Oberkommando

It is not proven yet that he did do Drugs in Thailand he said he smoked Meth but the Picture of him with the Pipe was taken in Prague (Czech Republic) not in Thailand

Meth and any other Drug for self Consumption is 100% Legal there.

That means he did nothing wrong in Thailand and any other Country, they cannot Jail him until they have evidence that he did Drugs in Thailand too.

Drugs are decriminalised there, they are not '100% legal' or 'fully legal'.

From what I remember, the protests weren't related to the court case. The yellow shirts were generally doing what they could to stop the government of the time from changing the constitution, and one of the reasons they went to Swampy was to stop Somchai from arriving.

Let's get the facts right. The yellow shirts wanted to retain the Constitution the military junta pushed through, and not allow the reinstatement of the People's Constitution of 1997 which was abrogated by the junta.

The protests put pressure on the courts, considering the rhetoric used by the yellows at the time I think that was very much an aim.

Don't like the skin and there's far too many ads.

As well as Thai Visa I use another up and coming Thailand expat forum where there's no advertising allowed and the skin is a beautiful dark colour.

Even those dogs being shipped to Vietnam for meat managed to get over 10 million baht in donations after the news story about them.

And then they all died.

The End.

Thaksin Shinawatra

*yawn*

You know "the courts" are one of those elements that define a democracy don't you?

They certainly do, and in this case the yellows taking over the airport served their purpose by leaning on them to unseat the Somchai administration.

Of course in a functioning democracy such protests would not be allowed, thus allowing the courts to fully function in their capacity.

Pandora's box has been opened. The people have been shown that you can ignore the law as violence or the threat of violence will get you what you want.

Yep, terrible precedent set by lack of action against the yellows for the Government house and airport takeovers. Allowing them to effectively 'mob rule' the army into mounting a coup then unseating an elected government through the courts.

You reap what you sow unfortunately and the seeds most definitely have been sown.

My girlfriend works for a family who are red shirts, the only tv station on is the red shirt station and they all support Big T. I asked her why? She says when Big T in office times where great lots of business, lots of tourist. Iasked her donot they realize when he came into office times where good world wide 40baht to the dollar, 70baht to the lb.People from america,great britian,and europe where travelling and spending money and it had nothing to do with Thaksin other than for him right time right place. She says yes I know but boss doesn't understand and think Thaksin was behind it.

This is no poor family they have money from a very good business similar to Amway but an asian concept.

It has a lot to do with Thaksin's populist politics actually, previous governments gave short shrift to the poor electorate. Thaksin has capitalised on this exponentially, even to the extent that the Dems under Abhisit had no choice but to copy and implement similar policies.

Too little too late, as the failure of the previous Democrat governments in particular the previous one under Chuan Leepai in the late 90's that implemented the 'Bitter Medicine' policies hit the poorest people hard, hence why we see such a definitive geographical split in voting countrywide. The great irony of course was that Chuan's government fell due to corruption scandals.

Apparently it was a picture taken in Prague showing him using drugs that did him in.

With drug use being decriminalized in the Czech Republic he didn't do anything wrong so he could have downplayed things a bit from that perspective.

Going by the comments he made later he's doing a good job of shooting himself in the feet.

He was photographed smoking a meth pipe.

I don't give a shit if he's a junkie, it's the beating his wife in front of kids that I find unpalatable.

Good role model for the Thai youth right enough, what with the massive methamphetamine problem the region faces.

Sek Loso is a wife beater and a yaabaa user.

I lose respect for people when learning facts like these, especially for men that beat women in front of kids.

The moment we base our judgements on the 'he said / she said',

public pronouncements of a nasty divorce, we lose credibility also.

I've seen the nicest and calmest of men attacked by enraged wives,

in front of the kids, who then tripped, fell down, injured themselves and blamed him, longly and loudly, because they had a bruise to show and were mad as a wet hen. Thai women can fly off the handle as easily as western women.

Even though witnesses said this is not how it happened, domestic disputes rarely

ever show the truth to the outside world. So we rarely can base accurate judgments on them.

I've met him a few times, and for a rock n rol icon he's pretty dam_n mellow.

There's photos of him smoking methamphetamine all over the internet.

He's an acknowledged wife beater and drug user.

End of story.

Sek is an idiot, a wife beater and a hard drug user. His music is bad too, it can't hold a candle to any reputable rockers' such as Rory Gallagher,Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page etc.

Have you ever seen him live?

I doubt it.

Have you ever been a victim of drug-addled spousal abuse?

Sek Loso is a wife beater and a yaabaa user.

I lose respect for people when learning facts like these, especially for men that beat women in front of kids.

but because there has been no concerted effort to remove the primary cause of the division, namely the square faced fugitive criminal in exile.

