sidneybear

Another vile import from the western world. Perverts in drag and gimp suits coming on to children should be thrown in prison.

But you're speaking to lots of foreigners here @simon43 😀

The problem isn't with Wise, it's the insanely strict Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing regulations they have to adhere to, in order to stay in business and avoid penalties and sanctions. They're obliged to freeze accounts and are forbidden to say why they did so under anti tipping off rules. They (and all similar financial service providers) err on the side of extreme caution, freeze accounts and cancel transactions for all kinds of obscure reasons. I had a remittance frozen for using my wife's pet name in the transaction reference field, even though I'd stated what the transaction was for. They'd flagged it as suspicious under CTF and Sanctioned individual concerns. They cancelled the transfer and I did get the money refunded a few days later, after I'd provided them with extensive information on whom I was transferring to and why. Gone are the days when our money was ours to do what we liked with.

The problem isn't with Wise, it's the insanely strict Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing regulations they have to adhere to, in order to stay in business and avoid penalties and sanctions. They're obliged to freeze accounts and are forbidden to say why they did so under anti tipping off rules. They (and all similar financial service providers) err on the side of extreme caution, freeze accounts and cancel transactions for all kinds of obscure reasons. I had a remittance frozen for using my wife's pet name in the transaction reference field, even though I'd stated what the transaction was for. They'd flagged it as suspicious under CTF and Sanctioned individual concerns. They cancelled the transfer and I did get the money refunded a few days later, after I'd provided them with extensive information on whom I was transferring to and why. Gone are the days when our money was ours to do what we liked with.

I think all that's happened is the removal of a filter that used to only allow content from the Left. Now others can have a say as well.

I can remember people marvelling at 9 million annual visitors, and the place felt busy then. Mass tourism is a horrid disease that spoils so many beautiful places.

How remarkable! An article about the weather that doesn’t mention the climate change alarmist hoax. Times might be changing at last.

I think this article is pretty accurate: Thaksin is the lesser of two evils that the Thai establishment is dealing with at the moment. The Orange brigade threaten to turn Thailand into a woke, lefty, crime ridden hellhole, like the Western world, where nobody has any respect and Thailand's charming culture gets trampled underfoot. I hope that the powers that be succeed in defeating these two evils.

Well, governments that Thaksin has led (including this one have): 1) Jacked up fees for visas, elite cards, and permanent residence 2) Imposed tax on remittances into Thailand, impacting almost everyone who brings in money from abroad

It's a cold

Wow. Seems like spending jumped during Covid, then never went back down. I wonder why 🤔

Agreed that this is no laughing matter. Integration and data matching of international passenger movement records and the revenue department records happens already in places like Australia. The tax folks know exactly how long you've been there.

They want to turn Thailand into a woke hellhole, like the "progressive" West.

Which one of them was shagging on thr side?

I think you missed the gist of my message. I agree with you, but the British government doesn't care one bit about pensioners, still less about expatriate pensioners, and will come up with all sorts of excuses to divert funding to projects that win more votes - like "our" NHS.

That goes to pay for a whole load of things that won't benefit overseas retirees, like "our NHS".

True. They might also do what Australia does: You can only apply for the state pension if you've been physically present in the country for at least two years preceding your application (meaning people who leave prior to retirement age never get a pension), AND; if you move overseas, the pension is prorated by the number of years you've lived there during your working life divided by 35 years. At least the Australian pension is indexed though.

True. The British government doesn't like pensioners, and has even cut energy subsidies from pensioners who live in the UK. Expatriates are held in even lower regard by the broke British state. Nothing will change.

The report measures worthy things that actually make people happy, like family relationships and appreciation from people who are close to us. It's easy to see why Thailand rightly scores highly in these important areas of real world happiness. Reports that pretend that GDP and other daft metrics make a difference to individual happiness will obviously incorrectly mark Thailand down. The western counties have high GDP, but are sadder places than Thailand, which is why we all want to live in Thailand and post here about it.

Moodys ratings ate like opinion polls: They are intended to shape opinion rather than measure it. Their predictions are never right.

More woke speech control. People should be allowed to say whatever they like, unless it's inciting criminal behaviour.

Good move

Gunsmoke in the streets? LOL. What a total exaggeration.

I turned them off. Its in the settings. Periodically, I get a notification that my service provider has turned them on, so I turn them off again.

I was also surprised, in a good way, to at last see an article about the weather that didn't descend into alarmist climate zealotry.