Yann55

5 hours ago, Oziex1 said:

I kinda like Musk but don't care for this gratuitous self promotion at this time. 

Hum .... OK but... why would you automatically assume that it's about 'self promotion' ? Does he really need that ? Frankly I don't think so.

I suppose you've being following the story closely and feeling the frustration of your own helplessness. I sure do. I also assume that you're a person with a kind heart ... now, imagine you had billions of $, teams of technicians who can work wonders in a very short time, the mind of an inventor, and a capacity for empathy (which, admittedly, is rare among billionaires, for all kinds of reasons) ... wouldn't you swing into action just like he did ?

And mind you, he's (very) far from stupid, so he knew full well, I'm sure, that he would be suspected of having some hidden self-serving purpose. It's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't, isn't it ? But he did it anyway, and personally I'm impressed. Helping other human beings in difficulty is not exactly top of the list on billionnaires' agendas, who tend to help themselves, first and foremost, and to find that absolutely normal.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Anti-torture group to train Thai authorities in aim to reduce torture

One of the weirdest, most obscure and unsettling headlines I've seen on Thai Visa in a long time ...

5 hours ago, lanista said:

These 12 Thai  kids are incredibly lucky to have all this international help which most Thais could only dream of.

I hope when theyre older they will respect farangs more so than their elders.

Time will tell.

The Westerners who participate in this rescue deserve respect, there's no question about that, and they're receiving it from everyone, regardless of race or nationality.

But 'farangs' as a whole ? Pray tell, what is there to respect, exactly ? Do you realize how incredibly colonial you sound when you demand that Thais respect 'farangs' just because ... ?

What your acid little remark illustrates, and quite accurately, is the problem of expats' attitude here, especially their insufferable feeling of entitlement : "How come these people, for whom I have absolutely no respect, do not respect me, the white conqueror and owner of the world?"

And before anyone tells me that not all farangs are like that here, I'll say that yes, I know : it's only about 8 out of 10, so yes I'm generalizing... with due cause.

5 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

I heard it was just 24 hours before family are allowed to see them. I really hope they are able to evacuate the other kids safely tomorrow, but the rescue teams have performed magnificently so far so I have a lot of confidence.

 

I do hope the recuperation process is fast and they can be released and escorted to the world cup final - this would be a dream come true for the boys and the coach both, and may even be medically prudent in aiding their recovery and reassimilation. I can't imagine how the kids must feel after such a traumatising experience, but I can say one thing for sure - if the love of my life was football, and I was feeling much better, but was prevented from attending a private invitation to the world cup final due to over-cautious doctors saying I needed to remain in hospital for observation, I'm not sure if I could forgive them.

I am sooooo with you on that one .... For these kids, I bet watching the World Cup Final live would beat any kind of medicine ! Anyway... everyone's still holding their breath as 9 of them are still inside.

Reading your reference to 'over-cautious doctors' gets me thinking too... When I saw the first images of the kids trapped in that narrow cave, beyond the overwhelming emotion, I was struck by the fact that they are obviously strong, resilient, and courageous. In their letters, too, you could sense how polite and considerate they are, and how keen they were to put up a brave and happy face even though they were tired, hungry, scared at heart, and surely aware that their ordeal was far from over.

These are obviously 'country kids', meaning that their education and environment are waaaay different from what children in Bangkok are accustomed too. How would Bangkok (or Western) kids have gone through such a trial ? This certainly raises deep and challenging questions about education.

I also find the general response of the families in this situation quite admirable, poised, full of common sense and tolerance. So much for those of us who never miss a chance to lash out at Thais for their supposed 'immaturity'. Oh sure, their reactions are often radically different from ours, but different doesn't mean better or worse, it just means ... different. If Westerners, and especially expats here, could keep that in mind before passing judgment on all and everything Thai, this Forum, for one thing, would be a whole lot more civilized.

The way parents and relatives talk to coach Ake should put to shame some of the jerks who said horrible things on this Forum about him.

No need to say more, because I know that talking about intelligence, understanding, compassion, patience, and refraining from hasty judgments to people like that is like trying to teach Latin to a donkey.

Hold on tight, Ake, hold on tight, boys, you're brave and soul-moving, all of you. Thanks to all the people who are working relentlessly to rescue these kids, and RIP to the guy who lost his life in this battle.

I pray, along with millions of people, that you all get out of that ordeal, alive and well. Any other option is unthinkable, unimaginable, unacceptable.

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

4 hours ago, Kieran00001 said:

If only there were more pedants on the forum...

No point in spreading ignorance.

Oxygen tanks usually have green tops (although some dive oxygen is in blue cylinders).

Air tanks contain mainly nitrogen (78%), so no reason to call them oxygen tanks.

