cutter007

Hardly a year goes by without a cry for pandemic of one form or another of influenza. A five-year period and less than 500 deaths due to this strain of influenza and yet the UN declares an emergency. How come they are not declaring such an emergency annually in the USA where there are 3,000 - plus deaths each year due to what is deemed "normal influenza"? 3,000 annually in the USA alone and it is not a pandemic in the eyes of the UN, yet less than 500 deaths over five years is in Asia. Something here is awry. This just does not compute.

Just how much of this is prompted by the pharmaceutical industry that sells the world the vaccine?

About 97% and Thailand is a primary market uneducated population that love popping pills.

This is joke the press releases about "threats" have obviously been written by some that read. How to create a false panic for dummies authored by George W Bush. Lighting kills about 24,000 people a year. It would take bird flu about 500 years at current pace to kill as many people as lightning in one year. If the UN had a clue the headline would read.........Lightning in Asia poses direct threat to Thailand.

Citizenship. The suggestions to live here for one year on a trial basis and then decide your future after that are well founded. Even if you are 100% sure this is where you want to be. Ultimately, if you want to live here presumably forever then citizenship/residency is a viable option. Definitely not an easy option, but if you take the time and effort to become a fluent thai speaker (which you should) and adapt to thai culture, then by starting the process now, in a few years its possible to attain citizenship.

There are plenty of discussions on these forums regarding that issue...Give 'em a browse.

OR

Get a work permit. Also, much easier said than done, but if you can find a company back home that has locations in Thailand/Bangkok and they are willing to send you here, having a work permit is a very legitimate way to live here. Again, not easy to do, but possible.

I am not trying to disrespect the person that wrote this, but citizenship is not an option for you now. After you have been here for a number of years you might look into it.

I am curious has anyone on this board gotten the go stamp in the past 4 years for a res book, i heard from a friend that they haven't done a standard (non vip) residense book in the last 4 years. Same thing as the BTS Bangna delay no one wants to sign off because no one wants the blame.

For any of the idiots in Isann with a computer and nothing else to do, before you blah blah about the inaccuracies of my statements, just know I

hold a little red book and I blue one the eagle and the arrows.

It's Iranians, because Iranians are probably some of the most ill-informed people on the planet,

media and information are tightly controled in Iran.

The handler tells them, here is 2,300 USD, run this out of Thailand, if you get caught they will

put in in jail for a year or so.

They figure why not, as they only make 3,000 USD a year working anyways, so if they lose a year or two so what,

I bet 80% of them have no idea they are going to jail for life if they get caught.

And the biggest travesty of them all......where's my Thailand Elite private lounge at the stations??

They were originally marketed as moving lounges, but after the Elite card failed, they were

renamed elevators.

Anyone remember that Elite lounge in Don Muang, that was the funniest thing I ever saw.

A 3 meter by 3 meter glass walled room, in the middle of the terminal walkway, with a computer

sitting at it, and a big sign on top that said Thai Elite.

I can only imagine what kind of giant tool someone felt like sitting there like a fish

in a bowl, for a million baht, while all the other non-Elites hung out in the huge and well stocked

airline lounges.

If Yingluck doesn't get the PM position and is looking for a job (since her AIS

job was just made up for her)

Send her my way, she is a hotty, and I got a mia noi position all ready and waiting for her!

Has Yingluck been informed about this? I mean, she is still busy campaigning touting herself as the next PM and throwing around all those promises what she is going to do once she's attained the country's top post.

Considering the Shinawatras made their fortune by running telecom companies, communications seems to be sadly lacking between the two siblings.

I am not surprised, AIS drops about half of all my calls, probably Thaksin gave her a call, but since the conversation

required more than 2 minutes, he could never finish it.

There is no way I could make up something this funny!!!!!!

Good to know that they got time to dress up in pajamas

Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA),..............."Average room rates at luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Singapore have jumped to almost three times the price of those in Bangkok."

Really prices for hotel rooms on small islands with large populations are more expensive than hotel rooms in a large rural country.

Tell us something else really smart, like champagne is more expensive than water, and lead weighs more than powdered cocoa.

I love the lies in this country, the reason why they are raising prices is because the government is letting them, the government lifted the price restrictions on all goods I think last month.

This is to sandbag the election, the democrats know they can't win, so they are going to sabotage the economy, and then with the red shirts win,

they will blame it all on them. It's not really a sophisticated plan, but this is Thailand, you could fool most people with any silly plan as long as you don't spell every step of it out for them.

