ericbj

8 hours ago, UWEB said:

In the past the Britain's went all over the world to conquered foreign Countries and have taken whatever they could get, now the people of this Countries rightful coming to Britain. It's just Karma. 

Britain's ruling class built an empire, one of the many that have existed (Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Mongol, Ottoman, Chinese, etc.)  They made use of Britons and non-Britons of many origins.  (E.g. In the 14-18 War more than one million Indian ssoldiers served abroad, and by 1945 the Indian Army numbered 2.5 million).  The ordinary Briton, the man on the Clapham omnibus, was mostly an unwitting pawn in this process.

With bankrupcy finally brought about by the second of two world wars and the loss of the Indian Army at independence, the rentier-capitalist ruling class built a fresh, financial, empire in the shadow of the now-dominant U.S. one.

This involved participating in the destitution of many independent states whose often-autocratic rulers stood in the way of the game-plan, essentially the control of raw materials, especially the energy market.

Despite sophisticated spin-doctoring and increasing media control, there was sometimes widespread opposition (witness the mass-protests against the invasion of Iraq).  But the 'democratic' leaders forced the issue.

It is understandable that citizens of bombed-out countries - some previously quite developed in terms of living standards, culture, health, and education - should seek to flee their ruins in search of a better life.  The fault is not theirs.

Neither is the fault that of the ordinary people of Britain, who bear the brunt of unrestricted immigration.

The burden must be laid upon the political class, the civil servants, and above all the media-moghuls and mega-financiers.  They must be made to pay.  The cost of what they have destroyed.  That is karma.

11 hours ago, Purdey said:

The air force uses mainly Russian planes. Perhaps the rebels should invest in anti aircraft batteries and drones. However, ASEAN should really condemn both sides for extending the war.

Perhaps request America to come to a deal between both sides where America gets land with diamond mines?

Please make at least a superficial study of the conflict before uttering such nonsense.

There are two principal reasons for illegal immigration:

1.  It is encouraged by the welcome offered by the British government.  Both short-term welcome on reception and long-term welcome in terms of benefits of residence and acquisition of nationality.
What proportion are genuine refugees and how many are economic migrants?

2.  Huge on-going profits are made by the traffickers.

Britain has in the past accepted, somewhat grudgingly, and at the immigrants' expense, genuine refugees fleeing persecution, of common loyalties and compatible beliefs.
Such as Huguenots (who brought many new skills to Britain), American loyalists (an estimated 100,000 rejected the insurrection and suffered accordingly), and more recently German Jews, persecuted for their race.

These groups lost substantially both wealth and possessions as result of their displacement from one country to another.  Their lives were threatened.  And they subsequently served Britain in many diverse capacities.

The Royal Navy, if it still has a purpose, exists to protect the country from invasion.  An invasion is occurring today, and critical situations call for appropriate measures.
This is a suggestion.  Intercept the boats in British waters, remove all occupants, sink the boats, then land the occupants by landing-craft, undeclared, upon some French beach.
Of course there will be problems of all kinds.  But will they be worse than the massive accumulated problem that is building up in Britain today?

On 7/11/2025 at 9:40 AM, unblocktheplanet said:

Interesting the generals are now following Israel by conscripting women equally. They'd need IDF training to be true racist beasts. That goes against the Burman character.

 

Make no mistake: fighting the indigenous militias is based in racism. These kids are expendable cannon fodder.

"Make no mistake: fighting the indigenous militias is based in racism."
True.

From memory: about thirty or so years ago a senior Burma Army general declared
"In ten years time you will not find a single Karen outside of a museum."
A web-search has failed to locate this quote, although I might perhaps find it amongst my own archives, if I had time to search them.

But this may be of interest:
https://khrg.org/2023/01/criminal-complaint-filed-germany-against-burma-army-generals-crimes-committed-against-karen 
as well as the KHRG site itself.

