sriracha john

Best news I've heard all week!

He should never have scaled down the first one!

spot on.

the criminals that run the gangs gain power through putting fear into others and now the tables are turned. its a pity that the pathetic euro human rights regulations dont allow such crackdowns.

drugs and crime rule in euroland, and the police cant do a thing about it. they are fighting it with their hands tied behind their backs and its the victims who suffer.

more power to thailands war on the scummy criminal elements in society. it can only make thailand better.

If he was alive today, could you explain all of that to the innocent 9 year old child killed by a policeman's bullet during the crackdown?

If you think the crackdown only involved killing drug dealers, you have much to learn about the situation.

If you like places that completely abandon the concept of due process, I'm sorry you missed out on Taliban's Afghanistan... you'd have loved it there.

Edit: Another overlapping post. Don't worry I'm not having a go at anyone at Taksin. Thai Rug Thai !!!

But maybe a good time *not* to go to full moon parties.

If last year's killing spree was any indication, it also maybe not a good time to go to the fresh market for shopping, or drive home from work, or walk to school. How many of the killings were in situations totally unremoved from drug activity (eg full moon parties), but instead were of victims carrying on normal everyday tasks. Sorry, we'll never know how many were...as none of them were investigated.

Thai PM Thaksin launches a second war on drugs

Best news I've heard all week!

He should never have scaled down the first one!

I agree Rod.

kill them all and let god sort them out!

does that extend to innocent members of your family or circle of friends?.... or is just ok as long as it's someone else?

Thai PM Thaksin launches a second war on drugs

Best news I've heard all week!

He should never have scaled down the first one!

...and if a member of your family had been innocently gunned down without any subsequent investigation, would you still say the same?

Thai PM Thaksin launches a second war on drugs

Best news I've heard all week!

He should never have scaled down the first one!

and if a member of your family had been gunned down without any subsequent investigation, would you still say the same?

Break out the supply of body bags. It's open hunting season once more.

Rule of law? What rule of law?

Human rights? What human rights?

"badges? we don't need no stinkin' badges"

do we have to stop eating pork yet? Pigs keep getting mentioned in these stories. soon I will be on a fruit only diet!

It's already been found in pigs from Prachinburi among other places. Potentially, bird flu could be in any poultry (duck, chicken, eggs) or pork products. Sadly, yet another young girl died yesterday from bird flu.

Where's the govt. in all of this??

One other option I've seen mentioned is to invest $1million USD (40Million baht) in real estate (<= 1 Rai)for 5 years and you can keep it.

Never heard of this one before?? but is that 40 million baht for less than a rai? didn't know they had land values commonly for that much? it would have to be a pretty nice hunk of land for that much.

"you can keep it"= you own it?

can site advertisers comment on this please?

There are 51 provinces/changwats in Thailand.  California is referred to as the 52nd due to the sheer numbers of Thais there.  A lot of folks consider California a "3rd world country"!

A bit more than that Boon, there was 76 provinces at the last count.

Absolutely so. 76 unless the PM has sold a few off.

I don't know about "sold" off, but there are three I know he wants to "write" off.

sriracha john, cannot close in November, 3 committees still working for the next 2-3 months to find out who authorized the commercials.

but now that a majority of the Card's board of directors have resigned, they aren't able to even have a quorum to meet.

There are 51 provinces/changwats in Thailand. California is referred to as the 52nd due to the sheer numbers of Thais there. A lot of folks consider California a "3rd world country"!

Insert:

76 for 51

Thai Town portion of Los Angeles for California (1st mention)

77th for 52nd

and... perhaps.... Texas for 2nd mention of California

Sorry you are all wrong because it hasn't even started yet.

I have just visited the "elite card newsletter" at www.tradepointthailand.com/elitecard/newsletter/newsdoc/200406.html

and it says...................

"It was marked as the first time a country membership of such ground breaking program which was introduced in November 2004"

Hmmm... that was just a silly typo. It should have read:

"It was marked as the first time a country membership of such ground breaking program which was ended in November 2004"

my local soi dogs are more hostile to Thais I've noticed.

That's cause Thais are generally more hostile to soi dogs than us kind-hearted farangs...

Although it is certainly prudent to be less kind hearted and benevolent to them now that they have the potential to be infected with, among other diseases, bird flu....

Don't cry, buy yourself the elite-card and you are done for at least the coming five years.

One only needs to read the news or follow the various threads here to realize that the Elite Card is on life-support and will likely die soon. In my opinion, it's not a viable alternative as it's wrought with so many problems that to invest in one at this juncture is as foolish as trying to buy a real Rolex at Chatuchak.

And I myself don't have a load of money but the family of my wife, you might want to read the post before commenting it

actually you may want to read my post more clearly as I never said it was your money, I simply stated that you were a part of your wife's family.... obviously they wouldn't want to entrust their money to someone who reads as carelessly as you do.

Well dude, excuuuuuuse the dangerous US for not giving you and your situation special treatment cause you got a lot o dough.

I'm marking this date down in my calendar. On 10-2-04, I agree with unbiasbob.

  it must be EXTREMELY nice to be part of a family that makes 1.9 million baht per day!!!  related to Thaksin by chance? 

And it is not my family but my wifes.

