Valentine

How sad when a peaceful solution is in sight that psychotic, murderous thugs are still plying their wares. There must be a faction that wants continued chaos & anarchy

Mr Park will face the same charges.

“It is obvious that he crashed into the couple,” Sub-Lt Thada said

This is a blatant set up of a foreigner if there ever was one. What a crock of BS.

How so Gotlost, it's not imediately obvious to me.

From the article "Mr Faosi was allegedly reversing the truck at night on the bypass road, causing Mr Park’s car to hit a motorbike."

Why he is to be charged when it is not his fault is beyond logic but then again this happens all too frequently. Maybe it is his fault because if he did not come to Thailand it would not have happened (this excuse has often been used in the past to lay blame on the foreigner).

GF tells me they have been enforcing this law in Udon for years. Who knows why it has taken Phuket so long to wake up to the fact that non enforcement of the law over the past years has resulted in the needless loss of many lives. For the law to be truly effective there also needs to be education/

Are we really still debating this? In the last week he gave a phone interview to the Nation, and followed it up by having a conference call with the PTP and commenting on Abhisit's reconciliation proposal?

...

Or am I missing the joke?

To begin with, I think he's alive.

But what you are missing is how odd it is that this man who thinks of himself as an international man of importance -- during a crisis some attribute to him -- and who is traveling internationally at a stupefying pace lately, cannot manage to hook up with a television crew and do a 5 minute interview. That's all it would take. Speculation over.

If someone from back home calls me and its a real friend of mine, I know by the phone call it's him or her. But if it's a former business associate, I'm not sure my voice recognition skills are so precise that I could state with impunity that yes, that was without question that person.

I wonder how many times The Nation reporter has spoken with Mr T on the telephone in the past (or was this the first time) to be absolutely sure it was him speaking during the telephone interview.

Why are they comparing this year to 2008 & not including the figures from last year?

It seems to me that all along the game plan of the Reds was to incite civil war. However, I am not making any plans to leave Phuket. My immediate worry is getting my kids back from holiday in Petchaboon as they will have to pass through the Don Muang area.

I was in Krabi last week & the prices at McDs in Ao Nang seemed hideously expensive.

There are groups who undertake annual clean ups but as with a lot of things only education/public awareness schemes will solve the problem. Ths issue of banana leaves, out of sight out of mind are attitudes which need to be changed. It is quite obvious whenever the tall grass is cut just how bad it is.

Gen Prem said the soldiers belonged to His Majesty the King, not a government.

That single comment addresses the root of many of Thailand's problems. Chatchai tried to change that .. and you can see what that got him.

You lost me. Chatchai who?

He was ousted in a coup in 1991 which led to the demonstrations, led by Chamlong, & deaths in 1992. HM intervened to end the bloodshed & Mr Anand was later named PM.

Now PG has a small article on the burning car outside Lotus. It says they will have more info in the hard copy edition out tomorrow.

There appears to have been a major accident outside Tesco Lotus last night. One source has reported it but not so far nothing from PG or it would be in our news & events. People at the scene said they heard an explosion from the Honda Accord, which did not burst into flames immediately. It was followed by a second blast, and then the fire. A badly burnt man was rescued & taken to Bangkok Hospital. A friend of mine was late for a meeting because of this incident & he seemed to think there was more than one car involved.

I wonder what the official report will be as the blast scenario is not good.

About surrendering May 15..............this is a clever but transparent ploy designed specifically for maximum impact after the shit hits the fan.

The Reds know that the govt. is going to do something............at this point I think they want the govt. to do something.

Then they will say, "look, we said we would surrender peacefully...........then the govt. decided to use force..........not us."

This will play well in Thailand's hinterlands.

Mr. T is orchestrating this with the help of handlers/analysts who know a bit about what they are doing.

It could also be they think they will have won the battle by then.

Sweetland in Soi Bangla & also Central Festival near the banks. Been around for a long time & started off with a small stall on the beach road many years ago.

Five percent!!??

Now, that is getting greedy. The standard percentage is supposed to be 3%.

Every agent we approached over the last two years has quoted 5%

You may get less by hard haggling, then they'll make even less effort to sell for you

I agree, 3% is a thing of the past & if you do get it they will focus on the higher commission homes.

At our house in Kathu we always had high water bills which I did not think much about & but thought we might have had a leaking pipe which I could not find & so left it in the too hard basket. I eventually did find a leak & repaired it but the bills were still way too high so I went to the water office in Kathu to query the bill. I was informed we were paying the T3 rate which is over double the T1 rate & upon asking why he told me the developer had registered the T3 rate (in my mind, but not confirmed, it meant the developer was getting some of the money). As the water bill was in my wife's name I took her back to the water office & within 5 minutes, after signing some papers, the bill charging was changed to T1.

Turn left when safe signs should be put up. I have seen a bunch of cars waiting to turn left from Saiyuan while the light was green for those going towards Rawai & red going towards Chalong.

Have to disagree. It would only lead to (once again) the traffic turning left from Sai Yuan just turning, regardless of oncoming traffic - expecting it to get out of their way. That was always the main problem with the junction IMO. Sounds to me as if the lights need adjusting so that if the light from Rawai to Chalong is red, there is a green arrow left light from Sai Yuan.

p.s. have to agree that I've never yet had a green light when coming from Rawai! To look on the bright side though, I've never yet had a red light when heading in the opposite direction.