Lymph nodes help to partially detoxify the lymph as it makes its way to the liver, thereby giving some protection to that organ which does the final detox.  The lymph is essentially blood plasma and there is more of it than in the blood.

The lymphatic system has the important task of bathing and nourishing the cells of the body and removing their metabolic waste products, but seems to have been underestimated until recent times; elements of it such as tonsils and appendix having been sometimes routinely and unnecessarily excised.

Swelling of the nodes can be an indication of infection, so that may suggest some approaches to be made, including the avoidance of heavy meals, frequent snacking, and commonly allergenic foods (which can place a heavy strain on the immune system).

There may be some useful ideas here:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-to-treat-swollen-lymph-nodes-in-neck-naturally 

Am not sure whether lymphatic massage would be appropriate in this case: might spread infection.  But you could check it out.
"Lymphatic massage therapy, also known as lymphatic drainage massage, is a gentle technique that helps move lymph fluid through the body to reduce swelling and promote detoxification. It is particularly beneficial for individuals with lymphoedema or those recovering from surgery, as it encourages the lymphatic system to function more effectively."

Forget the gobbledegook exemplified by such expressions as
"The focus is on maintaining the integrity of services affecting transport, logistics, and public utilities."

Key phrases are:
"enhancing monitoring and accountability"
"strict standards, reflecting a broader governmental push towards robust digital platform governance"
"The impact … could be substantial, with adaptation costs potentially influencing pricing structures."
"challenges lie ahead as stakeholders adjust to these significant new demands."

In other words:
More government controls (including face-scans) paid for by the consumers, who will have less choice, but who are to be persuaded, as usual, this is all for their benefit.

Having recently made frequent use of Grab taxis for about a month in my border district - as result of a fractured arm and the need for regular hospital visits and for shopping trips - I can testify to the utility, rapidity and economy of the service.  The cars, of many types, and including now-and-again meter-taxis, were all seemingly new, and the drivers careful, competent, and polite.

Good news, not only for the Resistance's armed forces, whose assaults on regime camps can be blunted, and occupation after capture thwarted, by air attack.  But above all for civilians whose homes, schools, hospitals, churches and temples are prime targets.

But much, much more needs to be done by Western democracies to reduce the indiscriminate killing - sometimes mass killings - of civilians.  By providing effective man-portable anti-aircraft weaponry on a significant scale.  Merely threatening to do so might cause the regime to call off the deliberate targeting of civilians.

Currently it seems most weapons that can be used effectively against low-flying aircraft are either obtained on the black-market or by capture from regime forces.  And are none too plentiful.
 
One of the latest aircraft shot down was reportedly hit by heavy machine-gun fire, of presumably .50" Browning or 14 mm Russian calibre.

In open country and where low-cloud cover is lacking, the regime's air-force is a much greater threat to troops on the ground.

Guessing a bit here: I suspect that Thais regard foreigners who are flaunting wealth in a different light to that in which they view wealthier members of their own community.
In the latter case, respect, especially if wealth acquired substantially by their own efforts.
In the former case, a useful indication that here is someone who could be fleeced.

Of course that can happen anywhere.  I remember a couple I knew in the Dordogne telling me how their friend Josephine Baker, after she purchased the chateau des Milandes as an orphanage, was seriously defrauded by local people.

In about 1990, at the time that Eastern Europe was opening up and a long-time friend of mine was envisaging expanding his business there, I sent him an article from the French business magazine "Challenges".  The article warned those planning to do business in Eastern Europe that the rules of honesty commonly observed by nationals of the countries involved did not apply to foreigners.  To my consternation he disregarded this.
Subsequently doing work for his company in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, I found it necessary to re-assert a tight financial control over operations there.

18 hours ago, Social Media said:

57

That the French Government has been provided with £770,000,000 over 12 years, with £657,000,000 of that over the past 7 years, WITHOUT ANY ACCOUNTABILITY at least in an annual report, indicates a gross dereliction of duty on the part of the UK Treasury.

