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Teaching English is definitely a Plan B. Some guys manage to survive long term on English teaching alone but it is not for everyone and it drives many insane eventually.

Your survival in Thailand will have much to do with the following:

1. Your relationship with the Thai person. You have to be really sure about them before you get into any business or any deals.

2. Your skills and education. If you have some knowledge or skill that is in demand, such as you have really good IT or even practical tech skills that everyone needs, then you will have not much problem surviving in Thailand. If you are like the rest of us, then you will have to be really careful about who you work for. If anyone misses a payday and tells you you will have the money next month, walk out.

3. If you plan on staying in Thailand long term, learn polite Thai.

There is a world of difference between taking a 5 year punt on one company and having a well-thought through portfolio.

Assuming that you are not prepared to just lose that money, a fund is probably the best way to go. I have no idea about your attitude to risk but the fund you suggest appears to be somewhere around medium to higher risk because of its exposure to tech stock etc.

If you are prepared to take a punt, I would suggest that you have probably already missed the bus in relation to Google. Yes, Google has been very successful and has grown in share price immensely. Yes, Google can get bigger. But remember, as a conglomerate gets bigger, it takes on more risk and bigger does not necessarily mean more profit. You hear a lot about the stuff that works in Google but you don't hear so much about the stuff that did not work. As companies like Google expand, they eventually run out of industry within their chosen sector and have to look elsewhere outside their comfort zone. And often that is where the problems start.

This is not to say that the shares will not grow - there is always the chance that something completely unpredictable can jump out at us and create a whole new way of doing things online etc. But I would not bet my stash on it.

Property in the SE of England will probably continue to do well, simply because a) it is not easy to build new properties in SE England what with the planning laws and the fact that they might have to knock down a few older buildings to make way for a taller building and the UK is coming out of recession and in fact the SE of England probably has its own economy that can be booming while the rest of the country is in recession. That is not to say that a bubble is not starting to develop but it could take another few years for it to grow and then burst. Lack of supply and sustained high demand is what creates high property prices in central London and the SE.

How did Burma fall off so badly?

Colonialism which impoverishes countries and often sets up the conditions for civil war, subsequent lack of the education among the greater population that prevents the evolution of a real democracy, lack of strong institutions for governance and other conditions that ultimately empower the military to take over. Once that happens, it is anyone's guess what will happen next but corruption, repression and lack of development frequently result from the fallout.

What is truly unusual is not the Burma case - we see the same in so many former colonies in Africa, Asia and South/Central America. And Burma is now turning around although still in a very fragile state.

The truly unusual case is the Thai situation, where the so-called educated urban elite appear to want to get rid of democracy after years of democracy, where coups or an end to democracy now appear to be welcome to that group and where that group appears to be happy to see the country lose out economically as long as they get to achieve their political goals, even if one of of those goals is to get rid of the corruption, at least that led by Thaksin and his family.

Coups have occurred in other countries because of corruption and economic mismanagement but they sometimes end and there are no more coups after that - the last coup in Thailand is an example, as is Ghana. But with no colonial history, a good development record and, at least compared with some other countries, a system of governance that is inclusive and not the most corrupt in the world (compared to countries like Nigeria), the question has to be asked, how did Thailand fall off so badly?

'Patriarchal binary gender paradigm'.

Get the f...out of there you social-constructivist fantic.

There are two sexes male and female and some in between due to genetical abnormalities.

Gender is a made up word largely. Maybe I decide that I am infact female-gendered and therefore would like to visit the girls lockerroom? 'But you dress like a man, clearly you're not gender female' I hear you shrieking. But - alas - you are then being discriminatory! Who are you to say what gender roles are? They are after all only a construct of partriarchy. So it is in fact perfectly fine for me to identify as a female while dressed like a man with 5 o clock shadow.

I look forward to pursuing my new gender identity in women's locker rooms and showers in the coming time.

Thank you for helping me find my way.

PS.

Live and let live. The crazy social constructivist crowd is just as bad as the bigots.

All words are "made up," if you put it that way. The word Gender, when used properly, generally refers to how a person identifies him or herself sexually. Someone whose phenotype is one sex but whose genotype is the other (this was a big problem in sport for a long time) may well have the gender of one or the other. Someone whose phenotype is inconclusive could have either gender. And then there are those people whose brains were given a strong dose of one sex hormone when in the womb but were born with the phenotype of the other sex.

