daboyz1

No woman wants to work in the sex trade, but given the alternative, many do not have much of a choice.

5555 A lot of these prostitutes, especially ones that work with foreigners, have multiple men sending them tens of thousands of baht each every month in order to 'rescue' them from their bar. And they STILL are out there 'working' each night even though they already have a monthly income higher than most Thais and many of their foreign customers can only dream of.

This is absolutely true!

I thought we're all gonna be rich? What happened?

As for our friend saying how much he trusts the Thai authorities and their competence. It seems Hizbollah may have a very good reason to doubt the competency of Somchai Clouseau .......

http://counterterror...ah_cells_to.php

On 17 March 1994, a Hezbollah operation to bomb the Israeli embassy in Bangkok went awry when the terrorists who were driving the truck bomb got into a traffic accident in Bangkok’s notoriously congested streets. The driver fled the scene and the truck was towed to a police station; the bomb was only discovered days later when the police inspected the car.

LOL!

@Tlansford:

In the USA, the process is not identical with Thailand, but the intentions are similar. Poor people receive financial support to defend themselves and assistance in posting bail. Legal defense is provided by the government and bail options vary from state to state, but there is usually a mechanism, more or less effective, to support poor people in posting bail. Clear enough... ?

Sorry, it's not clear, because that's not how it works.

Poor people do receive either a court appointed lawyer, or a public defender based on the rules of the jurisdiction where they are charged and their ability to pay for legal representation. Some jurisdictions have a public defenders office that is paid for by the state. Others have court appointed lawyers that have regular practices in other areas. One of the requirements for them to get certified in these jurisdictions is that they will offer there services as a court appointed lawyer for a reduced fee to indigent clients.

Which would you choose? A lawyer whose full time job it is to defend indigent clients, or a lawyer that makes $250 an hour in his private practice, but then is forced to defend an indigent client for $40 an hour due to his being licensed in that jurisdiction? I would take the former everytime.

Bail is totally different. A bail bondsman is on the hook for the entire amount. Based on the risk of the defendant showing up for court, the bondsman asks for a NON REFUNDABLE percentage. If your bail/bond is 100k USD the bondsman might ask for 5% to 20%. This is non refundable to the defendant.

Just to make it crystal clear. If your bond is 100k and the bondsman asks for 15k, that 15k is GONE. That's how they make a living. If you dont show up for court, the bondsman is on the hook for 100k. That's where people like dog the bounty hunter come in.

Clear now?

As I previously explained, the scenario you claim is not the case for those that are on payment plans. As well, some states do not require the bonding agent to forfeit funds. The use of a bond service is the the contracting out of the obligation to ensure due process.In the USA, if there were no provisions for bonding, the government would be obliged to release impoverished detainees that were languishing in prison solely because of their financial situation.

Payment plans? Do a little research before you post. Magistrates or Judges set bond based on severity of the crime and risk of the defendant skipping court. It's not based on ability to pay the bond.

@Tlansford:

In the USA, the process is not identical with Thailand, but the intentions are similar. Poor people receive financial support to defend themselves and assistance in posting bail. Legal defense is provided by the government and bail options vary from state to state, but there is usually a mechanism, more or less effective, to support poor people in posting bail. Clear enough... ?

Sorry, it's not clear, because that's not how it works.

Poor people do receive either a court appointed lawyer, or a public defender based on the rules of the jurisdiction where they are charged and their ability to pay for legal representation. Some jurisdictions have a public defenders office that is paid for by the state. Others have court appointed lawyers that have regular practices in other areas. One of the requirements for them to get certified in these jurisdictions is that they will offer there services as a court appointed lawyer for a reduced fee to indigent clients.

Which would you choose? A lawyer whose full time job it is to defend indigent clients, or a lawyer that makes $250 an hour in his private practice, but then is forced to defend an indigent client for $40 an hour due to his being licensed in that jurisdiction? I would take the former everytime.

Bail is totally different. A bail bondsman is on the hook for the entire amount. Based on the risk of the defendant showing up for court, the bondsman asks for a NON REFUNDABLE percentage. If your bail/bond is 100k USD the bondsman might ask for 5% to 20%. This is non refundable to the defendant.

Just to make it crystal clear. If your bond is 100k and the bondsman asks for 15k, that 15k is GONE. That's how they make a living. If you dont show up for court, the bondsman is on the hook for 100k. That's where people like dog the bounty hunter come in.

