Your second comment was an improvement on your first. 'self-righteous' really adds some gravitas:) Besides that, I completely agree with you. The people behind the ones who rule the country now, are so wealthy they don't need any tourists. If they want the country to themselves, they'l have it, with or without farang.

I have some mixed feelings about this. First of all, the country doesn't perform this poorly on international corruption rankings without reason. If, at long last, something would be done to address this, one could only be very pleased for the country. On the other hand, what is the likelihood of a Thai from a 'good family' actually being busted for these practices? From what I've heard, they're still immune. Sure, many Nigerians and Indians etc will be deported. Good publicity as usual. I've heard of people who came to Thailand decades before the tourists discovered it, long before visa's were introduced, who lived normal lives with their families and were sent home for 'overstay'. But I never heard of anyone tackling the problem of the sex-tourists, pedophiles and common criminals who come to spend their money in the Kingdom being targeted. Maybe, if the country becomes a democracy again, we will see if anything will change for the better. For the time being, all that appears to be changing is that the junta is treating non-wealthy foreigners the same as they are treating non-wealthy Thai nationals.