pastitche

I ate the beasts a couple of times in Australian and frankly, wildebeest is much better

I thought they were all on ThaiVisa.

I thrust my way past dozens of them on my morning walks (here I refer to the ones with horns... oh dear, I mean natural horns, not those bestowed by their wives). My toy poodle disapproves of them, and barks at them from about 6 inches away; they just goggle.

Answer to OP's question: most of the rice-growing areas of Isan still have plenty, though they're rarely used for work... just for "beef".

Are we talking about buffalo or water buffalo? I thought that they were different or have I been scammed?

I was very lucky to be born in England, like winning the lottery of life, not sure that is so true today. What I think is worth a mention is that it is probably the world's language, a Tunisian told me that by the way, it may turn out to be one of the UK's greatest exports or gifts to the world and there have been a few. It is the most widely available language anywhere in the world, for us who speak it that is a great relief, I am a bit old for learnign new stuff now, but I get by with a bit of Spanish, French and Thai and they do the same with me. There is a fair bit of English to be seen in Thailand, I wonder how the locals think about that?

I think it is probably easier to learn than Thai as well.

The root of the problem with Thai and many other Asian languages is the tonal context. The Chinese have multiple thousands of words in their language however they tend to use variations of about 400 words in daily speech. These 400 words change with the intonation based upon the "4 tone" which are at the root of Mandarin Chinese.

So you may know the word, but if you don't get the tone near on perfect, the Chinese will look at you as your your from outer space. I had more than a few calamities when I tried to learn Chinese. Can you imagine Chinese being spoken with a Glasgwegian accent

You're from Motherwell - I can tell by your accent

Nearly, born in the ancient market town of Lanark, brought up in Wishaw.

You should have stopped at the born in Lanark bit. Wishaw? Words fail me old friend

...

And it wasn't us who tore the walls down - it was those dam_n Geordies building sheep pens

Goes to show - the pen is mightier than the sword...

SC

Excellent SC.

Dinna ye forget that the brightest prospect open to a Scotsman is the highroad to England! (and via England to the engineer's rooms of the merchant navy, and thus to what were once the colonies.) On the way they had to learn proper English. I suppose they can go independent with what is left.

Yes and we shall make the English rebuild the wall and pay for it. Happy times indeed.

It wasn't us who built the walls (there are two of them, Hadrian's and the Antonine); it was the Romans. The idea was to keep the Scots out... but it was a dismal failure. Such is life!

+1, was an unfortunate failure, BUT seems now they don't want to be part of UK. No wall.

And it wasn't us who tore the walls down - it was those dam_n Geordies building sheep pens

...I

...

...

Independance is Unlikely to happen,the Scottish people know which side their bread is buttered.

Happily, whatever the decision, you will have no say in it whatsoever.

Unless he's a registered voter in Scotland.

I think when one registers for an overseas vote, one is counted within the consituency in which you were last registered, but I am not sure of that. It might make more sense to have a single overseas constituency...

SC

No i'm not a Registered Voter in Scotland as far as i'm aware of,but if I was eligable to vote,I would be more than happy, along with the majority of English People to vote for Scottish Independence.

But lets face it, it's really all about one mans Ego,and wheeling and dealing,with a weakened Westminster Government,than what's right for the Scottish People.

And in my view a Referendum is unlikely to be in favour of Independence,as previously stated."the Scottish People know what side their bread is buttered"

There was a survey in England recently in which 26% of the poll thought that Scotland should be given independence if they voted for that.

I was very lucky to be born in England, like winning the lottery of life, not sure that is so true today. What I think is worth a mention is that it is probably the world's language, a Tunisian told me that by the way, it may turn out to be one of the UK's greatest exports or gifts to the world and there have been a few. It is the most widely available language anywhere in the world, for us who speak it that is a great relief, I am a bit old for learnign new stuff now, but I get by with a bit of Spanish, French and Thai and they do the same with me. There is a fair bit of English to be seen in Thailand, I wonder how the locals think about that?

I think it is probably easier to learn than Thai as well.

The root of the problem with Thai and many other Asian languages is the tonal context. The Chinese have multiple thousands of words in their language however they tend to use variations of about 400 words in daily speech. These 400 words change with the intonation based upon the "4 tone" which are at the root of Mandarin Chinese.

So you may know the word, but if you don't get the tone near on perfect, the Chinese will look at you as your your from outer space. I had more than a few calamities when I tried to learn Chinese. Can you imagine Chinese being spoken with a Glasgwegian accent

You're from Motherwell - I can tell by your accent

Then again there are those whose native language is indeed English yet they revel in trashing it. Any suggestion that they should perhaps try a little harder is met with vilification and contempt. If something is worth writing, isn’t it worth writing well? Assuming of course that English is your native tongue and you have a modicum of education.

