blackout

danger by terrorist is real, and Bangkok has no exception. this is not the first time and i am sure it is not the last.

in 1994, we had a truck packed with a massive car bomb target at Israeli Embassy in Bangkok. it was pure luck back then that the truck was abandoned because of a car accident just a few block away from its target.

why some people in this goverment play down the danger is beyond my understanding.

wasn't the tourist authority of Thailand in thaksin government play down the danger of tsunami, and later Thailand got hit by tsunami?

an ingenious plan, it doesn't matter what court verdict will be, it is only a win win to the ruling party.

if the verdict is yes, the ruling party get a lot of face and votes. it is not even their money buying the vote here.

if the verdict is no, the ruling party can always blame in on the Interfering by the opposition party. still they get face and vote.

not thing to loose here.

on this page

http://blog.transparency.org/2010/10/26/cpi2010_temperatures_up/

"Nagaraju" interestingly talk about Switzerland

Hi, I am from India. TI president Hugutte said in a statement “There should be no where to hide for the corrupt or their money”. Keeping this as base I request TI to put some nations like Switzerland, who are helping the corrupt to save their corrupt money, at the bottom of the these rankings. These nations helping directly, I don’t want to use the word “indirectly”. The banks from these nations, make very strange rules they will not ask for the sources of money, and not reveal the corrupt.

keep in mind, thailand "has" extradition treaties or agreements with the UK. but "not" with Australia.

from the thai's news. thai court agree on extradite the 2 men because thailand see Australia was under the UK ... on and on, which i don't think it is much of a reason than thailand want to kiss the Aussie butt.

on another news, "Honda to donate 280 mil. yen aid to flood-hit Thailand"

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20111020p2g00m0bu098000c.html

so difference!

The Army were dead right to oust Thaksin, Thailand was headed for another Phillipine-like, Marcos dictatorship with Thaksin at the helm.... the only way out was the quiet and silent coup. At that time almost no one in Thailand complained , it was so obvious what Thaksin was up to. It was a coup for the people and for freedom ..... and for "True Democracy"....!

Can you please explain how a coup is democratic. Lots of countries have democracies but they weren't the results of coups they were the reults of elections. A minority stages a coup and that is democracy? geez I would hate to live under your regime. The likes of Burma and many other places around the world were the results of coups, democracies I think not.

haft agree. but don't forget Cambodia.

democracy is not all about elections, but yeah i get your point

Thaksin is once again being used to explain all the bad things that have gone wrong in our domestic politics.

That is so wrong! Not sure where the writer was during Thaksin was in power.

"he was the main driving force" for all this mess. "He amplifies all the bad thai's habit to the new level." He shows it. with the right amount of money, tactic and timing he can do whatever and no one can touch him under what i call twisted democracy!

Then the military feel the same and they did what they have done. Those wearing yellow feel the same, they close down the airport and gave full support to the military. The red saw it and they too want to do the same and they burn down Bangkok.

Thaksin might not be the most honest and ethical man in the Kingdom, but overthrowing him in a coup was wrong and deplorable.

Now that I am totally agree.

Thailand without military coups? It could be in dream. I don't know if they have class in "how to launch a coups" in the thai's military academy or not. It seem like they must have.

( just look at the country's history of democracy!)

yeah, talk about long term, this seem like Shinawatra's goverment long term strategy

http://www.oknation....1/10/09/entry-1

for those can read thai, you will see some thais said that this people did the same back when tsunami hit the south.

So what do the red shirts have to complain about

they can complain that the yellow close down the airport, by the help of polices.

then ignore that the yelleow didn't burn down the city, set tires on fire infront of a major hospital mid town, lists go on.

That's good for her.

i mean Suu Kyi.

Amnesty for got to condemn thaksin? look at he south before thaksin took power and after that. what he have done to the south?

Is Thailand a colony of Britain, or France or US or Germany? Why the hell did the embassies concerned make such a fuss and why the hell did the owners of scholl have to apologise. This is a shame for all Thais and something needs to be done. This is Thailand and this is Asia, if the Western expats do not like anything we do...thsy can just leave and actually the foreign teachers and parents at the school that made such a fuss should have been told to do just that. This is really so sad that Thais have to dance to the whims and fancies of the West.

they should say sorry because it was kinda offensive to some victims and families of those killed by the war. being nice and polite is always good in any social. i guess the kids done it without intention but still, it is an offend, now they know it. say sorry is the right thing to do so.

but after they say sorry, and if some still asking for more, then i think it would be the time to ask for their sorry on what they have done to Siam. i am talking about the UK and France.

Obviously Thai people in general know nothing of the history of WW2 and probably nothing of what happened in their own country during the war. What about the atrocities on the Thai Burma railway and at Hellfire Pass. Many Thai people helped the prisoners but a huge number died as slaves workers as we all know. Is any of this taught in school or is it only a sad memory in the hearts of the very old people.

We will never forget.

from what i know(almost 10 years ago), they taught all of that in school. concentrate on what happen in asia, and why thailand help the japanese. less of what had happened in the west and very few(if any) about nazi's concentration camps.

i don't know about now.

i seem to agree with many asking why the thai should pay much attention on the education about nazi's mass killing when it have almost nothing to do with siam at the time. however "more education on that would be nice."

the British as they rampaged through the world forming 'The Empire' or is that ok to be conveniently forgotten.

totally agree!

