puipuitom

As many say: in Thailand a farang has only one right: "to pay as much as possible in an as short as possible time".

And a Thai who gives a damn about how a farang feels to be treated is not born yet.

Only, many Thais forget: this is one of the resons so many farangs do not return.

Aflatoxin in rice is a major factor in the very high rate of primary liver cancer in Thailand ( and more so for those with chronic hepatitis B infection). This has been an issue for decades, if not centuries.

Rice is not meant to be stored this way and for this long; of course it will deteriorate. I wouldn't eat it and nor should anyone else.

The average consumption of rice in the EU ( Germany, Belgium, Netherlands: 1.4 kg/head/year) is a LOT lower as in the "rice countries", like S.E. Asia ( about 60 kg / head / year)

The max tolerated level of aflatoxin ( sum of the 4 types) in the EU is 4 ppb ( microgram per kg). In the USA 20, in S.E. Asia 30

Means, the yearly intake risk in S.E. Asia compared with EU for aflatoxin is 60/1.4 * 30/4 = 5143 x so high.

Remind: risk is NOT EQUAL to reality

Looking at import statistics from Eurostat ( = EU customs)

From 1990-2012 import for white rice ex Thailand only ( taric 1006.30+.40) and husked (1006.20) in mton:

ex Thailand only white+broken /husked in metric tons

EU (27member states, 1999-2013) 3.007.400 / 1.399.560

Belgium (1990-2013) 478.333 / 75.236

Germany (1990-2013) 375.243 /141.669

Netherlands (1990-2013) 470.882 / 226.556

All three seen landing ports 1.324.458 / 443.461

France (1990-2013) 1.197.756 / 743.403

By the EU authorities only two shipments were refused because of too high aflatoxin values:

first entry in RASFF database in 2000 : One case of aflatoxin in Thai brown jasmine rice is mentioned: 2007.CZJ B1 = 7.4; Tot. = 8.0 µg/kg - ppb and one in black rice 2004.BMS, none in Vietnamese. ‘

Other origins: India 8 since 2008 of which 2007.CVW >20), Pakistan ( 37 since 2007 of which 2008.AJX >15 and 2008.ALH >20) and Sri Lanka 8x ( none above 15) .

So, for Asia... all would be accepted.

Begs the question, why do the traders in the EU even need to buy old crop product anyway. All products should be sampled and tested for aflotoxin and pesticide residue prior to shipping.

If the traders are smart, they will pay SGS to sample the product on delivery and do their own visual inspection anyway. I can't believe that a lot of this stock will pass muster for delivery to the Eu or the US. There is new crop around, why bother to buy old?

Why some irrisponsable traders buy this ? Because of low price.

And... the official value of any certification / test report: see below.

What is the value of a test report ? Read what Thai labs write on their test report:

- SEAL“ Analyses results refer to the submitted sample(s) only. / The report shall not be reproduced except in full without the written approval of the laboratory”

- Central Lab (TH): “This report is certified only on the sample tested”. So, what the situation is the minute / month before / after: Give it a blessing…

- SGS: ' Unless otherwise stated the results shown in this test report refer only to the sample(s) tested."

So, not: “samples are drawn by the manufacturer said to be at random to give a result being valid for their entire production. The test results are in line with previous testing for the same we saw for this company before” Or even… in line with other test results we saw for the entire Thai industry for this product. As THEN you have a real hard evidence. .

Now you have a lab report valid for the used-up sample only, and you are even not allowed to use this to show to potential customers and/or governmental food authorities. What is the value of such a lab test / can you do with it except put it in your office’s safe ? ?.

That's why a top-official of the Dutch governmental food autority NVWA states

Van:

Verzonden: donderdag 15 november 2012 18:04

Aan: Thai Trade NL - H.G. Romijn

Onderwerp: RE: NVWA: certificatie nog te onbetrouwbaar

· In mijn artikel in VMT heb ik het over de certificaten die in Nederland worden verstrekt. Als u vervolgens af wilt gaan op de certificaten uit derdelanden, dan zult u het met me eens zijn dat hier nog vaker het predikaat "onbetrouwbaar" op geplakt kan worden, om niet te spreken van "fraude". Dáár heeft u als importeur mee te maken en daar zult u alles aan moeten doen om de juiste waarborgen te krijgen. Dat overheden in het Verre OOsten in rap tempo hun controles aanscherpen is natuurlijk toe te juichen, maar u kunt niet ontkennen dat dit pas gebeurt nadat andere continenten (waaronder Europa) bij grenscontroles dit soort parktijken tegenkwamen en producten hebben teruggestuurd.

