minxwhale

Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety. Nobody has any foresight in this country when it comes to public or worker safety.

Typical Thai disregard for anything resembling safety. Nobody has any foresight in this country when it comes to public or worker safety.

Still, that is a huge change.

It's another instance of the MAN trying to keep the farang down AND suck him dry. Typical bs

What's Finance got to do with it?

Didn't know Hungary had extradition treaties with Thailand... I wonder how many countries actually have? Any numbers and names?

But the article does not mention if he had in fact avoided tax or had committed a crime in Thailand - interesting that Police acted on the warrant - probably thought if he owed 40M Baht then he could pay them a stipend to be left alone - who knows? Just because he is alleged to owe 40M Baht in Hungary does not necessarily mean he has any money personally.

Good luck - taxation is theft anyway!

oh yea, well said,, it would be interesting to find out which countries have extradition orders, has the uk ?? also taxation is THEFT, i still dont understand why we are all taxed so much, i aint sure about other countries?? but in england minimum on wages is 21% thats on the minimum wage of £5.65 an hour,, OMG thats criminal,, no wonder we are all struggling to get the flight money to los,,,lol ,,, plus stuff we buy has ,, Value add tax,, what the ffff is that all about,, we should all become gypsies and pay nothing ,,LOL what taxes do workers pay in thailand % wise??

So many questions. It's just another instance of the Thai English language press's poor news reporting. had the reporter done his job, we wouldn't be trying to guess what really happened. This happens all the time even in the Bangkok Post and The Nation.

It's just plain laziness and the habit of Thai reporters of never asking questions. I'm a journalist and I've been to many press conferences. The only reporters who ask questions are members of the foreign press. The Thai reporters are just spoon fed the info and it shows in articles like this one.

ask any thai girl they will say thai has small small penis. pointing to pinkie finger to emphasize the point!

The banter on this thread shows the maturity of the posters. Whoever posted this story surely had some urgent need to make themselves feel better than Thais. You all make me sick.

Just curious: How much does a big company like 7-11 or Tesco-Lotus pay for a plastic bag? I'm betting a lot less than 1 baht. Can this become a significant source of revenue for them? Should they be required to donate any "profits" to some environmental program? It's really win-win for them. You bring your own bag, they save money. You pay a baht for their bag, they make money.

A plastic bag costs between 30 and 60 satang, depending on quality and size. Big chains like Lotus and 7/11 probably get them even cheaper, because of the amount they order.

Biodegradable and photodegradable bags are more expensive, but producers of plastic bags now start to offer them at the same price as normal plastig bags. So without buying new plates for printing, retailers could make a huge tribute to the environment, without any extra costs.

yeah. one baht is far too cheap. That's not going to stop people from getting bags at the store. Set a steep fee of 10 baht apiece and then people will bring their own bags.

Instead of charging prepaid users, they should of had beta users for a period of 4 - 6 weeks to test the systems, but typical, they wanted money, but no return unless they re-enable the system.

They should of got a proper programmer in me, with over 20 years experience. Instead they probably been down kow san lane and hired a cheap one at 500 baht.

T.I.T. Third world country... NAFC...

Yes Nothing EVER EVER goes wrong in developed countries! Give me a break.

My donor card has got "O Rh+" on it. Will that work?

Yes!

Goodo. Will be there tomorrow morning.

Obviously if O+ is the most common blood type in Thailand, and there's none at the hospital, either the hospital is incompetent or Thais don't donate blood due to some superstition

Now if they could only get better Vodka in Thailand. The Vodka choices suck ass! Maybe some Chopin and Belvedere instead of crappy Smirnoff.....

It's here already! Go to a high end store and you'll find it. I've bought both Grey Goose and Belvedere here numerous times

Bier Ha Noi would be nice. Maybe they don't want us to leave after all. This could be a great marketing strategy to increase tourism. What a great idea!

Bier Hanoi what a great idea about 16 cents a pint and dam_n good shouted the bar one night in Hanoi. cost $3.50... just bloody marvellous !!!!! and wait till you suckers taste Aussie COOPERS..... beer perfection...... the only decent thing ever to come out of South Aussie . The Ale Champions of the Universe!!!!!!!

You can already buy Coopers here. It's at Tops and Central Chitlom and Villa. Unfortunately, it's rather flavorless as far as craft ales go. But it's better than NO ALE AT ALL.

Tiger Beer promotes rheumatism. C'mon support the Sweet Chang... dontcha forget that sweet bottle did accompany you thru al'those times...

And not to forget where you are standing/sitting... So to all of y'all, pls Buy Thai... Kob khun mak krap...

On the $ side, you put $ into Thai product, goes into Thai company, paid to Thai employees, back into the Thai system, supporting the Kingdom of Thailand.

That is if you WANT to support Thailand. I'd rather not because of the protectionism that is rampant in virtually every industry here.