Gender works very well as a word because it is not the same as sexual orientation or sexuality, Instead, it refers to the identification of the person in their own mind. It has emerged, as words invariably do, because its use is called for.

Just because bathroom use is sometimes difficult to navigate for trangender folks does not mean that gender is not an issue. To overcome this, some schools in Thailand have a third bathroom for katoi.

Only Stalinist Russia or North Korea prevent the use of normal words. Gender originally came from grammar, not some social-contructivist origin. In different languages, certain nouns were deemed to have a masculine gender, some a feminine and some languages also have a neuter gender; which gender the noun will determine how the adjective is used. German and Latin have three genders.

They are not being helpful at all,,

It feels like they are pointing the finger at us for getting it stolen,,

I payed about 30,000 for the year and they are sort of saying it doesn't cover theft.

We did a lot of our own investigation work by sticking a picture of the vehicle on Facebook,with many spots around chok chai and surin,,,

We told the insurers about what the police have said about paying the 300,000,

And the insurers agree it's the best idea to get our car back,,,,

Grrrrr

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Hire a good lawyer. Get him to look the papers over and tell you if you have a case. If you do, sue the insurance company.

Going to the Cambodian border with Baht10,000 in your pocket is not a good idea. Taking the advise of a cop who is not even bothered to help you is not a good idea. Use the B10,000 as a downpayment on a new car (and this time find a way of making sure that the car cannot be so easy to steal!). And in future check the conditions of the insurance.

Unless you have a good connection with the real investigators in the police (equivalent to the FBI) who can track this stuff down, then great. But then I guess that since you are bringing up this on Thaivisa you don't have this connection. Besides, with the current difficulties in Bangkok and elsewhere, the police are unlikely to be of much use right now.

What I am saying is that you do not find yourself in a strong position and therefore you just have to slurp it down and start again.

How long will it be before his surrounding ring of generals take him gently aside.........................and shoot him.

It is a little hard to shoot someone when you are already dead. Un has killed his own uncle (actually his aunt's husband) and quite a few other folks. No general is going to be so stupid as to approach another general with the idea in case the other general shops him. This is the way that the system works and how it has managed to stay in place in the same family since the 1950s.

Perhaps it is just my impression but many of the good deeds mentioned in the posts occurred in local or rural places in Thailand or in local neighbourhoods. In such places, there is a good chance that someone will know you. And often there is an element of "we are all in this together" and this time you are broken down and the next time it will be the other guy. And it could also be because the locals have only ever experienced nice falang and not the louts that hang out in those well-known parts of Pattaya or Bangkok. But even in those two cities, there are localities where people would help you out and are nice and polite.

First you change the locks and make sure that ex cannot gain access to your home or vehicle. In fact, I would suggest moving house both for psychological reasons and to make it difficult for her to cause trouble for you.

Change all your passwords on email and other accounts and make sure that she cannot access your text messages etc it is possible to have SMS messages sent to a third party phone if that third party is listed on the bill. Make sure that she has no rights of access to your bank accounts or any other source of money. Perhaps have the bank put all withdrawals on SMS warning. Then document everything, including all the Facebook stuff you mention - make several copies and keep them in different safe places.

You can then file for divorce - check with your solicitor but probably divorce on the grounds of abandonment. It is probably too late now but you could have made out a missing persons report with the police when she first went missing.

You should take all legal steps to ensure that your assets and money are legally protected so that she cannot claim them as part of some divorce settlement. Obvious stuff - close all joint bank accounts, if any.

Based on the advice of your solicitor, you may have to write a letter to the immigration authorities stating the fact that she abandoned the marriage at a certain time within X time of receiving the visa. It will be up the immigration to decide whether she has committed some sort of immigration fraud. Keep the iPhone messages as that will show your intentions were not devious.

