squarefred

Notice the STRONG PROPAGANDA element here? The protagonists have changed the focus in this article, from anti-GOVERNMENT - non elected government that is, to anti-MONARCHY! This is rather a leap of faith, don't you think? And clandestinely inciting civil war too! That's amazing stuff. There's clearly some very important & powerful people at work here, that may just be starting to get a little worried?

Yellowshirts behind this for sure. It's iressponsible and reactionary - but please remember thaksin IS wanted criminal who from outside the country is gently trying to incite his red shirts into acts of political violence through his mini nuremberg style rallies- which is working as yesterday someone shot at the PM's car, wounding his driver - the PM wasnt in it. im sure thaksin will not denounce this and many other acts of political violence in his name while HIS propaganda (countless lies and baseless accusations) go unmentioned and unchallenged. thaksin is a criminal. he OWNS A GOLD MINE IN AFRICA he just happens to be an educated criminal who got a lot of the country to support him though false promises of democracy and reform, lies, control of the media (TTV and NBT), bribery and politcal violence from his red shirted supprters and the corrupt police.

im not a yellowshirt and i hate them too - but thaksin is crook. everyone knows it but some choose to ignore it or deny it because they think they stand to benefit from his criminal corruption or they're just in love with him.

Free tourist visas between March 5 and June 4, 2009

BANGKOK: -- Continuing its efforts to expedite the revival of the Thai travel and tourism industry, the Royal Thai government has agreed to exempt the fee for tourist visa applications for a three month period, effective 5 March, 2009 to 4 June, 2009.

All foreigners who apply for Tourist Visa at the Royal Thai Embassies and the Royal Thai Consulates-General worldwide, including eligible foreigners who apply for Visa on Arrival at designed checkpoints, will be exempted from tourist visa fee from 5 March to 4 June B.E.2552 (2009).

Such arrangement is for Tourist Visa single entry only.

-- Tourism Authority of Thailand 2009-02-27

http://www.tatnews.org/latest_update/detail.asp?id=4235

oh yes thats going to fill the empty hotels and create jobs---NOT.maybe the drink campain will work--NOT,maybe pigs will fly --NOT,the free entry to national parks?NOT

nothing rational and benificial will ever get done here unless its a ferang idea.

useful ideas in thailand only come from farangs? yeah. like dating whores and pretending its love. like moaning about thailand all the time but staying. like moaning about corruption and greed then indulging in illegal vice and drugs. like going on about how thai people are all only after money then marrying a prostitute. like only thinking about what you can get from thailand not what you can give. like treating thai people like second class citizens and servants in their own country. these are all really useful ideas that have come from farangs. buck up your racist ideas.

I think that is the worst thing they can do. Get this piece of shit back here to spend a few months in a luxury cell (ha!) and then free to stir up all kinds of shit and whining about injustice. Thailand will fall into anarchy if this scumbag ever gets near the place.

These words look like they are coming from a very disgruntled little man - think you might have been happy joining the yellow shirt mob on their path of destruction last year - you should stand up with Sonthi and scream foul - wonder why you not protest the fact that they are wanted by the law for treason, destuction of property etc, etc, etc, etc, - the reality is that Taksin had this country in better standing interntionally and a much better financial position and what it is now - and seems that the PM and his deputy cant even agree on the matter of trying to get him back here --

Good luck Mr Thaksin.

to hel_l with the yellow shirts. but the red shirts are clearly more violent and made up of more criminals.

what you have here is unelected elite and their supporters versus undemocratic violent corrupt power mad criminals. real change. thailand needs real change.

At least he was elected twice (or is three times) by the people (legally) and not put up by puppet Generals.

Fobuff

through bribery/vote buying/corruption//media control/cencorship/bullying of opponents/state and police violence etc.

not exactly democratic. just because someone gets the most votes doesnt mean they were elected in a democratic way.

the pre requisites for democracy - rule of law, human rights, freedom of speech, fear from intimidation and political violence, accountability - just dont exist in thailand at present.

i hate the yellowshirts too. thailand needs real change not just one bunch of rich power mad brutes fighting another.

