Saradoc1972

11 hours ago, NanLaew said:

I really wasn't aware that loss of face was such a strong German trait.

Depends. Had one American guy abducted by the US around 1990, no reaction at all. Well, a letter of complaint or some such, but nothing formal.

37 minutes ago, simple1 said:

Face it, you obviously don't know why the Convention came into being and the benefits of orderly and agreed processes for managing asylum seekers, nothing to do with being 'lefty'. Only 30 countries worldwide accept positively vetted asylum seekers, reducing intake will intensify the refugee problems for host countries, the large majority being outside of the Western sphere. thereby the potential for increased conflict.

Convention was agreed on in 1951, it obviously was signed under the impression of WW2 and, for example, Jewish refugees being turned back to their certain doom. As is evident from the 1967 amendment (which e.g. the US did not sign), where the idea of accepting refugees was expanded beyond what the original convention referred to, don't make me look it up, as "recent events", as seen from 1951. And nothing much else.

And it does allow refugees of war to cross into the next adjacent country with immunity from legal sanctions for crossing that border without permit (Turkey does not seem to oblige here with its border fortifications; might again have to do with the present bout of terrorism and suicide bombers), but not do an extended tour of the world. Like from Central America through the US to Canada, or through half a dozen countries to Germany or Britain. And there very definitely is nothing in there about camping in Morocco to skirmish with Moroccan or Spanish police, or throwing stuff on French motorways to make lorries slow and crawl aboard them. And bashing drivers' heads in.

And I maintain nobody back then thought of anyone, masses indeed, abusing naval law to get rescued from inflatable plastic toy-boats in the Meds, when that would normally be just obvious suicide. And there definitely is nothing in there about being immune to deportation, factually, for lacking papers and having home countries glad to be rid of them and them sending remissions home. Does not sound like a 1951 or 1967 thing.

And I sadly have stopped caring about who is a genuine refugee or an economic refugee when effective and truthful clearing and screening can no longer be done for the sheer masses forcing their way over borders in total disregard of existing legal venues (you can actually approach the border checkpoints of Ceuta and Melilla to apply for asylum, just Moroccan police will limit the number of people going there per day, so the Spanish can actually cope) and people losing eyes and limbs when attacked. And there is the old Muslim problem, sorry to bring it up again, it's only you don't get just the sweet ones.

Shuriken?

The problem is that Europe has walled itself in a plethora of "human rights" legislation that will be hard to curtail or reverse. Most of that, the ECHR from 1953, the Geneve Convention from 1957, were not made for this sort of situation(s). And the Court of Human Rights has developed, i.e. widened,  its interpretation of what is the extend of a human right laid down in that convention to things and extends never intended by the democratically legitimated lawmakers and governments that once signed it, all the time ascertaining its jurisdiction over an ever greater gamut of things.. A bit like the German Constitutional Court, but at least that can be fixed to some extend and the judges acknowledge changing circumstances and pressing needs.

The situation in Ceuta and Melilla is ridiculous. Win the right to apply for asylum if you can make 3x6m hurdles and dodge or strike down guards to get both feet on Spanish soil to then cry touchdown!. 10000s of people camping wild in the surrounding hills, Spain paying the Moroccan government to shoo them away or prevent hundreds of them making a prearranged sally, and from time to time deport them down south to the desert to never be heard from or of. So Morocco is using the truncheons, tear gas and guns, Spain is prohibited from using effectively, demanding ever more ransom to do so, or Spain gets swarmed like that. That is at least the third time this year, maybe including the Christmas week before, when they know fewer numbers of Spanish guards to be on patrol because of the holidays. I recall one Spanish police officer having lost an eye last time, probably hit by a rock or a rebar when trying to fend the illegals off. They can't even use rubber bullets by now, because one guy drowned trying to swim (which he couldn't) past the wall Spain had to build into the shore. And he wasn't even actually hit by one. Likewise had to take down the razor wire from the fences as people started intentionally cutting themselves up so bad they knew they would be taken to a Spanish hospital once down the fence. It is these peoples' human rights against those of the officers guarding the area.