If the French Government was provided with a given amount in any year and failed to clearly account for its use, in whole or part, their budget for the following year should have been reduced to take account of that.  That is how things worked in the TPNG Administration  back in the 1960s.

But I guess these days, when money is printed out of thin air, things have changed.  Easy come, easy go.  Politicians and civil servants are indifferent to expenditures, since the general public tends not to realise that the ensuing inflation is, in reality, a hidden form of taxation.  One with a particularly perverse effect upon the economy.

He knows that if you keep simultaneously poking a bear and a dragon they may both snap at you.

Yet he and his buddies keep doing it.
Make no mistake: it's in a coordinated manner.

Are they daft?

Before they do us great harm, send them for psychiatric examination.

It is an impossible question.  The reason is this:

What counts most is the people you know in the place where you live.  I.e. the relations you have in your everyday life.  Both good, bad, and indifferent.

You know what you have,and what you expect to have in the near future barring the unpredictable and unforeseen.

But how can you know what you would experience if you moved to another place, however much it might seem appealing when judged from the narratives of others?

Moreover, both places and personal circumstances change.  If I were to return to the UK, would I find the same place I knew when last there for more than a few days, 33 years ago?  Or even on my last visit of a week's duration, 10 years ago?

Best to test the water before jumping in.

Press release from Khit Thit Media: a garbled automatic translation, edited to render more intelligible.
It makes clear how China is putting pressure on the Northern Brotherhood Alliance.  And at the same time highlights how difficult it is to assist the Kachin and allies in the far north of Burma.
________________________________

China threatens KIA that it will stop purchasing minerals from Kachin State if the war against [the military regime] is not stopped.
Yangon, July 8
According to a writer's report, China is threatening KIA that [it] will stop purchasing minerals if the war against [the military regime] is not stopped.
… [unitelligible] The KIA has been fighting the battle for VanMau since December 2024 and [mining] excavation is being carried out near Vanmau, where almost half of the world's mineral [rare-earth] production is currently undertaken.
China, which mainly buys and stocks minerals from Kachin State, has threatened the KIA if it does not stop fighting to hold VanMau, it will stop purchasing minerals.
In May this year, during a meeting with officials from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it was reported that China is using the purchase of resources to force compliance with its wishes.
Although Reuters "is unable to decide whether or not China has used threats, local fighting has led to restrictions on mining activities and rare-earth exports from Myanmar have also fallen this year."
"The earlier ceasefire and peace talks between Myanmar Army and Kachin Independence Army were for the common good of both China and Myanmar and its people," said a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
A Senior General of KIA says "I don't make any comment about pressure from China."
China has offered cross-border trade with KIA-controlled territory if an unnamed KIA official calls off the fighting against regime forces."
"If we do not accept, they will block export of products, including minerals, from Kachin State to China," said a KIA official.
________________________________________________

It is encouraging to see that the US government is being advised to involve itself in the struggle in Burma for human rights, including self-determination of the different ethnicities.

But I believe this assessment overlooks two primary considerations:

1.  Supporting the Kachin to the exclusion of other ethnicities, including the Burman who are now doing much of the fighting against the regime alongside their ethnic colleagues, will doom all hope of removing China's puppet government in NayPyiThaw.
The Kachin are a few hundred thousand amongst a population of millions, and if one takes the real population figures as opposed to regime-census statistics (and those of colonial times which categorized Buddhists as Burmans), the non-Burman ethnics altogether probably constitute roughly half of the population.  And Kachinland is far removed from sources of external aid.

2.  Most of those resisting the regime now seem to realise that a united struggle is the only way to achieve their collective goals; without the fatal temporary truces of the past the regime negotiated with individual EAOs.
Even the Rakhines seem to realise this need, while aiming more for independence than being part of a federal democracy.

Moreover, Burma's geo-strategic importance is much greater than that offered by the mineral resources of Kachinland (and elsewhere in the country's periphery).

