expat_4_life

Tend to agree, but how quickly or if at all in the end depends on how embarrassing it is for them. Meanwhile, (never let a crisis go to waste) there is opportunity for the political opposition to step in and do something. Perhaps some small stipend to the qualified recipients funded privately or some other creative means while simultaneously turning up the heat on PT for "empty promises".

"According to Samran, when he first established the market, he had adhered to all legal regulations, and the market was given the green light to operate. However, issues arose during the renewal of the market’s licence." The article says Samran was given permission to open, at least initially. Likely powerful/wealthy interests that don't want the relatively cheaper market open and would like to get their hands on his land, hence his difficulty with the license in subsequent years. Hope Samran/community win and the market remains.

uBlock Origin - beat me to the punch @Morch

Yes it's free. It is a browser extension, just search for it in your browser extensions, or use your favorite search engine.

Can't agree more ... it works a treat with utube and removes so much clutter everywhere you browse too. Completely different internet with Ublock Origin.

totally relieved, after a week absence on AN, my beach road ladyboy stories are back, this time from the safety angle

Seems any mention of God or Satan attracts mockery but, trust The Science ™ be all good

"Tourists are rejoicing" ... I have my doubts My experience is that the biggest impediment to getting through to a departure gate is the scanners and luggage check - not immigration! On arrival ... now I can (maybe) get my passport processed quickly and then begin to complain about how long I have to wait for my luggage.

The inevitable consequences of an "unelected" PM ... who found the job comes with a checkbook. When will he announce that tax increases, which mostly impact the poor/marginalized, are unavoidable? The same people he claims to champion will eventually pick up the tab.

Horrific ... there are surely family's hurting today Sadly, plenty of similar mindless violent episodes in many of the communities home countries. RIP to the young man

Thailand "bent over" for the "Chinese Tourist Police" ... now about to take the "booster".

Why? <shrug> ... why do u post here? (you're not obligated to take the poll) I sometimes find it interesting to learn something about the demographics of the community - that just me. His definition of "expat" is explicit in the options he allowed us to choose

Witch Doctor ... delighted he been recognized

Good post ... Contrary to a lot of speculation on the topic, threads like "Change in the tax law does target expats living in Thailand" ... I actually think they are after bigger fish, multi-national companies that do annual remittances of last years off-shore earnings. I don't see it effecting a lot of pensioners as you have pointed out DTA's, who knows the eventual outcome? Perhaps to avoid complicating things for us and themselves, they will simply leave retirees alone - some combination of they don't want to discourage current/future retirees and it more trouble than it is worth. Only time will tell ....

Did not mean to imply u seem stressed but many people are totally Hair-on-Fire freaking out, something I cant even begin to fathom (where is my Hair-on-Fire emoji anyway )

I am not bothered either, however/whatever the changes and the affect on me, I've no intention of going anywhere - it is what it is <shrug> I been avoiding these topics mostly because, well, I'll deal with it when/if/however they decide to move forward. I'm definitely a "don't get out over your skis" kinda guy. I will wait until they demand something from me. If you have no intention of leaving, then don't stress about it or do anything. That my strategy.

Why is Klaus Schwab such sexy alpha male ? Perhaps it something to do with him dressing as either a Supervillain or Galactic Leader? You decide

wonder is any of his recent news worthy moments will be "Showcased" last week he was "setting the record straight" few days ago he was "denying he is a puppet" yesterday he was such a mensch that he "scoffs at death threats" Well done

My granny always said... "If u have to ask what is a Bogan, you might just be one"

1) "Lies and faulty logic, if one can use the term logic." Impressive, resort to name calling and denigrating a community member expressing their own opinion/analysis by name calling, so proud. 2) "I posted "no failure" because Ukraine was expected to fall within days, and it's still standing. Are you going to dispute that?" I respect that you thought the war might end quickly, but it just analysis/opinion, that is all it is - it does not mean that Kiev failing to fall in the opening days of the war was a Russian failure, unless you of course have a link to the Russian military's plans that explicitly stipulates Kiev falling as an objective, maybe a pocket book version that you can share? 3) "NATO is suing for peace? Really? Please provide a source for that one." I did provide a source (the headline anyway), NBC news, you can find the article by searching the headline. Exactly what is suing for peace? Its when one of the co-belligerents approaches another and seeks to end the conflict (as it appears the US/NATO is preparing to do), and might I add typically the side that is losing. 4) "Do you think abandoning Ukraine will make Taiwan look less tempting to China? Explain that one." No, a loss in Ukraine by US/NATO would look weak, a geopolitical loss with enormous implications. What I did was offer my analysis on how China (and the rest of the world) might view a "Russian win in Ukraine". 5) "All those places around the world that think they're protected by the US are watching, so the US needs to see this through." This is all a matter of global political strategic thinking/analysis ... I would agree that the US/NATO losing in Ukraine is a disaster, but that I think the conflict is heading in that direction. Should the US see it through to a loss?

