Steely Dan

It's amazing how it's acceptable to point out that the average Zulu is taller than the average Pygmy, but when you touch upon something such as intelligence (Which like height does have a genetic component) then liberals start stamping their feet and accusations of racism quickly follow. We know that IQ tests are culturally specific and prone to inaccuracy but to deny that there are differences between groups is somewhat obtuse. P.S I believe in deference to any liberals who might take offence the word retard could be replaced with intelectually chalenged.

The Japanese historically were short people. Nowadays they change their diets and the new generation is a lot taller than their parents. It's the diet that makes a person tall or short.

Granted the diet has a bearing on size, if you go to a road called the shambles in York you can see how tall the British were on average several centuries ago by examining the doors on the old houses, but I'll venture the Japanese were probably even shorter then. The very fact different races look different shows how environmental factors and genetics have caused differences. An extreme example are the Aborigines of Australia who it is estimated took 20,000 years to adapt to their hostile environment so they could get as far as Alice Springs in the centre. Their skills at gathering bush tucker or finding water are prodigious, but a developed world IQ test was hardly relevent to them until relatively recent history.

It reminds me of something called The Bell Curve, which shows that IQ does have a relation to race. For example native Australians and sub-saharan Africans tend towards an IQ score a fraction above what would be considered retarded in a European. It also suggests that Chinese are among the top scores.

I can't say I am an expert in such fields, but one only has to look at the acheivments of these races and it seems to hold water.

As for Thais I think the culture of not asking questions and many people viewing an education as not all that important are part of the problem. I wonder if is possible to post an IQ test on this forum and have the posters post their scores!

Evidently, even in the races that perceived to be superior to others, there are still plenty of bigoted ignorant retards. And there's no need for an IQ test to see that either.

It's amazing how it's acceptable to point out that the average Zulu is taller than the average Pygmy, but when you touch upon something such as intelligence (Which like height does have a genetic component) then liberals start stamping their feet and accusations of racism quickly follow. We know that IQ tests are culturally specific and prone to inaccuracy but to deny that there are differences between groups is somewhat obtuse. P.S I believe in deference to any liberals who might take offence the word retard could be replaced with intelectually chalenged.

Yep, China is in the grip of an undoubted mania. Last year some middle eastern bourses crashed 50% in a mattter of weeks.

comparing some flysh*t sized middle eastern stock markets where a handfull of stocks make and break the market with the SSE is quite farfetched. of course i agree that a market that more than doubled in a year and quadrupled within two years is something quite unhealthy.

The Nasdaq was above 6000 in the year 2000 and lost over 70% of it's value. When a bubble exists size is no protection, indeed the bigger they are the harder they fall.

What's worrying me more is the situation in China and especially the stock-market situation.

Yep, China is in the grip of an undoubted mania. Last year some middle eastern bourses crashed 50% in a mattter of weeks. This will happen in China in the very near future and you need to be Judy Garland if you don't think Thailand will get caught up in the meltdown.

Samut Prakan mayor in spat with police

Samut Prakan mayor Chonsawat Asavahame faces charges of refusing to take an alcohol breath test and illegally detaining a police officer. The youngest son of veteran politician Vatana Asavahame was driving a BMW sedan with three young female passengers late on Sunday night on New Phetchaburi road and encountered a team of Makkasan police at a checkpoint. Pol Sgt Prarop Saengnin said he stopped Mr Chonsawat's car on suspicion the driver was drunk. Mr Chonsawat appeared to be under the influence of alcohol but refused to take a breath test. Police allege Mr Chonsawat's aides were called in and assaulted the police sergeant. Mr Chonsawat then left the scene. Pol Maj-Gen Manit Wongsomboon said police have pressed two counts against Mr Chonsawat _ resisting police orders and illegally detaining an officer on duty. His two accomplices would be charged with illegal detention. The charges carry a maximum penalty of three years in jail and 6,000-baht fine. Pol Sgt Prarop said he would not be intimidated and would not change the shift he works at the checkpoint.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/22May2007_news12.php

Sounds like a nightmayor. I'll get my coat...

The young worker was reportedly untrained to handle the dangerous animals, and was trying to make a tiger sit for tourists by hitting it with a stick when the attack occurred.

- The Nation

How completely idiotic do you have to be to do this? Actually, if Thailand sent more young people to act as tiger handlers it would quickly weed out the stupid people in the population and raise the average IQ like the public ministry wants.

Just thought of a new slogan for the tourist ministry to use;- Visit Thailand, the worlds first Darwin awards theme park.

