scorecard

As already said (and it's true) local lans office chiefs have differing opinions on subject like this and they apply their opinions rather than the actual written law (e.g. the Thai Commercial code. Here's a twist, my Thai son owns a double block and 5 bed house in a fairly new moo Baan in Chiang Mai. Had his 4th child and decided it was time to rewrite his will, before doing so he had long focused discussions with his thai wife who is very logical and balanced and agree that the will should be focused on the best deal for their children. The lawyer (and old Thai friend, and my old student when she did her executive MBA) listened to their wishes for the dispersal of son's assets. In a nut shell my son wanted 'all my land and buildings are bequeathed totally equally to all of my children'. Son's wife agreed with this and even offered to write a letter saying she agreed and proposed to have it signed / witnessed and attache dto her husbands (my son's) will. Lawyer checked that she understood then went to visit the Land office chief. He indicated that by law on son's demise if any / all of the children can be recorded as joint/equal owners of the land/houses in their own names regardless of whether they have reached the age of majority. He also mentioned it was possible to wait until one or all of the children reach the age of majority then change the owner names on the chanut. Lawyer also mentioned that, in any case, the mother (if alive, or in fact my soon could nominate anybody* to officially be the guide for the children in terms of ensuring moo baan fees / house maintenance was carried out etc. *My son asked 'can a farang (the farang being me) be acknowledged as the guide? Answer from Land office chief YES. Land chief continued that the 'guide' can in fact be 2 people, both of course must be adults. I think It's worth sharing why son did not bequeath the land/house to his Thai wife. The first time my son met his future mother and father in law it was a family event with his girlfriends 7 brothers and sisters present. Son had already met the oldest brother and sister (both around 15/18 years older than sons gf. Both had mentioned several times: - They did not approve of their younger sister marrying a Thai boy who has a farang parent. 'It will instantly bring severe bad luck to all the family'. - Further to the point just above they insisted that my son agree that the farang never ever step on the land. - Further, both the older brother and sister believe they are law experts and insisted that on marriage, by Thai law, the chanut must be changed to show that they now own the property. They had already requested / demanded that they be given the chanut to hold for the future. My son refused this of course and in fact his gf's brother / sister had never seen the original or copy of the chanut. They also made it plain that they would immediately sell the property (at the time probably about 15million Baht) and they would then hold the money on behalf of themselves and wifes other brothers and sisters, but first they would buy new cars for all 7 brothers and sisters. My son had all of the above checked by our known lawyer and one more lawyer, they both confirmed that the scenario above was not Thai law in any way. Bottom line, my son's wife is quite frightened of her elder brother and sister and she feared that if her husband died and the chanut was changed to her name they would intimidate her strongly and even physically take her to the Land office and demand that the owner be changed to their names. Therefore she was quite happy that the owner name never be changed to her name. I add, both her older brother and sister had been in trouble with law (jointly for involvement in ponzi schemes, corruption involving rice sales and more.

The 2 years back in Oz is what you make of it. Comments using works like 'jail', 'detention', 'purgatory' are not the reality of the situation. I was lucky enough to rent (at very reasonable cost - below commercial rates - a nice 1 bed apartment in a big war vets village Nth of Sydney. Admin. of the village is by *RSLifecare and very focused on vets, other residents very friendly and helpful, inhouse great restaurant with planned menus plus a la carte menu, way under commercial restaurant prices, free bus services to local shopping centres, Medical Centre in the village Doctors / trained nurses on duty 24/7. *The RSl went through an era when it lost respect and lost it's path but that's all history. Today under their name RSLifecare they are focused and give excellent support and care. j

It's now around 48,000Baht every 4 weeks (OAP is paid by the fortnight and 2 fortnights <4 weeks> if you request the funds to be transferred abroad). It's not paid per calendar month. If true that would mean 12 payments per year. But in reality for OAP recipients abroad (if you're living abroad you can request the funds be automatically transferred to your offshore bank account) the payment is every 4 weeks, therefore 13 times every year.

Decades back I had to enter compulsory conscription, do basic training and then I went to the war in Vietnam. The rookie camp had a chaplain (Church of England guy), never spent any time with the young recruits but during the 1 X 1 hr compulsory lecture he repeated many times: - I am your friend, I am your friend - God / Jesus / 1 (the chaplain) will protect you and not allow you to get killed or injuries. After that 1 lecture we never saw him again. But our rookie camp platoon commander was a Lieutenant who had just returned from VN on completion of his tour of duty. A couple of days after the 1 hr one off lecture by the chaplain the Lieutenant mention that the chaplain had not been honest, he said 'There is serious danger when you go to VN, soldiers get killed and wounded, lose limbs etc., every day'. Please always listen carefully to your instructions from your platoon / section leaders and follow those instructions and always work as a team. On the other hand, many times when we finished long training marches / runs / strategy exercises / equipment practice etc., at the end suddenly a short based Land Rover would appear with a giant urn of hot sweet tea and trays of freshly cut sandwiches. The guy bringing the tea wore a basic army uniform with Salvo insignia on the sleeves. He never once handed out religious brochures and never gave sermons. He did quietly ask: - If any recruits had any mail to be sent home, a couple of times he took letters and then took them to the army post office and posted them. - if any soldiers needed help to write home. Quite a few times a recruit would say yes. The Salvo guy would quietly ake the recruit boy to the side and give him a clipboard with about 10 opening paragraphs and also give the boy another clipboard with blank lined paper and an envelope. The Salvo guy would say 'You try to start a letter then I will sit with you and help you write more'. - The Salvo guy also discreetly ask if any recruits had family problems at home. Some said YES, he would take them aside and ten go to one of the training corporals to agree a time / place where the recruit could meet the Salvo guy in the evening. Several time the result was either the Salvo organization or another mainstream help organization would quickly contact the family and really help them to get into a better situation. - Never once did the Salvo guy ask for money. I have no respect for the mainstream christian churches, but I do have much respect for the Salvos and their activities with soldiers and since those days I have given an annual worthwhile donation to them. rec

