cloudhopper

Yet another client for the private companies running the US justice system into the ground. The country that already houses 25% of all the world's prisoners have just found another client. Kick out the private companies and the judges sitting on their boards and the Americans could soon see normal numbers of prisoners and a big drop in the amount they spending on the abuse of prisoners. THey are a true third world country when it comes to housing prisoners. The jails in North Korea give more space to the chaps that should never have been in prison in the first place.

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I'll assume this was sloppy journalism rather than insanity on the part of the "expert".

It's *agriculture* that is pretty dam_n bad for the environment. If GMOs can help us grow more food using less land, resources and pesticides, then they might be a substantial net positive to the environment. The 'threat' to human health is 99.99% scaremongering by environmentalists who haven't thought it through or eaten at a noodle stall lately.

This one really makes me sick to the gut and angry. Drug dealing scum often operate at gutter level, but this is even lower . Some girls stupid and willingly participate, but the ones that are decieved because they want a better life for themselves and their families do not deserve this.

I've been here for a good while and don't remember anyone who could not figure out a way to stay if they wanted to and had enough money to eat and rent a room. That is one of the things that I like about Thailand and one reason I do not look down on those who have to think of creative ways to satisfy the immigration authorities.

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Jeez, what were they smoking.

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Oh gosh, it took me five minutes to pick myself up off the floor from laughing so hard...for sake of public safety the govt says...I'm sure this restriction on the import of used vehicles will make a major reduction in all the dangerously maintained and loaded vehicles on Thailand's roads everyday.   Oh gosh, excuse me, I'm falling to the floor again in laughter....

jts-khorat, on 2012-04-16 19:25:25, said:

But not every tsunami come from Indonesia. I'm not advising panic, but a tsunami created just off shore, however unlikely, could arrive in minutes. Tsunami's can also be created by underwater landslides and volcanic eruptions. In fact you may not even have the luxury of  an earthquake to warn us of those, only our occasionally missing and flat batteried tsunami buoys. I think your advice is just a bit on the side of complacency. Perhaps your experience has solidified in your mind what a tsunami is. That assumption is incorrect. You can't assume anything.

For every foreigner who wants to grab a large parcel of land and build a hotel or housing estate there are probable a hundred others that just want to build a home and raise a family. Yet we are all tarred with the same Xenophobic brush.

The hub of Darwin awards !

Well, at least WTK is approaching the subject from a more mature, business-opportunity standpoint rather than with the anti-female venom of Oneman.

Just for the record, we western ladies don't go out of our way to "invade" a restaurant, nor do we create plans to crash into venues favored by western men.  Oneman flatters himself when he thinks we spend one second discussing western men at our expats ladies lunches.  We have better things to talk about, like shopping, traveling, new restaurants, nail salons, spas, dressmakers, etc.

Plus, we publicize our meetings so guys with a chip-on-their-shoulder can simply stay away.

It's so sad that there are people like Oneman who harbor such hate for a portion of the population.

I'm an old fart of 60. I've lived here full time 6 years, but first visited CM in 1975, coincidentally during Songkran week.
There was lots of water action even back then, but the young crazies (all local) used to fill balloons with water and launch them with inner tube rubber slingshot contraptions. It was a 3 man deal to launch one little water balloon. No mega squirt gun action, as they didn't exist.
No pickup trucks with barrels loaded with ice water- bicycles were pretty much the main transport back then.
Oh, and if you walked down a street of shophouses, maybe someone would playfully dump a small dipper of water on your head from the second floor.
All good fun.

Now Songkran has been adopted by farang soccer hooligans who fly in for short Easter break visits, and for whom violence and shock action is standard (wherever these creatures infest the planet).
And as is usual, the Thai go along with the trend, sanook sanook, one more fun event. Forget the gentle pouring of water over Grandma's wrist in a symbol of respect and cleansing. Hey, the crazy-ass farang like to use water as violent acting out...let's do what they do!

