billythefish

I Take my hat off to you!

you will not find many people on this forum with the same GUTS as you have shown, most of them are Armchair Generals and a bunch of wanke_rS!

Insecurity & complete lack of self confidence.

I would expect you too would have a bit of an insecurity complex and a bit of a lack of self confidence if you came from generations of people who were treated like shit, if you and your family were forced to grovel like dogs for centuries...I guess it takes its toll somewhere!

The absence of Critical thinking in the Thai curriculum accounts for alot of this IMHO.

If you want to control a population don't promote free thinking creative ideology. Promote "group knows best" thinking. Then you can hurd them up and tell them what to do for a little of the juice thats going around. They will lap it up. This can be seen in many societies of the course of history. Now its the time for Thailand. I can imagine someone banning books before this political mess is over. If you think I am joking ask yourself why they banned internet sites and some tv. they are the "diet" books of our time. Reading is more cerebral than the goggle box but the process is the same.

ok, u can have your soap box back now.

Exactly - best just keep your mouth shut! 30% Rice, 30% Water/fish/ and the rest for your house - don't question it - we know best - peasants!

" Get them off the property" really doesn't sound feasible.

What, ask politely? No way I'm giving up my one advantage of surprise

I have hammers , stakes , etc planted around the property and I keep a nasty mean looking knife, purchased locally , clean of my fingerprints- for protection, after the fact.

I could not imagine letting myself or my family being so vulnerable as to get into a hand to hand fight with some <deleted> on Ya Ba with sticks and knives, if I could simply blow his head off - why give yourself the extra hassle? If they are in your home in the midlle of the night, they are up to no good!

you can't kill him coz you will be charged with murder

You are wrong! If it is night time - and your WIFE...not you, has a gun and permit - you can kill him if he is inside the house! I think you may have a problem killing them on your "property " but inside your home is a different matter. If you actually shoot them, it may again raise problems. The Thais tell me to wash my hands in petrol to remove the powder residue, and get the wife to fire a spare shot - apparently one of the first things the BIB do, is to swab your hands for gunpowder.

You really need to think of it in a way as "Am I prepared to let someone come into my home and slaughter us all, me the wife and kids? To me the, the answer is simple, if I kill the bastard and save my family, and even if I spend 25 years in clink - then it has been worth it, no doubt about it!

If they know your name, and they refer to you as FARANG then it can be put down to stupidity or ignorance or indifference - read as you like.

When I came here initially, I got the same shit. "does the Farang want food etc... despite knowing my name.

You can do a couple of things, tell them to go get fuc_ked - but they will still call you Farang Kee nok behind your back - or simply ignore it - I still (after almost 10 years) cannot quite work out if these people are just simply fuc_king ignorant - or do they hate us???

Have a word with your wife - I did, they no longer refer to me as Farang or any other term other than my name, as they well understand the meaning of GET fuc_kED!

And they don't like that - it upsets their Khama -

you can also try (which really fuc_ks them off) when they speak to your wife talking about you as the Farang - you can address them back through your wife as "Khun Thai" or "Khun Jon" make sure you use her to translate - they will be seething, you won't make friends, but at least they know you give as you get! Kee Nok - it is a shit word, they are looking at you as a tight ass - it means something like BIRDSHIT - so good look to you don't be a fuc_king ATM for these spongers - they call me Kee Nok too! At least they are angry enough to know you are not a freebie for them! If it gets bad try Ai Hear, or Ai Sat - this will really make them hate you...but they won't come knocking on the door for a cup of fuc_king sugar! believe me.

I saw a Thai cut up on his Mcycle, by some shit in a pick up, as the lights turned red, the traffic stopped - The Thai pulls up next to the pickup and roars at the driver "AI HEAR MAH" - it seemed to do the trick! (my son tells me - he is half thai - that that is probably the worst thing you can say to a Thai - the guy in the pick up was well pissed!

It is 400 Baht not 200 Baht for an invalid/no license - bike tax and insurance will be mostly down to the registered owner. But, you can be really screwed if they want to try it on - I ended up paying over 15K for being caught on my bike - which a Thai would have got away with no more than 1000 Baht fine - no tax/insurance/license...trials bike.

The license is not a big deal - it's just a piece of paper - if the bike is legal, I wouldn't worry too much - show them your UK licence - they will probably accept it - I showed mine going for the Thai Car licence and they believe you if you tell them that the "Provisional" category means "FULL" so as far as the transport authority in Chiang Mai believe - I am entitled to a car, motorbike heavy goods , tractor, trailer, candlestick maker! They haven't a clue!

