars, righly so.

There's something wrong here. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation" is the name of an American investigative agency. The Thai investigative agency that has a similar mission is called the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI. To the best of my knowledge, there is no Thai law enforcement agency named "the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Thailand is not a federation. The department of the Royal Thai Police that I would usually expect to handle a case like this would be the Crime Suppression Division. Of course the Thai government has no more respect for the rule of law than the American government does, and the U.S. is known to kidnap people off the streets around the world to send to Guantanamo, but I would consider it very odd for the FBI to be investigating sex crimes in Pattaya. On the other hand, most American embassies have an officer called a "Legal Attache," who is an FBI agent who is supposed to "coordinate" with law enforcement agencies in the country whare he is stationed. Could it be the American LegAt was offended at something he/she encountered while "relaxing," and then called on friends in the Thai police to bust the offensive person?

I guess they were doing a crackdown on foreign bar-pimps owners

as everybody seemed to be thai = no problemo

only a few brown envelopes switched hands

White envelopes. You use a white envelope! Very important. And remember it's called a /sin jai/, a gift from the heart, because you are just so grateful for the hard and dangerous work our beloved policemen do and feel a need to express your gratitude. It's not a bribe, and only a mean, small-spirited person would suspect otherwise.

It is proven by statistics that children which never ever get ANY vaccine have stronger immune systems!

I hate it when I see people posting lies like this on the internet. If you want to spread bullshit like this at least give a link to some source that agrees with you. When I was a kid we were scared to death every summer because every year thousands of people, mostly kids, died and thousands more were paralyzed and doomed to spend the rest of their short lives in iron lungs. I remember when every year thousands of kids died from measles, and thousands more went blind or were lucky and just rendered sterile. I remember when kids had their tonsils cut out because doctors thought inflamed tonsils caused diphtheria. Mumps, whooping cough, are practically forgotten now -- they used to kill thousands every year.

It's kind of like making your kid wear a safety helmet when he/she is riding a bicycle. Sure, I never wore one, but over the course of my life thousands of kids died or ended up crippled from Traumatic Brain Injury. Some people think it makes them wimps, but at least more of them manage to grow up.

I hate the big pharmaceutical companies, but that's because they make billions selling Prozac and Viagra to people who don't need them. I hate them because they keep prices jacked up long after they've recovered their development costs and paid for development of drugs that didn't work out. I hate them because they pay their top executives, who don't really contribute anything, hundreds of times what they pay their regular workers. But don't come out here and lie that vaccines haven't saved millions of lives and prevented millions more from being crippled.

There are lots of people in the rich countries now who grew up after vaccines became regular childhood medications and don't remember what it was like when these "childhood illnesses" killed hundreds of thousands or millions each year. They're wrong. So are you.

Treason.

Firing squad.

End of.

If the firing squad was the response in Thailand for treason then the coup leaders of 2006 would have been executed long ago, along with....oh well better not go there.

But it's not the Thai way.

Well, after the Boworadej Rebellion in 1933 many of the rebels were sentenced to life in prison. I think there were a couple of unsuccessful attempts under Sarit where he executed a couple of people, but you're right, generally unsuccessful coup attempts do no worse than delay your political career. A fine example is MAJ GEN Manoonkrit Roopkachorn , who as LTC Manoon participated in the failed coup against Prem April 1st 1981. Not satisfied with that, he led another unsuccessful coup in September 1985. That one was unusual in that there was actual bloodshed, although the only fatalities were foreigners. He not only kept getting promoted in the Army, he got appointed a Senator for his outstancing loyalty.

It is suspected that many of these rendezvous are sexually related, police said

Just suspected??

Well, the police claim that they can't prove that sexual activity takes place unless they actually break the door down and find the customer in the saddle. That came up when they passed the current anti-prostitution law back in 1996. Oh, yeah, they can get you for illicit sex if the girl files a complaint. They got a senator for diddling underage girls that way.

I just read in Yahoo! News that in some areas of the UK, 50% of the children have been infected.

Couldn't find the article you refer to through Google search, but found another story at s site called Englemed News that cites a study that found 40 percent at some midlands and London schools showed signs of immunity, which would mean they had been exposed to the virus. The study went on to say that the current immunological studies showed that in some areas only one in ten who had the flu were reported. That means the symptoms were so mild parents didn't notice it as being more that a regular summer cold.

