Orac

Perhaps the PLO should not be making alliances with a terrorist organization sworn to destroy the country of Israel (that makes decisions on who can build where). You catch more ants with honey than with vinegar ...

slightly off topic i know but since your post has not being removed i assume it is reasonable to discuss it.

It needs to be remembered that the PLO also used terrorism and didn't recognise the state of Israel until 1993 when Arafat met with Rabin for the Oslo Accords and renounced terrorism.

It seems to me that the sooner there are some negotiations between these parties, the sooner there is a chance that some of these issues can be dealt with.

The loud pipes arguement that it is so that other road users can see you coming sounds no different to me than those well mannered car drivers that flash their lights and occasionally use their horns to let you know they are coming and will pass you any way they can.

I would appreciate a review from someone on this before I go and see it - I have visions of a male appendage rearing out of the screen towards me and I am not sure if i can handle that

This thread makes an interesting read. The should I buy / rent dilemma is pertinent to me as I have decided to settle here after numerous visits and now a year, more or less full-time, here.

I pay rent of 13K per month for a 55 sq.m., one bedroom condo in Central Pattaya. This building is exactly where I want to be; between Beach and 2nd Rd and a stones throw from The Avenue complex. I guess a similar condo would cost approx 3 million THB according to some of the adverts in the local newspapers, perhaps a bit more.

Keeping things simple (i.e. not allowing for rent inflation or appreciation of a purchased condo or long-term currency fluctuations), that capital cost equates to almost 20 years of renting ! I think I would be mad to buy at the moment, or in the near future.

Simon

Its worse than that:

By the time you've factored in the transfer tax, business tax, yearly property taxes, condo maintenance fees, extra costs of fixing things that owners need to pay for, renovations blah blah blah you would probably find its more like 30 years of rent to breakeven.

The only way it makes sense to buy is if you believe in significant capital appreciation.

the problem with this is that you have not factored in any rental increases over the 20/30 years. Also, provided your property has some residual value left after the 20/30 years it will not be a break even point since the renter has nothing.

Transferred out for political violence giving another chance for it to happen in the new district..

What happened to "YOUR FIRED"...where's trump when the police need him.

Jail Sentence?

Not for political violence, just bias.

I wonder what they did - surely more than just wearing those yellow shirts???

Interesting report here:

ABSTRACT: A study was made of post-traumatic stress disorder in 200 children aged 7–11 years who had witnessed a public hanging next to their school in Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran. A standard checklist was completed through interviews with the children’s parents 3 months after the event. Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were identified in 104 children (52%), with 88 suffering re-experiences, 24 avoidance and 62 hyperarousal. The mean stress severity according to the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index was 39.1, indicating a moderate to severe severity of stress. The study highlights the serious emotional effects on children who witness traumatic events.

http://www.emro.who.int/publications/emhj/1201_2/article7.htm

"A task force of 300 police officers has been set up to track down these gunmen and members of their gangs."

This statement implies that these 75 hitmen are possibly gang leaders as well and i would assume that the police are applying the shoot to kill policy to the gangs as well. Far too much opportunity for 'mission creep' here me thinks.

What is a minor and what makes the difference?

I take your point, my bad of course a minor is below 9 years of age in Iran based on the Islamic textbook and it's literal adoption by the mad mullahs taking us back to 7th century norms. Most of the civilised world recognises the universal declaration of human rights, except for Iran, Egypt and most Islamic nations who don't think universal is a good idea - For instance the rights accorded to children.

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the right to life which, to me, pretty much covers all capital punishment no matter how it is carried out.

As long as you have a working original remote, just get a universal remote with a learning function. OFA and Logitech make them, as do loads of Chinese no-name brands.

Bump

Got the same problem with Yashima ac unit in Pattaya - old remote nackered.

Did the OP manage to find a new remote???

There is an interesting situation that has developed in our village when one of the local girls has been hit by her husband - this has happenned about 3-4 times now. She has left him and gone back to her parents who have told him that if he wants her back he must remarry her (local ceremony not amphur) and pay sinsod again. If he hits her again she will leave him permenantly apparently.

First time i have heard of sinsod being paid twice by the same guy for the same woman!

Old wives' tales.

Actually true - friend of my wife. Sinsod has been set at 8000 baht!

There is an interesting situation that has developed in our village when one of the local girls has been hit by her husband - this has happenned about 3-4 times now. She has left him and gone back to her parents who have told him that if he wants her back he must remarry her (local ceremony not amphur) and pay sinsod again. If he hits her again she will leave him permenantly apparently.

First time i have heard of sinsod being paid twice by the same guy for the same woman!

You can give blood and that counts as 12 hours I think - you can only do it once within a 6-month period though.

Not if you are a Brit - our blood isn't good enough apparently

I guess there are so many undecided as the money hasn't reached them yet. I seem to remember an article a year or so back that found that Bangkok was the 2nd most likely place where people would sell their votes after Isaan.

^ it was about 2 weeks if i remember rightly - I filled in a DHL courier note at the embassy so was able to track it back which took 3 days from arriving in Thailand to getting up to darkest Isaan but, according to a previous post, they may have changed things again if the come from the UK now.

