canuckamuck

Our personalities and attitudes can not be hidden with vocabulary. If you act out of impatience, arrogance, or anger, you will get the appropriate response. Part of the price of living here is a daily dose of frustration. Suck it up, and learn from your mistakes. Eventually, those moments become further apart or more avoidable. If you have the patience to continue learning Thai, you should also discover how you can sometimes use foreignness to great advantages. Of course some people are just jerks and there isn’t much help that another language can supply.

It is best to be thought a fool and say nothing than to prove it by speaking. (poorly paraphrased)

That was a great post Srisatch; you are right many people get frustrated with the Thai ways sometimes, usually because we are efficiency junkies or have seen that our own cultures have different answers to troubles like we have here. But there is also the fact that westerners are tinkerers; we always try to improve what gets put before us. It’s not a crime to suggest solutions. It’s just hard, when you have a strong opinion, or you see something that is just plain wrong, to remember how much you love the place you are criticizing.

I doubt that many of the posters here have many genuine hard feelings about LOS, otherwise they wouldn’t bother to make posts.

God bless Thailand

Trouble brewing in LOS. Nowhere else? Check out the international news. A few weeks ago, the police here in Germany nabbed a gang of bombers, nationality not clear, the names sounded mostly Turkish, but who knows. This happy little bunch had their bombs already primed and were all set to do the major rail terminals. Note the word Germany. So what are you going to do, stay home and never go anywhere? I'm no more at risk from such psychopaths in LOS than I am here in cosy Germany.

That is exactly right, and that is how I look at it too. But I am not going to ignore that there are some obvious errors in judgement that could be avoided with a little less face saving, and little more balls.

I've been here for over 9 years and farang are always predicting these amazingly bad scenarios in which Thailand is going to collapse and all farang will leave Thailand. I'd say there are about 400% more farang living here in that period and the Thai economy keeps advancing.

Yeah, I'd say that you have a good lock on it, I mean if something hasn't happened in the last 9 years, surely it will never happen. Nobody ever flew a commercial airliner into a tall building before 9/11. But then it happened. Nasty bit of business that.

How many terrorist attacks were happening in the south 9 years ago? Which nation in the world has figured out a solution to radical Islam? When has a miilitary junta ever been beneficial to a nation or taken a nation into better economy or improved the standard of living?

I'm not saying that cooler heads won't prevail, generally they do. But you got to admit some folks seem to be bending over backwards to allow the most free, most sabai country in Asia to tumble into khaos. The Philippines used to be a strong economy in Asia. Then they had these same issues pop up over there.

Visitors are perfectly safe here, but long term stays or investments? There are a few grey clouds over the Gulf

-There’s an increasingly unpopular Junta in power.

-The current government is only working to discredit the former, so that it can justify throwing democracy and the constitution out the window (save its face). Long range economic planning and foresight is a distant dream.

-Thais no longer have any avenue to protest the government and therefore those who might have shown restraint in corruption now have a free hand to pursue whatever.

-The military refuses to pursue southern insurgents who are becoming bolder and stronger everyday.

-Thailand has had 23 coups since 1932, an average of one every three years, but they tend to come in waves.

Not exactly utopia, but I’m sticking around for now.

Driving into Bangkok on the motorway the other day I pulled up to the toll booth with the least cars (a logical move I thought), it was near the far right of the ones the sign said were OK for cars. I was clearly in of the 8 or so lanes designated for cars and there were lots of other cars there too. Before I could leave the booth, a cop told me to pull over up ahead. He asked me where I was coming from I said Chonburi, he said that if I am coming from Chonburi I am supposed to use the lanes further to the left of where I was , He asked for my license and said I could get it back at the station at Bang Pii (or Pli). I said I had no idea where that was so what was my other choice (as if I didn’t know). He said I could give him not more than 400 baht. My wife said how about 200, and he smiled and said that would be fine.

I guess I missed the Chonburi people only, keep left sign, on the way in, quite silly of me really.

Sufficient, adjective:

-enough to meet the needs under the law of a situation or a proposed end

-of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant

Not exactly the end of the rainbow

Been to the Philippines a few times, It’s nice to get over there for a bit, but Thailand is more like home. My Filipino friends are the most amazing hosts; they really look out for you. I find there is much better live music in the Philippines, and you can get a bigger variety of western food, like Wendy’s, and Kenny Roger’s Roasters. Not that that is really food. But the local food is an enigma. How did they come up with such lame food in the midst of so many great culinary nations? Reminds me of the UK.

I spent some time by the South China Sea; the place where I stayed was stunning (can’t recall the name). Hardly needed a mask, the corals and the tropical fish were clearly visible from the boat. Underwater, everything was thriving. We spent a whole day at a beautiful public beach and we were the only ones there. However some other areas are totally polluted.

Manila is definitely not for me, but I hate all big cities, including Bangkok. I prefer clean air, and the ability to talk without shouting.

