Gecko123

positive msg much appreciated

Really displeased with this guy for the damage he's done to the retiree expat community's reputation. Those who have apparently come to believe that Thai warmth and hospitality can be taken for granted, and that Thailand is a safe haven for those lacking civility and nursing anti-social grievances need to be disabused of this notion forthwith.

Unshaven, ruddy faced as if he had been drinking the night before. The guy's in desperate need of PR/social media damage control expert. If he had just taken the time to say a few words of apology in Thai, even if he totally butchered the language, it would have done so much to humanize him and defuse his demonization on social media. His wife who appears to be doing all the interaction with the Thai media does not strike me as a very effective spokesperson either.

Case is touching a lot of hot buttons: expats who don't respect Thais, public access to beaches, respect for women, resentments over foreign ownership of land squeezing out locals. During the hearing his exchanges with his wife are in English and at one point he says "I cannot speak Thai." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a11iQgvYrVI My point is if you can't speak the local language, you need to watch your P's & Q's more than he did in the video clip he made of the incident. It's not easy to make yourself persona non grata in Thailand, but it appears he's managed to do just that.

A lot of people probably think the public apology is old fashioned but when you think about it it actually reflects a lot of insight into human nature. When someone "apologizes" for something in private they often turn around and tell their family and friends "I didn't really apologize" or "I just apologized because he/she was making such a stink about it," etc. With a public apology, the victim can rightfully claim that the offender really did apologize and did so in public which reduces the chances the offender will back track on the apology down the road or that the feud will flare up again. I think that shows that Thais are pretty insightful and take a pragmatic approach to dealing with human nature.

The public apology tradition goes way back. The apology is coerced, no doubt about it, and there's a power element to making somebody apologize in public. It seems to be a way to re-establish one's dignity and social status and the pecking order before the incident. It's also considered part of the punishment, and a deterrent against a repeat offense. There are obviously situations where an egregious crime has been committed and the perpetrator is sincerely remorseful and publicly apologizes to the victim, but I've seen these public apologies be demanded for far lesser personal offenses like slander or infidelity, or false accusations which can sometimes turn into Kabuki theatre. Most of these soap-opera grade dramas seem to be between women, sometimes between families. I think it would be fairly rare for a woman to demand a public apology from a man unless the offense was pretty serious. I would say throwing a beer glass at someone rises to that level. But to say someone was doing it for publicity or notoriety, in my opinion, would be a misreading of the motivations behind the victim demanding a public apology. It's being done to re-establish one's social status and provides a mechanism for moving past the incident.

Throwing a glass at someone is both a civil and criminal offense. Potential jail time almost a certainty, and she could have gotten more out of him if she had gone to court. Between potential civil and criminal penalties, including having your visa revoked and hiring an attorney, the guy got off practically scot free having to pay only 18K.

Looked it up. Agreed amount was 200K not 250K. https://aseannow.com/topic/1271222-indian-man-agrees-to-pay-200k-baht-to-dance-teacher-over-inappropriate-touch-on-pattaya-walking-street/

18K in damages is peanuts for throwing a beer glass at someone. Unless you know something I don't know, I think you're unfairly speculating about what remuneration, if any, the cops received.

I don't think the cops should be faulted for being pleased with amicable resolutions to disputes. I think they're just pleased that they've dodged a mountain of paperwork and going to court, plus I think a lot of Thai police see themselves as "keepers of the peace" and get genuine personal satisfaction when they play a role in helping to successfully resolve disputes.

If they were trying to publicly humiliate this guy, they could have forced him to get down on his knees and wai at her feet, which is not uncommon when atoning for criminal infractions.

Anybody remember that Indian guy who grabbed a Thai woman's butt at 2 AM on Walking street and ended up having to pay out - what was it - 250K? in compensation? He must be thinking, this guy throws a beer glass at someone and only has to pay out 18K, WTF?

According to Khaosod article, 18,000 baht payment was part of the settlement. Sounds like the guy's apology was heartfelt and the woman was satisfied with the outcome. Nice to see Pattaya's reputation as the home of happy endings remains intact.

Risky choice of venue for a first date.

I've been in a Pattaya beer bar full of dogs, but I've never been in a Pattaya dog cafe.

The Johnny one-liners who clog up thread after thread with twenty to thirty "clever" retorts are far more annoying. I always picture them with a bottle of beer in one hand. Invariably they have low forum reputation scores. Some of the "long-winded" posters the OP is complaining about have enviably high forum reputation scores. How do you explain this discrepancy? Some of these stylistic preferences have to do with ease of scrolling and typing on a desk top computer versus an i-phone. Bit of an anti-intellectual book-burning vibe emanating from this thread, don't you think? Triple spacing between sentences was not done in order to annoy anyone. Honest.

