JensenZ

She's not after your sympathy, but your cash.

Talk about obtuse. I can back up claims, but I don't want to as I find your demands irritating. There is no obligation for members here to provide references, or proof.

You just don't let go, do you? I don't come to this forum for legal advice, and neither should you or anyone else. If you need legal advice, check the laws of your home country before you start dating someone under 18. Most laws of most countries can be found online these days.

I'm pretty sure it's correct and it's easy to verify, which I am not going to do for you. I suggest you do the checking if you want to "date" a girl under 18. It's not my concern.

It's quite easy to find the laws on "sex tourism". Do you have plans to have sexual relations with a girl under the age of 18?

It's not nearly as simple as you describe here. The age difference of the participants comes into it too, and for countries such as the US and Australia, it's illegal for anyone to have sexual relations with anyone under the age of 18 in ANOTHER country.

Wake up! She figured if she was caught, it would be in Australia and serving time in better conditions.

I'd rather be executed than go through that hell. IMO it was a fate worse than death, and she did well to survive it. She a lot tougher than all of the people commenting here.

I wouldn't believe any of this. We have a direct comparison between "Christianity" in the Philippines and Buddhism in Thailand. There's no doubt that Thailand is a safer place to live with far less crime overall. The misunderstanding comes from thinking that most Filipinos are Christians. They aren't really. Catholicism in the Philippines is a weird mix with animism, the predominant religion before the Spanish arrived. It hasn't gone anywhere. Your average provincial dweller has a strong belief in animal spirits and many claim they talk to them. They never stop talking about "white ladies", lighting candles and praying to spirits.

If anyone needs help, it's you... If you revise my posts, you won't see the words "climate change" or "global warming" mentioned. I'm discussing coral bleaching, which is caused by a small increase in water temperature. You think plastics are the "hugest" and biggest environmental problem in the world? That's nonsense and has nothing to do with coral bleaching and the rise in water temperature which causes it.

Vast coral reef zones suffer from bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Areas nearly as large as the whole of the Gulf of Thailand. I can assure you it has nothing to do with garbage, plastics or sewage. Sure, it would be nice if they could clean up the beaches, but it won't prevent bleaching. The Gulf of Thailand is quite shallow, with an average depth of only 45m, up to a maximum of 80m. This makes water exchange slow (with the Pacific Ocean) with strong water inflow from rivers making it low in salinity and rich in sediments. In a good year, it's not an ideal place for pristine coral reefs to grow. The Great Barrier Reef is 15 - 150 km offshore, and up to 65 km wide. The water is as clean as you can expect anywhere on earth. On the far side of the reef, the continental shelf quickly drops to over 2000m deep. Few people live in this part of Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is about 340,000 km2 vs 320,000 km2 for the whole of the Gulf of Thailand. Of course, only a small part of the Gulf of Thailand is an actual reef, around the islands and near the shore. The only way to solve the problem is to install refrigeration units throughout the Gulf of Thailand, to reduce the ocean temperature by a degree or two. Other than that, we can pray for cooler weather.

I know a lot of people like to blame the Catholic Church for the high fertility rate of the Philippines vs Thailand, but the truth is, they really want large families and it is seen as a way out of poverty, which for many, it is. The Catholic Church has little to do with that among the poorer populations which do most of the breeding. Thailand is a much wealthier country with growth more in line with what you see in Western nations.

As the world's largest exporter of an English-speaking labour force, the Philippines will be doing well in the following decades. As a close neighbour, I predict Thailand will be relying heavily on labour from The Philippines as its population ages due to a low fertility rate. Thailand has a similar (low) fertility rate and population growth to most Western nations with a similar median age, in the low 40s. Its population is ageing rapidly (and documented in recent media reports). The Philippines has a median age of 25.4 years vs 41 years in Thailand. The population under 20 years of age are 21.26% in Thailand vs 39.81% in the Philippines (of a much larger population). The population growth of Thailand is currently about 0.2% vs 1.58% for the Philippines.

