I Ordered A Delay In The Release Of Water From Dam: Agriculture Minister Theera

[animatic]

Why be so harsh in judgement. If he had let water release from dams - and it turned out to be a dry latter part of the monsoon, then he would be blamed not storing enough water for the 2nd or 3rd rice crop.

Completely agree. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The only blame I can see being usefully applied at this point concerns the information flow. Both in obtaining correct information in the first place, and then in properly disseminating it. The Yingluck administration is blameless in the former case, but for the latter the situation is murkier. Too many officials shooting from the hip caused a lot of problems, but then too, a lot of this can be traced to the lack of good, hard data.

The government should press the U.S. to release its super-accurate radar elevation data for Thailand, vastly expand the number of locations over which rainfall data is collected, institute a regimen whereby these same locations are tasked with providing accurate flood water levels when the floods do hit, and then finally commission the creation of software that will allow all of the above data to be used to create accurate and timely predictions on the movement of flood waters.

If course the face lost to ASK for technical help stops this most of the time.

All these storms were predicted to be on track for Northern Thailand while still over Philippines. It was only a question of how north or south in northern Thailand. The amount of rain was measured in several ways enroute, and all this data was there to be interpreted, compared with past seasons data, and used to make dam catch-hold estimates....

But....if it was, those who did so were ignored or overruled by amateurs for reasons having little to do with the public interest.

And the weather dept is using this as an excuse to get upgrade budget. 'We have limits to what we can do.' ( And we only use THAI data, because farang data is just not 'Thai enough' to tell our masters about. )

[Toany]

Yinluck's only qualification to be PM was that she was the sister of a convicted criminal. so what do you expect?

Edited November 14, 2011 by Toany

[KiLroy]

Politics and greed exist even in developed western countries. Its just who can covered up better. Look at the CEOs of collasped western banks. They are ousted but still part with millions in director fees in their pockets. We can scream our head off but the top men still rule as long as we are in their country.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Politics and greed exist even in developed western countries. Its just who can covered up better. Look at the CEOs of collasped western banks. They are ousted but still part with millions in director fees in their pockets. We can scream our head off but the top men still rule as long as we are in their country.

Boy do I agree with you with the exception that the Bank management was put in charge of the US Fed so that they could bail themselves out in the US anyway. As far as Thailand goes it is the war of the 1%.

[sparebox2]

Yinluck's only qualification to be PM was that she was the sister of a convicted criminal. so what do you expect?

Agree too.

It is time to put Mark, Army and PAD back in power via a 2011 coup.

[rubl]

Yinluck's only qualification to be PM was that she was the sister of a convicted criminal. so what do you expect?

Agree too.

It is time to put Mark, Army and PAD back in power via a 2011 coup.

Not sure about k. Abhisit or the spent power PAD, but various distinguished members have been promising me a coup since before the begin of this year. By now I think a dry Christmas more likely

[GoonDizzy]

Biggest shock for me is that somebody admits a 'possible' mistake.

For those saying 'how can you predict the weather or what was gonna happen blah blah'....let me let you in on something.

The area I just escaped from 3 weeks ago (Pathum Thani) has a rather long and well known klong (Klong Rangsit). This Klong was FULL months ago around July. THis was despite rather low rainfall in our area. A few of us teachers commented on this fact at the time. I had no idea the water was being 'saved' but for those in control of the water management system to do nothing, it is a complete show of incompetence.

[Buchholz]

Yinluck's only qualification to be PM was that she was the sister of a convicted criminal. so what do you expect?

Agree too.

It is time to put Mark, Army and PAD back in power via a 2011 coup.

Not sure about k. Abhisit or the spent power PAD, but various distinguished members have been promising me a coup since before the begin of this year. By now I think a dry Christmas more likely

Prime Minister Yingluck announced this afternoon that western sections of Bangkok may remain flooded until after New Years.

.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Yinluck's only qualification to be PM was that she was the sister of a convicted criminal. so what do you expect?

Agree too.

It is time to put Mark, Army and PAD back in power via a 2011 coup.

Not sure about k. Abhisit or the spent power PAD, but various distinguished members have been promising me a coup since before the begin of this year. By now I think a dry Christmas more likely

Prime Minister Yingluck announced this afternoon that western sections of Bangkok may remain flooded until after New Years.

.

