EmptyHead

It has been calculated that the odds against becoming infected after having vaginal sexual intercourse with an HIV positive woman partner is over a thousand to one. The odds are substantially higher, of course, if one indulges in anal sex, as many homosexuals and bi-sexuals do habitually, or if one takes drugs and shares needles.

HIV tests vary around the world and, astonishingly, it is possible to be positive in one country which uses a particular test and negative in another which uses a different commercially-produced diagnostic kit.

There are still many distinguished scientists who are sceptical about the evidence that the so-called HIV virus (never properly isolated) is responsible for lowering the body's immunity to the range of illnesses classified as AIDS.

What one can say for sure is that the war on AIDS, rather like the more recent war on terror, has generated a multi-billion dollar global industry, employing countless thousands of people in the private and public sectors and making massive profits for commercial enterprises.

I have spent a great deal of time trying to make up my mind about the evidence presented by both sides of the HIV-AIDS debate, and yet I still find myself sitting uncomfortably on the fence in a number of important areas relating to the discussion.

The statistical evidence concerning the disease in Thailand looks impressive on paper.. But where is the on-thee-ground anecdotal evidence one would expect to find cropping up everywhere if the disease is as widespread and threatening as we are told.

In two decades of living here, I have known only three Thai people who have allegedly contracted the disease and subsequently died (though I have no idea what the autopsies, assuming any were held, showed to be the cause of death). One of these was a woman sex worker, one a trans-sexual and the other a man whose sexual preferences I do not know.

Over nearly two decades here, I have yet to come across a confirmed case of a falang resident or visitor catching HIV as a result of having vaginal sex with a Thai sex worker - despite, in many instances, a very high incidence of sexual activity over many years and not always using a condom. One stud in particular had unprotected sex with literally hundreds of sex workers and eventually summoned up the courage to ask his doctor for a test because he was convinced he must have the disease. He didn't.

This kind of evidence, of course, doesn't necessarily prove anything. It is possible that all these men stupidly "risking it" for so long was atypical and, have just been incredibly been lucky. Or could it just be that the danger to heterosexuals posed by the so-called AIDS epidemic being exaggerated by interested parties for political or commercial reasons?

Don't just flame me (as I am sure many will) for casting what I feel are legitimate doubts - give me some at least some anecdotal evidence - I have masses of the other stuff from just about every source you can think of - to help me become a little more. . .( I was going to say positive, but you know what I mean) one way or another.

i too know a guy who has had sex with literally 1000,s of sex workers without condom and not caught hiv ( or so he says )

That is totally believable. The risk to the man from vaginal sex (one time) with positive woman is somewhere betweeen 1 in 1000 and 1 in 2000.

Straight guys usually get it from having sex with the same HIV+ woman over and over again.

It is significantly more dangerous for those people recieving it in the bottom, just 1 in 100 per time.

Congrats.

I am thinking of reconsidering marriage. What's the point?

Amazing Thailand. Maybe I should write a book.

The article is completely biased.

Terrible way to go as many have said ,Must have been a terrifying few minutes

The 2 possible reasons they give

1The first is that the victim, who was staying on the fourth floor, had taken the elevator down but it became stuck at the third floor. Possibly he managed to open the car doors but then fell into the gap between the car and the shaft wall.

2 The other possibility is that when the man called the elevator up to fourth floor, the car was already stuck on the third floor. But the doors opened anyway, he walked in and fell, becoming trapped.

I think one where the door opened without a lift there and he fell in,That could happen quite easily most people do not look to see if the lift is actually there before walking through the doors and in normal circumstances you shouldn't have to. If that's the case the lift company will be in deep , deep shit/

1 Suggests that he opened the inner doors himself, I cant see firstly why you would do that and secondly how do you end up upside down wedged solid between the lift and the shaft.there is also no mention of any alarm , if they had one Could well be wrong maybe bad translation and freak accidents are sometimes impossible to explain

RiP

Yeah, I am sure the lift company is peeing it's pants with fear as we speak.

"quite curvy" ? i'm guessing you're fat. Thais look down on FAT westerners. All my Thai girlfriends in the past, shake their heads and we usually have a good laugh. Every time I head back to Australia, it's a shock to see so many FAT people around. FAT = you don't care about yourself. If you can't look at yourself in the mirror (i was chubby once and avoided looking at myself), there is a major issue! It's more of a problem with women cause it's biologically programmed for them to look good to they can attract a mate!

As far as genetic programming is concerned, most men are attracted to women with curvy wide hips (fertile child bearing hips) rather than skinny snake hips, regardless of if they are even aware of that or not. We don't think, "Oh there's a musclular girl who likes to do sit-ups, I like her".

Aside from that, fat chicks get plenty, if not more than skinny girls, mostly due to them having higher estrongen levels than skinny girls.

Thank you and goodnight.

All the time.

Yup, my school has kept their promises and they don't make me do half of what is written in the contract.

You gotta love the police here. Zero investigation, "We assumed he committed suicide because of his headaches".

Anyway, whatever happened to him, RIP. He has gone to a better place.

So I asked my department manager at work. She said it translates to "simple man/father". She says you only use it with people you are close to and she often uses it with a male collegue of ours, though he is a bit of a numbskull.

But when i asked her she let out a big laugh, clapped her hands, and said, "Hmmm, how do I explain it......" I guess like most things Thai, there can be more than one meaning.

