retsdon

2 minutes ago, canopy said:

When Elon runs his sub to cave 5 as he has now promised to do a lot Elon bashers like you are going to be eating more and more crow.

What's he trying to prove?

4 minutes ago, canopy said:

Because Elon's design was based on British cave expert diver Stanton who had dived the route, found the kids, and subsequently encouraged Elon to develop the sub.

What's your point? Are you saying Narongsak didn't take advice from the diving crews before rejecting Musk's submarine?  Stanton saying that the concept was a good idea is hardly the same thing as agreeing that Musk's prototype (cos that's what it was) was a better option than swimming the kids out AT THE TIME!

 

8 minutes ago, canopy said:

And if someone died would it mean almost certainly it was the incorrect one?

That's trying to prove a negative. What you can safely say is that because everyone escaped, Narongsak's decision wasn't the wrong one. Does that suit?

16 hours ago, Doowat said:

 Kids in UK schools are being indoctrinated with .....propaganda, and are being taught 'what to think' instead of 'how to think'.

We always were. It's just that because the 'what' now is different to the 'what' when you were at school yourself, you notice it. For my own part I still can't shake a sense of British superiority, and a gentle, benign contempt for foreigners - attitudes that were drilled into me through relentless propaganda as a child. But whatever...

Leave aside international schools for a moment because they're a different beast.

 

On Thai or UK schooling, there are swings and roundabouts. If you're looking at the straightforward quality of education, there's no comparison. The UK - outside of some inner city sink school - will be far, far, better. There's no comparison, none at all. On the other hand, if you're looking at opportunity I'm not so sure. IF your child grows up properly bilingual - and I mean properly  - then he or she will always find good work in Thailand or SE Asia. There are so few Thais who can read, write and speak English to a graduate level that any who can are like gold dust. Conversely, in the UK, well-educated or otherwise, your English speaking child will just be another face with no special attributes at all. But without time outside the country regularly,  this is a big IF.

 

I also faced this problem, and we decided on Thailand -  although to be honest a lot of that decision had to do with the difficulty of visas, housing costs and employment in the UK. And at this stage I've no idea if we have made the correct choice or not. But I console myself with the thought that when I look at young Thai professionals here, I don't see that their quality of life is in any way inferior to their counterparts in the UK. They might not earn as much, but they definitely seem happier. And there's another factor. I have boys who in the UK would be odd Chinese looking blokes with British names. Here they'll be 'krung' and none the worse for that as they are both, even as children, regularly described as 'Law maak!!'. Consequently, when they get old enough for it, their love lives will be far, far more entertaining here than back in dear old Blighty. Good friends, food on the table, girls in the bed.... there are worse things.

 

On international schools - the problem there is that once you go down that route you're stuck with it until they leave school. Unless you put them to a nationally curriculum-affiliated school (my kids used to be at a British school in the Gulf so could have moved to the UK easily enough) they'll have problems moving other than to another international school. And for sure you won't ever be able to get them into a Thai school if for any reason you felt the need. They're worth looking at for the last two years or so though...

Seemingly this should have been all in a day's work for the British team that found them. These guys are not of this world!

http://www.divernet.com/cave-diving/p302421-the-last-adventure.html

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-cavern-club-kmckhc686sd

 

Just an edit to mention that it's worth doing the registration thing to read the Times article. Very well-written....

 

Everything about this whole horrible business epitomizes what's wrong with the country, From an unqualified football coach simply assuming that he has the authority to take other people's children  underground on a whim, to the lack of proper warnings against flash flooding, to the delay in getting properly competent people involved, to the asinine 'rescue' packages' that apparently have mobile phones in them but no lighting, to the media circus and every local sen yai getting themselves in front of a screen with yet another harebrained initiative....

 

I have kids here, and sometimes I absolutely despair,,,,

It's like any other crime - there are locations and hours when the chances of being a victim rise relative to the norm.

Personally, I don't expect to be overcharged in a bar in Thailand anymore than I would anywhere else. But as the hours get later and the bars get seedier, and the critical faculties become observably impaired, only a blo@dy fool would imagine that he's NOT going to have someone try to rip him off from time to time.

 

 

We were in the UK in the summer, and compared to Thailand Mrs R was startled at how cheap the  food was in supermarkets - especially meat and dairy. On a side note, good wines and beers were temptingly inexpensive too. I'd forgotten the pleasure of being able to drink decent wine and interesting beers without having to grit my teeth at the cost.

