Arindos

Most visitors who have been to Pattaya complain about the lack of family friendly activities.

3 hours ago, BigStar said:

 

Good point. Otherwise sane members start frothing at the mouth, soiling their knickers, or diapers, and spewing invective. Appears to be a particular form of OCD. 

US politics is what completely ruined Reddit.

21 hours ago, candide said:

For an outsider like me, these relations seem to be beneficial for both India and the ME.  What's the negative side of it?

How are there any benefits? India wastes billions on buying oil from the Middle East, and most immigrant workers there are treated worse than dirt.

20 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

This doesn’t suggest the ‘hate’ you were referring to:
 

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/uk-attitudes-to-immigration-among-most-positive-internationally-1018742-pub01-115

The UK loves immigrants but hates immigration. It's a word salad to keep to social etiquette norms of political correctness surrounding migration.

https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/05/25/british-voters-want-more-immigrants-but-less-immigration

10 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Do you imagine that China will be on America's side in a Middle East conflict?

China wants to keep the United States away from its border regions (which is why the Chinese have been funding the Taliban to keep the US out of Afghanistan and prop up North Korea), but they also want to secure the trade routes out of China (which is why the Chinese have been building military facilities in places such as Sri Lanka).

While I assume that the Chinese will continue to fund anti-American interests in the Middle East, I also envisage a situation where the Chinese move military assets into the Middle East to fight against terrorism and piracy (similar to how the contradictory policy of supporting Afghanistan while fighting Xinjiang works).

The BBC and the NYT are widely cited as having a pro-Muslim bias, in India, Europe and now Israel. I would expect that BBC Arabic is exceptionally pro-Muslim.

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Link?

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=The+British+public+hate+migration

8 minutes ago, candide said:

I don't remember India ever been non-nationalist. Maybe not enough?

India has been ruled by the left-wing since independence until the 2000s, and it's only since around 2016 that the right wing has been in power. Virtually all of the British Indian institutions were transformed into tools for the left wing to rule as a single party.

In particular I hope that the right wing puts to end this silly craze of trying to improve relations with the Middle East. Build a wall along the border of Pakistan and watch the Middle East descend into chaos instead. India should have absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East and India needs to assert itself against those who wish to do so.

The idea that the US can simply avoid using its military is silly because only the US will defend US shipping and other assets in the Middle East. It's alliances with other countries were about projecting US military power overseas and therefore most other countries are not going to be sympathetic. The only positive is that countries such as India are putting a lot of military into the Middle East as a consequence, and the US should push China to put its military assets in the Middle East as well.

And I do consider the mess in the Middle East to be part of a world war. You've got a lot of controversy on the western side of the Middle East due to the Migration Crisis and Israel-Palestine, and you have also drawn in the Chinese and Indians through the war between Iran/Afghanistan/Pakistan on the eastern side of the Middle East (the Chinese are widely believed to be funding the Taliban). It now waits to be seen what the Russians will do.

It's impossible for the United States to not get involved in the Middle East since the militants are targeting US shipping and other interests that are vital for the US, and also because the US has alliances that are built on the condition of US military support and the global economic would be upended if the US withdrew this support.

The only upshot that I can think of is the US may want to pull support for protection of Chinese shipping in order to get Chinese military assets in the Middle East. India has already made its biggest deployment in history for example. 

And on another side note, this does look a lot like a world war.  

On 1/30/2024 at 11:59 AM, candide said:

And that's exactly the reason why the current government is diverting attention from it by changing name and other nationalism-related  issues.

I think it's good that India is undergoing nationaism. The majority of the regressive stuff like homophobia and religious politics tend to come from the left-wing, whereas the right-wing tends to be focused on restoring native Indian culture. I think the country does need to be more aggressive against the Middle East and reassert itself. 

The main problem is of course that the vast majority of the British public are against immigration and in particular immigration from Muslim countries. This holds true through political alignment and age groups, and even among many non-Muslim racial minority groups. It's the same with those who regret Brexit as they still hate EU immigration and EU policies on migration.

15 hours ago, Paris333 said:

Why the car rental companies Hertz and Sixt are separating from Tesla
The US car rental company is listing its electric models, especially vehicles from the Musk Group. The German company Sixt is also foregoing Tesla. What's behind it?

 

As to the reasons for the change in strategy, the landlord referred to the high costs of repairs and damage to the electric vehicles. The company said that expenses for repairs after accidents, particularly for electric cars, were high in the fourth quarter.
Hertz estimated the write-offs at about $245 million. “This accordingly supports the decision to reduce the electric car fleet,” it said.
Competitor Sixt had recently announced that it would no longer rent out Tesla electric cars due to weak resale values, and also pointed to higher repair costs.
In Europe, private demand for electric vehicles had recently cooled down noticeably, partly due to the cancellation of public subsidies. 
With the news that the car rental company is now increasingly sorting out electric cars, quality problems with the vehicles are also coming into focus. Because there are currently significantly fewer electric vehicles than combustion engines on the market and they are relatively young, the data available on the vehicles is limited. According to testing experts from TÜV, the axle suspension and brake discs in particular are considered to be frequent defects in electric vehicles. 

Data from Bloomberg NEF for Munich and Orlando airports, both locations with a particularly large number of rental stations, show: If providers such as Sixt or Hertz earn an average of $8.40 more per week for combustion engines for every $1,000 invested in their fleet, the figure for electric cars is $8.40 more just $5.20 per week.

Source:

https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/mobilitaet-warum-sich-die-autovermieter-hertz-und-sixt-von-tesla-trennen-01/100006130.html

This is why a Japanese car is still more popular than Telsa or Chinese cars. They are much more reliable and still affordable.