Unfortunately, history education focusses, by-and-large, on the limitations of Thai history - and that is, purportedly, not always accurate.

well, it is thaialnd. no surprise for me seeing their history education focuses (and saturated) heavily only to the history of thailand. i can not complan about it after living in japan seeing tokyo version of japanese history book.

The education ministry should be promoting a much wider history curriculum, but TiT . . .

it is not going to happen anytime soon. not even in anyone dream!

Further making my point is that you missed the point that any WESTERNER you may have encountered (however many that may actually be) would not know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand... If you're running in those circles then that's the impression you'll get however I've had experience with a wide cross section of older and younger Thai's both educated and not so, which far out number the expats of Western countries here and I can say without equivocation they are very sheltered about the world outside of Thailand and most have told me that never even studied ANY world history during their education..

You can keep arguing your point but by doing so you're actually reinforcing mine instead..

you also missed the point that a few thai you may have encountered do not know history of WWII in the west, it doesn't mean "all" thais has no idea on the issue. If you're running in those circles then that's the impression you'll get . see?

my argument will only reinforcing the bad/weak part of your never support it.

and i am not going to justify or even comparing your experience with what you think it is already wide cross section of thais to my experience with foreigners i meet in southeast asia, america and japan. b/c you know what you know, but again what you know doesn't say that it is going to be the absolute right info for all. i was in thailand for almost 2 decades, and yes i know that they have world history in school classes. i also know that their side of thai history is way way over saturated.

but hey ,they also tell student how flipflop they were during WWII. if you are in thailand long enough you might know how teacher and students laugh at their own history during WWII. that was exactly Thais that i know. they never take anything serious, as so the nazi kids, i guess!

i do partly blame it on the school and education, but for sure i know not all of them act the way the kids did. not even majority of them do.

i am 100% agree with. you can say the same to many japanese in japan. but that doesn't make "all" japanese are the same. the same thing go to the thais.

This is typical a result of Thai narsistic attitude: ZERO knowledge and interest what happended outside ot Thailand.

if you do that in thailand, i am sure thai will be interesting to do more than just want to know.

Imagine: dressed as Burmese soldiers burning down Ayutthia and shouting: "we are going to feed the crocodiles with Thai meat" would be a friendly gesture compared what the nazi's did.

You think there is ONE Thai interested to know ? Forget it.

'Average Thai' yeah I'll take that bet..

"average ignorant", yeah i'll take that bet too

Clearly you run in the same educational circles..

you can just say whatever you like. anyone can do that just to support their own believe. that doesn't make it a fact....at all!

and thank for my education comment, i still happy that my education circles did not teach me to just imply whatever i see and know as an absolute correct reasons and argument. b/c that will just show how little one actually know.

Secondly starts asking them about south east asian history, let alone western history.. Your argument falls flat when (on average) we know much more about their history than your average Thai does ??

you sure about that?

Without doubt..

what make you so sure? i can not seem to find a good support on that.

many westhern i know even think that taiwan and thailand are the same! but all thai i know know that the USA and the UK are difference country.

should i assume that average western know less, average thai know more on the subject matter?

no!

Secondly starts asking them about south east asian history, let alone western history.. Your argument falls flat when (on average) we know much more about their history than your average Thai does ??

you sure about that?

Suggest that Thailand history is a bit more insignificant in the scheme of world history then the Nazi's and WWII nor is any of their past atrocities even on par with same. Silly comparison..

also suggest that western's war history is a bit more insignificant for Thailand as a country in asia. silly comparison.

well, i think i am making a lame comparison here, so as you.

Haha pretty funny but not that surprising.

All Europeans are appalled by what happened because it was on our, (Europe's) doorstep, and it's quite likely might know someone who was involved fighting the Nazis.

Fact of the matter is Thailand is the other side of the World and during 1940's other side of the world is even further than it is now, Thailand was also under Japanese occupation which led to Thailand declaring war on U.K. and America, what was going on in Europe probably seemed insignificant.

You will probably find as little knowledge about Nazis/ Hitler in any other S.E. Asian country, i mean in 2005 Prince Harry (3rd in line to the British throne) dressed as a Nazi at a fancy dress party and just made an apology, what do you expect from a school in Chiang Mai, lets just get over it.

Girls pose in 1st pic is spot on though.

kinda agree with this. how many of you learn about French and British when they try to split Siam?

we all have seen her brother did something against corruption before, and we all remember how it end up. well.. i shouldn't say "we all remember"!!

sorry i forgot it is thailand. people here remember nothing but only the color of money.

anyway i didn't know thai PM was a commandant! "Shinawatra Takes An Oath Against Corruption" this joke definitely kill.

yeah, sure "The spokesman said no one had lobbied the attorney-general not to seek the cancellation of the ruling of the Appeals Court."

just see who is the PM now. if the Attorney-General still want to keep his title as "Attorney-General" he better shut up. come on this is thialand. nothing new here.

see what the PM's brother used to do, Attorney-General sure will knows what to do next.

Former Finance Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula has warned Commerce Minister Kittiratt na Ranong and Finance Minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala they would be chiefly held accountable for a potential staggering loss of Bt250 billion to the country if the rice mortgage scheme is implemented.

i am not sure about that, held someone respond for damage he/she have done on the land of (fake) smile can easily be done base on ... money.

those bankrupted the country and start the asian financial crises has never been held respond for anything. When democrat was a government, the democrat didn’t do a thing. When thaksin came back as a PM, sure he wasn't punish himself and his friends!

Whoever taking control of the country as a government, thais in general won’t do a thing. Money is everything here who really care about the country?