humqdpf

So as usual, they get rid of one corrupt government and replace it with another. Funny

when you chase out a democratically elected government that leans toward Russia

for being corrupt, the West supports the action. The west supports democracy only

when it leans its way. Corruption, the one constant with these countries.

If you think that the original regime in Ukraine really received the largest number of real votes or that is was not hugely corrupt (they created the original cleptocracy among the government departments), then I have a number of second hand cars that I can interest you in on the understanding that you never look under the hood. I also have a number of pigs in sacks that you can buy for a very good price as long as you never look into the sack.

In years to come we will find out why this guy and his predecessors never got whacked.

I always wonder why.

There are 2 types of money in the world ..........old and new.

I can smell old money here somewhere but where exactly I don't know.

Although it may sometimes appear so, the North Korean regime is not some mafia gang where the next leader is the one who "whacked" the previous one.

The vast majority of the citizens of North Korea are completely brainwashed and completely cut off from the rest of the world. They know nothing else.

The upper echelons of the regime operate similarly to the guards at the former Khmer Rough torture centre in Cambodia, known as Tuol Sleng and along the same lines as the higher-ups in Sadam Hussein's regime. The problem is that if someone from that upper level communicates something to someone else at the upper echelon that is not 100% in favour of the regime, the latter cannot be sure that the former is not an agent provocateur. That is why, to save your own skin, you immediately reported the disloyal words of your colleague to the authorities.

That is why so many guards/torturers at Tuol Sleng ended up being inmates and were tortured themselves. One guy would say to another, "That bloke we were torturing this morning who confessed that he was an agent of the CIA - how could he have been a CIA agent - he was just a poor illiterate farmer. He would not know what the CIA was. Why are we doing this?" His colleague would immediately report him - if he did not, he himself would be in trouble for not doing so and could be seen as part of a conspiracy.

It always helps, especially when the regime is doing completely stupid stuff or if it is going to through a vulnerable period, to execute someone big "pour encourager les autres." (trans. as an example to everyone else).

In such febrile scenarios where no one can trust anyone else, it is truly amazing if anyone ever says anything or does anything incriminating. That is why I think the North Korean regime have to really look carefully for anyone who does something rather innocuous, a small lapse such as drinking during the mourning period for the previous dear leader, corruption (when the Dear Leader is the most corrupt of them all!) or something else equally innocuous.

what a freakin sad world we live in

Grinding poverty, Ebola, bloodthirsty regimes (e.g. Syria) - these are indeed features of the sad world you refer to.

But young intelligent (presumably as they are in a learning institution) with some money issues meeting with older men who are lonely and have money does not even come near sad.

Meanwhile the Tourism Authority in Thailand, specially their London office, must have had field days on the issue. Will also be included in future training courses on how not to market a country for retirees - well done!

Now there is a great idea - the Bridge Associations of each country where there is a TAT promotion office should arrange for many of their members to mob these offices with questions about the legality of playing Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Whist, Monopoly etc etc. Maybe then the message will get through.

Somalian pirates will be having a field day.

Something must have happened while I slept. Somalian pirates on the river Elbe in Germany??!!!!

Sleeze ball, enough with the smoke screen and clouding the issue in hand, so go face yr rape charges in Sweden like a man, you're not going to be extradited to N.Korea !

The problem is not that he will face bad treatment if he is extradited to Sweden. The problem is that if that occurs, he could be extradited to the USA, especially if he beats the rape charges (which looks likely). You can bet that there is a special cell in Gitmo with his name on the door where there are no outsiders watching what is going on. How much of a man would you be to agree to go to Gitmo or some sort of solitary confinement in some so-called Supermax in the USA for much or all of the rest of your life.

You may think that Assange was wrong to leak all that stuff. You may think that he has clouded judgement. You may think many things about the man but he is not completely stupid. Whether you are for or against the man, you have to accept that he is cornered in that Embassy and facing life or worse if he walks out.

Is this supposed to be a documentary on trafficking?

Why don't they make a documentary about British women who live in so-called "sink estates" in the UK and who try to find a husband to marry and get out of a location that is violent, deprived and soulless?