When I got a passport for my daughter a year or so back (about a month after the HKG bit came in) I was also struggling to get a countersignature. In the end I got my local bar owner to sign it but unfortunately he only put his first name down and i didn't know his surname - this was pointed out to me by the lady at the British Embassy. Since they take your mobile off you at the embassy i couldn't phone him and check but the lady said that it wouldn't be a problem. Sure enough a couple of weeks later we received the passport so if they accept "Terry" occupation Bar Owner and a thai mobile number I am pretty certain they will take anything as long as there is a british passport number given.

So, just to briefly get back on topic, is there an English subtitle version of the movie? or do you need to understand Thai and Isaan / Lao?

I saw it with english subtitles

No star wars or matrix?

Who lived there and who ruled there?

n

How about St George???

"Saint George was a Palestinian Christian"

That was the Jewish country that the Romans called Palestine way back in history. There has never been an Arab country with that name.

How about Shakespeare

The Life and Death of King John: Scene II.1 "Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart, and fought the holy wars in Palestine"

Othello Scene IV.3: "I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his [Lodovico's] nether lip."

Clearly Palestinians lived in Palestine. As for who ruled them it would depend on when you were refering to.

How about St George???

"Saint George was a Palestinian Christian"

That was the Jewish country that the Romans called Palestine way back in history. There has never been an Arab country with that name.

How about Shakespeare

The Life and Death of King John: Scene II.1 "Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart, and fought the holy wars in Palestine"

Othello Scene IV.3: "I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his [Lodovico's] nether lip."

it's always the same stupid arguments made in this forum..it doesn't matter that your opinion is that there was never a Palestine, despite the fact that in any pre-1948 map or newspaper the levant is refered to as 'Palestine'

Palestine was a geographical area - pretty much a desert - with very few people outside of Jerusalem which was dominated by Jews. No country. No "Palestinian" people.

That is why you can not answer any of the questions that apply to a real country. Name one "Palestinian leader" before Arafat and so on....

Why is there the need to have a "leader" to be recognize as "people"?

In other words there has never been an Arab country called Palestine or people called Palestinian (until some Arab immigrants started calling themselves that in 1967) and don't forget the other 10 unanswerable questions.

That kind of blows the Jews came in and stole the country Myth doesn't it.?

How about St George???

"Saint George was a Palestinian Christian"

from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/apr/23/hewasbornin

I don't believe he said all expats are sexpats. He said there are a lot of sexpats in Thailand

Its called generalisation, all articles are written in this form. No writer can address each and every one of the subjects/ob jects.

So why do people always take exception and very quicky state (as in this article : "NOT me mate, I ain't a <deleted> perv". Why or WHY ?? Its GENERALISATION, and lets face it, he does hit the nail on the head on a 'relatively' big percentage of people in Thailand.

I wouldn't disagree that there are a lot of blokes here for the ladies, what percentage they make up i would not care to guess at. However, of this group, the ones that i have come across probably would not know who Taksin was if he was sat next to them on a barstool buying the drinks.

Reading a synopsis of the film, one of the storylines deals with a failed university student and Isaan youth, just back from uni returning to the village and finding the girl he loves is being wooed by a richer farang. His friends encourage him to fight for her, but I don't know how it turns out.

So it does seem to cover an area that must be cause for resentment among the local Isaan males: their women leaving them for richer foreigners.

The plot is the failed uni student returning to his village and wooing his childhood sweetheart against the wishes of her mother who had a fling with the boys father years before. Basically the boy realises that him and his mates can no longer drink and laze around and must do something or they will lose the women in the village to the increasing numbers of westerners.

By using the Kings sufficiency programme/book they do improve their lives but are too late as the mother has arranged for a westerner to meet/marry her daughter.

For a Thai movie, it was not bad. And the main husband in the film is Lao. The story was actually pretty good. I have certainly seen worse movies here.

Well, that's encouraging. I may have got the wrong impression from the trailer.

I watched it this afternoon and would say that it film aimed at Isaaners rather than one making fun of them. To me the points it was trying to get over seemed very obvious but, to make sure, the main character does a piece almost to camera at the end to reinforce the message. It was something along the lines of 'don't be greedy in your village as this will bring capatalism with it. It is important to have a good headman and informed villagers.'

As for the earlier comment that the westerner guys seemed quite innocent and well mannered, the trailer obviously did not show the scene were one of the wives from the villages goes to Bangkok to meet a westerner as arranged by a friend who basically ends up raping her as he beleives he deserves it as he has spent a lot of money on her.

"The intervention of the ICC in the matter was decided by the United Nations Security Council"

It sounds a bit rich to me that the UNSC are getting the ICC to intervene here since a few of the UNSC members are not even signed up to it including 2 permenant members (USA and China) and a 3rd (Russia) having signed up to but not ratified yet. Also on the UNSC are India and Lebanon who are not signed up.

Though it is frowned upon i have seen topless russians on Pattaya beach a number of times and certainly on the beaches on Koh Larn where I can't remember being there and not seen one or two topless.

Though I am an admirer of what Amnesty do I cannot help but think the Thai branch needs to put a bit more effort in if they are going to garner the publicity they require - for a start by making sure that their first prisoner of conscience is actually a prisoner since the OP suggests this guy is actually out on bail.