Surprised how many people are saying they've never been asked this. Hasn't happened in a while (probably pre-Covid was the last time) but for many years this question seemed to come up pretty regularly. Some of it was idle curiosity, some of it may have been an indirect way of finding out how long before you'd be leaving, some of it may have been a subtle way of reminding you of your guest status, and maybe .00001% was someone looking for an extortion opportunity or looking to score points with the cops. Just joking about that last one. During the "good guys in - bad guys out" Mao Zedong "see something/say something" reign of immigration terror I sometimes felt like I was being eye-balled like someone everyone knew was fresh out of prison, but thankfully that's completely died down and these days feeling totally at ease and welcomed pretty much wherever I go.

To the "nothing's gonna change" crowd... There's gonna be a whole lot of incentive for medicinal shops to be snitching on anyone making recreational use sales. That means recreational sales will move out of retail store fronts and into back alley / street corner sales. Foreigners won't be able to compete in the illicit recreational cannabis trade. Too high profile. The big money in recreational sales came from the tourist trade, didn't it? If you're making medicinal sales, the shop's gonna be required to show prescription records to match sales. That's the kind of gumshoe police work Thai cops thrive on. Again, medicinal shop #1 sees medicinal shop #2 getting 10 times the foot traffic than their shop, there's a big incentive to snitch. Thais are snitch kings. Especially if the person being snitched on is a foreigner. I don't think this is gonna be a wink and a nod situation.

Cilantro root tea has a really sedating and calming effect.

Just talking shop here... I would suggest reconsidering using a daytime flashing tail and head light. Flashing lights do more than just increase visibility. They communicate your concern for safety, and a flashing light semiologically signals the need for caution. Check out the Cateye Viz450 tail light which has a daytime hyper flash mode that really increases visibility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvzvlDmEvTM For night time riding, you have to be careful about overdoing it with the tail lights. My two Cateye Viz450 tail lights are great and I highly recommend them, but I've noticed that if I use the hyper flash or even with both tail lights on regular flash mode sometimes the driver approaching from behind will actually speed up to get past me because the flashing tail lights are visually annoying them. I've also been toying with the idea of buying some wearable tail lights to create a night-time skeleton man effect. The idea being to pique the approaching-from-behind driver's visual interest and curiosity so that they slow down to check you out when passing. The other take away from the second incident mentioned in the article is that it's very important to carry some ID with you when you're out exercising. That's something I've been lax about, but have started doing after reading this article.

If you're suggesting that I've unfairly blamed Trump for all the evils in the world, chose the most egregious example you can find from my post, and I will be happy to expound further.

It's entirely plausible that Western democratic governments have come to see Trump as an existential threat. Just look at what Trump has done to undermine trust and respect for Western institutions and values, (the judiciary, the scientific community, the press, law enforcement, intelligence services, election integrity, the rule of law, the balance of power between the president, congress and the courts, NATO. Or how much damage he is has done to the US social fabric: (stoking racial tensions, encouragement of right wing militia groups (Proud Boys, Three Percenters, his remarks following Charlottesville), the threatening of political violence and civil war, stoking political polarization, disrespect for science and scientists (covid & climate change), income inequality (created by tax policies which overwhelmingly favored the wealthy), rollbacks in environmental protections, affirmative action programs and reproductive rights (all of which have disproportionally impacted lower income communities), and a general breakdown in political discourse caused by constant lying, and an unwillingness to agree on a set of facts. Or how Trump has repeatedly cozied up to authoritarian leaders (Putin, Kim, bin Salman, Orban). That Western alliance governments and intelligence services have come to view Trump as a threat should come as a surprise to no one.

You're entitled to disagree with Walker88's political views, but there was nothing in his post which should have triggered suspicions that he was exaggerating his work history. If you are at all familiar with his posting history you would know that he is probably THE most articulate and intelligent poster on this forum. Your failure to recognize and appreciate this is disappointing, and in my opinion reflects poorly on you. All you did was baselessly attack his credibility because you didn't like his political views. Intellectual dishonesty at its worst.

Claus von Stauffenberg is a hero today for his failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. While I generally do not agree that violence should be used to solve political problems there are times when it is morally justified.

You are one of the most articulate, thoughtful and concise posters on this forum. Time and again I have been impressed with your analytical and reasoning skills. I tip my hat to you, sir.