Austeyr

I really do not think CMU will be issuing any kind of refund or visa concession if the director of the university has been shouted at in public. They probably wouldn't anyway as 'refund' is not an idea Thais seem to understand.

Yes you are right, we should wai him and ask him nicely for our money back. And when he says no we should wai him again and apologize for causing him problems.

How many Lawyers do you think would take on one of the biggest and most powerful universities in Thailand on behalf on foreigners?

If you are paying, 100% will. Are you suggesting CMU will order a hit against anyone who sues them in the civil court? LoLs.

I am not talking about people ordering hits out on anyone. For one it goes alot deeper than money, some of the people who run the university have alot of power and pull in places that farang could ever imagine. That combined with the fact Thai courts very rarely take the side of farang espeically if it means tarnishing one of the most well known university in Thailand's name. Going to court which could take months and winning is a whole different story.

The first consultation with Ajarn Sanyalux is normally free plus it's not clear yet whether it's CMU that should be sued or IUS/Dr Matt.

The people not refunding the money or issuing visa's as promised is the language institute at CMU not Dr Kay. The students met with Dr Kay and the Director of CMU this afternoon. Dr Kay was the one going in to bat for the students in attempts to get the students what is due to them. If you were to contract someone to help promote and run your business, then after receiving payment from 100's of clients you changed your mind and decided you wouldnt offer your services anymore. Would you be liable to pay back the money to your customers? Our would you keep the money yourself and force the person who you had signed a contract with to pay back the money themselves out of their own pocket?

How many Lawyers do you think would take on one of the biggest and most powerful universities in Thailand on behalf on foreigners?

If you are paying, 100% will. Are you suggesting CMU will order a hit against anyone who sues them in the civil court? LoLs.

I am not talking about people ordering hits out on anyone. For one it goes alot deeper than money, some of the people who run the university have alot of power and pull in places that farang could ever imagine. That combined with the fact Thai courts very rarely take the side of farang espeically if it means tarnishing one of the most well known university in Thailand's name. Going to court which could take months and winning is a whole different story.

How many Lawyers do you think would take on one of the biggest and most powerful universities in Thailand on behalf on foreigners?

Dr Kay was contracted by the language institute to start up and run a TEFL course. After running a very successful program he then helped CMULI to develop a 1 Year Thai program amongst others. All this was done while under the supervision of the old CMULI director and with the support of the president of the University. These programs were ran very well and gained alot of popularity and i am sure if you ask most of the Thai language students they will rave about how much they had enjoyed studying on these courses. Everything was going well until the old director retired and a new director took over CMULI. The new director without any notice refused to sign Visas and announced that no more of the programs Dr Kay had set up were allowed to run after September and that CMULI would not be liable for refunds even though they had taken the majority of the enrolled students money. So from the sounds of this CMULI is essentially stealing money and leaving students high and dry without Visa's. Also to add another twist. The new director looks to be starting up programs that mimic alot of Dr Kays work.

To clarify some points. The company i work for is not an NGO/ Non profit organisation it is a business that is here to profit.

When i was hired it was well known that i was not Christian and has never been an issue until now.

The Monday bible studies are something that have been implemented recently.

Thanks everyone for your reply. Although we do chose to live in Thailand that does not mean i also chose to throw out my self respect and my rights to freedom of choice. My soul is not for sale.

Yes i realize this is Thailand, my question relates to labor laws. Is there no law in Thailand regarding discrimination based on religious backgrounds?

I have worked for an American firm in northern Thailand for the past 2 years. They are a Christian business that does work for both religious and non religious groups. When i was hired 2 years ago it was a well known fact that i was not religious. Basically they have introduced bible study meetings every Monday morning for 1.5 hours. When i informed my boss i am not religious and will not attend these meetings he said either i go or i will be fired. I mentioned how this is illegal in America his retort was that this is Thailand and not America and although it is a bible study they are also lessons on how to live life and do well at work. is this legal?

