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sfbandung

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Posts posted by sfbandung

  1. This bloke is spot on. Everyone's vote should be respected. Even the dumb rice farmers from the north. That is how democracy works. It is an unfortunate truth. At least Abhisit is smart enough not to actually verbalise his opposition to democracy as a principle. Unlike Suthep, who really believes that the sycophants he meets on the streets of Bangkok are actually representative of the majority of the population. Suthep and the Dems proposed plutocracy should get the condemnation it deserves.

    Please don't refer to Northern people as "dumb rice farmers" My father in law is a rice farmer.He is also an incredible carpenter, mason and craftsman. He is actively involved in charity, and like the rest of the family, doesn't drink, smoke or swear. He has worked HARD all his life...and never had anything handed to him. He has four intelligent children, two of which hold degrees and have good jobs, one owns a successful business and a fourth who worked three jobs to help put her siblings through university (my wife).

    Please give the respect that my family and the hard working people of Isaan deserve.

    Mate I was being sarcastic. Look at my nom de plum. Ban Dung is an hour's drive from Udon in the the heart of Isaan country. I am sitting in my house next to my father in law's rice farm (it's growing tobacco at this time of year though) as we speak and he is every bit the man you describe. So are my wife's brothers and her sisters. I am speaking in their defence.

    Cheers, Steve

    • Like 1
  2. This bloke is spot on. Everyone's vote should be respected. Even the dumb rice farmers from the north. That is how democracy works. It is an unfortunate truth.

    At least Abhisit is smart enough not to actually verbalise his opposition to democracy as a principle. Unlike Suthep, who really believes that the sycophants he meets on the streets of Bangkok are actually representative of the majority of the population.

    Suthep and the Dems proposed plutocracy should get the condemnation it deserves.

    • Like 2
  3.  

    I'm just not going for this.

    Why?

     

    Mate if you are genuine then I apologise but this is so typical of a story of a bloke being led along. You're going away now for how many months? Why not take her with you? I met my missus here then went back to work and a couple of month's later had a visa for her and she came to stay with me where she has been ever since. We've built a house here and got married and all the stuff (the string is every time we go, a big party and I have a hundred of them for the flight out) but she stays with me. I just don't get the idea of having a relationship where you stay living in separate countries for sometimes years. A proper couple live together.

    • Like 2
  4. Paedophilia exists. Kids get cancer and die horribly. There are serial killers and tyrants who murder millions, funnily enough often in "God's" name.

    Therefore there cannot be an "omnipotent, omnipresent, benevolent" God.

    Man is mortal, we will all die one way or another.

    All of the other things you mention are mans evil, they may claim in gods name but it is not gods doing.

    We have free will, we cannot blame god for the choices we make. So your point about he cannot exist is wrong and frankly you can never say for sure

    Then he is not God. God is (by all religion's definition) "all knowing, all powerful and loves us"

    If he allows the actions of an evil man then he either didn't know, didn't care, or was powerless to stop it. Please don't come back with the "evil is actually good" argument and that he did it for our own good. That's absurd. People of faith love to have their cake and eat it, over and over.

  5.  

    Sorry to disagree, sfbandung. Good cannot exist without evil. This argument leads nowhere. Science and reason can't be used to disprove nor prove the existence of gods. But I'll take a 0.999999999 certainty for this life.

     

    Orosee you missed the critical "omnipotent, omnipresent and benevolent" criteria. If He exists and is all these things then good must exist without evil. If He is not all these things then He is not a God proposed by any of the mainstream religions.

    Fun argument. The hilarious thing about religion is it gets its credibility from being incredible.

  6. I'm not sure about the laws in the US but even being a around a "proposal" like this if you are Australian, regardless of your physical location, would be very dangerous legally. Apart from the whole concept being loathsome of course.

    Best advice above is to run. If you value the ongoing friendship of this clearly amoral individual, then the advice to say, "Absolutely not. Never raise this with me again." is in order.

  7. Really the UDD/Red Shirts should just keep quiet, if they do come out, it will inevitably play into the oppositions hands as no doubt there will be clashes, deaths and inevitably it will lead to a Coup.

    At the moment, they unbelievably in the eyes of many around the world sort of have the moral high ground. Without people knowing all the history, on the face of it, it seems that their democratically elected Government is trying to be overthrown by some loony talking about People's Councils.

    What "on the face of it"? That is precisely what is happening.

    You cannot propose the ousting of an "illegitimate" democratically elected government and replacing it with something far, far worse.

    • Like 1
  8. I always correct her but without ridicule. Her English is still much better than my Thai!

    We have fun with mutual difficulties. She was filling out a departure card from Australia and I wasn't traveling with her. She called and wanted to know what "Resident departing temporarily" was. We still laugh at her attempt to pronounce "temporarily". Haven't found a Thai yet who can say it 3 times quickly.

    From my point I was trying to get on top of "End of the walkway" in Thai. Which we hear of course endlessly at Swampy. "Sin sut tang Lian". My pronunciation of the last word is always wrong and amuses our Thai friends enormously when I try.

  9. You can't have "suspended" or "modified" democracy. Democracy is democracy = majority rule. Only a fool would believe that if this utterly ridiculous and non-representative unelected (read appointed by Suthep) "people's council" concept gets up that the red shirts (who still constitute a democratic majority) will stand for it. They will then take to the streets and this will never end.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you choose to dine at Suthep's table, every meal is toxic.

    • Like 1
  10. It is interesting that Suthep does not talk about what happens after his "people's council" (that he heads up?) is installed. He has made it clear that he does not want fresh elections because the stupid Thai people won't vote for him. So what then?

    It is pretty clear that he wants the constitution changed and some form of "alternate democracy" where the ignorant masses of the north have less influence than their educated brothers and sisters in BKK and down south.

    No matter how you cook it up if you choose to eat at Suthep's table every dish is toxic.

    • Like 2
  11. Is there anyone on here who can think of a good solution to this ?

    It is really very simple.

    In a democracy the time between elections is traditionally spent educating the public so that they will vote for the party you prefer and they will win government.

    Anything else is anarchy or a dictatorship.

    • Like 1
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