buffcoat

From a westernised perspective with a very strong dose of sin as a moral yardstick their actions could be construed as hypocritical but from a Buddhist viewpoint it absolutely is not.

That is not to say that their actions would be seen as good but they would be expected to make merit to restore the balance of their negative action. The negative action here would only impinge on their own soul and not impact anyone else so in that sense their negative action is less 'bad' than telling a lie which harms someone else.

I know this is a very simplistic explanation of a complex question and because there are different strands of Buddhism and because of the emphasis on personal responsibility/morality it is hard to put it simply for a Western audience and I am certain what I have said here falls well short of a proper description.

Is there a limit on the fps of the weapons used on site and does this differ from auto to sniper?

I'm sorry, but I find many of attitudes on here puzzling. IMO, it is all just more Thai-bashing from Westerners who feel that all of Thailand should bow and scrape to them.

The woman in question ran from the police during questioning, resisted arrest, and then verbally abused the chief-of-police. In the USA, where I am from, any of these crimes carry serious charges. But in Thailand, where the Westerner is to be worshipped at all cost because all Thais should be whores to the tourist dollar (regardless of their station), the Thais are awful for detaining her while they decide how to handle this case and what charges to press.

In the end, it will probably be a small fine and no jail time just as with the Burroughs case (and in his case he abused and threatened airport security and immigration personnel which would also be a big crime in the US). That is not a big punishment to pay considering the circumstances. The woman from Australia is the one who made a petty problem very serious by her actions. Consider in your home country what would happen if you fled the police, resisted arrest, and verbally abused the cheif-of-police. But in Thailand, tourists should be able to do whatever it is they want according to the reasoning of some.

I DO agree that Thailand has endemic problems with police corruption, and criminal justice can be a twisted thing in LOS. However, in this case, I think the Thai authorities are within their rights. What must the Thais think when they are asked to excuse serious crimes for the sake of sucking up to tourists (and, no, I am not talking about a stolen bar mat)? It perputuates the sterotype many Thais have that all Westerners think Thailand and its people should excuse any behaviour and any crime from tourists and Westerners to save face with Westerners and their media.

Many of us know the worst thing one can ever do in Thailand, especially with authorities, is to raise one's voice, especially if verbal abuse is involved. This is NOT a case about a bar prank or a missing bar mat, and it must infuriate Thais that Westerners and their media want to paint it as such. Now the woman and the media are trying to insult the Thais and the Thai authorites involved by conducting a media campaign that makes Thailand look bad for holding someone in such a case (fleeing a police investigation, abuse of police staff). That is not a winning move on her part as she is now just fanning the flames, making a bad situation worse, and hardening the attitudes of the Thai authorities involved.

And had this happened in a Western country to a Thai person (and Thais who travel to other countries would probably never behave in such a manner) that fled police when being questioned and verbally abused the police and their cheif, would all of us be in an uproar? The woman (and any of us) need to learn that one must respect the laws, the authorities, and the customs in ANY country in which we choose to travel, and that being a Western tourist in a devloping country dependent in part upon tourism and tourist money does not give us the freedom to act in whatever manner we like and to break any laws we wish.

JMHO, and presented as another opinion in the face of all the rampant Thailand-bashing in this thread and the "another-nail-in-the-coffin" crowd who frequent the TV forum.

Agree 100%. Well put.

Absolutely correct, I couldn't agree more

Best frogs legs i have had were in italy, very nice.

Like the grasshoppers, remind me a bit of pork scratchings but have never had the nerve to munch on silk or bamboo worms, what do they taste like?

Cutting down the beatings to twice a week is very generous, obviously a bleeding heart liberal

Just another fundamentalist nut job....the sort that burns Harry Potter books

I think there are two questions here.

1/Is visa safe to use?

Generally yes but cc fraud is a worldwide problem and it is a risk to consider.

2/What about the money if my card is used?

Depending on which bank issues your card either the bank OR you is responsible for illegal use. In the UK it is standard that the bank will foot the bill but I have been told that Thai banks will not.

I have used my cc in N.America,Europe and Asia and only in the UK has it been used illegally. A major pain in the arse but it did not cost me a bean.

