francescoassisi

One of the main tenets of the Treaty of Rome (now the EU) was the free movement of labour. Nearly every time this happened in the EU someone started moaning. It remains to be seen if the same happens in ASEAN. If it doesn't the demographics could be completely different from anything prophecied here.

I am unsure whether to belive the statistics and esp the projections.

Factors that may greatly alter all the age cohorts

1 War and while North Korea isnt expected soon Thailand has had conflicts internal and with all of its neighbours plus major conflicts in Burma,Shan and Malaysia could splill over.A China India nuclear exchange could be as deadly as smoking or the MacFodda diet,

2 Earthquakes,Tsunamis and other natural events are unpredictable.

3 Public Health epideics could hit any age ,young form peri-natal or school transmission

4 The sexually active could succumb to a more virulent transmission or be eaten by internal parasites.

4 Geriatrics may be more prone to bird flu and other outbreaks while better pensions may lead to longevity etc.I believ no longtitudinal study has been done on premature mortality due to drug abuse esp YabbaDabba don;t.

5 Birth rates and fertility can all rise and fall for religiuos ,cultural and economic reason as the1 child policy.

6 Mass immigration or emigration always taked a while to be recognized just as USA has sucked inillegals this may occur if Thailand booms inAsean and will be encouraged by employers and corruption.

7 Equally if ASEAN leads to far higher incomes in Anglopone Malaysia or the sleeping dragon that is Indonesia Thais might head there or anywhere they can ,Yinan ,Inda if things are really dire at home due to endless corruption.

I claim no specal knowledge but forecasting seems to have along way to go in a country that has problems with such new fangled stuff as water and 3G.

As they discovered in Ireland when Lloyd George gave first 'free 'old age pensions folks will attempt to collect indefinately.

As developed economies have realized you can always import folks be they sexpats ,Royhingha or workers if you have the carrots.

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Off to the funeral of a lovely old peasant who had 5 kids 2 wives and enjoyed 88 years without a car,vote or gun to help him survive 88 summers.

Have to say most of this is nonsense. The factors described above are largely erroneous but would apply to all nations rather than Thailand in particular, so nothing relatively would change.

How many Thais do you know who save regularly,how many have car or bike insurance not to mention health insurance,how many have a business acumen that fosters repeat custom,how many put away a little for their children's education,how many have a career plan?

Abraham Lincoln said...

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

A Thai would most probably spend the first 2 hours making som tam the next 2 eating it and a further 4 hours sleeping off the full stomach under the trees shade,he'd make an excuse about the tree being sacred and thus could not be felled-and still demand payment, after all, he's got HIS future to consider!

Bike, car insurance, health insurance, boy are you ignorant !

Do you realize, that most of the Thais live below poverty level, with less then 10,000 THB a month to live on.

With this money they have to raise kids, pay food, rent, monthly payments on motorcycles, gas, school bills etc.

You try that !!

The most lazy people I know in this country are fellow ex-pats living of the benefits they receive from their home countries hanging out in sleazy bars every night drinking on a budget.

It is very easy to judge, when you are born in a country with a system in place, that provides you with certain securities and arrangements (like pensions etc.) as long as you work a regular job, for a boss, for a certain time in your life.

Not much thinking about YOUR future required there, is it now.

Both culture and lack of welfare mean that S.E. Asia has some of the highest rates of saving percent of income in the world.

Even at low income levels people save for the inevitable rainy day. Just look at the preponderance of gold shops and ask yourself why.

Probably someone was rubbing his hands together, and thinking of the profit when he sells those tusk. The elephant was worth much more dead, than alive. Lets see if there are any tusk on display, in a years time.

Happens in the wild all the time, that's how evolution works. I don't think there is someone standing by with tranquillizer darts just in case, and the chemical in them is severely regulated to prevent abuse. It's good to keep them under lock and key.

Yep, survival of the fitness and the fitter, younger guy won.

It's unbelieveable that they were not prepared for this.

It should make one think twice about taking joy rides on these massive beasts. I took a ride around the Sanctuary of Truth on an elephant a few weeks ago - it's a long way to fall.

In the wild an older wiser elephant might keep out of the way of a "mad" young bull thus passing on his more intelligent genes. However the park is anything but natural and a clash like this should never have been allowed to happen. It begs the question of if they even have enough skills or knowledge to be running the place at all.

Over 60s???

