jayceenik

Indeed, I remember reading some time ago that the authorities had found that all but one of his elephants belonged to Thai farmers and that he rented the beasts when they were not needed for agricultural work. Not really a "sanctuary".

Some time ago I read that after Inquiry the authorities had found that all except one were "rented" from Thai farmers.

My TW was a most attractive slender girl when we first met many many years ago. I find her still beautiful but she has put on a few unwanted lbs/kgs. Nothing serious but enough for her to think that a bariatric surgery would bring back her slim youth waist. I'm totaly opposed to that but she keeps showing me TikTok Before and After miracles. What say you, guys?

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-visits-crimea-anniversary-its-annexation-ukraine-2023-03-18/#:~:text=March 18 (Reuters) - Russian,of the peninsula from Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-makes-surprise-trip-mariupol-first-occupied-donbas-ukraine-2023-03-19/

Thanks for that info. Very important for me I was getting worried that I'd have to close down an old pre-31DEC23 FCD non-interest bearing savings account in SIN and transfer it to Thailand before 31DEC24. So, it seems like I can wait until convenient. I'll sleep better 😊

Born to a Ukrainian Jewish family, Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine. Different mentality, eh?

The West, led by Hegemon US and its sidekick the UK have only goood intentions.

Any chance this new TRD tax mess could be delayed ? And be {re}implemented at a later date ... Like the airport tax, and the tourist tax, and ...

I support Putin 100%. LOL that I'm all that bad you say I must remember😀

We're talking about F-16. Here is a good article about them in Politico. https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-f-16-fighter-jets-war-russia-base-runway/ Excerpt : runways and taxi routes at multiple sites will need to be smooth and constantly checked for debris given how susceptible the low-slung, single-engine F-16s are to ground debris

Yes, I too read some time ago that clean runways are needed for F-16 and that the Russians would certainly make Ukraine's airfields unsuitable for them but I have not seen this mentioned since by politico commentators until your post. My conspiracy mind makes me think that NATo will try to operate them from nearby US vassal states like Poland. This is Casus Belli and will not be tolerated by Putin who has already said that foreign airfields will be made INOP if they host them. F-16 are suited to be armed with nukes so I'm not sure what Putin will make of them if they start intruding in Russian territory. That should worry him about a potential sneaky nuke attack. To this day I still fail to see what is the benefit for Europeans to so eagerly follow the US into their long-planned geostrategic proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Old Russophobic hatreds should not trump the interests of the peoples of Europe. But then, among the EU leaders there is only Viktor Orban who seem to care for his people, the others are devoted Atlantists taking their orders from the boss.

JBChiangRai's post that was just above mine. Anyway, JB doubled down with his next post where he says that I do watch Mearsheimer occasionally, but he's not credible. Vive la Russie !!

I'm living in LOS but I have to file an income tax return to the Belgian RD because of my Belgian pension. It's a joint filing with my Thai wife. She has no income other than my ATM and I declare zero income for her. Still the Belgian RD assumes a small fictitious income for her.

Your post is a spoof right?

"Theoretically" applies to me... I have since a long time a FCD Euro in SIN. Non interest producing since many years. I have whittled it down over the years to buy car, house, living expenses, etc for my Thai wife. Now I think I'll have to close it down and bring the rest of it into in my savings account in Thailand to be THB because I fear that inbound remittances from that SIN account after 1JAN25 could be hammered by the TRD. "Theoretically" is not a certainty even though I think like you that it's most likely to be a "no". It's now over five months that the new tax law should have been announced and spelled out clearly but even knowledgeable guys like you are still not sure 100% of WTF is going on about what applies to us tax residents farangs. Anyway, thanks for all your valuable inputs.

Talk about a FCD at Bangkok Bank! I have a very satisfactory FCD EUR at Citibank SIN since 2001 but I thought I would transfer it to a FCD EUR at the BBK for ease of inheritance for my Thai wife so I went to BBK Silom HQ last Friday with intent to open a FCD EUR. By God! Their FCD is a joke! First I'd have to open a THB savings account to which Citi SIN could transfer my EUR. These THB which would then be changed into EUR to go to my BBK FCD EUR account. So change incoming TT EUR into THB then change those THB into EUR for the FCD account. Costly double exchange. Citi accepts EUR TT remittances straight into my account and transfers whatever amount in EUR wherever I want at no cost and without any change into SGD first. And I can change the FCD currency whenever I want. My first FCD was in USD with SCB SIN eons ago when I was working in Indonesia and paid in USD. I changed to Citi in 2001. Absolutely no transfer problems.

I'm 100% on Russia's side and 100% against those who sabotaged NS1-2 and now are licking their chops at the idea of NATO going after Russia and launching a nuclear WWIII. So the ad homineen attacks at @Gweilomancan be directed at me too!. 😉 Thank you! Always amusing to see that Herr Goebbels has left such a very active Russsophobe progeny. Ach! Time for a Barbarossa redux with NATO leading the charge this time.

