mfd101

Thanks, I'll check it out on Amazon. Might do the trick.

Yes, they're very good. Have used them 2 or 3 times over the years for new battery. Same-day service.

Um, I don't think the concept's all that hard to grasp. Fertility rates as discussed in demographics are a statistical concept not a biological one. Given infant mortality you need approx 2.1 babies on average from every woman to reproduce the current population level. Fewer than that and the population begins to decline. More than that and it increases. Experience shows that, in the modern world once the trend moves in one or other direction, it's immensely difficult to make it change back. The reason being that people in the modern world make conscious lifestyle choices under various social & economic influences. People in the old worlds of poverty and ignorance did not make such choices as they were unaware such things as 'choice' existed. My MIL, 6 years older than me and illiterate, never been to school, has produced some - and I use the term advisedly - 11 children across 3 marriages. My FIL, 2 years older than me & similarly afflicted, has produced 8 children across 2 marriages.

My b/f and I have been trying for some 11 years now. Without success.

The difficulty is that - as China's example shows - demographics are a long-term item where relatively small 'tweeks' of the birthrate above and below 2.1 produce slowly gathering & eventually huge changes in outcomes. Over decades. So, as China shows, even an authoritarian regime with maximum social, cultural and economic control has little capability to change the demographic outcomes once a trend has been set in motion. The beauty of demographics is that, for the State and its bureaucracy, very long-term predictions are possible. For instance, the number of baby boys born in cities this year produces useful estimates on crime rates 20 years down the track ...

On the 100m walk from my Asoke hotel to Benjakiti Park for my daily walk when I'm in BKK there's a lamppost in a narrow part of the footpath with a large (6"+) bolt sticking out of it, pointing in towards pedestrians and exactly at adult eye height. I first noticed it when we were living in BKK in 2013. I wondered then how long it would be till it was fixed. It was still there last April.

Good news (for once).

Mmmm, funny that.

Thailand's thoroughly laudable contribution to a cleaner, healthier world. Unfortunately not entirely evident in my extended Khmer family, where babies keep popping out of young women with no visible means of support (sigh).

Every new government everywhere in the world discovers the gap between promising and implementing. And some learn from the experience ...

Ignorance + money

13-14. OK, so on that basis, I doubt almost any kids of that age anywhere in the Anglophone world today could pass such a test. For those European countries that still have much of an old-fashioned education still in place for those who can benefit from it - which is probably most European countries - such a test would be fine.

So - for non-Usofans - what level is '8th grade' (eg average age of students?).

Fine, but of course a whole range of things - poverty, poor or no education [my b/f can barely read a sentence of Thai], ignorance, hierarchy & mediaeval etiquette, corruption, marriage rules ... - are all interconnected because they all prop up an appalling system of power & wealth that will do anything to maintain itself. We saw a glimpse of future possibilities in the recent election voting outcomes but the glimpse may be all we get, at least for the time being. Meantime, any gesture towards change reinforces those future possibilities ...

So, Thailand heading cheerfully as always down the path to the next military coup ...

Yes, like winning the lottery and becoming a candidate for kidnapping.

Wasn't like that in my Khmer village here in Surin in 2013 when my b/f and I wanted to get married. Approved by all the extended family and approved by the village elders who replied to our query with: "Marriage is for 2 people who love each other". Ceremony was conducted by the oldest man in the village who could still walk, with due Buddhist ceremony and much joy all round. When the law gets changed to recognize the reality that already exists, we will do the deed again but only for practical administrative purposes. The real purpose of a wedding ceremony - social recognition & acceptance - has already been met for us.

Never required here in Surin in 8 years of reporting in person ...

But she looks nice. This is the main qualification in the Land of Appearances.

Um, irony? Never heard of it?

Wonderful sense of irony people have. Not a native speaker?

Already done under Oz law. It's the Thai end that's difficult, at least till the new legislation is thru (assuming it ever is).

74, look 60s, feel 40s.

We lived in the Trendy (Sukhumvit soi 13) for a couple of years while we were deciding our longterm future. Loved it - quiet, lovely landlady, swimming pool & gym, easy walk to everything and anything. And my b/f knew all the shortcuts across hotel & other private properties to get anywhere on foot. Now when visiting 2 or 3 times a year from Surin we stay in a hotel nearby (Asoke). Still love it all, but just for a week at a time now.

In the photo they look like Russians too ...