Will get worse by the day unless Spain (and everybody else) scraps legislation or international accords everybody knows are from a bygone era where there were no inflatable dinghies, no GPS positioning, no mobile phones, and much less overpopulation and welfare for the take in the world. Plain statement: there is no asylum in Ceuta and Melilla, go play American Gladiator with obstacles and fences elsewhere. You make it past the fences, it's just back to Morocco, you hurl rocks at our guards, tell the Red Cross in Morocco where the evil man shot you. You can't shoot at people? Oh yes, you can. It's being done in France and Germany when somebody acts up with a knife or gun, just sadly not at the borders but inside our cities.

I don't like Brexit one bit, and I rue Britain leaving the EU. But I realize Brexit being the one sensible thing to do as things stand, with hordes of so-called refugees beleaguering Britain at Calais and the prospect of a million plus mostly Muslim newly fangled EU-citizens wanting legal entry. The EU has so far been a splendid idea bringing about the much-vaunted unprecedented era of peace in Europe, you might blame that on NATO as well, doesn't make any difference. Just things got out of hands with the ECJ as a "motor" of integration, where nation states ended upü much surprised with what they supposedly had signed up to, and the ECHR likewise conjuring up rulings on supposed rights with no democratic backing. So it's a good thing Britain is getting out of that, will set an example for other states, the old Habsburg union first and foremost, which might, hopefully will, lead to sweeping reforms with regards to both EU and the ECHR, and things eventually falling into place. And Britain somehow staying in there or coming back in after what is promised to be a rather rough ride, but just temporary.

Yep. They will do that and more at Tukcom. Sony Xperia tablet of mine had a broken screen. First shop you run into on first floor fixed it, costly at 6000 Baht, but that money is alright considering the work they had to do on a watertight device and the cost of that screen alone. 4 days wait, no complaints.

I don't know about full-time volunteer work, or how that is paid. Thing I do know is that you need a work permit even for unpaid work, work being what you do on a regular basis, i.e. not as a private service limited in scale and in singular instances. Be very careful here, you never know when the local chief of police gets it in his head to polish his badge with a totally over-the-top massive action against whatever. In lieu of a work permit you can have an exemption by immigration for a very limited scale of activities.

One starting point, this would not be for the full-scale activities you seems to pursue, might be PCEC, the Pattaya City Expat Club in Pattaya, we're doing regular charitable activities, mostly having to do with the English language, and there are contacts with immigration in Banglamung to get above exemptions for free, charitable work. Link to website.

There are also contacts to the local orphanage, The Father Ray Foundation, which might be a starting point, they are sorta big. Maybe ask PCEC whom to contact there. Even if you don't really prefer to do teaching/babysitting, they will undoubtedly have contacts with charitable institutions across the country for all sorts of things. Maybe ask there, they have some English-speaking staff. Link to website.

Or maybe try Cambodia, they will have more need for volunteers and regulations are more easy-going to non-existent.

On 5/5/2017 at 9:05 AM, ubonjoe said:

A cheap medical certificate from a clinic wout be accepted. A police clearance certificate can only be applied for in Bangkok and it takes about a month to get it.

Perhaps he could do a statement at the UK embassy stating he is retired.

Unless he has already done 2 visa exempt entries at a border crossing this year he should not have a problem getting one.

I suggest he contact his local immigration office about doing an application to get a 90 day non immigrant visa (category O) entry based upon qualifying for an extension based upon retirement. There have been reports of several offices that could not do them before doing them now.

 

Out of interest... how is a police clearance certificate applied for? Where is that police station located?

I have come across the webpage of theirs, but it all sounds like gobbledygook to me. Do I (or can I) appear there in person, will they send the report to a Thai address? 

