fvw53

Yes the EU institutions are expensive ...but the wars of the 20th century were much more expensive..so I prefer they talk and talk but let the member states live in peace.

If Mr Cameron thinks he can force all the other 27 member states to change the basic rules of the EU then he and some of his fellow conservatives still live in the 19th century when "Britannia ruled the waves"...

My wife's niece went to the state school in Chonburi. She is now studying clinical medicine on an international English speaking course at a university in China and she was awarded a scholarship on her first year results. She did fairly well at school but was not at the top of the class. It is not all bad.

While in the mean time 100 000 doctors working in Thailand can not speak a word of English and prescribe antibiotic for muscle pain.

Why should they speak a foreign language? Speak to the doctor in Thai, its Thailand

The issue is not the communication between Thai doctors and Thai patients : the issue is I don't believe a doctor can remain competent if he cannot inform himself of the the latest scientific developments on the internet which is 90% or more in English. The same applies to professionals active in other sectors requiring scientific knowledge.

If you live in the Bangkok area I would take the HD to the shop of WD in Panthip Plaza (I forgot on which floor but if you leave the elevator on the correct floor then the WD shop is on your right side after only a few other shops) : if they cannot open it on their available PC's then they will tell you who eventually can solve your problem

it is interesting to reread the story of his lawyers caught by camera's while they tried to send some "shoeboxes" full of money to the judges of the Supreme Court.

http://www.bt.com.bn/asia_news/2008/06/26/thaksins_lawyers_jailed_for_court_bribe

I leave it to the Thai people to believe (or not) that the conviction of Mr T was politically motivated.

However in my country (EU member state) a convicted felon can always get a passport of maximum 7 days to allow him or her to return home and surrender to the authorities.

Also for white collar crimes ...in my country the authorities think sometimes it is in the interest of the country that the convicted felon remains abroad...(saving expenses for a new trial)

the person who can reply such question with certitude must be a very lucky speculator .... not everybody is Soros

The UK newspaper The Guardian of yesterday wonders (and explains) while U Aung Suu Kyi (Nobel Price for Peace) remains silent.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/19/why-is-aung-san-suu-kyi-silent-on-the-plight-of-the-rohingya-people

I remember the unsuccessful efforts by the G W Bush administration to provide evidence that Saddam was hiding terrorists

Now 10 years after the invasion ...Iraq is full of terrorists ... "mission accomplished"?

The situation of the Rohingya's is indeed horrible.

But the fact that the boats are also filled up with desperate Bangladeshi's does not make the decision making to accept them in Malaysia or Indonesia more easy.

The desperate Rohingya's are a few hundred thousand but the desperate Bangladeshi's are several millions....

The topic is : "Cameron considers more powers for Scotland _ but not fiscal"

My comment : in the end it is ALWAYS about money....

For some people if may be useful to buy the blood pressure meters on sale at the pharmacies of department stores

They are very easy to use and I use them twice a day to have a good idea if I need to adjust my blood pressure medication.

I can provide brand name of what I use to people contacting me directly

I read that some TV member consider 140/90 as OK but my doctor says that it should not be above 130/80 for several hours a day..(I am 71 years old)

Some good info can be found on the internet :

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-pressure-(high)/Pages/Diagnosis.aspx

ChrisY1, on 13 May 2015 - 13:32, said:

Bluespunk" data-cid="9401424" data-time="1431497819" data-date="15 minutes ago said:

The Big Mango" data-cid="9401415" data-time="1431497672" data-date="17 minutes ago said:

Who are R airlines ? Never heard of them

http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/R-Airlines

Great airline........their freekin planes are 21 years old!!

Airplanes can be 21 years old provided the prescribed checks are done on time and that the spare parts which are bought are true originals and not bought on the cheaper but dubious "grey market"

It would be interesting to find out to which countries the holder of Thai diplomatic passport can travel without a visa.

In case a visa is required it will only be issued if it is supported by a letter issued by the Thai Foreign Ministry.

The question arises for a diplomatic passport issued by the government of Montenegro.

Suradit69, on 13 May 2015 - 00:51, said:

Quotethey will reply always : sorry this can only be replied by head office.

"will reply always"

How often is "always?" If you're having a problem so often that you're "always" lodging complaints (or sending the wife to do it for you), then you apparently are confused about the exchange rates being used or the fees being charged by one or both of the banks. I doubt the bank is systematically short-changing you despite the usual farang conspiracy theorists' belief that everyone in Thailand is out to get them.

I am not at all a conspiracy theorist believing everybody in Thailand is out to get me ....but about banks "yes" and not only in Thailand ...just try to follow on Youtube what "socialist" US Senator Elisabeth Warren has said and is still saying about the predatory American banking system.

Robert24, on 12 May 2015 - 15:56, said:Robert24, on 12 May 2015 - 15:56, said:

I use Kbank and never had problems. I usually make Thai baht payments and they are credited on a T+2 basis as per the Swift standard. Did you make the payment online with your bank? Do you see that your payment to SCB was done and then it took 8 working days to get it credited on SCB?

Yes transfer was done online and immediately confirmed by EU bank (funds were deducted from my account) : I am doing those T/T transfers since at least 5 years and usually it took 4 to 5 days but never 8 days to get credit on my SCB account.

For me the issue is not that it takes one day or more but that I get an exchange rate 50 satang lower than the one indicated to-day and corresponding with the lower one indicated a week ago.

_{Tks Sophon : I am afraid you are right ....I heard before that banks like to play with the customers money they received and only credit the account a few days later}

saakura, on 12 May 2015 - 13:52, said:

So you received 2 Baht per Euro more, what is the problem?

