News from Thailand – September 14, 2013

Although Bangkok can not exactly be called an architectural gem, some buildings are definitely worth seeing and those are houses and other buildings, built in colonial style.

Luc Citrinot, project manager and researcher at Talisman Media, has made an inventory of them and collected about 64 in the guide 'European Heritage Map of Bangkok and Ayutthaya', which was released last week. Most of the buildings were built under the reign of King Rama V, who encouraged Europeans to come and work in Siam.

The nice thing about Thailand is that it has inherited a mix of European influences, unlike Vietnam and Laos (French only) and Malaysia and Myanmar (British). But in Thailand, the Italians, Germans, Portuguese and British have left their mark. Quite a few buildings have been neglected, because the Thai government does not consider them part of Thai culture. For example, a building that is about to collapse is the customs house on the Chao Praya River, where King Rama V first stopped after his foreign travels.

On Sunday, the French ambassador's residence at 36 Charoeng Krung Road in Bang Rak opened to the public (pictured). Buildings that can be admired every day include the Holy Rosary Church, the Phaya Thai Palace, the Santa Cruz Church in Thon Buri (photo home page) and Hua Lampong Railway Station.

– A team of Thai doctors has been awarded the Ig Public Health Nobel Prize for the medical techniques described in their publication (American Journal of Surgery, 1983) 'Surgical management during an epidemic of penile amputations in Thailand' – techniques they recommend, except in cases where the amputated penis has been partially eaten by a duck. During that period, they operated on a remarkably high number of men whose penises had been cut off. They were usually drunk men who had driven their wives into a frenzy.

Dutchman Bert Tolkamp, ​​along with four Britons, won the Ig Probability Prize for two related discoveries: (1) the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow is to get up soon, and (2) once a cow gets up, it is not easy to predict how soon that cow will lie down again. The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded each year in the US for research that first makes people laugh and then think.

– They are apparently shocked at Airports of Thailand, because yesterday a disaster drill was held at Suvarnabhumi airport. What exactly it consisted of, the article does not mention. One photo does show fire engines spraying water angrily.

The newspaper finds it more important to report that AoT is going to improve his life [where have we heard that before? First see, then believe]. After Sunday's Airbus accident, the passengers were left to fend for themselves and had to go through Immigration like all other travelers, causing problems for those who had complied and left their hand luggage behind.

According to AoT, the airport does have a separate channel and a reception area, but the ground staff did not know which procedure to follow. The airport manager promises improvements in personnel and equipment.

THAI has ordered an inspection of the entire Airbus 330-300 fleet. So far, no problems have been detected with the other 26 devices. Society assumes that a defective bogie beam (a movable intermediate shaft) was the culprit.

– According to Minister Chadchart Sittipunt (Transport), the problems with the Easy Pass (an electronic card for paying tolls on toll roads) are the result of delays in debits. Because the system is overloaded, the passage rate is sometimes debited later or passages are merged. The cardholder then thinks that too much has been debited.

The minister has instructed the Expressway of Thailand to improve the system. He personally checked some accounts and found delays ranging from a day to almost a month. Previous posts mention erroneous charges and cards being declined. According to the article, the system is lagging behind and 6 million baht has yet to be written off from cards.

– Two forest rangers were killed on Thursday evening in a gunfight with poachers in the Um-Phang (Tak) game reserve. One of the poachers was also killed and two other forest rangers were injured. A team of ten forest rangers had been searching for the poachers since Monday after they found a dead bear that had been poisoned. That animal served as bait to catch tigers. One of the five poachers was arrested yesterday. A team of 17 forest rangers had searched for the poachers for XNUMX hours.

– For the State Railway of Thailand, the measure is full. After the 114th derailment yesterday, which damaged 100 meters of rails, only one remedy remains: divine intervention. The governor of the SRT announced a merit making ceremony while surveying the damage. He thinks the ceremony can restore the badly shaken morale of the railway employees.

“Personally, I believe that Thailand has survived several ugly incidents thanks to divine protection. The SRT should be able to do that too,' says Prapat Chongsanguan. The ceremony, he said, also commemorates the 117th anniversary of the SRT.

According to some superstitious critics, the series of railway accidents is due to the damage to a 48-year-old painting in SRT headquarters. Prapat says they are still looking for a restorer. [The article does not state whether he shares this view.]

Yesterday's derailment occurred between Bang Sue 2 and Sam Sen stations. The train from Butterworth to Bangkok ran off the rails in the morning, with the last trainset damaging 100 meters of rail. No one was injured. An inspection revealed that a loosened bolt was the culprit.

