Steal 300,000 Baht. Get 50 Years in Jail, Thailand.

This story was in a Thai newspaper.

The Criminal Court yesterday sentenced a former postoffice official to 50 years in jail for embezzling nearly Bt300,000. ($12,500 Australian dollars)

Komkrit "Soranat" Wongsasing took Bt299,674 from 24 money orders between November 16, 2000 and March 2, 2001 when processing money orders at Dusit Post Office.

Komkrit, 32, has returned the money to Cat Telecom, which organises money orders via post offices.

"I was too young to realise I was doing wrong. I was worried about taking care of my elderly parents," he said.

Because Komkrit pleaded guilty, the court commuted his sentence from 100 years.
He was convicted of abuse of authority and corruption.

Komkrit was arrested on November 18 last year.

Now the guy did wrong. He committed an offence and does deserve to be punished. But 50 years is fuc#ing ridiculous. The guy has paid all the money back to the company and he pleaded guilty.

The Thai law system, well in that case the world law system at times just seems so unjust. So crimes that seem to be serious are given slaps on the wrist and others that seem to be not as bad are given harsh sentences.

On New Years Eve the Santika Nightclub burnt to the ground, 61 people died and many more injured. The owners went missing for a while before finally turning themselves in. It has now been discovered the place was registered as a food vendor and required by law to close at midnight. Building permits had been forged; there was only one fire extinguisher and one exit out of the building, the front door. These people will probably get a fine if lucky.

Another scandal currently is the sour milk scandal. Back in November 2005 the government approved an organization to supply milk to students who were considered underweight. There were 68 suppliers nationwide that were to supply schools with milk. Some of these suppliers used the money to import poor quality powdered milk. Now local and regional authorities are implicating each other over the acquisition of the low-quality milk, pointing to a string of irregularities in the process. The maximum fine for supplying sour milk or poor quality milk is a piss poor 10,000 Thai Baht.

The 7 billion Baht fire truck scandal that involves some big players. It involves over pricing and money for mates apparently but I am sure that the big wigs in this case will all be fine and never see the inside of a jail cell.

And the list goes on and on and on.

What I am getting at is the guy above did break the law. He admitted it and paid all the money back. He has got 50 years in jail for this while corporate crooks and corruption thrives in Thailand. The sentence just seems so unjust.

That’s my rant.

Brunty

Kindergarten Graduation, Isaan Thailand.

This morning I had the pleasure of attending our Kindergarten student’s graduation.

The parents had crowded into the hall to witness their child graduating in their lovely gowns.


The students watched a video of their time in kindergarten.

It was then time to start the proceedings, everyone stood to attention as the school song was played.

Brother Sakda took to the stage to start the graduation.

Brother started handing out certificates to the students.

This girl is paying respect to Brother before she receives her certificate.




This guy is happy with his certificate in hand.

All the students were seated showing off their graduation certificates.

And there isn’t a ceremony in Thailand that doesn’t have a dancing show.

So that was 2009 Kindergarten Graduation Day in Isaan Thailand.

Brunty

Thai Newspapers are Disgusting. Thailand.

Warning to all readers. There are graphic photos below from Thai newspapers. Please do not scroll down if you are squeamish. These pictures show deceased people. They are not pretty.

For anyone who has been in Thailand would know about the local Thai newspapers and the shocking pictures they print each day on their front covers. There would not be a day go by where a gruesome picture isn’t the main eye catching feature.

I have always been disgusted how the Thai government doesn’t have restrictions on what can actually be shown. Pictures are blurred or pixilated at times but most the time you can see all sort of morbid things.

I was walking past our school library. Yes, school library. I could see this picture peering out through the glass for all to see who went by.

This is a foreigner who had committed suicide in Bangkok. He tied a long piece of rope around his neck, the rope was way too long and it decapitated him. At first it was reported that he had been murdered but this wasn’t the case. Look at the picture, sorry but it is not something that should be on the front page of any paper.

Accompanying the story to the right is an 11 year old girl who was raped and murdered. The girl is a minor and her face hasn’t been blurred. These pictures are tame to last week when a twelve year old girl was raped and murdered and they had thankfully covered her private parts but had shown blood all over the inside of her legs. It was such a sad and sickening picture that didn’t need to be shown.

On another day there were 3 gory pictures to tempt readers. A man beaten to death, a suicide and the foreign man’s body to match his head.

This is of a man who has been seriously beaten by something very heavy and his head was caved in, thankfully they did blur this but still very gruesome.

