mfd101

Thai tourists in Haiti? Oh rilly? Studying voodoo? PhD in Catholicism & its derivatives?

Well, coming from Singapore he thought he could relax for the first time in his life, let down his (short short) hair, bend the rules, laugh a lot and vote for the Communist Party ...

Nothing to see here. Move on! ... precisely the attitude that will produce the result they don't want.

I wonder what was in the French Embassy's briefing notes for Macron before the meeting ... "Smile a lot for the grin'n grip, nod to everything he says but don't sign anything it won't happen".

Don't think so, not as to the detail & hard work involved.

It's not obvious to me who's pulling the strings on all the many puppets in all of this. People talk about the Army calling the shots but, if the 2 generals beginning with P who ostensibly ran the country for several years are anything to go by, the Army lacks basic nous to be able to do anything much. Designing the kind of complex laws that make progress impossible takes a certain kind of perverted genius to achieve. Working your way thru the thickets of political & financial corruption takes another kind of genius. So who are the highly-skilled planners who pull it all together and have the authority to impose it on the whole jerry-built system of interacting and conflicting interests?

Why not? given some 100-400 billion stars in the Milky Way with at least that number of planets, at least some of which are likely to have properties required for life to develop (primarily water).

Yes, I agree with all you say. In the history of the earth (3.8 billion years) it took a relatively few million years for life to appear, and then much longer for complex & then intelligent life to appear. On the basis that many many planets throughout our galaxy and the couple of trillion other galaxies we are aware of have existed for billions of years longer than earth, then the likelihood that there is life and complex life and intelligent life on millions or billions of planets throughout the cosmos is quite high. With one proviso: The development of life and complex and intelligent life does require great stability over billions of years in each case. That stability is not always available. I hope (at age 74) to be alive when the first open & publicised visit from the neighbours takes place. The chances are they will be friendly & peaceable (not nasty & colonizing as it likely would be if we were doing the visiting). The effects on religious belief here on earth will be fascinating, in particular the notion of an earth-centered God will appear laughable given the size (probably infinite) and duration (probably eternal) of the cosmos.

As usual the greedy are the victims of scams. The bigger the scam, the greedier the 'victims'.

Noone above has mentioned that fertility - especially in males - is falling. Way down throughout the Western world and no doubt declining in China too. This has nothing to do with contraception choices but is about health, diet and pesticides (ie lifestyle choices). As to contraception choices & social change (eg equality for women), these have longterm effects - as the Chinese have suddenly realised. You can't correct it overnight, even if you could persuade a new generation of 19-year-olds to produce 3 children each (as the Chinese propaganda is now trying). And even in those countries where the birth rate is still above 2.1 (eg India & Black Africa), the birth rate is slowly declining.

Um, not sure you've got the sequence right there.

Wouldn't it be fun if the WHOLE of the Lower House refused to recognize the dissolution of MFP! and carried on as though nothing had happened. What then? I wonder. Won't happen but one can always dream.

Currently at 23.588 on Xe. Plus ça change ...

Won't happen. Europe is already overwhelmed with unwelcome Third Worlders.

Yes, just what they need to frighten the enemy along the border at Preah Vihear. Cambodians about to crumble.

Replaced by 'centre'? As in 'centre of the universe', Central World ...

And the 'health certificate' from the exporting country would be thoroughly reliable?

Yes, used to find vegemite occasionally at Tops in Surin but not for the last couple of years. Peanut butter & jams no problems either there or at the local Lotus here.

Funny that. HK used to be the kind of hub Thais can only dream of. Somewhat diminished now since the CCP crackdown of the last few years ...

Ha ha. Thanks for that, shows how out-of-touch I am - would never occur to me to go shopping for foodstuffs there. Will give it a try.

I had a colonoscopy in Oz about 9 years ago, in a private hospital: Go under at 1400, awake at 1430/1500, off home at 1530/1600 (but someone else must drive). I had ditto here at private hospital in Surin City 5 months ago: 3 days & 2 nights in hospital all up - multiple pills & cleanouts, blood tests, inspections, hideous food, inspections, waiting ... From memory about 45KB. My theory (and my b/f agrees) is that Thai medics not unreasonably don't trust Thais to follow instructions both pre- and post-op. So they hold you prisoner from pre- to post-, and charge accordingly.

Not sure which is more ridiculous: The PM's travels or the breathless reporting. I guess we can say that both parties are doing their best. The other members of his party don't look as though they're much engaged. "It's all Greek to me."

One might argue that poisoning the owner would be more effective in the long run.

As she explains above, the consulate is powerless to do anything without cooperation from the Dubai government & an approach from the Thai individual. Same applies to all embassies & consulates everywhere in the world: They are there by state-to-state agreement and have NO power to intervene in local matters.

Vegemite is the only thing I miss, though I did manage to find 2 jars near Asoke in January. Impossible to find here in Surin. (I have to make do with Marmite. Ugh!)