Compared to the "West" these percentage figures are small. I think that drawing conclusions in isolation is not really reliable enough....the whole picture needs to be seen in comparison with other SE ASIAN countries and in a world context. You might also look at retirement ages elsewhere and benefit liabilities by governments

There seems to be a plethora of ever more fantastic allegations and very little evidence of real progress.

It really doesn't help if people keep going to press with these theories or whatever they are. Just arrest and charge the suspects and then tell your stories to the courts. The papers can publish the stories then.

Happens in the wild all the time, that's how evolution works. I don't think there is someone standing by with tranquillizer darts just in case, and the chemical in them is severely regulated to prevent abuse. It's good to keep them under lock and key.

No it doesn't. Elephants are aggressive in these situations but in the wild the extra space usually prevents fatalities.

That they become violent is well known and to leave these animals in a position where they can break free and fight is just the result of appalling management.

Heads should roll as a result of this.

The problem is not with the vaccine but the ability of the Thai medical industry to produce and administer it.

There are literally hundreds is websites that rail against vaccinations for one reason or another...some use religion, mysterious "energies' or pseudo science..but none of them have any real scientific basis for this.

It is difficult to sort the real from the butter or scam, but it is also a common mistake by many to confuse "big pharma" with good science km and then jump to illogical conclusions about real science that may save your life.

Was Hitler vaccinated?

I heard he tried to vaccinate himself against high speed projectiles, but the vaccination shot killed him.

Ah the Godwin syndrome.......

The post against vaccination is both ignorant and dangerous. The poster is confusing association with cause and effect.

Let's hope this doesn't follow the usual pattern of the henchmen taking the rap and the high ranking official being released due to "lack of evidence'

Any links claimed with autism have been totally Disgraced. Please keep up with the reality.

To all those who fell for the nonsense about not getting vaccinations - just take a look at South Wales.

Not getting vaccinised puts others at risk as well as yourself.

'The experts' ..... Is that how it seems to Sayonarax? I guess some people are more interested in the messenger than the message. But I guess if you find the message difficult then it's easier to jibe at the messenger?

coral degradation is 1) everyones problem and 2) threatened by numerous activities - as suggested here. However the biggest issue for all seas and therefore all life on earth is excessive CO2 emissions where the brunt of the increase in the atmosphere is taken by the ocean as our biggest CO2 sink. The pH of the ocean is usually (or for a long time has been) approximately 8.2 this is increasing and already has to over 8.3, not that large until you realise that pH ( the power of Hydrogen) is a log scale and therefore this .1 increase is already a significant increase in ocean acidity. When excessive CO2 in the oceans exists the calcifying organisms will not be able to produce exoskeletons due to the change of the chemistry in the water, this includes corals and all shellfish etc. If we break our oceans we on land reduce significantly our oxygen production and alter our climate, as well as the more obvious loss of food stocks, potential medical resources etc. Just because CO2 emissions really are the overall worldwide biggest issue that does mean that on a small scale the lesser acts of reef trampling, using hotels that chuck out sewage directly to the sea and making unconscious consumer choices are OK because there are bigger issues caused by others elsewhere. Everyone makes a difference and the ocean is the pit of most of wrongdoings and although recoverable from certain things no-one yet knows what ocean acidification will do other than possibly finish all world reefs in 40 years and whether there will be a recovery through heat resistant species of coral such as those mentioned already that have been found in the Red Sea. One thing is for sure though, even if you have never even seen the sea if it breaks it effects us all.[/quote

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Although i agree with you outline that CO2 is the problem i'm not so sure about your science. Surely a rise in Ph means the sea is becoming LESS acidic?

As I understand it the oceans don't have a uniform pH but is it the more base or acidic they become the greater the problems?