Unless she is currently taking steps to divorce you herself and has plans to milk you in that way, you should consider that you have got off lightly. It would appear that she is too taken up with her lesbian lifestyle and sees her future, including her financial future, in that direction. She could have set things up differently, had a few noisy rows, get a neighbor on her side so that the police are called on a few occasions, even provoke you into slapping her face which then sets the scene for divorcing you because of your violent behaviour and getting a chunk of your assets and income as a result. She could claim that her lack of English and that her qualifications are not recognised in the UK and therefore you promised her that she could retrain on your coin. You can see where I am going with this . . .

It really looks like you got off lightly. Be more careful next time!

No not at all. I don't wish to be rude or inflammatory but has your partner had much education? That is often the root cause of ignorance in my opinion.

All women think they are right (as do most men). Some women who are educated and smart realize that they can do better in a situation or a relationship if they don't make this part of their character obvious, especially in the early stages of a relationship. In fact, they may decide to get their way by arranging things so that the man in their life thinks that he came up with the idea originally.

With your girlfriend, there is no point in confronting her views. Instead, you may have some mileage in just not arguing the point and if confronted you just say, "So you think that X is Y" possibly with a non-committal "interesting" or "I will have to think about that" tagged on to the end of the sentence. You may find that she has particular bias in favor of certain outcomes or people. When you get the opportunity, you extrapolate those views to their absurdity but not in a confrontational way, in fact in a way that she might agree with but then realize the implications of her views herself.

For example, if she harps on about Thailand being the best, with the best people, best everything, you agree wholeheartedly and list what people outside Thailand say about the country, such as "Everyone agrees that Thailand knows how to put on the best coups" or Everyone agrees that the bar-girls in Thailand are the best in the world." If that does not work, you move on to Bangkok's traffic management system being, Thailand has the best floods in the world or then move on to real howlers, such as "Thailand is the most ethical country in the world, least corrupt etc etc." You will eventually reach her breaking point where she will disagree with you but in doing so will disagree with herself - for instance, if she goes on about Thailand being the best country in the world but disagrees with you about it being the least corrupt, you say "But I am confused - if Thailand is the best country in the world, how can it be very corrupt?"

The key to this exercise is NEVER to disagree with her. If you find the game enjoyable and you get results in the form that she becomes more thoughtful or less likely to shove her unthought opinions down your throat, then great! If you find that the game is not enjoyable and you dont get any results, this relationship is probably not for you.

In addition to a possible lack of education, what may be going on is that your girl may be trying to either assert herself too much or alternatively she may have issues with her perception that you are not taking the lead in the relationship. If she is trying to assert herself too much and in effect bully you, you may want to consider whether you want this ongoing power struggle. If on the other hand she is trying to provoke you into taking a leadership role and you step up to this role, things may turn to the good for you and her.

Again, isn't it every 6 months ?

Or is it this time to block protesters or is it to raise more tea money after hiding from the protestors ?

Cracking down on motorists while tens of thousands of pedestrians block the streets, bombs go off, shots being fired and people killed/wounded. The boys in brown never let a little bit of civil unrest or even the state falling apart get in the way of the usual ahem revenue enhancement. I think in the management books this behaviour is known as "sipping cappucinos at the edge of a live volcano."

Not only in the USA - in the UK there have been numerous killings of people breaking in. The general case is whether it was premeditated and whether they can convince a jury that they were scared for their life. A famous case of a farmer, robbed many times, that sat lying in wait with a shot gun - when a guy broke in he shot them - and went down (although there was a large public outcry about it - in the farmer's favour). Another case where a robber was stabbed several times in the chest and neck and died, still halfway through a window - he pleaded that he was washing up and therefore had access to the knife, which he instinctively grabbed and tried to make the burglar run away by sticking him with it - in fear and defence. He got away with it.

It's a crap shoot! Much better to scare them away than kill them - or even injure them.

In the USA, there is precedent for killing intruders in your home. In some states, it is because you are afraid of being harmed or killed. As a result, homeowners keep guns just in case they surprise a burglar. And of course burglars now go about their business armed.

The problem the international community have is that the Reds are the reds and have always been Red. The shadowy forces who control the anti-red factions have usurped almost every other colour: yellow, white, green, black, rainbow, you name it. What colour should your average neutral foreigner wear?

And you can't go shirtless either, as that is against the law in Thailand.

"Tourists should wear shirts,'' Governer Matree Intuset said. ''Away from the beach, it's impolite to go without your top covered up. Besides, it's actually against the law and police can arrest and fine transgressors.''

