sfbandung

There ARE bombings and terror attacks going on in the south. So it makes sense that governments warn their citizens about what is going on.

It isn't their role to give a complete run down of all the risks associated with travel in a poor country. And if you've come here for cheap sex you really are on your own. No one else has any moral obligation to look out for you.

Why is this news?

My wife (of two years) is making fish cakes as we speak, which are excellent by the way, but I digress.

After reading this thread I thought I'd ask her, as despite having a high school education she has always seemed very ignorant of history and geography.

"Have you heard of the Nazis?"

"NASA? Yes, one of the things in the sky fell down yesterday"

"No, Nazis. They killed lots of Jews in the Holocaust, and many, many other people in World War II"

"I don't know about Jews"

"What about Hitler?"

"What Hitler?"

I'm reaching OMG status by now. The conversation continued and her knowledge of WWII is limited to the Japanese, the Burma Railway and the fact that Australians were there.

There you go. I should add however that she is a wonderful person who doesn't display many of the characteristics that are often portrayed here as being "typical Thai" - profoundly selfish, devoid of morals, only after money etc. Just a victim of a crappy education system. Rest assured I shall be addressing the situation. She is at least aware now that WWII wiped out almost 4 times the population of Thailand (which was about 15 million in 1940). She'll be on a virtual tour of Auschwitz this evening. At least there will be one more Thai aware of what happened.

I must say I'm pretty amazed.

Ok so without googling it tell us what you know about Guerre franco-thaïlandaise and while you are at it what was Phibun's real name?

I'm not trying to rain on your parade but 99% of those who amazed at Thais for not knowing who Hitler was should look at themselves.

There is simply a huge void between East and West and what events in history are/were important to one is of little interest to the other.

Because of where we come and our countries involvment Hitler is very much to the fore when it comes to the most evil man who ever lived.

The mention of his name makes your skin crawl, yet mention Mengistu Haile Mariam to the ordinary man on the street in the UK and he'll say "WHO?"

We should not expect Thai people to know what we know without knowing what they know. Not unless you think you are some sort of superior being

Some sort of superior being? Really. I've re-read my post and I'm not quite sure how you got that idea.

You talk about the Franco Thai war that occurred during, and basically because of World War II. Mariam's atrocities in Ehiopia pale into insignificance compared to the riegns of terror of various other despots. None of whom had a global significance. World War II occurred in and around Thailand, not in some far off corner of the globe. 55 million people were killed.

It isn't some obscure esoteric piece of history that the education system can be excused for missing.

I wonder if he was called a "stupid asian" by his teacher, to differentiate from the other asians attending courses in Australia, and who are generally regarded in awe for their work ethic and achievements.

I must say Mick that I'm becoming bored with agreeing with you. Absolutely spot on.

My wife (of two years) is making fish cakes as we speak, which are excellent by the way, but I digress.

After reading this thread I thought I'd ask her, as despite having a high school education she has always seemed very ignorant of history and geography.

"Have you heard of the Nazis?"

"NASA? Yes, one of the things in the sky fell down yesterday"

"No, Nazis. They killed lots of Jews in the Holocaust, and many, many other people in World War II"

"I don't know about Jews"

"What about Hitler?"

"What Hitler?"

I'm reaching OMG status by now. The conversation continued and her knowledge of WWII is limited to the Japanese, the Burma Railway and the fact that Australians were there.

There you go. I should add however that she is a wonderful person who doesn't display many of the characteristics that are often portrayed here as being "typical Thai" - profoundly selfish, devoid of morals, only after money etc. Just a victim of a crappy education system. Rest assured I shall be addressing the situation. She is at least aware now that WWII wiped out almost 4 times the population of Thailand (which was about 15 million in 1940). She'll be on a virtual tour of Auschwitz this evening. At least there will be one more Thai aware of what happened.

I must say I'm pretty amazed.

Islam is the most intolerant religion on the planet. Far from sanctioning or condoning murder in the name of Allah, it embraces it.