We are receiveing a live feed via the internet, courtesy of a radio station in Lamphun, however, it is frequently disrupted and cut off.

does anyone know a link to the original feed from the Red Shirt Camp in Bangkok?

I can't find anything by searching google. Any help would be well appreciated!

Thanks

To confirm, this is the first sentence from the BBC

"One soldier has died, reportedly from a shot fired by a member of the security forces, and at least 10 people have been injured. "

Source: BBC News

Isn't the quality of CNN and BBC going muddy now? I remember the time when things were backed up by pictures/clips. Now they run more on hearsay than facts. They're trying hard to appear different to the mainstream and start cheating like Reuters did years ago.

Shame on them ...

I don't know, I'd trust CNN and BBC any day over a news company that uses twitter bloggers as their source and types like a 13 year old using words like 'u' and 'yrself'.

You do a great injustice by your comments here! You really shouldn't slur 13 year olds by comparing them to the journalistic "skills" of the Nation - most of their reports - especially the "Breaking News" could easily have been written in a more understandable manner by a 5 year old.

just the usual, however they did have a nice "big pink pair" not sure about the size, you would probably have to slip in to it first, it does not look that tight

Give ther man a break! he probably wants the Velcro fasteners - not the pink lipped fasteners - he can't even spell Niki...<deleted>!

Go to wat tam wua about an hour outside of Mae Hong Son stay a few days and see if the discipline is for you. Just finished a month there and it is easy but not. Up at five meditate for two hours, give the monks rice eat breakfast, meditate for two hours 8 to 10, 10 to 11 free time give monks food eat lunch 1 to 3 meditate, 3 to 4 free time 4 to 5 sweep grounds, 5 to 6 free time, 6 to 8 meditate, 8 to 10 go to room meditate, 10 to 5 sleep and at 5 am start all over. Only two meals a day no beer no coke no meat. The monks have the same sch. as the students and by the way you sleep on the floor no mattress.

Good luck.

I was going to become a month for 2 weeks at a temple in Chonburi, but my Thai friend told me that all the chanting transcripts are in Thai and Balinese.

So she said I would struggle with the chanting.

Is that right?

You said meditation - is that just sitting there and clearing your mind while sat down?

Thanks.

How clever indeed, to turn 2 weeks into a month! Let us know if you manage it - could double our life spans!

I'll agree that the OP has put together a well written post but it's logic is flawed and "facts" somewhat suspect.

The single most important reason the present situation exists is because the elites staged a military coup which removed from power a very popular although flawed leader who was democratically elected in a landslide victory and because that leader and his new and very foreign non-Thai concept of democracy threatened the elites traditional ruling position. It's as simple as that. If the elites wanted to get rid of Thaksin they should have done it right and run a candidate who actually had a platform of popular policies and convinced the majority of the population that he/she was better than Thaksin and removed him by use of the ballot box not the gun.

It was the injustice of the coup and the subsequent outlawing of the poor's political parties that caused the tremendous resentment you see in the red shirts today. As happens in any power vacuum the worst usually float to the top and that is what has happened within the red shirt movement. Same happened when the PAD was causing all the havoc, remember. Add to all this the fact that the poor have been portrayed as hillbillies and baffoons in the press and popular media for years and also regarded as such by the elites forever and you get the natural result of the anger being displayed by the red shirts today. When you've been insulted and suffered injustice long enough it's only human nature to eventually fight back.

While vestiges of the ancient sakdina system remain, the system as originally developed has been gone for decades (maybe centuries). The abuses perpetrated by the local headmen or munnai as the OP has described them have much more to do with plain old fashioned organized strong-armed corruption than they do with any ancient hierachy system.

The ruling coalition could have used their first year in power to introduce real change and fairness but instead they wasted the time demonizing Thaksin, taking him to trial in absentia and attempting to consolidate their power by pushing through a new constitution that conveniently makes it very difficult to remove them from power by any means other than force.

I am neither a red shirt or Abhisit supporter; the above is simply my observations on what is really happening, but it unfortunately appears that barring a miracle violence is the only outcome that's going to come out of the present situation.

Well Said!

It is the Puppet's (Abhisit) string pullers that are resisting any outcome. They know they will be ousted in any new election, then targeted, so cutting off their backhanded money supply. That was the main reason the demacraticly elected government was ousted in the first place, as the high and mighty in Bkk were having thier hidden souces of backhanders slowly being choked off.

