gregk0543

"People will believe anything but if you tell them the truth they wont believe you." Quote from my father.

Anyway good to see the parents care for their children. Thats a good sign.

Pity we cant use these rituals to protect us from climate change and human destruction of the environment.

The evil spirits that have possessed humans seem to be indiscriminate and no one can stop them.

Ok we fitted the Pirelli MT60 RS Corsa tyres today. Was pretty hard to get them on and had to go down the local tyre store to pop the bead into place as we only had a hand pump at home. Go out to test them tomorrow.

http://pirelli.in.th/mt-60-rs-corsa-2/

Front is 120/70 R17 58V TL

Rear is 160/60 R17 69V TL

Pictures here

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4z0e2k76iq5m4f/2015-11-06%2016.17.51.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ymnsit3oljal1qh/2015-11-06%2016.19.18.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7ym7zgz1msn70d/2015-11-06%2016.18.23.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgyozgch05zk9d2/2015-11-06%2017.36.16.jpg?dl=0

A constitution has to consider the relationship between the state and religion and the best constitutions have a separation of the state and religion.

Choice of political organisation of the state is best left as the basis of a constitution. How do you give all people their rights? This is the real question and not how you create a biased political organisation favouring one group over another.

The best thing about the renunciation of the Buddha is that he gave up the worldly pursuits of power and politics in favour of a search for Truth and a way free from suffering. The path of the Buddha is not a political path but a guide to living and liberation from suffering.

What benefit is there to have a Sate Religion does it create harmony and peace or does it lead to a biased relationship of the individual and the state?

It is a well known fact that one of the side effects of drugs is psychosis.

In my own life I have seen many dope smokers undergo psychosis.

One of my friends who used lots of LSD and maybe mushrooms too never came back from his trip mentally.

He later died of a heart attack from using Speed after many years of drug use and repeated episodes in mental institutions.

I met one Italian in Nepal who lost the plot like this and he came back to ground a few weeks later.

I can rattle off a whole list of friends and associates which all eventually had mental problems from drug use.

So if I add up all the people I know who used drugs and the amount I know who ended up losing their sanity it is maybe less than 1 in 100 but whenever it happens it is tragic for all those in the immediate family.

There must be something fundamentally wrong with our cultures that people think that creating temporary insanity is a good thing. The cost in lives lost is high and the black economy and crime is also a major part of the world economy.

I am saddened that this poor girl has to learn all this the hard way. I hope she is able to find her sanity again and it does not lead to a lifetime of mental illness.

She is very lucky she did not lose her life so I hope she is able to find her mind again, which maybe drifting in a sea of confusion for a long time.

"It is a well known fact that one of the side effects of drugs is psychosis."

yes and it is "well-known" that the number one drug for this is alcohol....do you drink?

BTW - remember the plural of anecdote isn't data.

No I dont drink alcohol, but that is a whole other story that is not really part of this girls story. It is very rare for a person to take one drink of alcohol and become psychotic.

So drugs represent a different type of danger in my experience. Young people experiment with stuff. I did and I made it to here. Others I know it brought them down. I dont like banning things but the more knowledge out there the safer you are. I would never touch anything I thought could kill me like heroin, but stuff I thought was safer physically turns out not to be so mentally and I was not aware of this at the time.

But I have looked up some things on the net and found this.

"Psychosis affects three out of every 100 people. It is most likely to be diagnosed in young adults, but psychosis can happen to anyone." "http://www.healthline.com/health/psychosis#Overview1"

Pretty sobering thought?

It is a well known fact that one of the side effects of drugs is psychosis.

In my own life I have seen many dope smokers undergo psychosis.

One of my friends who used lots of LSD and maybe mushrooms too never came back from his trip mentally.

He later died of a heart attack from using Speed after many years of drug use and repeated episodes in mental institutions.

I met one Italian in Nepal who lost the plot like this and he came back to ground a few weeks later.

I can rattle off a whole list of friends and associates which all eventually had mental problems from drug use.

So if I add up all the people I know who used drugs and the amount I know who ended up losing their sanity it is maybe less than 1 in 100 but whenever it happens it is tragic for all those in the immediate family.

There must be something fundamentally wrong with our cultures that people think that creating temporary insanity is a good thing. The cost in lives lost is high and the black economy and crime is also a major part of the world economy.

