Valentine

u mean the same "generosity of spirit" and "human understanding" the reds showed the owners and users of central world / center one and the innocent bystander killed at the sala daeng station when grenaded from lumphini ?

Yes the destruction of Central World was the great tragedy in all this.Thank you for reminding us what the priorities should be.

He did not prioritise anything. The fact of the matter is the reds did not give a flying f.... about who or what they damaged including the unfortunate soldier who was dragged from the truck. I wonder how many of their so called NE comrades have lost their livelihoods because of damage to tourism & property. You think the only damage was in BKK. Think again about all the money that is normally sent to families in the NE who now do not receive this anymore. There is so much more to this story than will ever be reported.

Depression can put you in a deep black hole. A similar case in Phuket recently where the Thai wife died from a stroke. American husband could not bear to live without her & shortly thereafter put a gun to his head. They were married a long time & ran their business together. Not saying the Thai German couple were afflicted by depression but sounds possible given the circumstances. Sad & tragic.

I had some sympathy for the redshirts before the hatred, violence and firestorm that they initiated in Bangkok. However, they have proved that the Prime Minister is right. Many of the leaders are acting like terrorists.

They need to stop the threats and do things legally and peacefully. After Bangkok, the government is justified in whatever measures it takes to stop them from ruining the country. They are cutting their own throats with their recalcitrance.

From what I remember of your posts you are pro-Yellow and very anti-Red.

Its funny how many Yellow supporters all claim to "......have had some sympathies with reds but not anymore......."

Are they attempting to portray a move of support away from Reds ?

I think you will find that Red strength is growing even more stronger - even those who were neutral have been disgusted by the governments lies and propaganda and now are not so neutral anymore.

Looks at this "Red School" nonsense by the Nation - pure fantasy pumping the government propaganda - pathetic. !!!

This is not the first time there have been reports about red schools & I seem to remember red shirt leaders speaking of the existence of such schools.

Some posters are ignoring or haven't understood that the PM is not talking about the last year but about a trend over the last 18 years… Perhaps that speaks more about the posters themselves than about the content of the article discussed or its author

Many westerners make the mistake to think that "All prime ministers are corrupt so it doesn't matter", "it doesn't matter which party, there is and has been corruption under all of them so they are all the same". Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is of course true that there is corruption under all parties and prime ministers, it will be at least a generation before corruption goes down to "European levels", the point is that it really matters if a party or a prime minister in power tries to reinforce the corruption system, or go with it, or perhaps even tries to tackle it. It really does matter for the country economically.

Corruption increased under Banharn and Chawalit, it went down under Chuan Leek Pai (but he wasn't very good at stimulating the economy), it went up sharply under Thaksin (pretty good at stimulating the economy though). Overall, corruption going down is good for a country, corruption going up is very bad for a country

What does the prime minister try to achieve with the article, what's his message?

You should get your facts right.

Corruption was rampant during the last Democrat government.

The people elected the the TRT and Thaksin to stamp out the massive drug scale in Thailand and the massive corruption of the Democrats and Elite.

During TRT corruption fell drastically.

Now it is rising again back under the control of the Democrats and Elite.

Since 2006 massive military spending (and its associated corruption) has happened.

The pigs have their snouts back in the trough, for the first time since pre-TRT, and they are happily eating.

The trouble Abhisit has is he is only the puppet and not the one pulling the strings, he is as guilty as the people he beds with for his position.

So rushing through a law to lift the foreign ownership threshold & then immediately selling 70 plus billion Baht worth of shares in Shin Corp to Tamasek is not corrupt. This would have to be the largest piece of policy corruption in Thailand's history.

It goes back a long way & seemed to be a way for backpackers to prolong their holiday. My first time in Bangkok back in 1979 I shared a room with an Aussie who was waiting on a replacement passport as his had been stolen (read - he sold it for extra cash). Others I met were involved in other things such as the traveller's cheques scam, smuggling gold to India, & even less savoury acts.

Interesting last two posts as I was told outright that I could not get a credit card on both a work permit and a retirement visa. I am with Siam Commercial Bank. Maybe I should have done the same as petercallen and pushed them a bit harder.

I don't desperately need a Thai credit card but it would be useful.

Peter, which bank are you with?

SCB subbranch in jungceylon basement, 200000 baht in account they hold bank book on

100000 credit limit on mastercard.

Not sure if I understand this correctly but it seems to me you may as well have a debit card, which anyone can get, & you get to hold your bank book. As it stands now you are actually not receiving any credit as you cannot go higher than the 100,000 limit.

I do have a credit card in my name but only received it on the back of my Thai wife as the bank offered her a credit card with an extra one for me. There are no restrictions on how much money we have to keep in the bank.

I apologize if I have upset so many Farang in Thailand & Phuket in particular.

My intention is noble.

I just want the local Thai people to get a fair share of Thailand's economy.

The bulk of it is already in the hand of Chinese, Farang, Indian, and the Arabs.

Leaving local Thai men mostly as farmers, and local Thai women mostly working the the industry that I rather not mention.

