Gecko123

Growing disrespect for older people is symptomatic of fascist attempts to undermine respect and trust in all societal institutions. Fascists attempt to undermine confidence in institutions and break down the social fabric (by demonizing the "other") with the goal of presenting themselves as the only solution to the very problem that they have largely created. This is why you see these constant attacks on the FBI, the courts, the congress, election integrity, medical expertise (Covid), scientific community (climate change), anti-wokeism, meddling in school curriculums, and it's the main driver behind anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-reproductive rights, anti-LBGQT rights sentiments. Ageism as a form of societal purification is a natural progression of this ideology, which if you study what happened in Germany in the 1930's, is exactly what happened there. You really need to raise your consciousness in this regard.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I would just like to say that many people misinterpret the risk management process of identifying, analyzing, prioritizing, treating and monitoring risk as being "negative", "pessimistic" or as you put it, being a "curmudgeon," when in truth it is nothing of the sort. The identification of potential risk can be viewed as a joyful and positive process, as once the risk has been identified that becomes the first step towards better managing it. It has been my experience that it is most often people who have never been exposed to risk management tools who are most apt to misinterpret the thought process.

This is a discussion forum. The thread topic is the advisability of moving abroad at a young age. The Native Farang U-tube channel was only referenced for illustration purposes. Nobody's intruding on the Native Farang channel. I think you're the one who should run along. Frankly, I could care less about the individuals involved. But many people do follow U-tube influencers and make major life decisions based on what they see. If people are gonna get upset because someone's trying to provide a more balanced picture of what someone might be getting into to, well, that's their problem not mine. If we're sharing first impressions here, I find you're bristling at my sharing my observations to be fairly immature, not particularly intelligent, and rather twerpish.

I don’t think much was said on this thread that wouldn’t have been said during the vetting process when the decision to move to Thailand was first announced to family and friends back home. If there wasn’t some of this, I’d have to wonder whether family and friends had concern about my welfare. I don’t think anybody said Native Farang wouldn’t be able to make a living in Thailand or predicted he was going to fall flat on his face. Most of the concerns voiced on the thread had to do with concerns down the road. I can fully appreciate a Thai guy’s desire to get back to the mother country, and escape the racial and social prejudice and discrimination he probably experienced in England. I’m sure he’s in hog heaven back in Thailand, and understandably so. The wife too is probably on cloud nine being able to raise the kids in an idyllic country setting. But if the concerns raised on the thread about challenges they may face in the future (schooling, health care, employment and future earning potential, ability to save a retirement nest egg, etc.) came as a jarring wake up call to the young couple I don’t know if this reflects well on the amount of planning which went into the move. If none of these issues were raised by family and friends, I can only speculate that either: (a) nobody was fully aware of these “on the ground” realities, (i.e., government schools, government hospitals, rural employment opportunities, etc.), or (b) felt obligated to defer to the Thai husband’s “expertise” about what the couple’s future life in Thailand would be like, or (c) the family and friends had such supreme confidence in the couple’s maturity and decision making skills, and were by nature such loving, supportive, positive and optimistic individuals in touch with the rhythms of the universe that it never even occurred to them to question the wisdom of the decision. Godspeed and a heartfelt hug was all that was needed, eh? With my tongue firmly in my cheek, I suspect this last explanation will eagerly be embraced by certain people reading this thread. Please consider that there’s a big difference between the relationship dynamic of a U-tube travel channel and its followers, and the reaction you should expect from a public forum such as this. Many U-tube viewers who are heavily engaged with the channel are essentially living vicariously through the channel’s content. They want to engage, feel a sense of being part of the experience and do so by showering the channel with positive comments in the hopes of getting a “like”, a reply, or a heart emoji from the content provider. Many of them have never set foot in Thailand and probably never will, and few have the “on the ground” experience to evaluate what’s going on. That’s a big part of the reason why the ASEANNOW reaction was in such a sharp contrast to what Native Farang and his wife experience on their U-tube channel. The ASEANNOW audience has “on the ground” real time experience and a basis of comparison and evaluation that most of your U-tube audience lacks. If you’re truly interested in making your new life here sustainable, my advice to Native Farang would be to make good use of whatever resources that are available, not just bask in the positive feedback you enjoy on your channel. Finally, I wanted to point out that contrary to Native Farang’s assertion earlier on this thread that foreigners don’t know jack about farming and gardening in Thailand, innumerable foreigners have access to land, and have considerable experience in farming and gardening activities. Also, many have farming and gardening experience acquired from back home. Here are some links which you might find useful: ASEANNOW Farming in Thailand forum link: https://aseannow.com/forum/104-farming-in-thailand-forum/ Dairy of a Farang in Thailand thread link: https://aseannow.com/topic/1134505-diary-of-a-farang-in-isaan/page/10/ Photos of kitchen gardens thread link: https://aseannow.com/topic/828373-photos-of-kitchen-gardens/ Again, I wish you luck in your endeavors, and fully expect to hear you have become the CEO of Betagro or Saha Farms in the not too distant future.