I also wonder what would the rate be per 100,000 Farang. I don't feel safe here at all and during my 3 year stay in Samui encountered 3 incidents of violence agains me .. one by Thais and two by Farang .. something that didn't happen at all in my previous 25 years in Australia. I may ad that none of the above incidents had anything to do with bar brawls or nightlife.

The problem with our discussion of course is that it's difficult psychologically to separate anecdotal evidence from empirical for all humans and that we lack the relevant statistics (so far anyway) in this thread to make a judgment about the safety of foreigners from violent crime. I'd further like a breakdown of violent crimes against foreigners by motive and circumstance, because I really do bet if you took out incidents involving relationships that are heavily mismatched in terms of wealth and/or age, then took out incidents involving relationships that involved the sex trade at any point and then subtracted violent crimes where the victim worked in a domestically asset-rich field like wealth management or real estate you'd probably be left with a relatively smaller number of random acts of violence involving alcohol, traffic accidents and bad luck and most of them would take place in areas where a lot of shady activity goes on anyway (both Thai and farang) that produces a much higher level of environmental "bad luck" waiting to happen to someone (Pattaya, Samui, Phuket, Bangkok). I have absolutely no way of proving any of this, but after living and working here for several years and spending time all over with a variety of foreigners and Thais this seems like what's going on to me.

I'm not commenting on this guy's case specifically, but even assuming the poor guy was a totally innocent victim - and it's entirely possible that he was, I honest-to-God make no judgment about that - the circumstances do tend to mesh with what we often see in violent crimes against foreigners who are victims of either complete and total bad luck or retribution for some deal they were involved in. Whether one interprets that as a warning about Thailand in general or a warning about staying out of certain professions and certain kinds of relationships is up to the individual as well of course.

bang on. you're saying what i did in a rather more polite way - if you hang out in seedy areas your chances of succumbing to environmental "bad luck", as you put it, increase 1000 fold.

lets make it clear. most expats hang out in the kind of seedy/vice ridden areas to which the poorest and most morally corrupt people are drawn. its no surprise that every now and then the criminal nature of the kind of people they deal with comes through.

thats not to say that it isnt sad. any murder is. my deepest sympathies.

thailand is generally a safe country................if you stay away from hookers and criminals.

I didn't know it was against the law to have sex behind closed doors. When did they introduce the no sex please we are thai policy. No sex in thailand, 1st the demos at the airport now a ban on sex the thai economy is going to be in real bad shape without the sex tourists comming. What is going to happen to places like Pattaya. I am married to a thai and living in chiangmai just hope I don't get that knock on the door in the middle of the night.

if there were hookers its illegal. PROSTITUTION IS ILLGEAL HERE. It's corruption that foreigners AREN'T arrested for it. are you seriously suggesting that pattaya and sex tourism are GOOD for thailand? i have to say that most thai's ive met and even a fair perecentage of the foreigners i meet (younger ones who dont have to pay for it) think its all disgusting. sex tourism is bad. its the symptom of high corruption, no law and order, low education and lack of oppotunity, social inequality, lack of genuine development and moral degradation. only hookers, pimps, seedy bar owners and selfish morally corrupt people like sex tourism. thailand's a real country with real people. its not just here for the amusent of foreigners. there are more important things than getting money any way you can. the good people of the world wait for the end of sex tourism south east asia.

Dont give more than 20 ~ 100 THB... after that I dont think any people here can be trusted when it is question of money !

You mean Thailand? That's offensive in the extreme. You're insulting a lot of people with that. Not all people here are crooks. If you hang around Nana Plaza, Khao San Road, Soi Cowboy and other such seedy areas then that's all you'll meet, but it doesn't mean decent Thai people don't exist. I know plenty. One's even a policeman.

hi

im fed up with border runs and i want to get a one year non imm b visa from cambodia, laos or vietnam as its a lot cheaper than going all the way back to england to get one.

i dont have a degree so i cant get a work permit.

how easy/hard is it to get a year long non imm b from a thai embassy in a neighbouring country?

what sort of paperwork would i need?

id appreciate any advice.

stephen