 

Thailand used to be cheap at one time, but that's no longer the case. The only things that are still relatively cheap are labour (services) and accommodation. Other than those, everthing else is on a par.

 

 

Just now, tryasimight said:

You had to come to Thailand to learn that

Well, there are some cultures that don't do money well. But you're right. He could have learned the lesson in Aberdeenshire....

Last year I suggested to both the nurse and my dentist that it probably wasn't wise for the nurse to make a habit of standing with her hand under the patient's chin while taking an X-ray. The dentist said, yes you're probably right, and the nurse laughed at me - although I doubt she'll be laughing in ten years time when she gets given the news that it's lymphoma that's causing her to feel rundown.

 

 In this day and age it's almost incredible that supposedly educated professional staff could be so ignorant or blase about such a commonly known hazard as X-ray exposure.

With the hottest April since records began and a massive drought that's almost certainly harbinger of things to come over the next couple of decades, one has to wonder if more economic growth is the best way to go.

Or course, it means more people can afford to drive to work and run AC in the house which makes their lives more comfortable. And that's got to be a good thing, no?

Interprovincial public vans in Thailand are notorious for their frequent accidents.

Road rage and threatening behavior occasionally make it into national news.

I try to avoid traveling with minivans.

Would estimate that more then 50% of them are not able to drive a car reasonable.

Driving too fast, no safety distance, changing lanes without turn signals, overtaking in the wrong lane,

cornering, ignoring traffic lights, etc.

Also many are overtired or incited with energy drinks or tablets.

Much of these are short fused, aggressive, unfriendly and well armed.

From everything that drives, swims or flies, these are the worst drivers.

Many years ago I used to travel weekly from Hat Yai to Krabi and back by minivan. Don't watch the road is the key. If tbe driver is going to kill you all there's nothing you can do about it - better just to pretend you're somewhere else and hope for the best...

Harold MacMillan's response to a journalist when asked what was most likely to blow governments off course. 'Events, dear boy, events'

El Nino will be Prayuth's event.

CELTA was just an example of how 6 weeks is considered more than enough training when it is a native completely inexperienced new teacher.

Not really. A CELTA just lets you know how little you actually know about teaching.

No syllabus, no materials, no defined outcomes, no valid testing, not enough class time, over large classes, unmotivated students, indifferent and incompetent administration. The list goes on and on and on. I taught in Thailand for six years in a number of different institutions, and looking back, 95 percent of it was a complete and utter waste of time and effort.The students didn't improve one iota.

Im contrast, where I've worked for the last 10 years in the Middle East, every year we move the bulk of 1,500 students from elementary to a 500+ TOEFL score in 9 months. Never mind that the pay is multiples better, purely from a job satisfaction viewpoint nothing would pursuade me set foot back in the rat's nest of venal, smug incompetence that is the Thai education system.

Native speaking teachers or local Thai - it makes no difference who does the teaching. The system itself predetermines the outcome.

Not just gonorrhoea. MDR tuberculosis is a big problem in lots of countries these days too.

Can you all please stop the scam theory now ? As a Norwegian I can confirm what Norwegian media reports , he admitted he forgot about that the bullets was in the bag . And somehow the bag was scanned at Oslo airport but they did not detect the bullets , that's actually quite serious. But not a scam , he can only blame himself.

But it's a scam to bill him 80,000 baht for the oversight.

Can you all please stop the scam theory now ? As a Norwegian I can confirm what Norwegian media reports , he admitted he forgot about that the bullets was in the bag . And somehow the bag was scanned at Oslo airport but they did not detect the bullets , that's actually quite serious. But not a scam , he can only blame himself.

But it's a scam to bill him 80,000 baht for the oversight.

We need Thai teachers to learn how to teach English and no one knows that better than the British Council.

But they won't use the methodology they learn. I worked with a number of Thai educators with Master's quals in TESOL from British and Canadian unis. Every one of them taught by conducting a monologue through a microphone. Everything they'd learned overseas about language aquisition had been left behind on their dissertation paper.

Once back in Thailand they just went native again......

The official Thai way. Never pass up an opportunity to extort money. 80,0000 baht for a pair of overlooked 9mm rounds? That's a tidy little windfall for somebody...

The biggest problem is that the Thai education system is not designed or run to educate the nation's children. It'd signed to indoctrinate, and run to put money in people's pockets.

English is just one of a slew of subjects at which Thailand rates badly.