Yinglucks qualification was that she was elected by the majority of the Thais. Unless you promote a dictatorship or military regime you should really give the rhetoric a break. The flood was unprecedented. Recommendations of a coup should get one banned. Sometimes the "stupid woman" can prove very capable as has happened in many other countries. Your supposition of her as a puppet is premature and certainly not yet verified. Initially she may have been guided by her brother but I am willing to bet that she has begun to realize his shortcomings. I am not supporting her but I am giving her a chance. The rest is up to her.

Edited November 15, 2011 by BuckarooBanzai

[Buchholz]

Prime Minister Yingluck announced this afternoon that western sections of Bangkok may remain flooded until after New Years.

Yinglucks qualification was that she was elected by the majority of the Thais. Unless you promote a dictatorship or military regime you should really give the rhetoric a break. The flood was unprecedented. Recommendations of a coup should get one banned. Sometimes the "stupid woman" can prove very capable as has happened in many other countries. Your supposition of her as a puppet is premature and certainly not yet verified. Initially she may have been guided by her brother but I am willing to bet that she has begun to realize his shortcomings. I am not supporting her but I am giving her a chance. The rest is up to her.

The "rhetoric" in my post was simply her announcement.

I've not recommended a coup nor called her a stupid woman.

I have, on other occasions, called her a clone, but that was just repeating what her own brother referred to her as and it seems to be quite an applicable one as he intended.

Any mention of her being a puppet was preceded by countless new reports that described as such. With news articles about her brother selecting Cabinet ministers, telling Pheu Thai Party-list MP's that were Cabinet ministers to give up their Party-list MP seats, and banning/removing other PTP MP's from the Party would seem to indicate that perhaps the PM is not actually in charge of the coalition government and lends much credence to the puppet moniker.

.

[Cayenne]

Prime Minister Yingluck announced this afternoon that western sections of Bangkok may remain flooded until after New Years.

Yinglucks qualification was that she was elected by the majority of the Thais. Unless you promote a dictatorship or military regime you should really give the rhetoric a break. The flood was unprecedented. Recommendations of a coup should get one banned. Sometimes the "stupid woman" can prove very capable as has happened in many other countries. Your supposition of her as a puppet is premature and certainly not yet verified. Initially she may have been guided by her brother but I am willing to bet that she has begun to realize his shortcomings. I am not supporting her but I am giving her a chance. The rest is up to her.

The "rhetoric" in my post was simply her announcement.

I've not recommended a coup nor called her a stupid woman.

I have, on other occasions, called her a clone, but that was just repeating what her own brother referred to her as and it seems to be quite an applicable one as he intended.

Any mention of her being a puppet was preceded by countless new reports that described as such. With news articles about her brother selecting Cabinet ministers, telling Pheu Thai Party-list MP's that were Cabinet ministers to give up their Party-list MP seats, and banning/removing other PTP MP's from the Party would seem to indicate that perhaps the PM is not actually in charge of the coalition government and lends much credence to the puppet moniker.

.

Also, she was not "elected by the majority of the Thais", not directly anyway. People voted for the MPs who were her party who then chose the PM, so in theory her party could have chosen just about anyone to sit in the PM seat and not necessarily her. This inevitably led to the argument that she is no more than a window dressing for this government (and on recent form it would be hard to argue against such), but that is another topic of discussion.

[BuffaloRescue]

Thailand is basically a mono-crop culture. So much reliance on rice has its problems, and this flood only highlights one aspect of its problems. 16 months ago it was claimed by Thai gurus to be "The Worst Drought in 20 Years!". .....also problematic for rice.

Democrat MP Nipit Intarasombat said the flood crisis would have been less severe if the number of rice harvests had been reduced from three to two this year, and the water released after the second.

Three crops per year on the same parcel?!?!? Even two crops per year is dicey. Soil need to be replenished, rejuvenated. Thais know nothing about composting and very little about mulching. Each year, many rice farmers burn most parts of the rice plant left over after harvesting. . Just as important, there are a slew of crops that are as well, or better suited to Thailand's climate/soil conditions. I've listed them before, so I'll just make a web page, rather than list them all again. Try Brazil Noi treesfor a reasonable alternative. Hemp is better crop than rice for a dozen reasons. Both have many times more value in baht/kilo and in nutrition.

If anyone asks you; "What's Wrong with Trying to Grow so much Rice in Thailand?" You can tell them the info above, and you can add that the rice in Thai food bowls is basically starch, nearly devoid of nutrients. It's like a filler or something to make paper mache glue. Such a nutrition-poor staple also affects the thinking ability of Thais - particularly children.