I use the word most, as exception does apply to the fortunate few.

Loaded with bigotry, jealousy and sweeping generalisations. Well done, you'll go far.

Oh here we go again. I was being told be a local that the reason the land on Phuket is so expensive is because the farang pushed the prices up. Yes well, who sold it to them then?

Farang (using proxy companies) came and bought up Thai land at a very low price from local farmers.

Then they mark up 20 to 30 times.

Then they sell it back to Thai people.

Thai people have no choice, as almost all are in Farang hand.

Farang have to much money, they buy yacht (from Europe) and build marina using poor labor (from Myanmar).

Thai people don't even allowed to work in the construction sites.

There was even rumor from PAD (Sondhi) that Farang want to turn Phuket into Republic of Singapore II (i.e. Singapore buy the whole Island)

You are either seriously deluded (or trolling) especially if you believe the majority of Thai women are prostitutes.

Much of the buying up of land at cheap prices was by Thai people from outside Phuket who then proceeded to mark it up. Nearly all the rapid development in Patong over the last 15 years has been made by Thais.

Thai people do not work on construction sites for two reasons, either they do not want to or their Thai employer does not want to pay Thai wages so they hire cheap Burmese workers.

For years there have been rumours of turning Phuket into a duty free zone.Ask any farang if they would like Phuket to be like Singapore & they would fall over laughing. Singapore is the epitome of what foreigners come to Phuket to get away from.

The topic is about the tuk tuk owners & their extortion of US sailors. In case you were unaware most of the tuk tuk drivers rent their vehicles from a Thai & if they did not have to pay such high daily rents for vehicle & being able to park in a particular spot then prices would be much lower.

I am with AIS & had this problem a few months ago. I happened to pass by an AIS shop in a shopping mall & they had those spam messages stopped within a few minutes.

A lookout without parking! I seriously doubt anyone will park at the bottom of the hill & make what would be dangerous walk up back up the hill.

To pay 200 - 500 commission for instant cheque clearing is extremely high if you are talking about cheques issued by a local bank.

Some portion of our electric bills is for phantom electric i.e. there is still electric feeding your appliances even when they are turned off. I think the simple way to prevent this is to unplug any appliances when not in use.

satree isnt a cheap public school? I always see drunks getting their kid in beatup cars there.

Satree is a highly respected government high school for girls although they do accept some boys. Every year there are always many more applicants than the school can accept. It has a long tradition & members of the royal family visit at least once a year to follow up on their garden project. In over 3 years of picking up my kids there I never once noticed any drunks in beat up cars collecting their kids. The rates are very cheap, only about 2,000 Baht per term but the class sizes are rather large. The English programme is 25,000 to 30,000 per term.

This is the sector which gouges tourists to the max throughout all sections of the industry, from tuk tuk & street level ripoffs to all the big hotels forcing their guests to pay for Xmas & New year dinner whether they want it or not. This same group which in general shows complete disdain for the environment & packing in as many tourists as they can without considering the local infrastructure.

Any recovery plan should be looking to long term sustainable solutions of which there are plenty which need to be addressed.

A good attendance last night but really nothing new to excite potential foreign investment in real estate. The same old merry go round using leases & the worry about all the grey areas in Thai law as to whether or not in future that existing agreements can be enforced. This along with the fact the land office may or may not register something in your name. I hope the management can do something about the oppressive heat in the undercover section of the meeting place if further meetings are to be held there.

There were 2 crackdowns during the 70's when many were killed. At this time Samak was the interior minister & the troops were told the students were staging a communist uprising. What role, if any, Suchinda had in those I have no idea. He did stage a coup in 1991 & was about to be announced as PM in 1992 when the protests, led by Chamlong, came to a head & the troops were ordered to fire upon them. I feel Anupong's role in the current turmoil will be looked upon much more kindly than Suchinda, for his efforts in the early 90s, & those involved in the bloody crackdowns of the 70s.

We thought we lived in a tolerant and peaceful country, but apparently that is no longer the case

I was pretty new in Thailand when Sujinda did the military coup in 1992 and I thought: He will never be able to come back to Thaland after that, not after killing thousands of people. Yet, only a few years later, there he was and he even had his own police force attending to his needs

Just wait a while and people will forget... unless money talks again

I seriously doubt he killed thousands. Between 40 & 50 official deaths on the streets when the army fired on protesters & some others missing after that. Intervention by HM prevented what could easily have been 1,000s of deaths or civil war.

Had kids there for some years starting 2004, never heard the above nick but its perfect. Its a business which happens to be into teaching. One of the worst schools in Phuket. Owner/headmaster is the meanest woman I have ever met, and has major problem to relate to the truth, both at work and in other business relations.

I dont quite get the ending of your reply?

At first you say you like the school, then you talk about how bad the headmaster is?

He did not say the school was prefect, he was referring to the "nickname" of the school as being perfect (North Korean Democratic Republic of Kajonkiet).

I want it NOW!!!!!!!