But every reason indeed to call you a pedant ...

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

3 hours ago, Expatthailover said:

Whether it is 10 days or 10 years it is an overstay and he needs kicking out regardless of where he comes from in comparison with the other recalcitrants.

Well done big joke

Well i was on overstay for 35 days 4 years ago, so according to you i should have been kicked out. 

Yup.

Who knows, he may even suggest that you should have been given a lethal injection, as there seems to be no limit to the level of brown-nosing some (not all) posters are willing to do here when it comes to applauding these almost daily crackdowns on overstaying expats.

I thought (silly me) that the original (and great) concept of a Tourist Police was primarily to help and assist the tourists by hiring English-speaking officers.

What this particular officer seems to be doing, however, is morphing the tourist police into an anti-tourist police. Yes, yes, and yeeees, I know he's only after the 'bad guys' (one of these typically vague concepts that can lead to so much abuse in the field of politics), I know that overstaying is not OK, that rules must be respected and also that some expats here - including among the retired population - are nothing but thugs on the run.

I know all that, but one must wonder why, on account of one man's love of media attention (and whatever other items on his personal agenda), the whole time and energy of the tourist police should now be so one-track minded.

I don't think I'm the only person here (at least, I hope so) who doesn't particularly condone or appreciate the victorious smirk he puts on when standing in front of these arrestees. It's systematic and it speaks volumes about the guy, who seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself in situations like that. Again, I agree that they're arrested for a reason and that they're breaking the law, but why the need to rub it in their faces with such arrogant glee ?

'Free and open elections'.... such as... ? ... such as the ones we've been having in the West for decades, ie :

1/ where everyone quacks but only money acts ?

2/ where a candidate without the financial support of economic powers has no chance whatesoever ?

3/ where a person can legally become President of a major country even though he actually received less votes than his opponent ?

4/ where the only candidates who stand a chance to win are the ones who, once elected, will systematically kowtow to the higher powers, ie financial and economic ?

5/ where the most powerful country is so devoted to serving the rich that it doesn't even have a real left-wing party ?

6/ where 'little' people end up voting for hysterical extreme right parties that promote racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of hatred, simply because they feel that these politicians are the only ones who speak the truth ?

7/ where sycophantic populism and hypocrisy have become so common in politics that they're regarded as normal ?

8/ where the media belong to immensely rich people who know exactly how to use them and for what purpose ?

Give us a break, Theresa, will ya ? And go sweep clean your own glass house before you tell others what is right and wrong in politics.

2 hours ago, rodney earl said:

What gives her the right to tell other people what to do.!!!

Earl Rodney, thank you.

I'm glad someone says that, because I never cease to be amazed at how the West somehow feels entitled to patronize the rest of the world, especially its former colonies, which it raped and pillaged for centuries with the active support of Western religious authorities. Colonization was brutal, immoral, and based on greed, nothing else. It never factored in the slightest concern about human rights (and still doesn't, now that colonization has morphed from political to economical). The process ended up :

1/ creating the massive wealth on which the West now comfortably sits, pretending not to know where it comes from and how it was made,

2/ destroying - blatantly or subtly - most non-Western cultures,

3/ causing a social, economical and political imbalance on the planet which will eventually spell the doom and death of humanity.

Much as I admire Voltaire's intelligence, I will never forgive him for having made most of his fortune on the infamous 'triangular trade'. A fact that not many people seem to know, and a mind-boggling paradox which highlights the problem.

Did the West (apart from a few powerless individuals) ever truly care about human rights, other than on paper ? Do Western powers (both political and economical) respect human rights nowadays ? If the answer is no, or even 'no, not really' to both these questions, then whence on earth does it get the right to give any form of moral advice to other countries ?

12 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

15 minutes ago, Yann55 said:

 

 

 

Indeed. I've always believed that a rich person is someone who was either lucky, or born in the right place, or very clever, or very hard-working, or a bit of all this put together, whereas a VERY rich person is a thief who hasn't been caught.

 

Whereas, those who have been stealing on a grand scale over centuries are called the aristocracy.

... and love to call themselves the 'elite'... such supreme irony, since the word comes from the French élite, which derives from the latin eligere, which means... to elect.... and elected is exactly what they're NOT.

58 minutes ago, Borzandy said:

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Tounga Mbouka

This is not a French name and not a French guy.

I was reading this thread, thinking "wow, 22 posts already and no one yet has made any vicious hint about the guy's skin color, his name and/or his nationality"... I was beginning to wonder if TVF posters had suddenly become more civilized, educated and broad-minded.

And then... your post, Borzandy (btw is that Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, or... ?), reminds me of Einstein's famous quote : "only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former".