In my article in VMT I am talking only about the certificates which are issued in the Netherlands. If you want to rely on certifications from third countries, then you will agree with me that here more often these could be classified as "unreliable", not to speak of "fraud". That is where you as an importer have to do everything to get the proper safeguards installed to guarantee food safety. That governments in the Far East is rapidly tightening their controls is of course welcome, but you cannot deny that this happens only after other continents (including Europe) at border controls encountered in such practices and products have rejected at EU entrance borders .

Mr XXX Coördinerend Specialistisch Inspecteur voedselveiligheid

de Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit

divisie Consument en Veiligheid, afd Toezichtontwikkeling

Catharijnesingel 59

3511 GG Utrecht

Tel: (088) 223 33 33

How to read / understand this ? Something like: despite you are educated Bachelor or even Master degree at a food science university, passed a training for BRC /IFS / ISO 22000 set up to fulfil ALL relevant EU food regulations and laws, working at a sometimes over a century worldwide appreciated inspection and certification organisation like Bureau Veritas, Det Norske Veritas, Intertek/ Moody / Lloyds / SGS / TUV, we ultimate supreme Western food authority NVWA see your work as of fraudulous natives ?

Unfortunately none of the above certifiers filed a court case for criminal defamation, despite of knowing the above, so, I have to come to the conclusion the NVWA is right ?

Chancellor Kohl of (Western) Germany said after the merge with DDR: never fight about what you can buy. A lot cheaper.

Only... you have to be willing to pay the price, in this case: stop all business with Russia ( and Ukraine) till a settlement is agreed and followed up all can live with.

As a reporter at British TV said: in the 20th century we fought with tanks, in the 21st we fight with banks.

Some ideas of the economic strength according International Monetary Fund (2013)^{[13] GDP (Millions of US$)}

EU + USA + Canada + Australia = US$ 37.500 Billion versus Russia US$ 2.118 so 5,6% of the "opposition".

I know.. in fact you have to compare "purchasing power", but still... when the "WEST" really wants, they can strangle Russia, maybe not in 14 days, but in 14 weeks, with Russia needing 14 decades to recover.

^{European Union[n 1]17,371,618[16]1United States16,799,7002China9,181,377[n 2]3Japan4,901,5324Germany3,635,959CIS[n 3]2,808,844[16]5France2,737,3616United Kingdom2,535,7617Brazil2,242,8548Russia2,118,006[n 4]9Italy2,071,955ASEAN[n 5]2,012,447[16]10India1,870,65111Canada1,825,09612Australia1,505,277}

You understand now why I left Thailand in 2006 ?

When I have to choose between: no medication, you are dead for sure in .. 10 days ... OR.. it seems we have a drug what might work.. maybe you are dead in 2 days, maybe.. you are cured, but.. no idea what happens after, maybe.. you get a green skin .. I accept the medication with all risks involved.
On this way, in the 19th century, all medicins got their first trial.

And yes, the company who invested a LOT of research wants to see some revenu. How much for a poor country like Liberia ? Maybe "fear" money form the wealthy West ?

But imagine, no farma co has done any research... we had now nothing.

A country so corrupt as Thailand,... even when I would get a BIO / Organic certificate signed by the prime minister and all other Thai ministers, it would not be worth more as waste paper...

We do stand out...

As non-Thai speaking person... take a book with you, as all Thais will speak only Thai . They will speak ABOUT you, but hardly WITH you. Even when YOU are expected to be the one taking up the bill at the end.

when you know two languages, you are bi-lingual
When you know three languages, you are triple-lingual
when you know four languages, you are a genius
When you speak only one language, you are OR British OR Thai

As many wrote above: Muslim extremists believe only their way is the only right one, as they have a direct contact with the Lord.
A person ever been a Muslim or an area ever be under Muslim rule, stays always Muslim. Leaving the Muslim hood has to be punished by death.
All lying, cheating, double-crossing, swindling, perjury... all is under Taqqiya allowed as long as it is in the advantage of the Ummaya = Muslim world.
And... ONLY THEIR way of Muslim life is correct, all others not. See ISIS

You need only a 25 of that type of persons in entire Thailand to have terrorist violence.