I'll even pay the 25K for the port.

Sadly, although Pathum Thani is one of the provinces in the initial deployment we're a bit off the beaten track, I don't see getting anything over my rather sad 512/256 in my lifetime

Hmm maybe it is quite a few years ago that you went to the TOT office. Even in the Middle of nowhere TOT offers 12MB speeds down and 1 MB up for 1500 baht or so. Just go there. Even when you are rather far of an exchange you still can get 8MB/1MB.

The sad thing with these kinds of projects is that the government has no clue about what they do. They are too busy stealing money from the people. Bhumjaithai is pocketing billions in road projects which could have spend to narrow the digital divide. If violenc flares up again next year, they will say Ich habe es nicht gewust.

Now that the nurse has gone the new ICT minister might have more clue about modern technology.

I feel it has more to do with location. If it was at Central or Jungceylon, both with undercover parking, it would have been easier to sell tickets.

I'm not talking about the hotel of that name - I'm talking about the area.

Whilst on a visit to Phuket, I took a drive in Ao Makham peninsula to look for a house to rent. It's 6 years since I last visited that area, and how it has changed - and not for the better!

Towards the tip of the peninsula, there are many five star hotels and condo projects. Well, if I had booked an expensive holiday in this area, I would be demanding my money back. As I drove in that 'exclusive' area, the view was dotted with abandoned and unfinished building projects - ugly concrete shells and rusting infrastructure.

What a total eyesore! It reminded me of the condo building projects in BKK that were abandoned during the 97 financial crisis - except there were many such abandoned projects all within a small geographical area.

Certainly not pretty, and hardly a good advertisement for the island

Simon (in grumpy old man mode)

You should bring this gripe to the GOMs meeting on Monday.

Most days, during the recent hot & oppressive weather, I was generally out & about for my job. The heat wore me down much more than usual & my appetite was definitely down

This is a serious matter to only we westeners and very very few "thinking" Thais.

If the cops weren't so morally corrupt and the majority of Thais were even just a little law abiding, this problem could be reduced to reasonable levels but until then just be sure to try not be involved in an accident with these brain dead people.

This is just natural selection in process, nothing more.

To a great deal most deaths and injuries are preventable.

I'm just thankful so far I haven't been near any of these idiots when they comit suicide. I mean if someone is hel_l bent on killing themselves, they are gonna succeed.

However, I do feel a little safer on the roads when I see lots of these fools get removed from the gene pool.

The gene pool keeps regenerating though. I can only gape in utter astonishment when I see a young couple (both without helmets) holding a very young baby above their heads riding fast, weaving in & out of the traffic.

P.S. I just came across Amsterdam's own response to the Nation Editorial - about which I pass no judgement.

http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2010/06/the..._the_nation.htm

These guys, Amsterdam and Knoobs, are on a PR campaign, nothing else. I had a look a the above website, it shows clearly they got nothing else to do than to probably distort the truth for money, at least that is what they attempt.

Poor Mr. Amsterdam. Get it wrong already in first sentence (government-controlled Thai newspaper) but interesting as he is already on defence strategy.

Spouting propaganda with terms like "freshly slaughtered", referring to the government as the "junta", "unelected PM". There is no way this guy will present an unbiased view of events. He said he "I stood witness to these exchanges from inside the red shirt encampment in the final days" referring to an exchange of talks about mediation. No mention made of the fact his client's puppets at first accepted the roadmap & then backtracked with silly demands which they knew would scuttle the roadmap.

IMO the objective right from the start of the protest was to promote anarchy & chaos with the aim to start a civil war if their demands were not met. One can view how the events escalated & were well orchestrated, something which cannot be done on the fly.

You say the True Visions (UBC) menu is in Thai but it can be changed to English. I seriously doubt True will help you install a free system whereby different channels can be watched on another TV as they charge extra for that.

The comment about the road being completely resurfaced in 2004 makes me wonder about the quality of the job as surely roads are built to last longer than that. The current resurfacing is not the same as Thepkasatri road where they ground up the old surface first. On the bypass the new surface is just being laid on top of the old one. Seems to me grinding up the old surface is a better method but then again I have no road building expertise.

Rear end collisions have been on the increase for years as has the number of tail gaters. Safe driving distance seems to be unknown here & anyone who does practice it finds the gap immediately taken.

Might be an idea for the local populace then................if they are 'good and easy' as you say.

Maybe the local authority could requisition them and force golf courses to pump water for humans instead of for their fairways..............

Maybe they could put these quick and easy spear pumps in the BOTTOM of the reservoir ?

A torrential downpour is of less benefit than you might imagine. When the ground becomes waterlogged, or rain falls quicker than the ground can absorb it, it becomes 'run off' and just runs into the drains and then into the sea. Basically it's lost.

Steady rain for 24 hours is what is needed.

In Kathu there is a canal & during heavy rains a large amount of the overflow is siphoned off into a small reservoir which then pumps the water up to Bang Wad. Not sure if this happens elsewhere.