DavidBensen

Isnt a political system to represent the interests of the greatest number it can? To do the greatest good it can. Who says a democratic system does this? China's comments that the US is interventionist is absolutely true. The US's interventionist policy under the auspices of democracy, especially its military interventionist policy of invasion, has taken more civilian lives throughout history than any other political system, far from doing the greatest good. I havent seen China do this, nor does history show China having killed so many innocents or invaded anywhere as near as many countries. The truth of who is really representing the interests of the greatest number of people is there ... if we bother to look instead of read. We are 7 billion people ... not just a couple hundred million ... and most of us do not want war imposed on us by any government system. I wouldnt rush into democracy in its current practice either. Look at America, its gone from In God We Trust to now In Guns We Trust. imo.

Does anyone else feel like a world war is looming? Has it started? How many countries need to be involved in military actions before we admit there IS a world war?

I'm just talking about historical facts ... but the US does have a poor human rights record, when I think.back to its Native people, the use of the Chinese to build its initial infracture, theft and slavery of Africans, illegal detention and torture of whomever the US deems to be a 'terrorists' and the literally millions of innocents the US has murdered in its various invasions across globe 'however it goes about legitimising' those invasions to the word. How many Japanese was it again that were killed and maimed and tortured in 1945??

Come on ... lets not bash one country without remembering the atrocities our own has committed.

The only solution I can think ... is for the United nations ... the Globe ... to make illegal all use of destructive force especially military force. Cut military budgets from all countries and wow ... poverty and hunger is solved ...

I think responsibility for authorities in developing nations abusing legal systems, using torture, abusibg human rights etc ... has to lie with the examples set by those countries which are supposedly developed.

Look at Guantanamoo, illegal detention and torture on a large scale. Russia and China the same. Children learn by watching, more than listening.

Money. Most People want it, lots of it, and will do.anything to get it. Why?? Because at the moment, most minds believe that humity is divided into a hierarchy and most people.want to feel higher up on that hierarchy than those around them. It's a mentality of competition, rather than cooperation ... and I dont think.the mentality of we humans will change from competition to cooperation until something very extreme humans and we are then forced to.realise that money is a piece of paper,just coloured paper, you cant drink it and you cant eat it or live under it.

Human minds are.very resistant to.change. They change slowly, if at all, unless something extremely emotional happens to them.

So theres no.use Thailand bashing, the problem is everywhere.

Look to Australia ... It's mostly desert, and droughts last years. Australians live in a harsh climate and can help educate Thais in this regard, especially Aussies from rural areas.

Gutters around rooves in those drier areas should be a good place to start where water can be collected into a drainpipe and diverted to dams or tanks.

The scandanavians have very deep but not wide dams, this keeps the water in the dam cold and greatly decreases water loss. Warm water in the dam (heated by the sun because the dam is shallow) with wind blowing across the surface of the dam, dry out dams fast. So plants trees a little distance away to break the wind, dig the dams deeper and make the opening at ground surface level smaller.

The climate here feels like Brisbane, Queensland in summer ... and there we had a 4 year drought about 10 years ago that changed peoples attitudes to water usage and how to save water. I can feel it here in the North East, and I'm very worried for the Thais, being so heavily dependant on rice growing and stubborn when i talk about time to begin thinking of growing more that rice, sugar, rubber and palm.

There are many food grains that are drought tolerant ... please Thailand, get smart before you go hungry because rice fails one year.

And please Aussies from the land, teach Thais about water saving and growing alternative food crops. I found WeetBix in Ban Dung, and the girlfriends kids and their friends love them with milk and it keeps them full for hours

Many of you might be forgetting the point here .... Manyposts are discussing, 'getting a job', getting money. Yeah sure, that's one of the reasons for studying a Bachelors degree, for money, and if that's your sole purpose, for money, then be smart enough as many suggest and study Law or Medicine or Engineering ... or any of the other areas recognised as high middle class jobs.

But higher education, a bachelors degree, no matter where from, IS worth more than the paper its written on and only the ignorant would comment otherwise. Higher learning is just that, higher learning, you learn to think differently than most, to rationalise better than most, to think in creative ways you would have thought about without having studied at Uni ... and any study helps expand the mind and its way of thinking.

This Topic headline is a disgrace, it disencourages learning, it discusses only the declining financial possibilities, though I note graduates still earn on average nearly 2.5 times more than those this who don't go on to further study.

Thailand's economy, and Thailand as a whole, can only improve if more Thais go onto higher education ... and the Thai government should seriously look into ways of helping Thais to educate themselves. Australia has an OK way it achieves this, by the government funding eligible courses and the student repaying the cost of the course when their income reaches a certain threshold, and then a small percentage of that income begins repaying the students loan.