-An online news source

"It is both inappropriate and illegal to [not wear a shirt in public] in Thailand. Consider yourself lucky you were not hit with a 500-baht fine.

-Lt Col Jumroon Plaiduang, Deputy Superintendent, Chalong Police.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/issuesanswers/details.asp?id=1440

How about wearing a clown outfit? Polkadots, fright wig and makeup - that should indicate that you belong to no party (unless that favorite of British politics, the "Monster Raving Looney Party" has taken root in Bangkok).

Yes they work great, as long as you don't mind hearing the rats screaming for 24 hours as they try and free themselves (biting their limbs off if necessary). Illegal in some western countries.

Utter nonsense, it's a silent process, there is no sudden pain, unlike reading your posts!

I agree that it is usually a silent process. However, there is a view that you ought to make the rat scream before you kill it because the scream frightens other rats away. You could tape the rat screaming and play it now and again to keep rats away. I have never tried this method but some people swear that it works.

The most likely situation is that you have a female rat with young in either the space between the floors or in some ducting.

The female will need to get access to food. That means that she has to use a pathway to get to the food source - this they do at night when there are fewer people around. You need to identify the food source and the pathway used by the rat to get to it. You place your traps in the rat run - often along walls if you see any signs of rats moving along those walls.

If you use a metal cage or snap trap, make sure to place the bait inside and set it first and then hang it over a fire (gas stove is good) to get rid of your scent. If you use sticky sheets, you have to be very careful of pets, children and other animals. Stick sheets are great if there is one female rat and the young are really tiny. Cage traps are good if you have more than one rat - sometimes the cages have "runners" or entrances with no exits so that a rat outside can get inside to find out what is going on inside. Snap traps are good if you have only one rat.

A lively cat would be good - better to have two and feed them in the mornings so that they are up and awake at night when the rats are lively - cats hunt out of instinct, not hunger. Get a pair of spayed females as she is most likely to stay at home and not wander. Cats usually do not actually kill adult rats as the latter are just to big and can bite. Instead, they make it difficult for the female rats to come and go with food for babies and the rats move on to an easier location.

Another choice is to poison the rats - you must use proper rat poison and not the local stuff that someone made privately. Apart from being really careful with such substances as they also kill humans and other animals too, it would be best to get the version that makes the rats very thirsty. But then you have to be very careful to make sure you have access to water sources that the rat will use. If a rat dies in some inaccessible place, the stench will drive you and your neighbours out of your homes really quickly.

Army: Tanks Are For Children's Day, Not Coup

If you read this headline quickly you might have the following thoughts:

Jeez, Thai children are that rough that they have to send in the tanks?

If they bring tanks out for Children's day, what will they bring out for a coup?

Everyone knows that coups happen in Thailand and therefore it is important to get people used to the sight of tanks on the streets. And that includes the children . . .

Thai army starts recruitment young!!!

And what was it they said the last time?!!

They don't keep this standard in Western countries - so why should Thais have to do it. In the USA, the former head of the IMF had the full perp-walk even though he was found not guilty. The Indian diplomat who was handcuffed and strip searched because her maid said she was not being paid the minimum wage even though she has never been charged. I agree with you that in an ideal world this is what all countries should do. But we should not single out Thailand as if it never happens elsewhere!

They put his whole name and address in media. Are you kidding me?

Do you have a problem with that? If so.... why?

I don't have a problem with naming and shaming and hanging this scum out to dry.

Nothing wrong with naming and shaming AFTER they have been convicted. Before that, details should be withheld. What if he's innocent?

That Fat Little Bully-boy in North Korea obviously didn't pick up any Good Traits when he went to school in Switzerland, I'm just waiting for some of his school-mates to write about what a Lousy Fat Pig he was as a student. Surprised the CIA hasn't taken care of him yet.

Actually his schoolmates and teachers were interviewed some time ago. They reportedly said that he lacked self-control and harbored delusions of grandeur and a violent streak.

