scorecard

So what?

At the time of reaching the so called mythical pearly gates they were already well dead and not likely to be 'shocked' at all, by anything.

Not sure now but previously I taught in an Executive MBA program at a uni in Hat Yai. Several foreign students, all keen to learn. They were all from Palestine, but I know the uni was open to international students from any country. Prince of Songkla Uni is quite big and well respected, maybe worth a call to check (websites are often not up to date and often don't have all the details. If someone decided to call P of S Uni or any uni I suggest don't call the main switchboard because the staff in that office usually have very little knowledge of what's going on / programs etc., and aren't interested. I suggest do some research and get a number for the faculty you're interested in and call the faculty direct and ask your questions.

Toys cater to all tastes and desires. And the variety is way beyond what many folks would realize. Visit a Sex Toys / magazine / video X bookshop in Tokyo (many such shops in Tokyo and many cities / towns in Japan), many are enormous, and see the variety. One famous shop in Tokyo is ROSE Books / Books ROSE. Also a large variety of sex lubricants / jellies. Some shops will arrange an evening of live sex shows to demonstrate the toys. Not free of course. A bit like a Tupperware evening. Press a button alongside many of the sex toys to see a 1 second / 2 minute all revealed video with real pornstars using that toy. Hundreds of rows of covers (previously for CDs but nowadays after sale the video is supplied instantly online, cannot be shared with others). X videos for every taste / desire kink/ age group of actors you might imagine. Also a small team who can find the actors / performers in some of the specific titles and arrange a 'meet up'.

True, will we all survive?

Really. Most consulting companies (yes a different industry) won't do business with individual Indians or Indian companies. They know every trick ever invented to cheat and to avoid payment, and they can invent new tricks in an instant.

Antarctica on a one way ticket would be good.

My one flight on AirIndia was a bit earlier the mentioned above Hong Kong to New Delhi. Flight booked (against my wishes) by new client in New Delhi. Check in in HK was a nightmare, 99% of passengers were young Indians all complaining 'why Can't I have upgrade' 'sorry aircraft is fully booked', 'But why can't you add more business seats', plus unrealistic demands for special meals. On board more loud demands o change seats along with several young Indian men punching the stewards and hostesses. Capt was called twice to come to the cabin and mediate. One young passenger asked 'do you have any spare seats in he cockpit. Answer 'yes but...' s soon as the passenger heard yes he was down the aisle and waiting at the cockpit door. Two stewards had to forcefully get him back to his assigned seat. Middle aged woman berating a stewardess because searadess would not agree to 50% discount on onboard duty free purchases. The aircraft starts descending to land, many passengers stand up and form a mob at the exit door. Captain decides to not land and takes aircraft up to higher altitude. Captain makes a serious announcement 'everybody must be seated and remain seated with seatbelts fastened or we don't land. We landed but as soon as all the wheels are on the runway the mob rushes to the exit door.

I had an experience with a lady from a world wide very well known and respected global children's charity org. She called my company office in BKK (an international management consulting company) at about 12.45 pm and abused the young new switchboard operator because she could not speak to me (she had my name from somewhere). Switchboard operator said 'sorry he's at lunch but I can call now and ask him to quickly return your call'. The charity lady asked for my mobile number, the switchboard girl said 'sorry I can't do that'. Charity lady responded 'you do as you are told, give me his number now'. Response, 'sorry but I cannot continue this call and I will hang up and quickly call 'mr xxx (me)' and ask him to return your call'. I did call the charity lady quickly and said 'are you in danger'. She hung up. Turned out she had gone to my office (was in the same skyscraper) and was waiting for me. She instantly gave me a string of unwarranted abuse. She then demanded that I dismiss the very pleasant and capable young switchboard girl. I changed the subject and took her to my office. Meanwhile I has instructed one of my junior staff to call her office and request they quickly send 2 snr. staff to my office. They did come to my office quickly and one took the charity lady's arm and forcefully said 'Come back to our office now'. The second person from her office sincerely apologized. I responded 'is she needing urgeny care, is she in danger?' Response 'No, she just enjoys upsetting people.' I asked 'well why was she ever employed by a serious accredited children's charity?' Answer 'she has been dismissed, her last day of work is tomorrow'.

