News from Thailand – October 17, 2014
The junta is serious about the fight against illegal structures on beaches and in national parks and forest reserves.
At the Lam Takhong water reservoir in Nakhon Ratchasima, workers began demolishing eateries yesterday. They made short work of twenty in one day. Some 51 structures must disappear by order of the province. When the owners don't tear them down themselves, the military steps in.
The owners say they have nowhere else to go and eviction threatens their livelihood. According to the lawyer of the Second Army Corps, they would like to mobilize people to defend themselves against the expulsion; the lawyer says he has 100.000 supporters [meaning soldiers, I assume] to stop them.
The eateries have not only been built illegally, but the restaurateurs also throw their waste into the water. As a result, the lawyer claims, the ecological system of the Lam Takhong River has been destroyed. That river supplies water to half a million inhabitants in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The village chief of a village in Pak Chong denies that again. The restorers would have installed waste processing systems. They first settled in the area thirty years ago to catch fish and prepare it for visitors. Most of them are ready to leave, he says. He appeals to the authorities for a two-month extension so that they can find an alternative location.
– The woman who set herself on fire can breathe easily – if she is still able to do so with third-degree burns on her chest. After a meeting with the governor of Lop Buri, her creditor has agreed to cancel the debt of 1,5 million baht accumulated over five years, which prompted the action. She also gets back the land that served as collateral for the loan.
The woman had borrowed the money to buy fertilizer for the land she was also renting from her. According to the governor, the authorities had already helped the woman once, reducing the debt to 1,5 million baht. (See also the post: Desperate woman sets herself on fire)
The arson has prompted a parliamentary committee to expand the pending bill on debt and collection practices. That proposal was approved at first reading at the end of August. It will apply not only to formal but also to informal loan agreements.
Among other things, the law aims to put an end to violence and intimidation in the collection of debts and sets an upper limit on interest rates, which can currently be 20 percent per day.
– Bad luck for the heron but also bad luck for AirAsia. The bird did not survive the impact and the aircraft's left turbine was slightly damaged. This drama took place in the air yesterday when a plane landed at Nakhon Si Thammarat airport. The return flight was delayed.
This year the same has already happened three times with an AirAsia aircraft and once with a Nok Air aircraft. In two cases, an emergency landing had to be made at another airport due to damage.
– A number of classes at the Pathumwan Institute of Technology (PIT) and the Rajamangala University of Technology (campus Uthen Thawai), two notorious vocational colleges, have been suspended after students on bus 29 fought on Wednesday. At the PIT, lessons are canceled for three days electrical engineering and with Uthen Thawai nine days of lessons civil engineering en logistics. This was agreed during consultations between the Office of the Higher Education Commission and the two study programmes.
Police ended the fight on Wednesday and arrested four students. It is not yet known when the suspension will take effect. How many students are allowed to stay at home: seventy at the PIT and seven hundred at the other programme. The animosity between the two programs led to the death of a PIT student last month. [According to previous reports, two students; BP: Are you sleeping again?]
– When she was released from the hospital, Princess Chulabhorn had been advised to refrain from work for three months, but she has now been given permission for a five-day visit to China. She attends two conferences there. Today she left. The princess spent a month in hospital with stomach and pancreatic infections.
– A number of berths in Ayutthaya may no longer be used because they are poorly managed, cause traffic problems and cause nuisance in the form of dust, stench and noise. Local residents have been complaining about it for some time and now the local office of the Ministry of the Environment is doing something about it.
– In a laboratory on the third floor of the Department of Industrial Works, a fire raged yesterday afternoon. No one was injured. A meeting on the fourth floor had to be aborted. The damage amounts to 1 million baht. Water is tested in the lab. Let's guess who put out the fire.
– The emergency parliament or the National Legislative Assembly (not elected, but appointed) is not standing still. A bill passed in first reading makes owners of ships that leak oil and pollute the marine environment liable for the damage. The owners of Thai and foreign vessels with a carrying capacity of more than 2.000 tons that are in Thai territorial waters must be able to prove their financial capacity to do so.
The law is in line with the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (1992) of the International Maritime Organisation. The liability does not apply to warships, ships owned by the state that have a non-commercial purpose and in the event of war or natural disasters. Between 1973 and 2011, oil spilled into Thai waters 215 times.
– Just like rice farmers, rubber farmers receive a gift of 1.000 baht per rai, provided that the plantation does not exceed 25 rai and up to a maximum of 15.000 baht. That will cost the government the sweet sum of 8,5 billion baht. The farmers had asked for 2.520 baht, but that party is cancelled.
The government decided this yesterday to accommodate the (850.000) farmers, who have been struggling against falling rubber prices for some time. The government has more measures in store, but I will not mention them because they are rather detailed. According to Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula, the outlook for rubber prices has improved.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
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The posting 'Premier Prayut booed in Milan', which was previously on the blog, has been deleted. If you want to know exactly what happened there, we advise you to consult the Western media. Prayut was in Milan for the tenth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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Dirk, do you have a link to the message about the new interest rate law, I'm curious, what upper limit does the government want to include in the law with regard to. formal loans, banks to companies? and attn. informal loans, private to private?
Thanks for your effort.
Nico B
@ Nico B Here is the requested link: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/438051/burns-victim-spurs-loan-sharks-bill
“The posting 'Premier Prayut booed in Milan', which was previously on the blog, has expired. ” Well, as I understood, the BP piece was dredged. The essential W and H questions (who, what, where, how, why, when, what ... ) were not addressed ... Unfortunately, that is normally difficult at BP, but now of course completely.
I find it striking that it is always low-cost companies with the bird in turbine incidents, or does it just seem? Thai Airways makes more flights and still in the same conditions?
The Thai may have fewer problems, because the Thai flies larger aircraft, which have larger (and therefore stronger) engines.
They can probably digest a bird better without getting an indigestion.
Logical right, those other companies are very expensive and an ordinary bird stays away from that, right? 🙂
Moderator: no Thai piss off comments please.