The reds and seems the majority of Thai people have had enough of the Government sponsored rip offs.

Now see how many Flames come!

No flames from me - I think you have hit the nail on the head!

At the end of the day, theres more than one way to skin a cat!

Who needs weapons or Teargas , I definitely aint Rambo , dont need to be ,I take the Wife!!!! anyone game enouh to have a go at her better have his bones numbered

Indeed, or simply turn on a tape of that damned "Licke" Music, it will make them run a mile! - you could try shouting "PEE PEE" it would probably work too!

If they had fallen off the motorbike, you should have continued to reverse and go forward and repeat until they were a mass of strawberry jam all over the road, only then will these people learn!

Be a sport. Golf club or baseball bat, perfectly legal. Like the other poster mentioned a few golf balls could be handy.

Hopefully you won't need anything. Keep in mind they come in swarms here which makes it more difficult.

A can of spray paint and a lighter could be a deterrent.

Are you fresh out of a mental institution?

How on earth would you expect to defend yourself with a can of spray paint and a lighter.....at best you are going to piss them off by painting them a different colour! Then they are going to get really pissed!

Are you seriously going to drive around in your car with a tin of spray paint and rely on a lighter to defend youself? Unbelievable! You may as well use a water pistol, or try swinging a golf club in the front seat of a car as the other poster pointed out!

Hi "thesyndicate"

Two things you need to consider when thinking about "tooling-up" first thing you need to be clear about; (bullshit aside) is the weapon you'll carry for show or to use? If for show, leave it at home, if the person/people you trying to scare off call your bluff and you don't have the will to use it..... They will beat the shit outta you with your own weapon, very embarrassing, possibly fatal! Secondly if you do intend to use it........... Chances are ......You won't, it actually takes a certain type of person (sober) to follow through in using a weapon, believe it or not, even in self defense, most untrained people under attack ether try and get away or block the attackers blows. Reading your post.... You ant no Vin Diesel leave the weapons at home. Your more likely to get injured as a result of carry a weapon than not.

Agreed (though I have no idea if you're Vin Diesel or not!). Having some experience of the darker side of life, I can tell you from that experience that there is a good chance that unless you are prepared to use what you carry to completely disable someone, you'll end up losing and often having it used against you. Of course Im talking generally but many people don't baulk at the sight of a weapon, especially when they can sniff you can't use it and it's all in your eyes and stance. Even if you can, 'fighting fire with fire' isn't the answer IMO, it just raises the stakes - ok if you can handle it, but if not....And my own personal thinking is that I am not prepared to take the risk of killing or maiming someone, especially by mistake. There's less chance of you being hurt badly than of something escalating to a point of no return and the 'red mist' taking over. Tear gas combined with good running skills maybe, but thats at a push and you have to decide for yourself. Best defense - if its available - is never being too proud to run.

Indeed! If you have the opportunity, run like hel_l, I'm not john Wayne, nor would I want to be, if I could get out of it, believe me I would.

The hair splitter is, what do you do if someone comes into your home, now that is a different story.

A golf club. Very handy tool. Innocuous enough. And a golf ball or two. If stopped you can say you left them there after a bit of putting.

Very handy indeed, have you ever tried swinging a golf club from the drivers seat? Fore! You would have a better chance throwing the fuc_king golf balls at em!

Keep a short, sharp (12" or less) machete down the centre console of the car, it is short enough to be used at very close quarters, and can be explained away to BIB as a normal tool.

My wife are now the guardians of a boy who is almost 7. We have only had him since last summer. His mother died and his dad is not interested. I speak Thai, but I have a long ways to go. All day long there are things I want to say to him, explain, teach, I really want to be a real dad. But I continually find there are words missing and there are so many moments that pass where I don't say a thing. My wife is good and she translates a lot for me, but I desperately want to improve my Thai and I can't think of a greater motivation to do so. I am working on it all the time.

But in the meantime I am really impressed with the English he has picked up and there times now when we can communicate in English, and that is very encouraging. I am glad he is a sharp kid, it makes this whole thing a lot easier.

I can' imagine what would be going through the mind of the guy mentioned in the OP. I don't envy him one bit, he must feel like a visitor in his own home.

I am impressed with your commitment, good on you, you obviously love your child.

But I would not jump to conclusions, as regards the other guy, there are a lot of people that spend maybe one month a year here, so they are not really in a position to teach the kids English.