And FYI, there's no farang teachers at schools like Triam Udom Suksa. And the kids there seem to manage to have the highest scores every year in university entrance exams. I wonder if there's any correlation.

Correlation or causal factor? ;-)

Which university exams though - Thai or foreign?

Thai. Not sure about foreign. But every year there's a number of graduates from Triam Udom Suksa who go on to study at schools like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, all the Ivy League schools, U of Chicago and Northwestern. ;-)

I once read a book called 'Thai Reflections' about the Thai education system. Now it comes as no surprise to me that there are an elite in Thailand who are educated at the best institutions (outside Thailand). In order to run a system which is both an oligarchy and a feudal society it is not desirable to have an inquisitive or well educated populace. My wife who is Thai and of Chinese origin was given encouragement and access to education by her parents, who though poor saved their money for this purpose, hence she has a profession and is well paid and successful, she is however an exception not the rule. In order to improve IQ the human aptitude for deductive reasoning and critical thinking needs to be developed from the ground up - this is down to parents as well as schools and is a truly massive undertaking.

As I've said many times before, we all, well at least most of us, deeply hope there will be an economic crisis in Thailand in the near future.

Ah, now we're getting to the nub of it. Yes of course it would be good to go back to the days of 25 baht to the dollar and an end to the constant changes to visa and work permit regulations, and yes the Philipines was also an option; the girls are also cute and can usually muster more than a 'Hello, Welcome'. You also rightly point out other reasons for our sublimated desire for a crisis - Yes owning Condo's is one thing, owning land and running a business are infinitely more attractive, besides which you have to deal with state protectionism and profiteering customs officers to run many businesses I would otherwise be attracted to. So yes, bring it on! Let's have a crisis and in the aftermath who knows? Maybe democracy, WTO membership, the right to buy land and 25 baht to the $.

I know there must be a joke here waiting to get out.

In the meantime I found a graph of religiousity vs IQ.... No peeking have a guess first.

http://paulsen.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm

Drugs to support terrorism?

Crucify them.

Oh, I don't know.....If there's a group of people more in need of a line, its the Arabs and the Muslims

Nope, surely they would be better off smoking a fat one. Leave the line for the long distance bus drivers.

are you serious??? or are you having a go??

i was not refering to Stocks but to direct investment.

at any case if you wish to see the performence of these guys

here is the link

http://www.lehman.com/press/qe/past/index.htm

Come now we are discussing the economic situation in Thailand which has been shaped by the global liquidity boom lead by the U.S Fed slashing interest rates between 2000 and 2003. There is so much money (debt) sloshing round the system that it finds homes everywhere from stocks to stamps to vintage wines to banana republic bonds and even directly to military junta controlled countries providing the view is pretty enough: This does not stop overdevelopment based on utopian projections. P.S Office space in many skyscrapers built in the 20's lay empty for 20 years after the Wall street crash of 1929.

Next question?

From the Economic Intelligence Unit (The world leader in global business intelligence, so they say - May 15th, 2007:

Economic forecast

Reflecting the surprisingly strong export performance (of Thailand) in the first quarter of 2007, combined with particularly weak import growth, the Economist Intelligence Unit has revised upwards its GDP growth forecast for this year to 4.5% from 4% previously.

http://www.eiu.com/

I wonder why all the BoT fuss about the too strong baht and capital inflows then.

The fact is that exports are double digits rising in $ value, but almost stable in THB value.

To keep exporting many firms had to accept to work at loss. This is expecially true for agroindustrial (CPF,GFPT,STA) and garment (UF,UT) that suffer Vietnam competition.

Of course they cannot work at loss forever so we can expect export firms to close their lower added value productions and focus on higher segments (if they have)

you have hit the nail on its head.

Thailand is is a very strong dilema because of different factors at the same Time.

1. thailand wants forign investments. however Thailand wants direct investments and even gives benefits to investors through the BOI. on the other hand Thailand does not want "hot mony" of large Hedge funds coming in bulks and apreaciating the Baht. As such the capital inflow controlls. to avoid short term hot money. or at least an attempt to do it.

2. The ones who are crying about this are mainly those who wish to speculate and find reasons to blaim it on the BOT and political unrest.(you got to balme someone) and they are the ones that stand to loose for this.

serious investors are coming in on daily basis and investing all the time. do you think that those investors are not aware of the political climate or the Risks?? so why are they investing? because Thailand ’s medium to long-term prospects remain strong due to sound macroeconomic fundamentals and they know it.

I have seen some post on this thread alarming that Lehman Brothers predicting a great future are wrong...

so Lehman Brothers one of the world bigest firms just dont get it and they invest billions into long term investments in Thailand..I can go on and on about those large investments only in the last month but i think the picture is clear. medium long term investments are pouring in.. Short term, hot money,speculative and small time investments are not coming... and use the media and even Thai Visa forum to weep and bitch about how unfair it is.

