Cluey

I didnt say he went through a police check, he rode past it, it hardly ever operates as they are all sitting inside where it is cool. I take it that you are one of the gun lobby rednecks that think everyone should carry a weapon or dont you care who carries a gun or why. AS far as I know it is illegal to carry firearms in most western countries especially when it is so openly displayed as this was.

Don't know about "most western" countries, but in the US - which I assume you're talking about with your redneck reference - it's much more acceptable to openly carry weapons. Carrying them concealed often requires a more stringent license.

And there is widespread support for the right to bear arms among high-income well-educated city dwellers there, not just "rednecks" whatever that may mean to you. Many would like to see curbs on automatic weapons and more stringent controls, but few Americans think the 2nd amendment should be completely repealed.

Just as we're willing to accept the death toll from allowing cigarettes, alcohol and private cars, there are tradeoffs, and the US is a democracy perhaps almost as much as Thailand and the UK, when enough people want to reduce deaths by guns the laws will get passed.

I'm looking at my kids' Thai passports right now, and see there is a Passport Number, top right on the ID page as well as in the perforations.

There is also an "Identification" number which is different, and since they're too young to be issued the normal Thai ID card, assume it's unrelated to that.

And finally along the bottom is the OCR strip, composed of a passport number followed by "1THA" then date of birth, sex and a long number after that.

Nothing about inventory anywhere I can see, but maybe one or the other - most likely the last OCR one is referred to that way in the gov. computer system internally?

Direct confrontation by an outsider is pretty much guaranteed to not be helpful, more likely to compound the problem.

Not a question of courage, more of how to try to solve the problem effectively.

I totally agree about careful sourcing yielding good savings.

If you can find a "Bangkok Ham" shop, their smoked "Paris ham" is around B250 a kilo and much nicer than domestic hams you get other places. Thinly sliced with some nice cheese - decent parmesan available bulk by the kilo around B1,200, lots cheaper than the plastic Kraft crap.

But it can't be denied, basic food stuffs have greatly increased in price, and not just farang-style imported goods.

In fact I'd say the more essential local foods purchased by normal (poor) Thais at the wet markets have increased in price most of all, and just like back home, real wages haven't kept up at all.

Imagine trying to support a family on on B8,000 a month all up just to put the issue in perspective.

No shame in a little belt-tightening if you can afford double that in one trip to the grocery store.

Retaliation is a poor remedy. Better to fix the problem. If your wife can not persuade the rest of the locals to get together and sort it with the head man and/or police, then you are stuck with it.

Or just move, if you rent easy peasy, if not then more difficult and expensive, som nam na.

But some people prefer conflict scenarios, gives them stimulation otherwise missing in their lives.

Buddha is not supposed to be prayed to for success, He is supposed to be a guide to lead yourself on your own path to a better life.

pray to him day and night and the money will not rain down.

Most Thais, including monks, don't practice any kind of "pure" Buddhism, after 2440+ years that's probably even harder to find than a "pure" Christian religion as Jesus intended.

That's why I used to the plural for religions, Buddhist practice here mixed in with those from Hinduism, especially royal ceremonies, and among the common people the animist beliefs that were here long before any Buddhist missionaries arrived.

Before you slyly try to slip in little digs about what bars I frequent I don't, There is no need to turn a discussion into cowardly attacks.

I don't think there's anything wrong with you or anyone else visiting whatever bars, brothels or sex toy vendors you happen to fancy. Or remaining celibate if you prefer, up to you, no offense intended.

Yes it's done here but if you aren't already an expert you're a braver man than I gunga din to take up the sport here.

I'd say do your learning and proper certification in a more developed country and then take fully responsibility for your equipment etc yourself rather than relying on others trained in Thailand.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9686182/Microlight-instructor-dies-after-crash-while-scattering-friends-ashes.html

Same goes with SCUBA, not sure which is more dangerous.

But I'm sure many working in the industry here would disagree.

legalise it, fine, but don't BS me and say they are decent girls, talk true just one time.

legalise it, fine, but don't BS me and say they are decent girls, talk true just one time.

There is no objective factual reality of meaning behind the word "decent", you are just expressing your embedded cultural programming, probably from your family's religious background that you disapprove of people in that business.

I on the other hand have known many wonderful caring and moral sex workers, fellow students, close friends, ex-wives and co-workers freelancing on the side.

I would much rather my children spend time in their company than most Wall Street bankers and lawyers, police and politicians I know, even engage in that profession themselves if they so choose as long as they're smart about it, much less risky to their morality and sanity than say signing up to be a soldier these days.

So that's my "talking true", hoping you'll open your mind a little bit.

Sorry to be a pain, but this is one more strike against Thailand. If the workers are a protected species who wants to employ them? There must be a balance in Gov't caring for Business and for workers. Now I understand why so many employers to date prefer Cambodia/Lao/Burma as labour source.

