ctxa

If found guilty (which we can assume 99.9999% sure he is) the driver of the pick-up truck should be condemned to forced labor until the day he dies. No life in prison, no death sentence, forced labor in the harshest of conditions one can imagine. That is probably the only way these sort of mindless criminals will ever realize the consequences of their actions.

Remember the proverb:

“知可战与不可战者胜“

In this case, it is not the time for a fight. 
 

I dare to say that the biggest mistake was yours, for giving him your personal phone number. 
 

Just block his phones, act like you are dead to him. No answering anything at all, he will give up rather soon and go find someone else to bother.

1 hour ago, Chris.B said:

What sort of policy is that, which costs 10 USD a week ? ????

Won't mention any names, since I am in no way afilliated with either of them. So I'll just post some pictures of their prices: 

In Thailand: 

I am lucky to be in the 19-25 group, which also happens to be the cheapest. But still, it is 447 USD per year. Pretty good. Most of them are this way. You get up to 4,000 THB per day for a standard room, or 8,000 THB per day allowance for ICU. Maximum allowance of up to 780,000 THB per policy year per accident / disease. Would have absolutely covered my 14k USD surgery.... 

1 hour ago, ianguygil said:

A quick update on this. My understanding is that the requirement for a "reference letter" for a new account is a regulation and not something at our discretion to ignore. I will double check on that to ensure that is still current, but that is where this came from. Here is the link to our website

I understand this. Indeed when I first opened my accounts at Bangkok Bank I did bring the "reference letter" and it was opened without issues. Problems arose when every time I went to any branch to do just about any procedure (replace used up passbok, statements, replace debit card).... they would ask to see my passport and work permit, and then I would have a hard time explaining that I don't have a work permit because I don't need to because I don't work in Thailand. There was one time when they told me they couldn't do what I wanted because I had no work permit despite having an account with them and some money deposited with them. 

Eventually I opened another account at Krungsri without work permit nor reference letter, and even applied a credit card with them without a work permit (I had to pledge a deposit obviously).

I am not saying Bangkok Bank is bad, far from it. My banking experience with them was exceptional, the only thing I can complain is that dealing with them in person was a waste of time because of the issue of me not having a work permit, and also communication issues given that I don't speak Thai.

58 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

You are talking about someone who bought residency, if you are a resident and passport holder, you are no foreigner

True that. 

59 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

And for illegal immigrants there are social ways too to get money, even they did not work for 40 years to have the right like normal people are told. 

I mean, I know the cases of some Africans which applied for refugee status with the UNHCR office in Beijing, got it granted and thus had the right to residency in China without qualifying for any of the Chinese residency visas. Surprisingly it was far easier for them to get the proper documents to get residency in China as refugees (who had got to China on business visas, overstayed and then applied for refugee status), than it ever was for me despite qualifying for their visa..... So yes, I know very well those things happen all around the world. But I don't think we are talking here of begging as an illegal supposedly poor illegal immigrant. 

10 hours ago, ctxa said:

there is more Thais enjoying benefits from other countries than it is the other way around. 

If Thais get benefits from any other country, they must have paid the money to get residency / passport, and/or legally work there paying taxes. So they have as much right to those benefits as anyone else. It's not like they are stealing it, or have any advantage over other tax paying locals...

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I think you have a math problem:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country

I don't think so no. I used this chart by the Washington Post (mind you the numbers differ slightly from Wikipedia):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/gun-homicides-ownership/table/

USA - 88.8 guns per 100 people & 3.2 Homicides By Gun per 100 people 

Switzerland - 45.7 guns per 100 people & 0.77 Homicides By Gun per 100 people 

Finland - 45.3 guns per 100 people & 0.45 Homicides by Gun per 100 people 

Spain - 10.4 guns per 100 people & 0.2 Homicides by Gun per 100 people

See, Switzerland, Finland speaking in percentage ofc have half as much guns as the USA does, but the homicides by gun are a less than a fourth of those in the US (in the case of Finland it's an eighth of those in the USA) . You can clearly see that the number of guns and the number of homicides by gun is not proportional.

Then what on earth affects the number of homicides by gun? Is it the number of guns? Don't think so, probably education / mentality among other society factors. 

So.... where is my math problem?

They do. It's called Elite Visa. 

