soalbundy

I was reading my wife's calculations for the field work on her 230 rai of paddy and shook my head in disbelief. calculating ground tax, the cost of ploughing (hired tractor) and combine harvester (hired) which is cheaper than hired manual labour and considering the usual low price paid for rice, there was almost nothing left over as profit. I asked her why she bothered planting rice ( only have one harvest a year in my area). I was told that if the fields were left unused the ground tax was even higher and tax had to be payed whether she planted or not. The wife's mother recently gave all her land to the wife (in addition to her 230 rai) although I begged her not to, because since her husband died she doesn't want the burden of land taxes and rice planting, since I pay the land tax monthly I'm now saddled with it. We have several neighbours who have a new tractor and combine harvester payed for by a loan from the bank which runs into several million Baht so the monthly payments must be extremely high. Of course they not only use these machines for their own paddy but hire themselves out to farmers who have no machines of their own but this can only be done in the planting and harvesting seasons, the rest of the time the machines lie idle. The farmers tell me by rule of thumb there is a bad harvest once every 7 years and that often the payment for rice is below production cost, Jesus! why bother. I asked the pu yai bahn if different commodities to plant instead of rice had been considered, he told me that yes there had been in talks with a government organization but it would seem that due to the soil composition and the lie of the land rice was the only alternative although there is some sugar cane and some rubber tree planting going on but the whole marketing infrastructure was built around rice. I know there is a sort of revolver system going on where loans are taken out to cover the cost of living and are paid back at harvest time, how, I ask myself, can this work with so little profit. Naturally farmers adapt, some have cows, some have a few pigs and some work on building sites but all in all farming is a mugs game and it is no wonder that by and large one only sees middle aged to old people at village gatherings, the young turn their backs on farming and head for Bangkok. So is rice farming a lost cause (at least in Isaan). A good part of my pension is eaten by private health insurance for myself, my son and my wife (30 Baht scheme doesn't cover accidents and according to the wife the treatment offered is pretty basic for illness) electricity, and monthly land tax payments. I get a good German state pension, a company pension and a small UK pension for the short time I worked there before leaving for good so I ask myself how on earth do the Thais manage to even just live from day to day.

The operative word here is 'potential' consequences, not, despite the consequences.....He is waiting for his daughter to set the date, so the soup is already being stirred. He wont be arrested, maybe a commission will be set up to 'look into things', that will only concern his lawyers and the press before the case dies a natural death of familiarity and disinterest.

5555555, It got worse, at the end of this month my company pension from BMW didn't arrive, after a few E-mails back and forth it appears that their certificate of proof of life hadn't reached me so I couldn't fill it out and send it off, consequently they just stopped payment so now I'm going through the motions to get it started again. Black magic is big in my area, taken very seriously so only think positive thoughts when it's dark, advice from my MIL.

Yes but not all of it, even the shoes and socks are prescribed but you get a free choice of underwear. He is going to apply for pre military training in order to get out of the call up and will have to go to boot camp as well, I am not too sure how he will handle that because when he went on a 3 day camping with the scouts he didn't like the fact that the communal tent had no air con. Somewhat spoilt so maybe boot camp is what he needs.

A 109 died ? these are Ukraine numbers.

Thanks for the support but it's not worth bothering about, he obviously has never seen a Thai water buffalo up close, beautiful animals whose eyelashes a girl would die for.

Thanks for that. I do enjoy writing, it's a hobby of mine, I have a whole collection of amusing true stories that have happened to me here which I send to my sister in Australia, she thinks I ought to publish them.

a mere detail.

Yes, awful at the time but later, friking hilarious.

When they charge at you they look as if they weigh about 20 tons

Yes, it is all relative to ones own life, many in Ukraine wouldn't understand it as awful.

The wife is good at bingo, I won the lottery, the rice harvest was good, it's a private loan from my in-laws, I'm sure Thailands finest wont struggle to find an explanation and if all else fails they would know about the channels for brown envelopes.

Try doing that in falang land and wait for the 'big brother police state' accusations, it would be a disaster.

