News from Thailand – December 15, 2014
The residents on the island of Hang (Krabi) have electricity from solar energy again and can leave the diesel generators off, which they had to use in recent years after the failure of the solar panels, made available in 2004 by the Thaksin government.
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi has come to the aid of the 498 residents of the remote island. The system, called Packaged Hybrid Power Supply (PHPS), they supplied provides four hours of continuous power use.
The PHPS has also been delivered to villages elsewhere in the country that do not have electricity. University students have trained the villagers on how to maintain the system.
– The Sangha Supreme Council of Thailand (SSC) wants the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to put a stop to the initiation of women as bhikkhuni (female monk). The council points out that the ordination of women is not allowed and has reiterated this position following the ordination of women in Songkhla at the end of November. It was performed by a monk and nun from Sri Lanka.
Bhikkhuni Dhammananda, the Mother Superior of Wat Songdham Kalayani in Nakhon Pathom, who convened the dedication, some nuns and laymen visited the National Reform Council (NRC) on Friday, where they presented two members with an open letter (home page photo) . In it they call for an end to what they call the 'sex discrimination' of the SSC.
Thailand has about eighty bhikkhunis spread over twenty provinces. They are tolerated because they technically belong to the Sri Lanka Bhikkhuni sect. The SSC is making frantic efforts to prevent the sect from spreading in Thailand. Foreign Sangha should seek permission from the Foreign Office before holding ordination ceremonies in Thailand. Bhikkhuni Dhammananda believes that the SSC is overstepping the mark.
– How do you get rid of a corpse, if it is the result of murder or manslaughter? You chop it up and dump the body parts. It has previously been shown by an ex-couple who thought they could disguise the body of the woman's Japanese boyfriend and now a man is suspected again. He allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend. The police suspected that when they found traces of blood in his room, which according to DNA research belonged to the girlfriend.
An arrest warrant has been issued for the man, known only as 'Am', who makes his living selling grilled squid, along with a warning to officers to be careful when apprehending him as he could be violent.
In addition to the traces of blood, body parts were found in two places in Samut Prakan on Thursday.
The police also have camera images showing how the man goes with a cart to the place where the body parts were.
– A 27-year-old Russian tourist was slightly injured on Saturday evening by a stray bullet when the police were chasing two bag snatchers.
The two teenagers were detained at the Grand Jomtien intersection in Bang Lamung (Chonburi).
They had snatched a tourist's purse in front of the Jomtien Beach Resort Hotel while passing on the motorcycle. But they didn't get far, fell with their motorcycle and, like the injured Russian, suffered bullet wounds.
– The woman who threw hot water at a flight attendant on a Thai AirAsia flight and her boyfriend who threatened to blow up the plane, will not go unpunished, as previously reported. The Chinese authorities have promised to punish them.
The plane on its way to Nanjing was forced to turn back to Don Mueang. The tour guide who accompanied the Chinese group has been called to account by the China National Tourism Administration. The couple may end up blacklisted.
– Today the National Reform Council (NRC) will start discussing the proposals of eighteen committees. A heated debate is expected in particular on the proposal that the prime minister and the cabinet should be elected directly by the people.
Members of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC, which will write the new constitution) will attend the meetings that last until Wednesday. The CDC gets the approved proposals on its plate to process them into constitutional articles.
The election of prime minister and cabinet is a hot topic. Opponents of elections by the people believe that this gives the prime minister too much power. This is the principle of checks and balances undercut.
A mountain of work awaits the CDC: it must weigh the recommendations of the NRC and the emergency parliament and when the draft constitution is ready, the population can give its opinion. Heavily criticized articles are being scrutinized again by the CDC, says Lertrat Ratanawit, chairman of the CDC committee public input.
– U-Tapao International Airport, a joint civilian and military airport, should become a regional hub for commercial airlines, is the dream of the Ministry of Transport. It hopes to attract 3 million passengers a year.
Construction of a new passenger terminal has already started; it will be ready next year. The current terminal can only handle 100.000 passengers. The airport is the base of Bangkok Airways which operates domestic flights between Samui and Pattaya, as well as charter flights. The military part is in the hands of the Royal Thai Navy First Air Wing.
To achieve the beautiful goal of a regional hub, the airport will have three passenger bridges and a 3.500-meter runway. Furthermore, the infrastructure and the transport system must be improved. The access road to the airport should be widened to four lanes and there should be a light rail connection with Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports. How all this will be financed and when that will happen, the article does not mention.
– Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has commissioned the Thai Air Force to set up a center that breeds and conserves rare plants in Doi Inthanon National Park (Chiang Mai). The air force can use the area around its radar station and two pagodas on top of the mountain for this purpose. According to the princess, the cold climate at the top is ideal for growing plants and trees, which bloom in winter.
The Air Force says it will start cultivating as an experiment sakura trees. The plant breeding center is expected to be ready by April next year, when the princess will turn 60. The two pagodas were built by the Air Force in 1987 and 1992 in honor of the royal couple.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
The land of smiles,
Just chop someone into pieces,
or push or throw off the balcony of an apartment!
Unlike the Thai women who have the genitals of
cutting off their husband or boyfriend… if he has cheated.
The Thai police also has a helping hand…
before they are present with the corpse (farang) in the apartment,
Do they already know that it is a natural death!