footfall

To help me get started, I'd like to ask for members' recommendations for Orthopaedic Surgeons in Bangkok (or Chiang Mai, but think it will probably be BKK).

The case is slightly (or perhaps moderately) complicated, as it involves a prolapsed disc, some vertebral compression/degeneration with kyphosis and long-standing rotation of the spine (scoliosis). However, I believe there are surgical options that could improve the situation.

Thanks, all.

I have heard/read that spine clinic at Bangkok Nursing Home on Covent Road in BKK is very good.

Tammi, thanks.

Is this said to be a good place for surgery (that's what I am looking at).

I can get away with no sunscreen here in Thailand, but no chance of that in NZ

Not a good idea to go without here or Nz.

Correct. People with dark skins get skin cancers, too.

The hole in the ozone layer does seem to intensify the intensity Downunder. Highest rate of melanoma in the world. (Not helped by the very fair skin of many non-native forebears).

Slip, slop, slap and ... oh ! what's the 4th one ?? Been away too long.

Slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, slap on a hat and ... sunglasses ? stay out of the sun at the most damaging times of day ?

To help me get started, I'd like to ask for members' recommendations for Orthopaedic Surgeons in Bangkok (or Chiang Mai, but think it will probably be BKK).

The case is slightly (or perhaps moderately) complicated, as it involves a prolapsed disc, some vertebral compression/degeneration with kyphosis and long-standing rotation of the spine (scoliosis). However, I believe there are surgical options that could improve the situation.

Thanks, all.

Amy could spend her sentence of 15 hours of community service teaching dress design.

I hope you meant to say "learning".

Footfall - no worries. Be as blunt as you want. Our dog and cats have full bowls all day long and eat when they want

You don't care about the animals' health in any way ?

Quite an interesting question.

I'd say we break about even, though it shows in different ways.

Folk from less developed places might need to think of themselves & their families more; folk from more developed places might have the luxury to spend more time thinking of both themselves and others.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, is there ? .

Somtham,

You ask if your cat is going to kill you.

Unless this cat is a Maine Coon or Swedish Ragdoll or some other very large breed, it's a case of you killing your cat.

Someone is killing this cat by over/inappropriate feeding.

Take the cat to a good vet, if possible. If not, do some online research about cat health and diet.

Sorry to be blunt.

Lampard - you had a tenacious mother .

To the Original Poster - you mentioned your cat weighs 10 kg. What kind of cat is this ?

tiger urine would most definitely scare off your neighborhood moggy

but might it not attract the bigger beasts ?!

Reading all the tips with interest; am also on the warpath.

Foreigners are not entitled to be self employed. They must be employees of a company. The four Thai employees rule is imposed by the Immigration Bureau not the Labour Ministry. Therefore permanent residents don't need to have four Thai employees since they don't have to apply to Immigration for anything in connection with their work permit. I have been told that people on investment visas also didn't need four Thai employees for the same reason i.e. they have already got past Immigration but this is academic for those who are not grandfathered into investment visas and no one knows how long the grandfathering will be good for anyway.

Thanks for the reply, Arkady.

So, the essential point is the permanent residence ?

Is permanent residence difficult to come by ? (It might seem an attractive option for those who'd prefer self-employment.)

Sunbelt :

QUOTE

If he got a work permit then he would have to hire 4 thais to sit around and diddle themselves all day while he does his online trading for a few hours.

This not true. You do not need any Thais employed to get a work permit.

Think this will be on my tombstone

Here lies the Man, who

stated many times

"No Thai employees

needed to get a work permit"

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

How can a self-employed person (such as the guy working from home on the internet) get the WP without employing any Thais ?

What an absolutely bewildering system.

Even China has got things more right.

Do not throw your old PP away. Secure it to the new one with an elastic band. New passports can be treated as suspect.

Rimping, which is a supermarket every expat should visit. They have Vegemite too.

Must agree. A well-run place with many goodies. And they recycle their plastic bags.

Sounds good .

Have you made any progress, Priceless ?

Thank you, Sunbelt.

One more question (from me, at least; I am sure others will have plenty to ask on this topic ) :

Once over 50 years of age, is one still eligible for a business/work visa ? Is there a maximum age ?

Sorry, confused ...

Does this mean the dependent wife/husband must be over 50 years of age ?

If the wife/husband is not over 50 they'd need to have some kind of work or business visa to stay long term (independently of the partner's retirement visa) ?

If the younger partner has a work or business visa, could the older partner stay in Thailand on an associated "O" visa ?

You might also place a free ad with http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/ and

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ . Private condo-owners willing to accept pets and short-term rental

might respond.

All the best.

How many cats are you bringing ?

You might also try Flora House ( http://www.florahouse.4t.com/ , email : [email protected] ) . Not flash, but adequate while you look for something more permanent.

Ah, I see ... might well be indicating halal.

Still, I figure that if we all encourage such places to cook what they'd eat at home & cook best, and support them, they might move away from the typical menus.

I believe they can extend for 30 days in Chiang Mai but ask in the Visa section of the forum for more details.

Related article :

Sex-slave trafficking campaigner speaks in Chiang Mai

Elle Faraday

Sometimes in life, you meet someone who makes everything you’ve done in your life seem insignificant compared to what they’ve achieved. Norma Hotaling is one of these people. Norma is the founder and director of SAGE, an organisation dedicated to helping those living on the streets and involved in prostitution. Her story is an incredibly powerful one.

Norma Hotaling

Norma spent 20 years on the streets of San Francisco as a heroin addict and prostitute. In 1989, she was released from prison and vowed to turn her life around. She enrolled on a detox and support programme and moved into a ‘sober living’ programme.

