sidneybear

Democracy doesn't seem to be working too well in the West. Whomever you vote for, you get marginally different flavours of the same thing, despite politicians presenting as polar opposites and getting people all worked up. Generations of the same family running for president and being supported by one or the other of two insuperable main parties. The list goes on: the West isn't qualified to lecture Thailand on democratic principles. Vote buying is common in Thailand. Village head men dishing out Thaksin's cash is more of a plutocracy than anything else. One of Thaksin's stooges or siblings will get 'elected', then sensible people will intervene and chuck them out, just like the last several times.

Oh dear. Another one who goes ad hominem because he's unable to join the debate.

Your wife's family and mates do not a country make.

They might buy more votes, but they won't be allowed to stay in office for long before the conservatives that guard Thailand's delightful culture chuck them out. You'll see them scuttling back to the airport with bags of loot before long. Either that or they'll be thrown in prison.

I think that we're talking about two different things: what insurance companies promise to do (the policy document) and what they try to wriggle out of doing.

Many thinking Thais would say that about progressivism. They're smart enough to see that the west has progressed into a soulless, degenerate and bankrupt dump, where all people do is slavishly follow this or that meaningless woke fad, discarding all that made the west great. Thais don't want to follow the west anymore.

Opinion surveys are there to shape public opinion, rather than measure it. They predicted that Brexit wouldn't happen, and that Hillary Clinton would win.

Right wing nationalist nonsense? "Spouted" by me? Do try to keep things civil old chap, we're having a debate here and we both have a right to our respective opinions. Anyway, you sound just like me back in 2005, before the coup is 2006, and again in 2013, before the coup in 2014. I was just like you are now. All this western cultural poison won't work in Thailand, thankfully. The west is a spent force - senile, confused and losing its poisonous influence. A bit like Biden, its metaphor.

How do you know that most don't support the status quo, including coups and the like? Have you conducted a survey? And no, bought votes don't count.

Yes, yes, I know full well what a coup is. The West has sponsored lots of them, as well as destabilising elected governments it doesn't like, ignoring legalities when it suits its Liberal (and fast going out of fashion) worldview. Thaksin's lot, or another lot sponsored by the west, may well buy votes to get back in, but they won't last long. Grass roots Thais are conservative, which isn't a bad thing because Thailand in nice just the way it is.

I'm Thai. Read my earlier post. And you obviously don't know how Thai politics works. Coups are a fact of life and are sometimes necessary to rein in malign western influences that would otherwise spoil Thailand.

Seems the rules might have changed. I started paying in 2012, but could only pay six years back at that time. I've been paying class 3 ever since, and worked a few years in the UK prior to emigrating. I'll get 32/35ths of a full pension at 67 years old, so I might give them a call to see if it's possible to top up the missing 3 years.

No, I don't collect paperwork from friends who were ripped off by insurance companies in the past, just to give to anonymous people like you on Internet forums. Nor am I prepared to allow you to peruse private correspondence of my own, for a reasonable claim that I had to fight for payment of, simply because the company was trying to avoid payment. I really hope that this kind of thing doesn't happen to you, but it might. Since I'm reluctant to post private correspondence, I think we'll have to agree to disagree, and I don't care what you think anyway "Big Star".... Wow. *giggle*

I'm Thai mate, so your post is a tad off piste - the correct possessive pronoun in your post should be 'your' rather than 'their'. I've never felt like dust under anyone's feet either, but I appreciate your concern. Human rights in the dump that's the West? Poverty, depression and repression more like. You've been watching too much CNN.

Observations, actually. Insurance companies can be shysters, just like other businesses that might shirk their responsibilities. Sometimes it's a battle to get them to pay. You probably work for one, or haven't had a bad experience, yet.

Well it's not a myth. Sure, they usually pay out, but I can think of several cases of insurance companies trying to wriggle out of paying legitimate claims that happened to me and people I know.

Hmmm.... you'd need to be a fan of outdoor action to make that work.

Insurance companies usually trawl small print to wriggle out of paying. He probably didn't have a licence either.

Night time is the most dangerous time too. It's when traffic is moving and lots of drunk and stoned people behind the wheel.

Do they have back seats?

That's the most likely outcome.

Traditional Songran is rather charming and definitely cultural. Modern songkran is nothing more than a moronic water fight.

So what if he is or he isn't? It's his right to support whomever he wants to support. I'll be voting for Prayuth. At least he has conservative values, supports Thai traditions, and opposes those who want Thailand to become like the ghastly western world. This coming from an ex-Thaksin supporter, before I realised the error of my ways.

Depends whether you call buying votes en masse democracy. Looking at places like the US or Britain, there's not much evidence of democracy in the western world either: just two big parties and nothing changes.

Such is the the binary nature of debate these days.