nickjam

Whilst all the speculating and doubting floods the internet, I must ask, where are the representatives of the UK and Myanmar and why aren't they saying anything? Why would they let Thai authorities state their position? The silence from both these governments is deafening. I'm British and I'm pretty embarrassed at the lame response from my representative. I understand the need to be diplomatic and more importantly protect the privacy, rights and requests of the poor families suffering through this terrible tragedy, but I want to know the UK's stance on this. Have we been shown irrefutable evidence gathered as a result of a proper investigation or are there serious doubts as a result of a fumbled investigation? Are we satisfied or are we gravely concerned? What do we think and what are we doing to do?

Speak up Mr Ambassador. There's a time for diplomacy and a time for straight talking. It's the least David and Hannah should expect

Make the schools responsible. Thousands of kids arrrive at school everyday on motorcycles (sometimes 3 or 4 on the same bike) no helmets, with many drivers well underage.

The schools should turn them away.

The police should stop them and fine them (their parents and/or guardians) heavily...say 5000baht!!! and even confiscate the bikes for 1 month.

That would bring instant results

Too much talk and no action!

Why 60% within 3 years? It should be 100% next week and could be if everyone does their job!

Agree with everything you say. I've always thought that fining the head of the school was another possibility. For every child caught without a helmet in the uniform of your school, the director pays a significant fine. They either pay it themselves or can put that onto the parents, or the child is suspended. ALL adults in positions of influence should take some, dare I say it....responsibility. In my school we've had kids coming to school on motorbikes and in Porsches. None of them were driving legally. My school thankfully took a stand, most have complied, some have been pulled from the school by rich parents, disgusted at being told what to do.

So the school Director is supposed to oversee every child leaving home in the morning? Are you kidding also?

No I'm not kidding, I'm making fair and reasonable suggestions as to how all adults can stop this problem. The school director can stand at the gate and pull each kid whose riding illegally. That's easy. Should it be his responsibility, no. It should be that of the parents but considering the parenting ability of some people here, educators can make a positive contribution to solving the problem. How about you making a positive contribution instead of dismissive comments?

Make the schools responsible. Thousands of kids arrrive at school everyday on motorcycles (sometimes 3 or 4 on the same bike) no helmets, with many drivers well underage.

The schools should turn them away.

The police should stop them and fine them (their parents and/or guardians) heavily...say 5000baht!!! and even confiscate the bikes for 1 month.

That would bring instant results

Too much talk and no action!

Why 60% within 3 years? It should be 100% next week and could be if everyone does their job!

Agree with everything you say. I've always thought that fining the head of the school was another possibility. For every child caught without a helmet in the uniform of your school, the director pays a significant fine. They either pay it themselves or can put that onto the parents, or the child is suspended. ALL adults in positions of influence should take some, dare I say it....responsibility. In my school we've had kids coming to school on motorbikes and in Porsches. None of them were driving legally. My school thankfully took a stand, most have complied, some have been pulled from the school by rich parents, disgusted at being told what to do.

Does anyone know if there is an English transcript of the conversation anywhere?

If there was nothing for the BIE scouts to see when they turned up at Ayutthaya, where did the four hundred million go?

There's a good question that will never be answered

Interesting that these rules have come from nameless 'officials' and 'government agencies'. No one has the balls to actually put their name behind this because that would mean answering questions and justifying all this rubbish. I'd like to know if these are actually written in law because if they're not, surely no one has any power to enforce them (apart from the drink driving one of course)

After dealing with a bunch of sick coughing children in Chiang Rai and having cancelled all their PE lessons for the week, I couldn't give a monkey's fart whether Yingluck is concerned or not. The selfishness, laziness and ineptitude of adults here is damaging the future of their kids in so many ways. My mate complained about it to his (well educated) missus. Her response "not your business, that's like me complaining about the rain in England". I've thought about contacting all international schools in northern Thailand to arrange a protest but when I know I'll be confronted by such racist attitudes I wonder if it's worth it. But then I see nothing forthcoming from locals coupled with the state of children which are under my care and the blood just boils. Thai parents, WHERE ARE YOU? (apologies for shouting. Actually I'm not sorry, seriously WHERE THE XXXX ARE YOU?)