Not funny, just insulting.

You're making big assumptions. I have lectured many courses (in English) in these programs. The student make up is different every time. In most cases 70 - 80% Thai nationals. 20 - 30% international students from: Myanmar (many on UN scholarships), Lao, Vietnam, Sth. Korea, France, Spain, Denmark and many from Germany. The students from abroad expect quality in every aspect and they will complain if they are not satisfied. This puts pressure on the Thai students to behave themselves and apply themselves. Plus pressure from observing the behaviors, good questions, English language abilities from the Myanmar student. As said above many of the Myanmar students are on UN scholarships and they have to report their scores / grades to their UN monitor at the end of every semester. If they don't get good grades their scholarship is at serious risk. Never happens. Plus pressure from observing the behaviors, focus and commitment of the students from Europe, and Sth Korea (the Sth Korea students will quickly complain). I've had several incidents where I split the class into small teams (3 to 5 students) and most in the team have rejected the 1 perhaps 2 Thai students in the team. I ask why, classic answers: lazy, watches cartoons, doesn't contribute, talks to friends on LINE all the time, disappears well before the activity finishes. In these cases I tell the student 'you will have to find a new team'. Reality is that no other team will accept these Thai students. Because of policy at one Thai uni (that I'm aware of) the lecturer must inform the dean of these incidents who calls the parents and informs then 'your son/daughter is now marked to fail this course'. The students know this will happen. Jayboy, sorry this doesn't answer your question, I never look at the fees, and I suspect it could be different uni by uni. Hopefully there will be others more familiar with fees. However I hope the details / comments above are of of some value.

That needs some amendment / correction... thank you for ensuring the harsh time spent in a luxury hospital suite (as opposed to a Thai jail) when there's ongoing doubt that you were even sick. Then suddenly you were able to walk unaided and appear in dozens of photo ops alongside your PM daughter who should be shown to be actively singly performing the pm duties.

Do you mean as opposed to making sounds out of his ass...?

But there's plenty of folks who don't accept the Christian dogma and don't accept that this dogma ultimately has any right to 'rule' anything. The US has many good productive muslim people, they have rights too. And that also means that Christian beliefs cannot / should not be totally and dogmatically forced onto muslims. Let's also not forget that the founding fathers strongly embraced that there must be separation of religion and politics.

And a big part of that is good regular polite communications with good listening.

Plus good every day respectful communications.

1. What your aunt in Colorado thinks / would do is totally irrelevant. I suggest don't listen to her. 2. Back to the OPs post. I have one farang acquaintance in CM, has quite good legal employment. His Thai wife is a senior accountant / economist, worked for the same big Thai company for about 15 years. They met at a party celebrating a business success for the company. They married 1 year later. Have a big modern house on nice land on the outskirts of CM. He transfers about 95% of his earning to his wife every month. He has to ask her permission to go anywhere, shopping to buy food (he likes to cook) . ...ask her permission to be away for 2 hrs* on Sat / Sun to have coffee with long-term western friends. Western friends wives often attend, all pleasant professional people, good conversation. *she indicated a time limit for him to be away, if he's 5 minutes late he gets a call telling him to be home very soon. He always asks his wife to attend coffee, she refuses. I went to their house once, she would not allow me to enter the house. He seems to be quite happy with all of this. Tight leash?

Does that have any substance?