There's two moral ways out of poverty ... EDUCATION or SPORTING ABILITY.

I did it, from a poor, single parent family, and it was only through education, or crime. I tried crime for a little while, but it was the two bachelor degrees, psychology then law, that changed the way I think, how I rationalise and left me with the feeling that I can solve any problem that comes my way.

EDUCATION is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself, and those you love, and Thailand could become a leading Asian Nation if more Thais have access to it, because Thailand has the environmental conditions to provide many wealthy countries with what they need ... water and food.

I meant to say ... "closest army post"

Read the law on the topic, then stand up against the bullsh!t they try to tell you to extort baht.

I had a cop pull me over and tell me I needed an international driving licence and my Australian licence didn't matter. Not true when there is treaty about this between Thailand and the country from where the licence is issued as stated in the Thai traffic act. I argued and he, continued on with some excuse but 'kindly' said thus time no fine. Maybe because I asked for the reason for the fine to be listed on the ticket, and asked where is the closest police post.

With the support of the PM General Prayuth, its time everyone helps to rid this good land of the corrupt.

Thanks to all forr your replies ... and the experienced insight living here in Thailand.

Best option seems to buy on finance in the Thai girlfriends name ... and if there are any tax breaks here and tax deductions because I'll be using the pickup for a farming venture, to operationally lease the pickup from here at market rates.

I've tried to communicate leasing to several car companies.

Today I called 'Toyota Leasing'. I was asked if I want to buy. I said 'no' I want to lease. The lady who was the English speaking representative had no clue what I meant, yet I called Toyota Leasing.

Have Thai's caught on to what leasing is, as opposed to buying or hire purchase. For tax reasons, leasing for businees is great ... yet every Thai I speak to seems not to understand the idea. Why? Why is leasing not a big part of business here (in my experience so far) ... except for land. Is it because Thai are notoriously known for not making repayments.

All I want to do is lease a car while I'm here ... not buy one.

Anyone with any insights?

Hi

Anyone know where I can get clean land fill and how much it should cost.

Thanks.

Everyone wants to sell me a new tractor with big deposits compared to the West.

Does anyone know where used tractors can be financed. I'm in Ban Dung close to Udon.

Thanks

I'm not finding it easy using the net here in Thailand to find out where I can buy a used backhoe near or in Udon Thani, or anything for that matter.

The internet isnt anywhere as helpful here in Thailand even with my
Thai girlfriend searching in Thai.

Quoting me 100 baht for a meter of backhoe work making a drain, or 15000 baht for 1 day is a rip off. Back home, $300 (9000 baht) hire for a weekend, and that's Western prices.

Anyone know a more reasonable price to hire or where to buy a 1 tonne backhoe.

Thanks.

Why.?.

I'm having trouble when I talk to Kubota about leasing and not buying. And Isuzu too for that matter. Starting to think that leasing vehicles or machinery is not as come here as in the West.

Leasing for business/income producing is tax deductible whereas buying for same isn't.

I'm trying to find a tractor to lease for 1-2 months with a front loader, backhoe and tiller in Udon Thani.

Are tractors leased here?

Anyone know where I can buy White Millet seed from. I've ask locally in produce and seed selling shops, but knowledge is lacking.

I'm in Udon Thani.

Thanks

Hi

I'm looking to buy Vanilla plants or seeds to grow vanilla. The number on an older forum about this isn't working now.

Anyone know where I can get Vanilla plants in Thailand. I'm living in Udon but can travel.

Thanks

What an absurd sense of enfamily ent many Westerners have - almost as if they believe Thailand owes them something for flopping here and contributing nothing but a little money to the common wealth. What part of 'it's their country, theirs to make the laws and do as they please' is it difficult to understand?

Go and moan in private to your expat friends, the Thais couldn't care less.

The OP doesnt say or implied they feel 'entitled'. Your reply just smacks of bias and prejudice. The OP just observes its harder for under 50's who want to stay longer, to do that.

Why westerners want to stay, and we're all the same, have the same emotions no matter east or west, north or south, African or English ... is usually because we've found a good girl ... which isn't easy to find amongst a large percentage of girls here that just use their body to make baht. And because of these human feelings we provide not only our girl with food, a better place to live and respect and love, but her children too, her parents, grandparents and other family.

As to saying Thais couldn't care less ... that's b&llshit and shows this replier for what he/she is. The girls and they're families definitely care and are very thankful. They support and care for their 'Western' men, who care for and support them. They respect our loyalty and strength, and we respect their support and tenderness. It's a known fact (see recent University studies) that Thai men are the least loyal men ... on the planet. There's no wondering why these good Thai girls prefer then, 'western' men.

