Thai City May Celebrate Water Festival Early To Reduce Haze

[lannarebirth]

I often wonder when I read rediculous proclamations such as this; is the person voicing the opinion really that stupid, or are they aware how silly the idea is but believe the people they tell it too are really that stupid.

Same same here.

It all makes me think of, and compare against, Mao and China. The sheer capacity for "willing suspension of disbelief" plus lack of education and combined with an encouragement of unquestioning reverence is a potent opiate. (Everyday Chinese folk are in an entirely different frame of mind these days.)

I don't think the speaker believes it, most of the time. Not sure if that makes me a cynic or an optimist (the latter, so far as their cognitive faculties are concerned). However, the patent absurdity and flagrant disregard for others' welfare is disturbing.

Well, I don't know if my girlfriend speaks for the average Thai, but she says he's an "eeedeeeyot".

[meadish_sweetball]

Well actually, I think I'd rather like a 21 day Songkran party..

If it doesn't get rid of the haze in the sky then at least my head will be hazy for the duration.

Hear, hear!

here was a guy at the window, trying to break in. Shouted at him and he fled, scaling a fence twice his height with ease.

If any reconnaisance had been done, it was sloppy work. I have thought alot since (too mak!), and realised that taking a chance like that is not too many steps short of armed robbery. That may sound dramatic, but nothing like that has never happened to me in any of the other places I have lived. I am not going to becdome fearful, but I am certainly going to take more precautions.

I'd feel better if it were just a random druggie. But I have since heard that the restaurant at the end of the soi was robbed 10 days ago (took the police 10 days to visit them. Our landlady has some "pull", I believe, and we were visited next day. They took photos of the screwdriver-marks in the window frames and vanished). Today, a woman pulled her car up outside and began looking around. A 6 or 7 year old daughter was in the car. I asked her if she was OK, and she told me that a few days ago she had been robbed and hit in that place, in the late evening. She showed me a deep slash on her arm. She was visibly upset as she told me. She wanted her bag and I.D. back; the money was not important. She told me she works in the restaurant/bar down at the end of the soi, and that she had lived in many places around Europe, and nothing like this had ever happened before. She said that her boyfriend was foreign, and that may have caused an assumption of wealth. (I has presumed the same mentality in my own case.) She said, "My own country. I can't believe it," shaking and telling me to take care.

There has been quite an epidemic of break-ins lately for sure.

Today, the police actually managed to catch one of the burglars who broke into our house a few weeks ago. We went to the police station to check for our belongings. None of it there, but they had found a huge bundle of receipts from selling stolen goods in his apartment. And there was stuff from other break-ins, more recent ones.

Turns out he and his older companion had tried to break in to a house in the moo baan just behind the police station. Only the house they tried to break into had somebody in it, who screamed to alert the neighbours. The neighbours managed to catch and hold down one of the burglars, but the other guy got away. The guy they caught was a 23-year old, originally from Lampang... a recent Bachelor's degree with good grades, no less. So if anybody thought it was only the utterly poor and desperate people who become burglars, I guess it wasn't true in this case anyway.

Naturally, it turns out his friend had sold my laptop. The good news is, the police have all his personal details, so there is at least a small possibility they manage to catch him as well... and with some more luck, we might be able to localize the shop where he sold off the computer.

[lannarebirth]

That is hopeful news meadish. I really hope it works out for you. Best of luck.

[meadish_sweetball]

Thank you lannarebirth. One can but hope...

[cdnvic]

Well, where I grew up, we used to burn the leaves every fall until the police came by and fined us for breaking the law. After that everything was bagged and trucked off to the landfill. There are landfills and garbage trucks in north Thailand aren't there?

There's an answer the the uproar from the songtaew drivers over new buses. Take the displaced drivers and give them plastic and rubber collection routes.