I am saddened that this poor girl has to learn all this the hard way. I hope she is able to find her sanity again and it does not lead to a lifetime of mental illness.

She is very lucky she did not lose her life so I hope she is able to find her mind again, which maybe drifting in a sea of confusion for a long time.

It seems it should be time for the Burmese to show the superiority of their tolerant buddhist beliefs by practising accordingly, but instead their are people out there fanning the flames of the fear, anger and delusion that is the human condition.

Anyway being here on the ground in Yangon the mood is pretty sure that NLD will win and everyone I know seems to want to vote for them.

So like in any system with the choices of voting on offer this is maybe a lesser issue than it is being made out to be. Exit polls on prepoll voting have shown 90% in favour of NLD and you only need 51% to win. So the Ma Ba Tha is only succeeding in say a small percentage of the peoples minds.

Journos have to fill pages and there are a lot of things going wrong in this election which are all pointing back to the Govt not really wanting it to be fair.

But I think whatever they do this will be an NLD landslide.

Then the real fun begins as the NLD tries to change the course of the country from one run by people who care little really about their people to one that is working for the peoples interests.

So the really important issue is going to be who will hold the power after the election and they should be focussing on that issue. That is the crux of the election in my view.

My friend just went to Bangkok and wrote this back.

Perelli is delivering to my hotel. I bought the MT60 Corsa set because it was the only ones in stock. $358 for the set. The other tires with more nobby profiles will come in around late December so I couldn't wait.

We will see how they go. This is for a CRF250 M.

Took my CRF250M to the local "Pirelli" bike shop, and he had a look at the tyre sizes and ordered me in the tyres that ll2 mentioned.

I'll wait until they arrive and are on the bike before I confirm everything (TIT)

so they have something for m, huh?

yep, as i have seen some crf250ms at Burapha bike week and they were carrying dual purpose tires.

He (Shop owner) 'seemed' pretty switched on and confident. But I couldn't ask him if he was certain because of the language barrier. I just hope he didn't confuse my M for an L.

We shall see!!

How did it all turn out? I have a crf250m here in Myanmar and trying to source some tyres non road tyres for it???

Please update us all. On price and size and maybe a photo or two?

Visa available online-$50usd

The online visa cant be used at border entry. Can it?

Its open I drove it about a month ago. You will need a visa though from Bangkok Myanmar embassy.

Lets see who has the last laugh......after the election.

Not long to go and good to see these guys still making a living.

Why the govt in the past could not take a little brevity is a lesson in the serious nature of dictators and how sensitive they are to a little truth.

Hoping the election will bring another landslide for the NLD as it did in 1990 so we can move forward here, but still anxious as no one has seen a free and fair election in 50 years. Oh well not since 1990 then and wasnt fair what happened after that one.

The ministry of immigration website for Myanmar has still only 4 points listed.

http://www.mip.gov.mm/portfolio/permission-of-entry-into-and-departure-from-myanmar-thai-border-gates/

(a) Tachilek – Maisai

( Myawaddy – Mesok

© Htee Kee – Phunaron

(d) Kawthoung – Ranong

Have to have a visa to get in there no visa on arrival or online method.

I have been to Kawthoung, Myeik, Dawei, out of these the best for me was Dawei and the nearby Maungmakang beach. They are going to put a deep sea port just north of it and build a huge industrial park so it will slowly be destroyed but I liked that area because of the remoteness of that beach. I hired a motorbike and drove out there and beyond to some other point and pagoda. Recently other friends have gone there with a guide but I speak burmese so I get to explore a lot of places the guides dont know.

Sometimes its a dead end sometimes a great find. I have heard you can bus from Dawei to Mawlamyine and onto Yangon now.

But plenty of opportunities to explore in that area.

The DAN SINGKHON gate when it opens for all will really improve the access to that area.

But can you cross the border from Phracuap Kiri Khan to Myeik? Last time I went there it was not open to foreigners you need a visa to enter there. But that was 7 years ago. I crossed there and spoke to the Myanmar immigration and Military Intelligence post there. Thats as far as I got. Next time I flew Yangon to Dawei and then boat to Myeik and fly back to Yangon from there.

