jonclark

Ahhh, it's so good to be home again. Intelligent conversations, food without fish sauce and Palm oil, clean water and air. Why did I spent 8 years of my life in Thailand???

Ahhhhhh yes. And Canada is so great that here you are.........boring us all with your views, on a Thai forum.

Go and club a seal or whatever it is you guys do for fun.

Or stay in Thailand drink Lao Kao and club your wife when you get home drunk - But that's a little off topic don't ya think?

Back on topic - It seems that the majority of people who contribute to this forum have enough experience of Thailand and its' legal landmines and pitfalls to know that whatever the authorities may say is worthless, and I'm sure a number of our Thai friends will concur with that point.

Basically, keep your money in your wallet and if, like me, your an expat working over here, keep your money until you return home and then splash out on a new pad. Take your money out of Thailand - that's the only way to keep your investments safe. After what I've seen happen and the horror stories I've heard over the last couple of years Thailand owes a debt of gratitude to the expats that have stayed here and the tourists who've come (and don't give me that bo**ocks about being guests the majority of expats here are active members of Thai society and are not guests.)

Personally I wouldn't buy land here until I've seen new land laws passed and then foreigners successfully win land dispute cases based on the new laws in court. The only way to have any certainty that the law can be successfully applied.

Thailand has its' current laws , but you have your money and you have the choice, choose wisely !

"Mr Nirut believes rules could be drafted that could attract foreigners while ensuring the government would not be criticised for "betraying" the country"

Oh yes 'betraying the country' - Good old fashioned military rhetoric , gotta love it, stir up the nationalistic pride and tie the hands of the government or parties looking for change.

But how would it betray the country? - well we [whoever we are will remain a mystery ]won't give a reason..........and don't ask for one, cause it's jolly unpatriotic to do so.

Bangkok Post Quote

'For anyone involved in land ownership on behalf of foreigners, what they should be sure of is concern for the nation, ethics and morality in applying the law to make sure they are good Thai citizens," he said.'

Can anyone give me five names of politicians who have shown concern for the nation, ethics and morality and are good Thai citizens ????

P.S - Equality and Fair play are both ethical and moral traits aren't they?

Is Marc lying????

Is this part of the governments policy of highlighting it's successes since claiming power six months ago, that we saw posted yesterday......or is that ......I'm confused

Poor Buggers - can't think of anyplace worse than Aranyaprathet to be placed in quarantine. Hardly any medical facilities and the place is an absolute s**t hole.

Many parents pay the comparatively large fees and expect what they perceive to be a western education (debate as you will what this actually entails at your leisure). Their main perception of this is that in school they expect their children to be using English.

As the point of the OP was that he doesn't see why his children should be forced to learn / study Thai. Many of the Thai parents of students concur with this, because as you rightly pointed out, their children have already learn t Thai and therefore don't need to learn it anymore. So, some parents feel that the time being spent studying Thai is not needed and given that they pay the school fees their opinion should be bloody well listened to. After all their children can learn Thai at home.

This 'attitude' is then passed on to sons and daughters. I have a number of students whose English (reading writing etc...) is excellent, and whilst they can speak Thai, their reading and writing of Thai is way down what would reasonably be expected for their age group in a mainstream Thai school.

I'm not suggesting that Thai students at international schools are mono lingual in English. Rather that Thai has been forced into the curriculum to give Thai students an opportunity to achieve a higher level of Thai. Because up until a few years ago Thai was not a statutory requirement for International school in Thailand resulting in poorer levels of literacy amongst the Thai student population.

As for International Students. As I stated in my first post, they generally enjoy TFL and in that respect the OP should give his children the opportunity to experience a new language, irrespective of how useful he or she perceives it to be in the long run.

Hope that's clarified my earlier comment.

Why not invest the 6 Billion in becoming more energy efficient rather than continuing to be a hugely energy hungry country and wastes huge amounts of energy on super chilly air con and bloody annoying giant TV screens at places like Siam Sq BTS Station.

Interesting to hear the government official talk of the need to place the reactor near a river for cooling purposes. Does anyone have any idea what volume of water would need to be extracted for the purpose of cooling. It just may give an idea of what rivers can support that level of extraction and hence the possible locations. I can only think of Meekong and The old Chao Praya - anyone else any suggestions ???

Or can they use salt water?? Not sure of the physics of reaction cooling process.