Here's my story: I worked for a long time for an international management consulting company in the Bkk office. We won a big contract with a Thai ministry which needed a very detailed economic analysis. At that time we had no staff with the skill / experience in Asia, especially in the Oil and Gas industry. I contacted the company HO in the US to see if they had a suitable consultant. They did and the guy was on a flight to BKK within 36 hrs. He initially sent me an email confirmation that he could do the work and he would arrive on xx/xx/xxxx. I responded asking for a flight number / arrival time and gave him the name/address of the 5 star hotel we had booked for him but no response. I sent a second email, again no response. We arranged a meeting for 10:00 am the morning after his expected arrival so he could meet the client. At 08:00 On the moam one of the local senior consultants ran into my office telling me 'Mr. has arrived, he's near my desk and he has slammed a gun don on the desk'. I went quickly, introduced myself which he totally / rudely ignored, then asked if his hotel was OK. No reply. I asked 'did you carry this handgun with you from the US'. He responded 'NO the <deleted> at xxx airport in xxx xxxx confiscated his handgun which he wanted to carry in his cabin bag'. I asked 'so where did you get this handgun.' By this time he's getting very frustrated with the conversation and answered 'I asked the bell boy at the hotel where i can buy a handgun and I showed the bell boy a photo of a handgun'. Bell boy responded 'Chatujuck market' and wrote the address in Thai. By this time our local GM had joined the conversation (local GM is Thai, studied high school, bachelor and masters and Ph,D, in the US). GM tells new arrival 'I cannot allow you to have guns in the office and this will go now into the safe in my room, and I cannot allow you to take this to the clients office'. Further, client ill be very angry at foreigners or anybody trying to bring firearms onto their premises. US guy gets heated and insists 'you can't tell me what to do and I refuse to walk around any city without a sidearm. Our Thai GM calls the client and explains and asks for time to find another economics analysis consultant. CEO of the client organization is Thai and well familiar with US and firearms, and he agrees to wait. Our CEO tells admin manager to urgently get 2 security guards ready to take the US guy to the airport and his return flight is changed to the next flight, next day. Our CEO refuses to remove the handgun from his safe. Police (Lumpini) are informed and agree to send an officer to take the firearm. They arrive 30 minutes later and take the item and give a receipt. Our own company seniors in the US are angry because their consultant not allowed to carry a firearm, angry / annoyed because the Thailand office not flexible.

I already have and the response was quite convincing, it was the bank I use in Aust. Lady I spoke to mentioned that banking scams in Australia are getting worse, she mentioned that soon when you try to sign-in there will be a wait to get an OTP number and the OTP number will need to be verified by a second OTP number, then verified using 2 different customer 'authentification' apps (both operated by the same bank). And before any withdrawal or transfer is accepted / processed a similar structure will take place plus a personal phone call to verify the transaction using voice recognition software. And any transactions over AUD 5,000 will have a 24 hr delay then 2 OTP numbers and verifications by another process within an app.

Seems to m there's many other options of who can sign: police, doctors, teachers and more, so no need for trips to Bkk.

For Aussies receiving a service Pension (which is a duplicate of the Centrelink regulations (incl. the 2 years portability item) and /or receiving a permanent Disability Compensation payment from the DVA, you will receive proof of life letters. I received the proof of life letter from the DVA a couple of years ago. I got my response certified by an Aussie Justice of the Peace resident in Thailand. I emailed the DVA to ask if I had to send the proof of life documents by registered post... Instant reply 'no need to send originals, just scan/photo and send by e.mail'. in regard to the death of a veteran, the Aust. Embassy in Bkk does NOT advise the DVA of the passing of veterans. Two ways to inform the DVA: - Call their main number in Hobart and the caller will transfer you to the relevant dept. - Email to the DVA enquiries @..... Both of the above can be found easily on the opening page of the DVA website. If possible quote the veterans personal DVA file no.

Australian Embassy in Bkk and the official Aust. Consulate in Phuket do it. I don' 't know if any charges. Chiang Mai Consulate also but seems to be difficult to pin down days / times.

Why should there be any criticism, world leaders use such devices every day.

Last week I received an email from my bank in Australia. They say the Oz Gov't has recently enacted several laws about proving identity and I have to complete a quite large document with all my personal details. They also want the original copy of my photo (same size etc., as passport) with my original signature using a pen (they call it a wet-ink signature, cannot be pencil, cannot be a photocopy). And document must be sent to the bank in Oz by postal mail (not by mail).