anon022

So how much is 900,000,000 over what, 50 years? Not even $18M annually. And the man happened to rid the country of much of the scum of the Earth, like it or not. Furthermore, he gave the Cuban people free and very good health care, you and your fellow Americans, and the rest of the world for that matter, can only dream of. It's hailed by the UN and WHO, as The model to follow look it up, easy enough.

I guess that alone justifies the $18M he earned, not stole, per year. Let's look at what was kept from the Cubans under your good friend Batista.

Probably the third largest population of Cuban cities is Miami. All those Cubans risked life and limb to come to America because good health care is worthless if you live in poverty with no hope of a better future. Good health care is worthless if you are hungry every day. Good health care is worthless if you are held in slavery.

Take a trip to one of the largest population centers of Cuban people in the world; South Florida and ask them about Castro and his health care.

Cuba has a large public works sector but ..."was forced to lay off 20 per cent of its public workforce last year, is barely as developed as Haiti, and will need an influx of foreign cash to stay afloat. There is urgency to the project. Time is running out" http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/cuba-risky-business/

Sorry guys Cuba is a dangerous mess. There is no rule of law. No rights. No protection for Cubans or foreign nationals. Check the link I posted. Cuba has been held in slavery by a violent dictatorship since Castro took over.

You wrote, "under your good friend Batista." I guess you don't read well because I said Batista shot at me; he was hardly a friend.

But don't believe me. Go to South Florida and ask the Cubans who have recently escaped Castro.

The opinions in South Florida are split 50/50 mostly along generational lines. The old guys like me don't trust the Castro family and the young folks have never known any other form of government except Castro.

The Castro family is smarter than Obama. He'll get the embargo lifted start trading and then put all his enemies back in jail and start shooting them again. But what do I know? Go ahead Mr O trust Cuba.

So if they are so hungry, then why do the Cubans acjieve an average life expectancy that exceeds that of Americans? Seriously, get real. It's a tropical island, which means there's always and everywhere food available, for next to nothing. Fruits, vegetables, fish. Sure, there might be a shortage of junk food. Clearly, your idea of 'hunger' Is based on your average intake of Big Macs and KF chicken.

For the rest of your gibberish, it looks like you're on some kind of US government payroll, secret prison perhaps?

Yes, there IS a very dangerous place in Cuba. It's called Guantanomo Bay. There's a very dangerous place in the states as well. It's called M I A M I !

The healthcare system of the US, now how wonderful it is. Perhaps those Cubans in Florida could give their opinion on that, let's see what they're going to say about it.

The warmest winter for a few years and it's a disaster zone! What happened to previous year's blankets?

Sold em

The ones that really need blankets now are the skinny soi dogs and boney pole dancers

Oh, it's 14 degrees Celsius! Help! We'd be happy to have such incredibly nice spring weather in April, but for the Thais it's apparently close to 14 Kelvin.

Poor old Abhisit, I bet he wishes they would stop including him in these polls, it must be so demoralising to lose by so much so consistently. Retire already loserman.

I would imagine that Yingluck would get a similar demoralising result if the poll was taken down south. Would you be telling her to retire too?

No, we're telling her to retire now. Hat Yai is not a province, and the instructions on a written speech should not be spoken, especially not in front of delegates from countries around the world. "Thank you three times". Duh!

Well, in the case of female contestants there wasn't much to choose from. Who else was on the list? The minister who had the grand idea to tag all tourists?

When I was living in Cali, I went to a Unitarian church, one of the most liberal denominations of the Christian church in America.

They let a homeless man get up in the pulpit and educate everyone on what it's like to be homeless. He mentioned the same thing, "freedom".

Biologists have a theory about why humans surpass all other species in mental prowess. We think about the intentions of other humans. And as humans thought about the meaning of life, we became increasingly aware of our mortality.

To limit the fear of death, humans evolved the unique ability to deny reality, 555

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-reviews-denial/

Yes, it's a defense mechanism, to ward of upsetting realities, to prevent shock, insanity or despair.

