Sig

Yes, that was my point, except I don't think it has anything to do with translation, just the person speaking without thinking about what they're saying.

Can anyone tell me how on earth the act of keeping records can help you avoid an audit? As if they know who is and who isn't keeping records and then they target the ones who aren't keeping records???

You really don't know, do you? Yet you think you know so much and accuse others of being ignorant. I suggest not being so arrogant about things that you don't have actual knowledge about. It makes you look incredibly foolish. I've been aware of these sorts of programs since the 1980's, but you've never heard of them to this day!? Where on earth do you live? No newspapers or other sorts of media outlets there? Often, I'd say - Google is your friend. But you don't seem to care about educating yourself to even bother doing some simple Google or AI Chat searches, since you seem to think you already know everything. So, I'll give you a couple of links. This organization will help you find hunts in over 20 countries, some connected to exactly these sorts of programs. Here is a little post on their site about conservation of endangered animals in connection with trophy hunting. https://www.findahunt.com/conservation-success-stories-how-hunting-has-helped-save-big-game-species You'll find this video, below, much more informative. I won't give you links of videos of actual hunts. Personally, I really dislike these hunts or recreational hunting in general. It is gut wrenching seeing a big old bull elephant getting shot for its tusks, even if it does help the local communities and conservation efforts. But this is "video", with no video, just a still photo with an informative dialog. I hope you take this as an opportunity to rethink how you judge issues that you actually don't know much of anything about and take a minuscule amount of time to educate yourself before making foolish statements or decisions. It's people who do this sort of thing who are the very reason we have such catastrophic effects in how they cast their votes after being swayed by nonsense in the so-called reporting of so-called news media and entertainment, jam-packed with misinformation/lies/propaganda and they don't do their own research to see what the opposing view is ACTUALLY saying and ACTUALLY doing, whether it's about wildlife or about economics. By the way, there are more programs in different countries around the world with various animals. This is just a very small sample to get you started.

I don't need to read your article, especially when being produced in such a hostile manner. You make a grand assumption instead of making any sort of genuine attempt at understanding. Everyone who has the ability to read, probably knows Asian elephants are endangered. And Forest Elephants of Africa are even more so. I made it crystal clear about my opinion of so-called sanctuaries for elephants in Thailand. For a number of years, I lived near one of these places (a well-known, fairly large one) and I am good friends with one of its managers. I've had plenty of discussions and know more than I care to know. Presently, in Thailand, it appears that without these tourist attractions that lead to many abuses on the elephants, caring for and conserving these elephants in a sustainable manner isn't possible. But this kind of conservation leaves a LOT to be desired, to say the very least. There are programs in different parts of the world that have strict programs for allowing some culling of endangered animals, without the need of enslaving the animals. The proceeds go toward conservation efforts. There has been success with these programs (of course, some problems too, due to corruption) and I believe it would be a better alternative than the present disgusting model that maybe they could call a part of Thainess.... I won't assume you CLEARLY DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT numerous international culling programs of endangered species... but with the way you jumped off of your pedestal to come at me, it sort of appears to be the case.

Yes, I was being a bit facetious because the person was going on about how terrible it would be to cull them. Yeah, it would seem horrible, but if you let nature take its way, it seems even worse. So, I don't think culling should be out of the question because these stupid sanctuaries are out of control. Bring them to a sustainable level, whether by culling or allowing present animals in sanctuaries stay there until they die, but no additions unless for life saving (Don't let them breed in captivity!!! omg how stupid) and if culling is needed, well... maybe that's better than them suffering and starving. Culling or sell super expensive permits to hunt to bring levels to a sustainable place. And illegal killing should have massive penalties. But... we're talking Thailand... so I don't know if it's hardly even worth expert's time to try coming up with a sustainable plan. It will inevitably be a tragedy and some politicians and forestry officials/police/rangers will just get rich off of it. But I think a great first step would be to disallow sanctuaries to breed. That is insane.

