kiwiTV

More power to the greenies and to the tree huggers. Since Bill Gates and Steve Jobs we've anyway used a heck of a lot less paper than previously, as during the industrial and post industrial period when there were bank checks and bank statements, and all of their paper processes now obsolete in favor of production online instead of printed and mailed in envelopes by snail mail etc. Same for a great deal of paperwork and paper output in many other respects.

For more than a decade, while we have continued to use paper, we've used it far less than previous to the present age of hardware and software, and of IT.

So yeh now we use lots more electrical and other forms of energy but, hey greenies, that's why we need other forms of energy, such as wind, solar, geothermal etc and - horrors of all horrors - nuclear!

More Paper, Not Less

The world's paper renaissance extends to both new and traditional uses. Inexpensive computer printers, for example, have encouraged home paper use. By one estimate, personal computers in the early 1990s accounted for 115 billion sheets of paper per year worldwide; today Hewlett-Packard estimates that laser printers in North America alone are churning out 1.2 trillion pages annually (Anzovin 1993 cited in Young 1993:42; Brooke 2001). Offices continue to rely on paper for files and records; just 10 percent of office documentation was in digital form as of the mid-1990s (von Ungern-Sternberg and von Ungern-Sternberg 1999:230).

Paper still dominates the publishing industry, with electronic publications accounting for only 5-15 percent of the world's publishing market. Although newspaper circulation in industrialized countries was declining even before the advent of the Internet, worldwide demand for newsprint is still expected to grow an average of 2 percent a year for the next 10 years, driven by increases in Asian newspaper readership (von Ungern Sternberg and von Ungern-Sternberg 1999:231; Salonen 2000).

In addition to such traditional print products as books, newspapers, and stationery, new markets for mail order catalogues and marketing and promotional materials are keeping paper consumption buoyant. In the United States, the number of pieces of mail delivered each year has increased by 25 billion over the last 5 years to 210 billion (PaperCom Alliance 2000:5; U.S. Postal Service 2000:4). Communications, however, make up less than half of the world's paper use; a bigger share is now taken by the booming packaging industry (IIED 1996:16). Global production of paper for wrapping, packaging, corrugated boxes and other containers increased 75 percent over the last 5 years to 140 million metric tons in 1999 (FAO 2001).

Here goes the plane...

My aim is to write all articles, documentaries, novels in..

1. English and

2. Chinese

I need to find a person to be my secretary for my own books. I want to hire a person with these qualifications and conditions.

1. Either female or male.

2. The contract can be continued. In fact, the person will be treated as a member of family.

3. Preferring a university graduate with beautiful writing skill and full of vocabulary ability.

4. Writing cannot be bounded by a certain time but by feeling for pouring and digging of letters from imagination, so working can be done at anytime of the day.

5. Ready to spend time in Thailand staying in a house in my garden in Laad Krabang Sub-district, the suburb of Bangkok. The person will be provided for full accommodation; housing and meals.

6. Monthly salary is depended on negotiation.

7. First contract starts from 1 January 2010

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do so.

Sincerely yours,

Peter Evans

Best thing is to take a good look at the material (students books) the kids have. Are there words for the kids to read? If yes then check if the kids have sufficient enough phonemic awareness (particularly phonics) to read such words. I doubt that the kids have this yet.

Change the material by finding something that will support the teaching of phonemic awareness, emergent literacy and then in the second year slowly get into phonics and more sound manipulation games. Always base your lessons on stories as children the world over love to hear stories. Once the children have basic phonics then find texts that are decodable. Look for simple CVCs progressing into CCVCs and CVCCs etc. Finally advance to the advanced phonics components like magic e which changes the short vowel sound to a long vowel. Two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking (long vowel sound, that is.)

It isn't easy and you need a professionally developed program suited for teaching English as a foreign language rather than what is common in Thailand which is material for teaching English as a second langauge.

If there is anything here that is new to you just copy and paste into google and you will find plenty of reading.