Do the Irish band members have work permits?

In terms of media there is no credible, honest, unbiased news source.

But what is not yet answered by the Thai RD is how old age pensions from abroad will be 'classified'. Several weeks back one the western tax consultants posted that he had spoken to a snr officer at the Thai RD on this, specifically mentioning Australians who are living permanently in Thailand, and the Oz OAP is their only income. The Thai RD snr supposedly answered that the Thai RD had no interest in taxing these folks. Also mentioning that Thailand would follow any guidance that appeared in the DTA.

Agree. I'm wondering if Biden is sitting it out, keeping quiet and hoping that soon the dems will announce a replacement presidential candidate and VP. The dems have been silent on this but maybe that's part of their strategy, and I'm expecting that they well understand; - Biden is to too old to continue much longer. - Biden has achieved good things. - His current VP hasn't achieved much and doesn't look likely too. - Because of his age Biden is obviously NOT capable of another 4+ years. Come on Dems get your fingers out, nominate a credible / capable / younger replacement team. Seems to me there plenty of possible dem candidates with the right capabilities / track record / affiliations and the right personal charisma. and younger.

That should be true of course, but in reality not so true.

In Thailand there's an item which strongly supersedes the comment just above. It comes down to a few words 'corruption / collusion'. Many politicians / parties see this as operationalizing the very reason why they entered politics, a chance at the trough, often for very big money. And it often means creating new budgets, often enough for unneeded building etc., opportunities to sell land at massively inflated prices for facilities which aren't really needed or for which current facilities can easily be upgraded. That's all ignored to create a big budget / in other words create new chance at the trough.

About 15 years ago (just a guess) a foreigner was appointed to the board of directors. The man had achieved Thai citizenship many years beforehand, had an impressive work achievement managerial record and could read/write speak Thai language same as a Thai national. First meeting, many Thai members of the board of directors refused to be seated and made it very clear they refused to work with a foreigner and they refused to accept that he had Thai citizenship, had worked in LOS is snr. positions for a couple of decades with impressive results / performance ratings. He was 'let go'.

Oranges have a special meaning. Go to a business meeting in China, probably with old style Chinese business folks and especially if the meeting / dinner has been set up for the host company to get acquainted with another company which is trying to win a work contract. If plates of cut oranges appear on the table near the end of the meeting / dinner it's an indication the host likes you / thinks your capable of doing the work the host is requiring.

And change the attitude of the staff, which can be done, and change the reward (pay) system to a performance base rather than just a time base. Plus put into every contract of employment clauses which clearly indicate: - Lack of performance / low performance quickly turns to dismissal, meaning that 'guaranteed job for life' doesn't exist. -The company / organization has continuous transparent systems / methods to observe and measure performance. The Singapore public service including all gov't ministries and agencies (one example the education ministry) etc., changed to this quite a few years back. Singapore also did some serious work to create credible methods of assessing / observing performance and they are actively in place. Australia has done something similar by creating 'government corporations', including old government job for life offices / agencies into performance based operations. I'm aware of one quasi Thai gov't corporation which has done the same thing. The first to get dismissed because of lack of performance was 90% of the HR team. It can be done.

A quick lunch and coffee at a local small noodle shop.

Followed by 1 minute playing with his grand children.

You wrote: "Basically, from what I understand of what you wrote, is that you rejected the idea that God exists because you had a rotten chaplain." I didn't say that and it's just your wild assumption. Don't assume that you know how I think or how I analyse whatever.

Thank you.

I blocked him 2 years ago.

What's less then ethical / less than common sense is that his GOP / MAGA followers don't think about what's good / ethical / moral / good economics / helps build maintain a good quality of life for all / sharing of health care benefits etc., ; they've been totally brainwashed into agreeing to whatever is in the personal best interests of the clown.