On behalf of the rest of the world, could we respectfully request that the CIA not take up your suggestion. The trouble is that in interfering in other countries often leads to worse outcomes for the locals and the region and it is non-Americans (as in the rest of the world) that pays the price and suffers - Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa (the alleged betrayal of Nelson Mandela by a CIA man who told the then racist regime where to find Mandela), many countries in central and South America etc. Even in cases where you think that the leader is terrible, unless the population is ready and wants a revolution, the chances are that intervening will do worse rather than better. If you think that Kim Jong-Un is bad, there is always a worse one to take his place in such a rotten regime.

Only if there is a real insurrection against a bloodthirsty dictator should the CIA even think of intervening. Syria, for example. And then, if it is to be done, it should be done quickly by providing aid and arm to people who are not likely to destabilize the region or bring about a worse regime. Otherwise leave well alone.

As someone who had to change travel plans when Bangkok airport was closed due to protests, who had to cancel an operation in Bangkok because of shooting outside the hospital, who experienced the Coup . . .

And none of these episodes seemed to affect tourist numbers at all. Is there something about this latest state of affairs that is spooking the tourists? After all, the disagreement is still the same and this time there seems to be less violence.

Perhaps it is the straw that broke the camel's back? Perhaps the tourists have more places to go, in Cambodia and Vietnam, for instance. And soon Myanmar.

o.k she,s a 20 year old schoolgirl and i,m guessing your in your 60,s ,

i know there,s not but there should be a law about it just being

WRONG .....

You can deduce from the writing of a few emails that someone is in their 60s?!!!!

You have decided that there is something morally wrong with age difference between a couple of consenting adults who are dating or getting married? How?

You have decided that there ought to be a law against adults dating and marrying if they are not within X years of each other (where X = 5 years, 10 years, 15 years . . .)? Why? How do you decide on the magic limit? Given that we cannot catch all the rapists, murderers, robbers that are out there, we now ought to divert human resources and taxes to police the age difference between those who are dating or wanting to get married?

Thank goodness your proposed morality and law was not around when my parents met. My father's first wife died tragically before they could have any children (she was almost 10 years older than him). He had given up the idea of ever getting married again, did not even go on a date for many years. Years later someone came into his life - my mother was 25 years younger than my father and they married a few months after her 22nd birthday, had me and my siblings and remained happily married until he suddenly died in his late seventies. Of course your moralizing hyper-policing nonsense would have put a stop to all that.

Why do you feel you want to tell consenting adults how to live their lives? No one is telling you who or who not to marry/date?

I don't know how many Australian females who volunteer for that foundation, who is of that age and who arrived two months ago to work at that location?

So much for anonymity!

And for those who wish to inflict all sort of violence on the suspect, could we please have at least a hearing before we round up the lynch mob? You don't know what went on during that walk home and until we ascertain the facts we should just suspend justice

Rich Farangs bully poor Thais?

I think so.

why then set up a company, build a reputation (whether you enjoy the brand or not is irrelevant as many obviously do)... Then allow others to do what they want after you spend years building it?.

Not bullying. Fair is fair

Sent from my RM-892_apac_laos_thailand_219 using Tapatalk

OMG! That cart with no espresso or latte machine, no comfortable seats etc had totally taken me in. I would have drunk a coffee there and thought, "how bad St*rb*cks has become" and decided never to go to a their outlets ever again. {Warning to those with a an absence of any sense of irony, the previous sentence was intended to be ironic]

He could have called it "Tarbucks" - same-same strategy as he tried with only one letter changed. Of course it would have helped his case if his name was Tarbuck, which it wasn't.

Same as Christianity. A pure teaching got polluted and corrupted. Doesn't mean that Buddha or Jesus's basic teachings about the universe or flawed. I think they are no more obsessed with money in Asia than we are in the west, but the difference is they don't hide it here. Money is the god in Asia. Also the Buddha statues and little spirit houses are a layover from the animistic hindu hoodoo religion that was in SE Asia before Buddha's teachings arrived.

Hell. I could do with some more money myself. Know any good monks?

I dont think its a layover. Lod Buddah, Was born hindu, (all hindu temples) he is imaged as one of the great hindu teachers. But he walked away from Hinduism cos he saw the flaws and injustice against lower cast /racial devide. Aryan this aryan that, ..

