soalbundy

There is begging and there is begging. This reminded me of an instance in Germany many years ago when Marks and not Euros were in circulation. Early one Sunday morning in Munich I walked past an elderly German man sitting on the pavement, as I passed him he said softly, "Have you a spare 10 marks", I spun round in surprise, "What happened to, have you a spare Mark"? I asked. He looked up grinning, "That mein Herr is for Amateures, if you are going to give then give to a professional, we have inflation, get used to it". His cheek fascinated me and I drew closer and noticed he had taken off his shoes and placed them in front of him each with a sentence written on the pavement, the left shoe was asking the right one, 'what's the matter are you tired', the right one replied, 'exhausted, I'm full of holes, I cant keep up with you', laughing I put 5 marks in his cup, he looked up at me with feigned disappointment, "That's deflation, not inflation", "You should be in marketing" I said and walked off grinning for the next 100 meters, money well spent.

He is now a rich wally due to his antics but he does have a face you would never tire of punching.

Thais don't seem to like certifying anything official. In the early days I went to the local police station in the nearby market town to get the captain to sign it, he hummed and hahed and checked my passport numerous times before telephoning the puh yai baan in my village to come and speak to him, what followed was quite astounding, the captain gave him an interrogation, what was my character like, had I ever caused trouble in the village, did I attend Buddhist services in the temple (he lied for me on that one), had I a drink problem etc. afterwards he reluctantly signed it. The puh yai apologized to me but I laughed it off. The puh yai took me to the council offices in the village (my village is a Tetsabaan) and introduced me to the mayor and it was agreed he would certify everything for me in future which was a relief as I had 3 life certificates a year, a UK pension, a German state pension and a BMW pension. Since then I have had no problems and have been serviced by 3 subsequent mayors, each informing the next mayor of my needs.

They took matters into their own hands, I presume if she was raped she would be indignant.

It would have been 'better' if the MFP had a house majority, as it is any radical changes put forward by the PM will get stifled by the coalition parties as well as the senate and let us not forget the grey eminence, the civil service, who really run the country. Most Thais, whether left or right, have been spoon fed reverence for the elite since birth, this along with corruption and self interest will strangle any real change, the RTP are a good example, lots of good modern laws but if the front line doesn't follow along they mean nothing.

Like this is going to make a difference to us as foreigners or to the Thai population in general.

No, Nate is taking the urine, he has obviously paid for their services indulging in a childish game, how much does dignity cost these days?

Yes, when you get an answer! they say themselves the usual time for a reply is 10 days, might just as well send a letter, my German pension supplier takes a day to answer, my German company pension department answered the same day. Whatever, non of this would have been necessary if the Thai post office did their job properly, the life certificate letter from DWP eventually reached me, two months after they had sent it, the German life certificate that they had sent still hasn't arrived, not that it matters now.

America has been living beyond its means for decades, its just reality hitting earlier than expected.

Yes, it doesn't hurt. If they were American saying 'have a nice day' then I wouldn't, not sure if that is a command or a threat, whatever it's superficial and stupid. Here you can actually have a short chat with them even at the checkout in Tesco's.

Does he have shares in a media company? they are the worst.

That's the reason! My Uk pension was stopped because I never received the Life certificate and then my company pension from Germany, the same month, was also stopped for the same reason. Ringing that number is an exercise in patience and a waste of money, use their email contact form (can take 10 days but they will send a form per email) My company pension from BMW was solved in one day.

I can't stop laughing, I think Leekpai's son is having a little giggle as well

You have to see it as a combined forces strategy along with the submarines, Thailand's unique form of democracy must be protected from external interference and change.

Bureaucracy beats the street anytime, it wears you down by using a language only the civil service understands, by having a department responsible instead of a person, by being able to fall back on paragraph 210 subsection C revised 1953 excluding subsection D subordinate subsections 208 and 209 which requires an act of parliament to change. The Roman state invented bureaucracy to dehumanize its civil service, an unwieldy instrument making change in its vast empire almost impossible. Its invention was so brilliant and works so well that it is self perpetuating and is alive and well today, crushing logic, innovation and grass roots democracy, all forms of government, even communism, carry it as a heavy, tiresome burden preventing meaningful change.

Who takes the trappings of power remains to be seen, usually the establishment always has some degree of power no matter what, or do you think that farangland is ruled by the 'will of the people'? It has taken several hundred years of courageous resistance by the working population, social leaders, authors and enlightened parliamentarians before working and living conditions changed for the better in the west and yet there is still an enormous disparity in wealth and land ownership. One can strike fear in a man better with a mortgage or rent than with an axe.

Pita of all people should have been squeaky clean before election day, his anti-establishment party was bound to come under intense scrutiny, to say he wasn't warned that his media shares could cause trouble shows poor management at best. It is naive to think that 'the will of the people' will sway the apparatus that still has its hand on the tiller. MFP didn't get overall majority and must go to bed with other parties who all have their own agenda then there is the Senat of course. The party has already had to backtrack on some of its populist declarations The establishment has had hundreds of years of experience in dealing with threats to its authority, it will take more than a bunch of well meaning amateurs to knock them off their horses.

Naive meets reality.

what you think of as you is an avatar of consciousness, there is no you, consciousness which has identified with its avatar is set free, Bob, John or Harry are not only no more, they never were. There is no me or you, no seeker, no enlightenment, no disciple and no guru. There is no better or worse, no path or purpose, and nothing that has to be achieved. All appearance is source. All that apparently manifests in the hypnotic dream of separation – the world, the life story, the search for home, is one appearing as two, the nothing appearing as everything, the absolute appearing as the particular. There is no separate intelligence weaving a destiny and no choice functioning at any level. Nothing is happening but this, as it is, invites the apparent seeker to rediscover that which is . . . the abiding, uncaused, unchanging, impersonal silence from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates. It is the wonderful mystery.

Since she is a police officer it could be in the public interest to know how she finances this life style, it can't be on her salary.

Complaining about the actions of the victors is pointless, as Churchill once said, "History will be kind to me because I will write it myself"

That's not the way they see it. China sees Taiwan as a break away Chinese province. All companies and countries doing business with China see it that way too, as the USA said, One China, two systems, so America doesn't regard China's claim as baseless. Uncle Sam will always support the weak and democracy, unless economics muddy the situation or oil or the people vote for a left wing democratic government then they become pragmatic and let the CIA lose.

Hmmmmm sex before marriage.

Relationship pussy is always expensive, he just got it quicker than usual.

Indeed it is and any normal minded person would accept that the rules had effectively not been broken but I fear that a court of law would judge according to the letter of the law and not its spirit.