Also, to help out the consumer is a joke as well, when they talk about the delayed price increases, it takes time, sometimes a couple of months to raise consumer goods like food, you don't just tell Tesco "hey next week, I am going to raise your prices by 15%"

Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA),..............."Average room rates at luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Singapore have jumped to almost three times the price of those in Bangkok."

Really prices for hotel rooms on small islands with large populations are more expensive than hotel rooms in a large rural country.

Tell us something else really smart, like champagne is more expensive than water, and lead weighs more than powdered cocoa.

I love the lies in this country, the reason why they are raising prices is because the government is letting them, the government lifted the price restrictions on all goods I think last month.

This is to sandbag the election, the democrats know they can't win, so they are going to sabotage the economy, and then with the red shirts win,

they will blame it all on them. It's not really a sophisticated plan, but this is Thailand, and really you could fool most people with any silly plan as long as you don't spell every step of it out for them.

Also, to help out the consumer is a joke as well, when they talk about the delayed price increases, it takes time, sometimes a couple of months to raise consumer goods like food, you don't just tell Tesco "hey next week, I am going to raise your prices by 15%"

Love all the comments, everyone reading minute to minute news.

Thaksin isn't a complete idiot (unlike a lot of the posters), he has at least read a bit about thai politics in the

last hundred years.

The oil fund is dry, big surprise, elections will follow soon after, inflation will get a blast of

red bull, and the blame game cycle will continue. The democrats are more predictable than a corrupt land officer.

There is some strategy to the game.

Why would you serve a jail sentence in Thailand if you didn't have to? it's not like the Thai judiciary is concerned about

things like justice, history definitely doesn't reflect that.

You do noy go to jail in Thailand, if you have no choice, you change the opinion, that has been the system for over 100 years.

ban the use of the big vinyl pipe watercannon and strictly enforce it. they are banned in pattaya but you can see them being used everywhere and the police do nothing.

How do they kill people with these ?

Imagine some guy who's government failed him by only allowing him an

education until he was 9 years old. Now imagine you cruizing down the street going 40km an hour

on a motorbike. Enter uneducated <deleted> who doesn't have the mental capacity to understand that spraying

someone in the face with a watercannon, while they are going 40Km is an automatic accident.

And there you go. It's not the watercannons that kill people, it's a corrupt government, and the idiots it produces

that kill people.

This is normal, if there is some bad weather, even only 30% more than normal, infrustructure falls apart.

Jai yen yen, this is Thailand, everything is build like crap, so it is to be expected that if it rains hard,

you might not be able to leave somewhere for a week.

Tourists that don't know any better, now do, we got Paragon and we have a got multi nationals, but

we are a lot closer to Cambodia when it comes to a bit of rain, than we are to some place like Singapore.

Maybe Suthep has an answer, he could maybe get some longtails with ignorant Burmese to manage some

rescue operations, he definitely wouldn't want any fancy western solutions to help people out.

You can buy it from this company www.litehouseasia.com

You can buy it from this company www.litehouseasia.com

Suthep is right, they don't really need foreigners, they could do everything themselves.

I mean really, does Thailand really need, computers, cars, phones, engines, bridges, internet, dams, etc.

Both parties should call it quites, he can go back to sitting on the floor and eating som tom, and farangs should go somewhere else for their prositutes.

lets make a happy assumption - IF everyone in Thailand has an iPad, would it help to increase the popularity of reading ?

I guess will be more comic strips, cartoons and games around :-)

...... The ruling class, IMHO, does not want the Thai public reading anything that might make them THINK about new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner. It's even worse in the provinces, I have heard more than once where people or companies have

tried to build a public library, all with private funds, and the provincial government has responded with firm no.

What's next Bangkok 2014 - Innovative City Planning Capital

They would be sad if they weren't so dam_n hilarious

"The government has been closely monitoring the supply problem since last year and observed two key factors - soaring global demand and unfavorable weather, which reduced oil palm harvests he said."

The title of the article is a joke, 98% of the shortage is caused by government policy, there is no regional shortage of palm oil,

which could be attributed to something like biodiesel.

Malaysia and Indo are the two biggest producers of palm oil in the world, Thailand third, to run out has nothing to do with

the regional availability of it, and everything to do with ignorant politicians.

Thailand's biodiesel demand from palm is nominal compared to global demand.

As commodity markets become not only global but more liquid, not only on paper (contracts and exchange trading) but also physically, ignorant governments like Thailand will have more of these problems in the future.

Price controlling a commodity like palm oil, which is both a energy and food source, is much too complicated for

Thai politicians.

They should stick to simpler policies, like no spaghetti strap shirts for girls on Songkran, or no alcohol on

election day.