2. the Thai economy is highly dependent on exports,with exports of agriculture, as well as of labor-intensive and machinery manufacturers. The economies of Thailand ’s trading partners are expected to slow down mainly USA , thus reducing demands for Thai exports. So a stronger Thai baht will contribute even further to the export problem. the Thai baht is allready strong enough and it is hurting exports, As such the goverment is intialising support for those sectors. and this is exactly what they should be doing.

3. the laws and debate regarding the FBA have been debated in length on another thread. and the Thai point of view remains the same. Thailand does not want small time investments compeating wioth locals. they would like to see large investments run by serious investors and they even have a list of very generous incentives for those investors through the BOI. Thailand does not wish to have small time investors opening a bar or a resteraunts.

This action is naturaly not favored by those coming to thailand and wanting to open up a small business.

4. Thailand is not restricting forigners by Visas. they request that forigners coming to stay in thailand for other then travel and tourist have a valid visa according to the purpose of the stay.

Thailand does not want forigners going in and out on "visa on arrival" and using it to constantly to stay in Thailand.

Thailand want to have retiree coming for long stay but they need to prove that they can have financial ability to stay in thailand. and the ones that wish to do business need to have a business visa and a work permit.

if you wish to work in Thailand you need a work permit as you do in every western country.

to sum it up Thailand is on the right way (I am going to get a lot of answers on this on ) as long as they can avoid the hot money from hege funds, recruit investors that are big investors in direct investment, and get only wealthy law obbiding forigners to come and live here.

Would you like a list of Lehman stock picks and price targets from 1999? Size is no guarantee of competence, to be fair to Lehmans most investment houses are wearing the same rose tinted specs, a sign of the times I guess.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/19May2007_focus05.php

Boom times ahead for Southeast Asia

Ten years on, all conditions are ripe for the cubs to turn into tigers

A decade after a crisis that brought the region to its knees and saw a flight of capital, Asia is poised for a major comeback on the back of improved fundamentals and inflow of investments, Lehman Brothers said in its latest report on the region.

"The climate in Southeast Asia seems ripe for an investment boom, which would set the stage for the 'cubs' to grow at their full potential in 2008 for the first time since the Asian crisis, Rob Subbaraman, chief economist for Asia for Lehman, said in his report.

..

in most countries, public debt/GDP ratios are below the OECD average. (below 40% of GDP for Thailand )

Conditions seem ripe for a revival: economic fundamentals are much improved; interest rates are low; public infrastructure spending looks set to soar; and capital inflows are surging.

Hmmm,

Lehman Brothers eh? No vested interest there from investment managers growing rich off fat comissions whilst their hedge funds create great imbalances and bubbles everywhere. And where is the new investment money going to come from with U.S investor confidence pegged at 90% and hedge funds geared at 250% of their assets. Imho this smells just like 2000 but worse, buyer beware imho.

"This, coupled with the downward interest trend, could stimulate the overall property business. But it had to take sometime or 1-1.5 years to do that, he said."

And by that time the property market will be toast. Condo in Pattaya anyone?

"Four major issues are expected to be discussed: plans for added natural rubber production by Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar; ways to increase synthetic rubber production and consumption; auto tire technology; and Thailand's futures market on fixing rubber prices."

I wonder if they'll stamp anything?

As to the question of which is better, Western or Asian society, Liberal or Authoritarian, I am at a loss.

I believe that modern western society has come into maturity faster than Asia. Simply put the feudalism and cultural introversion of many asian societies stifles education, creativity, progress, and growth. It's no mystery why western civilization has progressed much faster economically and militarily in the past 500 years than any other. Liberalism and the period of enlightenment had a lot to do with it and that's all built on Greek philosophical principles.

Right now Asia is struggling with identity issues because western influence is shaping its progress. Even China's authoritarianism has been challenged by free thinking individuals who see the west as an example of civilization. I believe these issues will naturally resolve themselves through education and more contact with the western world.

The Information and Communication Technology Ministry re-escalated the battle against the anti-monarchy videos on Friday, saying Thai authorities would demand YouTube.com hand over the Internet addresses of those who uploaded the clips.

from todays bangkok post.

it will be interesting to see if youtube do reveal the ip details of the uploaders or not , and it begs the question of how smaller sites would react to the threat of closure or blocking should they not co-operate with government requests for identities.

there are many thai related web boards out there , some of them with little moderation , where criticism of thailand is extreme and insulting to put it mildly , if these measures take hold then it cant be too long before they come under the scrutiny of the authorities and posters of comments deemed to be insulting could be called to account.

if that is the case , then freedom of speech will be a thing of the past. hopefully it wont happen.

