mfd101

I wonder what penalty he will personally pay if his promise is not fulfilled.

The usual problems faced by 'Western' politicians: Shall I stimulate the economy by reducing the tax burden on all and sundry? or only on those who pay most tax (ie outside of Usofa, the rich)? and thereby force myself to cut public sector spending? ... Or shall I stimulate the economy by increasing public sector spending, thereby increasing the national debt to be paid off by my successors?

Oh oh! it's so hard. Why ever did I take this job?

Just now, phuketjock said:

correct.

Thanks.

1 minute ago, perthperson said:

1) Should be available but only presented if requested.

 

2) Required and should demonstrate an income equal to or exceeding 65,000 Bht/month.

Fine, so I take it that bank book is not needed with the income method?

Can I take the opportunity to ask about the alternative income method?

I have my first-ever extension on the basis of retirement coming up in October (at Kap Choeng). For proof of income I'm planning to have (1) copies of both Oz superannuation income and superannuation & other investments, and (2) Oz Embassy letter & stat dec re my income. Is that sufficient?

If they want bank statement or copy of BKK Bank book, that could be a problem because I don't always transfer funds by bank transfer to my BKK Bank account. [It's cheaper to do an atm withdrawal from my Oz Citibank account using a fee-free card, particularly when I'm in BKK & can use the Citibank atms there.]

No doubt you English-über-Alles enthusiasts will be looking forward to the upcoming mandatory Thai-language tests for falang residents in Thailand ...

Every year here in south Surin, in April-June, about 3/4 or 2/3 of the chooks on the family farm die (but not the geese or ducks). Every year I get anxious about avian flu and urge the family to kill, eat or sell the chooks BEFORE whatever it is strikes. Every year they laugh & ignore me, eating & selling the dead or dying chooks quite cheerfully ... (sigh).

Of course, no sweat.  (Besides he's pretty parsimonious on the tips - including bellboys & cafes/restaurants - more than I would be.)

Travelling with your Thai partner if you have one always helps. Seldom refused, never scammed (as far as I can tell).

My b/f chats them up, tells them his life history, has them falling out of their seat with laughter, good trip & tip at the end ... Lesson: language & charm help.

When our new house started in early 2016 my FIL did the honours with prayers - all over within 5 or 10 minutes. He was 'educated' by the monks over 65 years ago so he knows the drill & takes it quite seriously ...

During construction there were a couple of other prayer sessions, but never any monks.

We moved in in late March this year but no monks as yet. An auspicious financial moment hasn't yet quite arrived. Probably once we've turned the Temple Mount out front into the New Jerusalem (currently scheduled for any time in 2018) will be the moment to summon the monks and a few select (ie respectable) neighbours for a more solemn half hour.

7 hours ago, 55Jay said:

By next week, nobody will care and we'll be on to the next "thing".  

 

Next. 

Yes. Think of all the social, cultural, economic & technological changes of the last 100 years. Each one was going to make the heavens cave in, but somehow that didn't happen.

Unfortunately, many (perhaps most) people in every society live in a history- and context-free bubble. They think that everything they learned when they were young is 'normal' and 'natural'. But a moment's thought about change over time and about how other parallel societies handle matters shows us that very little we do is either 'normal' or 'natural': our activities and thought processes are the product of ever-changing adaptations to ever-changing environments. We just do what seems best at the time ...

Oh oh oh! The world is coming to an end! The sky is falling! Our chickens are no longer laying! And there is drought in the land. Or flood. It is God's judgment upon us! Locusts must follow. A plague upon them all.

Oh oh oh! Thank God I am soon to die. Any decade now. It will be the end. I cannot cope with all this ... Oh oh oh! Change! That's it! Change! Where will it end? I see death in the future. Very near. It is the end.

47 minutes ago, tomwct said:

As a former US Navy man, someone was asleep at the Helm. Whoever was the Deck Officer at the time, as well as the Captain, they will have a court martial and shortly thereafter a discharge. Their careers are over!

That's for sure. Seen it before in the RAN.

But but ... we LIKE the ACA because it's so good for us. We just voted against Obamacare cos he's a Muslim and anyway he shouldn't have been President because he wasn't born here ... Never mind, Donald will fix it all so we can keep ACA.

The question that arises is: When large numbers of voters are uneducated, ignorant & irrational, how can you run a democracy?

The demographics are interesting. Some 'Western' countries will continue to grow in population - notably Usofa (which will still fall from 3rd largest to 4th behind Nigeria by 2050) and Australia & Canada - the great 3 Anglo countries of immigration. And the world as a whole is moving up from 7 billion currently to 11 billion by end of the century.

