Brigante7

the thai women knew exactly what they were going to do so they were not vunerable and would be doing the same in oz as in thailand no doubt.

That may or may not be true. What we have to understand is that a lot of these ladies in thailand would not be doing this sort of thing if they had a choice. Many come from very poor villages with little or no education and have strong family values. They do this sort of thing to support thier parents who are to old to work and try to provide a better life for thier children. This monster would have promised them large amounts of money and a great lifestyle. In reality he was using them for his own personal gain and he alone would have been making the money. They would have received a pitence for their work, thier passports would have been taken from them, they would have been living in sub standard accomadation and supplied with the bare nessecities of life. No medical coverage because they would have been working in an illeagle brothel. They would not have received the funds to send back home to parents and family because they were sex slaves. Yes they were vulnerable to the promises of wealth. It has happened before. The man is a monster and I feel sorry for the women. If they knew the truth they would never have gone.

Just so I understand, if he had paid them a good wage for their work, they had good conditions to live in with everything they needed to do their job, were able to send money back to their family's, he would still be classed as a scumbag, or is he a scumbag because of the way he treated them when they arrived in Australia?

Pound to a penny when he was being arrested there was somebody else with a much larger amount going through customs at the same time.

A right mug for 2 reasons.

1) Agreeing to do it in the first place.

2) Not realising he was being set up.

Once this mess is over, I wonder just how much "real wealth" is in the world and what it will be measured in?

Wealth is never destroyed just redistributed.

This was originally posted on another thread, thanks to OP, seems relevent to post here.

Sunday Times 14 Dec. 2008

I was in Dublin last weekend, and had a very real sense I'd been invited to the last days of the Roman empire. As far as I could work out, everyone had a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a coat made from something that's now extinct. And then there were the women. Wow. Not that long ago every girl on the Emerald Isle had a face the colour of straw and orange hair. Now it's the other way around.

Everyone appeared to be drunk on naked hedonism. I've never seen so much jus being drizzled onto so many improbable things, none of which was potted herring. It was like Barcelona but with beer. And as I careered from bar to bar all I could think was: "Jesus. Can't they see what's coming?"

Ireland is tiny. Its population is smaller than New Zealand's, so how could the Irish ever have generated the cash for so many trips to the hairdressers, so many lobsters and so many Rollers? And how, now, as they become the first country in Europe to go officially into recession, can they not see the financial meteorite coming? Why are they not all at home, singing mournful songs?

It's the same story on this side of the Irish Sea, of course. We're all still plunging hither and thither, guzzling wine and wondering what preposterously expensive electronic toys the children will want to smash on Christmas morning this year. We can't see the meteorite coming either.

I think mainly this is because the government is not telling us the truth. It's painting Gordon Brown as a global economic messiah and fiddling about with Vat, pretending that the coming recession will be bad. But that it can deal with it.

I don't think it can. I have spoken to a couple of pretty senior bankers in the past couple of weeks and their story is rather different. They don't refer to the looming problems as being like 1992 or even 1929. They talk about a total financial meltdown. They talk about the End of Days.

Already we are seeing household names disappearing from the high street and with them will go the suppliers whose names have only ever been visible behind the grime on motorway vans. The job losses will mount. And mount. And mount. And as they climb, the bad debt will put even more pressure on the banks until every single one of them stutters and fails.

The European banks took one hel_l of a battering when things went wrong in America. Imagine, then, how life will be when the crisis arrives on this side of the Atlantic. Small wonder one City figure of my acquaintance ordered three safes for his London house just last week.

Of course, you may imagine the government will simply step in and nationalise everything, but to do that, it will have to borrow. And when every government is doing the same thing, there simply won't be enough cash in the global pot. You can forget Iceland. From what I gather, Spain has had it. Along with Italy, Ireland and very possibly the UK.

It is impossible for someone who scored a U in his economics A-level to grapple with the consequences of all this but I'm told that in simple terms money will cease to function as a meaningful commodity. The binary dots and dashes that fuel the entire system will flicker and die. And without money there will be no business. No means of selling goods. No means of transporting them. No means of making them in the first place even. That's why another friend of mine has recently sold his London house and bought somewhere in the country . . . with a kitchen garden.

