KhnomKhnom

To the PM, Sir:

You have a national treasure in entertainment media at MUIC Mahidol University Salaya in a department of that name. I started the educational curriculum and it has graduated about 20 superior students for over eight years now, most of whom could be in touch with the younger audience to write and produce the message you seek. Take a look at their Senior Project films/tv. Some are world quality-- outstanding.

I retired from my professorship and administration position there, but know two teachers there now to help get in contact with student graduates. A lot of these Thai citizens are well taught and ready to help, I am sure. Give these idealistic young adults a chance ... start them on the task and smile because they are very creative and will work hard for you.

--Ph.D. professor of Entertainment Media, retired first Head of Program.

P.S. Contact the two teachers, NOT the Dean and not the MU President; I know what I am talking about.

teachers Dr. P.C. and Dr. S.

YOU NEED A GOOD DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY !

This is not something that will cure itself and no amount of walking or suffering forcing yourself to walk will cure it.

Be a man and go to GOOD doctor immediately. Do not listen to anyone else. That is the only leg you are gonna have on that side !

Wow, a tuff problem. Teens are so repulsive to adults because otherwise if they stayed sweet like before, parents would want to keep them.

Sorry to say, but the original problem comes from your wife whose job it was to teach her boys to adapt. She did not do that and now it is too late. I doubt you can turn this around now.

If I were in that bind, I would make a money deal with the boys. Good behavior buys X Baht per day.... week is too long ahead for them to think. Half into boy's hand and half into bank account they can touch at age 21. Show them the bank book. Do not say they get anything when you die because they may try to kill you.

Do not take them anywhere like a camping trip for gosh sakes... they will hate it. Take them to an I MAX movie.... ONLY AS A REWARD FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR........ same for a set amount of money to play video and other games in that play place top floor of Paragon, etc.

Be steady in your treatment of them... do not soften and then harden...... SAME always. and stick with it as difficult as it is. Make a deal.

These boys are mafia thinkers.... deal with them that way. Good luck.

Greeters in general know nothing.

People, usually nice voice Thai woman, know nothing who are first voice on telephone line, but have been flogged never to pass on your question to someone who REALLY knows.

PS, they do not know the word supervisor or boss in English.

Look into a super one-day trip anytime to Ancient City, Moran Boran, some spelling which is on Internet. Great for kids, open space and ride golf cart, picnic on beautiful grounds.

"Living" vampires air travel is by sealed coffins as seen on television in show TRUE BLOOD.

They book into a hotel that is sealed from sunlight.

That is in Dallas anyway.

I will give information which does not directly relate to your Thai Wife returning goods question.

I employed Crown Relocaters company to pick up my household belongings in Florida and transport them by sea in a container to Bangkok and then deliver all the stuff to my Bangkok suburban house.

Crown had all my information and contents of numbered boxes. Crown did ALL my paperwork including Thailand customs. I paid a small customs fee for those guys to touch my paperwork, but I had NO duty to pay due to the rule in Thailand in 2005 that a foreign American can bring in one sea freight load of pure household items at no customs duty charge and one air freight same.

Crown was super great along the whole encounter and eliminated all my problems.

Today, I am dealing with FedEx to ship out a repair and get it back in and FedEx has caused me many problems and never solved my needs. UPS knew even less about this and DHL never answered their telephone.

It is 1930 in many parts of Thailand yet.

I've never been married and have absolutely no intentions to change that. In my opinion, marriage is an outdated thing. I'll stay together with my girlfriend as long as we're both happy, and if one day one of us is not and we just can't solve it, it's time to move on. But that's just my personal view.

If I am comatose and on terminal life support, I want my legally married wife there to OK turning off the machines.

I want my legally married wife to be able to access my money to pay for my cremation.

I could go on, but if the foreign man dies first and no good will, he has really hurt his surviving gf in many ways.

None of these concerns, named and implied, relate to anyone who will never die.

Well, if you are sensitive, do not walk past a construction site in any large city, especially NYC. Cat calls are standard and in English.

I enjoy the rock star status of my foreign face at the Lotus, but then I do not speak Thai to hear what they may call me.

My only advice it to talk loudly in good Thai often where you shop and word will rapidly get around to shut up in Thai around you..... the clerks at Lotus will be great ones to spread the news.