I'd be willing to bet that a good entrepreneur would be able to make a go of a business model like that....

And yet, somehow their numbers don't seem to be dwindling as they are "rescued" and they are allowed to breed in these places, so these animals that cannot survive in the wild are born and held captive in slavery to tourist attractions. What a wonderful and caring place these "sanctuaries" are.... 😒

Could always just let nature take care of itself. They'll starve to death and their numbers will get to a sustainable point.

You've apparently never had any Russian friends.... Hard to imagine, even if never having had any Russian friends, that one could think that there's such a large group of human beings with no sense of humor. Context is everything. Cultural context makes things complicated, but it doesn't take away the human nature from people.

Coward? Or wise? I suppose you've convinced yourself that if you were Russian, you'd stay and fight. Why fight an adversary that wasn't threatening your home for a bunch of billionaires? Maybe after you see your friends sent off to be canon fodder by a bunch of inept egotistical imbeciles, you might think twice too. Unless one has a particular skill set or have connections, canon fodder is what you are. And even with skills, you are fighting for the whim of billionaires, who all think they are right on either side of the equation. Even if he were Ukrainian, I can hardly blame a guy for getting the heck out of there, although it's more difficult for me to imagine running away when your country is on the defensive and your homeland is under direct attack. But even so, the corruption is so disgustingly deep.... on all sides.... hundreds of thousands dead, for what? On second thought, maybe he is a Russian soldier. Maybe he's on leave for a bit and decided to enjoy what could be the last vacation of his life. Who knows.... not like these news stories tell us everything. But reading the comments in this forum, you'd think you could set international foreign policy and know everyone's motives and judge the action of any individual walking down the street at any given moment.

That was an odd comment. No need for immigrants, then trumpeting about how children who came from immigrants made such a great contribution to America? If they are Asian, the odds are extremely high (over 90%) that they are within three generations of the first immigrant of their family. I don't get it. Maybe you meant that America doesn't need illegal immigrants???

Not quite sure what a North American mentality could possibly be. I'm an American and I'm guessing that the average American mentality could be fairly different than the other 20+ countries of North America. Your 1.8 million baht comment is completely irrelevant to my comment, in which I said nothing about that, at all, and isn't something that even fits into what I had mentioned. I have no worries about what an American bank would do regarding stopping payments because I have no bank accounts in America, nor do I have any other "western account". Again, irrelevant to my point. I was doing exactly that, thinking about the average Thai, although that doesn't really have any bearing on my thoughts that it would be good to have such limits automatically placed on a minor's account. I don't think it is particularly relevant to my thoughts regarding freedom from governmental control over assets of adults either. How banks conduct their business in this matter should be something the government should keep their nose out of IMO. Banks are perfectly capable of dealing with it by themselves, or they go out of business or lose their clients. None of the governments business. Of course, that is debatable and if one supports a model more toward the ends of fascism or communism, then that would be rejected outright. Sure, go ahead and attribute that to "western thought". But I think so with the thought of the best for the average Thai in mind.

He can't, unless Congress changes the Constitution....

I could agree with automatic limits set for children, but not for adults. And the limits should not be imposed by the government, but by the banks. Keep the government out of places they don't belong. If the banks are too stupid to put protections in place like this, then they deserve the losses. And if adults refuse to apply some sort of protective measures that the bank offers, the account holder should be held responsible, just like if you don't have insurance on your car. If you are at fault, you pay. If you are not at fault, the other party pays.

I'm guessing a "cdn bank" is "Canadian"?? I have controls set up on my American accounts (bank and credit cards) where I'll be notified for approval if a transaction is more than a specified amount. The amount is specified by me and optional. It is very easily handled by text message for approval (or maybe it was email... forgot now. It's been a few years since I've needed to give approval...). At any rate, all I needed to do was to click a 'Yes' or a 'No' button and it was dealt with in less than a minute. A small price to pay for safety controls IMO. The problem with this proposed system is that it doesn't sound voluntary. That's a problem, taking away people's control of their own finances.