Oberkommando

Laws such as these are aimed to protect Thais and Thailand. Thailand's growth plans don't include the encouragement of immigration as some countries choose or chose to do in their poorer days. In terms of controlling land costs as well as long term future foreign influence, this is actually a somewhat sound policy.

Why would they want immigrants when they can harness a cheap slave labour force from poorer neighbouring countries, abuse their human rights without recourse then expel them when they have outlived their usefulness?

Swampy isn't great but you guys are complaining way too much.

It's a terrible airport for such a new build is the point. In fact I'd agree that it is a national disgrace, but it is testament to the monumental corruption, and the inept nature of Thai planning and organisation.

FYI, the touts are still there offering illegal taxis to passengers heading towards the public taxi ranks as of yesterday evening.

I thought Yingluck was PM no?

The Nation is so utterly biased it's hard to force oneself to read any of their articles any more; there's more on the opposition suggesting policy than there is on the actual sitting government making it.

Please guys/gals.

This is Thailand. Everyone is innocent until proven otherwise. This MP is not a murderer as of now, and should not be treated as one.

He's an alleged murderer, or accomplice to murder and should be treated as one.

Didn't food prices rise 25% year on year?

Bit of a bold prediction considering.

Thailand has better mass transit than most western countries.

Utter nonsense.

If I felt it necessary to own a gun here I would leave.

I have stayed in Cambodia and even though it is more dangerous, I have never felt the need to own a gun let alone carry one anywhere in South East Asia.

Africa; different story. I recently did a job in Nigeria where I had three heavily-armed security professionals with me at all times.

The word 'farang' is most likely Arabic in origin.

http://baheyeldin.com/linguistics/thai-word-farang-variations-in-other-languages-arabic-origin.html

http://tinamue.blogspot.com/2010/07/origin-of-thai-word-farang.html

Why are people concerned about the dam breaking. The OP doesn't say anything about fortune tellers.

A fortune teller predicted the dam would break.

They are now trying to get the fortune teller's 73 year old father put in jail for spreading the rumours.

I think you've all missed the point of what the Thai police is all about. Like the army it is an armed business group but unlike the army, where the top brass retain total control over operations and their brand, the police is a pyramid franchise operation from the people who have power to appoint the national police chief right down to the lowliest bobbies on the beat. Army footsloggers are just required to carry out orders and don't receive any distributions of profits, while the top brass handle all the revenue generating operations, such as purchasing divining rods, logging and narcotics operations, by themselves. Just conscripting anyone who is too poor to bribe his way out of the draft and isn't obviously a katoey is good enough for their staffing needs and, since virtually no training or skills are required from the rank and file, they can tolerate extremely high staff turnover. The police, on the other hand, need to recruit people with special qualities or the entire franchise system will break down with no torrents of cash flowing up the pyramid any more. They need motivated go-getters with a psychopathic frame of mind - men who are not afraid to violate all laws and regulations in their ruthless pursuit of material gain and who will not hesitate use force to get an extra few bucks, of which the designated percentage will make its way uphill towards the police chief and the polticians. The business model is extremely effective but, hey, you need to be able to tolerate a minimal amount of collateral damage from time to time. This is minimised by an efficient damage limitation programme which ensures that crimes committed by police franchisees will be automatically by covered up by their superior officers in order to keep the statistics of police convictions acceptably low. Sometimes the system breaks down when a franchisee is stupid enough to confess to a serious crime. The idiot in Pai could easily have claimed that a mysterious third party, known only by a nickname, rushed into his house, clubbed his beloved wife to death and then disappeared into thin air. Then he would be still enjoying life, getting shitfaced, gunning down tourists and having fun beating defenceless, illiterate hill trbe women to death.

One of the best and most accurate posts I've read here in a long time.

Cambodia has Angkor Wat, sure, and Sianhoukville but if you didn't get ripped off by someone in Siem Reap, then you didn't actually go there, and Pnom Pen is a viper pit.The bottom line is you get what you pay for.

I've never knowingly been ripped off in Siem Reap or Phnom Penh...

Vietnam is a different ballgame, it's like a national sport over there.

One of the big reasons foreigners are not allowed to buy property in poorer countries is simply to not raise the price of land and make it beyond the reach of locals to buy. Anyone taken a look at new condo prices lately in Bangkok?

The real reason of course being is who owns the majority of the land in Thailand and the fact that, and I quote the National Anthem, "Every inch of Thailand belongs to the Thais".

It would be an affront for the Thais to allow any foreign ownership of their lands, such is the deep-rooted xenophobia and nationalism here.

The majority are not Buddhists? I think around 95% of the population qualify as a majority. There is no such thing as strict buddhists. There are different "schools" of buddhist beliefs, one is Theravada which is in Thailand the most practised.

Of course there are strict Buddhists. Don't talk nonsense. The vast majority of Thais are not strict Buddhists. Anyone that knows a modicum about Buddhism, including Theravada Buddhism knows that Thais regularly break one or more of the five precepts of Buddhism, which include sexual misconduct and consumption of drugs and alcohol.

