attrayant

I go back to my initial idea of requiring all teachers that do not have degrees in education or an education related field, whether they have other degrees or not, teach as volunteers for a certain amount of time in Thai government schools. Perhaps make the minimum qualification a certificate course.

The first month in the school they simply assist the Thai teacher.

The second month of the school they Teach a certain number of classes while being observed by the Thai teacher.

The third month they teach a full schedule with no assistance.

If they complete this internship they should be allowed to teach legally in Thailand.

The cops reportedly gave chase to the vehicle on a motorbike after it blew through the checkpoint.

The getaway car was on a motorbike? That's how circus clowns make their getaway!

If Thais start to feel the pinch in their pockets for very long then will the current wave of support for the Junta fall off?

Support (or lack thereof) for leaders only matters in a democracy.

Food poisoning incidents are not unique here.

Who said they are?

Rather than all your aggressively ignorant blabbing why don't you just open an internet search engine and look up food poisoning stats in any country?

What exactly would that prove? Listen - the article itself says it was food poisoning. What's your problem with so many of us agreeing?

You may be right here. Not often are so many willing to eat something that most definatelly [sic] must smell bad enough not to eat.

The pathogenic bacteria (that create the toxins that make us sick) generally don't cause food to look, smell or taste bad. A good example is botulinum toxin - the most lethal toxin known - has no taste or foul smell. It's the spoilage bacteria that causes food to decompose over time and generate the objectionable smells and taste. Interestingly, food that is visibly spoiled is probably still safe to eat although it may have an "off" taste or appearance. Cite.

The FDA says that food sitting at room temperature (actually the danger zone is 4-60°C) should be discarded after two hours. That's actually very conservative, as bacteria will begin to double in numbers about every 20 minutes after the two hour mark. So that doesn't mean you'll get sick from lukewarm food, but that is when your risk factor begins to increase exponentially.

Mae Fah Luang district chief Worayan Boonnarat [...] instructed officials to investigate and find preventative measures to reduce the risk of something like this happening again.

Refrigeration, hand washing, cross-contamination between cooked and partially-cooked foods (meats and veggies). Glad I could help.

No politician should ever be deified.

this whole "Green" thing worldwide is a load of wank, a gimmick...

To what end?

[T]he less electricity being used the higher the price will go

Then it must logically follow that we all must use as much power as possible to drive down its cost, right?

"Green", is not about saving anything...it's about what everything is always about...Making money...

Perhaps that's true for you, but thankfully it's not true for many others: Clean energy home ends 12-month trial with surplus

A prototype home in the US has generated enough energy to sustain a family of four for a year, with enough spare to power an electric car for 2,317 km.

Yes it was expensive - the estimated cost for retrofitting a 252m² home like the one in the article would be about $163,000, requiring about 39 years to pay for itself in energy savings. But again, it's not all about the money. It's about less dependence on polluting fossil fuels that come from politically unstable parts of the world. It's about investing in new technology and ideas to help spur research and development, and drive down the cost of innovation.

Short answer: because it's financially advantageous (or at least break-even) to do so. Your mileage may vary.

I was very sad to see Clinton go, but overjoyed that Bush (aka King George the second) was booted out by term limits. You've got to take the good with the bad.

Most arguments against term limits are pretty facile. For example:

Whilst it is true that new blood is good, it is also true that experience can be useful.

There's nothing preventing a former head of state from contributing his or her experience to a newly elected leader. That's why the US president has many appointed cabinet positions:

Secretary of State

Secretary of the Treasury

Secretary of Defense

Attorney General

Secretary of the Interior

Secretary of Agriculture

Secretary of Commerce

Secretary of Labor

Secretary of Health and Human Services

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Secretary of Transportation

Secretary of Energy

Secretary of Homeland Security

As well as some other positions like Chief of Staff and I believe there's a even a Federal Chief Technology Officer to advise the president on science and technology matters. It would be unrealistic to expect any head of state to have useful depth of knowledge in all of the above areas. In my opinion, the cabinet is where the experience counts, not the head of state.

Having said all that, I think term limits are a good idea but should be voted upon by the people and, if approved, written into the constitution.

Thais DO think completely differently from farang and the fact that the OP hasn't even bothered to ask her why she wants to leave is very telling.

Telling? Okay I'll bite. What have you learned about me? Keeping in mind that she's not my housekeeper and I've no right sticking my nose in.

I occasionally suffer from lower back spasms. I used to get flexeril in the states but have not been able to find it here. The best substitute I've found is orphenadrine citrate 35 mg which is a skeletal muscle relaxant. Brand name is Norgesic.

There goes a big earner. I got to say Thailand is becoming less and less attractive as Time goes by and if my wife and kids where not Thai I don't think I would visit it again in a rush.

My thoughts exactly. If it weren't for Thai relatives (spouse, namely), I'd probably already be in Vietnam. Better pay for teachers, less hassle with paperwork and better food.

As for her salary, where is she working, upcountry somewhere?

Does she speak English and ready to move to Bkk?