If fresh legislation is too cumbersome to ratify, why not use water dumping aircraft?

The cop-out of blaming the smog on fires in Burma is disingenuous- most of the fires are local.

I think this is a great idea. Whilst I'm gathering that you're suggesting this idea is for large rural fires, they should fly around and dump on any fire they see. I'd love to see some selfish <deleted> burning his leaves and plastic have a couple of tons of water dumped on him. Overkill maybe, but he might think twice about doing it again.

This was in the BP yesterday. Driver said he reached down to get something and then hit them. He's got an excuse so all is fine and dandy, slap on the wrist for you sir

During the period of February 2-5, police were specifically targeting the following violations: driving in the wrong direction; driving on the sidewalk; double-parking next to parked vehicles; overtaking vehicles in high-risk areas; and violating traffic light signals.

IMO there should be no minimum/maximum number of tickets being issued for these violations. I'd like to see every one of these violations being punished properly. As a daily road user in Chiang Rai I frequently have to dodge SUVs tearing down the wrong side of the road flashing their lights at me and trucks blasting through red lights 4-5 seconds after they've changed. As we all know the whole thing is tainted by corruption but if they gave proper fines and points without the shadiness this would make the place a whole lot safer. As for senior policemen getting irked by reporters pointing out their misdoings; let it continue!

What a wonderful story. From my experiences around the world, it's often the poor that are the most generous and prepared to help fellow men. This man is comfortable but probably not amongst the elite super wealthy. His friends think he's mad and look for ulterior motives to explain his generosity. If only the supposed upper echelons of this country could follow khun Surat's lead, this would be a truly great country. I'd love to know just how much the clans that own SIngha/CP/Red Bull/Central/True etc etc + politicians give back to this country.

Nothing escalates an argument with your Thai gf or wife more than by saying "I see we've been watching the Thai soaps again"

One time (in band camp) while making small talk with a Thai physician, the topic of TV (not .com) came up. When it came around to daytime dramas, the doctor looked sheepishly downward and said those shows are more than an embarrassment, but they keep our ER rooms in the black.

It's true! In Chiang Rai there was a crappy little hospital that was deserted. They put some flowers outside, banged in a couple of 42" plasmas and the place is now rammed!

"Chainarong urged educators from agencies at the seminar to start with improving the basics of literacy and numeracy"

I despise statements like this, trying to appear all worldly wise. Yes of course he's correct but exactly HOW are you going to do this? What actual action will you take to ensure that this happens? What is your strategy and where is your plan? Why is Thailand's education system in free-fall? Who is responsible for this failure?

"They should be improved with the basics first, while schools with students that get scores at good and great levels should be allowed to make their own decisions independently on how to improve their own students' performance as the report said improvement in such levels should be based on the school's decision-making," Chainarong added.

​Oh OK, you've regurgitated the report and offered a measly piece of advice. I'd like to clarify the criteria for achieving good and greatness?!?! In most countries they have things called grades, standards and curriculums. Are you talking about absolute deregulation of schools? Just <deleted> are you vaguely rambling on about?

Is it not possible to take out the second part of the report that has nothing to do with the headline?

here is a headline 'Thai policeman in extortion shocker' haha

I don't even think your headline does it justice. How about,

'Thai policeman involved in violent robberies'

Pair target indians in crime spree

One transfer to an inactive post coming right up, or maybe he's not high enough up the greasy pole

Yingluck's teleconference speech, at a guess another speech written by advisors, official secretaries and spokespersons. I am genuinely interested in how much she knows on the flooding subject that she travels around giving speeches about. Its a shame she doesn't like to go live-unscripted, because I bet if you asked her to repeat the technical details from her earlier speeches she will just go mute. Why this matters to me is that she is being forwarded as a tireless guardian against floods, a sort of dryness valkyrie.