The more you obsess over Thaksin being the root cause of what is happening in Thailand at the moment, the more you miss the real reason why it is actually happening.

Thailand's changing. The time of military dictatorships, coups and fascist juntas is over.

It's just a matter of time.

The multi-coloured shirts struggle to get 500 protesters together these days, where are they going to get the 20,000 signatures from?

Spent force.

The picture is nothing special either, most downloads in even 720p on the Dune blow Truevisions HD away.

Just had two new Samsung HD Plus boxes come from Truevisions to replace the Humax HD ones we were using before.

Technician (if that is indeed the term for this person) was clueless when setting it up, so I pretty much did it all myself.

Not initially impressed. I had decent 5.1 sound for the HBO HD movie channel and the other channels were at a decent volume with the Humax, now if I want the movie channel in Dolby 5.1 the other HD channels are whisper quiet. If I change it to PCM output the movie channels are all in stereo which is pointless in HD and with my system.

I will continue watching it occasionally when the football is on but apart from that I am sticking to my 1080p and 720p downloads and watching them over my network in DTS Surround or DTS Master Audio with my HDi Dune.

Another substandard product from True unfortunately.

I trust the people that are so outraged by Thaksin getting his passport back have plans to leave the country once he makes his triumphant return?

Can we not have one thread without a Thaksin obsession session?

Do you think also that convicted men on the run should be granted passports?

He shouldn't have been able to leave the country while on bail, but it is indicative of a country that worships wealth and the wealthy and where such wealth affords almost complete protection from the law and justice.

If Abhisit really cares about his country, why doesn't he spend his energy on working to improve education for upcountry Thai kids or something truly useful.

I doubt he "really cares" as he has absolutely no connection with the Thai working classes having been born in a foreign country and into vast wealth and privilege.

His family also has previous history and involvement with military juntas, his father was appointed into a ministerial position under the dictator Suchinda after the previous coup.

Worse, at some of the immigration checkpoints, especially in Europe, Thai passport holders will receive special treatment with sinister questions and suspicious looks from some officials, as if the visitors are criminals or terrorists on the loose.

You reap what you sow. When other countries come to believe that issuance of a passport is only a matter of who you know in HiSo/political circles, then they will not trust you. If there was greater rigor in the issuance of such documents (oh... say... like following the law), maybe other countries would not be so suspicious. It's just like opening your door to yor house: if you have a good history, I would welcome you in. If I am not sure, I would double check.

Well said.

I believe some 80% of Thai visitors on tourist visas to the US never leave. That's a staggering number.

I agree completely. Taxis in Bangkok are amazing, I love them. Probably the best value for money transportation in the world. The low price and convenience is totally unmatched by anything at home. No normal people at home could afford to take taxis like normal people here do.

Normal people don't need to take taxis because there are affordable, better value and convenient alternatives. In Singapore the bus service and SMRT are excellent for example.

Bangkok taxis may be cheap but they can be extremely inconvenient especially when a driver is dangerous or doesn't know where he's going.

Racing a Honda on the way to the airport with me and my g/f in the back? What sort of imbecile does this kind of stuff? And it happens way too often for me to start laying plaudits on Bangkok taxis unfortunately.

I'd hesitate to have have licenses for taxi plates - capping the number on the road- like they do in most other places of the world.

What would happen?

More likely it would improve safety standards, and reduce congestion on Bangkok's roads.

I think reducing numbers by 50% would not affect being able to get a taxi even at peak times, they are that numerous.

Something will have to be done eventually in this regard, and proper regulation and control is a must for Thailand's transport infrastructure to move into the 21st century.

Fares haven't kept up with inflation because supply has greatly exceeded demand and service standards and regulation have not improved. In fact standards have probably worsened; safety certainly has.

I am continually amazed at taxi drivers when I am in a Bangkok cab; exceeding the speed limits, dangerous driving, tailgating etc. Do these idiots not care if they have passengers?

When I get a decent one that knows where he's going and drives safely it is a refreshing, although rare experience.

A Montenegran passport is far better than a Thai one

I think that would depend on whether you're Montenagran or Thai. Are you either? I bet if you asked 1 million Thais which they would sooner be 999,999 would say Thai and 1 would say Montenegran and his name might be Thaksin..

It would also depend on whether you were doing a lot of travelling.

For travel, as I mentioned earlier, a Montenegrin passport is the better choice. https://www.henleyglobal.com/citizenship/visa-restrictions/

I'd disagree with your statistics too. There's queues of lower class Thais wanting to leave their country for a chance at a better life elsewhere. I reckon the number would be far higher than the Thais would like to admit.