mfd101

Ditto. Just coming up to the 15 years mark. Have passed thru Melbin once on a trip to take my b/f to NZ to visit family. No wish ever to return, for either visit or stay. But I still read the Oz every day and take an interest in the politics of comfortable mediocrity.

Cultural change is the key expression. I can't speak about all Thais because I don't know enough but what I notice here amongst the Khmer peasants and in my own family is great reluctance ever to accept responsibility when something goes wrong. Even just in the house, some minor mishap and - even though it was clearly b/f's fault - in the space of quarter of a second it will turn out that it was my fault. Only if I get angry and show it will b/f giggle to display contrition but without actually admitting that it was his fault ... Spread that across a whole culture, daily reinforced by Buddhist passivity & autocratic politics, and you get what we see on the roads.

Every year Songkran gets bigger & better. Woops, worse.

If Usofa is clever (which it obviously isn't under the current idiot leadership , but arguably hasn't been for most of this century) and if its friends & clients (eg Oz) are clever, then everyone can eat their cake & have it. That is, they can enjoy polite and useful & profitable relations with the growing new world power while maintaining their traditional friendly and profitable relations with the old. But currently that's a long shot ...

There's a new boss in town. We're going to have to get used to it. Meantime the former boss is organising his suicide.

China climbing steadily up the mountain. Usofa slipping ever faster down the mudslide. Even Oz is scratching its collective head.

The locals who assemble, distribute & sell the vehicles presumably get paid ... As to the bigger picture, I guess we just have to get used to Chinese energy & technical & manufacturing capability that outdistances the rest of the world including most of The West. When Thailand pulls its collective finger out, maybe it too could enjoy the benefits of hard work + brain power.

No. Do you have any evidence for that claim? (What others might or might not do or say is their business. I am responsible for my behaviour not others'.)

The man-child is learning that temper tantrums don't usually go down well with Mumsie.

How not to deal with China.

Not sure I understand what a 'zero-dollar investment' is. ? (I had understood for example that many vehicles on the road in Thailand - of many brands - are at least assembled - but not manufactured? - in Thailand.)

Nice use of the passive to suggest no responsibility. Just one of those things ...

Or p'raps it was a Korean ladyboy.

Fruitcakes, Fascists F/wits & Farouts ... Usofa seems to have an overdose of sociopaths of all kinds.

Pat answer but looking at a photo is subjective too. Same eyes, same brain as looking in a mirror. No, not the same eyes & not the same brain at all. The psychology of the two is quite different. The photo is still & frozen (at least in a pre-AI world). You have no control over it. It is at least potentially 'public' and it can be used against you. The mirror gives you control or the illusion of it. You can move & adjust to your heart's content. You can show off, adorn or hide whatever bits you like. And it is private, just between you and mirror mirror on the wall. It is 'yours'.

In short, a photo objectifies, a mirror subjectifies.

Yum, sounds very tempting. I shall read your description slowly to my b/f later when he gets home from the family farm ...

The Greens Party in Oz are an extremist Left party, adopting all sorts of lefty positions that have nothing to do with a 'green' agenda. Not at all like the sensible Greens Party in Germany for instance that positions itself in the political middle so it can deal equally with either a left-of-centre or a right-of-centre government. Unfortunately, in the current state of play in Oz, the Greens may well be in alliance with the Labor Party after the next federal election in early May as neither Labor nor the right-of-centre Coalition parties are likely to win an outright majority. This is what happens when your electorate is no longer made up of just 2 major competing parties, but has become a tripartite battle where the main 2 parties collect only 30-35% of the vote each and assorted extremists & individual opportunists get to call the tune.

They already have it. The Russian Orthodox Church under current leadership is right in Putin's pocket.

Wow! My b/f and I will have to add Macau to our list of upcoming travels.

Better late than never.

So the next time friends come from Oz or Hongkers to visit we'll have to be careful about posting photos of a civilised dinner - whether at home or in a restaurant - when we have each a glass of wine in front of us ... Funny how official announcements in this country almost NEVER get the details right.

Not obvious why the Macau operation would be after Thai workers ... Unless they're after a sizeable Thai customer base, but even then it doesn't really follow.

If Thailand lifted itself to First World standards of safety, health and rectitude, I couldn't afford to live here any more and would have to return to Oz. Which, at age 75, I have NO wish to do.

I read somewhere yesterday that if you rub the hair off the skin of a kiwi you can eat it whole.