In 1990, Norma began seeing a counsellor who helped her to see that she wasn’t a bad person, just a tragic victim of circumstance. She had been abused as a child and her subsequent life spent on the streets was linked to this early experience. Her drug and alcohol addiction was merely a way to numb the pain she felt rather than dealing with it.

Just over two years after leaving prison, Norma earned herself a degree in Health Education and shortly after that, in 1995, she founded SAGE (Standing Against Global Exploitation) which was set up to “provide services locally and to advocate for an end to trafficking people for sex both nationally and internationally.”

Norma is “committed to the creation of alternatives to homelessness and the incarceration of women, girls, men and boys.” She wants to help ease as many people’s suffering as she can and use her experience to show others that there is a way out.

With the support and organisation of the United States Embassy, Norma has just finished a five day tour of the country where she was sharing her story and offering help and support to those who need it. She has been to Thailand four times before and each time learns a little bit more about what she described as a “wonderful country”. During her present trip, she has visited the many support groups in Thailand that are committed to helping the country’s many prostitutes. I was lucky enough to be present at a press conference that Norma gave in Chiang Mai last week.

She has specifically asked for her story not to be sensationalised so I hope I can document the facts accurately and paint an honest picture of a subject which is highly controversial as well as being incredibly shocking.

After explaining what SAGE is and what it hopes to achieve, Norma began by explaining that “Trafficking at its core is a supply and demand issue. The girls that are now being recruited and drugged and trafficked into Thailand are feeding a 30 million dollar trans-national organised crime ring.” This was a bold statement to make but was not made without its research. She went on to say, “It is so important to remember that the 30 million dollars is paid for one dollar at a time by men who have decided to buy a human being. They are the demand … We are taught to keep silent and protect the demand side of trafficking … How is this right? These men are feeding organised crime.”

Norma went on to explain that during her visits to the numerous support centres around Thailand, she found out that they are seeing more and more young boys who are being trafficked into the sex slave industry. She wants to see the authorities “really focus on the men who are buying children, both girls and boys.” She believes that in order to be effective, “It’s really important to look at the issue as a whole – then we start to see the oppression that exists.”She understands that to get people to listen takes time. She has been writing about the plight of trafficked girls in the US since 1992 and only now are people sitting up and listening. “It comes down to the same point as I was making at the beginning; take away the demand and you are left with nothing.” She has been working with the authorities in San Francisco and they are now arresting the men who are picking up the girls as well as the girls themselves. Men have to pay a stiff fine if they are caught with a prostitute. This fine goes towards one of the programmes which Norma has developed to help completely rehabilitate the girls and boys on the streets.

Norma gave a moving account of her own life story - hiding nothing, simply telling the facts. She has moved forward and wants to help as many young people as she can move forward with her. “It’s a horrible, horrible legacy for our children and its time for all of us around the world to join together and say we are going to stop this. Sex with children, taking advantage of their vulnerability and abusing power is wrong.” She wants people to judge these men very critically and not hide behind the fact that it is a taboo subject. She asked for Thailand to be the leader, “To step forward and protect its girls and boys who are being used to serve the huge sex industry here. If Thailand leads the way, many other countries will follow.”

I found her talk fascinating as did everyone else present. She was asked many questions, mainly on how to handle the vast number of tourists travelling to Bangkok on holiday and who do not see anything wrong with what they’re doing. Norma responded by saying, “It’s important for the people of Thailand to decide for themselves on what to say about that and what they think about it. I know what I think about it – it’s a racialised sexism because how these men justify it is by saying ‘Thai women like it…’ The men that do this look at women and children in very narrow ways. They take advantage of Thai people’s polite and kind nature. It’s up to Thailand to turn around and stop it.”

One of the last and possibly most powerful questions asked was how old are these children that are being sold into prostitution. She simply said, “5 or 6 years old.” We were all shocked into silence and the reality of this problem really sank in.Norma was leaving Chiang Mai to continue her excellent work in the US where she sees over 300 people a week walk through her doors. She is an inspiration to thousands and hopefully some of the girls she encounters will look to Norma and turn their lives around just as she has done.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/current/news.shtml#hd8

I think a tier system is a good idea, too.

The requirements would have to vary according to the job. The training needed for kinder, primary,

secondary and adult (university or language schools) differs.

In Australia, a B.Ed is needed for primary teaching.

For secondary teaching you need a degree in the subject area/s you teach plus a one-year Dip.Ed.

(Primary teachers thus tend to have a better grasp of the learning process & psychology & classroom management than secondary teachers as they spend more time studying education subjects.)

For adult ESL/EFL you might have a degree plus one-year Dip.TESOL (though Masters degrees are becoming quite common) but there are quite a few possible variations as many teachers switch to TESOL after teaching primary or secondary.

Something like Japan's JET scheme would work well here. English-speakers who are not trained teachers but wish to spend a year here to experience the lifestyle and culture could get kids interested in and using oral English with a Thai teacher in the room to help manage the class.

Interesting thread.

none had used the Internet as a means to meet their husband due to a lack of computer literacy.

OK - so why not tell us how they did meet ? And in the N-E or elsewhere ?

(I'd also really like to know what the poster spends 20,000 baht/week on at Big C ! They must love you !)

Interesting article here :http://www.sac.or.th/Subdetail/seminar/sum_of_seminar/seminar53_E.html

In some villages of the Northeastern Thailand, 1 out of 3 families reportedly has a member that marries a foreigner.