Clear now?

I thought they idea of bail was as an incentive for those charged to turn up at court at the right time.

What incentive do these people have to turn up if other peoples money is being used for bail?

Amazing Thailand :-)

Amazing indeed.

They've been in jail for nearly 2 years without trial and no means to post bail themselves.

Ah <deleted>, just lock 'em up and throw away the key - that's what we farang do in our countries... right?

from discover Thailand article : this fund is for everyone, lest some gov't haters claim it is only for red shirts.

The fund was set up in August 2006 to help people with financial problems fight their cases in court. Aid provided includes payment of court fees, a free lawyer to represent them in their case, a surety for temporary release and expenses for forensic science work that may be needed to help them in their case.

...

''The money is not a grant,'' ... those who won their cases had to be responsible for ensuring whoever they defeated in the court battle reimbursed the fund.

And the article says that the fund is also for foreigners.

http://www.discovert...ad.php?tid=2466

At least in the USA, if not in your countries, people have the right to legal defense as well as a speedy trial.

Please explain to me how that equates to the govt. posting bond for the defendant?

This is surely a joke. It has to be.

(pointing to Dubai).... You need to ask that man over there regarding my answers to any tough issues.

.

As long as there is enough foreign currency coming in to Thailand we can print a lot of Baht. Thailand easily lands a billion US$ a month on money sent by Thai living abroad, farang spending a foreign pension or income here and the inccidental girlfriends getting some support. This comes at virtually no expense what soever. On top of that there is, even after the floads, a lot of export that is generated at by now even lower wages than in China. Dream on about a lower Baht, this won't happen any time soon!

The amount of US currency heading to Mexico over the years hasn't caused the value of the peso to rise at all. It went from 13.5 per USD in Dec. 07 to 13.7 per USD today.

So that's a flawed analysis. Just taking a guess, but between the illegal immigrants in the US, and the USD drug money sent back to Mexico, you would think the peso would be stronger based on your analysis.

Try again.

No one stripped him of his citizenship. They just revoked his passport. Apples and oranges.

Anything wrong with a sister meeting her brother if they happen to be in the same country? would like to think my sister would bother if she came to Thailand, what difference would it make? its not like they don't speak on the phone regularly is it!

Well you are rite on that. Except he is a fugitive running from justice in Thailand and if they met she should have been trying to put handcuffs on him. Just another case of failing down in the carrying out of her duties. Add it to her list of broken promises.

She has accomplished a lot in four months.

1 released water from dams in the monsoon season further adding to the problems

2 built levees designed to hold the water back from a speedy exit into the sea. Thereby causing many to leave their homers because the water was being held there rather than allowed to obey the law of gravity.

3 reneged on most every promise she made during the election.

Well done Yingluck :jap:

I try to avoid politics as in my opinion 1 lying dirtbag is the same as another and it seems kinda pointless to me to get upset about something I can't vote to change anyhow. It just struck me as strange that an article was needed to state the obvious that A brother and sister may or maynot have met (depending on what source you take) when they were in the same country. Good on her for her family loyalty is my opinion she has gone the extra mile for her brother and she impresses me for that and that alone.

She can meet with him all she wants. She should not have accepted the PM job then.

This one ought to be interesting.

If this is true, I'm shamed to be an American.

Thailand is an inbred military dictatorship and kleptocracy. Has anyone considered that this must be some kind of "board game?" In other words, how is it possible that the PAD and other elite business class lovely folks couldn't predict that there would be an initiative to bring the former PM back from his self-imposed exile? Did they have their heads in the sand and/or are they total idiots falling asleep at the opposition switch? This gives rise to the supposition that there was a "back room deal" between PTP and PAD with the army sitting at the table to count the pot. Let's further suppose that there was an "arrangement" that said - look, we need to assure that Bangkok is not flooded so that we can protect the wealth and property of our fabulous elite super rich business class and keep the cash registers ringing, and there is a way to achieve that. In return, let's say that we offer to sign off on a proposal to provide amnesty that includes your man, but we want your assurance that he won't replace you or be designated as DPM. Then with that offer on the table back in July or August, with the floods gaining ground, the mechanics of rerouting the water were put into action by the incumbent, thinking all along, this will never stick. All we have to do is play along and make sure when the music stops that we have a chair.

