xray

I crossed into Thailand from Malaysia about a week ago and was given 15 days (not 14). No fees of any kind and no problems.

know the history. 5 year visa renewable for life = residency permit. Worth the 30K for many Chinese.

That is what was originally promised with the first generation of these cards, but delivered for only a short period of time. If the original promises could be counted on to remain in effect, unaltered to your detriment for the duration of your life, then yes, these cards would be attractive to some people. My concern, as a potential card buyer, would be weather the promises of the present will be honored in the future. In my case, decades into the future.

i thought they had ALREADY spent huge amounts paying off the original card holders!!!!!!

Mr. Ponzi is turning in his grave; he has a big smile on his face.

Could we turn a bit practical now?..... Ideas and comments are very welcome. Stefan

I sleep under a net (consider it my most important piece of gear) and always wear long pants and long sleeve shirts. My 'long clothing' is worn for protection from the sun, but I believe that 'long clothing' also offers some protection from insect bites. I know that 'body chemistry' does vary from person to person and some people are 'more attractive' to insects. Generally, I don't use any type of repelent, though if I ever felt the need, I wouldn't hesitate to use whatever would keep me from being bitten. In Thailand, I have never used repelent, and I've been in places like Um Pang, where malaria is still reported to be a problem. Basically, my approach is to keep bites to a minimum and so far (11 years in the region) I've been able to do this with just 'long clothing' and a sleeping net.

I know someone who has recently been using mosquito repelent self adhesive patches, and says that they work.

I have found that when I am in the sun and wearing my 'long clothing', I don't feel any hotter than I would if I were wearing short pants and shirt, (I agree with the Thais here).

...any disease is transmisable from human to human if bodily fluids are exchanged...

Not according to the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/m...about/faqs.html

"Malaria is not spread from person to person like a cold or the flu, and it cannot be sexually transmitted."

In as much as the denque parasite is not a virus you are correct, it cannot be spread the same way as a cold or the flu. But, if phlegm contains infected blood and a person sneezes and another person becomes contaminated as a result, it is theoretically possible that human to human transmission can occur, ditto sexual transmission via blood that is contaminated by the dengue parasite. Given the aformentioned scenario's the likelyhood of them taking place must be so remote as to be discounted or so I would have thought. Therefore, just because it is theorectically possible for human to human contamination to occur as described, does not mean that dengue is classified as a contagious disease, as evidenced by the various references posted thus far.

The CDC link and quote above are in reference to malaria, and it looks like, as you say (though in reference to dengue), they view the chances of malaria transmission through sexual intercouse as being "so remote as to be discounted."

Malaria and Dengue are not contagious diseases, they cannot be transmitted from person to person!!!

True, but people can give the diseases to other mosquitoes and spread the disease like that. If an infected person moves from one place to another it will infect the mosquitoes at the new destination when being bitten.

Infectious yes, contagious no. Possibly just a matter of semantics, but it seems that this is how the medical people currently describe these two diseases.

...any disease is transmisable from human to human if bodily fluids are exchanged...

Not according to the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/m...about/faqs.html

"Malaria is not spread from person to person like a cold or the flu, and it cannot be sexually transmitted."

Malaria and Dengue are not contagious diseases, they cannot be transmitted from person to person!!!

My understanding is that you are correct in this statement. The transmission of either of these diseases from one person to another requires an intermediary 'vehicle', i.e., mosquito, hypodermic needle, blood transfusion, etc..

URL to the CDC website and an article regarding malaria; an excerpt from the article below.

http://www.cdc.gov/m...about/faqs.html

"Is malaria a contagious disease?

No. Malaria is not spread from person to person like a cold or the flu, and it cannot be sexually transmitted. You cannot get malaria from casual contact with malaria-infected people, such as sitting next to someone who has malaria."

URL to the Only My Health website and an article regarding dengue fever; an excerpt from the article below.

http://www.onlymyhea...ious-1301653693

"Dengue is considered to be a non-contagious disease. It never transmits from a person to another person and hence is not contagious."

more than 400,000 people across the country seek treatment for rabies each year, mostly because of cat or dog bites.That seems rather high does it not?

Well that would depend if they are being treated for rabies or having the injections after being bitten to just make sure they don't contract the disease.

Link to a WHO pdf on the subject, with an excerpt below. In this report, it looks like 400,000 bites and as many as 25,000 vaccinations: http://www.searo.who...A-rabies-cp.pdf

rabies immunoglobulin due to third-degree exposure."

The WHO should be brought in to Thailand to assure that the Thais are knocking this rabies thing out.

The Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute (a.k.a. The Snake Farm) is a World Health Orginization (WHO) affiliate.

Let' say his name was Mahmut, or similar. He fell in love with this fantastic looking girl who already had a lover.

I've learned how to box when I was just 10. If this guy was educated in Judo, Karate, or any other similar sport it wouldn't have been a big problem to fight with a guy who had a knife, even being naked.