Not 30+ years, it was 20 years. This didn't end up with a bad divorce. I picked a very good one. I'm too old for her, so I let her go. She wants children, I don't. I knew it would come down to this in the end and I'm ok with it. She still has some child-bearing years left so she needs to get on with it. We are still friends. This has nothing to do with any bias but everything to do with what I learned from her family and community over a long period of time. I have deep knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes with her friends, cousins and everyone else in her community. Many live abroad. You'll never discover what really goes on, and even if you do, it'll probably be too late. You seem to know more, so good luck to you. Before this one, I made a number of bad relationship choices. I can't count how many Filipinos I've "dated". I could write a book about my mistakes there in my newbie years, and I started older than you are now.

No, not even close. I first visited Thailand in 2005 after 5 years full-time in the Philippines. I went back, packed my bags and never looked back.

That's what you think, and what they want you to think. They are just better at playing the game in the Philippines, making you believe they are not in it just for the money. The Thai girls are usually too straightforward with demands and too obvious for everyone except newbies who can't see past the sex. They want more than Thai chicks. They want to live overseas. Once they get there, they'll kick your sorry a**ses to the curb LOL. Even if that wasn't originally their plan, once they see the opportunities available to them in Farangland, it becomes a plan. Even if the girl doesn't see it, her Filipino compatriots from the Filipino community networks abroad will teach her everything she needs to know. Old, rich foreigners are their Holy Grail. The closer to death, the better. One friend of my wife used to feed her US husband in the States the fattiest of foods hoping he'd get a heart attack, and they laugh about this. Mothers teach their daughters to marry old foreigners suggesting they can still play with Filipinos. Filipinos put on a kind face, but they can be extremely nasty and heartless.

But there still will be no duty on anything imported under 1500 baht, so only about 100 baht tax at the limit. It won't change the cost of anything over 1500, as they are technically liable for duty and tax from 1501 baht.

In this case, imported items under 1500 baht have not been taxed. I frequently buy products from iHerb. It is duty and tax-free if it's below 1500 baht, but I often order much higher, from 2000 to 3000 baht and haven't had to pay tax. I've only been hit with duty and tax on 2 parcels in over 10 years. They let most slip through, but when they stop a parcel, you have to pay tax on the full amount (including shipping), not just the amount over the 1500 baht limit. A 7% tax on a 1500 parcel is peanuts, but when I have to pay tax and duty I need to make a 16km round trip to the mail centre where they hold the parcel for payment. Can you imagine the back log of parcels awaiting tax payment at mail centres around the country?

I'm not from the Philippines, but I have lived there for many years. Let's not start on English grammar. It's impossible to solve. No one can agree on sentence structure. There are more exceptions than rules in English. Grammar (and spelling) Nazis are a dime a dozen on most forums. It's not about how good their English grammar (or spelling) is, but how well they are understood in conversational English. Let's take some examples of English dialects that many English speakers (as a first or second language) around the world would have trouble with: Geordie, Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, Welsh, Yorkshire, Irish, Scottish, Cheshire, Estuary English, Indian English, South African English... Put them in a call centre and see how well they are understood in OTHER countries. American English and its Filipino English derivative are generally the most easily understood dialects. You'll note I mentioned Indian English. There would be an endless availability of cheaply hired Indian English speakers, but no one can understand them. The same goes for English speakers in other "cheap labour" countries.

What I do see are long queues at the mail centres; of people picking up parcels that were previously delivered, to pay 100 baht or less.

Yes, dead coral is white, but bleached coral is not dead. What is coral bleaching? When corals are under stress, they expel the microscopic algae that live in their tissues. Without these algae, corals' tissues become transparent, exposing their white skeleton. This is called coral bleaching. Bleached corals are not dead, but are more at risk of starvation and disease. Coral Bleaching

Currently, there are no VAT or import duties on imported items under 1500 baht. When they introduce a 7% VAT, it will also be charged on shipping fees. It will be a big money grab.

I didn't believe a word of his story. I would be more likely to believe some "girlie" reported him. It seems likely they were searching for him.

How will the removal of some trash and plastic lower water temperatures in a huge body of water? An increase of just 1C can cause these bleaching events. It is no surprise considering how hot it has been throughout April and May.

Talk about ignorance. Unless they can control the temperature of the water in the Gulf of Thailand, there's absolutely nothing they can do. The Gulf is like a giant bathtub, so it's not surprising this area is suffering the most. The Great Barrier Reef has suffered 7 major bleaching events since 1998 and they are always well documented, including recovery. Perhaps they should talk to the marine biologists in Australia.