Actually it's just a matter of knowing the laws where you're doing business and factoring them into your practices and cost models.

In this case I think the laws' very fair, when you terminate someone a little severance pay is due. If you've employed them for a long time they are due more severance. If someone isn't working out well, determine that early on and put in a good effort to bring them up to snuff or let them go early on before the severance grows too big.

would a sex shop post a giant crucifix out front.

Worship yes, but there is a time and place, you don't put them in a sex shop, It does not even fit in to the teachings so it's counter productive anyway.

Perhaps the owners of the sex shops you frequent aren't religious?

Are you telling me you've never seen working girls from say Ireland or South America wearing crosses or displaying them in their rooms? Do you really think sex workers shouldn't show signs of their devotion to Christ just because of their profession? What would Jesus say?

Thais integrate their religions into their daily lives even more than Catholics, and what you might think of those beliefs or their profession isn't really of concern to them I'm sure.

I do not think that it is ambiguous nor a UK versus US language difference. Of the various web pages on the subject cited in this topic the consensus I see is that

• 12am and 12pm should not be used
• when they are used, 12am means midnight and 12pm means noon

I agree.

If it turns out there is actually a near-consensus on this issue (excluding the OP unless he's been convinced) then that would be a first for TV.com I think and deserves a celebration.

I think there is nothing at all wrong with the various forms of "prostitution" between consenting adults - the more neutral term these days is "sex work", also including exotic dancing, and all these should be legalized and lightly regulated to enforce age of consent and health concerns and prevent trafficking and other exploitation.

Therefore I think there's nothing wrong with allowing Thais abroad to work in the sex industry, unless you don't like them competing with the locals.

Putting people into black-and-white categories like "good girls" on the one hand, and "lying dishonest bad ones" on the other is very lazy thinking, and of course unfair to all the morally upright honest kind sex workers out there.

I've got to be honest, I'm all in favour of Thais studying abroad, in fact the more people exposed to another culture the better. I would just prefer that the Thais don't go about setting up brothels and threatening lecturers with bats if they get bad grades.

Your impertinence is not appreciated Cluey.

Probably someone who is well-known and/or liked by the local cops, most likely an off-duty cop or soldier, perhaps of rank.

In which case he's pretty safe in his belief that the letter of the law doesn't apply to him.

Editor of the The Washington Post might disagree with you if you were his journalist.

A respectful plea for care please.

In which case (pretty far-fetched I must say) I'd probably start looking for another job.

I started this Topic with the hope of discussing, from a sociological standpoint, the impact corporal punishment in Thai schools has on maintaining the status quo here. People learn an unhealthy fear of authority here, which perpetuates the status divide between the educated and the "educated".

And I think most Thais consider that situation the way things should be, at best give abstract ideals of "equality" lip service only.

Most Thais think that teachers and parents should use corporal punishment, that children need to be taught to fear those senior to them because the concept we call "respect" cannot be separate from fear in Thai culture. Hence the difficulty in translating "kreng jai", it's not out of consideration of anyone, but includes fear of consequences and only applies "upstream" in the hierarchy.

We see it time and again, like in the Youtube video of the university professor smacking two women during a traffic dispute. He was fined 1000 baht, I think, for what was outright assault. It is accepted that a person in authority can get away with such behavior, in their dealings with the small people.

But two issues here - many serious crimes are subject to what we would consider laughably small penalties.

And "assault" isn't considered serious if it doesn't result in real injury, not like back home where just touching someone could in theory be assault.

I interpret your point of view as thinking that Thailand "should be" more like the west, rather than accepting that many things you think are bad are simply the way things are, and when enough Thai people believe that the consequences of those beliefs are bad enough then they'll change.

But what we foreigners may think is in my opinion just a failure to accept different ways of doing things and thinking our ways are superior by default.

Point taken. Just be careful how a reader might construe though Cluey in the brief moment of reading posts on social media. Cheers.

If I take the time to phrase my posts carefully, it's not my problem if careless readers misunderstand.

Because westerners need cheering up, while the Thais are from our point of view unaccountably "too happy".

Thanks Cluey. While you are doing your thinking do me a favour please and not make pronouncements that could be construed by others as facts.

All the best.

The fact is indisputable, that **I think** the same truths apply back home, just not as universally.

Never buy, only rent.

Yes, I'll go along with both things being completely normal.

The clothes thing for sure for anything touching my skin, probably wouldn't do so for a jacket to be worn over long sleeves, especially if it means dry cleaning.

And I'd say blunt knives get used maybe 1% of the time in our house, my kids for spreading stuff on bread that's all, so if someone asked me for a knife I'd assume by default they wanted a sharp one.

I'd say the OP is a very lucky man to have such a patient and tolerant wife.