Yawn. Nice polls. Has anybody noted how it's going to end in a CDU/SPD grand coalition Merkel IV?

Not enough for anything else, no matter how you calculate. SPD+Greens+Linke are around 45%, Greens being on the way down. Would need another 3% minimum for all three put together to make for a highly volatile leftist coalition. Which would blow within weeks, if you know anything about the Greens or the Linke.

"Ampel"-coalition, i.e. traffic-light, Red-Yellow-Green, SPD-FDP-Green. Even less votes. Plus FDP and Greens or Linke don't play ball with each other. Has sorta worked once in a state, but not recommended on federal level.

"Schwarze Ampel" or Jamaica, i.e. the same with centrist-right CDU instead of centrist-left SPD? Could just be enough maths-wise, CDU are going to get additional seats from a complicated calculation under the personalized-proportional electoral system in Germany. While a coalition of CDU and Greens so far works in Baden-Württemberg and Hessia the Greens in Berlin are different and don't go by the name of Kretschmann, but rather Göring-Eckardt or Roth. I don't see that coming, honestly. IF (that is a big if) both Greens and FDP even make it over the 5% hurdle in the general elections in September.

AFD is likely underestimated, people are even afraid to state their mind anonymously in surveys. But they won't be in any coalition this time, the rest of the parties think they can successfully keep them small by treating them as pariahs, when they score up to 25% in recent polls in Thuringia and got elected into parliament with over 20% in MeckPomm. Yeah, looks like it's working. And keep demeaning them as racists when you copy most of their political demands after 3-6 months. Anyways, entering into a coalition of any sorts above municipality-level would wreck AFD because their representatives lack experience and will have to master a steep learning curve in the parliaments over the next 4 years or so. Would end like the Schill-party in Hamburg some 10y ago.

SPD back on the way down, where Gabriel left off at 21%? Turns out Schulz can't walk on water after all, the huge relief to see our former vice-chancellor gone is wearing off. Already a shadow of their former selves, a fourth grand coalition where SPD can't make own politics to differentiate themselves from their senior partner CDU will leave them meaningless, walking dead.

38 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

I don't think the issue in Germany is headscarves, it's veils. And don't English judges traditionally wear wigs?

You are actually right in that the present issue, i.e. what has been passed by federal parliament, only concerns Niqabs and Burkas, not scarves. Got this messed up because that is in fact in the make in Hessia and Bavaria, which as the states in Germany are responsible for justice and education, i.e. court personnel and teachers. 

29 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

I don't think the issue in Germany is headscarves, it's veils. And don't English judges traditionally wear wigs?

No, it's headscarves, too, in public offices. There was a case of a Christian refugee from Syria? Iraq? that had his asylum case heard and rejected by a civil servant wearing a headscarf, i.e. being obviously Muslim. Did not like it, which I can understand, regardless of the merits of his case.

Next, so far hypothetical, possible case: Turkish car driver and German car driver in a lawsuit over a traffic accident, single judge wears a headscarf.

That wig is different, it's not a symbol of religiosity and will not instill a subjective feeling of bias in a party or defendant. 

With teachers, I see things a bit more moderate. Those will be 25 or so once they start, can wear a headscarf out of their own free will, like nuns in schools wear their full ornate. Here it is the pupils that should be banned from wearing a scarf, so their parents cannot make them.

8 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Pretty meaningless when I'd guess the number of civil servants, judges and soldiers wearing a full face veil to work is next to zero.....or less.

Some Turkish women became school teachers, in numbers to speak of, now the first Muslim women start appearing in courts serving their articles. We have had the latter for 20 years but now we are getting singular cases that will insist on their headscarves sitting behind the bar. The matter has been simmering for at least a dozen years.

Aaaaannnnddd.... BANG!

SPIEGEL Magazin: Netanyahu declines meeting with Gabriel [GERMAN]

Job well done. See my prior post.