Women who are poorer marrying men who are well-off is the stuff of dreams, of contemporary culture - it has frequently come up as the theme of a Hollywood movie - but we don't call it trafficking.

Why don't such organisations target the horrible enslavement of women (and sometime men) by traffickers? What about the people trafficking into the EU from Syria and elsewhere? What about the sex slaves in cheap brothels whose passports have been confiscated and who may have been tricked regarding the nature of the work?

The point about the Isaan women is that they have a choice. The trafficked persons I cite in the last paragraph do not. Lets leave the lonely Western men and the Isaan girls who long for a better life alone.

He had enough money and recognition as to be able to have all the women he could ever want legally but he preferred to drug and rape them.I hope that he goes to prison and the other inmates teach him the consequences of dropping his soap in the showers.

Clearly you live on a different planet where there happens to be a chap called Cosby in a country called the USA but where defendants are found guilty without benefit of a trial.

In this planet where you dwell, elderly men in prison showers are considered a hot item by the other inmates whereas the younger ones are not.

Indeed a strange worlds you live in . . .

Sex Tourism is not by definition against the law. The trial is not about sex tourism but pedophilia.

As everyone knows, many Western men tourists go to Thailand and other countries to find sex in some form or another; many Western women go to West Africa, East Africa and the Caribbean to find sex in some form or another. Whatever your view is of such people, very few are pedophiles.

If you want to escape pollution and live in a friendly place in Vietnam, check out Da Nang. Not long ago Danang was very provincial but now plenty of nice bars and cafes, plenty of cheap but good quality hotels.

Hoi An is nearby if you want to join the tourists. A little further south you can find plenty of deserted beaches.

Others have commented on Saigon/HCMC and they are right. Suits a certain kind of person. Hanoi has a lot of character but is now very large and hugely polluted. The northern Vietnamese character takes some getting used to - some foreigners take to it easily but some do not. The Southerners are much more businesslike and pragmatic. Danang is in the south.

You should try to learn some Vietnamese. More and more are able to speak English but a few words of the local language is important.

During my extended stays in Vietnam I always either had a work visa or was invited by a company - so I had no problems on that score but unable to advise you. You will need to do some research on the visa issues and much will depend on what your circumstances are (will you want to work, start a business or do you want to retire?) but there are plenty of foreigners living in Vietnam and so there must be ways of getting long term visas. Having a slightly more difficult visa system is actually a positive thing as it keeps out the criminals and low-life types.

It would make a lot of sense for you to visit Vietnam on a visitor's visa, hang out where the expats are and they will tell you how things work. You will also get a feel for the place. After a few weeks you will know whether you can function there or not.

You need to get out more! You are not going to find a girlfriend if you just stay at home - that much is obvious.

Yes, you could be very lucky and find someone online but you would really have to be very lucky, as you have found out already.

Join something. If you like sport, join a club but select the club that has a social aspect, if possible. I find that tennis is more likely to put you in touch with middle class people, if that is what you want.

You need to learn some Thai language. Not learning Thai will show you are not really interested in the country. Join a Thai language class - you might even meet someone there!

You need to meet all kinds of people if you want to find a girlfriend - get in with a group of men and women. The word will go around that there is an eligible falang available and they might introduce you to someone.

If you are living in a town where there is little social activity, then head to Bangkok or some larger place for the weekend.

OK, the naysayers have had their say. Lets bring some clarity and reality to the situation with respect to Syrian refugees.

1. Syrian refugees are real refugees. They have nowhere to go except to run from their homes. Yes there may be some other nationalities who are really migrants and hiding among them but they will be easy to find out.

2. The Syrian refugees that made it to Germany are those who are highly likely to be middle class, who had the money to get themselves across the Mediteranean and feed themselves on the long journey mainly on foot. These people are motivated.

3. Middle class people are highly likely to be educated and motivated to stay middle class (i.e. to work, get jobs, save and purchase property etc etc)

4. Germany is heading for a serious crisis over the next few years - the crisis is a huge labour shortage. Merkel may be many things but here she saw an opportunity to provide a solution to a humanitarian problem and a solution to an impending labor crisis.

