Bday Prang

Ah yes, "gin mai dai , norn g' bor lap" ( can't eat can't sleep )pretty much a cliche common symptoms of sadness featured in many many depressing Thai songs,

You have received some good advice, no need to spit your dummy out, many give to charities without feeling the need to broadcast it. keeping whatever you choose to donate out of the hands of the unscrupulous only end up benefiting the kids. Whats wrong with that?

Couldn't have put it any better, some of these charities behave in a reprehensible manner, daytime TV in the UK , (often watched by the elderly) is full of them £5 for a donkey, £5 for a hair lip repair, £5 for water, etc etc. Once a donation has been made, ones name then goes on a list, and many vulnerable old people have been hounded by all sorts of dubious foundations into donating a lot more than they can actually afford, and where does it end up? I don't think there is anything wrong in exercising a bit of caution , if one wants to help orphaned kids , it is only sensible to ensure that donations made are reaching their intended destination. One or two on this thread seem to think otherwise,

Spot on , A bit of cynicism goes a long way, especially here. But globally how much of the money donated to charity ends up were it's needed, and how much goes towards the six figure salaries some of their executives enjoy. I don't doubt the OP's motivation, but If I was making a donation, I would try to give something that would be of little interest to light fingered adults

Believe what you want it's no skin off my nose, You are correct , the issuing of non o's does indeed have nothing to do with the Uk's sham marriage problem, but it has everything to do with the OP

50 kilo's of standard quality rice will always look better than 25 kilos of higher quality rice , you could always put it in an unmarked sack, which is probably how the local donations arrive. If they are genuinely short of rice they will be glad of the larger quantity if they are awash with rice they can always mix it together. Maybe they would prefer sticky rice . The only way to find out is to ask them, no point in asking on here. The kids probably couldn't care less, and i doubt they are starving As others have mentioned it is a little naive to believe that all donations to charities end up where they should, be it cash or anything else In the village where I am there are countless requests for donations of rice and money, usually for the local temple, far be it from me to make accusations of misappropriation but after they have counted up the donations received and publicly broadcast the names of the donators and how much they have individually given , the phoo yai and his cronies always seem to publicly enjoy a good drink, more often than not the empty bottles of regency can be seen stacked up outside the office Bad form if you ask me , considering most of those contributing are not exactly rich to say the least

Except for a handful of aging members on this forum, I didn't care about the politics here when I first arrived in the early 90's I don't care about them now either. I very much doubt any of the political factions have any intention of making things better for me personally, and even if they did the matter is totally out of my hands, so l continue to remain ambivalent about it all. The rest of you should be careful what you wish for, things could be a lot worse for the likes of us

Its irrelevant what you choose to believe, what is relevant is the reaction of the authorities regarding the issue of sham marriages. As can be seen from the OP the authorities here are not exactly unconcerned about the matter, that is why they are not exactly relaxing the regulations Meanwhile the UK government has drastically increased the financial requirements for importing foreign wives, most would consider that to be an indication of their concern. Regardless of what figures are released by the woke infested home office Actions speak louder than words

same thing these days, ! Even registry office officials can spot them a mile off. Many marriages here are just as dubious, and are undertaken for a variety of reasons by either of the parties involved whether or not they intend to travel to the UK There are people I know , some in their 70's "adopting" Thai kids don't try and tell my its for purely altruistic reasons, I know otherwise

I hadn't heard that before either, and I find it shocking too if its true. I'm hoping something has been lost in translation, possibly they meant to say sharia law was "observed" down south, and it was a was of saying they didn't want to upset traditional muslim sensitivities . I really can't believe they are allowed to amputate peoples hands as a punishment for theft

Do you agree with him ? If so define "rich" what do you draw the line at?

is that "my mate nate" in the photo?