You can travel up from Kawthaung by boat to Myeik. You can travel to Dawei and then take a boat down the coast. Or fly Dawei to Myeik. If you had a visa you could travel to Dawei via thai border point of Htee Kee and then take boat or plane or even a bus now I think.

I will need to check if they have opened that Prachuap Kiri Khan border crossing. If they have then that is the most direct way.

My guess she panicked when she hit the gas instead of the brake..

and continued to hit the gas thinking it was the brake

she probably never touched the brake - see no brake marks

She refuses to take responsibility for her fault - my guess

CB

That is usually how is happens. They think they are pushing the brake when in fact they are pushing the accelerator and just push it harder. Does not take too long before car is in the air in a car park. And then they dont realise what has happened and blame google translate for the engrish.

It is the white mans tax. I live in myanmar. At the golf clubs I pay 5 times the local rate at most local clubs.

I compensate by hitting more strokes to get my money's worth.

OK so in the developed world we charge all the same and that price is still above the white mans tax price in Thailand or Myanmar.

It is discriminatory but the locals dont understand that. Thats how you treat minorities. Like minorities.

It is unfair and unjust but that is how the world works. We also compensate by keeping them out of our countries so that we can get paid higher wages and earn an income far greater than most people in the world. This gives us an advantage by owning the wealth and the means to create it. So is that fair?

So did they explain a motive? What was the point of the bombing. Just a pointless exercise in creating suffering for others?

Ok the good thing is there have been no bombings since so maybe Thailand is safe again?

Further to the math less statement we are being overun. Is this.

“There has been a lot of speculation about the growth of the Muslim population around the world, and many of those who speculate don’t have good data,” said Brian Grim, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum. “Instead of a runaway train, it’s trending with the general global population.”

Sourced from here.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/27/2-2-billion-worlds-muslim-population-doubles/

Ok so if you look at other important issues like climate change you will find that the whole worlds population is in overshoot and will be due for some kind of die back before 2100. It is likely that we could not even feed the 7 or 8 billion we already have on the planet by then.

My point is that Muslims arent going to overrun the planet in your lifetime. Or maybe never so I would be more interested in a graph with shows muslims parts per million over time as is done for CO2 than just a flimsy thought.

Please find one or make it and I would be most interested to see it.

Human population has been doubling over time for a long time now. The speed of doubling has increased over time but it is not going to double again in any time frame anyone can suggest. Lets say we have 7 billion now. It will never reach 14 billion. There is no projection anywhere to show it and not enough resources to support it.

When I was young and at school it was 3.5 billion and now it has doubled in my lifetime to 7.0 billion heading towards 10 or 11 in the future if climate change doesnt kill us all.

So my point is please show some maths to back up the argument which is really just an expression of primal fear rather than fact.

If die off happens you will be pleased to know that muslims will die in greater numbers than other religions because their overpopulation of land use dictates it.

So dont worry nature will take care of all or us we dont need to meddle.

Sorry, you still didn't address the problem of the Muslims having a large number of offspring and displacing the Buddhists and outnumbering them.

This is a very simplistic argument so I would like you to do some mathematics and present it here to prove your ideas that this is of some concern.

When I came to Myanmar 35 years ago the population of muslims was 5% and now 35 years later I think it is still 5%.

Actually I did some checking it is 4% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Myanmar

Ok so please show us some maths to prove your point. In 50 or 100 years time what will be the percentage of muslims in Myanmar?

Show us how this outnumbering of myanmar is more than a badly thought out opinion not even based on a single piece of maths.

Where is the maths please?

"The latest piece of evidence is a video clip taken from a restroom at Lumpini park showing a man who looks like Karadag in front of the toilet"

"Personally, he said he did not believe the report as Karadag was smaller than the suspected bomber."

what exactly is he measuring here? a rather unorthodox interrogation method? Sounds like an identity parade is needed....

Ok it is time for a re-enactment. Dress him up put him infront of the same security cameras that filmed him in same positions and see how close the images come out.

Thats the first simple test. Same time, same conditions same cameras then compare.

The way he sits walks etc.

I have read the press realese above and the guilt is there he admits it has regret yes but he admitted to the crime you can not compare the other case re Chinese loggers that's just straw clutching. I belive my first post still stands he did the crime now he can do the time. And before it comes back but this and but that and he didn't intend to insult anyone the fact is he did and got caught well I say caught trapped himself on FB.