The WHO created a huge panic over this strain of flu, because everyone is on tenterhooks waiting for the Next Big One. Everyone in the medical community is convinced there is going to be a big pandemic of some kind, with huge fatalities, and that we need to prepare for it as best we can. This wasn't it. The fatality rate of this strain is about the same as the regular flu -- why don't people panic about that every year? I grew up before the Salk polio vaccine was invented and remember the anxiety every year as August approached, with the annual "infantile paralysis" epidemic. The pictures in the newspapers every year of people in iron lungs. President Roosevelt in a wheelchair. Why are people so complacent about the regular flu, which kills thousand every year? Because you're still more likely to die from a fall in your bathroom!

As for this story, it's the usual garbage reporting that The Nation is famous for.

"Unfortunately, he is also quoted as saying that the minimum charge could be around 250 baht as opposed to the 35 baht for the regular taxis in Bangkok."

--

LOL! Guess my decision stands never to return to that joke of a place again.

ROTFLMAO! I've never gone to Phuket -- this is one of the reasons. Several years ago I used to spend a lot of time at the Beer Garden on Suk Soi 7. There used to be a couple of tuk-tuks that parked out front. A favorite short-time hotel nearby was the PB Hotel (formerly the Playboy). Now you can walk to the PB from the beer garden in about five minutes; some of the girls preferred to. Some of the girls felt it was beneath their dignity to walk. The tuk-tuks wanted 50 baht for the trip. The metered taxi, with air conditioning, was 35, and with a 5 baht tip an even 40. Very convenient to pay. The tuk-tuks actually did get some trade, from newly arrived tourists who were intrigued by the idea of riding in a smelly, noisy, unsafe contraption that was exotic by their standards, but the drivers never figured out they would make a lot more money if they lowered their prices. There are areas in Bangkok where it makes sense to hire a tuk-tuk, but definitely not in the tourist ghetto aound lower Sukhumvit.

I use the train everyday, and the way Thai's just push pass you to make sure they get on before you, this kind of thing was always going to happen at some point!

Thai's are just soo ignorant at times! No manners, whatsoever!

Hope she recovers soon!!

Well, the buses are the same, but have you ever seen what happens at a Japanese commuter train? The little old ladies are the most dangerous! And the American (New York) subway during rush hour is horrendous. I haven't experienced some of the other American systems, like the Washington, D.C., Metro or the San Francisco BART, but I gather they're the same. Don't know what country you're from, but I'll bet your countrymen could take lessons on manners from most Thais.

The real problem is that a lot of Thais do take this creep Jatuporn serious, and actually look up to scum like this!

I don't have any strong opinion about whether Jatuporn is or is not a "creep" , but did you ever take a look at the deranged over-aged hippy wannabe's on the PAD stage during the four months or so they were illegally occupying Government House? There was one guy especially, bald on top with shoulder-length hair on the sides and a horrible scraggly beard, that used to really give me a feeling of nausea.

The consul that issued that visa has some 'splainin to do. A major lapse in judgement.

Although sympathetic to her statement, &lt;deleted&gt; was she thinking? It was obvious someone was going to say no at some point. The Thai government, any government for that matter, doesn't want this type of visitor.

Not sure if a consul has a list of evey person blacklisted.

Remember, getting a visa only means you are allowed to travel to Thailand and ask for permission to enter. It does not mean you will get that permission. The permission to enter is a seperate thing, which can be denied.

Yes, many people forget that. I remember seeing stories of guys who spent two or three yeats getting their wife's visa to the States and then being denied at the port of arrival. There is probably supposed to be a database for the diplomatic personnel to check. The Thai government has not had many successes with their software progects. I recall the first attempt to computerize the traffic lights in Bangkok.

I've heard of the movie but didn't see it. What does the sex act consists of?

Gang raping the wife while the husband, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, looks on.

Not a very clear story by the Nation. "so the Thai government should extradite Kinch". "The Criminal Court Friday extradited a Briton to Australia"

Either way it seems these things are so easy to do when its ordinary citizens facing charges. When it's politicians facing charges then countries don't renew visas and ask them to leave' as in Takki's many flights from so called "democracies". Uk included .

