LTGTR

Reasonableman, on 2012-05-22 12:49:52, said:

Ah. But this is the country's capital to Shinawatraburi - no rules apply

Doesn't a feasibility study try to determine WHETHER the project is feasible? Perhaps announcing the completion date is a little premature.

Some of the land in the railway corridors may need to be resumed, I guess... and equipment purchased... that's a lot of concrete and rails... 6 years, huh? ... hmmmmm

Well, one of the most (only) efficient systems in Bangkok was sure to eventually attract the attention of Thailand's government.  The BTS is a standard BOT mega-project in a developing country, and a successful one at that.  Corruption in Thailand is an increasingly dire issue (I don't say problem because in Thailand, corruption is fundamentally how business is done, and the entire concept as a moral "negative" needs to be analyzed in amorally to be understood by Westerners who have been trained to think of it as automatically wrong).  What Thais have failed to recognize is that this distorts economics, society, politics, everything.  It cannot be perpetuated indefinitely without protracting Thailand's development indefinitely.  Especially as other Southeast Asian countries show a greater predilection for law, order, and stability.  Thailand will simply fail to attract those with a regional or global focus as opposed to a local one.

sfbandung, on 2012-03-13 11:23:19, said:

It is made more difficult by the fact that adjacent officers are usually engrossed in conversation whilst they are trying to complete their difficult task.

She's complaining that she can't get a divorce. Why can't she seek a divorce in Thailand? She merely wants the additional perks for divorcing in the UK - alimony, perhaps some of HIS retirement. Money-grubbing Thai women like this cast a dark shadow on the many decent Thai women that are actually seeking love and not a man's life savings. The UK government's reasoning for denying her visa request makes perfect sense - if you do not plan to live with your spouse you are not eligible for a spouse visa. What's wrong with that??

Where can I get an "I <3 APU" T-shirt?

The incident points out the "abuse of power" that thrives in Thailand. Notwithstanding it happens everywhere. The Thai official doing the slapping should have been confronted immediately by armed security officers trained to deal with airport security on the spot, arrested, cuffed and vested, and vanned off to a debrief and formal charge session. You can bet that if a non Thai had done anything similar they would be sitting in a security prison compound or airport detention room awaiting disposition to a regular prison while awaiting trial for any number of charges. The yellow shirt closing of Suvarnibhumi should have signaled Thailand's failure to protect its own airport and provide international level of security. Can you imagine this slapping of a security official happening at Heathrow, JFK, Changi, Narita, O'Hare or any other international airport of any scale without an appropriate arrest, detention, and charges?