Thailand needs a free market. <deleted> to controlling price of food. Let the prices go up, let Thailands worth go up. All this price fixing and goverment intervention is a load of crap. Its just a way of keeping people poor in the long run. Thailand needs high tech farming.. let the farmers get rich

[ResX]

This is very good article for you to understand Water Resources Management in Thailand beyond flood control itself. Try to read and appreciate it. It is more than just a flood. It is about the entire systems -Water resources- the governments - population at large. These three entities exist in harmony and conflict. Their interactions can shape near and long term destiny of Thailand.

http://docs.google.c...vE5IljX90DRkhfQ

Anyway I can't get this section clear.

1.3 Water Provision and Water Demand

........................................ About 29% of the surface runoff approximately 70,800 million cubic meter is kept in various sizes of about 650 large and medium scale together with 60,000 small scale water resources development projects, all over the Kingdom....

My question is where that 70,800million cubic meter of water is kept annually? Dams or what? Note that the size of current flood size was just below 16,000million cubic meter.

[elcent]

Thailand is basically a mono-crop culture. So much reliance on rice has its problems, and this flood only highlights one aspect of its problems. 16 months ago it was claimed by Thai gurus to be "The Worst Drought in 20 Years!". .....also problematic for rice.

Democrat MP Nipit Intarasombat said the flood crisis would have been less severe if the number of rice harvests had been reduced from three to two this year, and the water released after the second.

Three crops per year on the same parcel?!?!? Even two crops per year is dicey. Soil need to be replenished, rejuvenated. Thais know nothing about composting and very little about mulching. Each year, many rice farmers burn most parts of the rice plant left over after harvesting. . Just as important, there are a slew of crops that are as well, or better suited to Thailand's climate/soil conditions. I've listed them before, so I'll just make a web page, rather than list them all again. Try Brazil Noi treesfor a reasonable alternative. Hemp is better crop than rice for a dozen reasons. Both have many times more value in baht/kilo and in nutrition.

If anyone asks you; "What's Wrong with Trying to Grow so much Rice in Thailand?" You can tell them the info above, and you can add that the rice in Thai food bowls is basically starch, nearly devoid of nutrients. It's like a filler or something to make paper mache glue. Such a nutrition-poor staple also affects the thinking ability of Thais - particularly children.

Thailand needs a free market. <deleted> to controlling price of food. Let the prices go up, let Thailands worth go up. All this price fixing and goverment intervention is a load of crap. Its just a way of keeping people poor in the long run. Thailand needs high tech farming.. let the farmers get rich

"Agflation" update: The U.S. crop situation is still dangerously tight

does Thailand really need that? or could it cope with it?

http://www.thedailycrux.com/content/9203/Agriculture/eml

[sparebox2]

I Ordered A Delay In The Release Of Water From Dam: Agriculture Minister Theera

Mr. Theera caught red-handed. He confessed. How is the time for him to see jail.

[edwinchester]

Three crops per year on the same parcel?!?!? Even two crops per year is dicey. Soil need to be replenished, rejuvenated. Thais know nothing about composting and very little about mulching. Each year, many rice farmers burn most parts of the rice plant left over after harvesting. . the rice in Thai food bowls is basically starch, nearly devoid of nutrients. It's like a filler or something to make paper mache glue. Such a nutrition-poor staple also affects the thinking ability of Thais - particularly children.

The problem with intensive farming is that the soil becomes DE-MINERALIZED. If there isn't nutrients in the soil then they won't be in the food. An apple in the 1920's contained 14 times more nutrients than a farm apple today. So in other words you would have to eat 14 apples to get the benefit of just one back in those days.

I live in a village in Kanchanaburi where the irrigation is excellent with a plentiful supply of water. Across the road from our house the rice farmer always gets between 3 and 4 crops a year. He cut the latest crop yesterday and will be planting the next within a week.

All chemically assisted of course.

[petedk]

I Ordered A Delay In The Release Of Water From Dam: Agriculture Minister Theera

Mr. Theera caught red-handed. He confessed. How is the time for him to see jail.

Yes, but who ordered him to order the delay?

Is it true that many of the rice farms in that area are owned by Mohammed Al-Fayed? It seems that many Thais I know have told me that story and they firmly believe it.

[metisdead]

Off topic post removed.