News from Thailand – September 9, 2013
A Thai Airways International aircraft made a hard landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday evening and skidded off the runway. Thirteen passengers were slightly injured. Air traffic is experiencing delays today as one of the two runways is now blocked, but it does not need to be diverted to Don Mueang.
The Airbus 330-300, which came from Guangzhou in China, touched the runway on landing with its nose landing gear. Passengers say they heard a loud bang and saw fire on the right side of the plane. The plane then skidded off the runway. The passengers had to leave the aircraft via the slides.
– The increase in the LPG price is forcing food sellers to switch to charcoal to contain costs. Portions are also made smaller. A 15-kilo butane gas bottle costs around 320 baht since last week, compared to 270 baht previously, and added to the higher prices for ingredients such as pork, chicken, beef and vegetables, this puts pressure on exploitation.
A vendor at the Talad Torung night market in Muang (Amnat Charoen) complains that it is very quiet and that she sells less. A charcoal seller in Amnat Charoen says he now has to source charcoal from neighboring provinces to meet demand from food sellers. A kilogram of charcoal costs 45 baht. A student at Phitsanulok Vocational Commercial College says the price of a bowl of noodles has gone up from 20 to 25 baht and the portions are smaller, so she no longer has a full belly.
A poll by Suan Dusit shows that most consumers are concerned about the rising prices of consumer products: 93 percent of the 1.395 respondents said so. They cited the rubber farmers' protests as a second concern.
[Bangkok Post spoke to two food vendors, one customer and the charcoal vendor, for this article, rather poor substantiation of this news item.]
– Parliament will resume today the debate on changes to the Senate election procedure. Of the 13-article amendment proposal, six articles have been dealt with so far. Opposition party Democrats expects it to be a chaotic week, characterized by political games. Just like last week, ruling party Pheu Thai will try to end meetings early to prevent the Democrats from endlessly speaking.
Pheu Thai has a bone to pick internally, because a meeting had to be suspended on Saturday evening because the quorum was not present. Reportedly, Yaowapa Wongsawat, a sister of Thaksin, was very angry about this. The PTers who were not there are held accountable. But they say they only heard on Friday evening that a meeting would be held the next day, while they had already made arrangements for Saturday in their constituency.
According to the Democrats, parts of the amendment are in violation of the constitution and they will therefore not hesitate to involve the Constitutional Court. The Court may suspend the deliberations. For now, the Democrats are in favour filibustering, a tactic to speak with as many speakers as possible for as long as possible.
– The government is sticking to its offer for a kilo unsmoked rubber sheets 90 baht, as agreed last Friday with representatives of rubber farmers in Cha-uat and Chulabhorn (Nakhon Si Thammarat). Prime Minister Yingluck said this before she left for Switzerland yesterday. During her absence, Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok is responsible for the rubber issue.
But farmers from fourteen southern provinces demand 95 baht per kilo. At a meeting in Tha Sala (Nakhon Si Thammarat) yesterday, they decided to set up blockades over the coming weekend if the government does not meet their demands.
The peasants have even more notes to their song. The government must refrain from legal action against protesting farmers and within six months the price must rise to 120 baht and the price of palm kernels to 6 baht per kilo. The offered price of 90 baht is only acceptable if the government pays farmers 1.260 baht per rai (as they previously offered), provided that that compensation also applies to farmers who do not own their plantation.
If the demands are rejected, they will block Sadao border post, the central rubber market in Songkhla province, Songkhla port, main roads and airports on Saturday, threatens Amnuay Yutitham, one of the sleepers. Kartbundit Rammak from Songkhla says the Pathomporn intersection in Chumphon province will also be closed. The South of Thailand would then be completely inaccessible.
– The investigation is still in progress, the masterminds are not yet in the picture, but the first two arrests have already been made and the method is known. After two months of intensive detective work, detectives from the National Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division have achieved their first success in their investigation into the poaching of elephants.
Two men have been detained for receiving 69 documents over the past three years allowing them to pass off wild elephants as domestic animals. Police suspect they bribed officials in Chaiyaphum. The two would be members of a nationally operating gang.
The elephants have been sold to elephant camps and animal entertainment venues [?]. They were smuggled from Myanmar via Mae Hong Son or were young animals whose mothers had been killed. The smuggled elephants were animals that were too old to work in logging. Elephant camps in eight provinces have already been visited by the police to find out which elephants are kept under false permits.
The police investigation was launched after a pregnant elephant was shot and a decapitated male was found in Kaeng Krachan National Park in April.
– On the way home, a 45-year-old businesswoman in Thap Than (Uthai Thani) was shot dead. Her bullet-riddled body lying next to her motorcycle was found yesterday. The woman bought with money borrowed from a local politician bai pratuan from farmers. This is a document that farmers receive when they offer their rice for the government's mortgage system. On presentation of the document, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives pays the guaranteed price. The police suspect that the woman was killed because she had not paid off the loans.
– Accompanied by her keepers, veterinarians and fans, a total of 300 men, the 4-year-old giant panda Lhinping will leave Chiang Mai Zoo on September 28 by plane from THAI to China. A farewell party will be held on September 27. In China she goes looking for a male. After a year, the couple returns to Thailand.
– Four people were injured by shards of glass when they carried large mirrors from a truck to a shop in Muang (Nakhon Ratchasima). But bad luck, the mirrors turned out to be too heavy and shattered on the floor. The four were treated for their injuries in hospital.
– Holes with a diameter of 3 and 6 meters fell in the road on two roads in Phop Phra (Tak) yesterday. Roads have been closed, causing traffic jams. It is suspected that the culprits were leaky sewer pipes.
– On the banks of the Mekong in Muang (Nakhon Phanom), the navy found 420 kilos of marijuana worth 12 million baht on Saturday night. The drugs were believed to have been smuggled out of Laos. The message does not mention any arrests.
– Prime Minister Yingluck says that her visit to Montenegro this week is not a private trip, but that she has been invited by the country. Yingluck also visits Italy and Switzerland. Yingluck's denial follows the Democratic party's claim that her visit to Montenegro is a bit fishy because big brother Thaksin has a Montenegro passport.
– All students of Prathom 1 and Mathayom 1 students in the northern and northeastern provinces will receive the tablet computer in December, which has been promised to them by the government as part of the 'One Tablet PC Per Child' policy. The Mathayom 1 students in the central and southern provinces will have their turn later because the contracts for those provinces have been canceled after suspicions of fraud in the tender.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post