Johpa

For an informed opinion on the effectiveness of waterboarding one should read Ali Soufan's book The Black Banners. Basically he finds waterboarding useless as an interogation technique and the CIA people who advocated the use of the technique, such as Mr. Rodriguez, to be dimwits although Soufan is much more polite in his wording. He also notes that as uncomfortable as it is, on a relative scale to techniques used in other countries, waterboarding just barely qualifies as torture. The book is a good read and there are a number of interview videos with Mr. Soufan to be found online.

Illegal copies,and infringement of Intelectual property rights,will never be stamped out,until it ceases to be part of the Thai economy.

It will not be eliminated until pricing reflects the purchasing power of a median income Thai and not the purchasing power of a median income American.

I have found that the lowlands of Mae Rim are usually a little cooler than in the big city to the south, but when the temps are in the 40s you won't feel much difference in the daytime. But head up in elevation and things are much cooler. You can now have more than just noodles up in the Mong areas surrounding Nong Hoi at either the somewhat trendy Mon Chaem or the more affordable Mon In Dao, both just a little further up the road from the Nong Hoi and the Royal Project accessible from the paved road at Pong Yang. But at this time of year, mid day is hot everywhere and best just to siesta through the hours if your work schedule will allow it. Some of my fondest memories from my single days in Chiang Mai were in April when we would hit the pub at 11:00PM and then in the wee hours head over to the old Hennesy or the lingerie show at the President, then having a meal at the old night market across from Som Phet with the drunk police around 4:00AM and going to sleep around 7:00AM. My wife does not allow me to remember the afternoons at the poolside of the Prince Hotel hanging out with the off-duty bar girls, but we did laugh alot.

Meanwhile Thai officials continue to smuggle black market second hand cars in the thousands across the border to Burma.

And there use to be a booming business of illegally exporting cars into China. And now that Mandalay has become a defacto Chinese dominated business town a la Bangkok who knows where the cars will go to next. But now that the Thai domestic market for a used luxury car has grown beyond a small niche market (please, no real Hi-So would have ever considered purchasing a used luxury car) as well as the domestic market for larger motorcycles (look at the success of the Versys) the few familes that have the monoply rights to vehicle sales are simply taking out the existing grey market that they once tolerated as they begin to invest in these formerly niche markets. I doubt many ex-pats will notice any changes and I doubt there will be much impact upon the middle class Thais who already pay outlandish prices for used vehicles. And there will certainly be no impact upon the politicians and others of influence who will continue to smuggle and tranship used vehicles into neighboring countries.

Where did paradise go?

I thought it lost its way about the time of the arrival of the first tuk-tuks.

Well I stand corrected. Just spoke to some locals in Mae Rim and it was indeed some sort of internal strife, although details are pretty sketchy.

Understand it was a landlord related issue. Shame.

Given the rumored landlord of some neighboring property, not to mention the residents of said neighnoring property, I could understand how live music outdoors might not be fully appreciated.

Sorry, what neighbours? It's pretty isolated and the music was not that loud.

I would imagine it was within earshot of parts of the Four Seasons.

Understand it was a landlord related issue. Shame.

Given the rumored landlord of some neighboring property, not to mention the residents of said neighnoring property, I could understand how live music outdoors might not be fully appreciated.

do you honestly believe the plane will take off without so many still stuck at immigration/customs?

Yes, I do. And they'll probably smile at you while they sell you a full fare ticket to replace the one in your hand that's no longer valid.

There is a slight problem facing the airlines as security protocol tends to frown upon carrying checked-in luggage without the associated passenger also on board. In many cases the planes will be held back for depature.

I think the last time I met up with the Welshman was about 10 years ago, maybe longer. Not sure if he is still around. Nto even sure others are still around who can remember the Welshman's Pit with the dirt floor, but yes, the Welshman did represent the lowest common denominator in the ex-pat world until ThaiVIsa came into existence and a whole new generation of ex-pats came upon the scene and made the Welshman look halfway decent.

I am involved in shrimp farming and aquaculture and I am seriously considering a move to Myanmar. Not today or tomorrow, but the labor situation in Thailand is horrendous. Just as the rice cutter stated above, it doesn't really matter how much you pay these workers these days. One of my farms has 120 workers last year. After New Year Holiday, only 60 returned. They just decided not to show up! And they are well taken care of, supplied with housing and food which if you count the monetary value of the total compensation package is way above minimum wage already.

The conclusion is that Thai workers are lazy and unreliable and getting worse.

Ah, the musings of a true neo-sahib. As you imagine it, in your own magnificence, you imagine as having provided excellent care of your workers. Yet nearly half of your work force seems to disgaree. And then you brand them as lazy and unreliable over that disagreement. I nominate you for neo-sahib of the year. But hey, those Burmese illegals, commonly found in the fishing and shrimp industries, who have absolutely nothing but misery are willing to toil just for the protection from the Thai authorities. They just need to have that horrid speed drink to which they are all addicted in order to dull the misery and provide the will to work.

And yes, if Burma opens up these neo-sahibs will move their operations to Burma where the wages will be lower. And then, after a few years, once Burmans begin to demand a decent wage, they will cuss the Burmese and relocate once again to a more wretched land to find the cheapest labor. This pattern is most easily seen in the shoe business where the cost of moving the factory is quite marginal. This is what capitalism is all about: exploitation and extraction.

After spending the equivalent of more than 2x annual GDP, which has burdened future generations with almost inexorable tax burden, Japan is the best example on earth of the fallacies of Keynesian theory. US and EU are well on their way to replicate Japan's experience.

