RuamRudy

Even Wilders himself didn't see that coming, so he can hardly be said to be riding a clear wave of sentiment. I suspect, much like brexit, it's the nutters who won it while the majority are turned off by the rantings of extremists at both ends of the spectrum. I am glad to hear that, after all these years, the objective of brexit has finally been confirmed. But can you expand it beyond nebulous, meaningless soundbites?

The highest profile case I remember was of the South Korean business who was kidnapped by the police. It was a grim story that didn't end well for him but I recall that he was involved in some murky business himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_killing_of_Jee_Ick-Joo?wprov=sfla1 Personally, I have never had and issues in the 10 years I have lived in Manila. I don't live in a gated community although I do live in BGC, probably the most modern and safest part of the metro, and I don't venture too deep into the more salubrious parts of town and I drive a Kia...

The cocaine dealing, woman beating fraudster never misses an opportunity to squeeze more money out of the hard right dullards who are more than happy to throw their cash at those who blow the racist dog whistle. All those nonentities on GBeebies can testify to their generosity.

Haha, I will tell you once I start to generate a lot of income. For now, any would-be robber would be sorely disappointed with my lack of liquidity.

I don't have experience of living or working anywhere but Manila, but in my line of business that's where we need to be. Salaries are naturally higher in Manila, and the minimum wage is also higher there than the rest of the country.

I had a further recollection on the capitalisation issue - we made a mistake in capitalising so low at the outset. When we eventually had to recapitalise, we needed to show 10M in the bank for, I think, 40 days. That was a huge sum for us which we simply didn't have so we had to borrow at an exorbitant interest rate for those 40 days. The moral of the story - don't start out cheap if you think you are going to grow.

True and they should be rightly condemned.

All of them? Are you sure, or maybe such binary thinking makes a complex issue simple for you? Here's a suggestion that might blow your mind - it's possible to object to the policies of the Israeli government without also objecting to the right of the country to exist.

Thanks for the congrats - it was touch and go, a few times... No, 200k was our starting capitalisation. However we needed to capitalise further as we grew. We are currently a 10M company. I think the real difference is the language, and the fact that the government works in English too. This makes things much more transparent and accessible. Don't get my wrong - bureaucracy is still a challenge. We import groceries and dealing with the FDA is always frustrating; with every shipment we are forced to jump through multiple hoops by the bureau of customs; even banking is a pain compared to Western practices. But nonetheless, I can keep abreast with it all rather than rely on staff to translate for me.

Because it remains unresolved, on this thread and in the real world, where the reputations of many good people are slurried because they dare to raise objections. And many others refuse to speak out for the same reason.

Personally not, however these days I usually avoid participating in such debates. However my question was not about me particularly, but of the almost Pavlovian response of some to any criticism of Israel. I have no doubt that you are aware of the phenomenon.

Having owned a business in both countries, the biggest difference for me (the Thai company is kaput, the Filipino company is now in its 10th year) is the workforce. Filipinos are much more Western in outlook, and the almost universal ability to speak English with staff and clients is a huge advantage over Thailand. From my experience, incorporation is fairly straightforward - you can hire a lawyer to do it for you. You can incorporate for 200k php or more. You must have local partners who notionally own 60% of the shares although it's common for internal agreements to overwrite that. Hiring is easy; firing must be done in accordance with labour laws, which are generally generous to the employee. I am not sure about minimum staff numbers - we started with 3 locals on the books from day 1. I think a good bookkeeper is key from the start. Initially things were a bit slack from the government but since ding dong took over from Du30 most government agencies have really sharpened up their acts, especially the BIR.

I have never screamed such a statement as it does not sit with my stance on the matter. So again, how does one register their objections to the illegal actions of the state of Israel without having slurs of anti Semitism thrown at them? I am. Can you try being less arrogant and patronising?

I am good then - I object to the actions of the Israeli government but I hold no ill feeling towards Jewish people. I presume, therefore, that I could march without fear of being unfairly discredited as an anti Semite?

How can one demonstrate an objection to the actions of the Israeli government without being branded an anti Semite?

The thought of such chaos gives me a cold chill down my spine!

What a truly rancid party the Tories are. 13 years of corruption carried out with disdainful contempt for the country as these parasites traduced everything they touched. Alas, I have no faith that the incoming labour government will assist in the cover-up. They worked with the Tories to rubbish the idea of PR because they know that they benefit from the lack of transparency and lack of democracy in the UK. It's forever doomed to be a corrupt old boys' club of either red or blue persuasion.

Not so despised that he hasn't won two free and fair elections for the role. Punitive means something different to what you think it means.

Hello Tranny, it's always nice to see the villains of the piece being given a good kicking so rest assured, I will always be ready to fight the good fight when it comes to Nasty Party bashing.

A good chef doesn't need to consume the full pot of soup to know how it tastes. Good statisticians likewise.

You are a bit late to the party, pal; that rather poorly thought out response has already been posted and I answered it previously. But just for you - can you point to an institution of the Roman Empire which exists today and could realistically offer reparations for the actions of their forefathers? Did the khans maintain their territory and form a currently existing nation that could atone? Even the Soviet Union no longer exists but as the carcass is a nest of crooks, good luck in getting anything from the victors who stole those spoils.

Treasonous actions are not usually tolerated by any group of people. What do you think of the Ukrainians siding with the Russians in Crimea?

I am not missing the point but you appear to be missing the development of enlightenment. We are no longer savages who live by partisan codes of self advancement to the cost of others. We have had laws in place for hundreds of years which protect the individual from theft, murder, displacement etc. Our world is not the one of Genghis khan; when the empire existed so too did those laws.

They gave us the question mark... https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark#%3A~%3Atext%3DThe_symbol_is_thought_to%2Csymbol_that_we_use_today.?wprov=sfla1

The empire was British rather than English, and the spoils of empire can be found across the British isles. As for being worse than China, I don't see it as a league table where the lower down you are, the less guilty you are.