It's sad and I'm sorry to hear that you don't feel that you are a part of your wife's family. I think that most good husbands would feel that they are.

The admin and Immigration office in Nong Khai have decided to stop answering questions about the details of Immigration Law

"We, the admins, and the involved officers at Nong Khai Immigration yesterday made a decision:

We will no longer answer question which clearly only have the purpose of getting to know how far the rules can be bended. It's changing this board into a discussion board and taking the focus of the original idea."

As is pointed out in one of the posts in that thread, the questions arise because the rules/laws are not applied equally across the board.

There is far too much discretion applied, so that two Immigration offices can be applying two opposite approaches.

A two cases in point are the different policies in Nong Khai and Phuket,

and Nong Khai denying knowledge of the Financial checks imposed at Mae Sai, as a result of a MFA notice.

Is it any wonder we have to ask detailed questions??

Transparency is what is needed.

Perhaps it is best if they do stop trying to answer questions as no information is better than misinformation.

I invite everybody who whines about Thai Visa regulation to travel to the US with his universityeducated Thai wife. Now that is a pain in the a** - I would not blame the Thais if they decide to revoke the Visa Free entries for all americans (we had similar experiences with british and canadian visas but no such problems with any Schengen Traety member in Europe). What makes these counties so special that they must interview tourists before giving them a visa, my wifes family makes more money per day then the consular officer in a year, so what is that, a power trip?

Thailands Visa regulations are very liberal compared to some more "developed" countries, and for any legitimate expat in thailand the cash rules probably do not even apply.

While I am still interested if these cash rules are for real and are really enforced now, I would not see it as a big trouble compared to the inconvinience for thais to get a US Visa.

cheers

As every situation has a flip side, my ex-wife, foreign born, has not been required to leave the USA even once in 25 years. How many non-Thai husbands with Thai wives can say the same about Thailand?

btw, based on a typical GS annual service pay, it must be EXTREMELY nice to be part of a family that makes 1.9 million baht per day!!! related to Thaksin by chance?

where is the problem aktually

the problem is aktually with the thai govt. for imposing the dangerous prospect of travelling around with lots of cash in dangerous areas. Particularly when this does nothing to "solve" their perceived problem of undesireable aliens.

it's other failure is the ambigious nature of it's entire visa process. either make 30 days runs totally legal or impose strict, across-the-board limits on them and spell it out in plain, clear language that everyone can follow.

Oh really? This is far from a problem. As George said just buy $500 worth of travelers cheques and use them for each border run. You may want to get rid of those dreadlocks as well

Just so long as traveler's checks are acceptable, that's fine then...as it seems to variously change on an hourly basis from CASH only to accepting other forms to which crossings are affected to when it will start.

As for dreadlocks, I only WISH I could grow something on top of my bald dome.

As for Rainman's "suit", which to me means a suitcoat and tie...... it seems like that's just a tad overdone, yes? Perhaps something in between a business suit and the Pattaya leisure wear?.... Seek the Middle Path....

where is the problem aktually

the problem is aktually with the thai govt. for imposing the dangerous prospect of travelling around with lots of cash in dangerous areas. Particularly when this does nothing to "solve" their perceived problem of undesireable aliens.

it's other failure is the ambigious nature of it's entire visa process. either make 30 days runs totally legal or impose strict, across-the-board limits on them and spell it out in plain, clear language that everyone can follow.

Thank you for your efforts, George, to get the real information out. While reading the "WHO praises Thailand for bird flu monitoring efforts" post, I was thinking BS also. Why do they need Sudarat (the most corrupt b*tch in Thailand) to speak for the WHO? It also reminded me of Jakob The Liar govt. spokesman who had come out and said that the USA had apologized to Thailand for including them on their list of human rights abusers.... only to take it back 2 days later when it was revealed that the USA had NOT apologized. The Thai govt. is not above telling bold face lies in order to improve it's international image. Another case was Thaksin lying and denying it in the beginning and hoodwinking the WHO to agree with him when bird flu first broke out. The govt. is so infantile that it fails to see to the harm done to it's credibility when it comes out with lies for the whole world to read about.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday said bird flu would be eliminated from the kingdom within 30 days.

However, Dr. Charal clarified that the prime minister meant to contain the spread, not to make the virus disappear.

Let the inevitable backpedalling begin... same as when Thaksin said that he would categorically eliminate drugs from Thailand by last December, and then only later on "clarified" that he didn't mean eliminate, only control.

I am told that Immigration is encouraging people to get a proper visa at home before they leave. The extension process is causing them hassles.

*************I can see the pain on their faces wehnt hey take 1,900 baht for about 5 minutes of work.

***********When I got my driver's license, I was thre for hours, ilistening to a lecture, taking written tests...over and over, taking a driving test, etc. I took up a lot of their time, and the total cost including my little plastic card was about 50 baht for each license. My memory fades. Now, I did give one hundred and fifty baht to the kind lady who rented me her car and the same for her motorcycle. She also changed an answer on my test so that I could pass.

These people actually worked for the money they received, and I did not se the kind of cars in their parking lot that I see in on Soi 8 - Beach Road, Pattaya.

well constructed and astute post, eljeque. one of several from you.

The strain, A(H5N1), has killed 30 of the 42 Southeast Asians it infected in the

past year.

71% mortality rate.....WOW!