I am happy to use a cc but only where the issuing bank will pick up the bill for fraud.

A busload of bisexual female bikini models just knocked on my door and want to have an orgy?

What should I do?

Yep, I reckon it's pure fantasy.

it happened to you as well!

those dam_n lying bisexual bikini girls, they told me i was there only man

dam_n! I was wondering where the second bus ended up!

If your wife holds a Thai passport only she most certainly does need a Schengen visa.FLR/ILR is only good for the UK because we are outside the Schengen agreement.

We went to Paris last November by train and the passport and visa were both checked before she was allowed on the train in London.

We also flew to Italy a couple of weeks ago and were briefly delayed by the airline staff whilst we provided the documents to show she had a return ticket booked before the expiry date of her Schengen visa.

If they have asked for the statements then it is always going to be a very good idea to provide them, don't take the chance of annoying them by ignoring their request.

Of course aiming and firing accurately is totally different on the range to an 'emergency ' situation and personally I feel a handgun is easier to handle and aim quickly (particularly for a diminutive Thai lady).

Untrained handgun shooters particularly if they are used to rifle or shotgun can be lousy shots as they tend to cramp their hand when firing a handgun which throws off the trajectory significantly.You need a steady hand which is why you see the firing hand being supported by the non-firing hand.

Buying a firearm is a major step and you have to be prepared to use it. You need to think very seriously if it is something you believe you can/should do.

Training is vital as you are handling a tool which is designed to kill.

Security and access to the weapon is something you should consider very carefully, too many children die because they have got hold of a live weapon.

I personally would ignore the vendetta issue over killing an intruder.If you genuinely are in fear of your life or believe there is a deadly threat to your family what may happen later is a complete irrelevance.Allowing your partner or children to be raped/killed etc. because you are concerned about some hypothetical revenge is perverse.

I would also make it clear that the use of deadly force is only something that you should resort to when you are in imminent fear of death or serious harm to you and your family. The mere fact that someone is on your property or in your house by itself is not justification for deadly force.

Using a firearm is always the last resort

As to the type of handgun I would personally purchase a sig .4 as it has more stopping power than a standard 9mm but to me no difference in recoil.

With a Thai lady in mind I think the recoil would be tolerable and avoid the issue of the second or third round going through the ceiling. But of course she would need professional training to handle it properly in terms of grip and balance to make sure she can hit only what she is aiming at.

Since the weapon is envisaged for use in home defence the likely target will be in the same room and probably therefore within five yards max ? so accuracy should not be a problem unless you have one of those mini weapons with a 2 inch barrell.

Hollow points make up for the lack of punch in a .38 which is why law enforcement like them and of course there is no danger of a round going through the target and hitting someone else. The same reason special forces sometimes use reduced loads in their ammunition.I would assume that hollow points are illegal for civilians in Thailand and the OP and his lady would need standard rounds.

Best thing for them to do is find a good gun shop/range and try out various handguns to see what she can comfortably handle before making a purchase (always assuming they go down this route).

The OP is clearly concerned by his situation and just as clearly intends to stay where he is, none of us know his situation so advice to move is quite pointless.

Given he stays where he is and his desire to improve security he has two main avenus to pursue.

1/Passive defense. Good locks, walls, bars,alarm, proximity light, dogs,connection to police/security on a fee basis etc.

The problem with passive defense is it only provides delay to the determined intruder but hopefully gives you time to take some further action to protect yourself and your family.

2/Active defense. This involves you actively resisting the intruders.

Hand to hand (only any good if you are Tony Jaa)

oops pressed the wrong button

some form of hand weapon, edged or otherwise, again unless you have been trained to use one (and trained to a high standard) not much use.

projectile weapon, shotgun or handgun. You need to be trained to use it.

pepper/mace hard to use in a confined space without suffering the effect yourself.

Personally I would accept the lady's request and obtain a firearm but make sure she is trained to use it and that it is locked in a gun cabinet , which is why the passive defences are important for the time it gives you( I would suggest a pistol for a Thai lady for ease of use).

Do not buy a .22 as it does not have stopping power. Do not buy a .45 as the recoil is fierce and she will probably lose control.