In reading back over the thread, I think the remarkably rich and thoughtful range of comments offered may have been somewhat lost in the heat of the moment. While Native Farang understandably didn't appreciate having his decision to move his family to Thailand put through the ASEANNOW gristmill, the thoughtfulness of the comments made still provide a valuable resource for anyone considering a move abroad. I'm skeptical about claims that there's been some monster sea change about how younger generations view this issue. In the final analysis the decision boils down to weighing the tradeoffs between opportunity and security, and to me that calculus seems pretty timeless.

I never said you shouldn't have moved back to Thailand, and I never said you should have 'x' amount of money before you did. All I did was point out the risks you and your wife are taking in the process, which was the subject of this thread, and I stand by my assessment in this regard. I wish you success and good fortune in your future endeavors and life ahead.

There are risks and sacrifices to be made no matter what age you decide to become an expat. To suggest that because someone is relatively young, they are exempt from this reality is false. Sheryl correctly cites retirees who didn't properly access their finance needs, didn't anticipate currency exchange risk, failed to budget their money to make it last, failed to obtain medical insurance, and neglected their social connections back home as being at risk. There are plenty of older retirees here who are not in that predicament, just as there are probably plenty of 20-30 somethings who are failing to manage their finances, failing to anticipate potential unexpected expenses, failing to secure high quality medical insurance , and failing to maintain their family and friend networks back home. I would actually argue that all things being equal the younger person is bearing more life event risk than the older person simply because with there being a longer period of future life expectancy there's inherently more risk, with risk being defined as the chance that things will not go as planned. There's also unquestionably a higher probability that they will need to repatriate in the future. A younger person has a far greater risk of incurring a major life event such as divorce, death of a spouse, a major illness or injury in the family, a voluntary or involuntary need to repatriate, loss of future earning due to being out of the home country work force, and loss of future financial earning of the children because of limited educational opportunities in Thailand. That's not "negative old fart" thinking. That's just a rock-solid actuarially sound assessment of reality.

Check my privilege? You must think that farming is in the DNA of Thai people. This guy has been at it for 5 months; I've been doing it for 20 years straight. Yes, I think I could teach that guy more than a thing or two. And, yes, I think the videos on his channel give me a high degree of confidence in my assessment.

From what I've seen on your U-tube videos, a ton of foreigners here, including myself, could teach you a lot about farming, Mr. Smarty-Pants.