My Thai wife has a couple vacant houses here in LOS. She goes there regularly to check things out, cut the grass to make an appeearance if not a presence. She says a squat in LOS can become permanent after ten years if no owner showed up. Squatting is a big problem in France. Takes usually two years and expensive lawyer and court fees to evict squatters. As in the US the law is much more on the squatter's side than on the legal property owners. Owners could get up to two years jail time and heavy fines if they tried to evict the squatters themselves. Other than the occasional and temporary church and vacant commercial building in Brussels squatting is not a problem in Belgium.

A few years back a local airline rquested some sort of attestation of being fit or have a help companion on the web booking form for PAX older than some age. I was aged less than the mentioned age so no problem but It made me worried about future air travel in LOS. Sorry, I forget the details but, anyway, I haven't seen this notice for some time. Still, being seriously old (but very fit) I always fret when they ask your DOB on the web booking request. Next Thursday I fly UBP to DMK and then go to Silom by APT bus, then BTS, then... on foot! Second such trip this year. I know this will become difficult one day.

Sorry, no links I can find right now. This is more of the stuff I found about in WWII books and that nobody wants to remember. As for France, the plan was for Alsace-Lorraine to revert to Germany and most parts on the East side of the Rhone to go to Italy. Note that the US-UK had planned early on for France to be a military protectorate run by US and British generals. A new currency had already been printed - the AMGOT Franc. Fortunately for France De Gaulle put a quick end to these imperialistic dreams What I want to say is that all these accusations about Putin being an new Empire builder came from people who are themselves citizens of hegemonist countries. There are maps you can find on the Internet about the US planned dismemberment of the present Federation of Russia into a multitude of mini states that, it is hoped by the US will welcome Black Rock and associates. Just like Zelensky is now.

Do you know that the US had a plan to dismember Belgium after the Liberation? And make it disappear as a nation... One part to Holland, one part to France, and one part to Germany. But a few years later, when Wallonia did want to join France (Walloons, French, De Gaulle had all marked their accord) this project was nixed by the US who didn't want France to be augmented with prosperous Wallonia and its rich coal mines and steel mills. BTW-many sanctions directed at Russia have been economically very detrimental to Belgium. Latest one being directed at the word class Antwerp diamond market. No more Russian diamonds for Antwerp, not even those pre-cut in India. I want peace in Europe, not a US-Russia proxy war that would serve only the geostrategic interests of the US. Belgium is host to 22 US nuclear missiles and will be one of the top retaliatory targets for Russia if it's attacked by NATO like so many now in Europe want (UK, Poland, France, the Baltic states, ...).

I support Putin 100%. I'm just a plain Belgan retiree. If there is a Kremlin supported group of posters on this forum please message me and accept me in your group because I feel rather lonely as a Russophile in this mostly Russophobe forum.

Actually blocking RT and other Russian media in the EU was ordered by Ursula vdL. Without any consultation with other EU luminaries. Interesting to know Ursula's marital ties to big Pharma Pfizer. https://www.euronews.com/health/2024/05/17/how-the-love-story-between-von-der-leyen-and-pfizer-turned-sour

I'm a Belgian retiree in Isaan. I used towatch RT France for news until the Pfizer girl blocked it. Fortunately, it's still on FB unblocked in Thailand. https://www.facebook.com/RTenfrancais/ And, Yes, the Wikipedias;s entry about that SS has been redacted. Yaroslav Hunka, the Waffen SS veteran who received a standing ovation in Canada's parliament, was first able to flee to England before he emigrated to North America. Hunka was one of thousands of SS veterans who made the journey with the connivance of Western authorities, who saw them as anti-Communist allies in the Cold War. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEZPZt0X0Tc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASPoFzmDteg

I've followed the Ukraine events since 2014. I respect Putin. I see him as a great statesman and who has put Russia back on its feet since he took power. I'm on his side 100%. I wish Russia success in that US against Russia war by Ukrainian proxy. The US should push their marionette Z to accept that Ukraine should not be a Nuclear missile NATO threat at the border with Russia and start peace talks with Putin. And the US should call it quits. They have failed to destroy Russia but have succeded in weakening Europe (a long held goal) and making it a client for their expensive eco-disaster LNG by blowing up the pipelines that were bringing much cheaper and better Russian gas to Germany. One has to be awed by how successful US propaganda has been in painting Putin as a madman (orc?) who wants to recreate some tsarist Empire of yore. Man alive! A WWII SS received a double standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament recently. Babi Yar, anybody? That SS was lauded admiringly by all these Canadians because he had fought against Russia in WWII and was thus a hero to be applauded. Insulting those brave Canadians who died on Juno Beach in Normandy. Russia was on our side in WWII against the Nazis. you know...