Thailand cares, mate.

It CARES that westerners bring values about relationships and family that studies show, a majority of Thai men don't get yet.

It CARES that 'westerners' support Thai girls and their children and families and improve their standard of living.

IT CARES that 'westerners' bring much financial support to Thailand as a whole.

It CARES that many 'westerners' love Thailand, it's good girls, and are here to help and raise living standards.

It CARES many 'westerners' come being quite educated, open minded and pass these qualities on to our girls and her children ... because we 'westerners and many great Thais, appreciate and understand we all can win, together, if our prejudices don't make us unhappy little whingers who probably don't contribute much morally, spiritually or financially, to Thailand in the ways I've discussed.

Thailand really does suffer from delusions of grandeur….its laughable one of thresult corrupt co asia, a terrible human rights record even on its own people, a system that accepts and promotes prostitution of all genders etc…Thailand the hub of 3^rd world laughs

VERY wide sweeping opinion here with no supporting evidence other than what the replier in their mighty mind, thinks ... I'm not Thai, I'm Australian, i'm pushing no agenda other than what i've observed staying here in Thailand. I'm not political, but i do have the b&lls to state my name on this site.

Perhaps the replier here should enlighten readers on one of the most corrupt countries 'in the world'? Most of the West, not just one country, suffered recession as a direct result of Wall Street and the US's corrupt no doc loan scandal ... the US, if one opens his/her eyes, has one of the worse human rights records on the planet, with the TENS OF THOUSANDS to HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of civilian lives lost as a direct result of US military invasions over the last 200 years beginning with the native American peoples and the very long list of US invasions in recent times, beginning with Korea, IndoChina, Dominica, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq again and Libya ... andthese the the ones we the public know about.

most of the West has legalized, accepted and promoted (in newspapers and online) prostitution (gender's irrelevant).

This is an ill informed, uninsightful, uneducated.

Thailand is in the infancy of very positive change. Be open minded and helpful ...

At least Thailand ... currently at the hand of a bloody army general none the least and not a politician ... is trying to change corrupt practices, and strong enough to admit the countries had a problem ... and not continuing to keep secrets from the public from which governments get paid and from a public who's money they use ... as Aussie Julian Assaunge via wikileaks has begun to show the world.

What we need to stop is this superior 'us and them' or 'west and east' way of thinking ... realise we're all on this one f$$$ing planet TOGETHER and its our only home ... and for REAL human rights reasons and for all the innocents that get murdered and maimed, make ALL military conflict for all nations, via the supposed UN, unlawful.

Good on you Thailand ... for at least starting and trying to fix your political failings, despite all the crap the West is putting on you. You're efforts to live up to the true spirit of what democracy was supposed to be about, make the West look third world ... whatever 'third world' is supposed to mean. To my eyes, there's only One World, not thirds or halves or Easts or Wests.

I'm about to do this. Have given up life as a lawyer and about to farm in the North of Thailand.

I don't think a person can fail Paul ... the weather's great for all year growing ... there's enough water.

I'll be growing the crops to feed the animals, after doing soil tests to see exactly what nutrients the soil has. I'll then fertilize the ground with fast growing nitrogen fixing crop, like alfalfa.

Just do a little research Paul about what to grow. My idea is to grow what Thais don't but the West buys ... maximum return against cheap land. Also I'm researching designs to maximize chicken housing. There are some very fast growing nutritional crops and fast reproducing animals if you look into it. And how about your own design for harnessing energy ... like adapting a windmill so it produces electricity ALL THE TIME. it's a challenge and its fun, and best of all, if you succeed, you can help raise the living standards of Thais.

I had no money, and found 'Tap4Call'.

The App gives a little credit to call overseas using the Internet. If you download some of the Apps they list and run the App, you get more credit. Some Apps you need to play (I dont, i just download the Apps that give me free credit for downloading them, then i remove the App from my android device. Calls are fairly cheap, Thailand to Australia 2 cents a minute

i've called Australia about 20 times, about 2 hours in total, for free. The connection's not great, but i'm not complaining when getting free international call using just a wifi connection and the internet.

Hope this helps someone who needs to call overseas and like me, had no phone credit at the time.

I thought the same Glegolo. The original OP posted a positive experience, and it was refreshing to read. There's so many more positives to staying\living here in Thai than there are negatives despite international media reports from people who don't stay or live here...and from those who'd never be happy no matter where they resided.

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Thanks guys for the heads up

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