Not sure what to make of "our" new PM Lets look back (not too far) ... last week he was "setting the record straight" few days ago he was "denying he is a puppet" today he is such a mensch that he "scoffs at death threats" You be the judge

You say "no failure", despite ... NBCNEWS - U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official. Lets review... For the past 2 years we've had NATO countries send hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine, a quantity of weapons so enormous it depleted their own reserves, a vast undisclosed amount of mercenary soldiers, and threw everything but the kitchen sink in terms of sanctions to cripple Russia. The result? It simply didn't work, NATO is now suing for peace and Ukraine will probably end up having lost at least a fifth of its country. All this after having been told during almost the entire duration of the war that Ukraine was winning... Of course people will be told that it's not a defeat, merely a "stalemate", that NATO comes out of it reinforced with additional members, that it's Ukraine or Zelensky's fault anyhow, bla bla bla... But the crux of the matter is NATO defined an extremely clear objective - which was to "drive Russians back to pre-invasion lines" to directly quote Anthony Blinken - and that failed miserably despite their unprecedented efforts. Which means that the West is much less powerful than they thought they were, they just couldn't collectively defeat Russia. This has immense implications. First of which being: if they can't defeat Russia, what hope do they have against China which is likely - just looking at metrics (number of people, production capacity, military budget, etc.) - at least 5 times more powerful? The answer is obvious. Another one is that all those places around the world who thought they were protected by the US will start (in fact are already starting) asking themselves: "wait a minute... That protection isn't worth much, is it?" And so we'll likely witness very significant shifts of alliances and protection arrangements. Lastly people in Western countries will at some point wake up from their propagandized haze and ask very simple questions like: why did we ruin ourselves for Ukraine with almost nothing to show for it? Wouldn't we and the Ukrainians have been better off if we'd respected Minsk 2 and if we hadn't tried to convert Ukraine into a Western bulwark against Russia? And so this will likely serve as a hard lesson domestically that we'd better be much more humble about our geopolitical ambitions (assuming the West still is capable of learning lessons, which is far from certain). All in all, this will undoubtedly be seen by history as the defining event that signified we moved from Western hegemony into a multipolar world. A very long chapter of our collective world history book has just been closed. Only time will tell for sure .....

I didn't actually express an opinion regards the necessity of a lawyer, rather just a retelling of my decades old story, Yes, a lawyer might well be required to simplify/facilitate the process and as you very likely correctly point out "especially if not currently living in home location" - depending on the OPs situation, some/many of these people may be deceased as well.

Yes, something something like this, my story is from decades ago - confusing information regards Date of Birth. The local PooYaiBahn, immediate family and other relatives did attest/witness and correct or otherwise rectify this at the local Amphur. Spoke almost no Thai at the time so only can say, this is how it went down in my story and a usable birth certificate was issued. There was no lawyer involved.

Good Post by the way IMO ... plenty of points are bang on. Zelensky is hanging on by a thread, everyone in his admin is starting to turn on him, finger pointing on the wars failure - notice I used the word failure, nobody currently in power is going to go quite that far, but the writing is on the wall. Russian military forces have increased by a factor of at least 2-3x, while Ukraine is struggling to recruit/conscript, Russian military production has increased accordingly. This war has transformed the old broken down Soviet military into a huge army (soon to eclipse 1 million men) and probably stronger than any force they have fielded since the 1980's. In a war of attrition I just don't see any way that Ukraine can win, they are out manned. Only question is how this will all end - I have the suspicion that the non-western US led part of the world (the global majority) will see this as a defeat. We're in for a global political realignment, going to be a tumultuous decade ahead.