This is a student who decided to shoot himself in the head.

I don’t know why Thais seem so detached to the fact that this shouldn’t be on the front page or actually any page in fact. If Thai papers have to rely on these pictures to sell their papers and not the story writing they should be out of business.

I still remember vividly a horrible crash I had attended a while ago where a drunk Thai guy (surprising) ran into some girls on a motorbike. One girl was killed instantly and she was not a pretty picture to see. Another girl was in a bad way. As the crowd of gawkers gathered to do nothing other than rubber neck, there were tiny kids standing in front of their parents looking at the scene while parents talked.

It made me sick to see this and I couldn’t believe that people could be such terrible parents. There are things that kids can see and other things that they just shouldn’t see.

The government of Thailand need to look at media laws and what is considered okay to print. This is not something that little kids can see every day on street corners, on shop tables and in their schools.

I won't even start on Thai TV and what they show on this. Thai TV needs to be banned.

That’s just my opinion.

Brunty

Parent's Meeting Day, Isaan Thailand.

On Saturday just gone we had to go to school. Here students and parents are registering.

The majority of the English Bilingual Programme parents had gathered in our hall.

The student hosts were in position and introductions were underway.

The day of course was, Parent’s Meeting Day. Here a senior teacher performs the opening ceremony.

The parents sat and listened while they were waiting for the shows to begin. Yes, shows!

The title of the day is very misleading. The first year I was teaching at the school and was informed of the day, I thought it meant you would meet parents of students you taught and talked to them about their son or daughter. I was so wrong.

The day has nothing to do with meeting parents; it is about putting a show on, so the students can showcase their English ability. Each teacher has to come up with a short presentation where all the students can say a few lines of English and entertain their parents.

I am personally, not a huge fan of this day, which is just my opinion. You really are just giving students a line to remember, it involves memory retention but nothing spontaneous where the students showcase ability in a normal conversational type situation.

It is a harmless day and the parents seem to enjoy it, and this is what is considered the most important thing. I would prefer to actually meet parents and sit with a translator and speak to them about their student’s education, but that is just me!

Anyway, the shows started with the kindergarten students on stage, there was some speaking and dancing being performed.

They also put on the very popular fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood.

These girls looked adorable in their outfits.

Then it was time to dance, heads, shoulders knees and toes.

Then the year 1 students took to the stage.

These are year 1 students put on a math’s show.

This was a very entertaining show and I actually enjoyed it a lot.

So maybe I am just a grumpy old bastard after all. It is all in all a harmless day.

Brunty

Thai High School Graduation Day, Isaan Thailand.

Our Year 12 students had their graduation day last week. There were some photo opportunities before the serious part of the ceremony started.

The ceremony was about to begin and our Brothers and also other senior staff members were about to hand out gifts to all the year 12 students.

An announcer read out the students’ names as they took to the base of the flagpole area to receive their gift. They also announced the university they were going to attend.

Before receiving an award, gift or anything it is customary to do this, the students do a Thai ‘wai” which they bow their head and place their hands like they are going to pray.



The student receives the gift and then again will ‘wai’ again before leaving.

Here you can see what you would say is a ‘beautiful and respectful ‘wai’. The teacher is one of the most senior at the school and truthfully he is a really nice chap. He’s always happy and so pleasant.

These students got some ‘wows’, they were accepted to a very prestigious university. Chulalongkorn University. There are a few prestigious universities that some students strive for, such as Mahidol, Thammasat, Kasetsart, Khon Kaen and Prince of Songkla.


Some students received a little glass award. They were awarded to different students for different reasons. Some were academic and others for sport and so forth.

Then the school prefects were awarded certificates of appreciation for their work throughout the year.

They were also given flowers as well.

This girl who is laughing is really lovely and always so polite and chirpy. She is more than happy to have a chat. Here she was laughing as the boy who was to present her with her flowers fell off the base of the flagpole area. It brought rousing laughter from the students watching.

So finally students had been given their presents and were now waiting to march to our hall and receive their graduation certificates.

These are some of the boys I taught in years 10 and 11. From left to right. Kim, Ikqu, Kenta, Tony, (New Student ?), Boom and Wu.

Then the Assumption ritual was to take place. The year 11 students surrounded the graduates and circled them 3 times.

There was still a chance for posing for a picture.

Then a student led out the chant.

And the students started the cheer.

The cheer went on for about 5 minutes. Finally it was time for students to be lead to the hall, but this will be another post another day.

Brunty.