Keesters

And what do people think these children should be doing if not working to earn some pocket money? Hanging around in the toilets of a Pattaya department store! Stealing! Pick pocketing! Then spending the cash in video arcades or online games.

As long as it is not forced labor, the hours are within reason, and the work not overly strenuous I see nothing wrong with a child working. I worked from the age of 13 washing cars & boats on Saturdays and school holidays. Friends delivered newspapers or groceries. Earning our own money gave us a lot of self esteem plus we all turned out OK. None of us felt abused or taken advantage of.

You were, indeed, a hard-working child during your school holidays.

However, these children do not go to school, and this is (more than) full-time work.

Do you think this gives Thai children a sense of self esteem?

If you had read my post correctly you would see that I said "Saturdays and school holidays", "As long as it is not forced labor, the hours are within reason, and the work not overly strenuous". Under those conditions a child can work and gain self-esteem.

Under the conditions you quote..which have nothing to do with what I wrote...then I very much doubt there would be any self-esteem.

Well it clearly was forced

And what do people think these children should be doing if not working to earn some pocket money? Hanging around in the toilets of a Pattaya department store! Stealing! Pick pocketing! Then spending the cash in video arcades or online games.

As long as it is not forced labor, the hours are within reason, and the work not overly strenuous I see nothing wrong with a child working. I worked from the age of 13 washing cars & boats on Saturdays and school holidays. Friends delivered newspapers or groceries. Earning our own money gave us a lot of self esteem plus we all turned out OK. None of us felt abused or taken advantage of.

Every weekend of my childhood I was woken at 5am, fed breakfast, loaded into the back of a truck and delivered to which ever place of work it had been decided I would work at that day. I was loaded back into the truck sometime between 6 or 6:30pm and was at home by 7pm. I received no wages for my work and plenty of abuse. They didn't call it forced labor or child labor back then it was called spending time with your father.

Well it clearly was forced labor and shouldn't have been allowed. The danger that I see is of banning children from working entirely. Rather than that it needs to be controlled. What can a child work at and for how many hours etc. would be, to me, a better way to go than a full-on ban. Let those who wish to work in their non school hours do so under controlled conditions.

Enforcement is of course another problem.

Everyone here has a lot to say about the "poor electrical work in Thailand" but all of them have overlooked the fact that it is THEIR responsibility to ensure that THEIR house or THEIR premises are safe. Not to mention that all the posters here seem to be very knowledgeable when it come to (after the fact) electrics - yet NOT ONE has mentioned the one inexpensive little device that could have saved ALL of those lives. It's called an Earth Leakage Relay - or a Residual Current Device. Look it up - and if you don't have one installed, then install one immediately. Before we have to type in yet another RIP!

While not entirely agreeing with you about the many THEIR statement I do agree about the Earth Leakage Relay. It is the first thing I thought of on reading the headline. I have had a German made one fitted in my house since it was built, 20+ years ago. It has tripped a few times and probably saved a few lives. But I do not recommend one of those Thai made "Safe-T-cut". All the ones I've seen have the sensitivity switchable in stages to OFF. When it is in the OFF position it might as well not be their. Most times when I've seen one fitted they are in the OFF position giving a false sense of security when in fact it is giving none.

My condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

It doesn't help much when in Pattaya:

1) Most don't know that there is a library.

2) Of those that know most couldn't tell you where it is.

3) It is located far outside the city and far off any public transport route.

4) The mobile libraries never seem to move from their parking spot.

5) On any occasion I've visited it there are almost no people there.

i dnt understand that these kind of positions are held most of the time for 1-2 years and than people

are shuffled around again. Such a job should be at least 3-5 years to see some impact. It is the same

with many other positions in the Thai government. Every few months a reshuffle. That is why nothing is achieved

most of the times and corruption is key !!!!

But in a democracy shouldn't the post of Governor be elected, by the people of the province, rather than appointed by central government.

Not sure why but I expected to find that he was related to the Shinawatra family.

And what do people think these children should be doing if not working to earn some pocket money? Hanging around in the toilets of a Pattaya department store! Stealing! Pick pocketing! Then spending the cash in video arcades or online games.

As long as it is not forced labor, the hours are within reason, and the work not overly strenuous I see nothing wrong with a child working. I worked from the age of 13 washing cars & boats on Saturdays and school holidays. Friends delivered newspapers or groceries. Earning our own money gave us a lot of self esteem plus we all turned out OK. None of us felt abused or taken advantage of.

It would be interesting for the news media to track down the fire/safety inspections of this club. If such things actually exist in Phuket or Thailand. Who was the inspector that signed off on the fire/safety inspections?

Agree with you 100% although I doubt it will happen. Very little investigative journalism in this country. Newspapers just report what they've been told. If there was an inspector who "signed off" on the building he too should be brought to account.

Purchased my 2.1-gigahertz 3G phone on 29.06.2010 in Thailand. Here we are 2 years 3 months later and bidding for the network has just started. OMG, Thailand you are so SLOW....

I know a few X Pats that could use some help perhaps?

Especially the ones in Pattaya and Phuket! LOL

And all members of your household because they have to put up with living with YOU. LOL

Maybe one should look closely at the Fire Department to see when the last fire/safety check was carried out and who signed to say that it met the safety requirements or who paid/received the back hander to get a safety certificate.

