scorecard

Point taken. But should they perhaps be using their on duty time to focus on the other more important duties?

Same yesterday afternoon in our area of Chiang Mai. Massive lengthy loud thunderstorm and 3 drops of rain.

Many people travel all over the world every day with a lot of luggage, often in excess of their actual check-in babbage allowance. They know it's going to be a bit of a task to get all their luggage to a taxi or friends' car etc. I've done it, I get 2 luggage trollies, load them up and alterately push one trolley a few metres then the other trolley the same, etc. Hundreds of times at many airports seen loads of other people doing the same or similar. It's life!

Years back a property agent in Pattaya, without consulting me, rented my luxury house at Jomtien to a Russian family. Agent didn't tell me until 90 days after the Russian family moved in (Father, mother, 2 teenage girls, 1 teenage boy and 2 more quite young kids). I told the agent to arrange an immediate inspection, Russian man refused. Agent was then appraoched by the next door neighbor to tell the russians they cannot plug into the neighbors internet or electrcity service. Agent called the police, they went with the agent to do an inspection, found a lot of damage, police called their snr. Police snr consiscated all their documents and told them they would be deported but only afer all the damage had been repaired and they provided receipts with addresses and phone numbers of person/company who had done the repairs All done, snr cop told the Russian "Be here tomorrow morning at 7:00 am with your luggage and with air tickets to depart Thailand same morning, and 10,000Baht cash which will be passed to the owner of the property. If you don't come tomorrow morning I will lay several charges including overstay". The next day, at the request of the police snr officer I went to Pattaya police station and he quickly passed over the 10,000Baht. No suggestion at all of a cut for the police. He also mentined there had been many similar incidents in Pattaya in the recent past involving Russian tenants.

And why did they attack the boy working in he market? Surely there is a reason?

Sure. I've found that many of these missionary types (and others) firmly/categorically believe the whole world wants to be American.

During the Thaksin / Purachai era the processing stopped and didn't restart for about 6 or 7 years.

I will digress from AA for another comment. I was with my Thai son at a tourist attratction just outside of Chiang Mai, and an old friend from Australia. Son's wife and 2 daughters 6yo and 3yo also in the group. It was lunch time, we had found a table and my son's wife got several dishes and we started eating. Son was attending to my old friend who uses a wheel chair. Suddenly son's wife says "Where are the 2 girls?" Their chairs were empty. where My son is always very focused on the safety and welfare of his kids and always concerned about kidnap etc. We all started searching. I decided to search closer to the carpark and sure enough the 2 girls were seated at the side of a minivan with two American women blessing them and reading to them from the bible and holding the girls up in a prayer position while the farang women prayed loudly. This was about 300 metres from the tourist venue restaurant. I very quickly called my son to say "I've found the girls" and explained where we were. Both girls now clinging to me and crying. Son and his wife run quickly to where we were and their 2 daughters rushed to be with mummy and daddy, crying their hearts out. My son speaks perfect Thai and English. He asked the American women "What are you doing?" Instant response 'We're saving these lovely girls from the evils of local religions." Son's wife had already called the police, there was a small police post only 200 metres from where we were, the police came quickly. Son interpreted for the police. The police said they saw the situation as kidnap, police had already told another officer to come quickly with a police car, everybody taken to a bigger police station 10 minutes away. The two Americans had told me they were from a Christian missionary and they were determined to get Jesus into the lives of little local children. Another American woman had called the US embassy. They alerted an outside welfare organization who came quickly., a man and a woman, they seriously scolded the 2 evangelists and convinced the police to impost a fine and then get the evangelists Some type of w I asked "Do you condone kidnap?" Response "God and jesus will understand, Jesus will enter their lives and love them and save them from any future dangers. ". All rote sentences. They were fined 1,000Baht each and told to report to the American embassy. What happened from there we never found out.

Rubbish.

And ask them to provide a form etter confirming the card has been cancelled. Friend did this, initially the service desk girl said 'cannot give you such letter'. friend called the call center and they told the branch lady how to generate the letter. After all done the local branch manager intervened and asked friend to apologize to his staff member for making her lose face. Friend refused. Within 24 hrs changed his bank to Krung Thai, nowadays a very switched on bank, very customer focused.

Freedom of speech?

I was lucky enough to meet him backstage after his wondrful show and after all the curtain calls, and the audience had gone. He had quickly removed his make up, showered and was in male street clothes. No act, just a gentle masculine guy attending to coffee, pies and sandwiches for his quite large crew. I was with a group of 3 he had invited back stage, no more. he made us feel very welcome, nothing over the top, he ensured we had coffe/tea, snacks then sat with up and asked everybody 'how was your day'. No focus on himself. All the time checking that his crew were relaxing, had drinks/snacks etc.

That's a possibility of course. Also possible that dad actually/fully controls the 10,000Baht and in many areas /sectors of rural society dad is focused on what dad wants.

