Footloose1949

Lies, dam_n lies and statistics ...

As your 'pool' of contacts inceases, so does the amount of peer pressure you are under; I'm guessing, this can be to some expent confirmed by looking at the % rates of bad behaviour in large and small schools. Having said that, I don't think the variation would be that great. With the very small amout of text you can put on a facebook page as opposed to time spent on a mobile phone, I would have thought the latter, is going to have a much greater impact on what one thiks and does.

It occurs to me that due to well-known problem of translating Thai to English (Thai symbols having more than one meaning) that what the headline actually means, is organised prostitution, rather than prostitution in general. If that is indeed the case, his campaign has a much better chance of succeeding, and it is, after all, within that sector, that corruption and other criminal activities thrive, rather than in the majority of most bars. Brothels, operate in a completely different way, and through them, you get human traffiking, drug dealing and other methods used by the Thai Mafia etc. A Thai girl working in a bar, may well not like the work they are doing, but at least, they have considererably greater control over their lives, than those living/locked up in brothels. There may well be difficult to draw a fine line of distinction between one and the other, but nevertheless a line exists.

Whilst I certainly admire Chuwit Kamolvisit's campaign to stamp out prostitution in Thailand, unless he can also deliver on providing jobs that pay as well as those working in the world's oldest profession, he's going to have a pretty tough job on his hands. In Thailand, (and other as well, or better developed nations) one of the main reasons people enter it, is to support their parents etc, who are even more poorly paid. That is going to mean raising the earnings of those living in the poorer regions of Thailand, presumably by bringing in legislation so that people such as self-employed farmers, are paid a lot more than they currently are, by the middle-men and wholesalers, thereby reducing their profit-margin. That's highly unlikely to happen!

I don't know, but has he become, or is being influenced by 'Religious book-bashers and tub-thumpers'? and their ilk, who want to solve the ills of the world, but who at the same time, still want/prefer the economic status quo in which they operate, to remain as it is? There is as many people here are quite aware, a seriously signifiicant difference between the incomes of those at the bottom and top of the social ladder, and I don't see anything like the same level of enthusiasm to resolve this issue, as there is spouted on about 'outlawing' prostitution.

I do see glimmers of hope on the horizon, via the Cooperative movement which seems to do a lot of good in the Thailand, but wonder if those with money, (and still expect/want to take more than their fair share of the profits) are willing to allow it to develop as successfully as it can/has in other countries.

Well, I suppose you could open a new account, use it just for trawling serious/acedemic stuff, so your original account is not used, and earn the 25$, for handing them history of websites which will have little monatary value to them! Ha ha ha!

There are more Tigers owned as pets (4000+!!!) in Texas alone, than in the wild. Tibet and counties next to it are in the process of developing a 'wild Tiger enviroment/reserve' which crosses their borders. The population of Bangal Tigers is pretty close to the brink of extinction too. Such beautiful animals, and sadly, transferring 'Urbanised/Zoo-bred' Tigers back into the wild, seems to be nigh-on impossible, (Just in case anyone thought that might be a solution) though if the cross-borders reserve works, maybe there is a glimmer of hope.

Thailand and most of the Asian countries seem to have evaded the cluches of International bankers selling on their toxic debt. Maybe these countries refused to relax the banking rules put in place after the 1920-30 recession? Also, they are a lot closer to the Chinese economy, and benefit from the wealth swilling around there.

The 'Radicalisation' is probably more due to Thailand's annexing of this region from about 1904. That, probably is due to the aspirations of the French, who were trying to 'carve up' Asia around this time. Somewhat like the situation we now have in Bosnia etc, due in that instance, the Russians. One way or another a horrible mess, and just how one 'restores' things back to how they were pre-1914, or what other possible solutions there might be to resolving this conflict, is going to tax the minds of many for some time to come. Either side being heavy-handed, isn't going to help matters.

I would not support the relaxing of gun laws, and would also say that a 'Reponsible' person is someone who is NOT an alcoholic, or regularly drinks booze or frequents bars. Booze, promotes delusions of grandeur, fits of depression or mania. Guns and alcohol should never be allowed together. The Martial arts and Boxing can be just as great a killer as a gun in the wrong hands.

Quite why someone hasn't produced a 'hand gun' for self-protection, that fires a soft round like that used for paint-ball gaming, with a dye that stinks to high heaven and cannot be washed off for 7 at least days, so they are 'Marked' for attention from the Police, is beyond me. Such a weapon would not be able to injure someone, and I'm pretty certain that an attacker, on realising they are going to be 'Marked' in such a manner for a considerable period of time, is going to think at least 2 or three times about attacking someone, unless they suffering from some kind of phychosis.

Unfortunately, some of the people who want to own a gun, want it to physically hurt their assailant, rather than mark them, because centuries of firearm availability, has 'conditioned' the public at large into thinking that inflicting a physical injury upon someone, is the main way of defending oneself, from an attacker. Banks now use dye-spraying, so the technology is there, is just needs to be refined to fit the bill.

