soalbundy

It was Henry Kissinger who said, "To be an enemy of America is dangerous but to be its friend is fatal." Let us start with the premise that no major power is benevolent. If we take an old democracy like the UK we can see that during its long history it has invaded more countries than any other nation. When you say the US which US are you referring to? The industrial military complex, the government, CIA, its Central bank, the FED, Wall street, all of whom have enormous power, or the ordinary people who have no power in the daily workings of government.? People are like sheep, they are easy to manipulate, every government is aware of the power of propaganda through the media which is controlled by the elite for their own nefarious purposes. 'America bad, Russia good', 'Russia bad, America good'. It is impossible for the normal citizen to see beyond the curtain of lies propagated by every country and government. As Churchill once said, "A lie can travel half way around the world before truth has its boots on'' The truth doesn't matter, perception is everything. Mccarthyism, 'reds under the bed' is a typical example of how the Industrial military complex was able to make vast amounts of money (and still does) by fearmongering, dissenters were classed as communists. Likewise the Soviet governments (the elite) were able to keep their grip on power by identifying the West as fascists who wanted to destroy the 'workers paradise'. Both the Soviets and the US have crushed the will of the ordinary people worldwide if they dared to vote for a system that brought them out of their respective control, the CIA and MI6 were veritable experts at the subtle undermining of the peoples will while the Soviets were unashamed at using brute force. Some have made a lot of money from the Ukraine/Russian war but not the tax payer (sheep). It has caused turbulence in the whole world, increasing inflation and interrupting supply chains for industry. Nato (America) (the elite not the people) seeks to widen its sphere of influence and Russia (the elite not the people) perceives itself as threatened. Georgia was offered Nato membership, Russia invades, Ukraine in talks regarding Nato and EU membership, Russia invades. America put rockets in Turkey, Russia puts rockets in Cuba....the Cuban crisis. It's poking the bear, it doesn't end well. Nobody asked a farmer in America or Russia for their opinion because if the truth be known all they want is to get on with their lives. Ukraine is a pawn, a plaything.

Exactly, what??? Democracy, like communism, is a philosophy, a theory, they don't exist in reality. Asians have their own philosophies and are doing nicely thank you, they don't need Caucasians to drag them into their wars. Australia and NZ aren't Asian societies and already cooperate with the West....AUKUS and the 5 eyes are examples. Japan, South Korea and the Philippines already brush shoulders with the US while keeping their respective Asian identities while Thailand is pragmatic, dodging and weaving, shadow boxing and placating, it serves them well. Keep your cold wars and arms races in the labyrinths they are already locked in and don't make the world even more dangerous than it already is. Nato, i.e. the US caused the Ukraine/Russian war by poking the bear in this region for years, talks of Nato and EU membership (against all agreements) were the last straw but it's never the US that suffers the consequences.

Sad, sad, sad

Well I'm pleased to say that this isn't something that I have witnessed. I have noticed that the steel beams painted light blue that hold up the car porch roof gets a soot like dust film that I clean off once every two years. One has to look at field burning as something that happens once a year as opposed to traffic pollution which is all year round, especially in big cities, it wasn't too long ago, before leaded petrol was banned, that the dust collected on window sills in London contained enough lead as to be of a mine able quality and that had gone on for 60 years. All human activity produces some form of pollution. I'm not saying I agree with field burning but one has to offer farmers (who aren't well off) alternatives, to say, plow the rice stalks into the ground, ignores the fact that plowing is expensive.

Temper, temper. I remember, 10 years ago I think, Chiang Mai authorities blaming elevated lung cancer in CM on smoking (as if smoking didn't exist in other provinces) and not field burning......save the tourist numbers. I can also remember reading about air pollution in CM in a travel guide 25 years ago. It's not a new problem and has probably existed for several hundred years or as long as rice has been harvested. What I don't understand is why so little (almost none in my area) field burning takes place in Isaan, I've only witnessed one. My village isn't very far from the Cambodian border and yet we don't suffer from smog due to forest fires.

That could apply worldwide. Just think of the many expressions in the English language alone to describe corruption.

His mummy said he has a big un and he should show it to distract from his stupid looking face.

You forgot the onset of dementia.

So more Baht for our Dollars, Euros, pounds etc

Now the police will have to look for her again, she may have problems finding a new hotel.

Yes, all the units were taken apart, including the compressor units. The boss of the group said it should be done every year but that seems a bit exaggerated to me, every 3 years for a complete clean seems reasonable, I clean the filters myself every 6 months but that's my limit, the innards looked really complicated.

A lot of small minded 'concerned citizens' about these days. A good thing that the Monk wasn't a foreigner and he wasn't on a surf board.

It used to be 'it's the dogs -ollocks'

Dirty air con units? I had my 4 air-con units professionally cleaned yesterday. It took 5 guys all day, the units were completely stripped down, inside they were absolutely filthy, the last cleaning was 5 years ago. It cost me 10,000 Baht which included one new fan motor and the raising of one compressor unit from the ground to the outside wall as well as plastic shrouds for the coolant pipes coming from the compressor units to the inside units. I considered the service cheap as they had to drive from Surin, 50 Km from my house. The effects were immediate, I had to raise the temperature settings as running on the old settings proved too cold, so in the long run it saves money. I can imagine this is a much neglected service in rented condos and rooms.

Well I live in the North-East in Isaan, about 1,000 Km from CM, the air seems pretty good where I live, in the countryside, but what do I know. I like CM, it has a good night life and the tourists seem to be a better class than the ones you get in Pattaya or Phuket. It has a nice atmosphere (pardon the pun) to it and has nice surrounding countryside, it isn't called Laan Na (a million fields) for nothing. Turtle lake, which is great for swimming, actually has sweet water which you taste when it gets in your mouth.

Well I can't say anything about that, I haven't been back to the UK for 50 years, I did live in CM for about a year but as a smoker air pollution has never bothered me, in fact I never noticed it apart from the smog. I used to work in Dagenham and the smog there was sometimes awful and at night it could be so bad that it was dangerous to drive, I've driven in Germany during really ferocious snow storms but Dagenham was worse during a smog.

He sounds like an insufferable do-gooder who needs a bunch of fives.

A katoey would be cheaper.

Almost as bad as living in London perhaps, my brother who now lives in Australia flew to London on business, he said you could smell the air it was so dirty.

An alternative would be to restrain him in a ward for geriatrics for a real psychological assessment if he breaks the gag order, that would certainly lower his status and wouldn't be prison by definition, an unfavourable psychiatric report could be 'leaked'.

What! that's only double the limit, test me again.

Hey! what have you got against the Brits, we are still in the league.

Politics would be his natural home if guilty.

Taking coal to Newcastle. Grassed up by a foreigner who didn't think she was worth 13,000.

Their contribution is painting the capsule.