I admire your way of thinking, I am here 24/7, and even then it is difficult to teach your kids to be fluent in English, as you are basically the only one speaking it.

It is however, great to see how kids are like sponges at learning!

I have been here more than ten years and my Thai is shit, and that is from listening to it 24/7, but my sons English is not bad, and he only gets it from me and a few hours at school.

I don't think we should judge too much on this, as we do not know the entire circumstances.

I wondered the same for a few months, but I think it simply that the US Dollar isn't worth the paper it is printed on, it is a liability.

But it will happen again as long as the root of the problem(s) is not removed once and for all.

the root of the problem cannot be removed - this behaviour is in their nature. it will never

end, its just lucky that westerners are not targeted or blamed for this, like in some parts of the

world.

I have just come back from Klong Prem prison where I met the parents of an English boy imprisoned because of a corrupt legal system. I have also recently read the the book by the irishman who was falsely accused of murder and banged up for 8 years. You can say what you like about whether people are innocent or not, the problem in both of these cases is that the legal system is corrupt from head to toe. There is no normal civilised behaviour in this country. You cannot tell me that the prison system befits a democratic country and there is no way that it will change under the reds, yellows or any other colour. It is a country where WAI and respect and peaceful pagodas, massage, golden beaches and so on give a semblance of serenity and peace but behind this facade the country is not at all what it seems. Thaksin's lies - so open and obvious - are reflected throughout the society; because of corruption the country is a haven for crooks and farang scammers (big scale). Nobody wants to obey the law and nobody can enforce it.

I am hugely sorry to be part of this society but I am invested in Thailand with my home and family and it would be difficult, nigh on impossible, to live elsewhere.

What I see now in the way that these red people behave is a public manifestation of what goes on behind the scenes. You can get tortured by the police and the police will deny it. Or you can hold a demonstration, fire live rounds that everyone can see in a totally transparent way, and deny it. Your wife can profess to love you but her heart is only as big as your wallet. You can go to help some poor motorcyclist who has been knocked off by a hit and run driver and then be accused of causing the accident. And on and on and on it goes.

Any opportunity for theft, lies, scamming and so on is always taken - with a great big Thai smile.

The reds have blown the whole facade apart and I truly believe that apart from a small minority of enlightened individuals (of which Abhisit is one in my view), Thaksin's boys and girls are the true face of Thailand. My heart is heavy as I write this but Truth Today, eh?

Whilst I agree with a lot of what you say, and respect your opinion, that book by the Irishman, "Welcome To hel_l", he was as guilty as sin, he killed the guy, he can't even fob you off with his version of events, I would have gone for a self defence or manslaughter, but he, in my opinion killed him.

That is not to say that his treatment by the police/lawyers/courts here was anything but deplorable. But I still reckon he killed the bloke!

<deleted>?????????

What are they going to do with him???

no problem: he get a free ride: he goes for inspecting and for reconnecting the broadband. In order to be sure it will be correctly done, Arisaman will pay the motorcycle for him....

This is a new method for fixing your TV at home instead to wait several days for repairing...

I give them 10/10 for innitiative, they probably are pissed at the same quality of service I get with TOT, maybe I need to put on a red shirt and head down to TOT............

A coup would now be the most peaceful way forward,lets hope it happens quickly like tomorrow!

I find it unbelievable that anyone would even suggest a "coup" is the best solution....you really amaze me! What about a dissolution of parliament and a fair and free election, or does that not fit into you ideoligies?

An interesting question and possibly part of the psychological warfare being put out by the Yellow, warfare that has lasted over 5 years now.

Lets flip the question a little, "What are the Yellow Shirts/PAD/NPP/Democrats/Elite fighting for, justice or preservation of power".

I think if we answer that question we will answer the red question and prove that beyond a doubt that the Reds are for Democracy.

More dumb logic: If the reds love only bananas, the yellows must love only apples.

Why do you keep posting nonsense propaganda that harms the reds 'cause'? It just makes you look silly.

Thaksin had his chance at PM and blew it. The majority of educated, intelligent people can see he did no put Thailand first, he put himself first, and strung along some of the poor to help his remaining in power.

No amount of your pissing-contest claims about the Yellows in every post you make is going to change the mind of Thais or foreigners who can see clearly the behaviour of Thaksin and his red followers for themselves.

It's probably a bit like the American Civil war, one side is trying to defend its right to own millions of slaves, whilst the other demands emancipation!

I cannot quite decide where Abishit sits on this one, is he Abraham Vejajevha or Robert E leekpie!