Burma is a vital east-west land-bridge between South-East Asia and South Asia and a north-south bridge between Yunnan and the Indian Ocean (and Bangladesh, Bengal, and Thailand).

Why has the US government chosen to confront China in the South China Sea and ignored Burma? 

I suspect because of memories of Korea:  it understands it cannot win a land war in the region, but thinks it might still be able successfully to confront China by sea and air along its heavily defended coastline (a doubtful proposition).

The US must use a carrot-and-stick approach to achieving a win-win solution in Burma.  Whereby China agrees to abide by its own declared principle of "non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries", in return for certain guarantees.
It is a part of the price of freedom.

To contain coastal erosion they could try planting a mangrove forest.  The under-water roots of mangrove trees are extensive, as anyone who has walked bare-foot through such water will be painfully aware.

Krung Thep was located on a low-lying swamp for reasons of security, after the destruction of Ayudhaya.  Even in quite recent times, before many canals were filled in to make roads, it was known as 'The Venice of the East'.

The reasons for Bangkok being where it is no longer exist.  The sooner plans are made to initiate a gradual relocation, the better it will be for future generations of Thais.

17 hours ago, FlorC said:

They could have covered up their face.

Two types of guerilla warfare are being waged in Burma: 

Open warfare in the battle areas, where soldiers of the EAOs and PDFs wear uniform and bear arms openly, and clandestine (i.e. underground) warfare where members of resistance groups carry out sabotage, propaganda, and assassinations of 'dalans' (regime informers), regime collaborators and senior officers. 

There are also 'water-melons' within the military who feed intelligence to the armed resistance.

12 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

 

Any recommendations for these types of policy? 

Not really able to make a recommendation as in several years with WRLife I have not had to make a claim.  Recently fractured an arm when falling backwards and hitting it against the edge of a metal storage box, but that was outpatient treatment only and not hugely expensive.  Last year had operations on leg veins to cure varicose ulcers.  Those were expensive, but outpatient only, and did not result from an accident, but more from aging (81 years now).

WRLife seem relatively modest in cost and my annual premium of just over 50K baht for 20K USD cover have not increased because of no claims.  For serious accidents 20K USD may not go very far.

 I suggest checking them out: https://www.wrlife.net/

and seek advice from anyone who has made claims.

On 7/5/2025 at 8:53 AM, FlorC said:

That's real clever , posing for a picture.

They are in the system now.

This is just a snippet of available news from Burma.

There are many photos online showing storming-parties with captured weapons and PoWs subsequent to capture of yet another SAC Army camp.  But most are accompanied by Burmese text.

For regular updates in English of the situation in the combat zones of Burma, see here:

https://burmacoupresistancenotes.substack.com/p/burma-coup-resistance-notes-july-c9d 

"Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts Could Result in Millions of Preventable Deaths"

What this statement is in effect saying is that United States aid had hitherto (and despite its corruption and "politicisation") been saving millions of preventable deaths.

The onus to do this should not be on one single country but on all countries able to contribute, whether through funding or directly-applied services.

There should be an international organisation to oversee and organise this, with oversight by all nations that contribute and receive aid.  With a view to eliminating corruption and the furtherance of foreign policies through 'colour revolutions'.

The short answer to the question is "No!"

On condition that :-
You are young or youthful, and not approaching senility;
You are aware of, and follow, the requirements of healthy living;
You are averse to taking unnecessary risks; and
You have available sufficient liquid assets to self-insure.

You may still wish to take out accident-only, inpatient-only insurance in view of the fact that accidents, such as on the roads, can arise from the carelessness of others.

Wages should be regularly updated to reflect the cost of living.

This could vary considerably between different provinces.

Businesses generally upgrade their prices to reflect costs and ensure continuing profitability.  Although admittedly there can be other considerations, such as maintaining competitiveness.  Or lack of competition.