I was in Cuba and Florida when Castro and his firing squads took over. Where where you? How did you learn about the revolution in Cuba? Tell me why is your second hand pub opinion better than my first hand knowledge?

Your mere presence at an event does not indicate that you had any influence over that event or that your perspective of that event is the 'Truth'. Unless you were working at official levels of the Batista Regime, the US government, certain Corporate entities, the Revolutionaries or the Mafie, I would suggest that the scope of your grasp on the Revolution derived from your actual presence is minimal.

Many of us were in Bangkok during the Red Shirt take over. I do not see consensus about the causes and consequences of this social movement and at the time I was actually working at policy levels with the Thai government.

Analysis of history starts with the discovery and interpretation of primary sources. Not just one source but many. Previously, this was limited to excavated ruins, then documents became available and now there are a plethora of sources on different media for modern historical events. Eyewitnesses are a primary source. You are a primary source. But that is the limit to your claim on the interpretation of the Cuban Revolution without, like the rest of us, going to other primary sources (which is unlikely) and then moving on to secondary sources, which is basically other people's interpretations of primary sources.

All all that above does not address the issue of how your perspective may be influenced by ethnicity or socio-cultural biases or your personal developmental age etc.

Many modern commentators may look at this as a bit of an old joke. Of course it is way past time relations between Cuba and the US were normalised. I think the views of the Cuban Americans have been way over-represented. But Cuba was involved in one of the most serious and potentially devastating events of the cold war. I was an infant and knew nothing of it but could have grown up in a very different world if things had gone differently. So there is some weight that should be given to this development but really, it is way past time this mosquito sized anomaly in global affairs was fixed.

Speaking of Cuba nationalizing private property you wrote, "After the 97 crisis and the fall of the SET, I remember there was a march by SET investors down Wireless Road (I think the SET was at Sirindhorn Bldg then) demanding their money back."

The two events have nothing in common and demonstrate your lack of understanding of the Cuban revolution specifically and economic events in general.

I was in Thailand when the yellow shirts shut down the airport and know how much money was lost. I was in Vietnam for the Tet offensive and realize how quickly we won the battle. I was in South Florida when the Castro firing squads were shooting people and know the families of people who were shot. One of the posters above had the audacity to say the Americans left their homes and investments in Cuba voluntarily and I remember the bullet holes in my boat.

I was flying to Laos to rescue Thai troops when the morning headlines in Bangkok read, "No Thai troops in Laos." Sometimes one just has to be there to get the real story.

You can belittle my firsthand experience. It wouldn't be the first time first hand experience was ignored. Castro is a crook and he stole $900,000,000 from the Cuban people and put it in his own bank account (Forbes and my opinion).

Free people can get tired of waiting for justice and let tyrants get away with it. It would certainly not be the first time.

I am all for normalizing relationships with Cuba. Give the people who were robbed an IOU and go right ahead. Can't get blood out of a stone. I'm all for a prosperous capitalistic Cuba so they can pay me back without starving or causing undue hardship.

So how much is 900,000,000 over what, 50 years? Not even $18M annually. And the man happened to rid the country of much of the scum of the Earth, like it or not. Furthermore, he gave the Cuban people free and very good health care, you and your fellow Americans, and the rest of the world for that matter, can only dream of. It's hailed by the UN and WHO, as The model to follow look it up, easy enough.

I guess that alone justifies the $18M he earned, not stole, per year. Let's look at what was kept from the Cubans under your good friend Batista.

Come in with an earned Ph.D. and be treated and paid like a professional.

