Gerontion

This kind of thing makes my f*cking blood boil but I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that a corporate-fascist state protects the interest of big industry; it's what it's there for, after all.

After the coup, the military budget went up dramatically from 85 Billion Baht to Bt167 billion in 2009.

Now, who's been robbing the country blind? Thaksin?

Why don't we see these reports in The Nation newspaper I wonder?

All that proves is what a t#sser Thaksin was, and how underfunded the army was.

Remember, that in the South of Thailand, its like a war zone in certain places. Soldiers being killed and maimed on a regular basis.

Yet under Thaksins watch, the budget he allocated to the military was LESS than the budget allocated to the military in Switzerland, the most neutral country in the world with zero internal conflicts, and only a tadge higher than what Ireland spends

Now its just catching up. Even with this latest increase Thailand is still way behind what Singapore spends on its military!!

Troubles in the South and always potential threats from east and west, it is money well intentioned.

Stop trying to rake up s#it that isnt there.

A quick Google search reveals that the Irish budget for 2007 was 54 billion Euros and that for Thailand in 2008 the budget was 1.85 trillion Baht; the Irish budget is a good third bigger than the Thai so Thailand was, by your own admission, already out-spending them by a large margin. As for the Swiss, as everyone knows, they have a fairly unique arrangement for defence so comparisons there are not valid.

During Thaksin years military budget was way below regional average.

You mean, like in Burma? Well, I suppose everyone has to keep up with the Joneses, however odious they may be.

Besides, the country had to pay for the coup one way or another if it couldn't manage itself democratically.

Ah, I see. It's the people's fault for electing the wrong government. Idiots, eh? Don't they know that democracy means you can gave any government you like, as long as it's green. Time to send the people back to Fascism 101 for basic indoctrination.

Overall men in green did a good job of looking after their own interests.

I've taken the liberty of correcting that for you. No, really, it's no trouble.

To add to my earlier post (which weirdly, I can't edit): There are, of course, rather a lot of Thais doing this too and if you speak - or learn to speak/read - Thai, there's a lot of information available. Have a look at the King's self-sufficiency projects, for example. Regarding shit, do a Google search for the Humanure Handbook - everything you could possibly want to know about turds is in it. There's info on earth building on <URL Automatically Removed>. Unless you want to do nothing more than light a bulb, forget about solar. There's also plenty of useful information in the farming section of this website and some of the stuff at www.echotech.org is pretty good.

Edit: I see that Thaivisa's childish policy of banning any mention of other Thai-related forums is still in place. Well, there's info on earth building on another Thai expat forum. I'm afraid that you'll have to do a little bit of research to find out which.

Plenty of European/American hippies doing this type of thing in the North. Have a look at Pun Pun or the Panya Project. They both do training courses of one type or another.

Reason for edit: Link Removed as per forum Rules. Lite Beer.

I'm confused. Which rule? I looked through those at http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/boardrules.html and couldn't see what my offence was. If you're going to edit my post, you could at least give a somewhat less cryptic explanation.

Manifesto from Giles Ungpakorn

He's got some balls, that man, and I hope I'm wrong but I don't think there's anyway he's coming back to Thailand again. A shame.

^ Also bear in mind that his writing (for want of a better word) is &lt;deleted&gt;. If he really has been published for 40 years, that shows an almost saintly level of indulgence - or possibly criminal incompetence - by his editors.

^ Oh dear. You've - not entirely unexpectedly - somewhat missed the point there. I have hijacked nothing. On the contrary, by explaining - reasonably and rationally - why I consider Thailand to be, in one respect, more advanced than Britain, I have directly addressed the OP. If you don't agree with me, then either argue or shut up but please don't try to make this something it isn't.

It's quite obvious that the wealthiest, most industrialized & in some cases most densely populated nations are going to have the highest emissions.

Those are per capita emissions so population density is something of an irrelevance but, anyway, even if one grants your point, I still don't understand why anyone would think, given what we now know, that there is a positive correlation between greater CO2 emissions and degree of 'advancement'? My point - unstated but clear enough - was that words have multiple meanings, and meanings which change according to the circumstances and times in which they're used. Yes, true, as 'advanced' has been understood through much of the post-War period, a nation's level of wealth and its level of advancement have been more-or-less the same thing but now that the consequences of achieving and maintaining that wealth are becoming clear (that is, climate change and resource depletion are undermining the very conditions which make possible our societies), it seems ludicrous to continue with the foolish (and ultimately self-defeating) belief that the the pursuit of wealth regardless of its consequences can be considered advanced. Unless one is a pea-brained fool who thinks that climate change and resource depletion are all part of the Al Gore-Nike-Anarcho/Deep Green-Government-Noble Price Committee global conspiracy, the limits to growth which the world is now bumping up against trump everything. Being advanced means acknowledging and dealing with these problems; not being advanced means ignoring them and carrying on with business as usual. Thailand may only accidentally have found itself relatively high in this league table and it's hardly purer than the driven snow, but in this regard it is nevertheless a long way ahead of the industrialised nations.

