The week that was in Thailand news: Gifts galore as Thailand celebrates Christmas

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Gifts galore as Thailand celebrates Christmas

 

 

One could be forgiven for thinking that the Thais have finally embraced Christmas this week, such was the large number of gifts of all sorts on display.

And along with the presents came some milk of human kindness to impress even the most curmudgeon of Thaivisa posters this holiday season.

Leading the way were the police and businesses in Prajuab who stood by the roadside doling out crash helmets to motorcyclists passing by. Not for them Eborneezer-ly miserable fines, here were concerned authorities doing their bit for the public good. The colossal carnage of New Year on the roads will surely now be merely catastrophic.

Rooster takes his pith helmet off to you all! And, no, I don’t have a lisp.

Ok, so the helmets looked about as safe as putting an eggshell on your bonce but as Westerners of any ilk know – it’s the thought that counts!

And besides – as my favorite forum post of the week pointed out helpfully – filled with earth they could easily be utilized as decorating hanging baskets to brighten up any Hua Hin home.

Meanwhile, the national police HQ stopped short of making any predictions or quotas for the end of year accident season preferring instead to tell everyone to have one less drink and perhaps look before pulling out into the path of a speeding 18 wheel dump truck.

Continuing the theme of giving and kindness were the courts who compassionately let out the doctor wife of sharpshooter “X” though already convicted of the murder of her Olympian husband. She is merely facing the death penalty so it’s not as if she represents any risk of flight while the appeal goes on.

They only shoot horses, don’t they?

It was yet more evidence of just how “jai dee” the Thais can be – proof positive that it is not only kindly soldiers in power returning happiness and honest taxi drivers handing back everything from frankincense to myrrh to their passengers, that we have to be grateful for.

Meanwhile those nasty Burmese across the border just don’t get Christmas. Here they were arresting another fugitive doctor who was sentenced to death in the slaying of two workers in 2011. It has taken five years, couldn’t they have waited until January?

Incidentally I wonder if he said he wouldn’t flee as well?

Just days later the Thais showed how it should be done by releasing the errant doctor’s third wife – involved in the comparatively minor indiscretion of stealing the murdered people’s car – as part of a bounteous amnesty.

Thais know how to forgive as well as give – though there are some Burmese guys in clink down south who they’ll keep on workhouse gruel for a few more decades just in case they are guilty.

And the spirit of giving continued as “Thai Netizens” – I believe these are in fact a new species of humanoid not too distantly related to the Neanderthals – gave us the laugh of the week courtesy of the most rhetorical question of the year.

In relation to a picture posted online of a cop using a mobile phone while driving they asked: “Are police above the law?”

Gagging Rooster was thinking of visiting the cops to try and find someone to sue for causing his dentures to come loose and wind up in his morning Shreddies. However, knowing that they are busy, festive season or not, I thought better of it, deciding to keep my ire to myself.

Though I did contact the Thaivisa editor privately to ask if the new sub-species could be renamed “Thai Nitizens” in subsequent stories.

Less giving – unless you consider dispatching your fellow man to a better world a release of sorts – were the two individuals in Bangkok and Lampang who seemed to have got irked by the noise emanating from those having a festive knees up in local restaurants.

In the capital a fracas in a market resulted in the death of one man and serious injury of several others. The assailant – a former National Thai judo team representative – was the first attacker recently who did not just claim that he was blind drunk.

This one was just blind.

Then a “quiet” guy in the north– even Mr Christie at 10 Rillington Place never gave no trouble to his neighbours, guv – went over the road to help several people on their way to the next life with a gun and a few dozen bullets.

Arrested later in the day he said nothing to police – perhaps what you’d expect from a quiet guy though maybe he ascribed to Bernard Trink’s erstwhile philosophy that “any comment would be superfluous”.

A tad more respectful of the rights of others to enjoy themselves in the holiday season were the kind folks in Pathum Thani keeping vigil outside Wat Dhammakaya. Except, of course, that these are the authorities who continue to find it immensely challenging to put one foot in front of another, in the style of perambulation, and walk in and grab the orange clad chief.

Now Rooster is the first to know that it is really not that simple, but I do hope that some progress towards returning all that land to farmers is made in 2017...and that Tom Cruise renounces Scientology.

Was that a pig’s trotter I just saw whizzing past my condo window?

Perhaps induced to dreamy sleep by Christmas lullabies were several drivers this week who thought that catching on a few of those forty winks was more important than thinking about anyone else in their vehicles.

In one of several cases of bus drivers injuring 40 or more kids, one ‘chauffeur’ nodded off in Kamphaeng Phet while in Chonburi a British man got in on the act when he allegedly pulled out on another coach.

Don’t forget to brake before exit, sir – think Brexit when driving at all times.

Meanwhile, it was a father who joined his wife and kids in having a nap – just a shame he was at the wheel at the time.  Still, he kept the theme of Christmas giving going by kindly leaving his wallet and iPhone in the wrecked car.

Some people who came to the family’s rescue will now be able to afford a turkey though daddy the driver feels like one after getting just a pittance for his trashed motor and some serious bumps on the head for all the family.

But – and as Rooster missus likes to observe, it is a big butt – they all lived, which is more than can be said for the perhaps 25,000 people on the highways and byways of Thailand who die annually.

If Thailand could give me one present for Christmas or New Year it would be for everyone from Prayut to Somchai on the beat to pull together to pay attention rather than lip service to the carnage on the nation’s roads.

And so to this week’s somewhat truncated Rooster awards – I have just given out too many gifts today already.

The “Milk of Human Kindness” award goes to charming “look thung” star Sunaree who took pity on a Dutch guy twenty years her junior and confirmed their marriage. Aside from the fact that Wouter – is that really a Dutch name? – needed a gift of a razor, the couple looked blissfully happy in the Instagram photo.

And Wouter also gets lucky with an Insta-fam as well – Sunaree has two growing kids from a previous marriage – so he won’t have to work too hard here or, indeed, need a work permit.

My “Thank you for Blowing a Thai gasket” award goes to the Bang Saen municipality chief who had a go at tourists for littering his beach. Though in a previous and similar story about Chaweng in Samui the Thaivisa posters littered the site with claims that tourists meant foreigners, it was clear in both cases that those responsible are the locals.

The chief rightfully ranted about his countrymen showing scant regard for his beach and set a good example by clearing up the mess. However, I dispute his assertion that educating the public in not littering is a pointless task.

Woah – was that another trotter whizzing past my window?

Finally, and truly kind at a time when the spirit of goodwill should be celebrated, was the teenage Thai girl in school uniform shown on CCTV walking out into a busy intersection to cradle a dying dog in her arms and bring his shattered remains to the roadside. Everyone else had ignored the poor creature.

She is anonymous but her selfless act of kindness might give us all some home for the future.

Merry Christmas!

Rooster

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-12-25

[Sooo Upto Me]

Thailand doesn't  celebrate Christmas.

[Commercial Diver]

Moron 

[Lupatria]

49 minutes ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

Thailand doesn't  celebrate Christmas.

Oh yes it does. There were truck loads of Christmas gifts delivered to the staff of the immigration office in Bkk on Thursday...

 

Edited December 25, 2016 by Lupatria
typo

[YAHF]

Of course Thailand celebrates Christmas insofar as they thank all the Farange spending their holiday money here instead of at home even though £ against the TB is pi** poor at the moment and in the streets last might it seemed as though only half the amount of people as opposed to last year.

[kotsak]

It's a nice enterprise, innit?