Haha, you're funny! A Ph.D. from the Philippines is worth as much as my fake Rolex, and one who has earned a non-Ph Ph.D isn't likely to teach in a school, most probably doing research and lecturing at some university, as has been pointed out earlier. But that's not the point. Even if so, you will still be treated like the rest, because the rules stay the same, and the ones in charge of this circus, guess what? The clowns are in charge, and what do clowns do? They clown around. And you'll be in the middle of it. If you have some dignity left in your bones, you'll know what to do, or rather, not to do.

after the fall of the berlin wall & russian empiry, they should have done something to stop this nonsense

but hey, make the people scared of the red invasion, good for spending super big amounts on military

in stead of FREE HEALTCARE, as in the rest of the civilized world !!!!

There is no free healthcare in the rest of the "civilized" world, not even in the UK. There, it's a government scheme, and funded with "revenue" from taxes, and as you would expect from a trusty rusty inefficient bureaucratic government system, it's pretty lousy, and the "care" in health care should be replaced by something else like "giving false hope".

However, the Cuban healthcare system, yeah, now you're talking, and it is free.

OMG I love it! The TEDC I haven't heard of them before and I've been working in Thailand for 7 years LOL. You got the MOE, TCT, TEDC and then there is this guy, Education Minister Admiral what's his name (He's an admiral ya know). . Ahhhh it just never ends.

It's a circus, and the clowns are running the place, ha!

It's all written nonsense. If a school wants you, you get the job. Fact!

I have never been teaching in Germany, came to Thailand, didn't ever do any "TESOLTOEFLWHATEVER" course, got my contract with the provincial government office, a temporary teaching licence and a work permit.

Schools treated me like a VIP (what I'm really not and didn't like) and confirmed that I will always be welcomed back there.

They probably think they hired you to teach German, and still haven't noticed the difference. And all the while you were thinking they hired you to teach English? Ha!

Seriously, if one has any self respect and dignity left, then you would not go through all this clownery! Would you pay even 100 baht for a Filipino university degree? But these "qualified educators" are the ones that are running the show, but you're only forced to watch it if you like being humiliated!

The hypocrites are out in full force blaming the villagers for being greedy and heartless, but guess what, if their own wallets would be affected, they would have voted for eviction just the same!

Hope they get paid in USD !

Doesn't matter. With the collapse of the ruble, nobody in Russia will be able to afford imports from Thailand or anywhere else. Thai pork just became a luxury item in Putin's Russia.

Russia has also own pork production, if the ruble keeps low for a longer time the own production will increase. As well Russians aren't as poor as Ukrainians.

Yes, but Russian demand for pork far exceeds domestic supply. Russia was importing a million tons a year from Canada, but Russia cutoff imports from Canada, reacting to Canadian sanctions.

I hope Thailand charges the Russian double domestic prices, and gets paid usuable currency like US$, Euros or Chinese RMB.

Thai pork doesn't come close to matching the quality of Canadian pork. Russia is taking what it can get right now.

Add the expense to that due to the crashed ruble, and Putin must be shirting himself. If anyone ever wanted to see a rogue state taken down without firing a shot we're living it.

Quality western pork that's funny. The pigs all get fed dried chicken shit, GMO Frankenfood, and more yummy goodies. Now, if you were talking about shrimp, I'd agree.

And by the way, it's common knowledge that the leading rogue states are Israel and the US. Torture anyone?

Maybe he was just doing his nails, when the officer happened to trip and fall onto the knife in an unfortunate manner, and when they tried to help, in an unfortunate turn of events, he slipped sideways, just as one of the helpful inmates picked the knife up from the floor to put it away safely, this time slashing his wrist!

Not. Let's see, attempted murder on a police officer. How many free nights in the Hilton BKK would that add up to?

Quality tourists!

Groan,

The new predictably boring comment on Thai Visa.

Never a dull day in the land of quality tourists!

Any damn fool knows that Thailand is NOT "weed friendly". I'm in favor of legalization but I know where NOT to smoke it. Tat-boy should have gone to Cambodia.

haha, you're funny.

I´ve been reading all the replys now. Everybody who talk shit about him is the people that never met him and everybody here that have met him have only positive things to say. I´ve met Vince many times, everytime I stay in Nong Khai we take a Beer or a Gintonic. Talk about everything, we have had many interesting conversations

.