These, as I see them, are the facts. Planet Earth thought it had £10. But it turns out we had only £2. Which means everyone must lose 80% of their wealth. And that's going to be a problem if you were living on the breadline beforehand.

Eventually, of course, the system will reboot itself, but for a while there will be absolute chaos: riots, lynchings, starvation. It'll be a world without power or fuel, and with no fuel there's no way the modern agricultural system can be maintained. Which means there will be no food either. You might like to stop and think about that for a while.

A right cheery soul if ever there was one, fuc_k me, I might as well end it all now.

A bowl of Kellogs Special K with ice cold milk and lots of ice cold water.

I can highly recommend Gullivers, amazing french toast, The Dubliner used to be great but the last time I was in there I was violently sick after eating, don't know if it was just a bad piece of chicken or it was undercooked but now I'll never go back to the Dubliner again.

My 16 month old daughter loves phones and I can see already that it is going to be an issue to deal with as she gets older. I would prefer her not to have one until she is much older but I see it as a probable inevitability that she will get one sooner rather than later.

Why is it going to be an issue? you are the adult and parent, you decide if and when she gets a phone, not her.

Why not buy one of those electronic gizzmos that emits a signal that keeps all things horrible away, I have one in the UK and I take it with me every time I go to Thailand, they work a treat.

3 - 4 hours a day

Pasta, chicken, the wifes home made tomato soup, a nice fillet steak but if I had to choose just one food it would have to be plain chicken meat, mashed potatoes and chicken gravy........................... Lovely.

The location is not good - at the end of T-intersection ......It's believed that........accident(s) waiting to happen.

The cars may not see the house at night, or happen to loose the break and easily slam into your fense - due to the location of it.

Well anyhow ----it's all explained by the "fungShui principles" -and most thais use the principles in everday living, including picking out locations of various places.

Go buy the book about "fungshui", you will understand it all - very simple explaination really

It's all <deleted>, if you like the house buy it, if you don't then don't buy it.

The only good spider is a dead spider.

I have an Indian passport and have been on a 60 day tourist visa. I got the 7 day visa extension last week (just 7 days?? Is that like racism towards Indians ) but it seems I would still have to stay for 2 more days beyond the stamped date. Would overstaying and declaring at the immigration be a sensible thing to do? If yes then could someone please acquaint me with the procedure of what needs to be done once you have declared the overstay at the immigration counter.

Thanks.

I was going to say nothing but alas I couldn't help myself.

Why do you assume that Thai immigration is being racist towards Indians just because Indians get a 7 day extension and other nationals might get more?

Are Indians the only nationality to get 7 days extension?

Are Indians able to enter Thailand under the Visa exempt system, if so does that make the Thai immigration racist towards all the nationalities who can't enter under the visa exemp system?

There are many things that annoy me about all the countries that I visit but I either put up with them or don't go back, simple as that.

A mini, the old one, piece of shit to drive and if you drive behind any old mini you can see how they all drift to the left when they drive, fuc_k knows why but the worst car I have ever driven.

I think that those straight men must have an element of gayish in them .

You can't say you are straight if you do it with them , perhaps ostrich bi- sexual .

Isn;t there a name for men who have sexual preferences of lady boys ?

Yes, gay.

Why do people have a problem with the truth?

First you will need to get a single entry non immigrant O visa.

Then you can apply for a 1 year extension of stay if you can prove 40,000 baht income per month.

See page 8 clause 7.17 of police order for requirements.

Link to police order: http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/2notice/rtp606EN.pdf

Have you gotten a passport for your child yet. If you register the childs birth at the Thai consulate and get a passport a visa would not be needed for your child.

Yes, Thanks.

I have contacted the Thai embassey abourt passport for my child, will need to get a thai birth certificate so I can renew the childs passport in Thailand when it expires after 5 years. However, I don't know the minimum time it will take to get the certificate and passport? We go Thailand for 1 month holiday in february, then stay UK for 2 months in March and April. The return Thailand in May to live.

Hi, when you go to the Thai Embassy in London to get your kids Thai passport, you can print off the aplication forms for the passport and birth certificate at the same time. http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/birthpp_en.html It takes about 6 weeks to recieve the passport and BC although our son's took 10 weeks but my wifes's friends took 5 weeks even though we handed our documents in at the same time.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Some people will tell you to make an appointment but others will say not to bother, we did and it made no difference we had to wait 2 1/2 hours at the embassy, it's a couple of small rooms in the basement. When we arrived at 9:30 for our appointment it was heaving already (It opens 9:30 - 12:30 only) left at 12 and it was empty so might be worth turning up at about 11:30.