Besides 100K THB per year of residency is such a miser amount. $9 USD / day is the cost of the residency. What a joke. In few other countries Golden Visas start at an investment / donation of $250,000 the majority start at $500,000 USD of course. 

Don't be telling jokes man. Elite Visa is already good enough, I don't understand why you don't ask them to give free permanent residency to everyone ????

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

government trust and authority is the backup, hence why it's called "fiat" currencies ????

 

would you trust anarchy and "no central" authority for your currencies? ???? 

There is something called gold, which is neither backed up by corrupt governments, nor by no central authority. And it's worked perfectly for hundred of years. 

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

BLC and probably BTC

I am far from loving BTC. I keep a small fraction of my capital in BTC, just like I keep other fractions of my capital in certain mutual bonds, fixed deposit accounts, etc etc. No matter how hard you search, you will never find me recommending to anyone to invest in BTC or any other crypto for that matter. In fact, I always recommend quite the contrary. Only if you are really keen in investing in it,  AND only invest some extra money which you don't mind losing. 

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

Unless BLC address a real life issue, that is worth solving, with no other way than BLC, and maybe one day that will be the case

Voting. Wouldn't online voting be much more efficient and SAFE if a Blockchain for voting was introduced. Sure, you could set up a SQL server and store people's votes there. But with the insecure crappy code that programmers working for governments nowadays tend to write, what is gonna happen when some random Russian hacker pwns the entire server using a simple SQL-Injection and changes votes as he like. It would be funny. Wouldn't it?

Even if said server was properly configured, the backend software properly coded without any bugs/vulnerabilities whatsoever, whoever was in control of that server can change data as he pleases without leaving any trace. 

However, with a blockchain based online voting system, who is gonna be able to change nothing?

The 3 main flaws of any centralized network are: 

 1. It's always vulnerable to hacking.

 2. It's only as much (or as few) transparent as the central body wants it to be.

 3. All the data is controlled by said central body. Which in turn can do whatever he pleases to it. 

All those 3 issues, come solved with Blockchain by default. 

I understand, that for many people understanding the real world problem that Blockchain comes to solve is hard, mainly because said people have never suffered that problem. But this doesn't mean that the problem is not there, and that the entire human population will greatly benefit from a technology based on the idea of Blockchain. 

(Keeping in mind that many of the blockchains which exist nowadays will be either ditched, or die on their own. And will be substituted by more efficient blockchains)

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

GenZ = Millennials x10 ????

Well, since I am quite sure that you are British. I believe the UK has a state pension, which sooner or later you will receive. And so you better pray that millennials and Gen Z work hard to pay for your pension, else you might end up begging in the streets. I'd like to believe that you are aware that pensions come from tax payers money, and by then the ones paying taxes will be mostly millennials and Gen Zs. 

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

 

computers in the 40s and 50s were very different, and don't think we could use them today with your logic ????

 

now a better question is: do we need to cloud everything? it brings a lot of issues but it does serve a purpose, yet sometimes this purpose is questionable. Do we really need to cloud our personal pics and precious data? how did we survive for so long without the cloud ????

 

same with computers, we could survive without computers, except the GenX and GenY ????

 

I would argue that we probably did more useful things with computers in the 60s and 70s (nuclear simulation, war games, meteo calculations etc...) than we do now (Facebook, Insta, TikTok, Likes generation)

Computers in the 40s and 50s damn right were very different to today's, you could pretty much say only the big governments used them, and with military purposes mostly. 

What I mean is, back then, office work, governments, everything was done with paper and pen, no computers. Nowadays everyone has a computer to do simple things such as company's accounts, which back then were done on paper and it was just as good and valid. Following your logic, computers are also useless and pointless and something which belongs to nerds because they use a lot of energy, and there are other ways to do same things as computers which doesn't involve computers. Isn't it?

And if we go back in the time following your logic, why do we have cars? why were internal combustion engines invented? they use a ton of energy and pollute a lot too, before we rode horses and we also could get everywhere we wanted. No point in internal combustion engines. Pointless technology too belonging to the nerds back in the 1800s????

Catch my point? If we follow your extremely flawed logic, humans would still be living in the age of stone.

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

how did we survive for so long without the cloud

Humans could survive without 99.999% of the things we have nowadays. But they makes our lives, (at least mine) much easier. 