The other two Burmese did not do the crime and are doing time.

Mr Blackwood uploaded the image but it was not intended to insult religion. So it is a point of law that maybe he is innocent. The other two burmese who had no connection to the offence except they ran the same bar and had no knowlege of what Mr Blackwood did are surely a little bit innocent.

The 150 chinese did the crime and are not doing time.

How is that clutching at straws? It is a great example of the lack of justice in the justice system.

A great example of a lack of compassion in the justice system.

But maybe you dont notice it.

I once saw a Minister in the govt of Myanmar and his wife put in jail for 7 years for importing an electronic organ without a permit.

He actually attempted a coup but this is what they charged him with.

Can you see why the chinese loggers should be given an amnesty by the President whereas Mr Blackwood who has been in Jail since last December maybe would be a worthier recipient of compassion?

In a sea of lies the only thing that floats is truth.

Ok our Kiwi was charged with what? “insulting religion”. This requires intent of which he had none. Read his own remarks.

Two other myanmar were also charged and they did not even upload the image or have any knowlege or intent.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2957030/Wait-goes-bar-manager-arrested-held-Myanmar-insulting-Buddhism-posted-picture-psychedelic-Buddha-wearing-headphones-Facebook.html

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/myanmar-buddha-bar-verdict-a-blow-to-freedom-of-expression/

Ok chinese were given life sentences not death sentences.

http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/editorial/life-sentences-153-chinese-loggers-should-be-reconsidered

They were released a few weeks later.

http://mizzima.com/news-opinion/presidential-amnesty-more-anger-benefit-releasing-chinese-loggers

So in summary. There are 3 innocent people in jail over the trumped up charge of insulting religion which never was the intent of the bar manager.

Over 150 Chinese illegally logging in Myanmar who were guilty and given life sentences are released 2 weeks after sentencing.

I rest my case. This does not sound like justice to me. But you are free to disagree.

I am a Buddhist and I am offended by the lack of compassion or understanding shown by the Myanmar courts in Mr Blackwood's case. They are using it for a political purpose and it is not a case any Buddhist could be proud of or feel that justice was served.

But we all know how the TV judges and jury have an open mind and love to troll it up. May all involved be happy and free from suffering.

Really he did not commit a crime and has been falsely convicted.

Recently illegal chinese loggers were given the death sentence in Myanmar only to be released and deported to China a few weeks later.

So please compare these two cases. If the NZ govt. made a fuss he would be released.

He has been made a good enough example of. Hopefully after the Nov 8th election the new NLD govt. will release him.

wow. What an amazing thread.

"I am the owner of my own kamma, the heir to my own kamma, my own kamma is the cause of whatever happens to me.

Whatever kamma I do good or bad of that I will become the heir."

If there is justice in the world this is the only way it would work for surely some humans are always thinking that stealing someone elses wealth will make them happy.

I have seen them become rich but not happy.

If this happened to me would it be because of my own bad kamma I have done in this life or in the past?

Would I have enough good kamma to pick myself up and keep going?

There is no justice in courts but there maybe justice in the court room of life. ..... Unless you see the whole story over time maybe you do not see the whole story.

And to finish off the story the latest from Sea Shepherd. Which says the cargo was reloaded onto the ship 5 months ago and now all has disappeared.

What a joke.

http://www.seashepherdglobal.org/news-and-commentary/news/interpol-wanted-poaching-vessel-kunlun-and-its-illegal-catch-escape-from-thailand.html

Then we know from this that the original crew were freed and a replacement indonesian crew was installed.

"The captain of the Kunlun has apparently escaped and returned to Peru. Agents from the Spanish company Vidal Armadores were in Phuket, working behind the scenes in their attempts to clear the ship and its cargo.

The good news is that the investigation in Phuket is being led by Police Lt. Col. Panya Chaichana of the Marine Police who has been leading investigations of human trafficking on fishing vessels; he has a good record.

The shipping company seems to be complicit in this illegal operation despite their denials."

Source http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2015/04/01/thailand-must-confiscate-the-kunlun-and-its-cargo-696

Looks like the fish will be in US restuarants and the ship will head to Indonesia and back to the antartic. It is going up for time for illegal fishing season soon.