I truly believe that a guy being a sort of okay in Judo wouldn't have a problem to take this knife away and just break his arm to stop anymore violence.

But he obviously went further and killed the young lad. That's not called self defense...............

I've practiced and taught martial arts for over 30 years - it ain't like Hollywood. A knife is a dangerous weapon, even in the hands of the untrained. If someone knows how to use one you would be in trouble. Sure, I've been in demos where defense against a knife attack is included. But, these are demos put on to entertain, certainly not reality. You might get lucky, but it's not worth the risk. One slip, an artery cut .........

Judo is a sport and in most clubs I know the emphasis is on sport and competition, not self defense. Sure, depending on his ability and level he may have been able to put on a lock, choke or restraining strangle. I don't think this guy is James Bond or Jet Li.

When I was in my mid teens, I took martial arts instruction. I did learn some defensive moves, one of which was how to neutralize a person (their hand and arm) coming at you with a knife. I found that though I knew what to do, I didn't have the physical strength to effectively 'pull it off' when I tried the move on someone who was physically stronger than I (not real life danger, but gym practice), even when working with someone who had no martial arts skills, but was simply stronger than I. Years later in life, long after my short period of youthful martial arts 'training', I worked with a man who was 'the real thing'. I don't remember what the specific discipline was that he trained in, but he was truly impressive, with the physical strength to match his skills.

Multiple stab wounds is hardly likely to be seen as self defense.

exactly my thoughts.

It depends on the nature of the wounds. If there are 'defensive' stab wounds on the deceased, then a claim of 'self defense' by the survivor would become questionable. However, just as some true cases of self defense involving multiple gun shot wounds result when the survivor fires repeatedly due to extreme fear, the same can happen when the weapon is a knife. Mortal knife wounds are not always instantly fatal and a first wound would not necessarily stop an attacker in their tracks. Look at the recent case of the Australian women who received what was a fatal stab wound, but walked away from the incident before succumbing.

Disappointing that the Thai Gov have to wait for Foreign URGES to take Tourist abuse seriously

I wonder if they listed the Scam problems that they are currently aware of?

The US Department of State has such a list on their website:

http://travel.state....1040.html#crime

I've read more than once that these insurgents have no "clearly stated aims". Seems to me you can't negotiate with a group of people who don't want anything....other than to blow people up. It's one of those things where both sides are fighting and angry but they've forgotten why.

I've never been to the region but I have to think that not everyone in that area has an anti-Thai sentiment. Can anyone who has travelled there give insight? Do they seriously want to break away from Thailand because they're treated badly and quite different (as I read somewhere)? Or is that just press?

"No stated aims", Where have I heard that before? I suspect the unstated aim is Jihad, which in this case would mean returning lands which were once in Muslim control back to the Muslims. If you think that can be granted by negotiation with the population there still retaining Thai citizenship then indeed give it a try, personally I think this will be impossible so the violence will continue until either all the insurgents are killed or the Thais wash their hands of the 'troubled' provinces and leave.

I spent some time in the three southern provinces in 2007. My thoughts then, as now, are that there is a range of feelings among the region's Muslim population. Some would like to remain a part of Thailand. There are also Muslims there that would very much like to break away from Thailand and live under an independent Islamic state, but are not willing to commit violent acts to achieve this. Then, obviously, there are those that are willing to commit such violent acts to achieve an independent Islamic state. Regarding the later group, my thoughts are similar to those expressed in post number 14 of this thread, quoted above.

Regarding the perception of the Thai military presence in these provinces as having been a failure, I wonder what would have transipred in the region had there been no military presence there over the last eight years: less atrocities, or more?

Thanks to RichardinBKK for the very good information in post numbers 10 and 13 of this thread !

What percentage of terrorist activity in the world, is carried out by Muslims?

I think there must be a connection.

Agree. It must be right up there.

98%?

Not quite.

Islamic jihadists/extremists, have murdered just under 300 people in Europe over 30 years since 1982. The main incidents were the El Descano bombing, Spain,1985 (18 dead); 1995 Paris Metro bombings (8); 2004 Madrid train bombings (191); 2005 London bombings (52); and Merah's brutal spree, 2012 (7).

By comparison during the same 30 year period 1227 people were murdered during the conflict in Northern Ireland, even though it officially ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 (1220 died 1982-1998).

Therefore over 4x as many people were murdered by socialist/catholic/"loyalist"/protestant extremists in 16 years just in a corner of the UK, compared to the number of people murdered by muslim extremists across the whole of Europe in 30 years.

You could do a similar exercise comparing murders by Islamic extremists in N. America (including 11th Sept 2001) over the same 30 years, with the drug war in Mexico since 2006 for another cold dose of reality. To give you an idea the casualty figures in the Mexican drug war currently stand at somewhere between 47,000-60,000 dead in less than 6 years, and Mexico was the bloodiest conflict in the world last year. Over 30 years islamists/islamist-inspired murderers have been responsible for the death of 37 people in the USA plus the 2977 killed on 11 September 2001. An average of almost 10,000 dead a year ( or 8000/year to take the lower estimate) in Mexico, against 100 a year killed by islamists.