I almost had my neck snapped by one of these farang yobos while riding at slow speed near my apt. passing a line of stopped traffic a few years go.
He had one of the small buckets, that when snapped in just the right way aimed at your head at close range, can eff you up seriously.

I had somewhere to get to, and I didn't want to park, get off the bike, confront him, and then punch his stupid dumb ass clueless lights out.

The whole thing is not sanook family fun anymore, IMO.
It has become water war bullshit, masquerading as some "cultural festival".
Many if not most of my friends, all long timers with 10-20 yrs here, vacate CM during this BS period.
Of course, if you are a 20/30/40 something (maybe with a few small children), it is all nice infantile/juvenile fun.

Grumpy old man rant over.

submaniac, on 2012-03-29 11:03:42, said:

No they are not scary hiring standards you are scare mongering!

A nervous breakdown can happen to anyone for a number of reasons and it would be almost impossible to identify such a problem occurring in the future at any form of selection process. Thank God the co pilot had the monumental courage and kuhoonas to lock the cockpit door. Do you have any idea how much of a massive decision it is to lock the Captain out of the cockpit! That is a lost job and occupation for life if you are wrong. The co-pilot showed incredible courage and you are talking of scary hiring standards! I would place him amongst the best, and the passengers are very very lucky he was up front.

Billmont, on 2012-03-28 11:32:17, said:

Umm, there was the small issue of the financial crisis that went round Asia at the end of the 90's.  Yes the pound was relatively strong, but the thai economy and many others in the region were in a mess.  Now the shoe is on the other foot.  Thailand has a huge stock of Forex that it has accumulated over the last 5 years or so, in a very grand effort to keep the baht weak.

There is a big issue in Thailand with the value of oil imports, which Thailand has to do to fund its economy.  Oil is a disproportionately important commodity here because they haven't invested in rail.  Bear in mind that many of the businesses in Thailand rely enormously on  imported commodities to function, many are simply bolting things together and are not "building" things per se.  This means that a weakening of the baht has a very big effect on industry.

So yes, I believe the baht is at about the right value, would it make an enormous difference to "us" if the baht went to 33 to the USD?  Not really.  Would it push up oil and raw material  prices even further which would feed throught the economy very quickly, yes.  Is the baht likely to collapse, no? They are in a very strong position in terms of forex.  Are the majority of exporters i.e. cars/electronics asking for a weaker baht?  Not particularly since an enormous amount of the inputs they need would be pushed up in price by devaluing the baht.

Until the US and Europe get their fiscal house in order, the value of the baht will hang around more or less where it is.  If, these countries don't sort it out, might the baht get stronger?  Yes, but the government can always reduce interest rates to stabilise it.

Long story short, devaluing the baht isn't as beneficial to the country as many think, and doing so isnt' quite as easy as it appears when the rest of major economies of the world have enormous currency weakness.

The deterioration of the Thai educational system, the poor quality and abilities of its students, and the appalling quality of Thai teaching has been going on for decades. The current government can't be held up as anymore culpable than the dozens of governments before it. They are merely falling in line with the "tradition" and the concept that Thai education is masquerading as some sort of true learning experience and preparation for students. Thai educators and parents have done nothing to change the course of its failure. They buy their way in, don't have any interest in seeing that the students actually take away learning value, and it is generally set up to fail.

The newspaper continues to carp and whine about this day after day, month after month whenever they have an axe to grind about some politician who can be woven in to the education thread. The newspaper has never taken up this education banner seriously with a commitment to affect change. It has never been relentless in attempting to root out graft, corruption in the teaching system, student learning skills or lack thereof. How many students or parents for that matter, actually read newspapers Thai or English in Thailand? This is a major learning problem. Ask any student or parent where the nearest library or book store is and you get dumbfounded stares. The newspaper should face the facts and call a spade a spade and start pointing out the true issues and pounding the table relentlessly on the real issues. Not doing so and remaining in denial is enabling the continued deterioration of Thai education.

It's a relief that Thai MPs are drunks. I was worried they were just incompetent.