What do I know about all this? I am in the UK and hold an explosives cert,a shotgun cert and unusually a firearms cert (here this is hard to obtain). My house is vetted by the firearms police section and they have given me significant amounts of property security advice on which the above is based.

I hope the OP achieves security and peace of mind.

The OP is clearly concerned by his situation and just as clearly intends to stay where he is, none of us know his situation so advice to move is quite pointless.

Given he stays where he is and his desire to improve security he has two main avenus to pursue.

1/Passive defense. Good locks, walls, bars,alarm, proximity light, dogs,connection to police/security on a fee basis etc.

The problem with passive defense is it only provides delay to the determined intruder but hopefully gives you time to take some further action to protect yourself and your family.

2/Active defense. This involves you actively resisting the intruders.

Hand to hand (only any good if you are Tony Jaa)

Speaking as a minion of the Illuminati I can say with assurance that our plans are gathering pace and that within a very short time all will be ready.

The operating system for our global computer system has already been encoded and will be released by Microsoft as Windows Empire, this flawless system will sweep the world and everyone will be happy after we have executed all the malcontents and troublemakers (especially Apple Mac users).

I have personally conducted in depth research with a Thai and received the following response

new world ordER, Illuminati, what that?

A micro chip to go shopping? I want it!

So you see our victory is certain.

I know the Thai education system better then most,my wife went through it and my daughter is going through it...Both have better education then the average Australian student.. dry.gif

Case closed then as we can't hope to get a more objective analysis than yours, from a person with no emotional investment in making his learned evaluation.

BTW: I have heard that in Thai unis, once accepted, as long as you pay the fees, you are 100 percent guaranteed to graduate.

Well you 'heard' wrong...some of my wife's uni mates were failed based on their exam performance having certainly paid in full.

Perhaps you should check the veracity of your sources instead of making unsubstantiated comments to support some dubious point about how bad LOS can be.

Well a lot of excitement over this case and clearly the details of what actually took place are in dispute not least by the UK embassy according to the Guardian report linked by a previous poster.

For those whose first language is not English it is worth noting that the 'apology' apparently given is actually a well crafted insult, self righteous in the context can be read no other way.

The agreed facts appear to be that the immigration officers were suspicious of the passport and checked it very closely to see if it had been tampered with and then contacted the relevant embassy who told them it was not genuine.

The immigration officers therefore very reasonably believed that the man they had detained was using a false passport and was therefore probably a criminal of some kind.

The man in question then became verbally abusive,aggressive (in that he grabbed the passport) and attempted to leave (flee the scene?) and was arrested.

He was imprisoned and remained in prison because he could not meet the bail provision.

Thus far I cannot see anything in the behaviour of the Thai authorities that would not be duplicated if the same set of circumstances were to happen at Heathrow, JFK etc.

In the UK if you use abusive language F#+# etc you can be arrested under the criminal law and charged so there is no excuse for a Brit to think you can do this elsewhere in the world and get away with it just because you have spent holiday money.

I understand from my friends in the police (UK) that it is quite normal to only enter one charge on initial arrest rather than all possible charges for reasons of convenience. This may explain why the charge regarding his behaviour was only officially presented when the passport charge was dropped (just supposition on my part).

Transporting a prisoner who is physically imposing and a trained martial artist in restraints is standard practice around the world so I see nothing surprising in that element of the story.

If he was assaulted with a belt then there is no defence for that but realistically that would be very hard to prove.

Personally I feel sorry for him because he was put in a terrible position by the apparently inadequate support of the UK embassy. But unfortunately he reacted in a foolish way and made a bad situation very much worse and he has only himself to blame for that.

I have no idea what sentence he will receive but I hope they take into account time already spent behind bars and then deport him.

At least then he would be on a par with the idiots who make jokes about bombs in their luggage at airports and get arrested and spend a few nights inside to consider just how funny they really are (I believe the theoretical maximum prison sentence for that in the USA is 15 years).

Quite how this one plays out in the UK press and impacts the general view of Thailand is hard to say as the pillars of our freedom in the press have at least three basic stories to play with depending on which will sell more copies.

1/. Incompetent civil servant lands Brit in jail.

2/. My Jail hel_l in Thailand.

3/. Brit thug gets a taste of discipline.

