Fidel

I taught English in Thailand for 3 years and I'm wondering who they're going to hire.

I know there are many well qualified, committed Farangs teaching English in Thailand but I would say that 60% of Farang teachers are alcoholic whore-mongers who don't give a shit about the kids, don't know what they're doing and are only teaching cos they don't want to leave...

Thai schools have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for years... what are they gonna find underneath it?

Appleman Thai,

I am from Northern Ireland, the counties which should belong to us are Cavan and Monaghan who cares anyway its a waste of time even thinking in the past, sure soon it will belong to the new European community.  Are you from Armagh the apple county.

I'm going to both lazy and pedantic in one post! Ulster was historically the 9 northern counties of Ireland. When the Irish Free State was created each county voted to either join the new Irish country or remain British. Six counties stayed with the UK and three joined Ireland. The six counties that stayed are officially referred to as Northern Ireland, but are also informally called Ulster. Donegal was one of the counties that went Irish - I don't remember what the others were.

My maternal grandparents immigrated from County Antrim just before WWI and thought of themselves as being BOTH Irish and British.

"When the Irish Free State was created each county voted to either join the new Irish country or remain British. Six counties stayed with the UK and three joined Ireland."

That's not actually true. The Irish Free State was the product of the treaty that ended the war of independence.

The British realised they couldn't win the war. However, 4 of the 32 counties had Loyalist majorities and refused to allow the land they occupied to be included in the territory of an Irish Free State.

4 counties were insufficient to create a viable statelet so the British demanded a minimum of 6 counties.

The Irish party, led by Michael Collins, signed the treaty which ceded control of the 6 counties to Britain.

The Irish are not British. We are quite close to the British. We have our own distinct culture and language. Any claim that the British have on Ireland is a throw-back to the British Imperialist days.

The reason why the Irish don't like to be considered British is because we are not British. We were simply invaded and occupied by hostile British forces, had our language, (and almost our religion), destroyed, indeed all but wiped out, by oppressive penal laws.

The intention was to turn Ireland into the Bread Basket of Britain, all cereals, vegetables, livestock, meat etc were taken to Britain under armed guard, leaving the Irish to subsist on a single crop, the potato.

When the potato crop failed all other crops and food products continued to be shipped to Britain leading to the Irish "Famine" which subsequently led to the reduction in the population, through starvation and emmigration, from 8 million to a low of about 3.5 million.

The "Famine" impacted the Irish population and psyche to the same extent as a nuclear holocaust.

Religion played some role in the conflicts between the British and Irish but most of the uprisings against the British, (1798 for example), were Republican, based on the French Revolutionary model and as such were non sectarian and were often led by Protestants, (Wolfe Tone, for example).

The Irish Catholic minority that remained in the six counties after the treaty was signed was brutally oppressed and denied the right to vote, (to vote you needed to own land, few Catholics owned land), access to jobs, (traditionally the rate of unemployment amongst Catholics has been 2.4 times the rate amongst Protestants), and housing.

The IRA was obselete pre 1970s with only a few border skirmishes in the 1950s. The organisation went through a revival when the Civil Rights movement was crushed by the B-Specials and then the British army.

The campaign for independence, (equal rights and justice), was carried on by the IRA with murderous results but it wasn't until the IRA launced it's "Mainland bombing campaigns), more terrible, bloody murder of innocents by the way, that the British took notice and went to the negotiating table.

Now it looks like the IRA is on the verge of being disbanded.... goood news!

And that is why the British and the Irish sometimes have trouble seein eye to eye.

Guys,

just reading over the replies again I realised that some of them were quite positive.

This guy is a friend of mine who strayed... through desperation.

I don't want to step on any toes here but where I come from Heroin users are also considered the scum of the earth and are responsible for 80% of the crime.....

He got what he deserved but... I'm the kind of person who finds it hard to write someone off to a hellish existence when I could do something to make him feel human again.

What Gary did is wrong... there is no question about that.

All I'm asking for is a bit of compassion.

Sure he did it out of desperation... I could go into his whole life story but I won't.

My friend's little brother, 16, died as a result of a heroin overdose... I don't argue with his sentence but I want to help a friend out..... make his shitty life a little easier... or more bearable....

Up to you guys... don't talk about Karma if you have no understanding of it.

If anyone can find it in their hearts to write to the guy or bring him some basic comforts it would be great... otherwise, please stop trying to add to his torment.

Thanks,

You're a lovely bunch of people...

Hi,

A friend of mine, Gary Graeme Jones, 56, is a British prisoner serving 25 years in Bang Kwang for trafficing heroin.

He's a really nice guy but he's finding it difficult to adjust to prison life.

It would be great if someone could visit him or send him a letter every so often.

To the best of my knowledge he has had no visitors as some other guy keeps bribing the guards into calling out his name every time some visitors come.

His address is as follows:

Gary Graeme Jones,

D2, Bang Kwang

117 Nonthaburi Road,

Nonthaburi,

11000,

Thailand.

You can visit him on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Below are instructions taken from www.khaosanroad.com:

Getting there:

From Banglampoo Pier (Khao San) take the big whistling boat going upstream (to the right). It costs 6 Baht to Nonthaburi and takes 40 minutes. Nonthaburi is the last stop and you will recognize it by the white clock tower by the pier and the AMPM convenience store. Jump off the boat and walk straight on - ignore the touts! Take the 1st left and walk about 250 meters. You will see Bang Kwang prison on the right. You will need to go to the registration area on the left...

Dress:

Guys must wear long trousers. Dress respectfully, whatever your sex. It really pisses the guards off girls wearing tiny shorts and vest-tops. Please dress properly because there are rumors the prisoners' visits will stop because of backpackers. Make sure you know exactly who you will call out as well - it annoys the guards when people ask for names they don't know. If you want names you can call the relevant embassies: UK Embassy - 02 305 8333 - ask for Maureen, Kate or Anita. They will not give prisoners' names over the phone though so you will have to go down to the embassy in person to meet them. American Embassy and others may give names over the telephone - I'm not really sure.

Food:

If you bring food from outside put it in a large clear bag. You can buy bags at the registration area cafe for 2 Baht. Write the name of the prisoner you are visiting on the bag. After you have visited the prisoner, you have to hand the food in at the counter (where 100 people or so hang around!). You hand in the original form and your passport. Wait for your passport to come back (usually takes 10 minutes) and off you go.

Books, etc.:

If you want to bring mags, books or papers hand, them into the Foreign Affairs office on the right as you go into the prison area. Leave the prisoner's name and building number on the cover and they'll get them... Don't bring magazines with too many naked pictures in them though - they won't get through. Other info: Please be aware that the prisoners sometimes have family or friends visiting. Look in the registration book to see if someone has already called out the prisoner you are visiting. It's very frustrating for prisoners when they have people they know over and someone randomly chooses to visit them! Beware that in August and December this may occur more often because that's when contact visits take place and families come over... Be very careful at these times. Very few women get visitors and have to rely on missionaries.

If you visit tell him Shane will be contacting him soon with a letter and pics.

Cheers,

Fidel!