mfd101

When I look at these photos, I recognize of course the great risks involved and the sometimes disastrous consequences. But I look at them with great love, as I see them manage cheerfully with the deal that life has handed out to them.

Yes but the issue is: What's causing it? When you look at climate variation just over the last 2000 years, there does seem to be PLENTY of room for honest doubt about the degree to which industrialisation over the last 250 years is a major cause.

I'm not necessarily saying it's OK, just how it is. And change comes slowly to people who have no money & no education.

That's like asking: What did you and I do before the Internet was invented? Of course they walked. Or they didn't go to school at all. My b/f was constantly being dragged out of the village school to take 100 head of buffalo up to the hills for feeding. He learned more up there than he ever did in school - like, not to assemble a pile of Khmer Rouge mortar shells and set fire to them, the explosion of which brought the Thai Army running. ... When he wasn't doing that he was leading his 5 older full-blood sisters & brothers out of school to go swimming in the big lake that had just swallowed up 9/10s of their father's farm ... A different world. No point in judging it by our smug standards and logic.

Poverty in the slums of Liverpool is not quite the same as life in a rural village of say 5000 people living in houses that look to a Westerner that they would house, say, 500 or 1000.

Not enough helmets. And too many children.

Yes, so they could buy food at the market that night.

Like others here - very common on AN - you assume that poor peasants have money to solve every one of life's little problems. The only money several members of my family have here in Surin comes from me. As to push bikes, they are relatively rare. Mostly when I do see one it's being ridden by an old man staggering along a rural road. If there were a bicycle available for the kids, there would be - as with helmets - only one for the whole family.

Often no. If there is one, it'll be 1-only for the family. And if Dad is driving (with Mum and 3 kids on board) Dad will be wearing the helmet (if anyone is).

In rural parts, if it's clear that you were not at fault (even as the weeping & wailing rellies arrive), the cops will say: Give us 3 or 4000฿ and we'll look after them. Now drive on. Which implies of course that most - perhaps all - of the cash won't disappear into the cops' pockets. But you drive on anyway and hear nothing more about the episode.

Golly, and he's a mate of Robert F Kennedy Jr. (who - if the above report is correct - is as stupid and generally dubious as his appearances in the Presidential race would suggest).

My recollection (I may be wrong) is that there were plenty of warnings BEFORE the fatal journey that the vessel was not safe ...

Living as I do in the countryside full of poor people, my question was intended to point out the practicalities of life amongst the poor rather than the theory of superior people who wouldn't dream of doing anything so silly.

I've never had this experience, but wouldn't that be one of the FIRST things you would find out when the 2 of you were 'being intimate'?

You'ld be in a small minority.

Mostly on back-country roads. Rare on main roads. Obvious question: When a motorcycle is the best anyone (but not everyone) can afford, how are you supposed to get around?

So how do 'foreigners' - as opposed to former criminals - get on the voter rolls in the first place? Don't you have to have some ID (ID card, p/p, d/l ... )?

Or in Finland. Either way, talking to the Finnish authorities would likely be more useful than posting on AN ...

Calm down, Everyone. Not going to happen, at least in our lifetime.

No. It was a pun on the common expression: So which is which?

A ridiculous couple. One of them weak & stupid, the other strong & nasty. Guess which is witch.

Poor Donald. My heart bleeds.

No longer, if the reported buildup of thousands upon thousands of EVs (Chinese) piling up in European ports is anything to go by ...

Found Thailand too hot for his English complexion so decided on a cooler climate to visit.

Ancient grudges still pursued thru the courts. Necessary so that current grudges can be pursued too ...