Thailand should be paying attention to the Philippines, I see it as a potential snapshot of their future, if they can’t get a handle on terrorism and corruption. A white face is a rare sight in Manila nowadays and that’s because it just isn’t safe for work or play. A few more high profile bombings and continued screwing with foreign investment will eventually choke the S off of LOS

I would be interested to know why you made your signature to create the illusion of breasts on your torso, not that there is anything wrong with that.

The elctro-robot seems to promote a great deal of inner angst and confused identity issues; for example the two feet in rightward direction, while the being is obviously left leaning. The robot is in a fully defensive posture but cannot conceal the empty dark core at its center.

An obvious oedipal complex and a cry for help at that. Try inducing past life memories.

I know this is a forum about Thailand, but I see we have our share of anti-globalites at TV and I couldn’t keep myself from dangling this carrot. Those of you have more sense; please forgive me for shaking the tree.

Globalization, global warming, the hole in the ozone, and bird flu, are just a few of man’s most recent successful economic accelerators. Decades ago we had to fight a war to get money to flow, but now the lightning rods in the media can transform any theoretical threat into an apocalyptic crisis. Though we can’t say these things don’t exist, it is the ease with which a predictable segment of society breaks into panic mode that turns fear into a marketable commodity.

It is common knowledge that spending and giving increase when people have a cause. The easiest group to get riled up is the 16 to 30 year olds because they believe anything. This is because of their empty cache of life experience, and several years of academic rants (if they went to college). Oh yeah and weed. They are the ground force (the grunts) behind the neo-communist anti-globalization movement. Which is just the current spin on the belief that, ‘People who have money or power are inherently evil and must be overthrown. Then, the wealth should be distributed to all the non rich who are inherently good, and the tooth fairy should be elected supreme leader and why can’t we all just get along?’

Anti-globilization is Marxism for gen x’rs. The dangerous part of this is that people eventually put this stuff into practice. Just have a look at the rabid dog state Venezuela. Chavez is bound and determined to peel apart their once thriving economy under the opiate of socialism; until, like in Russia, only organized crime will be able to do business there. You know you’ve made a wrong turn when Castro and Ahmadinejad are your best friends. Show me the difference between anti-globalization rhetoric today, and that of Karl Marx. Do the poor in Russia, China, Vietnam, and Cuba have a better life? Do these countries have a good record on human rights, the environment, freedom of expression, or standards of living?

People are so easy to get worked up, especially when someone is smarter, richer, or more successful than they are. The real geniuses are the ones pulling the strings from the top. The same people, who rang the alarm for all the other recent world threats, are pushing the buttons on this one too. Why? Because it is an industry. How do a bunch of braless, unwashed, tree-hugger, clones (Greenpeace, Peta, Adbusters) become massive international organizations defending the virtue of humanity; because big money likes it when people have a common enemy.

The delicious part is that it doesn’t matter which way they point their guns, along as they keep firing. Big money thinks the anti-global punks are feisty and cute.

In reality though, the industrialization of the world, which is not a myth, has vastly improved health care, agriculture, and science. All countries are reaping the benefits of industrialization. Is it perfect? No. Was it better before? No. Is anti-globalization going to fix poverty? Certainly, no. Almost every major invention of the last 150 years was a result of the industrial revolution. Therefore, the only path to future improvements of the human condition will be found in the next industrial wave. Unfortunately mankind will still be greedy, arrogant, selfish, and deviant; leading as always, to an unfair distribution of power and wealth.

As far as big money is concerned, it was globalized long before your grandma wore a training bra - and then burned it. You aren’t going to make a dent in their armor. Wherever you put your cash, they get a piece, even when you fight they win. Tear down a corporation and three more spring up to replace it. The third world was always poor, except now a few pawns are really rich. The poor always had it bad; Wal Mart and Nike didn’t invent poverty. If your conscience is wounded by some second hand offence, you have to ask yourself when you became such a chump. You can help the poor, go find them and help them; it will do your soul some good. If you develop a good model, you can recreate your success and help out a whole bunch more people. Oh wait, that sounds like capitalism, sorry.

The first large influential group of foreigners to Thailand were the french.

Why are you discounting the Portuguese?

I'm with you, Richard. The Portuguese were the first foreigners in Thailand, setting up a trade base in Malacca in the early 1500s. Alot of Portuguese traders settled in the old capital, Ayutthya, too. Wonder what the Thais called the first Portuguese? Parangee?

Yes I apologize, the Portuguese were first. What I was implying is that the French actually influenced Thai culture and politics. I am unaware of any lasting Portuguese impact.

Mainly my point was about the word farang. The rest is split hairs eh?

The first large influential group of foreigners to Thailand were the french. Their language of course is 'Francais'. You can imagine how the Thai accent pared that down to farang. The word just ended up meaning white guy. Unfortunateley they used the french language word for the english language 'Anglais' as the word for the english language. Which is why we are stuck angrit for english instead of englich which would make more sense.

I can't see why they won't quit saying angrit and switch to englich, especially after they have learned some English. It's not cultural, its just a mistake.