News from Thailand – December 13, 2014
Grilled rat meat: Residents of Prasat (Surin) district and tourists love it. Enjoy your meal.
From today the taxi is more expensive. The Ministry of Transport has given the green light for an increase in fares. However, the starting rate remains the same at 35 baht. The increase amounts to 8 percent. It later rises to 13 percent on the condition that the taxi guild adheres to the rules, such as customers not refusing and always turning on the meter.
The increase only applies to vehicles approved by the Land Transport Department after inspection, and only 30.000 of the 80.000 roam Bangkok's streets. See the overview at the bottom of the post for all rates.
The Din Daeng-Don Mueang-National Memorial Monument toll road will also become more expensive.
– The Netherlands dominates the front page today Bangkok Post. A 16 by 25 cm portrait photo shows a gigantic dinosaur head-butting a roaring woman – if you can say that about dinosaurs. The prehistoric monster (because it is not that beautiful, but it is beautifully made) is a creation of the Dutch stilt walker group Saurus.
Together with about forty groups from eighteen countries, the Dutch will perform during the Bangkok Street Show in Lumpini Park. Today and tomorrow, all those acts can still be seen between 15 and 21 p.m. And because my compatriots have a certain reputation, I mention that admission is free.
– The OM needs more time to decide whether former Prime Minister Yingluck will be prosecuted for dereliction of duty. Additional witnesses have yet to be heard and the evidence presented by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has yet to be critically reviewed. This means that the announced deadline of the end of this month will probably not be met, says Surasak Trairattakul, Director General of the Litigation Department of the Public Prosecution Service.
Yingluck has been charged with dereliction of duty by the NACC for failing to take action on corruption in the rice mortgage system and rising costs as chair of the National Rice Policy Committee. A joint committee of OM and NACC focuses on three questions:
- Was the prime minister authorized to stop the mortgage system, which has so far generated a loss of more than 500 billion baht?
- Has Yingluck been guilty of dereliction of duty?
- Was there corruption and to what extent?
There is disagreement between NACC and OM about the choice of witnesses to be heard. The NACC will only hear witnesses that it believes are relevant to the case. The Public Prosecution Service has somewhat broader views. Another obstacle is the so-called G-to-G rice sales (government to government). According to some witnesses they never took place, others contradict this.
– An AirAsia plane bound for Nanjing abruptly returned to Don Mueang on Thursday after a Chinese passenger threw hot water at a flight attendant. She was angry that she and her friend had not been given seats next to each other. This was because they were part of a group that had seats assigned in alphabetical order.
According to witnesses, the man threatened to blow up the plane and the woman told her fellow passengers that she wanted to commit suicide. Even after they were placed next to each other, the cold was still there. The woman bought a cup of noodles and asked for hot water.
There were 174 passengers on the plane. The message does not state when the flight was resumed, but that no declaration was made.
– The Red Line will be ready at the end of 2018, a year later than planned. The section between Bang Sue and Rangsit (26 km) is experiencing delays and construction of Bang Sue station is progressing slowly. There are problems with the relocation of water and electricity pipes and the ministry is still negotiating with the supplier of train sets about the price. If they fail, the procurement must be put out to tender again. The Red Line will have a total length of 60 km; the message does not mention between which places.
Yesterday, the Minister of Transport took a look at the station under construction. He was the only one of the group wearing a safety helmet.
– The bottom of the Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness is in sight. The Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hopes that donors will supplement the fund as December 26 marks the 10th anniversary of the tsunami's death and destruction.
The fund was formed in 2005. [Who controls it is not clear to me] Thailand poured 328 million baht into it; the other donors were Sweden, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh. The balance then amounted to $13,7 million, money used to fund 26 warning projects in 19 countries. In 2010, the fund expanded its activities to include all threats to coasts.
– Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan is sure: Next year, Thailand will move from Tier 3 to Tier 2 countries in the US Trafficking in Persons report. Thailand ended up on the Tier 3 list this year because it did not sufficiently combat human trafficking.
Prawit has been appointed by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha as chairman of a committee to work on the status increase. “We have to solve the problem of human trafficking. Strictly enforce the law and fight against any form of corruption, especially the involvement of officials in human trafficking.”
Prawit said yesterday after a meeting of three ministers and the Office of Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Committee that more efforts will be made to tackle human trafficking 'in all respects'.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha echoed those words in his weekly TV talk last night, even though Thailand has risen a few points on the recently announced Corruption Perceptions Index 2014. Prayut said he was delighted. According to the prime minister, corruption is the root cause of many of the country's problems. It causes social inequality, impairs the improvement of the competitive position of the country and constitutes a crisis of "virtues and ethics" of the people in the society.
– Corruption in government projects should be better combated. Minister Paiboon Koomchaya (Justice) calls for a special law to replace the current regulations, which are not sufficient.