After some time you don´t see the tats, you se him. Like somebody said before, he is well known in Nong Khai, as far as I know seems like everybody like him.

People are so used to his tatoos, nobody care about them. Selling weed, I don´t think so, never heard and never seen. He´s not spending much money, he´s living a quiet low profile life

.

Somebody had some problem with his name, like he was not dutch, Vince gave me an lesson of the Holland history, very intersting.

I myself don´t have a single tat, but for sure Vince is a man that make the world a little bit more colorful.

I remember first time I met Vince, I said to him, you look very interesting and I look like a nobody. He said that you can not judge people like that, maybe you are the one that is interesting and I am the boring one.

One thing I know is that he should never call somebody he don´t know, trash, tossy ore other invektiv. He´s a to good person for that.

My english is not so good, but I hope you guys understand what I mean.

I have met him and heard him talk, read my post if you want the details, best to send him off to a place like Somalia.

Obviously he has friends here. Have you got any?

Sure he has got "friends" who depend on the drugs he deals. Ever heard of the song "Freddie's dead", by Curtis Mayfield? others have "friends" on FB. I got real friends who are no parasites like this Nazi scum. If your parents would have suffered malnutrition and severe cold during WII, you would not be talking like this buddy, think about that.

They should try this with pigs, to see if they could find any "male chauvinist pigs" of course.

Am I dreaming or am I in rat heaven?

I´ve been reading all the replys now. Everybody who talk shit about him is the people that never met him and everybody here that have met him have only positive things to say. I´ve met Vince many times, everytime I stay in Nong Khai we take a Beer or a Gintonic. Talk about everything, we have had many interesting conversations

.

After some time you don´t see the tats, you se him. Like somebody said before, he is well known in Nong Khai, as far as I know seems like everybody like him.

People are so used to his tatoos, nobody care about them. Selling weed, I don´t think so, never heard and never seen. He´s not spending much money, he´s living a quiet low profile life

.

Somebody had some problem with his name, like he was not dutch, Vince gave me an lesson of the Holland history, very intersting.

I myself don´t have a single tat, but for sure Vince is a man that make the world a little bit more colorful.

I remember first time I met Vince, I said to him, you look very interesting and I look like a nobody. He said that you can not judge people like that, maybe you are the one that is interesting and I am the boring one.

One thing I know is that he should never call somebody he don´t know, trash, tossy ore other invektiv. He´s a to good person for that.

My english is not so good, but I hope you guys understand what I mean.

I have met him and heard him talk, read my post if you want the details, best to send him off to a place like Somalia.

Of course everyone is entitled to choose their own way of life, as long as one is not a nuisance to society, but this Dutch man with the Italian name not only lives off social security illegally, because you are supposed to stay in the EU as a prerequisite to be eligible for SS, and must actively seek employment. This individual's life style is exclusively parasitic, and if that isn't enough, the geezer travels to Thailand and lives of his monthly THB 28,000 handsomely, while putting people off with his Nazi rethoric and Hitler adoration - I overheard a conversation he had the other day - in his Nazi t-shirts and swastika tattoos. Yes, I heard some people say he is a "laid back, nice guy", but would you let him babysit your son or daughter?

(By the way, the rest of us are working our butts off to make a living here, and have to live by the rules, just saying)

Collecting knives in itself is fine I think, as long as the person collecting is a responsible, sensible human being. This piece of @$ obviously isn't. Besides his less than admirable conduct, he is also an eye-sore in beautiful Nong Khai, so good riddance for many reasons.

Ten years in Thailand and can't speak a word of Thai, which would not go well with immigration these days, while annoying a sleeping monk - never mind if the monk wasn't behaving like one - you just don't try these things if you know the religious etiquette. The wife is filing charges, is that a smart thing to do, I am not sure, but she is Thai so I guess it's "fine".

Mimicking fugitive Thai monks perhaps?