This could get interesting. So the Thai authorities ask Google to hand over the identities of those making the insulting videos. Now Google come under U.S juristiction and the U.S may have some data protection legislation. I see the prospects of extradition based on Thailands Lese Majesty laws as remote as the U.K government ever handing Salman Rushdie over to Iran. So that would leave libel and defamation under U.S laws as the only pretext for requesting the perps identities, which again would hit a brick wall considering the amount of stick George Bush gets himself.

As I stated before Thai secret agents (If they exist) armed with radioactive Som Tam may be the only course of action open to them.

An important one today.

Central bank may end capital controls

(dpa) - The Bank of Thaliand may lift its controversial capital controls after acknowledging that they have failed to slow the appreciation of the baht currency against the dollar, BoT governor Tarisa Watanagase said Thursday.

Ms Tarisa acknowledged that huge capital inflows into Asia had caused the baht to appreciate 4.3 per cent against the dollar already this year, after appreciating more than 8 per cent against the greenback in 2006.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=118658

Why ? First, BOT told us that a THB under 35 would be the end of the thai exportations.

Then, they told us it was the fault of :

-foreign speculators

-then the thai exporters themselves

-and the final straw : some thai commercial banks (that were selling their USD) !

Miss Doctor Tarisa was standing, against the wind, with pride (but without prejudice). It was beautifull.

Of course, in real life, we had some casualties and secondary effects : THB continues to increase despite the capital control, panic in stock exchange, fear among foreign investors, an hilarious dual rates for currency exchange (on and off shore), global confusions, and eventually less money coming in and some disorders in the economy.

So basically, Tarisa tells us today... that she was 100 % wrong, all the way, right from the begining. It's astonishing.

And, I believe, this is a serious sign of weakness : they aknowledge that the capital control was like a brake on foreign investments and for the whole thai economy. And because the situation is getting bad, they have to make this U-turn.

Poor Miss Tarisa. Must be really painfull...

I most welcome this news. The comedy dual rates had many side effects. First it meant that anyone taking say 1 million Baht to Singapore could convert the money there have a holiday fly back and convert the money back into Baht having a free holiday to boot - (I would add that the stress of doing this made it not worth the bother and serial flyers would soon have attracted attention from customs). Secondly the sort of foreign money they wanted probably dried up to a degree replaced by hedge fund speculators who could afford to play the long game until exchange controls were lifted .

So having admitted trying to keep a lid on the Baht had failed what does Miss Tarisa think will happen when controls are lifted? Maybe perhaps that the Baht may rise a bit but foreign investment would help prop up a faltering economy? I suspect that speculators will seize on this as a sign that the economy is about to hit the buffers and sell Baht like it's going out of fashion. For us mere mortals at least the end of the capital controls will mean that we can hedge Baht assets again by spread betting on it's depreciation (Something not possible with the Capital controls in place).

I can feel an announcement coming on.....wait for it.....YES THAILAND IS NOW PORN FREE!

I guess the closet ######s will have to get on a bus to Pattaya to visit the 7 miles of go go bars now.

The U.S recently put Thailand on a priority watch list for pirated software, now I wonder whether it's possible to get a pirated copy of Ghostsurf down Porntip Plaza? If so I would count that as hoisted on one's own petard.

The problem i see with the law that they intend to pass, is that it will be vague, and open to interpretation by the enforcing body.

Therefore, it will be open to abuse.

It is similar to the situation we currently have with the Visa laws. Their interpretation is up the immigration officer.

To make it illegal anywhere in the world to say nasty things about Thailand is a joke.

The fear that i have is that the level of censorship and blocking on web sites will escalate.

I quite agree, Lest anyone forget Youtube has been banned twice in Thailand, once for the Lese Majesty video and once for content featuring Thaksin broadcast from outside of Thailand. Whilst I have utmost repect for the undeniable achievements and length of tenure of the King I'm worried about the powers and vested interests who legislate ostensibly to protect the King whilst tacking on elements of their own agendas to march in the same parade.

P.S Is the wizard of Oz banned yet?