Cashiers cheque sounds good but check carefully how quickly it would clear. From my actual experience selling a townhouse in Pattaya: Buyer (Thai lady) insisted she pay whole amount by local cashiers cheque issued by her bank (not same bank as the bank I use). At Land Office she handed over the cashiers cheque. My Thai adult son took the cashiers cheque quickly to our local K Bank, after some inspection of the cheque and a long phone call to the issuing bank, our K Bank manager said: - We will accept the cheque and it appears to in order and the issuing bank confirmed (in the phone call the details, cheque number etc.), for deposit to your account but we will not cash the cheque instantly. - It will take about 5 to 7 days to clear then we will give you the cash. At the same time it became clear that the cheque had been issued by another bank (not the bank indicated earlier by the buyer) and the other bank branch was in the upper corner of Essan on the border. My son had by this stage, at the lands title office indicated he would not hand over the original chanue or the keys to the property until he had full payment in cash in his hands. B Buyer lady went into a hissy screaming fit and insisted 'you can't tell me what to do, I want the chanut today / now.' Son had also called an old police buddy and a snr police office from Pattaya station appeared at the LTO. Police guy was quick to get the full story and suggested we all move to the local big branch, in Pattaya, of the bank that had issued the cashiers cheque upcounty. Local Pattaya manager of the bank which had issued the cheque upcountry said, I have one possible solution and he then spoke to my Thai son and myself and the snr. cop: "if you open a new account at my branch (in Pattaya) right now (take 10 minutes of less) then I can accept the cashiers cheque into your new account, clear if instantly and give you cash immediately. 10 minutes later my son had the full payment in cash in his hands. Them the snr Pattaya cop said to my son, I will go with you to K Bank now to ensure the cash gets into your K Bank quickly (now) and with no issues. Then the snr Pattaya cop said to to buyer lady 'Why did you change the agreed bank details, I don't trust you and I will have an officer immediately check your name for any previous issues with you. By 5.00 pm tomorrow I will call the seller to inform him of the result of our check'. Buyer lady then gave snr. cop a mouthful of abuse. Cop responded by asking my son 'do you have all the documents needed to change the name on the electricity, telephone and water bills? Son responded 'Yes I have them all ready'. Snr cop replied 'one of my men will go with you and the buyer tomorrow morning to the 3 utility offices to ensure the name change is smooth and fully completed'. Son whispered to me and the snr cop 'but her name is not yet on the chanut'. Snr cop whispered "I understand, I will take care of that as needed.' Next morning about 10.00 am name change on all utilities completed. Then back to the LTO and smooth sailing to get the name change on the chanut completed.

Trust banks: Ain't much better in many other countries.

Sure but the owners committee should make several solid rules that the management company must follow / no flexibility: 1. Management company had no authority to withdraw funds from condo bank account. Must be 2 signatories: both signatories must be from a list of say 4 authorised signatories and the owners on the list of 4 signatories must change regularly (every 6 / 12 months). No 2 expenditure items can have the same 2 signatures to withdraw funds. 2. The manager from Management company must not be related or have any close relationships with any other management team member. Must be a regular review of the management company job descriptions, the authorities allowed for each job and a clear statement of the job outputs which must be achieved by each position and a timeline. (Job descriptions which state a list of tasks are not allowed, must state job outputs expected. 3. A monthly meeting: manager (from the management team, and all staff) and the owners committee. Manager from the management company must provide in advance a list of activities of the management team for last 30 days and why each item was undertaken. Owners at the meeting expected to ask questions for clarification and must direct their questions to the management team. If a question is directed at a jnr member of the management team that jnr employee must answer the question. Manager cannot try to intervene and answer the question.

We have a small male toilet room on the ground floor for public usage, also female toilet room. There was a lot of water damage to the ceiling of one of the rooms. Suddenly damaged ceiling tiles removed and new fitted. No paining work to provide an overall new appearance. Then every owner got a bill for their share of the work done, 5,000Baht each owner. One new owner objected and sent a notice to the manager and a copy (Thai and English) under every unit door. I forget the total amount being claimed from owners but around 1 million Baht. All hell broke loose and a snr. policeman / owner put a notice under every door asking owners to indicate if they wanted an extra ordinary owners meeting to be held to discuss the matter Majority of owners agreed should be an owners meeting. Turned out: - Approval to spend any funds to repair the small ceiling had never been given. - Office manager had (with no discussion with committee) ordered the repairs and had in fact taken about 1M Baht from the building funds and had paid the contractor. - One condo owner was a building contractor who had deliberately never submitted requests for repairs nor quotations for mooted repairs. However, after the event, on request by the snr. cop gave a quotation of 5,200Baht. - Another own got her brother (small time renovations guy) to give a quote. His quote was 5,000Baht. - Snr cop called the police to attend the meeting. End result, Condo manager changed with several offences, sacked, went to court, fined 40,000Baht and court order for her to return the 1Million Baht to condo owners fund. - New rules discussed at the extra meeting, including a ruee that nobody working in the management of the condo was authorized to spend 1 Baht. Manager and all her staff (all were her relations) sacked on the spot.

Yeah the usual 'you can't punish me, that's not fair, I was drunk.'

I doubt he cares, as long as he's free and can dictate whatever benefits he wants.