That is the reason why he started buddism....To fix all faults that was with hinduism. By the way watch an intresting BBC documentary "Jesus was buddist" on youtube... Many things in Christiantity seams to be comming from buddism,and it can be so that jesus actualy went to India ...and learded buddism and took it to Jerusalem and started his own thing

Hinduism was a western investion - about the 18th century or so.

There is no such thing really. The Buddha wasn't a Hindu. The Buddha, legend has it, followed many different teachers, with different teachings. None of whom could be described as being hindu as you would imagine it. There were probably no hindu temples back then - or temples of any sort.

it is also a mistake to say that the Buddha was a caste reformer. He has a few digs at caste, but early Buddhism was dominated by Brahmin caste and Kshatriya caste as well. Modern Sri Lankan Buddhism is very caste conscious too and is broken up into sects based on caste

Hinduism is said to be among the world's oldest living religions. The Upanishads are believed to be some of the earliest texts and predate Christianity.

Siddharta Gautama who later became known as the Buddha was born into a Hindu family and yes they had temples back then. These are known to be facts and are accepted as such even by non-Buddhists and non-Hindus (such as myself).

If you want to make a case against such well-accepted claims, you need to reference them. Just saying that Hinduism was a Western invention would be to credit the colonialists with far too much immagination. And you are insulting the very rich tradition of Hinduism as well as the many millions of followers of that religion.

With the exception of living under the Taliban or possibly in Saudi Arabia, no priest or monk is going to both alienate and put down their parishioners by telling them not to donate or to behave in a different way. In comparison with some other religions, the Thai Buddhists and their monks actually act rather properly and appear in a good light.

In the religion I was raised, the Catholic Church in Ireland, we had priests and bishops who had girlfriends and fathered children, we had pedophiles priests who were sheltered by the church, not to mention the Magdalen Laundries (google them if you are interested) and the child labour orphanages. But, you might say, that was in the past! It has all changed now! Really! what about the bishop in Germany in 2013 who spent millions on his palace? What about the Vatican with its millions and the allegations regarding the bank? And the allegations that the Vatican covered up for pedophile priests? And the religious orders who hid their money offshore rather than pay compensation? Some of these religious orders lived rather well, despite their vow of poverty.

That is not to say that there are not some really great Catholic priests and nuns who are tolerant, not greedy, who treat people well and who obey the rules concerning their avowed way of life - there are. Just as there are many Buddhist monks in Thailand who do the same.

Ahhhhhh.........pure ambrosia to the "Hang 'em high" and "Cut his nuts off" brigade.

So whats your input for the topic ?

I think that you will find his input to the topic was that loud shouts for lynching and castration will inevitably arise even though the man has not yet been tried or found guilty of anything.

THere are of course other difficulties even after such a pedophile has been found guilty, which is to ascertain whether he is insane or not, whether he acted under compulsion or not, whether we would want to equate this scenario with the rape of a 13 year old by a stranger where the victim did not give implied consent (I take it that we can assume from the reported facts that in this case there was implied consent), whether we would want to equate the severity of such this scenario with someone who rapes a 9 year old or a 5 year old or even younger.

If you think that it is worse when a much younger person is raped than when a 13 year old was involved sexually with a pedophile, then that should be apparent in the sentence for such a proven perpetrator as opposed to the sentence where a much younger person was the victim. But if you sentence the perpetrator iin the 13 year old victim case to hanging and castration, what do you have left for the perpetrator of of the much worse crime?

Naming Man, where does it say she had a Brit boyfriend facts, facts facts man, leave your guessing with the rubbish, at that time probably pissed out of her mind that is probably why she is not injured much, relaxed body on the way down.

She is bloody lucky, hopefully learned so lessons or sense.

My post was in conjunction with the quoted post. My point being, it is possible she jumped.

Sure, the article doesn't state she has a Brit boyfriend, however, it also doesn't state that she hasn't got a Brit boyfriend.

I keep an open mind to all possibilities here.

My bet is that her beloved albino German Shepherd dog died and she was distraught at the news. Sure, the article does not state she had an albino German Shepherd dog, however it does not state that she does not.

According to the deeply philosophical view of the previous poster, we have to keep an open mind to all possibilities and that allows us to reach such conclusions.

Please, please reassure us that the previous poster is not in law enforcement or the NSA etc.