Well, it helps if the person is accused of something that would be considered a crime in the country that is being asked to extradite him. In the UK it's not a crime if the Prime Minister's wife buys land. Maybe a better comparison would be Rakesh Saxena? Do you know the name? Took 13 years to get him back, but they finally did. Now we can wait to see if they end up convicting him of anything. A lot of people who are very powerful now got money from his scams back then. I think now we'll see if any people who are powerful now were hurt by his scams back then. I take come satisfaction that his partner Krirkkiat is in jail for about 145 years.

When I was in high school the blood donor bus would turn up at school every so often, and everyone - well most people - would pile in there and give blood. These busses would go to large companies, shopping centers etc, and if you had a very rare blood type they could get hold of you in an emergence. Everything on a voluntary basis.

Bangkok and other areas in Thailand has large numbers of foreigners. Schools, universities, companies etc, so why doesn't anyone organize this?

Obviously there is an even bigger need for the most common types of blood in any country, but as the O+ seems to be more or less universally the most common type it should also dominate in types donated.

Actually, I know that the school where I used to work has blood donation days every year. I public service announcements on the news shows about people at universities and large companies donating blood. Thais are quite willing. But I think there is a lack of organizers to do this more frequently.

There is something strange about the original announcement, though. O+ is the most common type of blood among all humans, including Asians. It could easily be that their stocks of this type are depleted because it's used so much, but not because it's rare. I haven't checked out the wikipedia article, but I understood O- was relatively rare. I also understood (from High School Biology about 60 years ago) that O+ was the "universal donor", not O-. Well, this is not the first time I've been puzzled about something in Thailand.

Cambodia's recent activities with Thaksin really scaring thai gov......i wonder why..

I don't think it's about being scared. He is doing irrepairable damage to the country so something had to give.

They should have done it a long time ago. Get this matter resolved once and for all so the country can move on.

Pfui. The only reason he's able to do any damage is because a majority of Thai citizens, and many citizens of other countries, dislike governments being installed by coups d'etat. And before you say Abhisit's government wasn't installed by coup, think about what it means when the Army locks up members of Parliament in a hotel until they agree with the Army commander's "advice." It's just the continuation of September 2006.

I wish someone would grow some brains and realize the early closing is to use a negative word, stupid.

I was here when the prime minister and the interior minister at the time did it to safeguard the youngsters from the evils of the nightlife. All it did was create the underground bars and clubs.

The government seems to want to be the babysitters of the general public. I am older than 50 and think it is stupid that I have to go to bed early just because some character in the past wanted to preserve the norms of fifty years ago.

But as farangs, we can do nothing other than laugh at the nonsense that we have to put up with with bar closing and other things too numerous to put in this forum.

2:00AM early closing? Heck, I decided long ago that if I'm not in bed by 10:00PM I might as well go home.

The legal team has only had 13 years to get it sorted so to rewrite the patchwork now is a bit hard to swallow? It was good enough to obtain an extradition in North America but the legal team here has to 'adjust'. Be as shame to get it thrown out on a technicality - or maybe that's what the purchasing power is all about. Stands to reason - jails here don't have wheel chair access either so house arrest in luxury is well on the cards if it does proceed. He certainly made a lot of locals wealthy by his actions so time he called up a few favours! Interesting to say the least.

Well, now, that's an interesting point. I admit I was surprised by the story in the BKK Post the other day. Apparently some very powerful people benefited from his scam, and are not likely to be sued for return of the money. So I guess it depends on how powerful the people are who were hurt. Wonder if the Crown Property Bureau had any investment in Bangkok Bank of Commerce. If it was just tens of thousands of ordinary people it won't count for much.

Hmm...only back a few days and already he managed to pay someone off. The power of money. Methinks he will walk free soon.

Why are you surprise? I would do the same if I was in the same situation and had lots of money too.

This is the land of opportunity for rich

So was Canada. He made millions more while he was there. The Toronto newspaper has been reporting on his boiler-room and stock scams for the 13 years he was there. He should be doing 15-25 there before they send him back here, but the Canadian public prosecutor apparently decided not to press charges because he thought the extradition case would be finished years ago. "Hes gonna be gone Real Soon Now." You can't tell me the years of delay were an accident.