Beach smoking ban falls on deaf ears as Jomtien left in a complete mess

[natway09]

The amount of money the local council makes out of tourism the beach should be raked every morning anyway.

Just greedy bastards

[Cranky]

5 hours ago, ezflip said:

The real question is: how many of these butts were from Thai people (who don't care about the laws or who blatantly dismiss the laws) and how many are from foreigners/tourists?

Should be easy to tell by the brand, usually still visible on a butt.  Worth a count up and see who scores best.

[sambum]

1 hour ago, brucegoniners said:

First of all, I noticed no signs telling people not to smoke. And yes, people were smoking. Big shock.

 

How are tourists supposed to know without signs.

 

Second, the designated smoking areas are still on the beach. I could smell those nasty cigarettes from the beach. So what’s the point? 

"Going off at half cock"?

[dorchester]

In pattaya and Jomtien beach there are no smoking posters on just about every tree.I think that American went to city hall for permission to do this as well as feeding the wild soi dogs

[tifino]

 

oh dear... I reckon the BIB are now paying the vendors to ply their trade, as per usual...

 

Which gives them all a Win-Win

[Thaitoknow]

The law is not there to stop the littering as nobody is employed to seriously uphold it.

I could be wrong but from the picture i would 90 percent say it wad Thai.

The law is not there to punish the locals as 100s would already be arrested (note not a similar law for bottles and plastic).

The law is to fleece tourists who are very unlikely to know the new ruling unless they read TV and there are no signs to.warn them so its just a money making scheme to fleece tourist when somebody needs a payday.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Sophon went to the beach to investigate but found only frustrated visitors wondering when tourists would stop trashing the national assets.

 

Possibly one of the most xenophobic paragraphs in a news article this year. 

 

Looking at the photograph the trash appears to be 'very Thai'.... 

 

What's xenophobic about it?  It says tourists.  Not foreign tourists. 

 

Pretty much anyone at the beach either works there, or they're a tourist.  Doesn't matter if they're from Thailand (even locals) or overseas.  If they're at the beach for R&R, they're tourists.

 

There sure is a lot of indignation over nothing.

 

[sambum]

29 minutes ago, natway09 said:

The amount of money the local council makes out of tourism the beach should be raked every morning anyway.

Just greedy bastards

I seem to remember a recent post where, unbelievably, the authorities said they didn't know how to clean the beach! I can't remember which beach it referred to, but it just shows the intelligence of these officials that are in charge of using delegated funding for such tasks. (My Thai wife would say they are "very clever" - I have a different perception which is more in line with your last sentence!)

Edited December 13, 2017 by sambum

[over2you]

1 hour ago, phetpeter said:

Why can't they just employ people with jobs, to walk the beach and clean it, It would be cheaper than using money to chase around arresting , using court time and possible prison time. when they would only catch a few, plus opening more avenues for corruption,

Because it is Thai style. Total over the top knee-jerk reaction to a problem. Their past record for maintaining or sustaining almost anything is abysmal. They set goals that are unfeasible, unattainable. TIT.

However .......... The Country does have some advantages. He he he! 

[sambum]

9 minutes ago, Thaitoknow said:

The law is not there to stop the littering as nobody is employed to seriously uphold it.

I could be wrong but from the picture i would 90 percent say it wad Thai.

The law is not there to punish the locals as 100s would already be arrested (note not a similar law for bottles and plastic).

The law is to fleece tourists who are very unlikely to know the new ruling unless they read TV and there are no signs to.warn them so its just a money making scheme to fleece tourist when somebody needs a payday.

As noted in a previous post - Xmas/New Year  is fast approaching with presents to be bought!

[thurien]

5 hours ago, ezflip said:

The real question is: how many of these butts were from Thai people (who don't care about the laws or who blatantly dismiss the laws) and how many are from foreigners/tourists?

 

the ratio has been known for years already with little change: TH47,6%  Aliens 49,1% balance from stateless people w/o passport

[sambum]

1 hour ago, soistalker said:

Unless you catch Thai people littering, and fine them heavily, they will never stop littering. Never. Ever.

But this would necessitate an honest police force, which Pattaya/Jomtien does not have.