Dr. Yael Bejarano from Israel has done some great work in this field and makes for good reading.

If I were you I would just head down to immigration with the money and pay the fine.

Tell them only the truth and take your plane ticket. Be humble and don't worry.

There are thousands who have done the same before and the immigration deals with them the same way every day.

My advice for what it is worth is to go early – 10 days early isn’t too early for your own peace of mind. Let them know your situation again or better still talk to someone different. Ask at the information desk in front if you can go right to the top without passing the middle persons.

I have almost always gone along days early and have never had a problem so you shouldn’t either. The easy-going environment of the new office allows for simple issues like this to be solved very easily.

If not successful in the first early return, go back again.

Beware of stopping the burn off in the mountains. If there is no burn off for two or three years, or more, the resulting residual wood fuel in the form of dry undergrowth could fuel such an intensely hot fire, there would be very little that the local populations could do to stop it causing much more serious damage when it does actually burn.

Burning fire breaks around villages might not be such a bad idea in the long term.

As for burning stubble in the fields, that is still happening because no one is out there to educate on the benefits of not burning the stubble or alternative practices that show the results are not being introduced. Notice organic farming is catching on in some places because it is financially viable. The best we to change the people, is to make it more financially viable to apply the best practices whether it be in the short term or long term.

Telling farmers not to burn because it pollutes the air will not produce help the situation anywhere in the world.

Take them off the foot paths and put them on the streets. That will be nice for the cars, taxis and buses.

Are they going to do away with them all together? Two or three km walk down the sois isn't going to be nice in the summer months with shirt and tie. Guess one could call a taxi instead of the motor bike but I wonder how long that would last.

Frankly speaking, the motorbike taxis do a ###### good job for most. Just a little inconvenience at the end of each soi isn't too much to ask as long as they are polite and keep off the foot paths when on the move.

For the record: I find that the newish Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital on the corner opposite the Southern Bus Station is of excellent standard. A bit lacking on English skills until you get to the doctor however, they are extremely helpful and plenty of "nurses" around to make up for any lack of English. Again, once you get to see the doctors, their English is excellent.

Cost is pretty reasonable, on par with average private general hospital in Bangkok and you are sure to get a real specialist. They certainly have all the equipment too.

Website is http://www.eent.co.th/ which gives you the open times and contact information in English otherwise it is mostly Thai.

It is quite a large hospital and has inpatients too.

Had a very tricky 30 minutes or so today whilst on my Nong Khai - Laos Friendship Bridge visa run !

...

I genuinly had no idea anything had changed re using services such as these!

Does anybody have any further information or had the same experience of late?

I think this sort of situation isn't uncommon. There is presently a visa run company from BKK who will only go to Poipet as the immigration officers at Ban Laem haven't been able to settle on a deal there as yet.

They expected it to be righted in a week or two.

Peter

That's the very reason I ALWAYS use an agent to secure my tourist visa. You never need to face a consulate official or answer any questions. It's worth the extra money and I can go out and enjoy my day instead of hanging around the consulate.

You should get with the program. Pay the extra "fast track" money. No mater how "official" everyone seems, never forget this is Asia.

I have used them in Penang and they work wonders. Do they have them in KL too?

This is just absurd. So many airports now offer free Wi-Fi zones.

what did you expect? BKK is the only airport i know which charges a departure fee.

You need to look at the fine print. A lot of airports charge departure tax along with the price of the ticket.

Curious about all this myself as I will be heading to Suan Plhu next week for my first extension. By the way, what do they typically do on a “house visit”? I trust it’s a surprise visit—what if you’re not there…they keep trying?

Let us know how it goes. I am married here with three children. My wife works as a teacher but I don't. I am home 80% of the time doing a bit of business back in New Zealand via the Internet.

Over the last few years I have been doing VOA with an extension from Suan Plu on grounds of looking after my children. (I took this way from recommendations of the Suan Plu immigration police.) Everything has worked smoothly But I don't know what to expect now...