[The article mentions 114 derailments this year, but the September 8 newspaper called a derailment a day earlier the 14th derailment. Can't the newspaper count again?]

– Farmers who grow maize in Phrae and Uttaradit have called on the government to make farmers, who do not own the land, also eligible for the price intervention program. More than XNUMX farmers in Phrae and XNUMX in Uttaradit handed over their demands to the authorities yesterday.

The government has decided to buy corn with a moisture content of 30 percent at 7 baht per kilo and corn with a moisture content of 14,7 percent at 9 baht per kilo. Last year, the price of corn fell to 6,2 baht per kilo and this year to 4,8 baht. But despite the lower price, farmers are not losing their maize on the paving stones.

In Nakhon Phanom, farmers have asked the government to regulate the price of chicken feed and laying hens. According to a representative, the current high price of eggs is due to increased production costs. [According to previous reports, chickens have been put off laying due to the weather and supply has decreased.] The Department of Commerce this week frozen the price of eggs for a period of three weeks.

– Not Yingluck, who is known for making grammatical and pronunciation mistakes, but her staff is responsible for labeling 'Italy City State' instead of 'Vatican City State' on the Prime Minister's Facebook page. The staff has apologized for the mistake and says it was correctly informed by the prime minister.

– The visa waiver for diplomats and office holders of Montenegro is not a gift because Thaksin has received a passport from the country, says Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul. [Yes, what else can he say.] Thaksin's Thai passport was revoked in 2009 after he was sentenced to 2008 years in prison in absentia in 2.

Today, Prime Minister Yingluck is meeting with the Montenegrin president who is expected to mirror the visa waiver. Yesterday she met six honorary consuls in Italy. Tomorrow Yingluck will return and she will have visited 2 countries in the 55 years she has been in power.

– A yellow cloud of nitrate and sulfate acid led to irritations to the nasal organ of residents of two villages in Ayutthaya yesterday. The chemicals had leaked from an army warehouse that had subsided due to the heavy rain, damaging barrels.

– 53 Rohingya refugees, who had holed up in a rubber plantation in Hat Yai (Songkhla), were arrested yesterday. They had been smuggled into the country. The smugglers took off during the raid. The refugees are housed in a mosque.

– 66,7 percent of college students admit to gambling. This is the conclusion of a study by the Sodsri-Saritwong foundation and teachers of mass communication from nine universities. Nine hundred students participated in the study. Of the respondents, 28,4 percent started gambling in high school; 28,1 percent in junior high school and 24,3 percent in elementary school.

– A family of three escaped death in Nakhon Ratchasima when a fire broke out under the hood of their Mazda 3 sedan. They managed to leave the car, which they had rented because their own car was being repaired, in time. The LPG tank of the car caused some explosions. The vehicle completely burned out.

Political news

– A 'highly-placed' source at ruling party Pheu Thai takes into account that the amendment proposal for the election of the Senate will fall at the Constitutional Court. The proposal has now been discussed and approved by parliament in two readings, but the opposition party Democrats is going to the Court to block further treatment.

Democrats are annoyed that they have been repeatedly denied the right to speak by the presidents. On August 20, this led to some pushing and shoving when the chairman had called in the police to remove a member of parliament. Another incident is also fresh in the memory: the member of parliament who threw a chair at the chairman.

The third and final reading of the controversial proposal is scheduled for September 27, but it is unlikely to take place. When the Court hears the Democrats' petition, it will undoubtedly halt deliberations, according to the PT source. In that case, the source will ask the President of the House to convene a meeting on the right of parliament to proceed [ie to ignore the verdict].

The opposition bases its approach to court on Article 68 of the constitution, which deals with acts that could undermine the constitutional monarchy or lead to an unconstitutional seizure of power. According to opposition whip Jurin Laksanavisit, the proposal leads to a shift in the trias politica: the separation of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary.

This week, the Court rejected a petition from the Network on Volunteer Citizens to Protect the Three Institutions, which also objected to the proposal. But according to Jurin, its own petition differs because the network relied on two other articles. In addition, the petition for the tumultuous second reading was submitted.

The most important changes of the controversial proposal are: the number of seats will be increased from 150 to 200, the Senate will be elected in its entirety instead of half appointed, family members of MPs will also be allowed to run for office and senators will be allowed to serve two consecutive terms. This latest change, according to Jurin, creates a conflict of interest because it benefits the senators who submitted the proposal.

