Expat1

Well, look at it this way all bureaunazis in all English speaking nations (and some non-English) are placing more restrictions and burdens upon their citizenry to make their own lives easier. They only asked for proof of residence which is fairly anal since you are on the other side of the planet and may have a new abode however, they haven't gotten around to you passing over your genetic material yet as proof of existence. There is always that.

My apologies "hear" should be "here" above. Afraid I have the flu something awful and make minor errors.

"World Happiness Report 2015, a landmark survey of the state of global happiness,", who does this drivel. Every Swiss and Dane that I know are not very happy. When I go to Switzerland or Singapore they are a miserable lot. Seriously. Who did they poll in these places, tourists?

No problem. The USG has it all worked. We won't deal with you terrorists, understand? However, we will come over and kill the hostages for you. Can you say cluster<deleted>? What bunch of RE<deleted>s.

..."So in the year of 2013 they had one more earthquake, bringing the total to 2,5 earthquakes, than they did in 2008.

2 questions:

How is a near doubling the same as 70 times the amount.

How do you have 1.5 or 2.5 earthquakes. Did they happen at New Years Eve?"

You may want to reread the statement, partner. I concur on the 70 times comment. It appears it's a lot more. It says,

"Earthquake activity in Oklahoma in 2013 was 70 times greater than it was before 2008, state geologists reported. Oklahoma historically recorded an average of 1.5 quakes of magnitude 3 or greater each year. It is now seeing an average of 2.5 such quakes each day, according to geologists."

So 1.5 quakes per year to 2.5 quakes per DAY. 2.5 quakes x 365 days = 912.5 quakes per year. That is a sh#tload. 912.5 / 1.5 = 608.3x / year more in 2013 than was in 2008.

Perhaps they are including other smaller quake data not given to the reader here. In any case, that ain't normal.

I was in the oil & offshore biz for 14 years out here and I know for certain water reinjection caused quakes in Kalimantan as it was the oil coy geologists that brought it up.

I wish them good luck back there with this, oil is king in America and it's political, financial and media cartels will pretty much back whatever they say.

Larger taxis with more room for people and goods should get a higher rate. Fair. Fin.

No they need a submarine. If no other reason to keep up with the Joneses. Hell, they already have the Dept set up for it, buying the damned thing is the easy part. Now they could do what the Indos did and buy old refurbished East German subs and then upon hand over and delivery promptly drive them into the ocean floor off of France. A modern military sub is possibly the most complex machine built and operated today. One needs some serious skills, knowledge and training to operate it though. Of course, we are assuming we a not talking about the Thais getting an Akula or Virginia Class sub but a small littoral type sub of which there a number of good ones around. The new Jap one is possible (the Aussies are looking at it) and Taiwan is building theirs now. These are small, quiet, minimal crewing and made for shallow water and not overly expensive in comparative military equipment terms. It will be interesting to see what they do but it is a great loss of face for them not to have any and little Singapore has multiple. This can not be allowed here. Trust me.

Good. There was no doubt he was going to get a sentence such as this. With what he knew and where the skeletons were in the closet and war crimes and thefts, etc, etc done by politicians, military, contractors in that fiasco that he could hang out to dry, there was little doubt it would end like this. He probably was more concerned about turning up dead as a result of this witch hunt then any serious sentencing. And yes, Dorothy, at his level and knowledge RHIP.

A war of cowards.

It is a start however, in fairness it is not the first time nor very effective. The naivete of most people about the sea in general just makes this issue more difficult to grasp and to handle. Unless one has actually worked out on the blue water one fails to grasp the enormity of the thing. It is a REALLY big ocean out there. Transferring cargo ship to ship, stealing whole ships is normal in Asian waters hell, 200 ships a year go missing of which 10% of these are over 100,000 tonnes in size. One can go a week without seeing another vessel. Archipelagos like Indonesia are virtually impossible to police as even the mighty American Seventh Fleet had admitted that years ago when they were having problems in the Straits and further south in the 80's. The Americans have the largest and finest fleet in the world with satellite assist and they could not do what they wanted how then a local Marine Police. This is a serious and complex problem that can only be handled by seriously throttling the funds and freedom of the vessel owners and fish processors. Do that and one might stand a chance, do not, then...

You bring up an interesting point of Admiralty law. This is a gray area to say the least. As it is already in port salvage would be difficult as the vessel itself is not abandoned "at sea" or in danger of sinking. However, If abandonment is confirmed by the authorities then the vessel can be sold by the crew for back wages. In this case, even scrap value would get everyone of the crew paid one would assume. Now as to the fishery debtors they may make claim on the vessel but under most maritime law the crew is compensated first then debtors afterward, even banks.

During the war Westmoreland said, "We can see light at the end of the tunnel". We who actually had been in them used to say "what the F' does that &lt;deleted&gt; know about tunnels". Same applies here.

Not much can be done unless they are willing and able to go back to the practice of the past. In the 1980's when there was the "boat people" problem with Thai trawlers basically being full on pirates and raping and pillaging was common course and slave labor onboard was very common. The Thai govt of the time was made to do something by the international community so they started to arrest the owners of vessels that were caught being pirates or using slave labor onboard. Well, that stopped it pretty quick. Now of course, the wealthy owners bought themselves out but, some had to do some time first and some were arrested multiple times but, it was effective. Unless they are able to do that again I don't expect any significant changes in this situation here.

Outstanding. I am sick of this PC western nonsense. This is Asia and they have their own laws and ways to do things, mostly pragmatic. If you got a problem with the way they do things then just ignore them and go back and watch more CNN. Get you PC fix.

This is a tough one. In some places full democracy just does not function. Something has to be done to stop future politicians purchasing half the countryside for their votes to maintain their power which is what has been happening in the recent past. How to do that and be fair and equitable to all? Where is that guy Solomon?

The western countries have not fully figured all of this out yet so I don't know how these people are going to succeed at it in such a short time. It is trial and error for a while more it seems. Of course, there is no changing the fact that those with power are not going to give it up willingly, no one here has so far that I have witnessed. So it is going to be the same business as usual and make the best compromise deal you can get at the time.

Comment not necessary, you gentlemen beat me to the obvious retort. However, this time no British and Indian assistance no doubt.

For those of you not so blessed to have been in and lived through the previous coups and the respective governments over the past 30 plus years only to emerge out once again into the same morass of political corruption, greed and nepotism that there was prior to said coups, be it known that though he does seem to shoot his mouth off rather too quick does not necessarily mean he is not correct. (apologies for the run-on sentence)

Russell, here's a hint. Take that money you made. Go to Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Albania, Cambodia or other such fashionable country. Obtain a citizenship there then return and apply to Australia for citizenship and you are assured of Australian citizenship. If you have any doubt it works just go to Sydney and look around.

Only fitting one supposes. He didn't allow it when he was alive so, not allowing free speech and protest in that model "democracy" in his honour when he has recently died, works. He would appreciate it.