If they even what to attempt something like commodity fixing in this decade, they better hire some western consultants,

or else, riots like last April will be a weekly event.

"Then, an unknown number of gunmen equipped with M79 automatic rifles opened fire against another karaoke bar"

I am no expert but I think the M79 is a grenade launcher, and it is not automatic, my guess would be that the unknown

number would be 1, because I am thinking 2 grenade launchers against a karaoke bar, would end a karaoke bar quick like

I have an MBA.

I do not understand what a chart of accounts is supposed to mean.

Based upon my employment criteria, employer and peer reviews I am judged competent to perform my job and receive a large salary with performance bonuses. And yet, I had no idea what was meant by the reference to a chart of accounts. Sorry,

Did you by chance buy that MBA from a university in Khon Kean?

I don't know how anyone from a decent western university with a bachelors degree in business couldn't know what it is.

You learn it probably the first 2 weeks of accounting 101, and without knowing what it is you can't do even the most basic accounting.

I have met a lot of Thai's with business bachelors degrees that definitely couldn't tell you what one is,

but after you explain it you see some recollection.

But for a Thai graduate with an MBA that is pretty bad.

My method:

Thai bachelors degree = Western high school education

Thai MBA or masters = Western bachelors degree

What utter crap!!! I agree London has now most certainly become better value. Things are much cheaper in comparison to Thailand. Thailand is fast becoming a major rip off! People are still living in the past and still believe the old crap. So what is better value in Thailand?

Cheaper in Thailand:

-Accommodation - Is kinda true now, but I expect it to return to overpriced levels within 2 years.

-Public transport - Other than taxies, public transportation is completely overpriced here, take the BTS or

MRT, for the places they go to and the inconvenence of transfers, I could name 50 other cities with better

value mass transit systems.

-Eating out - True

-Most groceries (apart from imported western items) - Not true, on average, most groceries are more than in the US,

(I don't know about Europe), milk for example is a staple and more expensive

-Health care (apart from NHS) - True

-Fuel - Not True, same as other countries such as the US

-Insurance - True

-All kind of taxes - None sense take singapore for example, tax is cheaper, and the quality of life is far better

Thailand use to be a great deal, I would say now it's inexpensive, but definitely not cheap

One thing that kills Thailand is the land and housing prices, these are completely overpriced, I took a

look at some dumpy villa a friend bought in Kamala a couple weeks ago.

I had to bite my tongue to avoid laughing, he spent 48 million on something that probably cost the builder 8 million to build.

Do you still send to the old immigration address, or is there a new at Chang Wattana to send the 90 day notice?

The website still has the old one and I need to mail it in?

Anyone know?

I'd suggest you talk to Sunbelt or someboy who knows about the current BOI assistance, as it was quite generous back then.

and i would strongly counter-suggest that rather then give your hardly earned cash to someone that in the best of the option will just tell you what you want to hear instead of protecting your interest (so you can discover the messup at the very later stage, when you will be in trouble for not have double checked what supposed to be right), better you give your money to a local charity.....

I second that if you are looking for expensive bad advise that will come back to bite you later on than Sunbelt is the place to go.

I drive a Camry, I guess that makes me elite now.

I don't think that the program fleeced that many farangs, I think they mainly ripped off

Asian foreigners.

I loved the comment about the TPC pitching the benefit that you won't be

ripped off because it is supported by the Thai government

and not a private company....................there is no way I could have held a straight

face if they had told me that.

whenever the supermarkets have a two for one,why does the price double? and when the promotion is over the price of a single item goes up .

just got some small toms from carefour ,cost originally 21 baht ,two for one promotion 36 baht. do they think we dont notice?

Crefour is French company not thai

Ha ha ha, that was pretty funny, yeah like Tesco has the same quality of service in Thailand as in Britian.

I went in the other night, and they had already put the bread, vegetables, and meet products away, it was 9:45pm and they were closing

at 11pm.

This is the case with hundreds of brands in Thailand, the service is terrible because it is provided by Thai's, it's not all there fault

it's the system, commercial sales is so monopolistic in Thailand that customer service is a joke.

Honestly I don't think that 95% of the Thai's do notice the scams where they mark up the price from 21 baht to 36 baht and then

tell you it's half off. But I can tell you most of the foreigners notice it.

For the most part Thai's education levels are quite low, whether they are rich or poor, most of them don't have much common sense,

and are easily fooled by things like this.

Although there does seem to be a rising level of common sense in the middle class that I have never seen before, people that earned there

money with an education and by working for it.