I don't mind always hitting the red light, even though there's a LONG wait - for some reason as long as I know exactly how long I have to wait I don't get frustrated. Odd.

They have these signs at many other traffic light junctions & at least it may make some cautious in their left hand turn. It is ridiculous for a bunch of vehicles to be waiting in Saiyuan to turn left when there is no need to wait. A left hand arrow would help but to be honest they are very rare in Phuket & I can only recall one place where there is a left hand arrow. As we all know there are motorcyclists coming out of every soi on the island who do not stop or look when turning left so therein lies the mindset which could give pause with a blue sign.

It is funny how the Phuket Lifeguard club never seems to get involved in these discussions as they would be the perfect vehicle, under the auspicies of the governor, to provide volunteer lifeguard services as is done in NZ & Australia. Apart from providing a valuable community service surf lifesaving is also a great sport involving many aspects of competition in which young & old can participate.

As the OP has stated rips are very easy to see once you know what to look for. When I used to take my kids to Patong to play on the beach we always picked a spot to swim where there were no holes but even then you could still feel rips tugging at your legs in the shallows. I would tell them to pick an easily visible spot near where we were sitting & always stay in front of that marker when in the water. Parents should also be extremely vigilant & watch their kids at all times as no matter how calm it looks something can happen in an instant.

Turn left when safe signs should be put up. I have seen a bunch of cars waiting to turn left from Saiyuan while the light was green for those going towards Rawai & red going towards Chalong.

About the comments of being shot from long range, the facts would appear to be different. Yesterday on the Nations Tweet , there was a statement that the Police Hospital Autopsy report states that most of the victims were shot from behind, one at very close range as there was gunpowder on the body.

How would you plan to get out of the crowd if you were one of the planted assassins? Wouldn't it be completely insane to commit this type of crime surrounded by bystanders and cameras?

These are indeed insane times & desperate measures were applied to incite civil war which IMO was the game plan from the start of the protests considering how events unfolded beginning with peaceful protest which did not produce the desired results.

The extreme faction of red shirts is led by a former Major General who is familiar with military tactics. The reds of this faction mingled with the other protesters and used guns and grenades to target army commanders. This former officer is a traitor to the Thai military and should be ashamed of himself for targeting his fellow soldiers. Thai army personnel are Thai citizens and many would come from the North. What good comes from killing them?

What I don't understand is why havn't the army put him in the stockade & charged him with treason.

I think it is debatable how much the true agenda of the leaders of the Red Shirts is in line with the aspirations of the mass of their followers.

No group would even conceive of trying to attain the aspiration of the masses in Thailand (no matter colour) because to do so would mean they would lose their power.

It won't be over "until it's over" and I don't see that happening any time soon.

The red shirts are just a crazed group egged on by the former head waiter. He in fact is the prime guilty party.

And as so many have already said Abhisit demonstrated remarkable calm and restraint from 'day # 1'

Well, you got that totally wrong, didn't you?

These people are not "just a crazed group egged on by the former head waiter" as you state.

They are people who are fighting for human and civil rights within their country of birth.

I assume that you are not a Thai national and therefore know little or nothing of the structure of Thai society.

Before you start adding "wise guy" comments as above, you should learn a little, live with the people a little, research a little - and then give a balanced view of the situation.

Abhisit is a puppet; the army are pulling the strings. And who are the army controlled by?

There are several tiers in the higher echelons of Thai society.

They do not want to lose the power, nor the opportunity to carry out their corrupt practices.

Power and money - these are the main concerns for "your" people - assuming that you are 'yellow', of course.

I hope I assume wrongly that you believe the reds do not crave power & money. There are boundless examples of the addiction of power in people who started off with sincere motives.

While Abhisit is undeniably the Thai master of spin

Save the campaign diss for election time. Election time isn't now. Right now, Abhisit is UNDENIABLY the legally elected Prime Minister of Thailand. If the election was so contested, why weren't these red riots right after the election? In any case, just wait until the elections, reds, time to lick your wounds and go home. You've damaged Thailand enough for awhile.

well, erm, Abhisit is undeniably the prime minister which was put into office after an election where many of the PAD's opponents were banned form running and after weeks of shady and cheesy maneuvers to form a coalition, which probably involved bribing red MPs to join the democrat's coalition ranks.

I don't know if bribing MPs to change allegiances is a crime in Thailand, and maybe it doesn't make Abhisit's nomination illegal, so he may well be legitimate but at least his representativity is debatable..

MPs accepting payments to switch allegiance happens every election so don't sweat it. There are not many in politics purely for sincere reasons such as actually helping & truly representing their constituents,

Thats not a problem. War against the state means the reds are commiting treason. May God have mercy on them.

Either a curfew will be ordered with live ammunition used to back it up or Abhisit is throwing in the towel. Korbsak is supposedly trying to negotiate something, but with who?

Along with the provincial hall thing that is also happening right now it seems like they might be going all out for civil war.

The red's strategy. inciting chaos through provocation, has always been to force the authorities to take the action which is now happening. Now they have their cake they have to eat it.