soicee

This is a good forum; https://philippines-addicts.com/forum

13 minutes ago, perthperson said:

Yes !  Or it can be in the form of travellers cheques. 

Good to know,  thks.

Can the B20,000 cash be the equivalent in another major currency e.g. USD, Euro, AUD?

Could it be this person?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/jail-for-act-of-pure-violence/2007/09/12/1189276775760.html

Same psycho! Testomy to the weak Aust judicial system that after a savage murder of a fellow inmate in Melbourne, he got sentenced to 15 yrs in 2007 but was given early parole!! Hopefully, the Thais will lock him up for a long time during which he is bound to meet his karma. However, scum like this seem to lead charmed lives & he will probably be deported back to Oz to commit more murders:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-04/australian-charged-with-murdering-teen-in-philippines/6068332

To be able to properly assess Russel´s remarks one has to scrutinize the USA´s ability to teach other countries about democracy. And what we can see here it looks rather bleak.

Even after WW2 and establishment of the UN the USA rigorously enforced the Monroe doctrine and meddled in the internal affairs of souvereign countries in Central and South America.

Here are just two examples:

When the US United Fruit Company felt inconvenienced by an impending land reform in Guatemala, President Harry Truman in 1951 authorized covert CIA action against the elected government. This culminated in 1954 in a rather pathetic coup d´etat establishing a buffoon named Castillo Armas as new President. He reversed all social decrees of the previous government including the land reform triggering a 36 year long civil war from 1960 to 1986 with 200.000 citizens killed on both sides, the majority by US trained counter insurgency military units.

Long before the USA´s 9/11, Chile had their own 9/11. In 1973, after 3 years of covert destabilizing CIA operations, the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a bloody CIA supported military coup turning the country into a military dictatorship for the next 15 years under General Augusto Pinochet. 3000 citizens lost their lives during that period and thousands more suffered imprisonment and torture.

But what about recent attempts of the USA to export its idea of democracy to other countries?

Let´s have a look at Afghanistan, the "young democracy". All that changed was that the local "chieftains", drug barons and warlords now call themselves Members of Parliament or Ministers not at least thanks to massive and widespread electoral fraud. Rule of Law is virtually nonexistent and anyone trying to speak out against the blunt and open abuse of power is quickly shown his rank in the food chain. Corruption is over the top and government officials use diplomatic luggage to routinely take large amounts of cash siphoned off aid money to the Gulf emirates and transfer them to offshore accounts. Once the foreign troops will have left, the Taliban will come back in force and most likely again establish their "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" thanks to generous support by the Pakistani armed forces, a US "ally in the war on terror".

Maybe the second attempt of the US to export democracy was more promising? Sadly no, Iraq never recovered from the US led invasion, and the "democratically elected" government understood its mandate foremost as a letter of marque to enrich themselves and harass the Sunni minority, alleged followers of the former President Saddam Hussein. And what began as insurgency against the occupying forces, thanks to Paul Bremer, turned into a vicious ethnic conflict, killing more than 150.000 civilians. The country was ripe for plucking by IS which rose to power in the wake of US attempts to fuel a minor uprising against the Syrian Government by training "moderate islamists" in dirty warfare. The country is now almost as far away from democracy as it was under Saddam Hussein, but a lot unsafer, the number of civilians killed per annum have doubled every year since 2012: 4622 - 9742 - 17049 (2014).

That leaves Libya. Another minor islamist uprising in Beghazi was more than welcome to take care of the problem "Gaddhafi" under pretext of supporting the "Arab Spring". In the first - and last - attempt to incorporate the "responsibility to protect" doctrine into UN policy, the US and several NATO countries got two sloppily written UNSC resolutions calling for a no-fly-zone and an arms embargo. UN SecGen Ban Ki-Moon went into hiding when the "coalition" expanded these resolutions into a large scale weapons delivery operation and an unrestricted bombing campaign against the Libyan Army. After Gaddhafi was injured in an airstrike, then captured and brutally massacred by the "rebels" an elated Hillary Clinton commented: "we came, we saw, he died, hehehehe...".

Today the "democratically elected" Libyan government is sitting in Tobruk, trying not to attract the attention of the powerful militias in Tripolis and Benghazi which de facto rule the country. The international airports are closed and IS has claimed the first "liberated" town in Libya.