I started my (almost) daily walk around the lake near the village temple later than usual a few days ago which was why I came upon the large gaggle of very big geese plucking grass at the lakes edge, something I hadn't encountered on my earlier walks. They had some chicks with them which didn't bode well as geese can be very aggressive and although their beaks are flat and not pointed they are razor sharp. As I approached them they made their disapproval obvious with their screeching and before I could react two geese shot out from the gaggle, their necks stretched out in a straight line parallel with the ground, 15 cm above it and struck me in the leg. Their beaks penetrated my trousers and caused two large gashes in my legs, I hobbled a hasty retreat towards some large water buffaloes just emerging from the lake. I could see that they had calves with them. For the city dwellers among you, water buffaloes are far larger than cows, they can weigh about 850 kg, normally they are very timid towards people, even small children can get them to move out of the way by simply walking towards them but it can be a different matter if they have young calves with them, I knew this only too well having been the recipient of a buffalo charge while walking a great Dane towards an oncoming herd of female buffaloes with calves, their charge only stopped when my faithful protective dog ran for home at a speed that was astonishing for such a large animal. After my experience of the geese's protective instinct I moved away from the lake to the road surrounding the lake about 10 meters away keeping an eye on the female buffaloes which is why I didn't notice the cobra crossing the road until I was 2 meters away from it and it reared up opening its hood, all I could do was to stand absolutely still and mutter, "you leave me alone and I will leave you alone ok", moving back was pointless it could strike before I had moved a few centimeters. We stared at each other for a felt 2 years or a real 30 seconds before it lowered its head in contempt and continued on its way. I decided that the lake did not wish me well so I headed back home, thankful that I would, against my expectations see my 75th birthday. Upon arriving my wife handed me a letter from my 16 year old son's school which made the lake seem positively benevolent, it was a bill for the new private school term fees plus the 5 different school uniforms, standard, sports, boy scouts etc. and the new textbooks. My bank account in Germany only recently out of the red was about to return to the colour of blood in a gashed artery sort of way. I prepared myself for the 17km journey by motorbike (the car was low on petrol) to my bank in the market town despite it being the rainy season. The sky was dark with rain clouds but it wasn't raining. I collected the money from my bank and proceeded to drive back home on the motorbike lane of the 4 lane highway, I made it as far as 5km when I heard a loud crack and the bike stopped accelerating and coasted to a stop, the transmission, hidden behind an aluminium housing, had snapped. I had no phone with me and the green fields left and right offered no cover should the rain decide it wouldn't wait until evening as forecast. Fortunately the saying, 'you are never alone in Thailand' is true, in Isaan one is never unobserved, never anonym. After standing helplessly for 10 minutes a middle aged woman with her daughter stopped her motorbike next to me, she was from my village, all would be well. She rang up my wife's oldest daughter who in turn rang up my wife, all I had to do now was watch events unfold. First my stepdaughter and her young daughter arrived and they soon got chatting with the first arrivals who had stayed to keep me company, after another 20 minutes the motorbike repairman's wife with her sister (my wife had telephoned the repairman to pick up the bike), joined the party, the mechanic with his pick up would be here shortly I was told, I glanced at the sky and wondered whether that would be after or before it rained, next the village postman who had just finished his rounds and had heard of my plight through the village grapevine came by to see if I needed anything and joined in the group chat, all that was missing was a crate of beer for it to be classed as a party. The pickup arrived and the bike was loaded on to it with the combined effort of the small crowd after which they, waving and laughing, dispersed. All in all it was quite an unnecessary day.

He is now known as pra crash bang wallop. As for money, temples obviously posses vast wealth. In my village there is a small well kept temple in the temple grounds, then they built a large teaching center for monks for 14 million Baht, next on the list was a new temple for services as the old one was too small but is, unlike the teaching center, still used by the monks, the latest is building a new hall (for whatever purpose), to do this they had to demolish a perfectly usable hall in the same place, I've only seen it being used as a dinning hall for 10 or so monks. Recently they bought four 3 meter tall 'monster guard' statues to be placed in front of the old temple. I saw that my and my wife's name along with other villagers have been commemorated in gold leaf on black marble plaques on the base of the statues so unknown to me my wife has contributed no small amount to buying these decorative monstrosities. They must be rolling in cash, some of it mine.

"Will of the people", how naive are you? Government is all about deal making and pragmatism, the voting slip in your excited sweaty hand only transfers the trappings of power from one party to another, the present socioeconomic problems don't disappear after the votes have been counted, the civil service who run the country on a day to day basis haven't been changed, I again use a quote from Mark Twain, "If voting changed anything it wouldn't be allowed".

They already have many international companies since at least 2 decades producing in Thailand, doesn't seem to have taken them to the first world level. You live in Bangkok, that's almost a Thai enclave in a country called Thailand. Thailand is still basically rural and although even Isaan has improved by leaps and bounds from what it was 20 years ago but it is still rural, government offices lose almost half their staff in the harvest season where I am, at the IO you can chat with the officers about the cost of hiring a combine harvester or the lousy price the government is paying for rice. MFP isn't a new word for magic, they, like all other parties, are going to have to compromise to different group interests, coalition partners, the establishment (they have already backed off from meddling with the lese majesty laws) and traditional beliefs. What government in the world keeps to its manifesto promises? Opposition is easy, governing not so much. Give Pita a year and he will be just another Thai PM struggling to keep the status quo with a few tweaks here and there. As Mark Twain once said, "If voting made any difference they wouldn't allow it"

Those backhanders are affecting their stomachs by the look of it.

Not while I am using it. I can't see why Thailand shouldn't by gas from them......just don't be nice about it. Bankrupting Myanmar isn't going to help the people, ostracizing its military leaders might but that is a matter for ASEAN.

I'm all for pragmatism normally but it's hard to have pragmatic dealings with a government who is murdering farmers daily with its military on your border. Myanmars military government makes the Thai military look positively democratic and holy by comparison.

I can imagine that Thailand's closeness to China is what caused the rejection of the F-35, no point in actively helping espionage.

I think you are exaggerating, MFP has done the inevitable by realigning its manifesto to conform to the establishments wishes, eg. removing its opposition to lese majesty laws, undoubtedly more will follow. Noble aspirations meet the brick wall of reality and as a result very little will change, 90% of the status quo will remain. The establishment can't be beaten down with a club; it has to be gently sandpapered away and that takes time and patience, lots of it. The social ills in Europe took 200 years of sandpapering and there is still a block left over. People don't want blood on the streets, they want stability and the majority (assumption) want it above all else, let the toddler walk before it runs.

They look like mafia thugs demanding protection money.

Agree, and once again the military has a foot in the door, the establishment is hard to beat. Pita should have been more careful with his announcements, he has alarmed the old war horses and Thaksin will be easier to manipulate considering the legal leverage they have against him.

I can't understand how the metal roof support frames can fall down, I've watched these type of roofs being constructed in my village, they are securely welded to the rebar metal rods coming out of the concrete pillars. I can't see any evidence however of any concrete pillars so it may be just a flimsy construction to begin with.