Of course what we have here is a classic clash of civilisations, what's at stake is what you put on the top of your tree. In Thailand it is the Monarchy, followed closely by the moral secular 'guidance' and loyalty to the family unit. These are taught in Thai schools as givens, no room for questions or interpretations. Western societies put the abstract concept of freedom above everything else. True there are libel laws, but anybodys hypocricy or inconsistencies can be lampooned mercilessly. The Danish cartoon row was an example of this, sacred cows are therefore only sacred within their borders. It is also an undeniable fact that everybody is hard wired with their own rule book as to what should and should not be allowed - trying to curtail this is seen as an attack on personal freedom, indeed I had no interest in anonymous proxies until the first time something I wanted to access was blocked. I suppose it is the same psychology with adolescents experimenting with recreational drugs, but that's another topic.

?? So are there any forums on Thai Visa on how to circumvent censorship... or is that "self censored"..??

From the Forum Rules:

We do not allow discussions of proxies or other methods of bypassing government blocking of websites.

I suppose someone interested could just google anonymous and proxy, but then would google be blocked? I guess that's how this sillyness started with the Lese Majesty thing and Youtube. I think those who are wondering about the practicalities of policing the law are missing the point. Sure you can't stop every teenager pursue their mastabatory quest for illicit stimulation the numbers are vast, you can however target groups or individuals you consider as persona non-grata and monitor their every move. This is both sinister and worrying. If the Russian experience is anything to go by I wouldn't be suprised if Thai secret agents were jetting off in search of the perpetrators of the insulting Youtube videos armed with radioactive Som Tam.

P.S I will now remove the portable proxy anonymiser from my pocket USB drive just in case the authorities decide to ban them or seal up all the USB slots in every internet cafe throughout the land.

the above is definatly a sign of financial crisis ready too boom.but its reasons are far from thailand.

the USA and the europeans are reporting the same problems in real estate and those indicators are just building up.

the US is the larges consumer market in the world and if they go down everyone else will follow.

I am realy concerned with the US economy as the indicators are that they have a housing recession, an auto recession, a manufacturing recession, and a real investment recession already present. the domino effect is building up..

Sorry for sounding so doomsday but I am realy worried about this.

the impact on thailand will be felt when those export to us and europe will go down and forign investors hungry for cash will try and liquidate at the same time.

Yes and as the Dow keeps on raging ahead and the Thai market breaks through the 700 again -

we should bear in mind.......................................................:-

The Dow Jones Industrials Average features prominently in the mainstream financial press because it is the principal tool used by wholesale vendors of stock to sucker the ordinary retail investor into buying at market tops. On a 10-year chart for the DJIA it broke new highs last year, an event that was accompanied by great fanfare in the media, who have since been trumpeting the glorious achievements of the "bull market" ever since. The problem is that the Dow Jones Industrials is not a true representation of the state of the market as a whole, being made up as it is of a narrow basket of very high cap stocks.

The real stock market is shown much more accurately and faithfully by the relatively neglected S&500 index, the chart for which tells a very different story. On its 10-year chart we can see that it has definitely not broken out to new highs, and is instead buckling beneath the heavy resistance approaching its 2000 highs, with which it is danger of forming a Double Top.

If you factor in the decline of the dollar over the past 4 years, the gains during this period look nowhere near as impressive. The 10-year chart of the S&P500 chart plotted against the Euro exposes the ugly and sordid reality that the so-called bull market of the past 4 years is nothing more than an anemic bear market rally, that has taken the form of a bearish Rising Wedge - and some mighty unpleasant stuff is likely to hit the fan once it breaks down from this pattern, which it is now close to doing........................

Phew! You must be reading the same books as me. I also find the Baht's strength surprising given matters parochial and expect a hedge fund inspired collapse at some point.

Then I have also met some doctors with absolute horrid english skills and competency levels to match. I have met para medical staff that have ZERO English skills.... imagine running diagnostic tests with machines that have manuals printed in English. Under these circumstances, one with zero english can't even begin to comprehend how to use the equipment. Realistically a physician should not rely on diagnostic results performed by a person that has no clue on how to use the equipment. Even further, how does one stay current in your profession if essentially all documents/publishings/research etc is in English, but the professional has not taken the time to enhance/practice their English skills.

The guy may have a manual in Thai on how to work the machine,

but that is no good if he cannot ask you where it hurts and how much.

The best doctors in Thailand seem to have been trained overseas, but even that is no guarantee.

I saw a young doctor who wanted to tell me that he had just graduated from the US.

"Wonderful I thought, a newbie."

When a colleague checked the meds the Dr prescribed, two were the same...............

Didn't the doctor know?

Why didn't the pharmacist query the prescription?

Thailand has an awful long way to go in the medical field, before they can become a HUB for excellence.

Maybe Thailand should stick to areas where they have considerable practical experience such as gender reallignment, breast enlargement and penile augmentation. I just love the sanitised expressions used by the medical industry.