5. No one expects that the Syrians will immediately step into jobs, will arrive speaking fluent Hoch Deutsch. But of all the immigrants you could ask for, these are the best. Given some time, this is going to be a win-win situation if people allow it to happen.

@ humqdpf...

Here is a thread that demands your immediate attention. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/889717-amnesty-dozens-of-juvenile-offenders-face-death-in-iran/#entry10352767

I already dealt with the very high numbers of executions in Iran in a post on Thai Visaa few weeks ago when Iran was complaining about the execution of one cleric by Saudi Arabia - I pointed out that Saudi Arabia had indeed executed over 47 people that day but Iran chose to focus on just one.

I also pointed out that Iran did not have the moral high ground in this regard and could hardly complain about executions in Saudi Arabia. Even though Saudi Arabia has a high number of executions per annum, Iran managed to double that number.

For your convenience, that post is quoted below:

--------------

"A couple of points seem to have gone unreported in much of the mainstream media about the various aspects of this case.

1. There were 47 other persons executed at the same time as the Shia cleric. No one is reporting anything about them. Iran and its friends are talking only about the one person out of 47. Perhaps the cleric is the most innocent - but we will never know unless the topic is debated. However, on all information available, this cleric was the most peace-loving of them all.

2. Iran executes far more people per annum than Saudi Arabia (perhaps double), many of them too are innocent of anything that any other country would consider a crime.

3. From what I have read, neither the UK nor the USA have mentioned the barbarity of the executions nor have they referred to the injustice of the cleric's case or any of the other 47.

4. If Iran wants to be accepted by the rest of the world community, it has to defend diplomatic missions against crowds (whether it is politically organised or otherwise), even if it is because of some grave injustice.

5. When will the rest of the world learn that Saudi Arabia is a thuggish state that has funded terrorism, treats its ordinary citizens to a very strict regime, is terrible to its minorities and has a huge destabilising effect on the region? It is time to call halt to Saudi Arabia's immunity to criticism by the West. Stop buying their oil - they are running a huge deficit because of the price of oil and sometime their cash pile will run out"

The last part of the story doesn't make sense. How could he be beaten by other inmates, if he is is solitary confinement ? Also he was 16 years old; not a baby. Can you join the US army at 16 ?

So it is ok to take someone who just may have taken someone's backpack, NEVER TRIED, NEVER CONVICTED and send him to prison for 3 years?

And yes, in solitary you can get beaten by the guards. And he would not have been in solitary for the whole 3 years so there would have been plenty of opportunity for beatings and rape by older prisoners. Even in solitary, depending on the prison, there are often opportunity for beatings by prisoners who are used as cleaners. And in at least some prisons opportunities for violence often arise when a prisoner is taken out of his cell for exercise.

Solitary confinement that is extended beyond a couple of weeks or considered indefinite is considered torture and said to both exacerbate existing or latent psychoses or create new ones. According to one judge, solitary confinement units are "virtual incubators of psychoses—seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates and exacerbating illness in those already suffering from mental infirmities." Ruiz v Johnson, 154 F.Supp.2d 975 (S.D.Tex.2001)

So now, in addition to having the largest number of people (in proportion to the population) in prison (behind the tiny island of The Seychelles where there has been political unrest), the USA has the fastest growing number of people in solitary confinement - said to be up to 100,000. (UK has about 40 at any one time)

Before you say, well they are probably paying the price, if you are a taxpayer in the USA, you are paying the price - greater costs of prison building, much higher costs for caring for prisoners who become mentally ill due to extended solitary. We have to remember that the majority of prisoners in the USA are in for drug offences.

Fact: this is the first legal restriction on solitary confinement in the USA. There is no national regulation in the USA that determines how long a prisoner stays in solitary

Fact: even China has a law that limits solitary as a punishment for between 7 and 15 days. And yes, there is plenty of evidence to show that this law is often circumvented. BUT AT LEAST THEY HAVE A LAW.

You don't have to be an Obama to think that this is wrong. In fact, if you are a Republican who believes in the US Constitution, you would think it is wrong. How can the USA point to cruel and degrading punishment when it dishes this out to the equivalent to the population of a mid-sized town day after day after day after day after day

Great propaganda material handed to him for home consumption as in a matter of a couple of days he is accused of having authorised a political murder and now is declared corrupt.