<H2 class=title>Managed to grab this off the net which gives the background to this potential derivation of farang quite well.

The Thai word "Farang", its variations in other languages, and its Arabic origin</H2>Submitted by Khalid on Sun, 2004/11/28 - 22:16

• Linguistics
  

While reading a recent issue of the Canadian Geographic, I came across a news item mentioning two Canadians in Thailand, who run a magazine targeted for Westerners, called Farang. The similarity of this term to the Arabic ones piqued my interested, so I did some research on it.

I found that this term Farang means "White European" in Thai. The Wikipeda Farang article says that the origin of this term is uncertain.

The term Arabs used for Eastern Europe in the seventh century was Rum الروم being the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). For Western Europe, the term Firinjia came to be used somewhat after that, and specially during the Crusades, since a large percentage of the Crusaders were Franks. Hence the term Firinjah stuck to all Western Europeans.

As Arab traders travelled to East Asia, the term was borrowed into the languages of that region. Initially describing the Portuguese, it was used for all "whites" later.

Arabic WordTransliteration in Latin charactersCommentsفرنجةFirinja, FirinjahPluralفرنجيFirinjiSingular of above termأفرنجIfranj, AfranjAnother plural formأفرنجيIfranji, AfranjiSingular

Here are the derivations in other languages.

TermLanguageCommentsfrangos, firanjaGreek"Westerner", "Latin Catholics", "Land of the Franks"ifrangiTurkishfrangSyriac"a European", "The Country of the Franks; Western Europe; Latin language or church"afrangi, ifranji, faranjiArabicArabic variations. See details in table above.afrang,faranj, ferang, ferangi, feringhiPerisanfarenghiHindifarengi, farangi, pirangiTamilfarangiMalayalamfarangThaibarangCambodian Khmerpha-rang, pha-lang-xaVietnamese

oops this has compressed, sorry it is hard to read

<H2 class=title>Managed to grab this off the net which gives the background to this potential derivation of farang quite well.

The Thai word "Farang", its variations in other languages, and its Arabic origin</H2>Submitted by Khalid on Sun, 2004/11/28 - 22:16

• Linguistics
  

While reading a recent issue of the Canadian Geographic, I came across a news item mentioning two Canadians in Thailand, who run a magazine targeted for Westerners, called Farang. The similarity of this term to the Arabic ones piqued my interested, so I did some research on it.

I found that this term Farang means "White European" in Thai. The Wikipeda Farang article says that the origin of this term is uncertain.

The term Arabs used for Eastern Europe in the seventh century was Rum الروم being the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). For Western Europe, the term Firinjia came to be used somewhat after that, and specially during the Crusades, since a large percentage of the Crusaders were Franks. Hence the term Firinjah stuck to all Western Europeans.

As Arab traders travelled to East Asia, the term was borrowed into the languages of that region. Initially describing the Portuguese, it was used for all "whites" later.

Arabic WordTransliteration in Latin charactersCommentsفرنجةFirinja, FirinjahPluralفرنجيFirinjiSingular of above termأفرنجIfranj, AfranjAnother plural formأفرنجيIfranji, AfranjiSingular

Here are the derivations in other languages.

TermLanguageCommentsfrangos, firanjaGreek"Westerner", "Latin Catholics", "Land of the Franks"ifrangiTurkishfrangSyriac"a European", "The Country of the Franks; Western Europe; Latin language or church"afrangi, ifranji, faranjiArabicArabic variations. See details in table above.afrang,faranj, ferang, ferangi, feringhiPerisanfarenghiHindifarengi, farangi, pirangiTamilfarangiMalayalamfarangThaibarangCambodian Khmerpha-rang, pha-lang-xaVietnamese

As farang is just a translation of the Thai then probably all the spellings are correct.

Certainly it covers Caucasians and not other racial groups although I am aware of African Americans and Indo British being called farang to differentiate them from Africans and Indians.

There was a good reply on this board a while back on this subject and farang is most likely to be a corruption of Frank which was the term for Europeans in Medieval times used by Arabic and Persian traders who would have passed on this term to the Thai and other peoples with whom they had extensive trading links.