No doubt there is a serious problem of rape of young white girls in some areas of the UK with high immigrant, mainly Muslim populations.  However, this particular case is disturbing because of the lapse of many years since the alleged crimes.

However the rape problem itself is illustrative of a UK administration - politicians, civil servants, and also "the fourth estate" - increasingly bent upon policies that pander to ideologies and interests that ignore the needs of the British people.

It began in a small way in the 1960s, when Enoch Powell spoke out against the growing influx of foreign populations beyond the nation's  capacity to integrate them.  Powell was of course increasingly publicly demonised as a racist, which was a falsehood intended to vilify him.

He avowed a deep love for India, its peoples, and its cultures as result of the three years that he spent there.  Coloured constituents of his who went to him with their problems testified to the fact that he listened to them and addressed their requests.

Politically-active friends of mine, an American and his South African Chinese wife, who wrote to Powell criticising his policies, were astonished to receive a polite and detailed response to the points they raised.  They may not have agreed with him but thereafter they spoke of him with respect.  They were used to being totally ignored by politicians with whom they attempted to communicate.

Mass legal immigration was where the problem began.  It was decades later compounded by the wilful destruction of fragile post-colonial nation-states in the Middle East and North Africa on the supposed grounds of establishing 'democracy and human rights'.

Result:  something quite different.  Bombing 'back into the Stone Age', chaos, and a wave of of mainly economic refugees who sought, and were encouraged, to settle in the countries whose self-serving political classes had destroyed their livelihoods.

Britain is being subjected to colonisation.

"Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

Countries and corporations that continue to supply weapons and other war matériel to the illegal military regime that seized power in Naypyitaw must be arraigned internationally as accessories before the fact to murder and other human rights abuses.

Have not seen the transcript of her conversation, but one has the impression that she was asking to know Cambodia's demands for settling the dispute.
You have to have a clear understanding of the other side's position in order to know how to negotiate a compromise acceptable to both sides.

Of course ultra-nationalists on both sides are going to want no compromise but instead a bloodbath (in which they will likely not be involved, but might feel redemption of an imaginary slight to their honour).

Undoubtedly it would be undiplomatic if in the circumstances she criticized a subordinate, the 2nd Army commander.
But most likely she had no say in either his appointment nor his actions, and anyway he probably does not consider himself her subordinate.
In some countries the military is a law unto itself, which can complicate government.

On 5/26/2025 at 8:14 AM, Equatorial said:

Are there any steps that one needs to take to ensure that the wife gets the money in the bank (e.g., the 400k or 800k financial requirements for visa), in case of husband's death? 

Am not sure if this suggestion will help in your particular case: it does concern both [1] cash that one is obliged to hold in a Thai bank account for reasons of visa extensions and [2] "cash" in the form of bullion.

In the case of [1] a document in Thai has been drafted and is being registered with a Thai lawyer bequeathing the balance of the account to one of my two "adopted daughters", a Thai national.  (Both women have been known to me for nearly eighteen years, since I assisted their Australian Open University studies)

There is a disadvantage with this arrangement - we are discovering, following the recent decease of her Japanese mother-in-law - caused by administrative procedures, costs, and delays in releasing the proceeds of her in-law's bank account.

(An alternative would be for me to put the cash in a joint savings account.  She would be able to access that at any time.  Until such time as the bank discovers I am no longer of this world; when, according to the bank manager, the account would be frozen.  Until…?)
Drawback: I would suffer a loss of interest on a 12-month term-deposit.

For my other "adopted daughter", a Burmese national, I have arranged for her to be the beneficiary upon my death of a small amount of bullion managed through a dealer in the Cayman Islands and held in my name with a well-established bullion-vaulting company in Singapore.  Upon my passing away, the bullion will be transferred automatically to an account in her name, and she can then sell the coins as and when needed.
A slight complication: she must be aware of her liability to pay income-tax on cash transferred to her Thai bank account.
(Or go to Singapore and cash the coins there?)