Exactly what I thought on reading the headline. I don't frequent discos but I'd say that most department stores in Thailand wouldn't conform to any reasonable fire/safety regulations. Tukcom (previously Day & Night) in Pattaya is a disaster waiting to happen.

almost half of those surveyed at 49 per cent

Well now I know.... 49% is almost half.....thanks for telling me that

Further on in the Pattaya103 article

Several experts tell us that rather than looking at drainage, we should look at the rapid expansion of the city as a whole, where builders have created a concrete mass without grassland for natural drainage. The result of several decades of mass building has taken away a lot of the potential for natural drainage and left the current city management with a huge challenge.

Read more: http://www.pattaya103.com/rain-rain-go-away-pattaya-is-here-to-stay/#ixzz26s1WKiZ3

But it's the city management that control what the builders can or cannot concrete. So it's a self inflicted hereditary challenge caused in the main by corruption and greed.

Fixed sometime 3 - 4pm Monday. They owe me 7 - 8 hours.

Anybody else experiencing the same problem. DSL/link light on router has been flashing (disconnected/connecting) since 8am this morning (Mon Sept 17). Line was up (for an hour or so) and down (for an hour or so) all previous night. Tried 3 routers, all give same NO DSL signal report.

Sent this on my slower 3BB connection.

It does not say that the money is exhausted, it says that it has been distributed to the various State Agencies. Whether or not these Agenices have yet spent all their allocated funds is yet to be seen. It appears that there is still work in progress and funds yet to be spent as some State Agencies are behind on the flood prevention works.

yes, yes, yes, if only people would read more than just the headline. Particularly posts #2, #6 and #14

And how would they see behind the VPN IP address? People use VPN-generated IP addresses everyday to access websites....heck, I do it to access certain video streaming and govt sites in the U.S. Don't know what special sites you are trying to visit...hope you find a solution to your real IP address desire.

I think you'll find that most VPN like proxies can be detected. I know for sure that some private torrent sites ban VPN usage and would get kick you off if they found you using one. I have tried one VPN so far and it was detected and signup was not allowed.The sites I'm looking to use are in the OP, I suggest you go back and reread it. If you'd read my post #3 correctly you would not have made the mistake you did in your post #6. Trouble is everybody here seems to think I'm trying to HIDE my IP address and keep suggesting using VPN. That is NOT the case. To the sites I'm signing up I have to show the IP address given me by my Internet provider, in this case True. Trouble is True uses a proxy and that is detected and not allowed.

I have got round the problem by using a friends 3BB connection to signup and can now login using my True connection.

I think it is time to close this thread as its now obvious to me that nobody knows the answer to the original question.

I shall not be monitoring additional posts anymore.

Would using a VPN work?

I can bypass pretty much all fire-walls that try to restrict access to sites, or, viewing file types.

No. Most of the sites I'm talking about wouldn't let you use VPN either while signing up. They need to know your REAL IP address.

A VPN IP address is not a real IP address? The only difference is it's an IP address from the VPN service provider serving country/region XYZ versus an IP address from your local internet provider like here in Thailand. The only way for most people to access certain web sites in other countries, especially many video streaming web sites, is to have an IP address from that country/region which people usually get by using a VPN service....like StrongVPN which provides VPN servers in many countries. And some VPN services also have proxy servers that provide a different IP address without the VPN encryption.

Never said a VPN IP address is not a REAL IP address. Said it was not YOUR REAL address. Your real IP address is considered to be the one given you by your Internet service provider. Any other IP address that you may be hiding behind via a VPN or proxy is considered fake.

Still no solution ... just talk.

I hope they find the culprit who set the trap and rip his/her leg off.

Perhaps Thailand is looking to become the "Hub of Floods".

Thai Immigration Bureau to launch fast-track entry for tourists

So who gets the slow-track? Thai nationals!!

Port 81 will only work on sites that have a service that will respond to it. There are a few sites that do, but obviously the sites you're going for don't.

If all your traffic is routed across the VPN tunnel, the exit of the other side of the tunnel would be a real IP. The site wouldn't know the difference. It is not much different than using your router to get to the internet.

If your vpn isn't routing all the traffic or you're having to "jump" to the server at the other end of the vpn and try to execute a program, then no, it won't work.

While I can read what you've written I do not understand it. Where's the solution to the problem?

Would using a VPN work?

I can bypass pretty much all fire-walls that try to restrict access to sites, or, viewing file types.

No. Most of the sites I'm talking about wouldn't let you use VPN either while signing up. They need to know your REAL IP address.

Signing up for some website requires that you do not use any kind of proxy server. My True internet connection appears to be doing so and therefore I get blocked from signing up. A 3BB connection however does not use any kind of proxy so signing up for such sites is no problem. The sort of sites I'm talking about are "the box", "the empire", "cinema geddon". I guess most will understand the names. I'd rather not give URLs.

Once your signed up logging in for future visits seems to work if your on a proxy (True) or not (3BB).

What I'd like to know is has anybody found a workaround to True's proxy so signups can be made using them.

Some websites have said to use port 81 rather than the default port 80 for HTTP request as in http://www.thaturl.t...signup.php but I've never managed to make it work.

All help appreciated.....