Haha

So just to clarify, we are talking about Paw Ngai, not Paw Yai.

Thanks guys,

Some great responses here. I shall post back later when i have more time. I will ask a Thai friend at work what it means, though i expect she will give me vaugue answer like my GF, "It means something like uncle".

Ok well that's about 24 hours now.

Amazing how a Thai guy can impersonate a Thai girl because no one guessed it and fair enough I didn't either.

The answer is it's the girl on the far left in blue at the front if you turn the pic 90 degrees.

Do I get a prize?

Bottom left.

Thanks for all the posts!

It sounds like "por ngai" (easy/simple father), like KunBENQ mentioned.

That is if "ngai" means easy/simple in the Isaan dialect.

I still dunno if it is a nice name to be called or not. Any other (young) dads here in Isaan been called this?

And if the literal translation is indeed "easy dad", then how does that actually translate in English? I mean, in what way is it meant? Perhaps, easy-going dad? lazy dad? useless dad? making-parenthood-look-easy dad? etc etc...LOL

It definately isn't "por yai" - that's what all the elderly gentlemen are called around our village.

Any more insight would be appreciated!

Thanks again.

It's definitely not พอ ง่าย

You don't happen to live in the north of Thailand? It sounds like northern Thai to me.

Paw is most likely พ่อ

I'm in the Northeast.

no thanx i like to keep my rifle loaded.

Yes indeed... you never know what you might meet in the woods.

I prefer blanks, thanks. That way you know you won't meet anything.

I had TURP two years ago and I haven't lost sexual life... TURP is a very safe procedure, the nerves responsible for erection are not affected. The only thing I have lost is the ejaculation , infact the sperm goes to the bladder instead of going out (retrograde ejaculation)...Not a big thing....The orgasm is still the same, nothing's changed .

I suggest anyone with enlargement prostate to consider in having The post-void residual (PVR) urine test wich measures the amount of urine left in the bladder after urination. It is very dangerous if your residual is more than 30 ml. because you can compromise your kidney function .

I had the operation in Switzerland but a friend of mine had it here at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. Very simple operation , you'll be home the next day and you will be fine in two weeks.

Good side of retrograde ejaculation is : no more worries about girls pretending you're the father, and discount on happy ending massage....because "she didn't let you come"....

Cheers.

Remarkable. I bet the girls at SOL love you.

Do you know whow much your friend paid at BKK Pattaya Hospital?

So I asked him, he said it was 70,000 baht, including after surgery recovery, medication and consulting after the operation.

I suggest you to take a look at Sirikith Hospital in Satahip. Most of the doctors working there are the ones that you find at International or Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. Anything is extremely cheap there and the service is more than acceptable. I went there with a friend of mine who had a cystoscopy from the Urologist working at International Hospital too. Price on International Hosp. was 20,000 baht while he paid just 2,300 baht at Sirikith in Satahip...Procedure and Doctor exactly the same, so I guess TURP operation will be much cheaper in Satahip as well.

Thanks very much for the info. Is the procedure done under a local or general anaesthetic? I must admit "going under the knife" so to speak terrifies me. Never had anything done more serious than an ingrown toenail.

I wouldn't worry. I was terrified of getting a vasectomy, but it wasn't that bad.

At least it's better than the "baby-talk pidgin" some guys start when talking to Thais. When they do it to other farangs, it is even funnier!

Hello Thai language experts,

Since our child was born (or maybe it was after we built our house and moved in), people started calling me something like, "Paw Ngai" followed by my name.

My GF tells me it sort of translates to uncle, but i can't find anything saying that and i would like more exact translation.

It doesn't seem to be a term of disrespect, though everyone finds it funny that my daughter calls me it sometimes, either she is simply repeating what everyone else calls me or maybe she has been secretly taught to call me this by someone (I think my mother-in-law....she finds it especially hilarious).

Anyway, any accurate translations?

Thanks

I am being called something along the lines of "paw gnai"- anyone know what that means?

My wife

Poor quality or fake technology devices

Some loser playing around on my "new" laptop in the shop before i buy it and of course installing Camfrog on there.

I believe i said biologically there is no such thing as race, not that people don't believe in it.

It is impossible to find a person's ethnicity from a DNA test becuase ethnicity is the culture we learn. Ethnicity refers to social identity, not biological identity.

They mean to say race, which most experts will say technically doesn't exist, since there is such a tiny different in DNA between all the people in the world anyway and the biggest differences are often found between people living on the same continent, rather than different continents. So, therefor, biologically, there is no such thing as race.

Even what little they can tell is subject to conjecture.

But, since Thainess is the most unique and special thing in the universe, they will have totallty different DNA, of course. That, I assume, is what they are trying to look for, or is it a reason not to help these people? Thainess at it's best, I'm afraid.

Bottle of wine. Sitting in the AC room. Watching YouTube videos. Fighting with people on Thaivisa.

Whenever surfacing from the coolroom, I observe my wonderful wife and 3 year-old daughter both (equally) enthrailed in some nonsense TV programme. Only one of them is making sensible remarks. The other is incapable of intelligent thought. I chuckle and get back to it.

After all that, I make myself something to eat which would be considered inedible to most normal folk and go to my crappy ant-ridden sofabed.

Here is a good video on it.

"In this talk from RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. An important, timely talk for parents and teachers."

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms