Old Croc

Outsourcing certain skills is not recruitment.

I'm fairly sure no police force hires criminals deliberately. Not saying they don't end up there. Paying informers is not hiring. And don't call me Sir, it's disquieting in this forum! 🙃

Sorry for the confused person. I'm just saying illegals can't be both thieves and honest people.

The way I understand it, life expectancy calculated from a particular birth date includes all deaths from childhood, through idiot youth and later age illness. To exceed the end figure is no great achievement in itself, other than you weren't one of the unlucky ones who dragged the average down. Having reached that age, your life expectancy actually rises quite a bit higher because all the fools and unlucky soles are no longer part of the equation.

But you said the 12 were honest, ergo not law breakers. Your solution of recruiting the thieves into the Immigration Police force still sounds weird to me.

In one sentence you both criticized Immigration for only catching 12 transgressors, then without evidence, claimed they were "poor souls making an honest living" Your second sentence was even weirder.

The desperate god botherers attempting to conjure up a victory for the babbling old man with rubbish postings. Couldn't help but notice that NickieLouie's post was number 666!

This indicates they know the identity of the suspects and perhaps the victim. If foreigners, no doubt an alert at departure points has been raised.

From our farm we can see 3 temples in 3 different villages. The closest temple is 450 meters away. I hear the tom-toms at 0600 most mornings when the monk wakes up, again at 1600 for whatever. Sometimes there's chanting or traditional music. The travelling carnies include our village in their schedule, so once a year for a couple of days there's a fair, with rock music blaring until midnight Ish. All good entertainment for the locals and I can listen from the verandah, beer in hand. This year they moved all the way to the village on the other side of us so we were entertained for consecutive weekends I have no problems with most temple noise. However, with the aging population, there seems to be far too many funerals, which are punctuated with very loud fireworks. Always poignant as we usually know the subject. We can only just hear the village head's messages as he is further away than the temple. The wife goes outside if she wants to hear it. It is rarely used now as the village has their own LINE account where members exchange information and wares.

Mummy's basement!! My mother never owned a basement (not common in Australia) and has been dead nearly as long as Kerr. I've been a member of this forum for nearly 20 years, have lived in Phuket and now Isaan for 15 years. I own property and residences in both places. I think my assessment of you being somewhat short of factual opinions is not misplaced. You haven't seen my anger, you're just a lightweight know-it-all.

I worked in The Aboriginal Affairs Dept for over six years and have visited tribal group settlements all over Western Australia. I met, worked and socialized with many great indigenous people during that time. Unfortunately, I also had to deal with some of the worst people, who had no qualms in stealing from the government and each other. On several occasions, I saw vandalized and uninhabitable govt funded dwellings. I had a job auditing government grants (not small sums) and found many cases of theft where the project was ignored and the money used for personal items such as cars for self and immediate family. Instructions from above were that these funds were to be written off rather than forwarded to the DPP for action.

Kerr died in 1991. Probably of a pickled liver. He was a notorious drunk. If you think that is a rumor do a search for his infamous drunken speech at a race meeting while dressed in top hat and tails. Of course, he consulted the queen before he sacked the elected government. She agreed. You're the one who spouts off all the time without facts.

The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, also known simply as the Dismissal, culminated on 11 November 1975 with the dismissal from office of the prime minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), by Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General who then commissioned the leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party, as prime minister to hold a new election. It has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australian history. Wiki

British settlement When British settlers began colonizing Australia in 1788, between 750,000 and 1.25 million Aboriginal Australians are estimated to have lived there. Soon, epidemics ravaged the island’s Indigenous people, and British settlers seized their lands. Though some First Nations people did resist—up to 20,000 people died in violent conflict on the colony’s frontiers—most were subjugated by massacres and the impoverishment of their communities as British settlers seized their lands. Researchers have documented at least 270 massacres of Aboriginal Australians during Australia’s first 140 years, and though the term “genocide” remains controversial, people related to the continent’s first inhabitants are widely considered to have been wiped out through violence. National Geographic

The 1999 referendum was rejected purely because the proposed model stated that the President would be elected by Parliament not the people. This varied little from the way the GG is still chosen to this day and was against the popular will. Many no voters believed there would be another referendum within a reasonable time to amend the model. The public were hoodwinked! The rigging came about by the duplicity of the supposed pro-republic leader on the convention, Malcom Turnbull. He would later join the conservatives and become their PM for a time. Despite lawfully having to remain neutral in a referendum the PM, Howard, held a party for all the monarchists (and Turnbull) at the official residence, where they quaffed $1000s of taxpayer funded top quality wines reserved for state occasions. The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The question asked whether Australia should become a republic, under a bi-partisan appointment model where the president would be appointed by Parliament with a two-thirds majority. This was the model that was endorsed by the Constitutional Convention, held in Canberra in February 1998. - Wiki