If, and since the last time the Constitution was changed, it was done as a consequence of a national referendum, any changes to it, should also only be made, if another national referendum, proves that the people want it to be changed.

If such a fundamental change is made due to the 'reasoning' used to justify allowing this to happen, it's I would have thought, a very, very dangerous precedent which could then be used to 'justify' other important pieces of legislation, denying the public a say in other things too.

With little knowledge of how farmers are presently subsidised, difficult to make suggestions, but I'm guessing the 'middle men' and officials distributing this money and other types of aid, are licking their lips at the prospects of kickbacks and tea money. There are I know, co-operatives of one kind or another operating, but they seem to be very localised and don't know if they co-ordinate between each other and/or are working as efficiently and corruption-free as they could be. The original 'model' came from Britain, and that worked well here up until about the 1970s when the business methods used by the big supermarket chains proved to be even 'better' profit-wise. Maybe some advice from the cooperative movement in the UK, based on them explaining why the UK system lost it's power, might allow the Thai versions to learn from it's mistakes etc. There are highly successful co-ops operating in some of the Scandinavian countries and also Spain, well worth Thais looking at, I would have thought.

Must point out that the original 'Cooperative movement' pre-dates and had nothing to do with communism, in case some people who haven't looked up it's history might think it does. See here for Wiki info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_cooperative_movement

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative

I could never really understand why some farang guy would want to "impress" me or some other farangs with his BS? Out of all the guys who I have sat and listened to about how very wealthy they are I don't think i ever saw one of them buy a round of drinks for the table much less for the entire bar.

Well, they all have one thing in common, they are Alcoholics, will try anything to befriend someone so they can justify why they are boozing and of course, get the person to buy them more booze.

Another sub-group of weirdos are those who wear flip-flops, have 'chickens legs' and wear those revolting loose baggy shorts, topped off with a stained T-shirt which has shrunk so that their obese/beer gut is uncovered and is so large they probably haven't seen their 'courting tackle/pet maggot' for about 10 years. Unfortunately see quite a few of these around Pattaya. lowering the tone of the place, invariably trying to chat up some Thai woman who would look ugly when wearing the strongest pair of 'beer goggles'.

I often wonder why Thai Immigration refuses them entry into their country via a 'minimum dress code' ?

They need to have 'words' with the owners of the biggest malls, as their prices on some goods are eye-wateringly expensive ... their 'discount' prices on things like watches, were almost 3 times more than the RRP, 'before discount' prices in Britain!

'The Pheu Thai MP went on to say that while it is generally understood that Thailand is a free market economy, it is, in fact, an oligopoly with investors determining prices and farmers just being the suppliers of raw materials.

He added this is why more than 40 million Thais remain poor and the government's populist policies are simply weakening them further.'

This in my opinion is the main 'meat' of this report, but resolving why these 40m people are in the situation they are, I suspect is going to mean a lot of 'middle-men' between the farmer and the shops, losing out. Just how you go about ensuring that the farmer, gets a better share of the money, is a problem faced in all countries, because meddling/hiking with the price of foodstuffs customers pay, is political dynamite, regardless of the colour of the Party.

I can see the benefits for 2 airports near BKK, one for passengers, (Swampy) the other for freight etc for Thailand's manufacturers, but I'm guessing DM would cost more to rebuild/repair/upgrade than a completely new one, better situated to cater for Thailand's manufacturing base, importers and exporters. I'm guessing DM certainly would make an excellent distribution 'hub' for moving goods in and out of the centre of BKK though, by upgrading it's old railway links. Finish the Sky-train connection to DM first, and that would take the passengers off the railway, which could then via a new passenger terminal station at DM, enable passengers to transfer onto the existing old railway network, taking them elsewhere in Thailand.

I get the distinct impression that centuries of maybe self-imposed isolation, and definitely the fact that Thailand managed to evade being 'colonised' by some other nation, has a lot to do with why in some respects Thailand remains largely 'isolated' from the world around it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it has probably meant that Thailand's economy and banking systems have evaded the the attentions of those in international banking and investments, seeking to make a fast buck at everyone else's expense. True, the markets that Thailand export goods to, are now in a horrible mess, but if Thailand had been 'colonised', it could well now be in a much worse situation economically, than it is.

This is horrible! A largely Buddhist country, suffering from religious intolerance under the name of politics, or the other way round.

In theory, corruption should have a weaker foothold in a Democratic society, because the opinions of society at large can be heard more. It does look however that within any given country, the more 'disconnected' Parliament/Politicians and the higher realms of Investment banking etc is from the public at large, the more chance there is of corruption thriving. If within Dictatorships and Communism, the grass roots can see and say more about what those holding power do, these too could be just as beneficial to those at the bottom of the pile. I also think the words 'Accept' and 'Approve' are incorrect and should be replaced with 'Tolerate', but only because part of that toleration, is linked with some form of 'Kickback' at some point in time. It's also strategy used by Alcoholics, who prefer others around them, so that they can use them to justify/blame others for their own boozing.