As a result, it could happen that there was a lot of fraud during the construction of futsal fields in the Northeast. Many fields are of poor quality and too much had to be paid for them. Politicians gave verbal orders to buy materials and officials had to follow those instructions. Paiboon therefore believes it is necessary for legislation to protect civil servants from prosecution in such cases. It must also be clear who approves projects.
– The hunt for suspects involved in the criminal network of Pongpat Chayaphan, former head of the Central Investigation Bureau, is far from over. The police suspect another seven people of connections to the network: the husband, former head of Samut Sakhon's Immigration Police, and family of the woman who was arrested this week. Fencing the name of the king, she obtained some business contracts by devious means.
– A case that has dragged on for 17 years came to an end in June in the Supreme Court, but the verdict was only announced yesterday. Four months ago, the Court sentenced three people to six years and eight months in prison for illegally building three houses in Srinagarind Dam National Park.
Two are the wife and daughter of the former deputy governor of Kanchanaburi. The three must tear down their property; if they don't, the park sends a demolition crew and they get the bill. Seven to eight holiday park owners still have to pack their bags in the area.
– Because the hotline 191 is often busy, the police have opened a second emergency number: 1599. The occupation of the emergency center (photo home page) has been expanded and more surveillance cameras will be installed in 861 risk areas, according to the Royal Thai Police. Between 18 and 20 p.m., the switchboard is called 1.600 to 2.000 times. Last month, 230.000 calls were made; 54 percent were false alarms mainly by children.
An amateur photographer recently complained about the poor accessibility of 191 who found the body of a Swedish man who had hanged himself in an empty building.
Economic news
– Good business was done at the annual car and motorcycle fair in Impact Muang Thong Thani, the 31st, but the target of 50.000 sales was not achieved. The counter got stuck at 44.972. The number of visitors and turnover also remained below target: 1,38 million Thai people visited the 12-day fair and bought for 52 billion baht.
Toyota performed best with 7.830 vehicles, followed by Honda (6.719), Nissan (4.318), Isuzu (4.227), Mitsubishi (4.196) and Mazda (4.164). At the premium and big engines was Honda number 1. Followed by British Triumph and Kawasaki. A striking feature of this fair edition was that the average car price rose from 1,05 million baht last year to 1,14 million baht, indicating that consumers are paying more attention to small passenger cars, SUVs and luxury models.
Honda launched seven new models this year, Mazda presented a new eco-car, the Mazda-2 with a 1.500 cc diesel engine.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
Can it be seen in the taxis that have been inspected and are therefore allowed to charge more, but must meet the requirements?
@ Gerrie Q8 There is a sticker from the DLT (Department of Land Transport) on the windshield.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/multimedia/photo/449277/bangkok-street-show-in-city-of-happiness
The photos from the parade.
The post is not in the right place here. I know there was no comment about the parade.
But this is about the increase in taxi prices.
@ maarrten vasbinder The photos of the Bangkok Street Show have now been placed in the posting. When News from Thailand was made, they weren't available yet.
I, or we here on Samui are wondering when the taxis on Samui will turn on the meter.
So far I haven't been able to catch one turning on the meter, yes 1 said ,
500 bath starting money, I pointed out the poster on his door of 50 bath but he waved that
smiling away.
From the airport to Lamai “about 12 km” will be met by people who do not know
convenience 700 to 800 bath requested. Where are the police who monitor the use of the meter?
It is a pity that no report has been made against the misbehaving Chinese passengers! Outrageous and dangerous behavior, which the crew and passengers are the victims of. They should also have been held liable for the extra costs of Air Asia. By the way, you can reserve your seat on the plane for a few euros at Air Asia. Yesterday it was on teletext that the (female) vice-president of Korean-Air has been fired. On a flight of her own plane me. a purser had handed her a bag of nuts on boarding. For whatever reason, this was not to the liking of the lady, after which she demanded that the purser in question be removed from the flight. This arrogant attitude rightly cost her dear, not the purser but she herself could pack her bags.
The rule about those nuts is probably related to nut allergies.
I don't know if that rule helps much, because if the people next to you are eating the nuts, you will probably also suffer from it.
As for the nuts: it was about serving in a bag instead of in a bowl. See
http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/categorie/2/airlines/nootjes-in-een-zakje-purser-van-boord-gezet
When I read about the behavior of those Chinese passengers, as a former flight attendant I can only applaud it when a stopover is made immediately and these guests are removed. They are lucky that no charges were filed. That had not happened with my former company. I've seen at least twice where we have turned guests over to the local police for misbehaving and that was less dangerous than what they had done.
It's unbelievable anyway. In America, these two should have served several years in prison for their behavior.
I don't want to go on about how dangerous what they did was, but trust me, don't take this with a grain of salt.
About the nut allergy, I don't think you can get an allergic reaction when your neighbor is eating the nuts. Then, if you have such an allergy, you should not fly.
There is an AD article about a 4-year-old girl who got sick because someone opened a bag of nuts next to her.
Google nut allergy on an airplane.