I wonder if she could repeat details from any of her speeches of the last year at all, without scripts. In practical terms it is irrelevant, so long as other people in Govt know what work is required and listen to experts to protect against future floods etc. and they are writing Yingluck's scripts, but to me it is dishonest when it is portrayed as Yingluck's own work especially when the rest of her politics is so very vacant.

While I share your scepticism, I would hope that Yingluck IS consulting advisors to help her make these statements.No politician can be expected to be knowledgeable on every technical, geological issue and a good working PM would call on experts in these fields to make informed decisions. Yes, she should actually get her technical advisors to make these statements and stand by them. It would give her statements more credibility and actually give her someone to blame if it goes pear shaped. A good leader recognises expertise and delegates but you're right, she tries to appear all-knowing. It's a face thing!

Well considering that Thailand has about a quarter the population of the US jammed into a country the size of Texas I would say the Thai death toll is pretty low. The World Health Organization statistics for 2007 show that Thailand had 19.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants compared to the US figure of 16.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. The death toll has been steadily declining in Thailand over the past five years.

They still have a long way to go. I live in the UK and statistics show 5.9 deaths per 100,000 (2010). This is a country that has a similar population size but about half the land mass. The price we have had to pay for this has been, what many people regard as, over-regulation in health and safety matters. We probably have the most speed cameras of any country in the world and very efficient (and expensive) traffic policing . Perhaps, worth it, if it saves just one life. What surprised me most about this survey is that the UK is now the safest country, in Europe, to drive in. For those interested, I sourced the figure here: http://www.abd.org.uk/safest_roads.htm . Note the comments at the end of the article.

On a purely financial basis, I heard it recently quoted that every road death in the UK costs the nation in excess of £1,000,000.

R.I.P the driver and his son.

Wow, a million quid, really? How does that work? The difference between here and the UK is that there is education and mutual respect for other road users (In general) On my return last year it truly was a breath of fresh air; people flashing me to allow me to turn, friendly waves and thank yous from all drivers when you give them right of way. It really warmed my heart to know that people still show this sort of respect to each other and that everyone seems to be working together to allow each other to get to their destination as quick as possible. I s'pose its the difference between a civilised and uncivilized populace.

Today in my school, a grade 2 girl came running to me complaining that another student had used some bad words. I called the other girl over who said that the first girl had also said something mean. We talked it over, they apologised, shook hands, hugged, laughed about it and spent the rest of the days playing together as best friends again. Of course this situation is simplistic but if only these 'leaders' could show 1% of the maturity exhibited by these children, this country might have a chance to move on and sort this pathetic mess out.

The first school I worked at in Bangkok had close links with a certain deposed PM. There was a picture of him in the library walking through a market in which every stall was peddling fake watches. I'm sure there are similar pics of other former PMs and high ranking officials glad-handing the locals and ignoring the fact that they are flaunting copyright laws and selling counterfeit goods. It's just not an issue here...until a foreigner points it out. Love this gaga story and the hysterical reaction which only makes them look sillier. Get over yourself (certain) people of Thailand, you're shady and flaunt laws and that's what you are known and loved for!

Wow, there's some pretty nasty people in this world (including on Thaivisa). What a horrible story, loss of face in this country can turn deadly quickly. I'll think twice about shaking my head in disapproval after nearly being mowed down on my motorcycle in Chiang Rai tomorrow.

There have been many threads on this. Sometimes problems, sometimes not. Least likely to have problems is sent by regular air mail and most likely if sent by courier like Fedex or DHL. Also more likely to have problems if the quantities are large.

However I strongly advise against opening or in anyway tampering with the pills as this could lead to suspicion that they are not what they are labelled to be and that could mean serious problems. The worst that stands to happen if customs takes exception to the actual contents is that you lose the package. Whereas the worst that can happen if they suspect the package of containing an illicit substance is....worse.

Only send the supplements in their original, sealed, labelled bottles.

Hey thanks for the advice. Yeah its a bit of dilemma with regards the grenade packaging. I agree and I wouldn't normally tamper with it but I think its likely to draw attention. Might just do the Erase.