I have worked for an American firm in northern Thailand for the past 2 years. They are a Christian business that does work for both religious and non religious groups. When i was hired 2 years ago it was a well known fact that i was not religious. Basically they have introduced bible study meetings every Monday morning for 1.5 hours. When i informed my boss i am not religious and will not attend these meetings he said either i go or i will be fired. I mentioned how this is illegal in America his retort was that this is Thailand and not America and although it is a bible study they are also lessons on how to live life and do well at work. is this legal?

I did a search and i could not find any relevant answers to my question so i apologize if this has already been covered.

From my understanding, foreigners must earn a minimum income of 50,000baht depending on nationality or if you work in an education related position. What confuses me is why there so many job vacancies advertised that offer salaries with work permits of between 30 - 40k in other job positions in varying other trades other than teaching. Is the 50k law not enforced? and how if so, wouldn't this leave the employer open for being sued by his employee if he were ever to take legal action for not paying the full salary requirement? If this is illegal how do business's get away with advertising jobs paying below the legal wage?

If they used M-16's, doesnt suprise me that he survived. 5.56 doesnt have that much penetrating power. AK-47 is a different story but there have been conflicting reports by the media. Remembering that this was early morning in poor light with a moving vehicle so im sure a vast majority of rounds missed.

He wasnt born in Thailand, he is an from Chicago. I very cool talented guy. He doesnt hold a Thai ID but he does speak very good thai.

Hi,

I am the production manager for a large offset printing company based in northern Thailand. We have full in house design and offset and digital printing facilities. Our design prices are the cheapest in Thailand

If his reason was because it was cheaper and more convenient, maybe we should all just not bother getting visa's in the future. Afterall, we are farang and we can do what ever we like right?

I was hoping someone might know the answer to my question.

Basically i was employed 6 months ago by an american owned company, no contract was signed as to how long i would be employed so it was on open ended agreement. The company has gotten itself into a bit of a hole and he let a few Thai staff go. On friday i was called in to the office with the owner who basically said he could only afford to pay me a 3rd or my original salary agreed upon when i first took the job, he even mentioned he might not pay me my full salary this month.

I have a work permit with this company as well as my one year visa. I know in Australia that i would be covered by workplace laws and if they released me with out advanced knowledge or reason they would have to pay some sort of advanced salary package and pay out my leave that i had aquired during that time worked but because i am a farang here in Thailand i am not sure if he is allowed to do what he is trying to pull off. Basically he cant sack me because i have been doing my job well but by offering a 3rd of my salary i would be unable to survive on that amount of money hence forcing my resignation.

The Thai staff who were let go got a payout for being let go.

Not sure where i stand , any feedback would be great

Sad times.

Just ask yourself if this were your own country and the goverment which was in power was saturated with corruption and was'nt prepared to bring an ex leader to justice even though he had ripped off millions of tax payers money. Which side of the fence would you be on?

I think people look too deep into the meaning of Farang and see it as a word that looks down on people when actually it doesnt at all.

If you are in your own country and there are a group of people of mixed rate and someone says "Hey, who is Ken again?"... Oh "Ken is the asian guy in the blue shirt"... Are you looking down on the asian for calling him for what he is? Farang means caucasian. Using using ชาวต่างชาติ ชาวต่างประเทศ Chao Dtang Chad or Chao Dtang Pratet meaning someone from another country, is a blanket term describing anyone from Indians to Americans. Farang simply states we are caucasian.

From reading some replies some people stated that they wouldn't fight for their country as it was pointless fight over something that is just a lump of soil. As an ex serving Digger my views are slightly different. When i think of fighting for my country i think about what Australia stands for, the people, the culture, the history and the unity we share as citizens regardless of the dirt under our feet. That is what i think about when i give my life to a uniform. So to answer the question from the OP, no i wouldn't be prepared to fight for Thailand because i do not share the above attributes with the people of Thailand.