That Turkey accession progress has been the walking dead of EU-politics for 12 years now. Turkey even got "adjustment aids", or what these are called", in the hundreds of millions Euro to get especially their justice system and civil liberties up to speed. Yeah, money well spent. ROFL.

That fat Foreign Minister of ours has come to the end of the road politically speaking, a walking dead. 

He used to be leader of the SDP, Social-Democrats, left-centrist, and hence vice-chancellor since 2009 under the Merkel Camarilla II and III, and Minister for Economy. Was not held in the highest regard back then. Under Gabriel SPD fell from about 35% in the polls to as low as 21%, when they used to be a peoples' party that had been elected into government several times with absolute majorities or as the senior partner of coalitions with FDP liberals or the Greens. Brandt, Schmidt x2, Schröder x2.

Some 2 months ago he then stepped back from all of that to make way for Saint Martin (Schulz), in the following weeks SPD polls sky-rocketed. Not that Schulz had been saying anything new or remarkable or could boast any superior qualifications, does not even have Abitur, just grins like a Cheshire Cat. It seemed SPD sympathizers that had partially drifted towards AFD, feeling to have been left alone with their everyday worries, were just excessively relieved to see Gabriel gone. Polls have mostly normalised over the last 4 weeks since then.

Gabriel was now made foreign minister, despite having not the slightest bit of a background there, the comrades always look after their own. He was quoted saying that with his news post he would now take more time for his family. Foreign office officials, staying anonymous, were cited as doubting that resolution of his would fit the job description.

Apart, Gabriel has a little bit of a history with Israel an Netanyahu, having giving Spiegel Magazin an interview back in 2012, where he described Israel an 'unjustifiable apartheid regime', incurring severe criticism in Germany, and being a bit lost for words explaining himself, seeking to make little excuses as to how he had meant that, how he had gone a little over the top there and actually was a friend of Israel, it had been meant to criticize settlement policies, and what not.

Link to Spiegel Magazin [in German]

Israel is best advised to postpone any of those meetings until October, when a new German federal government has been formed after the general elections. Schulz already let on 2 weeks after Gabriel's installment as foreign minister, that he was not likely to keep that post, should SPD stay in government in whatever role after that. 'nuff said.

When will you guys realise neither Iraq or Afghanistan are Norway, where you can just mop up the baddies and expect a civil government and rule of law, democracy in your wildest dreams, because the populace is not ready for any of that or willing to bow to it, to take over just like that?

There are just two options in that rather mountainous not-at-all state, where even the Russian army failed miserably for some two decades and pulled out tail between their legs: be prepared to stay in there for at least half a century with more or less half your army, or forget about it. This is a Muslim non-state, if there ever was one, it hardly ever is going to be a state in the sense of the word again. Even in what is commonly "Pakistan" there are tribal areas where no central government holds sway. Deal with it, bomb terrorist camps, but don't waste resources there.

Sorry for the people, sorry for refugees from there, but there is nothing the "West" can do for them, unless they remedy things themselves.

This guy is behaving more and more like a clown. Which is very sad, because he holds sway over multi-millions of people and could do a lot of good with more carefully voiced words, religiously.

I don't know what he thinks refugee camps should be like, after the Bulgarian government has reminded our own German would-be-saint, after admonishments they should make their camps a lot nicer, that the average retired citizen of theirs was living on 150€ a month average. I just know he does not have anything to tell me, because I am Protestant, which I will remedy the moment I touch German soil after some unbelievable behaviour by the Protestant church in Germany over the oh-so-evil AFD's congress this very weekend. And even so, I liked our own Benedict a lot better when he was in office.

Dump your empty phrases elsewhere, your Holiness!

Visa services are available from inside Phnom Penh (Lucky Lucky, never used them myself, or maybe I did over some other agent) or the cities, I personally know of Koh Kong (right after the border at the coast), Sihanoukville, and Kampot. Will charge some 40-50 USD over the visa cost. Which is worth the money, unless you have a personal interest in going to Phnom Penh.