More true statistics. However, the Irish 'troubles' are ended (hopefully permanently) and I believe the posters quoted in your rebuttal were speaking to real/present time. The atrocities being commited in Mexico don't make some of the terrorist incident lists; not sure why this is so, maybe the situation in Mexico is not considered to be international terrorism.

Statistics aside, there is only one form of terrorism being commited today which I feel is of significant danger to myself and most Thaivisa members, and that is terrorism perpetrated by Islamic extremists.

What percentage of terrorist activity in the world, is carried out by Muslims?

I think there must be a connection.

Agree. It must be right up there.

98%?

I can also come up with a number out of nowhere and say 79% of thaivisa contributors are nazis. It doesn't make it true.

The only proven statistic I had the time to dig up is this:

According to religious history professor Jan Hjärpe there were in 2008 - 515 acts of terror in the EU countries. The number of muslims responsible for those terror acts were zero. Yes, nil.

Most of the acts were carried out by Basque nationalists in Spain. At second place were the Corsicans.

It has been said that statistics are like people: torture them enough and they will tell you anything.

Wikipedia's list of terrorist incidents for 2008...

http://en.wikipedia....incidents,_2008

What percentage of terrorist activity in the world, is carried out by Muslims?

I think there must be a connection.

Agree. It must be right up there.

98%?

As I have already stated in the yesterday thread now locked: to put all the load on the muslim is unfair for the large majority of them and it is helping the terrorists, small minority which is very happy that some are enlarging their base to all muslims. Be more cute and do not fall in their trap!

I don't believe the previous posters intended to "put all the load" on all Muslims. Rather, I believe the posters were simply noting that most of the acts of violence to which they referred have been carried out by Muslims, which seems like a fair assessment to me. The connection, what these various groups of killers have in common, is their religion, Islam.

How about a parody of a parody?

'Randy Scouse Git' was written by Micky Dolenz and brought to life by The Monkees. When I heard that tune decades ago, it was obvious that regardless of their detractors, The Monkees were as talented as many other ensembles making music with a little help from their friends.

The Monkees made some great music, as evidenced by the airtime that it still receives. Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Currently, the only swastikas I own are in books on archaeology and numismatics. If I ever feel the need to have and invoke the special powers of something more substantial, I would choose a swastika image that would not hurt or offend others. My swastika would look something like this:

As far as the Swastika goes the ancient symbol is up and down not tilted like the German version.

The majority, yes; the entirety, no. Good point though. Most of what we see (murals in temples, etc.), is medieval or later. Here is an image of a 4,000 year old jar from the Majiayao people, (truly ancient).

If one goes through the 20 or so swastika topics that have been posted and discussed on Thai Visa over the past few years it is absolutely fascinating to me the number of posters with only 2 or three posts that feel it necessary to discuss the swastika.

What is it about the swastika that brings out posters who never comment on anything else on Thai Visa but feel it necessary to comment on the swastika?

I am not saying there is anything wrong with your comments but why would the swastika be the first thing out of the hundreds of thousands discussed on Thai Visa that you would comment on?

When certain stones are lifted, all sorts of things slither out.

There you are!

As far as the Swastika goes the ancient symbol is up and down not tilted like the German version.

The majority, yes; the entirety, no. Good point though. Most of what we see (murals in temples, etc.), is medieval or later. Here is an image of a 4,000 year old jar from the Majiayao people, (truly ancient).

If one goes through the 20 or so swastika topics that have been posted and discussed on Thai Visa over the past few years it is absolutely fascinating to me the number of posters with only 2 or three posts that feel it necessary to discuss the swastika.

What is it about the swastika that brings out posters who never comment on anything else on Thai Visa but feel it necessary to comment on the swastika?

I am not saying there is anything wrong with your comments but why would the swastika be the first thing out of the hundreds of thousands discussed on Thai Visa that you would comment on?

This is the first thread I have posted on, but my comments on the swastika were not my first post on this thread. I have made two posts commenting on the swastika here, both in reply to two other posters who had commented previously on it, one of who was you. So, I might ask you why you made a comment on the swastika. In fact, had your comment on the swastika not been in error, I would never have replied to it. Likewise, had the other poster's comment not been in error, I would not have replied to it either.

I suspect what you really would like to know about me and my posts, is weather or not I have an agenda to promote the use of the swastika and more specifically promote it to further an evil cause. The answer is no. I have the same interest in ancient swastikas that I have in other ancient symbols, i.e., wheel, sanchi, srivatsa, vajra, conch, harmony, trisula, moon, sun, etc.. Had you made comments about any of those, I likely would have replied to them as well.

As far as the Swastika goes the ancient symbol is up and down not tilted like the German version.

The majority, yes; the entirety, no. Good point though. Most of what we see (murals in temples, etc.), is medieval or later. Here is an image of a 4,000 year old jar from the Majiayao people, (truly ancient).