I have this funny feeling you might be the Thai-Aussie guy on the Native Farang channel. I've seen a lot of U-tube videos generated by 20-something 30-something year olds who have moved abroad and think they can support themselves by recording their daily activities and posting it on line. I have my doubts that the couple depicted in the above U-tube channel have the type of high-tech skills that will allow them to generate sustained high income, especially by Western standards. So I'm a little skeptical about these vague 'digital nomad' claims about making money hand over fist all the while sipping lattes at the local coffee shop in the outermost remote regions of Isaan. Subsistence farming. I've been doing this for the past 20 years on a low-key basis, certainly not depending on it to support myself. I know how back-breaking the work is, and as I said earlier, I know there's a very long learning curve. Any physical injury, be it a slipped disk, a motorcycle accident, any impairment that limits your mobility and that lifestyle will come to a screeching halt. Which is a big risk. With the rise of auto translation, and the accelerating spread of English language skills here, the ability to monetize bi-lingual Thai-English skills is diminishing every day. Additionally, were they to remain in Thailand, those bi-lingual skills in all likelihood are not going to be pulling down any six figure monthly salaries, and I'm talking baht here. The couple in the video are engaged in farm labor and have a side hustle U-tube channel, and are raising their kids. As another poster pointed out perhaps they don't plan to do this forever and plan to repatriate to their home country, but chances are that they would pay a steep price economically, educationally for their children, and career path wise in terms of playing catch-up were they ever to repatriate to their home country. I'm not saying 'the road less travelled' isn't the way the go. I'm just saying that there's a lot of risk and I don't have the impression that this has been carefully thought through in very many cases, not just by older retirees, but younger adventurers as well. People can anonymously claim they left for Thailand with little more than $100 to their name 30 years ago and it all worked out "great" but I'm taking that with a big grain of salt. Yes, there are opportunities available today that didn't exist 30 years ago, but in general the expat environment is a lot less friendly than it was 30 years ago. Visa options, visa renewal requirements, relative cost of living between Thailand and home country, relative purchasing power, currency risk, fiat currency stability, attitudes towards immigration and over-tourism, confidence which you can rely on promised pensions, geopolitical tensions and climate change all contribute to the risk that you might have to repatriate in the future. A move abroad often has the magical thinking short term appeal of drastically reducing your cost of living and many are blinded to the reality that while many doors may be opening up, just as many are quietly being shut behind you.

The wife in the native farang video is taking enormous risk in terms of her future. While her husband has the right to own property, has a wide variety of occupational options, and would probably be able to find a new Thai spouse and enjoy community support in the event of death of his spouse or divorce, the wife would very likely not enjoy these same opportunities. For example, she would be unable to purchase land, be limited in what work she could do, and as a single foreign female in rural Thailand, would likely struggle socially both in the expat and Thai communities. In addition, they are never going to achieve financial independence subsistence farming in Thailand. The small family farm model which can sometimes be profitable in the West really struggles here in Thailand. The learning curve for subsistence farming, as evidenced in many of their videos, is quite long and there are good reasons why so many Thai farmers are in debt up to their eyeballs. While that "off the grid" lifestyle can be very rewarding and educational, the skills learned don't readily transfer to skilled labor jobs, either here and certainly not back in Australia. Maybe she has a financial cushion (inheritance) that she can fall back on, but from what I've seen, I question the advisability of this adventure and whether she can truly afford it when all the potential vagaries of life, both personal and macroeconomic, are given the weight they deserve. The litmus test for whether such a move is financially viable is the ability to maintain the option to repatriate at any time in the future. The younger you are, the more stringently this litmus test should be adhered to. Not just whether you can afford to repatriate tomorrow, but whether you will be able to do so 5, 10, 20, 30 years down the road.

Sounds like a nightmare to me, but to each his own.

Not a fan of prolific posters who use the forum as an antidote for boredom, a form of psycho therapy, or because they are attention whores generating mostly unreadable gibberish. Phrases like "those who have the least to say, talk the most" come to mind. What Neil Young said about Charles Manson is apropos: "He wasn't what you call a song writer, he was more a song spewer." Over-thinking at its worst. Headache inducing. Tiresome. Yes, I'm talking about the content spewers who have taken over this forum. Posters who hit 1,000 post counts without achieving at least a 1.00 "like" ratio, especially in a short period of time, should be either be removed or be limited to no more than 5 posts per day. They violate the number one rule of writing: "respect your reader," not to mention the number two rule: "Have something to say." As surely as the Gilgo Beach killer snuffed out his victims, posters like this have snuffed out this forum until it's been reduced to a handful of posters engaged in unreadable, repetitious, and inane bickering and repartee which alienates everyone who doesn't enjoy this type of content.

Would like to see you disarm and take an active shooter into custody. .

...and some people are quick to criticize.

Real men know what to do in case of a fire in a high rise building.

You can always spot a move abroad procrastinator from 10 miles away. These guys full of big talk about how they plan to move abroad at some vague date in the future. 90% never end up making the move, most often due to health problems. They're more in love with the dream than actually moving. No harm in fence-sitting and day dreaming, but for those of us who had the guts to pull the ripcord and the wherewithal to make it work, the heckling from the peanut gallery can get a little tedious at times.