In the Ukraine the USA and NATO/EU had no moral inhibitions to condone the violent coup against an elected government, instead they saw it as another opportunity to corner Russia with the possibility of expanding NATO territory right onto Putin´s doorstep. Their wet dream of thus making the position of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol untenable was sadly foiled by a referendum returning the Crimea back to Russia.

Russel´s statement is not only stupid, it is highly inappropriate. It would be bad enough if it was just the solo flight of some diplomatically challenged dummy, as an official opinion of the US State Department presented in such a form it is a disaster and only serves to promote Thai-Chinese cooperation.

With a long track record of supporting dictators from Pinochet to Pol Pot and being either instrumental in or supportive of overthrowing democratically elected governments from Allende to Yanukovich, the USA is in no position to lecture anybody on democracy.

Spot on!

What a laugh. The USA's foreign policies are & have always been hypocritical. Being a democracy was never a basis for doing business just a good excuse when they wanted to bomb or invade a sovereign state that happened to be non-democratic (as defined by the USA). If democracy was so central to their core values they would be not be toadying to the gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia which like most of the gulf state, is totally controlled by the ruling clan (family). Saudi Arabia & other gulf states finance all the fundamentalist madrassas (religious schools) in the ME & Asia as well financing jihadist movements like ISIS & Al-Qaeda. Most of the 911 hijackers (16 of 19) were Saudis.

This is a concise summation of how the Thai/Lao border was established: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isan#History

It's an illogical rule as it is only rigidly enforced in tourist’s areas (mainly in BKK) & encourages business owners to pay bribes to the MIB. I've never had a problem getting a drink on these "dry days" but in BKK it usually means finding a spot in off the beaten track or drinking out of a mug. But leaving that inconvenience aside what about business owners who pay taxes & other overheads 365 days a yr but have to forgo vital income on the multitude of dry PHs. Adult entertainment places are particularly hard hit since they usually have to close on these days.

None of the employees would have been there against their will given the massive unemployment, low wages if one manages to get a job & the total lack of social security support. Filipinos have to do a lot of things to survive. Cyber sex is one of the better gigs & the remuneration is excellent by local standards. BTW it is not unheard of in the Philippines for police to insert plants into certain businesses where money is being made (real or not) or to coerce workers to embellish their statements (against owners/managers).

No justice...no peace! Remember Tak Bai...Kru Se Mosque massacre...Soba Yoi...and Somchai Najephalit.

No one in Thai government or armed services has ever been called to account or punished so any of these gross violations of human rights.

Personally I believe that there has been so much killing by all parties in the deep South that peace is probably years away. Add to this mix the ongoing extrajudicial killings and torture by various Thai government funded organisations. Out of an estimated 1.7 million Thai Muslims in the deep South, the Thai government estimates there are currently 100,000 members of the insurgent groups, both active and sympathisers.

Different players within the Thai government, military, police and the insurgency groups have competing agendas. Some publically stating they want to enter negotiations, some do not wish to concede anything. Then there are the various criminal gangs making money from the whole affair, plus corrupt Thai & Malaysian officials. How long before the real players say they have had enough and it's time to bring the conflict to an end is currently an unknown. Hopefully I am proved wrong, but based upon other insurgency conflicts in Asia and around the world could be 10 - 20 years with thousands more dead and injured.

EDIT: I agree with hellodolly regards supporting the villagers. Similar tactics were successfully used by the US in the Sunni triangle in Gulf War 11 (hearts and minds) that broke the back of the Islamic extremists. A number of reports state that the general Thai Muslim population are sick and tired of the killings and just want justice, a peaceful life and equal opportunity.

The US did not "break the back of the Islamic extremists" in the Sunni triangle. They paid them off to stop fighting which the Sunni's were happy to do as their real fight was with the Shia majority. The fight resumed as soon as the US withdrew most of their forces as evidenced by the ongoing wave of bombings & killings in Iraq.

As for, "getting tough". The insurgence in the south was a minor annoyance (very small causalities) until Taksin instigated a "get tough policy" of extrajudicial killings (like his war on drugs which resulted in many innocent people being killed in Thailand) & an Army crackdown. Things really heated up after the Tak Bai incident.

The 3 southern provinces were once part of an independent Malay state which the British colonial power in the Malayan peninsular annexed & then ceded to the Thai’s in exchange for the Thai’s relinquishing any claims to Penang.