Please name me a tolerant religion

For one, I was raised by intolerant Catholics.

Take the Serbs and the Croatians, which ones are the Orthodox and which ones are the Catholics again?

Anyway, they killed each other and the Muslims who were in their way too.

As Christopher Hitchens said it so well: "Religion poisons everything"

I too come from a Cathlic background and it isn't far behind Islam in the "intolerance stakes", certainly from a historical perpsective. But the RC church has sort of come of age and no longer openly advocates violence towards "non believers". Islam does. And sorry, but I absolutely refuse to draw a line between radical and moderate Islam. The fanatic Muslims are the responsibility of the moderate Muslims and Islam in general has not taken any decisive steps to disown the murderous elements in their ranks. Far from it, they are revered.

Perhaps I'll get shouted down, but Buddhism is probably as close as you get to a tolerant religion. If indeed you regard it as a religion, which many people don't.

Couldn't agree more with the Hitchens quote.

The title is going to get the thread hit rate up, some of the tabloids couldn't do better...

Certainly got my attention.

No news here.

Islam is the most intolerant religion on the planet. Far from sanctioning or condoning murder in the name of Allah, it embraces it.

I must be a rarity but I've never had a problem with a taxi driver in terms of fares. I've told a few of them to slow down though and they have always complied.

I only grab the meter taxis of course and just ignore the touts in arrivals.

Monks are humans with human failings they are not perfect and amongst thousands of monks there will be one or twop 'bad apples'.

This is no different from any religion. To criticize all monks for the actions of a few would be like saying all RC priests are paedophiles based on the actions of a some who entered the priesthood to satisfy their own sexual perversions.

Even if the OP is proven to be true this merely shows that some people pose as monks to satisfy their own greed.

For every 'fake corrupt monk' how many genuine ones are in temples on a daily basis.

Time for a little critical analysis.

Let's just assume that, by your own words, there are one or two 'bad apples'.... these bad apples live, eat and sleep amongst the good ones, are the good ones blind, deaf and dumb? (both meanings) I don't think so, the inaction of the so called 'good ones' is an act of condonation, more cynical people would say approval.

So, the answer to the last line is, none.

If anyone truly wants to achieve a state of enlightenment they should shun the glittery temple, the mobile phone, the mp3 player, stop preaching to others via the internet, go and live in a cave, sit cross legged on the floor and chant 'ohm' until they pass out, it'll be dehydration, but it will probably feel the same.

Organised religion is the original cancer of the human race.

I'm largely with you, and as a "lapsed Catholic" I'm very aware of the atrocities committed in the name of religion.

But the fact is it's always there and there is a large proportion of the world population who "need" it, if you get my drift.

So if you're going to accept religion as an inevitability, then at least they should be tolerant of other beliefs, or of someone who has none. And despite the fact that there will invariably be bad participants as well as good ones, Buddhism is the only religion that has always preached tolerance.

And maybe we are just lucky to have a good one, but I really like the monks at our local Wat.

None of you know ANYTHING about elephants.

Why do you write except to criticise something that you know NOTHING about

I know they're really big and scary.

So I do know something about them.

Why is it news that politicians make extravagant promises?

It does indeed happen the world over. If you believe politicians at election time it simply underlines the old adage, "In a democracy you get the politicians you deserve".

The difference being that, for Thailand, lying in regards to election promises is illegal, which is a good thing that other countries could benefit by implementing.

I'd love to see it enforced too. Vote buying (which is what a false election promise is) is illegal in most democracies. But it still happens all the time. They weren't "lying" you see, they meant what they said at the time, "circumstances change", and "we made the commitment in good faith based on our information at the time" etc etc.

The water becomes even muddier when it comes to campaign contributions. Of course the donor expects something in return, which we all know is a bribe by any other name, but it too happens all the time.

Why is it news that politicians make extravagant promises?