I'm just curious about something. When you say your wife is from Lopburi, do you mean Lopburi city or Lopburi province? The reason I ask is that there is a lot of cultural and linguistic spillover and inter-marriage between Lopburi province (which is technically not in Isaan) and neighboring provinces (which are in Isaan). Last week I had a Makro shelf stocker in Lopburi city tell me I spoke Thai with an "Isaan" accent. No one has ever ever said this to me before, and I was actually fairly offended by this comment, because I suspected her assessment was based more on a possible prejudice that because I was a foreigner my wife must be from Isaan, than on how I was actually speaking. But after getting home and giving this some thought, I begrudgingly had to admit that there is a possibility that there is enough Isaan linguistic influence in my area that over the years I may have picked up some Isaan speaking mannerisms without even realizing it, even though I have never actually lived in Isaan. Edit: @Neeranam: Sorry, kind of got sidetracked and went off on a tangent. What I was getting at was even though you may have met your wife in Lopburi, are you saying that your wife had no family connections whatsoever in Isaan, and that you and your wife just willy-nilly moved there? You have to admit, that's pretty unusual, unless you moved there for work.

So you don't even know if it was a solo one vehicle loss of control accident or possibly negligence on the part of the forum member and you're going on this diatribe about Thai people? Did you see that picture shared of him sitting at a roadside restaurant at what looks like a rest break during a touring trip? Did you notice what appear to be two large cans of Chang beer on the table? If someone wants to report this post and get it removed as disrespectful to the departed so be it, but why aren't you speaking out about that? And I fail to see how going on a rant about how stupid Thai people are is showing respect to the departed's Thai loved ones.

Have the circumstances of the accident been made known to forum members? On the RIP thread, the details seem to have only been shared with known friends and associates via PM. If you are going to go on a racist rant about Thais and their poor driving skills based on this accident, perhaps the details of the accident should be shared openly. Recreational motorcycle riding, particularly long distance touring, in a country with a poor road safety record is ill-advised. Drinking and driving are a disastrous combination. Hyper defensive driving skills are needed for those who choose to engage in motorcycle or any motoring activities. Beyond reminding people of these obvious truths, I don't see the value of this thread.

Sad to hear. Will be remembered for his archery hobby.

Demographics of guys shopping around for girlfriends from Western countries vs other countries tend to be different: Western guys tend to be older, maybe have more income while Asian, South Asian, other ASEAN countries, Middle East, Africa seem to be younger, still working age. Key factor in the girl's decision may be where they're likely to end up after marriage. If in Thailand, Thai woman may feel someone from Asian background would blend in better back in village or in town while a Caucasian hubby might carry more of a stigma as ex-bar girl, no matter what story was concocted to dispel this notion. If it's a 'Take Me Out of Thailand' situation, final destination might weigh heavily in the decision making process, depending on the sophistication and worldliness of the girl. If the girl's goal is to get out of Thailand, then a move to Seattle or London with an older white guy is going to be more attractive than a younger wealthier Indian, ASEAN or Arab boyfriend who is proposing a relocation to say, New Delhi, Phnom Penn or perhaps Cairo.

Asinine counter-arguments. Monkeys. Jabbering monkeys. Jabbering stoned monkeys. The whole lot of you. The disparagement of Thai culture by the proponents of cannabis legalization only bolsters my arguments. I'll tell you this: one thing that I've become increasingly convinced of reading these cannabis threads is that weed damages reasoning and debate skills.

Anutin is a Little Lord Fauntleroy who fancied himself as an enlightened visionary à la El Salvador's president deciding to adopt Bitcoin as the national currency. (How's that working out?) Cannabis decriminalization was cynically marketed to the masses as a boost to the agricultural and tourism sectors as a populist cornerstone of his failed bid to become Thailand's next prime minister. This so-called health minister blithely ignored the impact this would have on Thailand's health, educational and youth development, and road safety, as well as its debasing effect on Thailand's core cultural values. Cannabis tourism especially is an abomination which cannot be eradicated soon enough, and if there are those who still see it as a wonderful blessing, I say, feel free to go back to your home country and smoke all the weed you want. The botched rollout of decriminalization and the clarion call to pot head tourists around the world to come to Thailand to get high will forever rank as one of the all time most poorly thought out and badly executed public policy decisions ever made, and should forever disqualify Anutin from ever becoming Prime Minister. Thank God, the Thai people had the good sense to not elect him to that position, and thank God the newly formed government is taking steps to correct this egregious lapse in judgement.

KTOptic