Easy to understand why Muslim Malays are disgruntled at being traded off to the Thai Buddhist state. With the radicalisation of Muslims sweeping the world & the abundance of Muslims who have acquired military experience in the insurgency universities of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen etc; I can’t see them ever excepting the status quo.

off topic, but...The US did not pay off the Sunni Al Qaeda extremeists in the Sunni triangle. US forces worked with and armed the local Sunni village/tribal leaders who were sick of the excess of killing by the extremists who were aiming to provoke a civil war in order to further destablise Iraq. At the time it was a successful collaboration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601143.html

EDIT: I hope the mods allow this post as the example could be a component of the strategy/tactics used by Thai security forces. As far as I know only Buddhist villages are provided arms for self defence, not Muslim villagers who are often murdered by the insurgents if they are identified as working with Thai security agencies

Don't U people realise that as I have stated above, these 'provinces' are ethically Malay & not Thai (just do a Google search). The Thais have never controlled these provinces until the British traded this area to the Thais. The vast majority of the population in these provinces is Malay & their religion is Islam!

It is also a matter of public record that the US did pay off the Sunnis in Iraq. BTW Al-Queda is a Sunni organisation which never existed in Iraq until after the US invasion!

No justice...no peace! Remember Tak Bai...Kru Se Mosque massacre...Soba Yoi...and Somchai Najephalit.

No one in Thai government or armed services has ever been called to account or punished so any of these gross violations of human rights.

Personally I believe that there has been so much killing by all parties in the deep South that peace is probably years away. Add to this mix the ongoing extrajudicial killings and torture by various Thai government funded organisations. Out of an estimated 1.7 million Thai Muslims in the deep South, the Thai government estimates there are currently 100,000 members of the insurgent groups, both active and sympathisers.

Different players within the Thai government, military, police and the insurgency groups have competing agendas. Some publically stating they want to enter negotiations, some do not wish to concede anything. Then there are the various criminal gangs making money from the whole affair, plus corrupt Thai & Malaysian officials. How long before the real players say they have had enough and it's time to bring the conflict to an end is currently an unknown. Hopefully I am proved wrong, but based upon other insurgency conflicts in Asia and around the world could be 10 - 20 years with thousands more dead and injured.

EDIT: I agree with hellodolly regards supporting the villagers. Similar tactics were successfully used by the US in the Sunni triangle in Gulf War 11 (hearts and minds) that broke the back of the Islamic extremists. A number of reports state that the general Thai Muslim population are sick and tired of the killings and just want justice, a peaceful life and equal opportunity.

The US did not "break the back of the Islamic extremists" in the Sunni triangle. They paid them off to stop fighting which the Sunni's were happy to do as their real fight was with the Shia majority. The fight resumed as soon as the US withdrew most of their forces as evidenced by the ongoing wave of bombings & killings in Iraq.

As for, "getting tough". The insurgence in the south was a minor annoyance (very small causalities) until Taksin instigated a "get tough policy" of extrajudicial killings (like his war on drugs which resulted in many innocent people being killed in Thailand) & an Army crackdown. Things really heated up after the Tak Bai incident.

The 3 southern provinces were once part of an independent Malay state which the British colonial power in the Malayan peninsular annexed & then ceded to the Thai’s in exchange for the Thai’s relinquishing any claims to Penang.

Easy to understand why Muslim Malays are disgruntled at being traded off to the Thai Buddhist state. With the radicalisation of Muslims sweeping the world & the abundance of Muslims who have acquired military experience in the insurgency universities of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen etc; I can’t see them ever excepting the status quo.

As for the bloke who lost his legs - som nam na!

As a modern purpose built airport competing in the Asian region it fails the design efficiency test. I come & go through it at least 16 times a year since it was opened & compared to its main competitors like HKG & SIN it is second rate. My main complaints at present are; the inordinate long walks from arrival gates to immigration, long queues at immig arrivals (departure has improved since they started using one queue), the high temperature inside during the day caused by the large glass areas & insufficient air-con & the usual taxi rip-offs (not uncommon at airports around the world).

Nanatai Mansion bottom of Suk Soi 4. Very quiet & reasonable hotel. They have rooms with b/fast for under THB1000. Bit of a hike to Suk but there are plenty of taxi motorbikes.