[WaiWai]

Meadish - must be some satisfaction in knowing the "perps" have been identified. Hope there's further satisfaction for you.

they had found a huge bundle of receipts from selling stolen goods in his apartment

A business-like approach, but incriminating !

The guy I saw trying to get into my place was neatly-dressed and could well have been a recent B.A. graduate. That thought had crossed my mind. Sad.

Cdnvic - exactly ... why doesn't anyone see the business opportunity ? Or for guard/security service ?

Edited March 17, 2007 by WaiWai

[jackr]

So if they do celebrate Songkhran on April 1,2,3, does that mean that on the 13th, 14th, 15th that no-one will be out and the moat won't be blocked.

These people should think before they open their mouths!

Exactly.

Surely the mayor isn't this dense, or perhaps there's method in his madness? Seems to me he's just coming up with any plan so as to not be seen as burying his head in the sand... perhaps voicing a totally random solution and coming across as a complete nincompoop is better than not voicing anything and looking like nothing?

It needs to rain and rain lots across the whole region... spreading a few hundred units of water on the roads would be great for any localized dust but will do sweet fanny Adams to clear the skies. if anything, it'll add to the misery through increased humidity.

[Donnyboy]

Well actually, I think I'd rather like a 21 day Songkran party..

If it doesn't get rid of the haze in the sky then at least my head will be hazy for the duration.

Hear, hear!

here was a guy at the window, trying to break in. Shouted at him and he fled, scaling a fence twice his height with ease.

If any reconnaisance had been done, it was sloppy work. I have thought alot since (too mak!), and realised that taking a chance like that is not too many steps short of armed robbery. That may sound dramatic, but nothing like that has never happened to me in any of the other places I have lived. I am not going to becdome fearful, but I am certainly going to take more precautions.

I'd feel better if it were just a random druggie. But I have since heard that the restaurant at the end of the soi was robbed 10 days ago (took the police 10 days to visit them. Our landlady has some "pull", I believe, and we were visited next day. They took photos of the screwdriver-marks in the window frames and vanished). Today, a woman pulled her car up outside and began looking around. A 6 or 7 year old daughter was in the car. I asked her if she was OK, and she told me that a few days ago she had been robbed and hit in that place, in the late evening. She showed me a deep slash on her arm. She was visibly upset as she told me. She wanted her bag and I.D. back; the money was not important. She told me she works in the restaurant/bar down at the end of the soi, and that she had lived in many places around Europe, and nothing like this had ever happened before. She said that her boyfriend was foreign, and that may have caused an assumption of wealth. (I has presumed the same mentality in my own case.) She said, "My own country. I can't believe it," shaking and telling me to take care.

There has been quite an epidemic of break-ins lately for sure.

Today, the police actually managed to catch one of the burglars who broke into our house a few weeks ago. We went to the police station to check for our belongings. None of it there, but they had found a huge bundle of receipts from selling stolen goods in his apartment. And there was stuff from other break-ins, more recent ones.

Turns out he and his older companion had tried to break in to a house in the moo baan just behind the police station. Only the house they tried to break into had somebody in it, who screamed to alert the neighbours. The neighbours managed to catch and hold down one of the burglars, but the other guy got away. The guy they caught was a 23-year old, originally from Lampang... a recent Bachelor's degree with good grades, no less. So if anybody thought it was only the utterly poor and desperate people who become burglars, I guess it wasn't true in this case anyway.

Naturally, it turns out his friend had sold my laptop. The good news is, the police have all his personal details, so there is at least a small possibility they manage to catch him as well... and with some more luck, we might be able to localize the shop where he sold off the computer.

hope theres a silver lineing here for you meadish, have been burgled before (not in LOS ) and just hate that feeling that someone has been thru your home.

give us an update once known.

[Rice_King]

"My idea is that we can have the water festival at the beginning of April, so that when people throw water it creates moisture and absorbs the haze," Boonlert told AFP.

Reads like the mayor is getting ideas about the weather from famed climatologist, Al Gore.