(apologize if a bit off topic, but facts needed to be addressed)

Not facts but world views, or in the words of Heilbroner, ecomomists are worldly philosophers. Facts need not apply and will often be contradictory. Or as the bard might say, economics is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. But who am I, a fan of Veblen, to say anything on the matter? So put on your wellingtons for these discussions.

But it is also good to remember that that raging socialist Henry Ford paid his assembly workers well above current wages for those times.

Hmong, Lisu (Lisaw), Lahu (Mosher) can't be "deported" to Burma, because they have never been there.

For Karen it's different, about 60% (approximative) stay in Thailand in the third generation. They have Thai ID cards, but not all civil rights (up to district).

About 20% are admitted, they are registered under a number (fjkh334221.......), no civil rights.

For the others no special qualification, they are "stateless" (about 60 000-80 000). Under UNO and natural logic standard you can't deport them.

The Karen, who are the dominant group along the western border have been in the region for far longer than three generations. Only the most eastern villages closer to Chiang Mai have been around for about as little as maybe four generations. From south of Mae Sot and up to Mae Hong Song, the Karen are for all intents and purposes the indigenous minority. I can remember as recently as 30 years ago in districts like Khun Yuam that you could not find an ethnic Thai outside the paved streets surrouonding the Amphoe offices. Go get a 4-wheel drive vehicle or a dual sport motorcycle and ride the old "elephant trail" from Mae Hong Song to Wat Chan and you will only find Karen villages along the way.

And yes, Thai ID cards are coded far more than most people are aware, and highland minorities, even when Thai citizens, have the code for those in the know. There is a Thai Achaan at CMU, whose name I can't remember, who has done some studies on this subject. I heard her give a talk a few years ago and I believe there were maybe five different primary codes for dividing the populace. I will look at my daughters card to see which number or letter her ID begins with. Maybe I will start a thread in the general section so that we can compare first digits.

As for the IDPs living along the border in camps like Mae La, these people were being exterminated by the Burmese. Things appear to be changing inside Burma, hopefully for the better, but only time will tell. But the logic for not deporting them has been based upon humanitarian concerns and not whatever the heck is natural logic other than the logic of avoiding suffering and death.

When I was living at Wat Thaton temple in 1993 the government gave trees to the hill tribe people there and showed them how to plant them then take care of them and paid them to do so. They planted tens of thousands, watered them during the dry season and kept the weeds away. Today the area around the temple and the villages behind the temple are a wash in large native beautiful trees. They even planted a few wild mango and other wild fruit trees so the villagers could pick fruit to eat when in season.

Wat Thaton, AKA Wat Hilton, has a tremendous donation base resulting from a need of a few to forgive their sins from ill-gotten profits. These same people may pay locals to plant trees to surround their favored Wat with its statuary of Buddhas and Chinese deities, but they, nor the pampered chief abbot (caoawat) care a whit about the hill folks. Although the head abbot did allow at one time some crazy farang to charge fellow farangs and entrance fee to the temple grounds.

Can anyone recall a fatality from a snake bite? I have maintained a home in the hills for 25 years now. We see lots of snakes of all varieties. But I can only recall maybe one or two stories of locals having been bit by a venomous snake over that time period, and no fatalities.

I don't suppose this was the sister out in Sankampeng who hired the hit on the school head who organized the protest against the Shinawat encroachment upon pulic lands back in the late 1980s. But all those Shinawat gals look so much alike.

You claim a premeditated murder conspiracy. Was she charged and convicted of this alleged crime?

can you provide more details on the criminal charges, trial and outcome please.

But of course the sister, and I am not sure which one, was not charged with a crime, although she was "investigated". The Shinawat family, even in the 1980s was an influential family in Chiang Mai from the success of their "silk village". There were relatively large demonstrations, large for those times, in the streets of Chiang Mai, mostly fellow teachers. I know because I was an "achaan" at a local university at the time and participated alongside my colleagues in one of those demonstration marches. There was a nobody gunman who was charged and convicted. Then, as is the Thai way, the matter was forgotten. The encroached land stayed with the Shinawat family. And I don't know how long the convicted gunman served in prison. But I do know from personal conversation at the time that the couple who then headed USIS, who hosted many a vistor to Chiang Mai (I was invited along to a lunch with one such visitng profesor), boycotted the Shinawat silk place thereafter. Which is a bit ironic as USAID helped to fund the seed money for the silk village.

Maybe they can take a look at Obamacare and just do the opposite

Thailand already has a universal healthcare plan that is indeed the exact opposite of the Republican plan that President Obama presented to Congress in the hopes of maiking a concilliatory gesture to the Republican party. I too hope thatThailand would not follow in the footsteps of the second rate US style healthcare system and would look to just about any other "western" country for a healthcare role model, such as Canada, England, France, Germany, or any of the Scandanavian countries.

I don't suppose this was the sister out in Sankampeng who hired the hit on the school head who organized the protest against the Shinawat encroachment upon pulic lands back in the late 1980s. But all those Shinawat gals look so much alike.

After 30 years, I have never seen a village in Thailand with a community pool. I have seen plenty of temples and football fields and noodle shops, but never a swimming pool.

From the posted topic I thought this was going to be a another thread about crazy people in Chiang Mai.

Is the OP refered to as the Rastafarian O-ne-man or the shorter O-nan?

At last we have a significant bust - not some pathetic effort to appease superiors. I am sure this is just a small indication of how bad the problem is.

Arresting three hapless nobodies is not a significant bust. These three are stil pretty low down the totel pole.