Doesn't this extend to most of the population? Seems to me that everyone is so keen to express their love for His Majesty, but totally ignore his advice. This country has the potential to be paradise on earth, if only the people listened to His Majesty. Happy Birthday Your Majesty, I really admire you.

I think it's a bit unfair to say that most people ignore what his Majesty says. People living in the poorer regions in Thailand, have proven over and over again, that projects the King has implemented in these areas are enthusiastically supported, but maybe, the 'bottleneck' is the funding from central government and the local authorities to keep them going? The amount of respect and love the Thai people have for their King, is absolutely amazing, I cannot think of another nation in the past 100 years where someone has been revered as much. Before that, his majesties ancestor, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) completely revolutionised Thailand, and his work undoubtedly inspires his Majesty to contribute so much of his life to the welfare and well being of his subjects as his great-great grandfather did, in modernising Thailand.

Happy 84th Birthday to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyade. People from other nations throughout the world, look on with awe at what you have accomplished improving the quality of life of your subjects.

It seems that I do not have the option of starting a new thread/topic, but maybe, someone who has that ability on reading this will heed some of what I say and start one covering the last couple of paragraphs in this reply?

As far as I am aware, no country, government, political party, or politician has the technology to 'manufacture' the heavy rain that has caused the flooding, though it has to be said that in some countries (recently, the barriers which should have been finished decades before in the US) the mismanagement/delays in instigating flood protection schemes, have caused flooding. Since Bangkok, did in fact implement a flood protection scheme, which presumably and unfortunately the designers (Thames Water?) did not build into it, a sufficiently over-the-top safety margin, for flooding well beyond what has ever been experienced before, Bangkok is now in the position it now finds itself in.

A second point is that the Thai culture very much revolves around 'saving face', to the point that it impacts on officials/ governments acting/ responding in ways that societies which don't use this principle, would employ in emergencies like this. I cite as a prime example, Japan when the reactors were damaged. Thailand has never had the deep pockets that europe and the US have, so foreign commentators should not automatically expect the same levels of response they would expect their own 'home' countries to implement in similar situations.

I'm certainly NOT into 'knocking' what the Thai government and it's officials have already done, after all, this is a situation which though in some ways predictable, is way beyond anything that has ever been experienced before and probably well beyond the levels of flooding that the designers of the system to run off the flood water, ever expected in 1000 years.

Maybe some people here have heard of the 'Carrot and Stick' principle, and so far on here, I've seen a lot of the latter, and little of the former. maybe if the the detractors (living in Thailand) actually got out of their comfortable chairs and started posting things about how they have helped the communities they live in, acted as impartial moderators between the various political factions so that the average Thai doesn't end up thinking they have to face up to this on their own, feel less marginalised and powerless in this truly horrible situation.

I'm wondering if the hospital the King is in, will be (can't remember it's name!) affected, as it is very close to the Chao Phraya river .... The consequences, hygiene and H&S - wise would be serious if it was! Hopefully, it was built on land well above the river's present level. Being the oldest and probably one of the best hospitals in Asia, the impact on services and the treatment of patients, would be really serious!

I don't think this is any 'worse' than can be seen elsewhere in other countries (though probably over a decade earlier) and with satellite TV and the internet, I suppose one should be more surprised that this has taken so long to surface in Thailand. This reminds me of the high moral ground stood on by the likes of Mary Whitehouse in the UK many years ago, and the indignation displayed by 'the blue-rinse hairdo and horn-rimmed glasses' brigade at that time. ... People who were appalled at what they perceived as falling moral standards, whilst totally ignoring that the 'Prude Victorian standards' they wished to up hold, thinly concealed levels of depravity, corruption and the fact that women were continually being 'brainwashed' into thinking they were inferior to men. I'm not saying that women in Thailand are underdogs in a male-dominated society, just that the opinions/views of women are being heard more than maybe in the past.

Maybe the CIA have many other similar places world-wide, but we just don't notice them ... eg, while waiting in final departure lounges without any source of water or food, probably chained to those really 'nice' chairs ... explains why they are metal and bolted to the floor!

If they announced that the police were going to collect up up all the drunks, winos etc in huge police trucks, (during these specified hours) lock them up for 24 hrs and fine them, it would make a lot more sense, make BK look a lot nicer and improve the tea-money fund at local local police stations.

When you take into account what the population of Bangkok is, and the number of bikes you see around, I would have thought 200,000 riders, would be nearer the mark, than 100,000. I can understand the views of the riders, in relation to Thaksin, but I think many under-estimate the 'power' of the Thai Mafia, which can probably apply considerable pressure on the people they rip-off. That 'pressure', (based on what the Mafia in Italy is known to be capable of doing via raw fear) could be affecting whom people vote for. ....... What the Mafia want politically, is going to be based on who they can manipulate!

I would have thought that 'if' they could get their act together, they would be a force to be reckoned with.