SteeleJoe

I started going through this thread and replying but while there are some well stated and accurate comments, there a so many, ignorant at best and ugly and twisted at worst, that make me despair...

I think I should never have started reading it.

Let this be a lesson to the world, about the true mentality and the lack of respect many Thais have for foreigners, countries and cultures. However, this is an excellent opportunity for business investment as one can see, simple minds can easily be manipulated.

If any one knows any thing at all about The Thai education system they will realize it has nothing to do with the Thai mentality,
That is just out and out Thai bashing.
It is more to do with their education system.
How much knowledge did you have of the Thai's role in WW2 in your foreign education.
In mine American I had none.

Thailand welcomed Japanese troops into their country and allowed them to run pow camps in kanchanaburi. Then, they later sided with the Americans to stop the spread of communism. They join the money, wherever that comes from

You are partially correct, I know that now but I did not learn of it in my 64 years in North America. It was not an Item it was always the Japanese against the Americans. A friend of mine grew up in Canada and he was telling me that all his knowledge in school was the same as mine as they were using American history books.

When I said partially correct I was referring to the POW camps. For the building of the railroad to Burma the camps were run by Koreans and on completion turned over to the Japanese.
There is a plaque in one of the cemeteries there telling about this it also said the living conditions improved when the rail road was done and /the Japanese took over the POW camps.

Ever talked with any WW2 veterans who were prisoners of the Japanese? I have known many. Koreans were used as the guards and low ranks. The Japanese officers and NCO's treated the Koreans with contempt and of course the Koreans took it out on the prisoners. The Japanese committed wicked viscious attrocities against the Chinese people, the peoples of all the nations they invaded and Prisoners of War. This was as deliberate, well planned and systematic as the horrors perputrated by their Nazi allies.

The comment that "living conditions improved when the Japanese took over is nonsense and simply untrue. Japan did not delegate responsibility or authority to Korea. Sounds like an example of a Thai "white lie" to please their Japanese friends who just happen to be the biggest investor in Thailand.

What is sad is that the justice meted out to the Nazis was not replicated to their Japanese counterparts, due to American foreign policy and scheming. Go figure that one.

As Winston Churchill stated - "the victors write the history"

And it's always been that way - who knows what really happened - history is rarely correct.

Example - grand daddy Bush funded Hitler through the Union Bank - I did not read that at school...

Look it up.

The Pope supported and rode along with Hitler in parades.

Catholic priests organised the escape route for Nazi war criminals (Operation Odessa?) through the Brenner Pass to Genoa where they were shipped out to South America. The US, unknown to their allies, smuggled Nazi war criminals to the States, Wernher von Braun being one of them. A perfectly normal and moral action in the eyes of the crooks that infest Washington.

Von Braun was a war criminal? Debatable but perhaps. US allies - who were doing the same thing - were unaware? I think not.

Zero Mostel was born Samuel Joel Mostel on February 28, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, one of eight children of an Orthodox Jewish family.

(Mel Brooks) Melvin James Kaminsky was born on June 28th, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, his father died when he was a child of 2 years, and he claims that all of his angry humor comes from that.He was of Jewish descent

(Gene Wilder) Born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 11, 1933, Gene Wilder is the son of William J. and Jeanne (Baer) Silberman. He adopted "Gene Wilder" for his professional name at the age of 26

Suradit figured it out! The artist(s) who created the mural are obviously Jews who merely want to parody Hitler...

I don't think there is an actual Neo-Nazi movement in Thailand. For that, we should be happy. This kind of thing simply reflects IGNORANCE.

Ignorance is the lack of schooling.

Stupidity is having 16 years of schooling, and putting Hitler in your graduation ceremony, along side heroes.

No, ignorance is the lack of knowledge. And this goes beyond semantics - that one can have 16 years of schooling and still be ignorant is not small thing.

If you google images for America+hitler, you'll see dozens of images of Captain America, and hitler together.

You'll also see some interesting images that compare other real life people to Hitler.

Are you suggesting that Thai students did that in preparation for their graduation mural? Why would they?

Oh come on, they are just having you on.

Faring think to much.

No they're not. Whoever did that and whoever didn't realize it was objectionable was IGNORANT. They have shamed their school in the eyes of the world, and also shamed Thailand as that is an elite school of the country ... except for Nazi lovers.

Seriously, how are Nazis and Hitler covered in the TEACHING there?

Ignorant like the American Jews who staged The Producers and the BBC who put on 'Allo, 'Allo and of course, the fun loving Nazis in Hogan's Heroes?

Ah, never fails. Suradit will ALWAYS defend Thais against ANY criticism no matter how measured or warranted and no matter how ridiculous the lengths he has to go to do it.

start asking yourself :

why is there a culture of your face being whiter than pigeon kaka ?

in the land of sun ... people here are like vampires...afraid of the sun

Is it any more ridiculous than westerners going to absurd lengths (paying money to lie down in machines or have someone spray them with coloring) to get dark? People who for generations had to labor in the blazing hot tropical weather find the idea of avoiding the sun rather nice and is that less sensible than deliberately lying out in the sun in the insanely hot sun as so many Farangs do?