Then all hell broke loose Thai style. Finger pointing, blame, political gamesmanship with people as pawns, opportunism, and of course, the money game. Everyone now wanted to collect $200 and pass go, and build up their property and roll the dice again. So all the players saw accelerating opportunity in the face of disaster. There is a lot of aid coming in, supplies can be re routed, resources can be squandered, people can be ransomed, property deeds can be changed...and on and on. People on the side of one color started interpreting the signals differently from the people of the other color. With decades of control, even the army was baffled for a while as it took them a while to mobilize in helping the people. Finally, they had to go in. Ruffled feathers, broken promises, reneged arrangements, hot tempers, visions of grandeur, overinflated senses of self importance, alternative game moves, lots of over sized ego, all adding up to a classic "Thai style double cross." But, even though it's written down, what we really meant is.....

The excitement builds, the blustering and puffing get aggressive, threats, disclosures, blackmail....and on and on. The de facto head man panics and calls a play at the line of scrimmage and runs in with a manipulated agreement and amnesty plan with the "I'll show them" attitude and "do you know who I am?". And voila! The Thai style double cross becomes the stalemate, conflict and rumble in the schoolyard. The board game now changes to the good old Texas Hold 'em bluff. The clock is ticking and the army is preoccupied but not unaware. The sitting player needs to find some dough to try to flip the army, while the other side, dough in hand, tries to muster popular support. What a game!! Good old fashioned Thai double cross and fight.

Who will make the next move?

I think you've watched too many Oliver Stone movies. There's no conspiracy here. She and her ilk have said it from the beginning. Bring him back and get him off the hook. Not sure why people are so outraged here are so surprised and outraged by this. Granted it is so blatant. What can you expect.

"Let them eat cake"

Your child needs a US State Department Registration of Birth (substitute for birth certificate.) Get the Thai birth certificate translated into english and take it to the CM US Consulate. They will help you fill out the forms. Apply for a passport for the child at the same time. This was very easy when I did it for my kids.What I failed to do was get them on a Tambien Baan and apply a Thai passport. This cause a great deal of problems later when we did get thier Thai passports.

Google "CRBA"

Sorry I'm a little slow (American education) Thaksin will solve all the countries problems in 6 months and all Thais will be rich.

The Democrats have now admitted that former PM Abhisit flew off to the Maldives, throwing in the lie that it was a 'diplomatic visit' despite no record of it from official Maldive sources.

Badly timed, perhaps, but I'm sure you and I would both like to be able to evacuate to somewhere like the Maldives. But lets be honest he is FORMER PM, so the onus is no longer on him personally to fix the problem and as Taksin has demonstrated beautifully it is easy to orchestrate the 'pawns' from abroad. But nevertheless a show of solidarity with ordinary people would have been benificial in a crisis such as this.

That's pretty naive. He's the current PM by proxy.

I think you are getting your PMs a bit mixed up there.

I don't think so. Dude Samak, Somchai, Yingluck on and on.

The Democrats have now admitted that former PM Abhisit flew off to the Maldives, throwing in the lie that it was a 'diplomatic visit' despite no record of it from official Maldive sources.

Badly timed, perhaps, but I'm sure you and I would both like to be able to evacuate to somewhere like the Maldives. But lets be honest he is FORMER PM, so the onus is no longer on him personally to fix the problem and as Taksin has demonstrated beautifully it is easy to orchestrate the 'pawns' from abroad. But nevertheless a show of solidarity with ordinary people would have been benificial in a crisis such as this.

That's pretty naive. He's the current PM by proxy.

Why must Thai politicians insist in imposing such ridiculous deadlines on every instruction they issue that comes with a timeline? It is highly unlikely that Yingluck has the faintest idea how long it will take - it could be three days; it could be a month. Much more realistic to emphasise the urgency, with regular updates required, than to state a specific timescale which probably won't be met.

"All Thais will be rich in 6 months" T.S.

What a failed bit. I really feel bad for her. Her meglomaniac brother put her in this spot. Reminds of me of Nero playing his violin as Rome burns, except he gets to do it 3k miles away.

I am also sooooo tired of reading the same crap every day about how the government is inept and how everything their doing is wrong or they are not doing enough to make things right.

Try to go thru so many topics then and find accurate suggestions. And you think government don't know all off these possibilities? The problem is that nobody will follow every single post on forum where farang idiots fight each other in nonsense "discussions" to try to find some smart/stupid suggestion.