Also interesting to see how they reconcile water extraction for the reactor with the farmers need for increased irrigation, which is generally sourced from major rivers

Having taught in an International School here in Thailand for the last few years. The reasons why International Schools are now required to teach Thai is due to meddling from the MoE who for whatever reasons decided that all schools must learn Thai. And remember that a lot of Thai children go to International Schools and many of them were learning English as a first language (so therein may lie the answer). As a result of the Moe Decree most international schools opted for a two tier approach, with mainstream Thai for the Thai students and Thai as a Foreign Language (TFL) for the International students.

Overall, the International students taking TFL are really receptive to learning Thai and see the benefit of doing Thai as, unlike say chemistry,they get the immediate benefit of the class the next time they go out. Ironically the Thai students and strangely their parents find learning Thai the most difficult. Parents don't want their children learning Thai - there seems some stigma to it, bit what it is and why eludes me. Whilst the Thai kids take their Thai lesson as a chance to sit around and use their PSP's.

Go Figure !!!!

A survey was needed once again to state the bloody obvious. Duuuhhhh!

My Daughter goes to a school very close to saphan taksin and due to over crowding she is either late arriving at school or late coming home. Added to the fact that all the schools, government and private chuck out at the same time and use either saphan taksin or surasak, it makes for a nightmare at school opening and leaving times. I think not only should the the trains be more frequent, but they MUST add extra train compartments.

All in all they've got themselves in a bit of a mess as saphan taksin station is wedged between the roads of the bridge, making adding the extra line and platform nearly impossible.....unless they built a new platform above the extisting one????

As teachers they should

a) refuse to have them in school - they have a duty to protect the other kids - when the proverbial hits the fan as the grandparents will no doubt complain that the school must provide an education - invite the local police chief to sit in and get it out in the open.

Personally i think the teachers are on the take in this too. Letting an 11 year old out of the class to deliver drugs and teachers stating they are scared of the grandparents - (80 years plus)

Think which the report fails to mention is the level of education at the school - If the students are all on drugs - have a random drug test and boot all the students who fail it out of the school and only readmit them when they have completed a rehab type course and help the parents with prevention strategies. Why should the students and parents who send their kids to school, sacrifice their opportunity to an education. Opportunities are scarce enough here anyway.

See if taksin were still in charge - those grandparents would be face down in a ditch with a bullet in their heads now - no questions asked !!!

Why all the moans and groans about this - TIT things change instantly - So go with the flow and enjoy an extra couple of days holidays, beer, sun, cute girls in wet T-shirts, what more could you ask for.

Speak to your friends back home ask them what they'd prefer beer and sun or work !!

Right I'm off the protesters are going home, I'm gonna go get wet

Enjoy

This country goes through governments, quicker than Newcastle goes through mangers. Lets just be thankful that at least booze wasn't banned over songkran - At least we can have a few beers while we watch the country tear itself a new arsehol_e

I just can't believe how incredibly selfish this small group of people have been. The whole purpose of this summit was to develop economic stimulus packages to help literally billions of piss poor people around the Asia pacific region during this economic downturn.

They obviously feel their quest is more important than the millions of unemployed, sick and hungry who may have benefited from this summit in someway. A true democratic value if ever their was one.

Just so they could get 'their victory' millions will now have to wait for a new summit to be arranged (when all the leaders have a free slot in their schedule) and then once an agreement has been made, wait for the benefits if the deal to trickle down to them.

In my many years here I've always kept put of Thai politics as my friends say foreigners should keep out of Thai politics - but here the red shirts are involving foriegners in thier dirty political dance.

Selfish, selfish little s**ts

I know this idea will probably be ridiculed, but as usual when something racist, unequal or biased occurs many views are expressed which follow the TIT line and nothing ever changes.

Have foreigners ( and i hate using that term as it is intrinsically divisive) ever tried petitioning the government with a list of points for consideration? I am fairly sure that as tax paying members of this society a unified voice and cause goes a lotf arther than comments on a forum thread. We are a lot better financed than most, and most people would consider themselves to have better than average education and throw in a couple of foreign news networks to cover the story and things may change. hel_l we could even get ourseleves a special coloured t-shirt!

We know what the inequalities are - why not seek change?

Has anyone actually read his book??

If so maybe they can add something to the topic regarding what the offending paragraph etc. actually contained. How did he criticise the monarchy? Did he suggest the monarcjy was behind the coup?

What's the story.