I am not sure whether the US government spokesman saying, with a suitably cheesy grin to indicate irony, that V. Putin is a stand-up, honest to God, clean hands sort of guy, would be any better. It would probably be sold by Putin's PR team as "Russia, with Putin in the vanguard, puts those silly Americans right." And history will not look kindly on anyone who remained cozy with Putin, given what he has done and is doing.

While no one would want to steal the thunder of this jilted bride who has managed to turn her life around, two points do come to mind:

1. She should thank the guy who jilted her. Had he not done so, she would have stayed in the UK, not written a book and lived the usual commuter lifestyle and never seen the world.

2. Most people who want to see the world and have the resources to do so just go out there and do it - they don't need an excuse, such as being jilted. Was husband to be against that sort of thing? If so, she was never going to be happy in such a relationship. Maybe he saw that and walked, doing her and himself a big favour.

Many people around the world are jilted or have a bad breakup. But they do not feel the need to broadcast it - instead they manage to get on with their lives and dreams and not sink into some sort of depression. The truth is that if you are not happy on your own, being with someone else is going to either make you more unhappy or make the other person extremely unhappy.

Question: What is the difference between Donald Trump and God?

Answer: God does not think he is Donald Trump.

"I'm asking because I have a friend that is overly paranoid, he sells stuff on ecommerce sites from West to West, nothing to do about Thailand. He also has a business in the USA that he controls from over here, again, nothing to do with Thailand."

Actually, it has everything to do with Thailand, because that is where your "friend" is when he works.

So, as he is, (according to the letter of the law), working illegally, I would think that the RTP do have the powers to seize his laptop and any other evidence.

According to this line of reasoning, this would mean that anyone who transacted business online in Thailand would be accused and presumably found guilty of working illegally. This would mean that anyone who checked their work email, took a client phone call or did something work-related while on holiday would be in the same category.

No country I have ever heard of operates such a policy. So lets not get paranoid.

While it does seem that Euronews (the publishers of the first story) have been caught with their pants down, I would feel more comfortable if the source of the second news story, said to be from a British Newspaper, was cited.

Perhaps you should bring your problem to the British Embassy in Bangkok. Assuming that you have nothing to hide, they may be able to certify a copy of your passport for presentation to the authorities in the UK.

I agree with other posters that you should not send your passport to the UK

Sometimes I watch Science Fiction movies. Sometimes I watch TV dramas and occasionally I watch a series. Like Fox News, they are all fiction although i am usually more moved by the fate of a female lead character than any of those female presenters on Fox.

If they do prosecute, it will be the first time I have heard of prosecution for bad public relations.

I don't think the authorities are getting good advice by ordering/allowing the police to do this. All they have achieved is the placing of the story back on the front page in the UK. Now more people will learn about the vindictiveness of a state against the bereaved young woman - terrible public relations move. And they can see that no one has any rights in Thailand when it comes to expressing an opinion, even if that opinion is based on reasonable concerns. It goes without saying that this will drive down the number of British and possibly other falang visitors to the country.

While you are working things out, you can go between Vietnam and Thailand on visitors visas for some time (I know someone who has done it for at least a year) as long as you NEVER overstay in Thailand and you fly each time so as to get the one month visa waiver or whatever it is called.

Not sure what the visa situation is in Vietnam but you should be able to fix up a longer stay multiple entry visa scenario in Vietnam once you get to know people.

Can I suggest you check out Da Nang (Danang) while you are in Vietnam - this is now a very liveable and cheap city and without the terrible pollution of Hanoi and less so in Saigon.

Sad to hear, some wackos on the net, probably just a troll but who knows

"Only done half the job" sounds like it came from a fellow Brit. Most probably from a immature jealous class mate, ex-boyfriend, work colleague, etc. Death threat for what ... being good looking? By the way I doubt the phrase "Only done half the job" would come from a Thai / Burmese. All the same Facebook should report the posters and have she/he investigated by the appropriate authorities.

I have met two Thais who lived for years in the UK - one had a strong East End accent and knew all the cockney slang. The latter was definitely a thug and a criminal - it would be something that he would say