Will indeed depend on your track record of tourist visa. Paperwork will include an onward ticket, booked accommodation in Thailand, and an amount of 20.000 Baht up in some bank account. Have copies of that ready in any case. Time to get your passport with the visa might be up to 4 working days, that is my experience, but I use Non-O visa.

Working illegally in Thailand is the ulterior motive in the embassies' or consulates' considerations. Bear that in mind, whatever you are doing there, and accommodate.

Ah, Pakistan... wonderful country full of such nice, cheerful people. Why don't we do nuclear testing there?

1 hour ago, Dipterocarp said:

The difference is these Rabbinical courts, Catholic Canon Law, Mormonism, all the rest is participation in Religious courts are totally voluntary. The worst thing that can happen is you get shunned from your respective communities. They cannot enforce any civil penalty or jail you or violate your rights under civil law. In America most Muslims have been doing quite well over the years education/income wise  they mostly came for education, work, escaping disasters such as 1980s Iran etc. Now the recent waves seem to be calling to enforce their beliefs on others against their will and this is fundamentally un-American.

 

We have always had  religious groups who live radically different lives than mainstream, wearing strange clothes  even sticking to old Dutch/German. They enjoy their freedom to live the way they want and don't push it on others. As long as they don't violate my rights I don't care if they "integrate" or not.

About nails it. Orthodox Jew can be strange to look on and don't generally intermarry with the majority population, but nobody in their right mind feels threatened by that or Kippas, Jarmulkes, Pejes, or odd socks. I suppose our Adolf did, but that was different. Or by the Amish, or by Sikhs. 

As to integration, Britain and the US have some 200k Turks each, but rather got the educated and hence more likely secular ones, for example, not the menial workers and their offspring Germany got for the most part, so far at least (which does mean some of those have not been doing great in Germany or at least OK). From what I hear, Muslims in the US are generally speaking better integrated as there is not that sort of welfare there, so they had to mingle with the general populace and learn the language to get jobs. Only heard of some problems in the rust belt, Dearborn in Michigan or where, where too large communities have formed.

17 hours ago, transam said:

They probably would go elsewhere but elsewhere ain't got cash handouts....

According to some polls about one third of all Muslims in Germany would leave, if they could take their welfare with them, to Turkey for example. Same in Austria, were up to 40% would leave for good if they got their social security contributions handed out plus perhaps some "bribe" of 20k, 50k, or 100k Euro, depending on individual impudence.

So, yeah, about right. But they obviously need their handouts because they are being so badly discriminated against. Or maybe it's that they don't seem to gravitate towards education and some 70% only get the lowest possible secondary education certificate, at best, which does not count for much. Better results in the conservative states, like Bavaria, which don't seem to get the hang of leftist school and social politics.

My own post #19 here: that was obviously not Iraq/Iran, but Iraq/Syria. Iran is a totally different cup of tea.

From what I hear from my school buddy, still being in Germany practising as a physician, whose father is Iranian and quit being Muslim once he touched German soil to study medicine in the late sixties, to then marry what can only be described as a woman of definite German heritage, a lot of Iranians now coming to Germany as refugees are instantly converting to Christianity. With a lot of effort involved. Because Iran does not as such persecute, unless they do. Seems like using/abusing a loophole, but I have so far not heard of any of those Iranian converts falling foul of German laws or acting up, and I do follow the news. While there might well be singular cases of criminality, small wonder if not, it's nothing like what I read about other nationalities, if nationality even fits with regard to the failed states other asylum seekers hail from.