Perhaps I wasn't clear. She is already working in my house, which is really my inlaw's house - yes in Bangkok. It's quite a large house, six bedrooms and four bathrooms. And the windows are always open so she is forever dusting the hundreds of tiny wooden carvings and assorted knickknacks that infest every nook and cranny of the house.

I see we've done this before, but none of the threads I looked at had a poll. Since the polling feature seems to be enabled here, I thought I'd give this topic another go-round with a poll attached to see what the data looks like.

My inlaws have a housekeeper (who they refer to as a servant - a term that I deplore), and they pay her only 6,000 baht a month. She has her own (non air-conditioned) room and access to all household amenities including food. I think she has been here about eight years or so.

In my opinion, she's great. She's constantly on the move, sweeping this or mopping that. She washes the clothes of everybody who lives in the house (six people, at present), irons my shirts and even the sheets believe it or not. She cooks two meals a day, seven days a week. She gives the dogs a weekly bath and sweeps the street in front of the house every morning. She's awake before I am and goes to sleep after I do.

My brother in law says she's talking about leaving. She hasn't given a reason, but I'm thinking that 6,000 is on the very low end of what a really good housekeeper like her should make. I suggested that I and the other working professionals (who can easily afford it) chip in an extra 500 baht per month as an enticement to get her to stay. That would raise her salary to 8,000. All of them think I'm insane for wanting to pay that much.

The family considers her very trustworthy - petty cash and valuables are often left lying around and nothing has ever gone missing. More than once she has rescued and returned to me, money from my pants pockets while doing the laundry. Everyone agrees that she'll be hard to replace because you can't just trust any stranger with keys to your kingdom. And yet they're all opposed to chipping in a few more dollars to keep her.

So what do you say? How much should a person with the duties I've described be paid? I'm thinking 8,000 is about right, considering that she gets free room and food.

I had a lough-out-loud moment this morning and it seems related to this topic. I'm setting up a user account on a [Thai] web site and apparently they feel it's necessary for shipping purposes to know whether I'm a doctor, professor or knight of the UK.

If that package arrives at my doorstep and doesn't greet me wit the proper title, heads are going to roll!

Having a degree means they are more knowledgeable about many things.

Which is great if you're an aspiring Jeopardy! contestant. But it's next to worthless for an aspiring teacher. Being able to express your subject simply and eloquently, in an enjoyable manner is what matters here. Yes, you need to know the nuts and bolt of your discipline, but holding a degree is no guarantee of that.

As I've posted many times before in these discussions, the degree is required because most Thai employers are not in a position to expertly evaluate an applicant's skills and ability, so they target degree holders with the hope that degree = good teacher. Unfortunately, quite often degree ≠ good teacher.

I'm not so sure that purchasers can or should be jailed, unless it can be proved that they received a kickback or knew the devices were ineffective. You'll probably just net some unlucky middle manager who signed a purchase order. The best you can probably hope for is a malfeasance charge... if they even have that here.

The responsible party in the GT200 scandal has already been busted.

you started it

Seriously, how old are you?

My kids buy Oakley sunglasses in the States for 250$ plus, and they are the clearance glasses. The prices listed are actually not very high these days.

Yes, thanks everybody. I am aware that expensive, high-end products do exist in this world. My original post in this thread, which I am now regretting, was merely to point out that I don't believe the average or typical tourist comes to Thailand with such accouterments.

...which is astounding as Thai government schools ban the use of calculators in their maths exams!! (unless it's an EP/bilingual school)

What are they supposed to do in trig and algebra? Do they have to carry books full of trig functions and log tables? That's how it was done before the slide rule and calculators were invented.

Quick: what's the sine of 225°?

Just remember what is in the atmosphere, the rain brings it down , Look up Fukushima , even small amounts of Radiation will reduce the Immune system.

You'll get more radiation from UV, x-rays and cosmic rays than you'll ever get from Fukushima fallout.

Getting sick from weather changes or dampness is nonsense, although it does improve the conditions under which people might be more likely to catch a virus or other bug. But the weather itself is not the direct causative agent.

Rhinovirus and influenza are rampant in the winter (i.e. "cold" months) NOT because of the cold, but because of the way we behave when it's cold. We stay indoors, huddled together in confined spaces. Our sinuses and mucus membranes dry out, making our eyes uncomfortable and us more likely to rub them. Nasal cavities become less moist and airborne germs don't get stuck in them as they enter our respiratory tract.

Yes people may feel glum or down in the dumps in inclement weather, but this is not due to some contagion. Although the gray skies might depress you and alter your moods and actions enough to make you more likely to pick up a bug (i.e. you're more likely to stay indoors and mingle with infectious people).

What does that have to do with the thread topic?

Oh wow! ^ I've never been <deleted> before! I'm not a saucy girl (maybe saucy is going to get deleted too)...so, wow!

Ouch my ears a burning. Yes you have to watch what you <deleted> here. It's quite common for <deleted> to be <deleted>, even <deleted> <deleted> <deleted>.

No these prices are VERY realistic.

I talk about brand name stuff not fake Chinese junk.

In that case you're not talking about the typical tourist, as your initial post had suggested.

I'd like to see the $250 pair of shoes that you use to go tramping around Ayutthaya.