Also to add, the men in black, as mentioned, are taharn phran and are a paramilitary troops usualy posted on the borders of Thailand, they are not "special forces".

Tigs... Finally a well balanced and factually based response. I spent 36 years in the Royal Australian Navy and rose through the ranks to Lieutenant Commander. I spent three years at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok and on many occasions accompanied members of the Australian Special Air Services Regiment as a liaison whilst they were conducting training exercises with Thai "special forces" these exercises involved such things as Entebbe style hostage rescue scenarios through to establishing FOP's in hostile territory. The Aussie soldiers were more than impressed with the discipline, weaponry, skillsets and attitude of Thai SF. I later went on to spend five months with the Thai Army battalion in East Timor as the liaison officer between the Thais and INTERFET HQ and all of the Thai military in ET were from Lop Buri... Very fit and very professional. Thailand has SF in the Army, Marines and the Navy, they are well thought of in international SF circles and have trained with the best of the best from USA, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore to my knowledge. I woud not be suprised to learn that they have also conducted training with Chinese SF personnel as well.

As to who the military personnel were in the photos, I think Justback has answered that question very well.

Elkangorito, unless you were part of team 1, it would seem that you are just another ex military expat walking around alluding to secret missions that you cannot talk about, sad really. You are though, quite correct with respect to publication of pictures of SF personnel, Apart from those already KIA, you will never see the face of any SAS (Australian) in any media.

Cheers and Beers All.

I spent 10 years with the Royal Australian Army whom crossed trained me as a Thai translator. I spent a year working in lopburi with the Thai Rangers who worked along with members of the SASR and are regarded as very professional and skilled in certain aspects of jungle warfare and survival. People of a skewed view of what SF is and it seems alot of people have made some pretty uneducated guesses. If a unit falls under special operations command they are SF regardless of what the world thinks or if they have black squares across their face or not.

To the person who made the sling comment, i see nothing wrong with how he has slung his weapon and i can assure you he knows exactly what he is doing. Also carrying different weapons is normal practice for certains units regardless if they are third world or not.

Midasthailand, i am also a timor veteran and did alot of translation work in between other things during INTERFET, maybe we have crossed each others paths although you are much more my superior in regards to rank. It was also a nice suprise for me to see some of my ranger friends from Lopburi get a gernsey in Timor.

In other countries, restricted military bases are very serious affairs. You are probably lucky you didnt get shot.

Started spending extended periods of time here as soon as i turned 19. Moved here officially at 22 and am soon to be 30. I think i used to be Australian.

I used to work as a tour leader here in Thailand for quite a number of years. Our trips included trekking through the northern parts of Thailand, biking through the rice bowl areas of rural Thailand to kicking back on the beaches in the South. I really cant say i have noticed too much difference between the Thai's throughout the country this is mainly due to the fact most Thai's you meet probably dont originate from the province you are visiting anyways. I find that you have a greater chance of meeting not so friendly Thai's in high denisty tourists areas such as Phuket, Ko Samui, Koa Sarn rd and Chiang Mai. Which is totally understandable if you have seen the way certain tourists treat Thai's.

My experience:

I recall an american friend that told me Disney Florida charges less for Florida residents... This things happen all over the world...

Cheers!

Disney is a private enterprise we are talking govt policies.

I have lived in Thailand almost all of my adult life. I speak/read thai fluently and i work and pay taxes. Sometimes i cant be bothered going to places like temples and national parks cause i dont enjoy having to debate my status with every thai person standing at the fee's counter. Its very much a case of farang will always be a Farang, regardless.

I originate from Australia and i would hate to think the media backlash if you advertised "toronga park zoo" Aussies: 40 dollars, Asians: 400 dollars.

Someone mentioned that Farang only have themselves to blame for throwing money around. You should take a trip to Australia and see how much Asian tourists throw money around there. Casinos full of Thais and Chinese business men throwing down 2000 dollars a bet, staying in 1000 dollars a night hotels complete with high end escorts.