Annual per capita CO2 emissions:

USA: 19.8 tonnes

Australia: 17.5 tonnes

UK: 9.2 tonnes

Thailand: 3.8 tonnes

It's still much too high but on what is quite possibly the most important measurement which can be made, Thailand seems to be rather more advanced than the so-called 'developed' nations.

Some would argue that it shows exactly the opposite.

Quite possibly they would but if your neighbour shits his bed more regularly and with bigger turds than you do, it seems more than a little peculiar simultaneously to consider him more advanced; I'm at a loss to understand how pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere can be anything other than a Bad Thing. On this scale, America is the head-to-toe shit-encrusted lunatic whereas Thailand has just a little raisin-like clinker hanging unobtrusively from an errant arse-hair. Which is the more advanced?

Annual per capita CO2 emissions:

USA: 19.8 tonnes

Australia: 17.5 tonnes

UK: 9.2 tonnes

Thailand: 3.8 tonnes

It's still much too high but on what is quite possibly the most important measurement which can be made, Thailand seems to be rather more advanced than the so-called 'developed' nations.

Thai related: Nothing special, just that the police start doing what police are supposed to do.

Working for pretty much any newspaper, Thai or otherwise, entails sucking corporate cock. If that floats your boat, step forward; personally, it's never appealed to me.

In Thailand, the elderly are not - by and large - embarrassing piss-stained annoyances to be shoved off to glorified prisons whilst their ungrateful offspring wait for their inheritance. I think that's a slight advancement on the Western way of dealing with ageing.

Bum guns--very civilized!!!!!!

Amen to that. You can either smear shit all round your sweaty white arse, or you can have one clean enough to perform surgery with. I know which I prefer.

^ Thanks for the suggestion.

Has anyone come across geotextile fabric for sale in Thailand? I'm looking to line a rubble trench and so want to prevent soil infiltration.

Nice post.

Not - strictly speaking - farming related but I've just found the Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database. I always have a problem with translating to and from Thai plant names and although - from a brief look - the Thai entries seem a bit thin on the ground, there are a few and the website might be of use to some.

^ That's a fantastic answer! Thanks - I'll try them tomorrow.

Does anyone have a rough idea how much it costs to connect to electricity supplies in the street (possibly quite far away)? I'm looking at land upcountry and want to get a rough idea how much it will cost to get electricity connected to the plots I'm looking at. The plots I've seen so far are up to a kilometre away from the nearest supply and I'm guessing that it's going to be hideously expensive to run electricity to them but I haven't yet been able to track down any figures. Cheers.

Hi - I arrived in Thailand in mid-August this year on a Non-Immigrant O visa (based on marriage). This was stamped valid for 90 days on arrival. I intend to extend the visa annually (at Chiang Mai immigration) based on my wife's income. However, she's been out of Thailand for the past four years (she came back in August too) so has no tax record for this or previous years. My question is this: to extend a marriage visa from the initial 90 days to the full year, do we need to supply proof of income? I realise that after the first year, this proof is required annually but can it be required before then? If not, does anyone know what documents are required for my forthcoming trip to immigration (if they are different from the stand requirements)? Many thanks.

(Apologies if this is has been answered before but I've had a trawl through the forum and can't find an answer to this.)

I started composing a reply after reading the OP and was going to say simply, "thanks" to canadiangirl for an interesting link. But the responses...man. What can I say? Every now and then I feel optimistic about the world but then I read stuff like this.

Chill out for gods sake! Your coming to live in the most beautiful part of the world and are at war with a bunch of blokes you have never met.

Looks like the old falangs are off the hook though as it started before most of even us were born!

Selective reading to find material to back up whatever predudices you may have or perceive in others is not education by the way.

Lightnen up, you can have a lifestyle and happines here that will make you the envy of most Canadians that you leave behind.

&lt;deleted&gt;? You do realise that the Victorian era is over, don't you?

Looking at things through the lens of global capitalism (which I assume is stance the OP meant), the answer is no. The idea that there is some kind of correlation between democracy and business is a farce, put about by Western powers to justify where necessary their imperialist ambitions. As others have said, instability may deter investors but international capital has no problem doing business with dictatorships; China (not exactly high on the democratic index) doesn’t really have too much trouble eating at the same trough as the Western ‘democracies’. As regards tourism, I would imagine that figures are available online but as the safety of white-skinned foreigners is fairly assured in Thailand most holiday makers have probably given the matter little thought. Certainly ethical considerations tend not to figure particularly highly in most tourists’ decision making.

I have a theory.

The type of farang who uses the word 'falang' has spent too much time around Thai's who can't say 'farang'. Read into that what you will . ..

I too have a theory.

The type of falang who thinks that the plural of Thai is 'Thai's' has not spent enough time around a classroom and would - as a consequence - be well advised not to attempt to sneer at others.

But it's only a theory.