Don't hold your breath. It's a well kept secret that the big boys, Chang and Singha, bully retailers into not carrying competing brands from overseas even though they're three times as expensive as local brews. They'll manage to keep imported beers with low tariffs off the shelves as well. Furthermore, the big boys keep Customs in check through bribes to make sure that few beers can ever clear customs. They languish in unrefrigerated warehouses for months.

For more perspective, consider that Thailand has had an FTA with Australia for about three years now and the price of wines from down under are only marginally cheaper than imports from other countries.

Finally, the beers brewed in other Asean countries are merely bottled rainwater, just like the Thai brands.

It's a sad state of affairs when people praise Beer Lao and hope it's coming when we all know the wonderful craft beers that are prevalent in the UK, Germany, Oz and US.

I'll continue my illegal home brewing operation so I don't have to drink the suds of Thailand.

Again, it is shameful that the US-Navy advertises so openly that the main reason for them to come to Thailand is Rest & Recreation.

In normal diplomatic wording it should have been called a courtesy visit from the US-Navy to Thailand.

According to my wife and father in law, and myself, the Vietnam era is long gone, and the US should behave like any respectful state.

Advertising the R&R so blatantly is very degrading for the Thai people.

R & R is Rest & Recreation. What's the problem with that? It's a euphemism...or at least was. You can change it to CV or Courtesy Visit but it still amounts to the same thing. It is only a question of time before Courtesy Visit becomes a euphemism for drunken debauchery anyway because, at the end of the day, that's what it is.

If certain States were not so accommodating with provision for naval R & R, there would not be a problem.

I wonder if very many of the critics of the US Navy have really experienced not many, if any, ships on liberty? Overall, I think the US Navy and Marines do a pretty good job of policing up their ranks. One big stick is that if you cause a liberty incident, you are confined to the ship for the rest of your float at the least. You may lose ranks and money as well. But yes, in Phuket, there will be some drinking and debauchery going on, just as there is for many of the other tourists coming to Thailand. Just as there is for the Aussie, British, French, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Navy ships pulling into Hawaii for R & R. (My first introduction to the bar scene of women and buying them drinks was in the company of some French petty officers who took me under their wing in Honolulu.)

My most memorable port visits included three days rebuilding an orphanage in Korea, a trip to the Masada, trout fishing in Korea, being "adopted" by a family in Perth, and being the first US ship to visit Hakodate, Japan, since the end of WWII. None of them being drunken fits of debauchery (although a little debauchery might have slipped in with a British girl in Benidorm.) And I think you will find that other than adding some beer to the equation, those expereinces of mine are far more the norm than what is being presented here by some posters.

I may not agree with Daewoo and his opinion of the US military, but he is open-minded enough not to see a problem with a simple port visit. He is not letting his overall opinion of the military color his judgement on something unrelated. Sailors and Marines having a beer are no different from any other tourist having a beer, afterall.

EXCELLENT POST

There's a big difference between the soldiers in the 40's who were in a World War fighting for the survival of the U.S., and trashy young modern kids doing 'training exercises' in the region from which they apparently need a "R&R" break to inseminate the impoverished locals working in the bars. There is absolutely no comparison between the poverty of the US and poverty in Thailand, and the girls in the brothels shouldn't be serviced by any country, even if the customers are "culturally sensitive" as you claim. Again, I ask you, why doesn't the military just give them a bunch of booze and a nice isolated island to party on....? they NEED the bar scene to do R&R?

Hey Sven, do you know any servicemen? Do you know they are trashy? Have you mingled with them? I know quite a few of them who are quite upstanding young men, which is more than I can say for the average farang living in Thailand and a good many who come here for sex-cations. Those are truly the people who are taking advantage of the indigent bar girls and prostitutes.

The whole idea of shore-leave is for the soldiers to be in society again and not just stuck on a boat with the same people they see everyday. They can SCUBA dive, play volleyball, drink whatever. Where else in the region are they going to go for fun? Malaysia, Indonesia, where Muslim religious fanatics would put them in danger?

On another note, I've seen how bar girls and gogo girls eyes light up everytime YOUNG guys enter their places of work. They're happy when guys in their 20s show because at least for one night they don't have to service some fat old, drunk retired Swedish slob with a gut the size of a beach ball and a fistful of kronor.

The American service men spoiled beautiful places like Phuket and Pattaya over the years turned them into huge cesspits and brothels exploited the general population. Thet deserve everything they are going to receive. They think the whole world is thier toilet and think can shit anywhere and on anyone whenever they want because they think they are superior to the rest of us. The ladyboys will only be doing to them what they have been doing to the rest of the world for years. Hope they all get a dose while they are at it.

You're a sick one. Most of the servicemen these days are from poor and low income families just trying to get some skills to make it in this world. And many of them are minorities who are culturally sensitive.

And have you forgotten that it was the American servicemen that liberated Asia. If it weren't for the U.S. everybody in Thailand would be speaking Japanese now and working as indentured servants.

Again, it is shameful that the US-Navy advertises so openly that the main reason for them to come to Thailand is Rest & Recreation.

