mfd101

Prasat Surin?

My Oz friends are always astonished at the speeds I get here in south Surin. Better than they get in Canberra or Melbin.

Love the AI stuff above. The fact that it's already beginning to be designed/used is great news but for the future.

Complete and utter shambles as always: half a law not enforced, another half of another law maybe enforced here but not there for obscure reasons, anything possible but nothing confirmed and all experimental anyway so all may change again next week or the week after ... Thais love complexity (just look at their architecture - Thai Gothic). Complexity in government and administration means that anyone who has money or influence can do absolutely anything they like without fear of interference. Everyone else must live in fear & trembling before mysterious rules and laws that noone understands and that may or may not be enforced according to the whims of someone more important.

China playing both ends against the middle? Quelle surprise!

I enjoy both in small quantities. And accompanied by the local foods & variants.

Xmas? (yawn) Same drivel every year. Capitalism on overtime. Apart from silly songs at Lotus, nothing here in the provinces, thank goodness.

His life in danger, I should think. And not for the first time.

The bright side of life.

Endless entertainment for we foreign observers.

The particular issue with landmines this time round is whether or not they are newly planted. Thais say Yes, Cambodians No. The Thai view would need good evidence to support it ie mine went off & wounded Thai soldier in an area already cleared. Mmmm, given the terrain, hard to prove either way.

Most of the locals in Thailand - across the whole of Thailand - have never eaten in a restaurant in their lives. No money. (A not-unrelated anecdote: A few months back my b/f and I were shouting a cousin to lunch in a restaurant in Surin. He has been around within Thailand - travels frequently - and has lived in Bangkok. When the serving girl brought an extra knife & fork to the table - a polite gesture for ignorant Farang, though not required - Gop picked up the knife, stared at it in astonishment and said: What's this for? I then proceeded to demonstrate how one could cut one's meat and eat off a fork as opposed to a spoon. His amazement was equalled by mine.)

Only the Thai elites - with education in US, Canada, Oz or UK - are able to think rationally about almost anything. And their preoccupation is with further expanding their finances & properties. As to the bureaucrats - at all levels - they mostly bought their posts or inherited them from Daddy, or Mummy, or Uncle Jo. High policy skills are not part of the deal.

Funny that.

I wonder what the rates of alcoholism are here compared to any Western country ...

They've built several such bridges in mountainous areas of central & western China - very high, stunning engineering challenges, beautiful to look at. They'll all now have to be checked & double-checked for assorted risk factors.

This example points to just so many possibilities here in Thailand! Problem would be: Once you start, where would you stop?

What noone above or in the OP mentions is the possibility of POSITIVE action to help poor peasant farmers change their ways ... So how about a scheme to PAY farmers to otherwise dispose of their post-crop waste? No cooperation no pay. That would change things, and without ineffective police intervention.

Ignorance is one of the pillars of racism.

And look at how much mental illness exists in that society Unclear what the causality relationship is here. Which came first, the mask-wearing or the mental illness?

The Japanese have been wearing masks in public for decades, long before covid came along ...

And here was I thinking that Malaysia might be a nice place to visit (though I do understand that I'ld have to keep my b/f hidden in my suitcase).

Thailand needs more migrants from Cambodia & Myanmar.

I'm assuming ebooks from Amazon will not be taxed (not that that would deter me, books being my main pleasure in life and ebooks now the only practical form for me). They are the only thing I 'import' in to Thailand, I pay either in US$ or AUD and here they are on my iMac seconds later. Hard to see how the Thais could tax that, given that no transaction in ฿ takes place & (effectively) no transaction in Thailand.

Most of my friends are dead. The few that remain are in Oz, family in NZ. Since we left Canberra in late 2015 to live permanently in Thailand/Surin, we've been back once to Oz to visit friends and on to NZ for family to meet my b/f. No wish ever to return. They can all visit here if they want. Most won't.