Sorry I already corrected the misprint

To-day I received on my Thai bank account with SCB a sum of money I transferred 8 days ago from my EURO bank account in the EU

According to http://daytodaydata.net/default.aspx

...the rate for a T/T should be 1 Euro = 37.47 Baht (before SCB deducts their own expenses)

Attached a snipping in case this rate changes

However I receive only a rate of 36.94 Baht (before deduction of SCB fees)

My Thai wife says if she will go to our SCB branch they will reply always : sorry this can only be replied by head office.

Do TV members have similar experiences?

Bernard Flint, on 11 May 2015 - 07:54, said:

private medical care is the only problem here, when one is old.However one needs to put money to one side just in case

At an age above 70 I am mainly concerned about the cost of medical care and coincidently another topic to-day on this forum is attracting many comments :

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/824165-government-concerned-with-foreigners-being-ripped-off-by-thai-hospitals/?utm_source=newsletter-20150511-0739&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

flyingdoc, on 11 May 2015 - 13:20, said:

Bumrungrad charge a deposit of 100,000 baht before treatment of any sort if staying overnight and then further charges on top. This far exceeds any charges at private hospitals in the U.K. !

What would you expect from a Public Listed Company ? Every hospital which is on the stock market scares me ...and I suspect the doctors have commission on turn over

In the USA it is possible to transmit WIFI a television signal to a another television in another room of the house : one has to plug a transmitter in the first TV set and plug a receiver in the second TV set.

Are such transmitters and receivers available in Thailand?

hugh2121, on 09 May 2015 - 11:06, said:

Did I miss something?

They said that though the UK's departure from euro zone would have no direct impact on Thailand, the Thai government should still prepare for changes in trade regulations and uncertainties

When did UK become a member of the euro zone?

Indeed the UK is a member if the European Union but NOT a member of the Eurozone : nevertheless this what "experts" say according to press article....Who are those experts?

OK and sorry for what you consider "off topic"

..but in my opinion the deeper conflict is the discussion about the idea who "owns" Israel and for a certain category of Israeli's the black Jews are not included.

It is obvious that there are members of this Forum who cannot get out of their bubble that the

actual the conflict between white Jews (Ashkenaze) and black Jews (Ethiopians) is nonsense.

Both side cannot prove they have any link with the people who lived in the Holy Land 2000 years

ago and more.

Under #17 above I gave my academic references for this : two Israeli professors, one in History and another in Archaeology.

Under # 18 member Jingthing refutes this without giving any reference and blowing hot air that

the books of those professors all old stuff and already rebuked sufficiently.

When I ask Jingthing to quote his academic sources in what should have been #19 I am surprised to

notice it has been deleted without even a mention that it is "off topic"

Is there censorship on this Forum about this subject?

Jingthing, on 04 May 2015 - 15:54, said:

fvw53, on 04 May 2015 - 15:00, said:

The "Ethiopian Jews" are descendants from the Kingdom of Himyar (now Yemen) while the Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of the East European Khazar Kingdom (see conferences on Youtube given by Prof History Tel Aviv University Shlomo Sand) : they both come from a really different world.

Please stop spreading the Khazar conversion theory regarding Ashkenazim as a fact. It is not in any way any kind of fact. In actual fact, more recent good evidence largely and strongly refutes the theory. I know Israeli demonizers and so called "anti-Zionists" love the Khazar conversion theory as they think it supports their hate agenda to deny the right of Israel to exist. Academically, there is nothing wrong with exploring theories though but in this case presenting a highly controversial theory as fact is noxious.

As far as Ethiopian Jews, I am hardly any kind of expert. I recently read there are about 130,000 of them in Israel. I do know that Ethiopian Jews when in Ethiopia suffered horrendous oppression which I reckon was much worse than what they are experiencing in Israel, not that it excuses racism against them in Israel, which does exist, and for which there is no excuse.

There has been a controversy about SOME Ethiopians claiming to be Jews to get to Israel when they really have no connection to Jewishness (so they would basically be economic refugees) ... but there is a racial aspect to that as well. Of course surely SOME of them have indeed faked it and have no claim of Jewish connection at all in truth. However, other people in the world (from China, from indigenous South American people, etc.) with very little connection to Jewishness have qualified for immigration to Israel, so the attention on the truth of the Ethiopian claims is most probably out of balance ... thus the racial factor.

Jews are people. Racism exists in all peoples. It's something worth protesting about in all societies. I'm sure the Ethiopian Israelis have legit grievances and I hope their protests bring about positive change for them.

I am speaking about science and not about faith...

I am NOT repeat NOT anti-Jewish but I am against the faith that the Israeli's now living in what the Romans called "Palestine" are descendants of Abraham or King David or Moses

I am just writing what I learned from reading the books written by Prof Dr Shlomo Sand, Professor in History (yes History) at the University of Tel Aviv (yes Tel Aviv)

- first book : "The Invention of the Jewish People" (so this Jewish professor contradicts your claim that Jews are a "people" and he spends the first 100 pages in kind of PhD thesis on explaining this with many academic references)

- second book : "The Invention of the Land of Israel"

Both books have been backed up by Prof Dr Israel Finkelstein, Professor in Archaeology (yes Archaeology) at the University of Tel Aviv (yes Tel Aviv) : "The Bible Unearthed"

Those books were initially written in Hebrew for an Israeli (yes Israeli) audience and only translated later in English and in French...and I know nothing more on this subject than what is written by Shlomo Sand and Israel Finkelstein

Your writing suggests you have not read these books neither watched the conferences given by Prof Shlomo Sand (to be found on Youtube) ..one of those conference was given in Toulouse (in French) under the title "If Nethanyahu is a Jew then I am a Buddhist"

However if your faith contradicts the research of Shlomo Sand and Israel Finkelstein then this is your good right because science tries to learns us "how" and faith tries to make sense of our existence replying to the question "why".