News from Thailand – January 18, 2015
This page contains a selection from the Thai news. We list headlines from major news sources including: Bangkok Post, The Nation, ThaiPBS, MCOT, etc.
There is a web link behind the news items. When you click on it you can read the full article at the English source. The news page is updated several times a day so that you always read the latest news.
News from Thailand – January 18, 2015
The Nation opens today with the message that four former ministers from the previous government led by Yingluck Shinawatra with a YouTube video defending her against charges of corruption in Thailand's rice subsidy program for farmers. The ministers answered all 35 questions from the NLA that were asked last Friday during the inquiry session. Yingluck did not show up for this meeting, indicating that her lawyers or other representatives would answer questions. Former Deputy Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisal, former Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong, former Prime Minister Varathep Ratanakorn and former Minister of Trade and Commerce Yanyong Phuangrach have now done so through a video on YouTube: http://goo.gl/ShVoDU
– National Bureau of Statistics: The employment situation in Thailand has improved compared to last June: http://t.co/9YERRDnjZO
– Another case of scam in a karaoke bar in Chiang Mai. Eight Malaysian tourists brought had to pay 114.000 baht after a visit. The injured 34-year-old Malaysian tourist, Yim Wai Chuan, lodged a complaint with the police in Chiang Mai. The bar owner offered to return 60.000 baht but was arrested: http://t.co/8l7rGJmJ3T
– In the Bangkok Post there is an interesting background article about the complaints, some time ago, from tourists about the police in Bangkok in the Thong Lor district. They would have arrested random tourists on Sukhumvit Road for no reason and forced them to perform humiliating so-called drug tests (urinate in a pot on the street): http://goo.gl/r68kaP
– 18 students were slightly injured yesterday in a bomb explosion during a military training in the Nong Bua Lamphu district. According to the police, it was an old grenade that went off when the students wanted to level a piece of training field: http://t.co/Oq4he83HRM
– A recent survey shows that many Thai (91,53%) want the government to address the stagnant economy in Thailand: http://bit.ly/1CBMzrJ
– Severe drought in a number of provinces in Thailand. In Phitsanulok, the Yom River has almost dried up. Farmers fear for the rice harvest: http://goo.gl/eUj3kp
Chiang Mai seems to take the cake with lighting. I have been coming to Thailand for 34 years, without any problems. Until today in Chiang Mai with taxi driver for a ride to Doi Suthep. Police called in for cheating and because he wanted to run me over. I lost 1,5 hours with the police who told me by telephone: Calm down madam. Chief of police wanted to avoid at all costs that I would bring this into the public eye. It was about a few hundred baht which should only cost 40 bht. The whole street was involved.
End of the story: the taxi man had to take me to Doi Suthep for bht 40,00 while he would have preferred to leave me standing. Back I took another taxi.
All's well that ends well.
Scams are everywhere, warnings like this help readers avoid them.
I myself was involved in an attempt at the Virajsilp (Bangkok) Hospital in Chumphon.
I was bitten by a stray dog and wanted to be treated for rabies in the said hospital.
Een zeer jonge vrouwelijke dokter sprak de eerste woorden tegen mij: 20.000 baht. Dit om maar even aan te geven waar haar interesse lag: niet mijn medisch probleem maar mijn portemonnee. Na me ff teruggetrokken te hebben voor overleg met de Nederlandse verzekeraar kwam ik terug en bleek de prijs te zijn gestegen naar 30.000 baht. Wegens zoveel brutaliteit haar in knetterend Nederlands verteld wat ze met haar aanbod kon doen (verstond ze toch niet, en maar goed ook) en me laten behandelen in het governement hospitaal te Chumphon. Dezelfde injecties als voorgesteld in Virajsilp wist ik via het contact met mijn verzekeraar. Prijs aldaar: 3.400 bhat.
A hospital scam that just dared to ask 10 times !!!
Still scammed!
I paid 1200 Baht in government hospital.
The after-treatments in the village post were included in the price.
The unemployment rate in Thailand is said to have fallen to 220.000. That is about 0.5% of the working population. In Western economies, about 4% is considered healthy. The super healthy Norway, for example, has an unemployment rate of 3.3%, and people are extremely satisfied with that. A much lower percentage results in an overstrained labor market. In its eagerness to score, the current regime has produced an incredibly low unemployment rate, yet so low that the qualification “the employment situation has improved” is an incorrect one. The situation is overheated. If you believe the numbers….