With no holds barred. I saw one of his shows decades ago in Adelaide, packed house. He 'assaulted' many audience members. It was winter time, he got one lady in the front row to take off her overcoat, shook it, the planned spotlights showd a stream of dust going up into the ceiling. Dame Edna stood over the woman and screamed into the microphone "YOU ARE THE DIRTIEST FILTHIEST BITCH I HAVE EVER MET, GET OUT". The audience lady ignored him, but Dame Edna insisted with a further comment "HOW MANY ARYLICS DID YOU MURDER TO MAKE THIS PIECE OF UGLY RAG YOU CALL A COAT. HOW LOW CLASS ARE YOU?" Dame Edna then proceeded to throw the coat out into the audience over the heads of about 5 rows of seats. Then sceamed into the microphne' 'IT'S INFECTED, IT'S FULL OF DEADLY GERMS, IF YOU DON'T QUICKLY THROW IT BACK TO ME I WILL HAVE YOU ESCORTD TO THE END OF THE ROW AND STRIPPED AND BUG SPRAYED".People threw it back quickly. Best show I have ever attended, I went with friends to a restaurant after the show, we laughed for hours. I went home and couldn't sleep that night. Too wound up.

and lowest IQ, and very high scores for lies, untrue and misleading statements.

And I strongly believe I have the right to reject pushing / harrassment by others to become a believer.

Good points, my initial words are less than clear so I need to change/clarify my comment. I really meant 'I respect the right of others to believe, whatever faith that might be, but only if there's no violence and no disrespect in any way of others and no harrassment of others in any way'. But I am not a believer.

Further explanation: The nomenclature 'Certificate of Residence' does have 2 different meanings in Thailand and yes this does cause some confusion: 1. The book shown in the attachment below which is issued when a foreigner is approved for lifetime Permanant Residency. The initial book has a dark blue cover. When the book is full (admin. pages and departure and arrival stamps for every trip) it's replaced by a white covered book which again needs replacement if it's full. 2. A one page simple letter called 'Certificate of Residence. (A letter, not a book.) Usually issued as needed to get a Thai drivers license and similar. It could be described as 'proof of where the foreigner is living or 'the address where the foreigner is living'. It has no meaning whatever re Permanent Residence (which to be more officially correct is a lifetime Certificate of Residence, as shown on the cover of the PR book). Photo - Cover of Thailand Certificate of Residence book.docx

Interesting post. I am not a believer and never will be. When meetings/events etc., turn to 'god' 'jesus' I just sit and be quiet. I've had a few occasions where the master of ceremones etc., have targeted me, pushing me / insisting i change my attitude and 'believe'. Perhaps the worst was when my management consultancy company was appraoched to give extensive advice and redesign of a large organization structure. The contract was signed, several preliminary meetings happened but I could never get an answer as to what products/services the company was involved in, but assurances that 'you' get a good surprise. I will admit I was hesitant whether to proceed with the work, but a big fee. Day 1 - 50 people in the room from the client organization, new leader appears and motions for all to get down on their nkees to pray, 5 folks are called up to hold my hands and put their hands on my shoulders etc. Leader now lordly thanks god for bringing me to their organization and tells god I have promised to bring new light to the organization. Turned out it was a US based 'save the Children' type organization. At the end of day one 30 minutes of prayers with me again being the focus. I totally respect all faiths but I didn't appreciate what had happened. And it didn't bring me even slightly closer to being a believer. Additional comment. At the several preliminary meetings 2 of the participants from the client organizational were very rude to my own staff and at one meeting, held at a hotel, unnecessarily quite abusive to the hotel staff who had done nthing wrong. No much for 'love they neighbor'.

A slight correction; for Thailand there's no such thing as a Permanent Resident visa. Some years back at an immigration discussion with foreigners a senior Thai immigration officer explained it like this (he spoke perfect English): - Thai citizenship, automatic at birth if one parent (or both) are Thai citizens. Foreigners can apply for Thai citizenship, difficult to achieve, very small numbers are approved. Not that expensive. It's for life, after approval there's no annual renewal, no checking, no 90 day reports etc. no need for exit/re-entry stamps. This is NOT a visa, foreigners approved get a standard Thai passport. - Thai Certificate of Residence, also known as Permanent Resident or PR. Not easy to achieve. For 99% of folks who get PR the primary item required is working in Thailand with a Thai work permit for 3 consecutive years, or more, and proof of paying all personal taxes and lots more, applicant must be holding a Thai work permit at the time of applying. Very high rejection rate (there's a maximum number which can be approved each year, for most countries it's 50 maximum but total approvals per country always well under that number. When I applied, for my birth county the maximum per year was 50. Actually approved was 5). After approval there's no annual renewal required, no checking, no 90 day reports etc. Holder must have an exit/re-entry permit. This is NOT a visa, PR is issued for life. Holder gets a small Certificate of Residence book which immigration stamp, same as holder's passport, every time the holder departs and returns to Thailand. The stamping is automatic, there is no interview or renewal of the PR status. Expensive. - Various Visas - Visas have a start date and an expiry date. Some visas can be extened but the extenion will have an expiry date. Some visas can be renewed, holder must submit an application for renewal, usually with copious attachments, and wait to see if the renewal is approved. I got my Certificate of Residency (PR) 26+ years ago so I'm not up to date with which agencies offer help with gaining PR. However several such agencies advertise their services here on ASEANNOW occasionally. One or several will possibly repond soon. Suggest google 'agencies in Thailand for Thai Permanent Residency?', this search will bring up many search responses which might give some valuable further information.

OK but in some villages there's an annual membership fee and a fee every time the facility is used.

Interesting post. I'm wondering how all of that (and many other posts) relates to 'do you believe in god?'

Seems you're way out of tounch with how the police work / what they fcus on / who they don't focus on in this country.

No I don't believe in god. Virgin birth? Not possible. Magic? No, because magic can be explained rationally. Rise from the dead after three days? Not possible. After 17 thousand replies still not convinced.

You write so much unrealistic rubbish.