Thai people litter like dogs sh!t and p!ss: wherever and whenever they want.

"Littering is against the law in Thailand. In Bangkok, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) generally oversees rules and fines regarding littering. The maximum fine for littering should not exceed two thousand baht.May 11, 2011

So basically, if you drop  a bottle on the beach, you can be fined 2000 baht, but if it's a cigarette butt, it's 100,000 baht and/or a year in jail?

I'm a non smoker, but I would rather stand on a cigarette butt on a beach than a broken bottle!  (And yes, I know bottles don't exude nasty smoke, but in the context of this post, (not thread) we are talking littering in general)

 

 

 

 

 

[sambum]

3 minutes ago, thurien said:

 

the ratio has been known for years already with little change: TH47,6%  Aliens 49,1% balance from stateless people w/o passport

Did you get those figure from the departing TAT Minister?

[PerkinsCuthbert]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

"....frustrated visitors wondering when tourists would stop trashing the national assets".

LOL. Dang foriners agin!

[dinsdale]

Thais. They don't care. Somebody will clean up after me. For many Thais the ground is the bin. Lets just say hypothetically there were no foreign  tourists in Thailand for one week. There would be little or no difference. 

[shackleton]

Where are the Farangs we saw cleaning up the beaches a while back  

They need to come to this beach in Jomtien and carry on the good work

show the Thais  how it's done  

[geisha]

Ridiculous. Pattaya and Jomtien are always dirty, and specially on a sunday and public holidays when Thai families flock to the beach , leaving behind them bags of food scraps to feed the rats and bottles of beer to cut your feet on. Let the mayor and local authorities take a walk before the trash comes round in the morning and the deck chair people haven’t yet cleaned. Then they will see the reality of the problem. Don’t forget all the parked cars and trucks blasting their music to wake up the dead, who also leave all their rubbish behind on the ruined prom in Jomtien which is covered in filthy greasy bin tracks , overflowing trash containers that stink to high heaven , even till lunchtime the next day , a lovely olfactive wake up for the joggers and people trying to eat their breakfasts across’ the road. And to add insult to injury, all those men( and dogs ) taking  a leak on the palm trees on the  sand ! I love Thailand, but you won’t catch me on the beach here for love nor money ! 

[CanuckThai]

I don't condone any type of blatant polluting.  If there are no convenient trash cans or ash trays/butt cans or none at all, then.....clean up the mess, and shut the *uck up.  Thai people are paid to maintain the beach areas and public spaces.  If nobody can figure out the problem (see above re: no cans), the problem will never be solved.  The tourism and  tax baht collected is enormous.....clean the beach perpetually, its being paid for.

[IAMHERE]

It is going to be a very interesting February 2018. 

[IAMHERE]

23 minutes ago, hyku1147 said:

Who could have done this? It must have been the sex pats!

The way I interpreted the story it was 'Jet' pats, perhaps 'ski' pats. I do think the smoke fine should be heavier for those smoking filtered cigarettes, those filters take forever to disintegrate.

[Jane Dough]

3 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Possibly one of the most xenophobic paragraphs in a news article this year. 

 

Looking at the photograph the trash appears to be 'very Thai'.... 

 

 

This whole facade has been somewhat targeted against foreigners and breeds xenophobia right from the start.

 

In ALL areas of Thailand there exists a vast majority of Thai's who have no regard for their environment whatsoever. In Tourist areas there is a very small minority of Tourists who follow suit. 

 

Authorities have again failed to deal with the real issue at hand - Enforcing already existing laws !!! 

Instead they have bumbled their way through a publicity stunt in the hope people may listen.... of course they haven't... the locals simply don't care until they are forced to, and those in positions of decision making power don't care either until they are forced to...  They are all like children. 

 

Why do you assume the term tourist refers to non-Thais. Clearly this story refers to Thai tourists. Your agenda seems very xenophobic.

[smedly]

This smoking ban is about pollution not about smoking.