It does indeed happen the world over. If you believe politicians at election time it simply underlines the old adage, "In a democracy you get the politicians you deserve".

they don't say what sentence for Sarawut the lead singer of Burn .... a sure fact is that he never lit any firework on stage and he was even off stage when the fire started as the band had finished playing 5 minutes earlier .... yesterday saw Burn play as usual in sinakarin ... always at the top of their game

A change of name for the band could be appropriate.

Absolutely, when I first read about this a year or so ago I saw the band name and thought, "You must be joking".

It's a tragedy alright. I'm trying to make sense of the penalties. So 3 years is the maximum term that can be applied? And there seems to be loads of people charged, isn't there a single "licensee" responsible for having adequate fire exits and ensuring they are visible and most importantly unlocked?

"The panel concluded that a "time-frame" for ousting the Yingluck administration may be six months."

? Are they predicting or planning?

Very techomological.

There'll be no flood if it doesn't rain.

Ok. And if it does?

Can we drop this British most dangerous place to live thing please?? It has almost no relevance to this topic.

And lets have a little decorum here, this was a human being and someone loved her. Where is your decency?

Hear, hear.

It's been while now, has she been identified yet?

"this 40th ceremonial incineration of illegal substances"

Ceremonial? Will the monks be there?

Of course, they organise the card game.

Of course. So it will be like songkran, without the water of course. Can't have someone raining on the "ceremonial incineration".

Aah, only in Thailand.

"this 40th ceremonial incineration of illegal substances"

Ceremonial? Will the monks be there?

ME never used the services of a lady of the night.

What about one during the day?

niether day nor night. Not really my scene and I'll leave them for those that need them.

There is an old saying that there is 2 types of occidentals in the orient, those that shag the locals and those that lie about it. Of course you may be one of those who consider running a tab (commonly known as "marriage" ) is not paying for it - if so you may be in for a rude surprise when the bill is presented. Having ruled out ladies of the night, I suppose you could also be batting for the other side (none of my business, I agree!)

G'Day Mick. I'd never realised that you just may be an Aussie!

And I think the "soft" in softgeorge says it all. Perhaps he dost protest too much.

The survey was conducted among 12.25 million people aged between 12 and 24 from 17 provinces nationwide from August 15 to September 14.

Sorry am I reading this right they surveyed 12.25M people all within a 12 year age span across 17 provinces in 1 day short of a month?

Taken from Population Pyramid 2000

Age Male Female Totals (M's)

10-14: 1.4, 1.4, 2.8

15-19: 2.9, 2.9, 5.8

20-24: 3.5, 3.5, 7.0

15.6M

That works out to 78% of the total demography in 1 month. Impossible.

Yep. Impressive sample size, but they polled on average nearly 500,000 "people" a day?

Sure. They polled over 300 people a minute, 24 hours a day, for a month.

You gotta love statistics. But it made for a good headline I suppose.

Doesn't sound intentional to me either.

Probably some acidic liquid fell from the construction above the station.

Well I was just trying to kill a fly that was running around on my computer screen which turned out to be your avator Duh!

Me too! I felt stupid after I scrolled down though ...

"Maybe not everybody wants Thaksin to return"

Really? Wow, who'd have thought?

Yawn yawn. More fluff from The Nation. I can just see the newsroom. "Pretty quiet today, bit light on for news". "Just write some more shit about Thaksin coming back, quote Chalerm a lot"

What a bloody terrible story.

I'm not sure why there seems to be a debate about abortion going on here. It appears she was full term, which isn't an abortion, she killed her newborn. Why? We'd probably have to walk a mile in her shoes to even begin to understand what the hell was going on in her head.

And as always there is the usual plethora of people rubbishing Thais in general and working girls specifically.

So I'll be the one to go to bat for the hookers again. Don't forget there are two parties to prostitution, so if you're going to get on your moral high horse remember that the customer is as much to blame as the girl. More so in my opinion, there's no chicken and egg dilemma here. I have no opposition to prostitution, it's a job, and on the moral scale there are many so called legitimate occupations much further down the ladder.