soalbundy

There are nutters everywhere but as I wrote already, I don't annoy them and they don't annoy me.

That isn't true, there is a natural order in life and if you transgress, it bites back. Selfish evil people aren't happy (perhaps that is why they are the way they are in the first place)

Those are your assumptions. I don't play loud music nor do I have parties, I don't annoy my neighbours and they don't annoy me. The good thing about living in the country is that you don't live on top of one another as you do in a city. The houses are well spaced out with large grounds in between. I have water buffaloes on one side of my garden wall and geese and cows on the other side. The lane outside my gate isn't paved and I sometimes have to move a cow or buffalo to drive my car out. Despite having council offices and a growing population it still has the atmosphere of a farming community, come harvest time the civil servants go missing because they are out in the fields. Two days ago my water pump stopped working, so no showers and the washing machine was silent (the repair mechanic was fertilizing his fields and 'will come when I'm finished') so the wife washed our clothes at a neighbours house and we showered and used the toilet there. I have three large rain water urns, if a neighbour runs dry (in the hot season) it is absolutely normal that they can get their drinking water from me. It is a peaceful friendly place to live and I wouldn't swop it for anywhere else.

I must live on an island of peace and friendliness then, it would appear that life in an Isaan village in the countryside is to be preferred over a big city. Never had problems nor seen any fights, I get greeted wherever I go and people seem to go the extra mile to help each other out, so I must disagree.

It happened last night in my Isaan village, huge downpour with thunder and lightning, now we have more rain clouds building.

He would have to be insane to do that, no normal person could kill a small child.

An old lady pulled out in front of me, without looking, on her motorbike, damage to my car was 80k, she wasn't hurt. Police determined she was at fault but she was poor, had no driving license or insurance. The police drew up an agreement that she was to pay me 1,000 Baht a month or go to prison. When the dust had settled the officer pulled me to one side and asked me to report to him if she didn't pay as this was the second time this had happened. The motorbike was crap and should never have been on the road, it was confiscated by the police. She never paid even one Baht but I didn't bother reporting her, sending a 65 year old lady to prison wasn't going to help me. I didn't have 1st class insurance so I had to pay for my own damage. This is what the pick up driver can expect probably, monthly payments or prison.

Why? business isn't woke, business, like Prawit, cares about money. I can't imagine anyone in Europe getting hot under the collar about corruption in Asia and the Americans have their own corrupt contender to worry about.

How's the power pole?

Internationally Thailand isn't that important to warrant a backlash.

Yes but that is only at the moment, 10 years ago there was a great rush to invest in China; who knows how things will be in another 5 or 10 years, markets are never static. Corruption, natural catastrophes, and Covid 19 have all played a role. America itself has a huge problem with its debt that can never be repaid, large parts of its borrowing is going towards interest payments on its debt, sooner or later the Emperor will stand there with no clothes. One party systems can take drastic measures to solve their problems, Stalin and Mao are two examples, democracies have a harder time of it. There appears to be fascist tendencies rising in a furtive manner in Europe and not so furtive, if we look at Trump, in America. Each system will try to solve problems in its own way, unfortunately the primitive brain of mankind usually resorts to war as a solution.

I can't see any difference.

Probably wasn't his money but temple funds, if so he was misusing money that wasn't his. A naughty saffron robed philanthropist. I think he was getting his fair share which is why he wont press charges.

In the village where I live in Isaan everybody has a funeral insurance (or fund, I've never really taken much notice) I think (not sure) it pays out 50k which is enough for the funeral, monks, cremation and the feasting. I haven't heard of a funeral director, from what I have seen the monks take care of most of what goes on, the puu yay baan does things like ordering the tent and seats and the women of the village handle all the cooking of food (money comes from the insurance) and serving at table (all done for free). The funerals seem quite lavish even for the poor. My better half has us all on this insurance which doesn't cost much. When I told my missus to make my cremation as cheap as possible and take the money she was horrified and said it wouldn't be tolerated, she would lose face and since I am the only falang in the village and well liked a proper send off would be expected, even demanded.

Nelson turned in his grave and wept.

more like revolving the matter

Try Bavarian! My German daughter was born in Bavaria, when she was around 7 or 8 years old and we watched 'Bauern Theater' on TV I as an Englishman would have to translate the Bayerisch into Hochdeutsch for her. Her mother is from Hamburg and at school only Hochdeutsch was allowed whereas in my office full of middle aged people Bayerisch was normally spoken so I picked it up quite easily. Later when we got some Spanish, English and Belgians joining our sewing club everything changed to Hochdeutsch, these days its only used in its true form in the villages.

Yes, I met a Dutch couple once who replaced the Buddhas head on two statues on a postcard with cutouts of their own heads, it was seized at the post office when they went to post it home and the cops were called. They were threatened with possible jail time, after a grovelling apology oral and written and a three page explanation about their lack of knowledge about Buddhism and how ignorant they were about religion in general they were given a hefty fine and told it would be better if they left the town and went elsewhere. The woman was still visibly shaken when they told me about it. What this guy has done was considerably worse.

and unlike the West they have long term goals, with a one party system you can bide your time. Biden sounds as if he wants more money for the military.

Yes you are right, there are some lovely places in the UK but Joe Bloggs has to live where the work is, I don't mind rainy weather, in fact I quite like grey skies, everything seems greener, no it's the towns that are so depressing, the lack of colour, the boring conformity, the way they are laid out. The more ancient they are the better of course. It's also the way things are, there is no flair as in France or Italy, no beer gardens or beer halls as in Bavaria, just the choking boredom of 'the lokal, telly, or football.

Nowhere in Europe (maybe Finland) is as depressing as the UK.

Not in the UK, you get too depressed because it's just dismal, cheap fat women, a few pints of canned Lage and a spliff wont turn the place into paradise. The women here wouldn't give most of us a second look even with money (a friend told me that)

I think we are all tared with the same brush, just as we say Asian, they say falang.

Yes, I think we all know the contribution to the English language made by the Anglo Saxons, fact is that the mixture that resulted with Celtic, Latin, Viking, French and Anglo-Saxon has brought about a mongrel language, which although still an Indo-Germanic language, has had its Germanic roots severely weakened so that names and place names no longer sound familiar to a German ear, exceptions to this can be found in Friesian, some dialects such as Platt Deutsch have a remarkable similarity with English eg. English, 'what is the time' German, 'wie viel Uhr ist es', Platt Deutsch, 'wat hat die clock'.

Getting a little desperate now are we.........what about the stricter checks put forward?