If you hate technology so much, I encourage you to grab your computer and your phone, put it in the trash can, and go on to enjoy living your happy life without technology. I am sure TVF will be glad that you won't be trolling around enymore.

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

Millennials

Say whatever you want. I am Gen Z ????

You never replied to why we need computers, though. There are tons around the world, consuming a hell LOT of energy. Back in the 40s, 50s everything was done with a notebook and a pen, and it all worked out. Isn't it a pointless tech too? 

Hence why Thailand has so many fatal accidents. So many cars + so many motorcycles together = so many accidents. 

Couldn't be otherwise, I am quite sure you start enforcing traffic laws as strictly as they do in the West, and the percentage of traffic accidents won't go down that much, just slightly.

I know you mentioned the south, but... 

Even though I live in Bangkok, I have been using ChonBuri immigration for a long while. IMHO they are much more laid back than Chaeng Wattana and my experiences with ChonBuri immigration (Pattaya) have been excellent. (Not like I had any problems in Chaeng Wattana, it's just that I think for my like ChonBuri is the one which works best for me) 

And also, don’t forget that Fundraisers are one hell of an amazing chance to launder dirty money (such as the one coming from drugs ????).

No wonder they raised the goal 10x to 30,000 USD. They may even raise 10x again ????

So.... while you spend 5 months in SE Asia banging what you think are hot chicks. Your wife spends 5 months back home, taking care of YOUR kids singlehandedly. 

Shouldn't you have thought about this before having kids? Or did you not know back then that condoms existed? 

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Yeap....the Bangkok Bank branches here in Bangkok  (including the head office branch) seem to now routinely require such an embassy letter which is going to cost you $50 as the U.S. Embassy. Letter being required even for folks wanting to open another acct with the bank or add your name to your spouse's acct...even people who have had long time multiple accts with them like I do.    

Happened to the Thai wife and I last year when we went to add my name to her acct as a signatory (i.e., not a joint owner...just gives me authorization to withdraw/transfer funds)....this was at the head office branch in the HQ Bangkok Bank building on Silom Road.  The branch said no problem but will need the letter from the embassy.....new requirement they said....or they should have said a Bangkok Bank policy they really didn't enforce before.   

The Thai wife and I bent the rep's ear and her supervisor's ear about already having multiple accts with them, I have a Pink ID card and a Yellow Book, lived in Thailand for over a dozen years, etc....nope, none of that was good enough....need the embassy letter and they showed me a redacted copy of one was was just an affidavit  where a person said he lives in Thailand at address so-in-so on the U.S. Embassy letterhead document with embassy notary seal.   

We decided to wait and try again later as I didn't want to fork out $50 to get the letter without giving it one more try later on (which I haven't done yet).

Now I've heard Bangkok Bank branches outside of Bangkok and Chiang Mai (who have a U.S. consulate) are less stringent about requiring the letter supposedly because they know it would require significant travel time and expensive just to get to the US Embassy in Bangkok or US Consulate in Chiang Mai.  It's basically a branch manager's call if they require the letter or not...but Bangkok Bank branches are much more likely now days to require the letter.  I expect farang business is a very small drop in the customer base and the bank wants to reduce fraudulent activity caused by some farangs using fake passports/IDs which are still easy to obtain here in Thailand.

Honestly, how overly complicated this Bangkok Bank thingy has become... 

Recently I opened an account at Krungsri and even applied and successfully got a credit card with just a passport and a Non-Immigrant VISA. (Mind you that for the credit card I had to make a deposit pledge, obviously)

1 hour ago, Gman1992 said:

Thanks for your input (and the others as well). It looks like being a shareholder from the start is the easiest option starting out.

But then the issue of the Visa comes up. Is there a good VISA  to stay here (currently on tourist visa) while building the business as a shareholder?

This might be the wrong part of the forum for this question and if so I apologize.

Well, if I were in your situation, I'd very much rather be with a Non-Immigrant VISA than with a tourist VISA. 

Mainly because, I am unsure of whether legally you can take part in a business as a shareholder while holding a tourist VISA, but by definition a tourist VISA is not really meant for business is it? 

You then have different options: 

 - Non-Immigrant based on volunteer work (many VISA agents offer this one for a fee). 

 - Non-Immigrant based on marriage. 

 - Non-Immigrant based on retirement.

Etc...