They are both rooted in class consciousness as much as aesthetics - and prior to the industrial revolution Europeans had the same notion, only later did a tan connote a life of leisure and rich man's pursuits like tennis, golf, and yachting. But even if they weren't, who is to say that what they find attractive is any less reasonable than what you or I do?

Third world, and always will be!

Unlike the west that believes a talking snake gave a piece of fruit to a woman, a talking burning bush, a book written by a bunch of nomads in the desert in what was the stone age, a carpenter who walks on water and is handy with fish and loaves and then becomes a zombie - all against an evil force run by some guy called Satan who apparently lives underground and can be defeated by accepting the zombie into your heart.

So yeah, really third world.

I agree with your central point entirely (even alluded to it earlier) but I'd point out that a very large segment of "the West" doesn't believe any of that and that the other Abrahamic religions are no less preposterous.

And people believe him. I say no more.....

Yep. And hundreds of millions of people believe equally ridiculous things and have done so for thousands of years.

How can there be a heaven when they believe in recycling reincarnation ?

It's pretty simple (indeed it is referenced in the OP): the belief is that one can eventually attain total enlightenment and be released from the cycle of suffering that is life.

No offense but It's like a really basic part of Buddhism. But even in this, the Thais sometimes have a somewhat different take on it than what the original Buddhist teachings suggest.

Jet-setting monk found to have bought 22 luxury cars

A Rolls Royce for every day of the year – Osho

Far behind than an Indian monk (late) OSHO who had an ownership of 93 Rolls Royces.

And this was in Oregon, Usa.

What significance do you attach to that? I'm quite curious.

He started his career in India (and eventually was not viewed well there at all, hence the move). And the fact that he was in the US arguably led to his downfall - and that car collection attracted a LOT of criticism and scrutiny.

Its all math. And math can prove just about anything you expect to find.

There is no subject that I am weaker on than mathematics - which is to say I know virtually nothing about it beyond the basics - but the above strikes me as a truly extraordinary thing to say.

Someone better inform NASA right away...and the Pentagon, come to think of it.

Heh. Nasa crashed a probe into Mars due to bad math.

Was the math bad or was it just too malleable?

If the former, that is precisely my point. If the latter, yours...

(I'm assuming by "bad" you mean "incorrect". Or did you mean naughty math?)

I hope the brothel owners are imprisoned until they have served 200 other inmates.

So you are excusing the Thai woman who procured the ho's in the first place.

And did the ho's really think that they were gonna get 90k a month for doing legit massages

My money says they also believed Thaksin when he said he would make them rich in 6 months.

Maybe you are new to Thailand and don't know about how low the level of education is here and in some parts of the country not existent or possible because they can not buy the proper shoes.

The average Thai has no conception of the realities out side there own country. They see tourists and expats who always seem to have money and when they don't they just go to an ATM and get more.

There should be a prize for the first person who manages to work Thaksin into an unrelated topic. Well done.

As for the rest: I fear that in your well intentioned and deserved defense of Thais in this instance, you are rather paternalistic and insulting of them. (The average Thai is an ignorant and naive fool in regards to anything other than things Thai who thinks that ATM dispense infinite amount of cash to foreigners and if they go abroad that will be the case for them too? Or what?)

In any case, there's simply no doubt that many women are fooled by such promises. There is also no doubt that many women know they are being recruited for sex work. We don't know which was the case here and people pretending they do simply reveal things about themselves whichever assumption they make.

Its all math. And math can prove just about anything you expect to find.

There is no subject that I am weaker on than mathematics - which is to say I know virtually nothing about it beyond the basics - but the above strikes me as a truly extraordinary thing to say.

Someone better inform NASA right away...and the Pentagon, come to think of it.

Off topic, but a truely amazing thinker, Swami Vivekanada (1862-1902) who was a Hindu philosopher, talked about the expanding universe, genetic inheritance and so on prior to being 'discovered". It has all since been proved by science and mathematics. Look him up, especially his 1893 Chicago speech and collection of writings.

http://www.amazon.com/Speeches-Writings-Swami-Vivekananda-Comprehensive/dp/B008CFXAPW

Thanks, I will. I've actually heard of him and read a reference or two to him before - but did he claim that "math can prove just about anything you expect to find" or something that would support that?

Cannot recall his words on that topic, read his writing in my mid-twenties & was so impressed it led me to studying Vedic philosophy for many years. However there is an article reviewing Vedic philosophy and mathematics at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mauricio-garrido/vedic-philosophy-and-quantum-mechanics-on-the-soul_b_3082572.html

Thanks again. However, I think you miss my point (and perhaps the point of the person on this thread who made the claim about math):

Math can not possibly "prove just about anything you expect to find" nor can such a claim be credibly used to dismiss quantum mechanics.

Understand. I have heard of similar discussions whereby the evolution of mathematical theory and application can indeed prove, in fairness also dis-prove, just about anything and that's the point I was making regarding Vivekananda's thinking and writings

'Kay. Thank you.