– Next Thursday and Friday, parliament will consider in second reading the proposal to borrow 2 trillion baht for infrastructure works (including the construction of high-speed lines). Opposition party Democrats is opposed because the proposal is a blank check. The party also criticizes the current connection with railway accidents. According to opposition leader Abhisit, maintenance money has been transferred from the budget to the loan proposal. Rail improvement should be done through the regular budget and the opposition will always support it. “The railway repair fund should have been part of the 2014 budget,” he says.

Varies

- Guru, the Friday supplement of Bangkok Post, offers some suggestions for improving Thai education. Please note: Guru is the naughty sister (she writes daughter) of BP, so we should not take the suggestions completely seriously. Although…

Tip 1: Turn price tags into calculations. So don't mention the amount of 10 baht on a price tag for a snack, but make it 5×2 BHT. The brain cells of adults also need to be stimulated, so says Guru for a smart phone to cost ((20.000-1.000) + 4.500) + 7% VAT THB from now on.

Tip 2: Number plates as a calculation. A game for on the road to prevent your children from sitting in the back of the car and bashing each other's brains. Who will be the first to see a license plate with only even or odd numbers? And since I worked as a primary school teacher, I would add: who adds the numbers first or who sees a picture where the numbers add up to 35? Give the winner a piece of fruit as a prize and not a sugar-saturated soft drink, which Thai children usually receive.

Tip 3: Educational toilet cubicle. Put a short story or something like that on the inside of toilet doors, but I think they can also put the table of 8 on it. Especially 7×8 seems to be very difficult.

Tip 4: And then there is another school in Bangkok where the masters and teachers in classes 1 to 3 are not allowed to speak loudly, say shouting, because that causes stress and reduces their desire to learn, says the director. The school also encourages staff to hug the children in case the parents do not give their children enough love. You should try it in the Netherlands; you are immediately dismissed as a pedophile.

Economic news

– The proposal of the Fiscal Policy Office to abolish the import duty of 30 percent on luxury goods, such as (expensive) watches, clothing and cosmetics, is opposed by State Secretary Benja Louichareon (Finance). Benja says that Thai producers are being duped by this.

According to her, there is no guarantee that the prices of those items will go down if the levy is reduced to 5 or 0 percent. As an example, she gives air-conditioning manufacturers who maintained the price after the Tax and Customs Administration had reduced the tax from 10 to 0 percent.

The idea to scrap the import duty was put forward by Areepong Boocha-oom, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance. The idea is that Thailand will be promoted as a shopping paradise for foreigners and that Thais who now shop in Hong Kong will do so in their own country.

The import tariff of 30 percent applies to perfume, cosmetics, fruit with the exception of apples, costumes and women's and children's clothing. Garments are also made in Thailand, so reducing the tariff will certainly penalize the Thai garment industry, Benja said. 5 percent is levied on watches, glasses, cameras and lenses.

Benja says that not the price but the product profile is decisive and that is the real success factor with Thai products. All parties should find a way, according to Benja, to entice foreign travelers to buy Thai products or OTOP products, such as gifts and souvenirs. She also points out that foreigners can reclaim the 7 percent VAT paid.

– Foreign investors want the government to make fighting corruption its top priority. The second wish is improvement of the customs system. This is the conclusion of a study by Bryan Cave International Consulting commissioned by the Board of Investment (BoI).

Most investors are 'less than positive' about the stability of the government, but this does not influence their investment decisions. They are concerned about the labor shortage. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find and keep staff.

The study shows that 63 percent want to maintain their investments in Thailand, 34 percent want to expand and 3 percent want to reduce them. Positives include the country's good infrastructure, abundance of suppliers and raw materials, BoI stimulus and domestic demand. Japan is the largest foreign investor (23 pc FDI – foreign direct investment), followed by the Asean countries (17 pc), EU (13 pc), China (8 pc) and the US (7 pc).

– Twenty percent of mortgage applications are rejected compared to 12 percent earlier this year, according to the Thai Condominium Association. The rejections mainly affect people who have taken advantage of the government's first-car program. The monthly payment on their car leaves no room for more debt. Some therefore resort to a co-borrower, while others make a hefty down payment.

The government banks report that there are no signs of an increase in the number of defaulters. At the Government Housing Bank, a government bank, the number of mortgage applications increased by 32 percent on an annual basis in the first half of the year. Ten percent was refused, which is the normal percentage with the GHB. Most borrowers are middle and low income people. 13 percent of the loan portfolio consists of mortgages. The percentage of NPLs is 1 percent of all loans.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post