 

They are threatening to prosecute people under Marine Protection Law

 

If someone is smoking and using an ashtray then I fail to see how they can prosecute, if on the other hand someone leaves bottles - plastic waste - cigarette butts etc just dumped on the sand then that is an entirely different thing and I can see how they could actually prosecute

 

By the true letter of the law this whole thing is complete legal nonsense 

[smotherb]

7 hours ago, ezflip said:

The real question is: how many of these butts were from Thai people (who don't care about the laws or who blatantly dismiss the laws) and how many are from foreigners/tourists?

Does it matter? Smokers litter filth on the beaches. I don't live in the tourist ghettos, but when I visit, the majority of people I see on the beaches are foreigners.

[Elfin]

3 hours ago, Colabamumbai said:

We will have to DNA the butts and bottles to see if they belonged  to Thais or Foreignets.

The DNA will probably match people from Myanmar

[wealthychef]

3 hours ago, ronrat said:

Next time get some sprayer knapsacks and council people guarded by Police. Anyone lights up hit them with seawater making sure smokes etc are wet and kick them off the beach. The Thais will lose face and that will be enough. The Russians etc will be indignant but who cares. Might be a few who carry on but a phone call to Embassy will sort it out. You have broken the law, pay a 100000 baht fine or shutup. If they hit anyone monkey house and deport. Nothing pisses a family off more than having one member sent home. Who presumably has keys to the car or the house.

 

Wait, you mean after you pass a law, the police are supposed to enforce it to everyone equally?  Hmm... novel idea.  I wonder what that would be like.  But first things first, how will the police get paid if they don't collect tea money?  And how will the police captains get by?  

[richard_smith237]

59 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

Why do you assume the term tourist refers to non-Thais. Clearly this story refers to Thai tourists. Your agenda seems very xenophobic.

 

If you think Thai's are going to be targeted for fines you are mistaken.

 

In your attempt to protect 'Thainess' you are tripping over your naivety.

 

Take a walk down Sukhumvit road and see the foreigners get followed by 'Metropolitan Police' (if thats what they are) and then pulled over for a 2000 baht fine for littering when they drop their cigarette butts, meanwhile passing Thai's smoking openly littering....  The same thing will be happening on the beaches - a blind eye will be turned to the Thai's who will not be able to afford such fines.

 

But you are correct - I have made the assumption that the term Tourist in this article refers to non-Thai's...  I continue to believe so - the key is in 'World Cup'... which would imply an international and not solely Thai event. Yet the litter photographed shows Cheap Energy Drinks and Thai Branded Cigarette Butts (Krong thip).

 

There is nothing in this story which would indicate Foreigners are not being unfairly tarnished, in contrast I believe the story to be somewhat 'leading' and 'xenophobic' when lending the reader to the assumption that it is foreigners who have caused this littering.

 

Of course - this could simply be clumsy reporting, where the phrase 'both Thai and International tourists' could have been used... however, the photo's shown are undoubtedly litter left by Thai... (difficult to prove, but easy to conclude for anyone who has spent any amount of Time here). 

 

Had the photographs been of Heineken / Singha beer bottles, Cans of Tonic Water and Coke and solely international brand cigarette butts it would be fair to make the assumption that the littering was indeed by International Tourists - Its simple Behavioral Analysis, which is born of assumptions and leads to a weighted but imperfect conclusion. 

 

So... yes... Perhaps I do have an agenda, but it is one purely born in response to what I consider to be an article which negatively represents tourists (foreign) regarding a policy which I also consider to be highly xenophobic given the extreme fines, the location of the 'banned' area and primarily the disgusting degree of littering elsewhere in Thailand and the absence of any mitigating action in these 'non tourist' areas. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2017 by richard_smith237

[masuk]

8 hours ago, missoura said:

Wonder what had been in those bottles?

 

Usually cough medicine.   Reading the label carefully will tell you the % alcohol.  It's a popular medicine amongst a lot of people whose beliefs preclude alcohol!

[Rimmer]

A couple of troll posts and a slur have been removed

[SiSePuede419]

That's fine. ?

 

But I think I found the real problem...

 

Jomtien beach is in Pattaya. ?

 

 

[shaurene]

You can bet your life that most of this is from Thais. Where are the police or officials that are surprised to be monitoring this, they are just looking for farangs and turning blind eye on locals. The farangs know and they will not take the chances.