soalbundy

A boat race.....probably alcohol had something to do with it, looking at the van it's amazing anybody got out alive.

While I agree with your sentiment I just live here in the existing environment, most of it is good but like everywhere else it has its bad points, I don't intend to break a lance for western sensibilities. One of my son's cousins to whom he had an emotional attachment died in a motorbike accident, aged 14. I went to the funeral to find I was the only person who showed any sadness (genuine) everyone else seemed 'matter of fact' I asked my son what he felt, he said it was a shame. Some days later I asked, don't you think of him at all?....yeah sometimes, I could see it was done and dusted. At the funeral I didn't see his parents weeping, not even his mother, quietly upset describes it....this was some years ago now. It's the way it is. Luckily my son is a nerd who doesn't socialize after school with his classmates but prefers his computer and his online friends.

It's all very well moralizing but the kids see it as normal, when my son was younger, 7-8 years old I tried forcing at least he should wear a helmet when his mother drove him on the 1km trip to school, it ended in tantrums and arguments, when I persisted I found out he removed the helmet when he was out of my sight which was why he wanted his mother to drive him (no license) instead of me (with license), you see nobody else at school wore a helmet, not even the teachers, he didn't want to be different. It's different when people leave the village to drive to the 17km distant market town because they don't want to be fined. I've lived in the village for 19 years, I've assimilated.

It all seems quite normal to me living in the sticks. Wife drives the bike with a two year old granddaughter standing on the 'floor' at the front and a four year old sitting at the back, off to pick up my 17 year old son from school, no helmets. My step daughter holds a 6 month old in her arms with a two year old sitting behind, it's evening and about to rain, I offer to drive them home by car, not necessary, it's only 200 meters. This has become so normal that it doesn't shock me now, in fact I am guilty of doing the same thing now within the village, it's normal.

5555555555555555 Faulty Towers with a gun instead of a branch.

As I understand it the law doesn't have to change, only the internal implementation. It wasn't really meant for us but we've been caught in the net they've spread out to stop Thai businessmen waiting a year before sending their profits tax free to Thailand, we are collateral damage so I will wait until March before I do anything in the hope things for us will change positively.

Well I don't pay tax anywhere, When I asked the German tax authorities they said I haven't paid any tax to them for the last 19 years because they have assumed I pay tax in Thailand. I worked out all my incoming money and the deductions I could use and calculated I must pay 38k Baht. It's fairly simple to work out and my income isn't complicated so I will try without a tax consultant.

You so deserve it America.

I can imagine the money he uses for his good deeds comes from shakedowns on more financially viable citizens but still, better than just enriching himself, giving away some of his gains can quieten his conscience which is more useful than giving it to the monks. Call me cynic but I don't believe he can do that on a policeman's salary.

Where solitary confinement is a reward not a punishment.

Trying to dominate nature never ends well, your gender is the one you were born with, if you don't like it the problem is psychological not physical. It seems to be a first world problem, this is different from homosexuality which comes within the natural spectrum of sexuality in all societies, even in the animal kingdom, butchering ones body isn't normal behaviour, condoning it is a testament of what is wrong with our society.

Same father?

I go for, 'father refused to give him money for drugs'.

I'm not surprised, no lord thinks about his lackey. No we aren't obsessed with the US, a country full of wide open spaces surrounded by teeth.

The sensible soldier is the one who pretends to be keen and then finds the thickest stone wall or the deepest trench to hide in, being a live coward is preferable to being a dead or maimed for life hero, the mindset 'for king and country' is for idiots only.

What a stupid statement, perverts aren't reserved to the UK. I'm British and I have raised two young Thai step daughters to adulthood and now with my wife take care of their children when their mothers are at work, the idea that anything like this could happen to them horrifies me.

Don't politicize everything. There is certainly a lack of discipline these days, especially in America when one sees the violence, credit card debt and superficial relationships. Technology must take some blame, everybody has their faces stuck into an iPhone, few want to read or learn. When I was young, before this technology I taught myself to speak fluent German, not because I had to but because I wanted to, later as I neared retirement and considered Thailand as a retirement goal I taught myself to read and write Thai. Years later in Thailand while reading a Thai book I heard my stepdaughter say to her mother, "Why does he do that to himself", for her reading was a punishment, it turned out that at 12 years old she could barely read, when I complained to her teacher about this he said I can't let the class be held back by a few weak learners so I took it upon myself to teach her (lots of tears), her mother just didn't have the patience. Now at 23 she has a university degree in business marketing. It all comes down to discipline, from oneself as well as outside. Admittedly there has, since 25 years ago, arisen 'new' methods of teaching in the UK and probably America which has a 'woke' basis from 'enlightened' politicians which has proved disastrous and recent technology hasn't helped, I've read recently that Gen Z people are basically unemployable but they are wizards with iPhone's .

You mean lots of whores, cheap booze and shops that sell weed?

The KKK will never buy a Jaguar.

Come now, they are all fake liars and sociopaths, no decent person would be a politician, a lawyer or a used car salesman. The halls of governance aren't spiritual retreats, they give up their morals at the door, they speak and vote for what's good for number one. As in Gilbert and Sullivan's opera, "I always voted at my party's call and never thought of thinking for myself at all".

Trans are not women, they're an excuse for closet gays.

I'm glad someone is breaking a lance for those poor talking animals, enough is enough, give them back some dignity, look what they've done to those poor jaguars.

Why should that bother a foreign student

A real team, soon to be locked away.

Where I am I've seen police cars weaving around people using the zebra crossing 200 meters from the police station