Remind: worldwide all plane passengers and their luggage are checked, not because or potential terrorist attacks as Buddhists want their religion back on Java, not because the Cherokee Indians or others want their land back, nor the Celtic Britons nor the Prussians East Prussia, but for one group only: Muslim Arabs.

Ceasefire, so they can re-arm, re-group, re-built all tunnel systems ?

Never HAMAS stick to their agreements, under the moslim slogan: taqqiya = all breaking of vows is allowed as long as it is in the advantage of the muslimhood.

Using UN ambulances for transport of HAMAS fithers: no problem, see

Why everybody forgets the Israels's started the blockade because of HAMAS terrorist attacks on Israel civilians ?

There can be peace in 5 minutes:

- stop hate indoctrination from babyhood

- stop attacks

- recognise an Israel in safe and recognised borders. Which.. that is the outcome of negociations

For quite some years many hundreds of thousands Palestinians worked in Israel. When I travelled through that area in 1971 as student and in the 80-s, the borders were as open as between Siam and Lanna.

However, HAMAS used the opportunity to do terrorist attacts, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas.

Result: the Israelis closed all border with the Palestinian territories, even had to build a high wall, and brought in workers from Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand: from Thailand alone about 25.000; I even helped with that.

Many thousands of rockets were fired in the last decades.

What the Thai gov. + military would do, if thousands rockets were fired on Srichiengmai alone from Laos as Sdderot got ( see map and see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sderot )

Would they do nothing as Lao gov stored rockets in a school, like UNWRA in Gaza ? Or.. just as with the temple case with Cambodia: FIRE !

In 1971 I travelled as a student through Israel and the West bank: an open border was between the Kingdom of Siam and the Kingdom of Lanna: students from all the world, inclusive Palestines: all young persons of the World.
The years later terrorist attacks, rockets, grenades from the Palestines towards the Israëli's In their manifest ( constitution): Israel must be wiped away, the jews driven into the see.
I wonder what would have been the attitude of the USA if Mexico, would behave like that, or on daily bases rockets were lunched from Laos to Nong Kai.
Even the Israelis do their utmost to protect also Palestinian civilians see the statement of a British general at the UN see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlmFc1R8evY&feature=youtube_gdata_player -, sorry, but 100% protection is impossible, especially when rockets are stored in schools, hospitals etc, see UNWRA school even. And you think, this is the only case ? ?
All recourses in Gaza are used for the military and NOT for schools, water supply, electricity etc as.. why should they, US and EU taxpayers money supports that already since 1948

[/quote]
 
I seem to recall that after WW2 that the Jewish people, responding to a call from their religion, returned to what they believed was their "Promised Land", evicted the residents, and started to build a country called Israel.
 
With the connivance of the Western world, to the detriment of the resident population.
[/quote]

Sorry, but I advise you to learn some history:
Jews after the declaration of Herzl at the Jewish congress in Basel August 29 to August 31, 1897 stating: "Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law."
During WW1, the British and French were seeking Arab and Jew support against the Ottoman Empire, to whom Palestine was a part of.
The Arabs were promised in the Balfour declaration a home in Trans-Jordan and what is now Iraq, the Jews a home in Cis-Jordan, what was then called Palestine.
After WW1 all promises were broken by the Allies.

However since the 1880's Jews were migrating into Palestine already, bought as much as land they could get, developing the desert, drying the swamps in Gallilee, and developing other areas.
During Nazi-holocaust, more fled to what they believed could be their home land. Only a small group of Arabs, under the leadership of the Great-Mufti of Jerusalem, started terrorist attacks on the Jewish settlements.
During WW2 the great-Mufti even supported Hitler to recruit Muslim fighters from what is now Bosnia, with the aim to wipe out the Jewish race.
When Rommel would have won in El-Alamein, there would be no Jews anymore in Palestine: all massacred.

What does Israel expect ?  They invaded the country, and enslaved the resident population..

