Originally Posted by
transpac
there's a lot going right
Yes, as the saying goes, "Mussolini had the trains running on time".
The "government" has made a huge display of dispersing funds both to national infrastructure programs, albeit with nearly no success, in an effort to stimulate the moribund economy, and to local villages in the time-worn "populist" fashion.
Your comparison to Mussolini is inapposite and shows your bias. I didn't say that things were perfect; I said that there's a lot going right. And from the perspective of the average Thai, I believe that there is. Remember, we're westerners and have different ideas and standards about what government should be and what it should be doing.
No success? Parts of a 122 km route that I drive 4× weekly are only two lanes, one in each direction. It is being upgraded to a divided highway with two lanes in each direction. Some of the upgrade is complete, with new sections being opened every week.
I have a friend who drives from Udon Thani to Bangkok about every 10 days. He reports finding numerous repaving and road upgrade projects along his regular route.
Sure, those are just two data points; but do you have any specific information which suggests that they are outliers?