coral degradation is 1) everyones problem and 2) threatened by numerous activities - as suggested here. However the biggest issue for all seas and therefore all life on earth is excessive CO2 emissions where the brunt of the increase in the atmosphere is taken by the ocean as our biggest CO2 sink. The pH of the ocean is usually (or for a long time has been) approximately 8.2 this is increasing and already has to over 8.3, not that large until you realise that pH ( the power of Hydrogen) is a log scale and therefore this .1 increase is already a significant increase in ocean acidity. When excessive CO2 in the oceans exists the calcifying organisms will not be able to produce exoskeletons due to the change of the chemistry in the water, this includes corals and all shellfish etc. If we break our oceans we on land reduce significantly our oxygen production and alter our climate, as well as the more obvious loss of food stocks, potential medical resources etc. Just because CO2 emissions really are the overall worldwide biggest issue that does mean that on a small scale the lesser acts of reef trampling, using hotels that chuck out sewage directly to the sea and making unconscious consumer choices are OK because there are bigger issues caused by others elsewhere. Everyone makes a difference and the ocean is the pit of most of wrongdoings and although recoverable from certain things no-one yet knows what ocean acidification will do other than possibly finish all world reefs in 40 years and whether there will be a recovery through heat resistant species of coral such as those mentioned already that have been found in the Red Sea. One thing is for sure though, even if you have never even seen the sea if it breaks it effects us all.[/quote

]

Although i agree with you outline that CO2 is the problem i'm not so sure about your science. Surely a rise in Ph means the sea is becoming LESS acidic?

As I understand it the oceans don't have a uniform pH and the more base they become the greater the problems?

I thought is was the decrease in pH that was the problem?

Sucessfully growing coral is no new thing, but it has to be lauded. It can of course be sold commercially.

However growing coral and just plonking it back in the area it came from without addressing the root causes of its initial destruction seems to be a particularly pointless exercise to me.

I get the impressing that rather than have any real substance, a lot of these type of press releases are largely to generate a "feel-good" image for the rather limited range of Thai conservation efforts

Of course, because it is only Thai and not farang made it must lacking real substance, right?

Wrong but being a Thai government project might lead one to believe it will not happen. Also I believe it has already been developed in other parts of the world. This is just the reinventing of the wheel.

Have you seen there new infrastructure plan for 2.2 trillion baht. All of a sudden it only goes part way to Chiang Mai and they are expecting the private sector to pick up a lot of the cost for the final two segments of the project. And you are willing to swallow any thing they say hook line and sinker.

it is not a government project. the current government has nothing to do with it.

Its a reseach project in it 5th year by the Chulalongkorn University in collaboration with the Plant Genetic Conservation Project, initiated by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the Royal Thai Fleet's Naval Special Warfare Command, and Japan's Akajima Marine Science Laboratory.

Sucessfully growing coral is no new thing, but it has to be lauded. It can of course be sold commercially.

However growing coral and just plonking it back in the area it came from without addressing the root causes of its initial destruction seems to be a particularly pointless exercise to me.

I get the impressing that rather than have any real substance, a lot of these type of press releases are largely to generate a "feel-good" image for the rather limited range of Thai conservation efforts

Of course, because it is only Thai and not farang made it must lacking real substance, right?

He said it would, however, be many years before this method had a

strong positive impact on rehabilitating reefs, hence other factors

causing reef damage needed to be tackled.

Rising sea temperatures and the impact from tourism are thought to be the two main culprits in destruction of coral.

Here I thought much of this damage was caused from garbage, untreated sewage, and hazardous chemicals being dumped in to the rivers and sea.

Good thing Yingluck has the TAT looking for better quality tourists then. The coral will now flourish.

Tourism is undoubtedly one of the reasons for reef degradation, mangrove forests cut down to make space for resorts lead to the coastal reefs being killed by silt, for example. Untreated sewage from tourist towns, trampling on the corals by clueless tourists, over fishing to feed them, etc, etc... There are many causes for the ecological damage, it's not helpful to deny any of them.

Anyway, good to know that they are working and having success in breeding corals, maybe they could do research on heat resistant zooxanthellae (the symbiotic algae that live within the corals) to help prevent bleaching events from high water temperatures.

well fishing, if not for feed tourists would be to export fish. I doubt that the tourists cause more fishing. Trampling on corals might be a very minor problem. Untreated sewage....I would say it is because the tourists money is used for corruption instead of waste water management.

Actually the only reason to protect corals in Thailand are that these strange farangs don't come anymore when they are broken and dive shops are the only one that complain all the time about the fishing in protected areas.

"I doubt that the tourists cause more fishing." Pattaya was a fishing village

I think one or two posters might need to think around the subject of "impact of tourism"

copy coral made from plastic will last for thousands of years....

so will real coral if you treat it right!

Thailand continues to be a hub - Yet more creatures intercepted.

The Thai man involved is a repeat offender.

http://boingboing.net/2013/04/02/thailand-13-of-endangered-to.html