Sorry, but... "invaded their country "?
From the Ottoman Empire era Jews returned to what they believe is their origin. Bought land, made the dessert fertile again, dried up the mosquito swamps in Galilea,

In 1947 a total of 8.6 percent of the total land of what would later be Israel was bought by Jewish organisations, of the rest, more than 70 percent were public wild lands vested in the British Mandatory and came from the Ottoman Empire authorities, defeated in 1918 during WW1.
Moreover, when it comes to residential land, the ILA sometimes offers Israeli Arabs more favorable terms from than it does to Israeli Jews. Thus, the ILA charged the equivalent of $24,000 for a capital lease on a quarter of an acre in new Jewish communities near Beersheva while Bedouin families in the nearby community of Rahat paid only $150 for the same amount of land.16 In a different case, when a Jewish policeman from Beersheva, Eleizer Avitan, applied to the ILA to lease land in a Bedouin community under the same highly subsidized terms available to the Bedouins, the ILA refused to lease him land there under any terms, so he sued. Israel's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ILA, saying that what might be viewed as ILA discrimination against the Jewish citizen Avitan was justified as affirmative action for Bedouin citizens.
Can you imagine something like that in Thailand ? Or the USA for the indians? Or in UK where the Keltics want to press the Anglo-Saxins ( invaded AD 350-600), the Danes ( AD 750-1000) the Normans ( 1066 +) out of what is now England.

During WW2, the Mufti of Jerusalem Mr. Mohammad Amin al-Husayni joined Hitler to kill as many Jews as possible.

The Jews nearly accepted the Jordanian king Abdallah I as their king. Abdullah met with Golda Meir for one last time on 11 May 1948 and he offered her only the creation "of an autonomous Jewish canton within a Hashemite kingdom," while in November before they had agreed on a partition with Jewish statehood.
The Jews accepted the 1947 division from the UN, but the Arabs refused. Then Ben Gurion declared the independent Jewish state. Result: all neighbouring Arab countries declared war, with as aim: kill, massacre, rob, rape, just as ISIS is doing now in Iraq and Syria.

After 1948 over 900,000 jews were kicked out of the countries they lived for sometimes millennia. About 600,000 Palestinians fled as response to the call of the Arab leaders, so their armies would know, all humans present were Jews and could be massacred.

Now about 1.66 million Arabs living inside Israel, all have voting rights, even the women, and with that one of the very few in the Middle East. The only difference is, they are not REQUIRED to serve 3 years in the army. Mr Seif el-Din el-Zoubi was even founding Member of Parliament ( Knesseth) already since 1949, and alter mayor of Nazareth.

Already for decades, Palestinian children from Kindergarden on, are brainwashed to see killing of Jews at the highest possible in life.

When you store weapons etc in schools, hospitals and mosques, fire rockets from living quarters, do not be a astonished when the other party throw a bomb on it.

To judge, learn history before.

Sorry, but...

fires might have been caused by aluminium phosphate interacting with relative humidity

What is aluminium phosphate doing in a rice warehouse ?

Try to contaminate the rice above 10 ppm ( 10 microgram per kg ) and you can forget your export to the EU

Sorry, but I do not see a word of a much larger danger: aflatoxine, a toxic, invisable, not to be tasted or seen, but.. increases the chance of liver cancer a LOT.

When grains, especially rice, corn, is stored too wet (humid) a fungus can grow, especially aspergillus flavus ( a green shade over it ). This fungus leaves a... call it: "shit" behind = aflatoxine.

For EU maximum levels of aflatoxins (aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2 and M1) are laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 165/2010: for type B1: a maximum tolerated of 2 ppb ( parts per billion or microgram per kg). For the sum of B1+B2+G1+G2: 4 ppb. Above: only one way: burn it.

In Thailand the tolerated level is 30 ppb, no seperation for the several types. And of course, very well inspected ( yeah.. see above and all other publications about the rice problem: NEVER a word about aflatoxin risk, so.. inspection.... the open hand with THB's donated in it)

In Western EU the consumption per head per year is 1.4 kg rice. In Thailand and other rice consuming nations: 60 kg/head per year.

So, when I add up AND afla tolerance AND annual consumption, the risk for a Thai to get liver cancer for this reason alone is 43*15 = 640 x times as that of an European living in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia.

Seen the rice program there are very high interests at stake for the former + present Thai government and the top-rich rice people. So, do not worry, nobody will mention the afla risk.

And when in 10-25 years many thousands of additional liver cancer cases show up... who cares now ?

I do not want to touch any Thai rice anymore, even when offered with "MONEY PAID to clear up"

According me, only one solution: burn the entire 17 million tons.

Sadly most of the confiscated Ivory, rhino horns , tigerskins , ect will be burned so the animals died for nothing .