Celsius has not told anybody that they "must get out of Thailand" Thai's, as far as I am aware do not have any inherent right to work anywhere except Thailand , Should they wish to, however, they may apply and if they meet the requirements they might be granted permission. I am willing to bow to your obviously superior knowledge if you can name just 10 countries were a Thai can just turn up and start working, without any paperwork in place. You might be surprised to know that nobody on this forum has any authority to tell anybody what to do

Well if he had managed to pull that off a couple of times a day , he would be relatively "well heeled" Personally I wouldn't consider wearing trainers over here , my feet would rot them from the inside. Might consider a pair today though Brrrr 17 deg C here this morning

Does anybody actually migrate with the intention of being worse off ?

I didn't foresee it, but god I enjoyed to the best of my ability whilst it lasted , couldn't believe my eyes when i walked past the money changers at the airport, I had twice as much money than I thought I had, Happy days indeed

Me neither, how much should we set aside in case China invades Taiwan and WW3 breaks out. If we all saved to cover every eventuality it would make for an entire life of misery, not just the final years. Some things can almost be allowed for to a degree but, many cannot, None of us have a crystal ball

OMG where is the vomiting emoji when one needs it

Jesus wept, the mind boggles, what were the shoes like by the way , and how much was he asking? I wouldn't mind a nice set of brogues. Joking aside there are organised gangs of often foreign beggars in the UK many of which have been exposed of "earning" a relatively good living . I don't doubt there are a few homeless on the streets, and they are pretty much a lost cause, who would help them return to where they come from, even if they wanted too, and can't imagine the UK embassy being too interested, God forbid either of us end up like that, but if it did happen, i'd rather be on the streets at 30 deg C compared to -5 deg C or whatever it is at the moment over there, but still far from ideal

I was going to say that unlike many illegals entering the UK most expats here don't detest the Thai culture or seek to change it into a copy of the miserable country they originate from, but one only has to spend some time on the Asean now forum to realise that , that isn't strictly true

I suppose there must be people like that here somewhere, I can't say I have ever met any personally, hardly surprising I guess if they literally can't afford to leave their house / flat / shack or were ever they live. Where do they actually live? I have never heard of any near me , and i would assume they gravitate to Issan one way or the other as it is presumably the cheapest option. Why they would even choose to live here, presumably alone, is beyond me, a life on benefits in the UK would be a far preferable option, there are, after all plenty of workshy scroungers in the UK who seem to have no problem at all standing a round or three in their local watering hole when they are not in the betting shop or raiding the food banks It must be a tiny minority,that actually live like that here, and as they are not able to become a drain on public funds here, they are hardly worth worrying about by anybody They won't be doing us any favours by leaving, but they would be helping themselves

Thais have no inherent right to work in the UK. they could of course apply and if they met the requirements then they would be allowed to do so, Theoretically at least. Indeed many citizens of neighbouring do work here , and despite what you have posted westerners are perfectly entitled to work here as teachers if they wish to provided that they also meet the necessary requirements. The phrase "economic migrants" is not, to my knowledge, often used by the Thai authorities when referring to western retirees, it is only used by other westerners who as I said before, consider themselves better of than others, despite having no idea what those others are actually worth

Would any Thai spouses even want to go live in the UK. if they had any concept of what life on the breadline was like there?

And its also somewhat ironic that the same people on here who are constantly whining that some expats are "spoiling it for the rest of us" by taking what are in effect immigration sanctioned short cuts, ie use of agents etc. Yet the same people remain sympathetic to illegal immigration in Uk despite the fact that it has, due to the governments latest reaction, spoiled things for them. Have any of them considered that bringing their spouse to the UK might not be so difficult if it wasn't for the excessive amount of illegals who have arrived there and continue to do so Every one of which contributes to a huge drain on public funds, millions of pounds every day just to house them Few expats if any place a, burden on the Thai economy and virtually none are seeking employment either. 8ook in the bank does little to help anybody if one is not allowed to spend it.

I was replying in general terms and not specifcally to you, however if the cap fits you are more than welcome to wear it You are of course entitled to post whatever you wish , but to expect everybody to agree is unrealistic to say the least,