Otherwise, just grin and endure.

Thats how it is on those estates.

Your lucky you ain't got a dip stick on a microphone at that time talking rubbish to those within a km radius.......

I do not think you will escape barking dogs in moobans.

I want a barking dog for any disruption, including walkers coming by. That is what my dogs are for, security.

One of my 4 dogs has learned to howl, which adds to the mix of sounds.

When all the bad guys in the world are dead and only the honest ones still exist, I will shush and quiet my dogs; until that date, I WANT barking.

I keep hearing the word of mouth that if a Thai citizen occupies an empty and otherwise not used piece of land, that person can claim it as his own after some number of years.

Is this true or false?

I have taken care of and minimum-occupied an un-sold lot in a mooban, owned by the original developer or his bank. Can I claim that lot? What occupation proof is needed? Legal actions? Thanks

I also hear that Thai government can claim empty unused land after a number of years, true?

All the current Thailand education system gives are worthless, easily gotten degrees that only teach students to find a way to slide by on their jobs, too.

Just drive it until it has some thing large to break, like an axel.

Top up oil like Thai do.

Do not rotate radial tires.

If you have unusual wear on one tire or a pair together, rotating will not help.

Rotating causes troubles.

The in-family young man who now drives my AUTOMATIC Toyota truck, has a hard time keeping his hand off the shift lever.

I have seen basic farm and truck driver types, driving my truck sometimes actually shift the automatic lever, thankfully not into "park" while moving. Also, they insist on activating the parking brake along with "park" on the shift lever when stopped.

I enjoy watching taxi drivers activate the parking brake while stopped at a red light.

Otherwise AUTOMATIC is the only way to go.

Crime on an island...... the criminals had to escape, and be photographed escaping, or are still there, yes ?

A bunch of whining complainers, on this venue, wanting Thailand to be "just like at home."

If you like your home so much, and Thailand so little, GO HOME, GO HOME, GO HOME.

bye bye

a rapidly reported crime on an ISLAND is easy to investigate.

Just close the island to in and out travelers and check everyone on the island.

This is like crimes on cruse ships............. heck all suspects are just right there contained.

Speaking as an American with a step daughter with two children just starting Thai govt school, and as a university prof who taught 30 yrs in usa and 6 yrs here. I have to work at forgiving the UK typists on this venue for their weird ideas about Thai women, children and the country. I have lived here continuously for 11 yrs in suburb of BKK and never see racism, no threats to my safety (except driving), and no way any corruption directly and negatively affects the children or me.

My advice to an American man married to his Thai woman (and if not actually married what are you doing or thinking by having children?) and living full time here is to decide if the children will live their lives in Thailand or elsewhere. If they will live in Thailand they should go to Thai schools, ideally an international one.... you fathered them, you pay for them.

A non-HiSo Thai wife has a huge chance of going crazy by moving to USA; at the very least she will be deeply unhappy and that will affect your children. If she lasts two years, I would be amazed. That means, Mr. American that you started something... like a family... and your only ethical, moral, and practical choice is to keep Mrs. and kids here at their real home.

It is all well and good to say that American schools are superior--in some ways they are--but you all would have your kids live in that morally bankrupt nation where god is money and <deleted>^k you the standard attitude, especially to you, old man. Being raised as a Buddhist is a major plus for a lifetime of peace and inner bliss and that means Thailand for them.

Stay in Thailand and have four All English At Home days each week, read English to kids and get them loads of Seseme Street English videos and control their tv watching..... hey sounds like real parenting, fellows! Stick with it and know you did something really good for a few close people.

This is less interesting than the blank page.

I want to repeat my experience with trying to ship an item from Thailand to USA FOR REPAIR and returned to me.

I recount this story to illustrate how many light years Thailand will have to travel to be compatible with Western business practices. Thailand is so isolated by its language, its cultural oddities, and its general lax employee behavior.

Example.........

I want to ship an item to USA. Item is now in Thailand, having been imported correctly with massive duty paid on it. I want to send the item to USA for REPAIR and return to me in Thailand WITHOUT paying full duty again. So I telephoned shipping companies.

Schenker...good English, said no private customers, just businesses.

