<p><span>State of the Nation&rsquo;s Well-Being, </span><span>Annual Report 2018 </span><span>(This report is available in Thai, Melayu, Hmong, </span><span>Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa&#39;o Karen, Lao, Khmer, Burmese, Chinese and English)</span></p>

<p><span>&nbsp;</span><span>Everyone now claims they saw the global economic crisis coming (the earliest claim known to Harrison George dates from 1854).<span>&nbsp; </span>But few are predicting future scenarios.<span>&nbsp; </span>This week&rsquo;s column foresees a dystopia 20 years from now.<span>&nbsp; </span>Next week&rsquo;s column will offer an opposing vision called Future Good.</span></p>

<p><span>This is where I lose some friends. </span><span>When foreigners observe the apparent impunity with which the so-called People&rsquo;s so-called Alliance for so-called Democracy can defy the police, the courts, and anything approaching a sense of reality, the typical reaction is gob-smacked, flabbergasted, dumbfounded amazement.</span></p>

<p><span>The nation&rsquo;s middle-class has been outraged at the use by police of lethal teargas and government-conspiracy secret explosives, without warning, against non-violent PAD protestors armed with nothing more than sticks, sharpened rods and guns. <span>&nbsp;</span>This blatant attack on that part of society with an exaggerated sense of its own importance and an inadequate sense of reality is leading to further repercussions.</span></p>

<p><span>I recently waved off my brother at Suvarnabhumi Airport on his way home to the UK.<span>&nbsp; </span>If this were a sensible world, run by rational people, then that should the last time for a long time.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p>

<p><span>Oh lordy, lordy.<span>&nbsp; </span>We get rid of one buffoon only to see the resurrection of another. </span><span>So farewell then, Samak Sundaravej, he of the conveniently selective memory about, for example, how many deaths occurred on 6 October, an event he was heavily involved in. </span><span>And welcome back Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the Henry Kissinger of Thai politics, the eminence grease of the gravelly voice and the Kermit eyes.<span> <br /></span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span>I know Thai politics in the foreign media doubles as a comedy act, but when the Guardian announced the result of the last election under the headline &lsquo;TV Chef becomes PM&rsquo;, I thought things had gone too far.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">The one thing they say about the People&rsquo;s&nbsp;Alliance&nbsp;for Democracy is that their media campaign is brilliant.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;Oh yeah? For those of you who have neither the time nor stomach to trawl through the websites, I have selflessly and diligently stolen here a selection of comments on the PAD from foreign sources.</span></span></p>

<p><span>Violence again broke out yesterday evening in the vicinity of Government House when two groups of protestors clashed over whose turn it was to hold the country to ransom.</span></p>

<p><span>So I hope we have all synchronized our clocks, watches and computers as of last Saturday.<span>&nbsp; </span>This was the date when Thai Standard Time came into force.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p>

<p><span>In her Bangkok Post op-ed column, Khun Sanitsuda Ekachai, whose daughter must be growing apace to cause Mum such worries, rails against the university selection process.</span><span>&nbsp;</span></p>

<p><span>The world is really a simple place.<span>&nbsp; </span>There are the good guys and the bad guys.<span>&nbsp; </span>And you call the good guys nice things and you say bad things about the bad guys.<span>&nbsp; </span>And it doesn&rsquo;t take long before you&rsquo;re threatening to come in on the side of the good guys to make the bad guys understand that they are in fact bad guys and have to stop acting like that.<span>&nbsp; </span>Of course, they&rsquo;ll still be bad guys, but they&rsquo;ll be bad guys that have been taught a lesson.</span></p>