Good luck.

I hate rice, tasteless and bland, in fact I hate all Thai food, fuc_k knows what I'll eat when I move there.

Good, glad to see they are enforcing the law. Smoking kills you and everyone around you.

Then don't go to an establishment that allows smoking, pretty simple really.

p.s. I'm a non smoker.

hel_l yes, you can't beat an older lady, more experiance and less baggage, usualy.

On Friday I sent an e-mail to Tesco Lotus saying that with the increase of westerners in Roi-et and Mukdahan they should supply more western food in these stores. On Monday I got a call from the manager of the Mukdahan Store asking me about my e-mail and saying he would talk to his supplier and see if they could get more western food. He seemed very nice and spoke good English. Friday I am going to Mukdahan and I was thinking I would go and visit him. I would appreciate it if some of you guys living in the big centres like Kong Kaen, Korat, and Udon Thani could tell me what western foods you can get from your Tesco Lotus store. I am interested in cheeses, cold meets (salamis) good sausages, and lamb. If anybody in the Mukdahan area has any other suggestions let me know and i will add them to my list. Thanks. Issangeorge.

Top marks to you Isaangeorge. Wasting your time going to the Nakhon Phanom Tesco though as it is the worst in Thailand or maybe Asia. List of complaints since it opened approximately 3 years ago is huge but -- caught in a downpour and they had no raincoats on display -- took 5 to find a box in the storeroom. Aisles blocked by double parked stackers, empty shelves, moving items 3 times in a week, 10 items check-out closed bec the girl went and got weighed and talk with her mother? Charged full price for items in the discount bin, not enough check-outs open, most times check out staff don't wai foreigners and so on and on and on.

Well done to the manager in Mukdahan. I will be there on Thursday and will shop there in preference to Nak Phanom which is a shambles.

Funny enough, whenever I go to Tesco in NP with the missus we always get great service and none of the problems mentioned above, must have just been lucky.

Cocaine?

I'd say that on 25,000 per month things would be too tight for comfort, especially if the exchange rate worsened any further. The medical aspect is a big worry for most older expats, though the costs of routine treatments are cheap. Also the UK pension will not be increased with inflation because Thailand is a country where this does not apply. I do know one man in a similar situation, who built up a greater comfort margin by doing part-time English teaching in a school (no qualifications), but this is in a smaller NE city. P.S wrote this before seeing post 2 but I will leave it as it is.

If he opens a Nationwide account to get his pension paid into then he will get the inflation increases and use his cashline card in Thailand.

Not 100% legal but if he's paid his NI contributions all his working life then why not?

For those Americans that are here there are 4.5 Liters in a Gallon which means in the UK right now petrol costs £4.59 per gallon which is equivalent to $7.80 / Gallon, and this is cheap. Aren't we lucky ?

Anyone in the UK who is pissed off about high fuel costs should start with their own <deleted>' government first. Approximately 56% of your petrol cost is government taxation. That's the power of central government in depriving you of your right to keep more of the money you have earned and spend it as you see fit. Instead, they take your money and spend it as they see fit. That's taking it up the gazoo with no lubrication each and every time you have to go to the pump. I'm substantially unsympathetic. (BTW, Yanks are only slightly better off, where state and federal tax accounts for roughly 15-25% of the cost.)

56%? I wish, try more like 80%.

as far as i can tell airline prices and other items from food to clothing prices have stayed the same?

whats the deal?

inflation?

did they just decide that they can make more money charging more on less volume?

In a word, Yes. Seems like Thailand is just the same as the UK, robbing cun_ts.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Thaksin's wife a convicted criminal and isn't there warrants out for Thaksin's arrest? If so then they shouldn't have even been let into the country in the first place, send them straight back and once they have either been freed by the courts or served their time then by all means let them apply for for asylum.

The massage is done by blind (sightless) men and women. Its one way they can earn a living and keep face. They don't have to beg.

Thanks for the reply, I had a feeling it was along those lines but I thought that it was to obvious an answer.