FedEx.......very weak English, tiny voice, operator leaves phone to ask about my "customs return" question, as if first ever heard about doing this. Much on phone waiting and repeating my need. Thai females can not speak up and just can not talk loudly.

UPS...... machine answered phone, switched to a line that rang for five minutes, tried twice, gave up.

DHL.... rang for five minutes, tried thrice, gave up.

Another private shipping company.... English too weak to take my phone number.

Thailand Customs information special dept ... three numbers given on their web site, two never answered, one rang a private home, gave up.

Back to FedEx....medium weak English, sent six pages of forms in Thai to fill out and scan and send back to FedEx special customs office. Sent separate five pages of forms to be supplied by the repair company in USA, English. Anticipated delay one week. I will have to pay about $35 in fees to get this "export/import for repair" to go out and about $140usd in fees to get item back in, exempt from full customs duty.

This simple activity required seven calls to FedEx and three emails from FedEx, several repeated explanations of what I wanted due to getting different people at FedEx on phone, and overall, to date, one full day and one half days doing nothing but this.

What I learned again is that even foreign companies in Thailand can not provide near to international standards in ordinary service. Thailand has tiny chance of growing out of its current economic system (cheap labor, no innovation) and even more tiny chance of being taken over by another nation. It is very close to hopeless.

Six yrs teaching at Mahidol U., media, I could not get students to get the assigned textbook and when I made one available, no student would read. Assignments were futile. If the student failed the class, "somehow" they continued enrolled.

Reading is not popular with today Thai students except Facebook and sms with language cut to minimum.

Bye bye literacy; bye bye educated world.

"Dr Apichart said the training could help reduce the death rate of mothers and children in Bhutan by as much as 100 per cent."

I think the good Dr. maybe doesn't understand how percentages work or he left out a qualifier like, preventable death rate of...

But that sounds very optimistic given the lacadazical implementation of the training program. Its been going since 2012, and by the end of next month will have trained less than 70 care providers. The training is only 2-4 weeks long... they could have trained everybody by now if this were a priority! Maybe there are extenuating circumstances with political relations or something else not even hinted at in the severly lacking report, I don't know.

I want reparations! This writer's accompanying photo is too small. I have injured my eyes.

This is a very typical, dare I say normal, response to aging, to retirement, to attitudes and habits.

First, get a testosterone level test and tests for physical brain changes. Drop in T has this effect and the final news is not in about treatment because there are, surprise, side effects of T replacement therapy.

Slow deterioration of the physical brain from a variety of old age problems... Parkinson's, dementia, Old Timers, etc. .... will cause personality changes (my forthcoming book on staying married to a Thai woman has a chapter on this) that can be mildly irritating on up to dangerous especially for your care givers. This is a real situation and can not be dismissed as just a bad mood.

Second, because anti depressants are not working... I hope you got the right one for YOU, because the results of various meds vary greatly (at least one can make you roaring angry for no cause), this suggests pure attitude changes. Bear with me for an example.... if someone has the belief/attitude that the world is flat, no drugs will dissuade him short of knocking him out (be quiet CIA retirees). Same with other attitudes.

Attitudes come on as habits. Habits take work to change, rule is 30days of constant work. A person must work to create a positive attitude. Some people use food as a trigger, or use jokes (lawyer jokes work great for me), or taking a long shower upon waking. Do not urinate until you shower will eventually get you in the shower early daily. You must invent a set of triggers that will FORCE you to get up and get moving. Get a bunch of mechanical clocks and take them apart and reassemble... do something that will engage all of your mind so you are not thinking about yourself.

You can do this and not waste your golden years, but it is not easy !

Does not really sound like Dengue because you are not reporting JOINT PAIN. What I had diagnosed at Bumrungrad as dengue is a virus, incurable, untreatable, and possibly with self-generating reoccurrences without otherwise new exposure.

I can not imagine having Dengue and not having at least minor joint pain. My joint pain was severe and told me why it is called "break bone fever" because you feel your joints are broken the pain is so bad. The pain is unremitting, not responsive to any drug or home remedy, and makes sleeping difficult. The pain lasts three to five days.

Some claim the later exposures are not so severe; some claim, along with doctors, that the virus can stay in your body until you die and pop up at any time with less severe symptoms.

Believe me, if you have BREAK BONE FEVER, you will know it by that pain ! Get well soon.