There is never an excuse for this American style road rage and brake checking, whatever type of vehicle targeted. It is particularly abhorrent when done to an emergency vehicle. For those trying to blame the ambulance because they consider many overuse lights and sirens, grow up, look around, you're in Asia. In this case the wide highway was empty, the offender was not blocked in even if the ambulance may have been hogging the right lane. Again, no excuse for such dangerous, criminal behavior. The route away from available treatment in KK to Chonburi suggests it was more patient transport rather than seeking treatment. The family following suggests to me they may have been taking a dying person home. Thais like to draw their last breath in the family home where friends and relatives can visit with the person or view them after death. Roadside tents are set up for feasting and donating of funds. A traditional ritual.

"Scottish tourist’s weed reaction causes public disturbance; British woman detained at Bangkok mall for alleged theft" Perhaps they just don't want any riffraff.

This thread is a troll. The OP has no interest in other member's long-term marriages nor their reasons for staying together. The fact that he hasn't bothered to follow up confirms it. People stay in marriage for many reasons in every country. What this one-dimensional character is actually implying, is why would you marry a local and stay together for many years when they get less attractive as they age. You can buy younger, better-looking versions for sex as I do.

I'm married here and had to provide a police clearance but am not from the US so won't comment further.

Well said. Good to know the reasons. I get the same rider on my Australian pension funds and worked out it was something like that.

Been retired here for about 5 months and already has a "financial nightmare" from the frozen pension increases! Must have done zero research about his pension conditions before jumping on the plane expecting it alone would sustain him for the rest of his life as an expat. Did he come without any extra savings or income? What did he do with the money earned as an electronics buyer for 40 grueling years? If it was so poorly paid that he couldn't accumulate savings, he should have found a real job about 35 years ago. As others have pointed out, what are his plans if/when a major medical event hits? Has he found any sandy beaches to bask on in sunny Bangers? Does he eat the cheap, exotic cuisine to be had everywhere in that city, or does he only dine at a place with his favorite British fare with a side of blood sausage? Like these 3 whingers I'm also in my 70's. My government also makes it nigh on impossible to apply for any pension when living overseas, so I haven't made application. I live here as a facsimile of a rich man on my own personal pensions and investments accumulated from 40 years of real grueling work. I'm amazed at how many people, from many different countries, expect a basic age pension, and Thailand, to provide them with a hedonistic lifestyle in their dotage.

Giant African Land Snail. Invasive pest has parasites that can infect people. Do not eat, toxic I've eaten snails (escargot) in a French restaurant. They are purged before considered safe for consumption.

You just don't get it! Sixty plus years ago, before the Beatles, popular music was dominated by America and was mainly about R & R and Blues. Lyrically, this music was in a phase of Do wah diddy diddy, dum diddy Do, Leader of the Pack and Tutti Frutti. Music was more about dance, volume and beat. The Beatles took the world on a Helter Skelter, Magical Mystery Tour in a Yellow Submarine through Lucy's Diamond Skies. Sgt Pepper came along with his band in case they needed Help with the Fool on The Hill and his Money. Nobody had ever written lyrics that told such fantastic tales before, and it was accompanied by groundbreaking harmonies, musical devices and sounds. They started the Revolution that took music lyrics away from simplistic love themes into a world of storytelling. Eilish and her brother may have written a better love lyric in your eyes, but they haven't reinvented the whole music industry and changed it forever to a higher plane. The Beatles did. Music these days is very focused on lyrics and of course some weave fantastic stories of modern life. However, one recent song with a lyric that touches one soppy poster on social media doesn't override the Beatles genius and legacy in music. Incidentally, I consider "What Was I Made For" to be a better Eilish song.

Rubbish. Citing one aspect of his life and highlighting it above all else he was, may convince a MAGA moron, but is a poor ploy for someone with a brain. Go and vote for your god figure, but don't use my posts to try to convince others with your lies.

I have liked Eilish from her start and think most of her work is brilliant. Much of that comes from her brother who writes (co-writes) the songs and is a genius producer. Of course, he has the advantage of being able to use modern digital technology not available 60 years ago. Bands like the Beatles and The Beachboys invented and revolutionized how music was produced. 10 Beatles Innovations that Changed Music - Listverse This song's theme is taken from a very old saying and is at least the third I know of with the same "Birds of a Feather" title. Hardly original and not comparable to most of the Beatles groundbreaking work.