I notice that it's Burmese immigrants - I wonder if and when the government will use this incident as justification for any future heavy handed deportations of illegals, as we saw recently with the Rhyoniga, all in the name of keeping Thailand safe for tourists.

But, anyway a terrible incident, condolences and thoughts with the family.

Can't see Swiss TV giving Thailand anything other than more negtive publicity.

I bet behind the scenes there are some serious discussions being held. After all you don't ge to be head of national TV without having made some high ranking contacts of one sort or another.

As for the bit in an earlier post about the russian mafia killing the chickens with Molatov cocktails, i'd like to have seen that - thousands of chickens running around on fire, must of smelt like the worlds biggest BBQ

You get the feeling that this country has been so introspect for so long that it's about to disappear up its own backside. Insulting Thailand and Thais - For the love of god get off your high horse. Thais insult every bordering country and their inhabitants and then some.

As for the poor immigration officers who felt offended - my heart bleeds for them. If you work for the government you must be able to deal with all members of the public calmly, rationally and politely - even if they are getting a bit shirty with you.

Go to any job center, social security office etc in UK and the officals there put up with a lot worse than being told to F off.

Does anyone know a) what the requirements are for changing from a normal non imm B visa to a non immigrant B marriage visa and is it a hassle? I have been told by my place of work that it is a difficult process and they would rather keep me on the visa that i currently have.

Any info would be useful

No, it is not the case that you will never again get a new non-B. Don't know hwy she said that. Don't worry.

You need to apply for a new workpermit as soon as possible and have al papers for that ready, so when your job ends you can apply for a new WP with your new employer and based on that ask for another one year extension of stay at immigration.

So cancel your permission to stay at immigration and get a 7 day extension, apply for the new WP, and get a new extension of stay for 1 year. Can al be done in 7 days for a teacher, but make sure your new employerr has all the papers ready.

If you are on good terms with your current employer an the new employer is in the same labour office area, you can ask your old employer to agree that the new employer wil be added to your WP, before you switch jobs. Then take a month unpaid leave and start wrking for the new employer. After that month cancel your job with the old employer and you still have a valid WP and permisison to stay.

Thanks for the update and info!

I am a teacher and i have all the required documents (work permit etc.) I have been offeed a much improved job and am keen to accept. But what do i need to do in order to change visa's as i know my current visa will die the moment i switch jobs.

Last time i changed jobs a rather curt immigration lady explained that i needed a letter confirming my cancellation of my current contract / job and then when i produced it - cancalled my visa there and then, explained i had to now leave the country or get a 7 day extension and leave the country. And if i did this ever again i wouldn't be issued with a new non B.

Can this be right?

I don't want to change jobs and then have no chance of getting a new non imm B etc.

You all know what I'm talking about!

Tell the truth only! And that's what isn't done in most of the cases here, it's just a repeating of readed reports pp, which in most of the cases not true or even censored for those who done the censor!

Don't forget that a foreigner will never understand the mentality, culture and character of Thais.

Don't forget that foreigner, and that's the most of you, are Guest in this country.

If you don't like what's going on here, go back to your country, but don't get involved as long as you stay in this country.

I've listen many times from many foreigner from different countries, that they wouldn't allow Thais to get involved in their country affairs. Why you claim to get involved here? You don't have any more right as others.

Be objective and don't "run" with the masses!

And don't use that name again Mr. Noname, or Fiction or Beachcom... or who ever you are, I mean YOU: way to go Fritz.

My god he's right !! ............But hang on I don't remember the thais telling foreigners NOT TO GET INVOLVED in the awful aftermath of the Tsunami, which was (although not exclusively) a thai affair. The hands of the thai were out of their pockets in a flash asking for help, money, volunteers to help them rebuild etc. from which ever foreign government would listen. And now the he has the audacity to suggest that we should go back to our own country and not get involved!!!! Remember the door swings both ways!!!

Buddy i've got news for you. This is my country too!!!! It may not be the country of my birth but it's my country. I live here, my wife was born her, my three daughters were born here, I work here, i own a house here, i pay taxes here (which help run the government - you could say i'm one of many the many paymasters to the government, and taxes by default give me the right to get involved. After all why shouldn't i have an opinion about the people i help payroll through my taxes?) And i am certianly not a guest . I along with no doubt many thousands of other expats are active and valuable members of thai society. So please remember that your vicious comments upset your fellow country men.

Peace and Equality for All !!

Cheers