So the notion of lack of people is a furphy. But of course there's the question of distribution.

Japan & Russia are now steadily decreasing in population. Russia is predicted to be no larger than Germany by mid-century. And Japan is a nice example of what happens to such a country economically & socially: conservative, money under the mattress, lack of investment, 1-student classes ... Anyone who expects Japan to grow economically (and we've been waiting now for over 2 decades) doesn't know the meaning of the word 'demographics' ...

38 minutes ago, Trumpish said:

" If you're not making mistakes, you're not doing anything useful."

 

That's very true. Unfortunately the Thai expression 'Pit ben Kru', which has always seemed to me to be very wise, Sadly, Thais think that making a mistake represents a loss of face so they will go to extraordinary lengths to pretend they don't make any. Part of their Chinese cultural  legacy, though China appears less vulnerable to the vanity more recently.

Tell me about it. Anything goes wrong in our family and I'm to blame, never my b/f.

6 minutes ago, Trumpish said:

Even that would be a major improvement for Thailand. Trains struggle to get their average speed past 40kph and keep breaking down or bumping into things.

All true (corruption, poor planning, generalized incompetence and on and on), BUT shouldn't we at least encourage the triers?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I used to tell my staff in Canberra: If you're not making mistakes, you're not doing anything useful.

People not doing anything useful (no initiative) is, in my experience, a Thai specialty. We need to help move things forward. Simply tipping shit on all & every initiative is no use to anyone.

14 hours ago, Dave67 said:

There are  11 countries in the World with proper high speed Railways 300kph plus. China , France, Germany, Spain , Japan, Uk , Italy , South Korea , Taiwan , Belgium , Netherlands. Apart from China they are all first world countries. How can Thailand afford to invest in it. The definition of high speed is 250kph plus , so dont be expecing some kind of Deutsche bahn, Shinkansen bullet train

Russia has a HS from Moscow to Petersburg (I've been on it) but it doesn't get above 200-220kph because the track can't cope ...

Having spent most of my adult life in Canberra, it's very hard for me to think of anything at all in Thailand being 'safe'.

(For those of you who don't know, Canberra is a kind of mini-Singapore, except that the winter months kill all the bugs as well. The petit bourgeois dream come true: clean, orderly, nanny state, lovely roads, rich and SAFE.)

My point is that we judge 'safety' relative to our experience of the alternatives. If you spent much time in some of Usofa's less desirable neighborhoods, you might think Pattaya's not too bad ...

16 hours ago, observer90210 said:

but aren't the big buck businesses who export,  popping out champagne as they exports should explode due to the cheapness of the £ ?????

And what exports would that be?

Australians have - very comfortably - built over many decades a wealthy and comfortable society that, like all modern welfare states, places more emphasis on 'rights' than on 'responsibilities'. This is one of its manifestations.

Given the impossibility of leaving these people where they are indefinitely (even PNG & Nauru are sovereign states!) and given that the Aussie taxpayer is paying anyway for them to camp in PNG & Nauru (not to mention a handful in Cambodia), I would say that $A70m is pretty cheap at the price - providing it means that they're permanently off Oz hands (but I doubt that that will prove to be the case, as this seems at first glance to be a court-imposed, not governemnt-devised, outcome).

King & Wilson. I used them to store a mid-size containerload of goodies in Canberra for 18 mths, followed by shipment to Surin arrived 3 weeks ago - excellent condition. Good people to deal with, reasonable prices. Good Thai agent this end for getting thru Customs.

8 hours ago, KelSolaar said:

I think, yes, it will go up a bit (against Euro, Dollar and Baht) but only slightly.

Alternatively, it will go down a bit, but only quite a lot. And over an indefinite timescale.

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

We are leaving the EU and will be better off in the long run regardless of what might be ahead in the short term.

Your certainty rivals that of Tiresias May.

Noone can tell exactly - all currencies rise and fall on a daily basis as various relevant & irrelevant bits of news break and as profiteers move in and out of the market.

So it's the longterm trend (if any) that counts. And, at this stage, that looks entirely grim for the pound.

How could it not be? The UK economy is already looking a bit sick, moving - as reported over the last few days - from highish (by European standards) growth to bottom of the European barrel over the last quarter. A weak government and the inability of the UK to get its act together on negotiations and sufficient experienced negotiators as it undoes the last 50 years of literally thousands of international agreements & then tries to redo them individually with 150 or so other countries ... the British self-inflicted nightmare is only just beginning and it will get worse and worse for at least the next 10 years. After that, noone knows.