Ghosts, fortune tellers and other superstitious beliefs are nothing to do with Buddhism.

Thais beliefs are a mixture of Buddhism, Animism and Brahamism, and as TAWP rightly points out, there's a bit of Hinduism and some other stuff mixed in too.

My Thai wife passed her driving test here in Thailand and when we moved to the UK she had to have 112 lessons before she was ready to take the UK test and then passed first time. One instructor gave up after 40 lessons. Letting her to learn to drive in Thailand was a big mistake, she had to be de-trained before she could start to learn to drive correctly.

You think this will lead to a public campaign against fortunetellers and soothsayers, about how dangerous and irresponsible they are? No, majority of the gov. still believes in them.

The majority of Thais believe in them, even foreign born and Eton/Oxford educated ones like the previous PM.

The majority of Thais are not Buddhist, but believe in a mixture of Buddhism, Animism and Brahmanism.

Strict Buddhists give little credence to ghosts, fortune tellers and other Animist nonsense.

Somchai Wisetsingh who shot Adam Lloyd and Vanessa Arscott in Kanchanaburi.

"On the same day as my conversation with Drummond, Gary Jones, an imprisoned Brit in Bang Kwang jail (Bangkok Hilton), had written to me about the police officer who horrifically shot a tourist couple dead in Kanchanaburi last year. "Pol. Sgt. Somchai Wisetsingh, murderer of Adam Lloyd and Vanessa Arscott," he wrote, "openly brags to the inmates, 'If I had had any sense, I would have emptied some sugar into the slut's handbag'". Somchai is now doing time in the notorious jail. You might hope this lovely decantation of his only regret the night of the murders does not reflect the police's stringent hiring policy."

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=1612

anyone has information on the Police who killed the couple farangs in Kanchanaburi some time ago? I heard he was acquitted and is in service again waiting for another pair of victims...

Somchai Wisetsingh who shot Adam Lloyd and Vanessa Arscott in Kanchanaburi. He was eventually convicted after his colleagues assisted in his escape to Burma, his 'arranged' return and his confession which changed to a not-guilty plea in court and sentenced to two life sentences.

However posters here and elsewhere maintain he still has not served a day in prison and can still be seen in and around Kanchanaburi. How true this is, I don't personally know but I sure wouldn't be surprised.

Yes another mad man in uniform, I think he got 5 years for clubbing his wife to death because he admitted the crime, but the 2 tourists?? Did he get any extra time for that? Life without parole sounds about right to me.

When things like this happen we see the real underbelly of Thai society and how it protects these cowardly thugs.

If he was jailed for the murder of Leo del Pinto and the attempted assassination of Carly Reisig as he should have been, then he wouldn't have been able to savagely beat his wife to death. The Thai Police have her blood on their hands too.

Hope you're proud boys.

At Immigration I have had wait times of 1hr 30m leaving the country and over 45m when arriving at Suvarnabhumi. Of course if I add in the bus journeys from the plane to the terminal (which seem a regular occurrence now, even on the full fare carriers...) then those times on arrival increase by some margin.

On leaving that particular time tensions were high in the immigration area, with fights nearly breaking out among passengers trying to jump queues. Nightmare! Thankfully it has only been that bad on occasion (I fly maybe twice a month).

Bet you he's a wee p*ssy without his gun or his mates standing behind him.

Amazing the lengths they go to to obfuscate and obliquely justify the coup.

It will be interesting and probably entertaining to see their efforts justifying the next coup and the consequent street violence.

Love the "....this abject arrogance, and defiance of constitutional protocols......." , a statement which could not possibly apply to those that held the reins prior to the emergence of a populist politician.

Absolutely. This.

benbear how would that attract tourists?

Plenty of backpackers would benefit for starters.

Ever since they limited the entry stamps at land border checkpoints to 15 days backpacking and budget tourism has been on decline in Thailand, in stark contrast to those neighbouring countries, where it is growing. At the very least Thailand should offer an online visa for use at the border checkpoints so those longer term tourists to the region can avoid the hassle and cost of going to a Thai Embassy or Consulate in person.

Vietnam and Cambodia offer tourist visas online, one wonders why Thailand still lags behind in this regard.

Will vendors still be illegally selling endangered wildlife under the SRT management plan?

Perhaps something could be done about this disgusting, immoral and blatant illegal behaviour at last?

Last Friday night another ex-copper was arrested for firing a gun at random people in Bangkok. Three people injured including a tourist policeman.

http://www.tannetwor...?DataID=1051178

Ah - someone already beat me to it.

Not sure how much it costs but Thai Airways are advertising on the pitch side electronic advertising of every premier league game I have seen in the UK.

They know that the UK premier league football is seen worldwide so they are reaching a very wide audience, wonder how it is working for them

They reported losses of B4.8Billion for 3/4 of last year.