The government has NOT reported a whole lot of useful information to the people. My wife is a very well educated Thai, speaks and reads Thai and has complained that there has been a glaring lack of credible information from the government. NOBODY who is reasonable would expect a government to be able to always completely avert natural disaster. I think most of humanity is still in agreement that we have not mastered the Earth this degree as of yet, BUT what people do EXPECT and DESERVE are very basic things that most of us probably learned in grade school or at least college or in our professional lives. We expect to have some idea (doesn't have to be perfect) of 1) Who -- is helping in the effort and what their responsibilities are, 2) What -- is happening (reporting on it often) & What might happen, for instance if plans for mitigation fail, & 3) When (precisely to the minute) things are coming to pass -- like, if the government's plans fail. This government has done an absolutely abhorrent job, almost juvenile at basic project/disaster management.

Same happened in many countries which were affected by disasters. Even in so called "civilized" countries. And what? You think the governments were criticized? Yes, they were. That's the nature of frustrated people. Criticize everything and everywhere. In this particular case government has many choices, also about informing people. Some information should be said, some not. City doesn't need 10 000 000 people in the cars leaving. That would be disaster. Anyway - let government do the job now, organize the help after..

And, who cares that they are not a first world country? Even first world countries make similar mistakes (sometimes). Does that mean we should all just quietly feel sorry for them (and us, for those of us who live here in Thailand)? That's a pretty convenient way to live, isn't it? It would be much easier to have such an attitude if I had absolutely no empathy for the plight of the Thai people, didn't live here and didn't have anyone at all that I love or deeply care about here.

Mistakes? Sometimes? Not sometimes, quite often. But it doesn't metter. What metter for me is lack of information from farangs who could just make short reports where they live and what's going on. Then many foreigners in the city would predict what's gonna happen in next 2-3 hours. And what we have instead? Idiotic fights on public forum where moderators can't intervene due to their actual situation in Bangkok. Shame.

All in all, complaining is an important part of any progressing society. Sure, us foreigners like to complain. Most of us come from societies where we our civilizations have crawled and clawed and fought and argues their way into being. Thais are complaining as well. I cannot read Thai, but my wife can and points out videos and links for me to look at and she translates. The educated Thais are mad as hell, although they would not tend to express it so openly as us 'westerners'. They have MUCH to be angry about. People needed/need basic information as to what may happen, when it might happen and what to do if it happens. They are getting very little of this. I STILL don't know what precisely is going on, and my wife and I have our eyes and ears glued to every source we know of. That's a problem.

For anyone who understands Thai:

(video of THAI guy ranting on many of the same points made by people here. there have been plenty of others.)

Of course complaining is an important part of any - so called - progressing society. However it doesn't help much, especially in Thailand. First at all you need to understand Thai ego and Thai culture at all. You can't just do it the way you do. I think you stay in this country long enough to know that if you do - you will be simply ignored. Is that bad? Maybe. But this is part of the culture. Why so many farangs live here? Because they like many many things in Thai culture. But you can't have ideal society (ideal in your opinion). We live here because simply it's easy and nice to live here.

And about "educated Thai who are mad as hell", come on.. most of my neighbours work for companies as a managers with salary 100k+ or are selfemployed doing some profitable businesses. I don't think they're mad - I talk to them every day, they inform me what's going on. And what are the suggestions. We help each other to protect our houses, to seal the front doors and windows, to order and carry some sandbags, or to move belongings to the upper floors. Just, you know, they are NORMAL educated Thai, not kids who make political rumors how bad is situation and how PM didn't come straight to their house and tell them, put 5 sandbags here, and 5 there. People who DON'T WANT TO know anything - will complain they don't know. Poeple who WANT TO know - will find the way to know.

That 3 pages of incoherent posting. I'm thinking English is your second language.

At least Nero played his Violin when Rome burned. She has no skills.

Yeah that place is a mess. Took me a week to get a visa there back in 2005. They also don't understand what a queue is. When the windows open, everyone runs up there.

At least this time it will be hard to set fire to Ayutthaya.

Man that's hard core. Funny though.

Woravat has an idea to provide the tablets with basic specifications, but if any schools want higher or advanced specifications, they can apply for funds to get them.

Curious to learn what these "basic and advanced specs" might be

basic model

Thanks for making me spit beer all over my computer. Priceless!!