In normal diplomatic wording it should have been called a courtesy visit from the US-Navy to Thailand.

According to my wife and father in law, and myself, the Vietnam era is long gone, and the US should behave like any respectful state.

Advertising the R&R so blatantly is very degrading for the Thai people.

It's rest and relaxation and it's not the U.S. Navy advertising it. That's the newspaper's editorializing.

And what part of "rest and relaxation" is disrespectful to you?

When someone says "I'm taking some well-deserved R&R." it does not mean "I'm going whore-mongering.

Raise your hand if you hate america too.

finally ! was about time. i guess in your "civilized" country you welcome illegal workers with open arms...

That's right! try working illegally in Europe, OZ or the U.S. and see what happens. YOu'll be out on your arse with no hope of returning.

Get a job in Thailand, get a work permit and stay here. Otherwise you have no business trying to work here.

not another nail in the coffin. Pull another nail out. The corpse is reviving!

Finally!

This will be a short-term fix until they enact laws with teeth, i.e. quite harsh penalties. A 1000 baht fine is chicken feed and has no deterrent effect whatsoever. Make it 100,000 baht or more in addition to jail time of at least 1 year and really enforce that law and they can then clean it up. Many laws here have paltry fines and have not been updated for years. 1,000 baht may have been a lot 30 years ago, but it's chicken feed today.

It wouldn't be too hard to push through such a law in Parliament I would think especially because these vultures tarnish the image of the country and as we all know, first impresssions are everything.

I arrived at the airport on Monday from a short trip abroad and saw cops in berets walking around and watching people in suits approach arriving tourists. I wanted to get home so I did not stick around to see if they actually did something about the scumbags approaching unwary tourists. But I must say, I saw a lot fewer of these people plying their trade than I have in the past.

Finally!

This will be a short-term fix until they enact laws with teeth, i.e. quite harsh penalties. A 1000 baht fine is chicken feed and has no deterrent effect whatsoever. Make it 100,000 baht or more in addition to jail time of at least 1 year and really enforce that law and they can then clean it up. Many laws here have paltry fines and have not been updated for years. 1,000 baht may have been a lot 30 years ago, but it's chicken feed today.

It wouldn't be too hard to push through such a law in Parliament I would think especially because these vultures tarnish the image of the country and as we all know, first impresssions are everything.

I have said it before, and will say it again! The wording is................"Crackdown on Foreign business" not "Crackdown on Falang business" .

And................................Oh dear !!! not another "Crackdown".

Its about time this government did something real for the country and its underprivilaged population and stopped strutting about like the cockbird in the chicken pen.

These incessant "Crackdowns" are utterly stupid, designed to convince the population that they are being looked after, when its really those in power who are being looked after.

You are right.

It's the classic effort to divert public attention from the other homemade ills in this country that are ignored year-in and year-out. The poor infrastructure, education and other problems are constantly ignored so that the fat cats can stay rich and the poor, well you get the picture.

62 million baht invested in 19000 businesses, that is only 3150bt each business. Figures dont sound right to me.

I was a business editor at the Nation for a few years. The reporters can't be bothered to such complicated math and nowadays their overworked editors haven't the time to check for all of their mistakes.

But a lot of times, these figures come straight from the authorities and Thai journalists are afraid to ask any questions that might embarrass any official.

That's why nothing can be trusted in print at the Nation or the Post.

The 62 million baht figure is much to low for so many businesses.

Massive fee hikes for work permits mooted

<snip>

PHUKET: -- The Phuket Gazette has learned that recent rumors of substantial increases in work permit fees may be well-founded. Discussions are underway in the Department of Employment that could once again lead to massive hikes in these annual fees.

<snip>

The last hike in work permit fees occurred in September 2002, delivering an impressive 200% hike, an event that triggered lively and colorful comments on ThaiVisa.Com, host to Thailand's largest English-language Web forum. Some recent comments in that forum, albeit from sources undisclosed and/or unofficial, foreshadow this month's hike as likely to be something well over 100%.

Am I just imagining it, or does it seem that often when prices or feels are raised in Thailand--either commercial or government--it tends to be a very large increase, which often represents a burden and feels punitive?

Only when it comes to the low-hanging fruit, i.e. the foreigners or the people who employ them, both of who get shafted at every turn.

Please tread carefully when posting on subjects that involve the Monarchy. Making posts which comment politically in any way on The Royal Family is forbidden by both the forum rules and the laws of Thailand. You will be held accountable for whatever content you link to, and this is one subject where we don't give the benefit of the doubt.

Agreed. This post should be frozen.

I'm a Brit living in Thailand and I have to say I agree with the comments above. Too many Brits come here and use the country like a playground wherer anything goes.

I have been coming to Thailand for many years and have recently noticed some Thais becoming a little tired of farangs in their country. I don't blame them, I'm tired of some farangs being here and I'm a farang!!

Its not excusivly British who use the country as a playground - i've seen plenty of American and Europeans doing the same

yes but they aren't dying in droves because they know when to shut UP.