...meanwhile, in a brothel in somewhere in Thailand...

...and captive on Thai fishing boats as forced labor ...

Ah yes, classic whataboutery which clouds the original issue with irrelevancies and somehow suggests that 2 or 3 wrongs make a right.

Saves having to think I suppose.

Maybe you yourself need to do more thinking.

Its all math. And math can prove just about anything you expect to find.

There is no subject that I am weaker on than mathematics - which is to say I know virtually nothing about it beyond the basics - but the above strikes me as a truly extraordinary thing to say.

Someone better inform NASA right away...and the Pentagon, come to think of it.

Off topic, but a truely amazing thinker, Swami Vivekanada (1862-1902) who was a Hindu philosopher, talked about the expanding universe, genetic inheritance and so on prior to being 'discovered". It has all since been proved by science and mathematics. Look him up, especially his 1893 Chicago speech and collection of writings.

http://www.amazon.com/Speeches-Writings-Swami-Vivekananda-Comprehensive/dp/B008CFXAPW

Thanks, I will. I've actually heard of him and read a reference or two to him before - but did he claim that "math can prove just about anything you expect to find" or something that would support that?

Cannot recall his words on that topic, read his writing in my mid-twenties & was so impressed it led me to studying Vedic philosophy for many years. However there is an article reviewing Vedic philosophy and mathematics at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mauricio-garrido/vedic-philosophy-and-quantum-mechanics-on-the-soul_b_3082572.html

Thanks again. However, I think you miss my point (and perhaps the point of the person on this thread who made the claim about math):

Math can not possibly "prove just about anything you expect to find" nor can such a claim be credibly used to dismiss quantum mechanics.

BANGKOK: -- After discovering that Luang Pu Nenkham Chattigo, who also goes by the moniker Phra Weerapol Sukpol, spent Bt95 million to buy 22 Mercedes Benz cars, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) will also investigate to see if the monk was part of a money-laundering racket.

Buddha bless this stinking dude to HELL,.... Where the hell did he get the money from???

according to an interesting Thai "study" he will be living his next life as a Katoy, since he did bad in this one, .............

Where's that then?

Why has the Ameri(k)an gov't for so long unnoticed, a Thai monk with huge amounts of assets and bank accounts? ...Smells of possible CIA/FBI invovlement of drugs and who knows what else.

Why do so many Thais and some foreigners insist on wearing sunglasses indoors, paricularly in places like supermarkets?

I realise there is probably a fashion element, but don't these people realise how stupid they look and how dangerous it can be? I have witnessed lots of people stumbling, bumping into things in my local Tesco. One Thai guy walked straight into a laden shopping trolley, almost ending up in the thing. Righted himself, lifted his glasses to see what he had walked into, put his galsses back on and within seconds walked straight into a clothing rack.

Another day i am behind a Thai guy and his wife at the checkout, came time to pay, the guy pulls his wallet out but cannot see. Lifts his glasses, takes out the money, puts glasses back on. Same routine when he gets his change.

2 days ago, which has prompted this rant...i am sitting in KFC, young Muslim family at the next table, watched in amusement as each time the husband reached towards the bucket for a piece of chicken or a french fry, had to lift his sunglasses to see what he was doing, once he snagged the morsel, sunglasses back on. This went on throughout the whole meal.

I sometimes feel like shouting out...take the fxxxxing sunglasses off, but as a long time resident in Thailand i have learnt to keep my feelings to myself. But it is frustrating...anyone share the same frustration?

Do you think it is cool to wear sunglasses indoors?

Personally, I think you have been really lucky. I dearly wish I'd have seen that stuff...I confess to nonsensically getting frustrated by people doing stupid things that have no effect on me - and that is what you describe - but these scenes would have made me laugh. Out loud (so to speak).

Surely people aren't coming here with no money, no job prospects and no idea how they plan to fund their life here?

Surely some have and odds are some still do.

On his way to the US on an invitation of the cartoon religion/sect the Scientology church or on invitation of the evangelicals.

Errr...what?

Its all math. And math can prove just about anything you expect to find.

There is no subject that I am weaker on than mathematics - which is to say I know virtually nothing about it beyond the basics - but the above strikes me as a truly extraordinary thing to say.

Someone better inform NASA right away...and the Pentagon, come to think of it.

Off topic, but a truely amazing thinker, Swami Vivekanada (1862-1902) who was a Hindu philosopher, talked about the expanding universe, genetic inheritance and so on prior to being 'discovered". It has all since been proved by science and mathematics. Look him up, especially his 1893 Chicago speech and collection of writings.

http://www.amazon.com/Speeches-Writings-Swami-Vivekananda-Comprehensive/dp/B008CFXAPW

Thanks, I will. I've actually heard of him and read a reference or two to him before - but did he claim that "math can prove just about anything you expect to find" or something that would support that?

I lost a bet with myself. I was sure by the time I read to the end of the thread, there would be at least one post saying something like , "What about the corrupt Christians?/pedophiles priests?"

I thought at least a couple of those were required in every thread that is critical of Thai Buddhism or Thai monks.