I do not really care about the conversion bit, be Muslims all you want, as long as you don't bug other people, like another school buddy of mine who happens to be Moroccan and practising Muslim, but if everybody could be like most of them, taking that step, showing that sort of effort to secure a right to stay in any of our states, I would not be adverse to any number of people entering Germany. If anybody coming to Germany, refugee or not, could be like my school-buddy's daddy and father offspring like him, I would not be adverse to the present asylum business, but rather be honestly thrilled. Just, that is not the case, it's just what leftists want to force everybody to believe, even through criminal law, and it's just not the case or ever will be with what we are actually mostly getting right now.

6 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

More likely something said to appeal to voters with elections coming up.

 

After all, this gentleman said last year, just before Brexit referendum, that "elections can't be allowed to change things in the EU".

 

Like all politicians, he'll say anything to get votes. Those pesky elections and voters.

Can only guess at his ulterior motivation, I would half trust this one with really meaning what he said there. Plus he wants to outdo Merkel and get the Conservatives on course again, some remnants of internal struggle this old warhorse is the commander-in-chief of.

Your quote is about the Greek elections when Tsipras was trying to wiggle out of the Euro deal and austerity measures. And in that case Schäuble was right in that Greece had consented to EU regulations concerning the Euro in the first place and then to rules that came with the "rescue packages", hence a case of "pacta sunt servanda". Does not apply to changing things either in the EU through democratic consensus, with or without national voters breathing down their individual governments' necks, or voting to quit the EU as per the regulations covering that.

Schäuble was even quoted more recently with "Brexit deal can be done quickly", on the whole this guy is "law-and-order" as they come, was Federal Minister of the Interior twice.

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

Funny how people never mention Jewish civil courts with apparently similar orthodox views on civil matters. For sure similar issues are faced in the Hindu community, African Christians etc etc.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-jewish-orthodox-councils-institutionalising-marital-captivity-and-upholding-discriminatory-a6803256.html

But this is not to the point. Schäuble's comment is on the behaviour of some Muslims (certainly not all, but it's endemic enough) towards the general majority non-Muslim populace.

That article you cited states: "In practice, she says, most Jewish women have civil divorces and are aware of their rights, so this act “is successful within the Jewish community”.

which is not the case in some Muslim communities. And if a given Jewish woman is fed up with the system, she can just get divorce anyway or not care, even do away with Judaism and all religion, if that is what she wishes. Might then have some social ramifications, but I have never heard of Jewish honour killings or going after apostates.

Besides, that used to be the same with the Catholic church up until 50 years ago, threatening eternal damnation on anyone even thinking divorce after having grudgingly accepted marriage to be a matter of civil courts. They are behaving even now a bit like that, at least in Germany. If you are employed in some kindergarten or hospital run by the catholic church and remarry after divorce, you might lose your job once they find out. They have wide leeway under the Art. 140 Basic Law and 137 Weimarer Reichsverfassung.

What we are seeing now is Muslim areas turning into no-go-zones, where you better wear a headscarf if female, or Muslim students spitting into other peoples' school meals in Ramadan. And that is where that comment comes in.

3 hours ago, schlog said:

What a ham! He supports the mass immigration for his fight of incest in Europe. Old very dangerous man doing election propaganda.

No, he does not like Merkel and her policies one bit, he just happens to be part of her party and cabinet, and there is only so much he can do until he has garnered enough public and party-internal support.

He has spoken out against her and what she wrought on Europe and Germany already start of 2016, really damaged her. Just she had already made herself unassailable from within her CDU, and he was the only one with the standing, seniority, and guts to be able to publicly speak out against her in an underhanded way. Likened the refugee waves to avalanches, which could be caused inadvertently by some reckless skier, and how he was the same age as Conrad Adenauer (73 then), when the latter became chancellor of Germany. Hint hint, nudge nudge, know what I mean?

This is the deep German internal politics you have no chance of becoming aware of from what you read in the international press.

As to Schäuble, he's not really liked or disliked, generally, something in between. What he is quoted here with is not really original, still good he said it. Obviously will need deeds to follow. And, yes, some election propaganda to get ahead of evil AFD, which they really fear to cost them their next term in one way or the other.