Why not legalize the confiscated items and have them auctioned of by a world wide organization like WWF . and use the money to protect the endangered species .

Give the park rangers a decent salary and employ more of them , improve natural habitats , offer rewards for the namesof poachers and traders so they can be arrested , ect .

Yes, and reward the rangers with US$ 10,000 for every poacher / illigal trader / illigal user they can kill.

The Thais already use some time the slogan "Thailand, the kitchen of the world".

When your world goes from Tachileik till Su Ngai Kolok, I can imagine. But compared to the Italian, French, Turkish, Greek, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese and many other kitchens, sorry...a close-to-nothing.

You can eat red-green-yellow-masaman-penang curry, and think, this is all in the world. And, when you are happy with that, why not.

I am curious to know what different standards have been applied to 'newer' building that would make them safer than the 17 'older' ones in the article.

Interesting point

I would first check if the 17 were built by thais, and which ones non thai. The corruption is rife and money gets skimmed from projects by the elite, hence poor materials and botched jobs

Is there any Thai building you trust ? Did you see or even heard EVER of a static calculation what a building can have ? And even then, is it really constructed that way or.. with a hand full of Thai baht, if ever any inpection occurred, the eyes of the inspector were turned to his hands ?

I've seen a house being built opposite the house of the parents of my business partner: walls of 4 cm "thick", a steel skeleton which was so thin, we would not allow it for a one season one store summer house.

No wonder a few hundred meters away a house on which a second flour was built, collapsed during the night crushing all in.

No Thai gives a damn about the construction stability of his house as long as it looks beautiful on the outside.

many are now realising that and going elsewhere.

That's what I did in 2006 and took all my business with me.

Thailand, lah gone, popgan chat na ( see you in a NEXT life)

I feel the problem is basically, because most jobs are restricted to Thais, the lack of competition lead to laziness. Why bother teaching more than needed, since the students will only have to compete with students from other Thai universities. All will change in the near future and many Thais will see their previously "safe" jobs going to other Asians. Then the schools will have to actually try to raise the bar. I worked with an "office manager" who had a degree in IT and computer networking, but took him 3 months to figure out how to hook up our office printer. However, he slept with the Dutch owner and now he has a new Ducati and a new Toyota, so I guess some skills are more valuable than others...

The Thai's lack any interest and knowledge about what happens outside TH. Look at the news on TV and measure how much is about the political and economical elite, wai-ing each other, and what is left for outsside Bangkok, the neighbouring countries and.. the rest of the world.

2) schools are NOT to learn anything, but to serve the teacher. Wash the car, sing a song, do sports, never ask any questions as you might run the chance the teacher does not have an idea, so will loose face. That's why I say: take one step off the grade: bachelor is at max high school degree in the Western world. High school is for us max primary school level.

3) As there is no international competition, the far underperforming Thai will never be pushed out of their jobs by better skilled others. Only for a few jobs, farangs have to be brought in. Look how few Thais work at high skill levels abroad, and you see the proof. Only low-skilled workers in the Middle East, and.. that's it.

4) as the Thai have no experience, how certain work COULD be, they acccept the sub standar results of their fellow-Thai. Only when they have the choice between Japan/EU/USA etc made , they automatically will take products of that origin as being better.

5) Why still many underperforming "managers" stay at their post ? Simple: are OR family of "Zhe BOZZ" or <deleted>.k with him.

sorry, but I do not believe it.

In the magnet strip all data is stored also. Not a picture, but name, pass number and a lot more. With any other official paper with his picture and name on, he should be able to identify. And also a message to his embassy would also suit.

Where I live in Thailand you put down footings sometimes 20 metres deep because it's the Bangkok mud plain. In other parts, where it's essentially solid clay and rock, so, with good substructure ... a metre or two is just fine.[/color]

Hammering concrete poles into the soil is a waste of money for a 1-3 floor house.

See a house as a concrete boat: not so difficult to calculate the total weigth of the house when ready pressing on the soil under it..

So, need to dig a cellar under it giving about the amount of upweight force in a muddy area ( or enough diverting space for the pressure on the soil the carrying weigth is sufficient spread.

Make windows in ( see lichtkolk) in case of again flooding in central Thailand, and you have an additional floor under your house, which is free-of-charge cooled by the ground water till about 27-28C in the tropics

Also carrying poles in a house can be diverted to the walls, see attached. It is a matter of static calculation.