The first Europeans to make themselves known in any meaningful way to the Thai were the Portuguese in the 1500's as they expanded their trading network east across India via the spice islands and up to Japan and China (Macau only having been handed back in modern times).

The Dutch (mainly) and English made their prescence felt in the 1600's. The French were late on the scene and only become a regional influence in the 1800's when they subjugated Indo China and took some eastern Thai provinces in the early 1900's.

I would love to see the book that explains in pictures why The Lord Buddha is a tool of Satan and all Buddhists will burn in hel_l forever...that should be very popular!

I am constantly amazed that the Thai people are so tolerant of this kind of thing, it is one of their finer character traits that they are so willing to allow the intolerant to have a voice.

My wife is the same and happily goes along with whatever I choose to suggest.

However i do make mental notes of anything she refers to as of interest to her and then at various times in the future suggest we go to one of them.

Also learnt that when she does respond with a destination it is a very good idea not to disagree.....why you ask me if you won't go!!!!!!!! followed by the awful silence for the rest of the day.

If your daughter marries a decent man he will be faithful, if she gets a scumbag sadly she will suffer.

Having observed the exponential growth in STD's amongst young adults in the UK and the very heavy divorce rates I am far from convinced that a Western future is a better one.

The brothel on every corner is a stereotype, the sex trade in Europe is alive and well and at least as pervasive as that in Thailand,it merely operates in a slightly less obvious way.

You are narrowing the field too much if you base your future domicile purely on perceived levels of marital fidelity.

On Halloween, for thousands of years, druid priests have supposedly conducted diabolical worship ceremonies in which cats, horses, sheep, oxen, human beings and other offerings were rounded up, stuffed into wicca cages and burned to death.

These human and animal sacrifices or offerings, were apparently required to appease Samhain and keep the spirits from harming them.

Trick or Treat

To obtain these sacrifices, druid priests would go from house to house asking for fatted calves, black sheep and human beings. Those who gave were promised prosperity, and those who refused to give were threatened and cursed. This is the origin of "trick or treat."

Jack-O-Lantern

The Jack-O-Lantern has its origin in the candle-lit pumpkin or skull, which served as a signal to mark those farms and homes that supported the druids' religion, and thus were seeking the "treat" when the terror of Halloween began.

Dance of Death

While people and animals were screaming in agony, being burnt to death, the druids and their followers would dress in costumes made of animal skins and heads.

They would dance, chant and jump through the flames in the hope of warding off evil spirits.

Is it not a way too have a bonfire and dance covort and partake in sexual congress without the iminent fear of arrest.

Have a Happy Halloween.. tut There's somebody at the door!

You have been reading some seriously inaccurate info (stuff like this is usually found on fundamentalist websites and publications,the source data they quote is invariably other fundie material).

Celtic scholars have identified over 300 Celtic deities not one of which is a God of Death. The literal translation of Samhain is 'end of summer'.

The druids used pumpkins!!!!!!!!!! The pumpkin is not a native plant of Europe.

I cannot stand trick or treating, it is an invention of the 20th century USA and only very loosely based on the social custom imported to the USA in the 1800's by Scots and Irish immigrants.

Will this holiday take off in Thailand.....what Thai have you ever met who won't be up for another party, it is bound to happen I just hope they don't adopt the worse aspects of it.

Being Thai or not does not really matter I think.

My first wife (English) did not want kids until she hit 28 and then she was desperate to have them. There was no change in our life at this time but I believe the 'need' to have kids was suddenly overwhelming for her and was simply biological programming.

We can take decisions about our breeding but I firmly believe that the majority of women will feel the desire to breed and it will not be the subject of rational thought.

Social pressure has an impact too but at the root is the basic drive to reproduce and nature likes to win the games it plays

In my view the bulk of farang tourism will only end when the cost of travel becomes prohibitive as many others on here have noted.

If the return economy fare in today's prices was £2,000 to Euro or US the farang tourist would become a rarity (the seriously loaded would still come and TAT would have their much desired high end tourists).

The corrollary would be an increase in Asian tourists for whom LOS would be a shorthaul destination.

If I knew when the oil price will hit $300/barrell I would be an oil trader and make my millions but the economic driver for rising energy price remains in force and shows no sign of fading