If you want to be pompous, patronising and superior then you should have written "those whose native language". try a little harder

Thanks for catching that egregious error. Consider me properly chastised. Happy now?

Do you know that egregious originally meant illustrious, exactly the opposite of its current meaning? it was suggested early in the thread that criticism of others' usage of English should be treated gently; as a writer you should try to meet your own exacting standards.

The one that fascinates me the most among the foggy isles languages is Welsh . . . odd, odder, oddest!

Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Welsh and Benton all have their roots in the same Germanic language.....as pointed our earlier the orginal celts were German

No they don't; they are goidelic languages.

Yeh, l was forced to learn French, l wonder why. Did they think at the time that the frogs were to become dominant. Perhaps they will but l will be under ground by then.

This was in preparation for when England invaded france again and installed the British monarch as the head of the country again....you need to be able to speak to the natives old chap...even if they do smell of garlic, wear onions around their necks and have funny little hats on..

Actually French was compulsory at schools ,more to do with our entry into the Common Market,which had at the time only two members:France and Germany.many years later the Con became clear,we were joining a Federation of Europe,not the Common Market of Trading Nations,as sold to the British people!

Sorry but that is just not true; French and German were taught as a significant part of the currculum long before the EC was even a dream. I knew people who were fluent in French and German since before WW2; they also were familiar with classical Greek and Latin

Then again there are those who’s native language is indeed English yet they revel in trashing it. Any suggestion that they should perhaps try a little harder is met with vilification and contempt. If something is worth writing, isn’t it worth writing well? Assuming of course that English is your native tongue and you have a modicum of education.

If you want to be pompous, patronising and superior then you should have written "those whose native language". try a little harder

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages.

Have you any idea of how many other languages are spoken in England ?...thought not.....so lest not talk about ignorance shall we

Over the last many years the predominent 2nd language in England is Polish, I would think Hindi, Pakistani, Chinese etc etc are up there as well being in the top 10

I am not sure that Polish is second but many government forms/information are published in a large number of languages and alphabets/scripts; Welsh and Gaelic are in here too. But so what, the UK has a large immigrant population both European and former Empire with rights of residence

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages.

Have you any idea of how many other languages are spoken in England ?...thought not.....so lest not talk about ignorance shall we

Over the last many years the predominent 2nd language in England is Polish, I would think Hindi, Pakistani, Chinese etc etc are up there as well being in the top 10

I am not sure that Polish is second but many government forms/information are published in a large number of languages and alphabets/scripts; Welsh and Gaelic are in here too. But so what, the UK has a large immigrant population both European and former Empire with rights of residence

If each person of Davy Jones' stature (and above) gets a headline tribute, then the next 10,000 daily headlines will have tributes to deceased celebrities.

He was a little more i'd say, the Monkees were Americas answer to the Beatles, (with a Brit lead singer lol ) deserves and earned a headline,!!

Hmmm...while I'm sure you make great pizza, I'd have to differ on the subject of the Monkees being America's answer to the Beatles.

The Monkees were a totally studio-manufactured bubble-gum group, whose only comparison to the Beatles was in their creator's heads. True, their personas were inspired by A Hard Day's Night, but they were not anywhere near the musicians that the Beatles were, nor was there ever such a comparison made by any serious music critic. Peter Tork was arguably a great musician, and Dolenz had the vocal sound that eventually made the group recognizable, but they had very little songwriting capability compared to Lennon/McCartney or George Harrison.

While I enjoyed many of their songs, any comparison with the Beatles is ludicrous.

RIP Davy.

As for America's answer to the Beatles - it's better stated that the Beatles were Britain's answer to The Beach Boys, who were making little surfer girls in Hermosa Beach wet their panties before anyone ever HEARD of the Mop Top Four...

Monkees music was a "tribute" imitation of the Beatles but the Beatles were really a rock band with none of the surfing references of the Beach Boys. Their early repertoire owed more to Little Richard and musicians of that era.

Hey! His real claim to fame was being the grandson of the ancient crone Ena Sharples on Coronation Street.

RIP

Back in my good old days In England I would get a phone call from a chief constable with information on the paedophiles that would get of because of some technicality in the court cases and they are 100% guilty.

.

Well me and some underground buddies would pick these guys up and have fun with them for two or three days and depending on how bad these people are they couldn't ever do anything wrong or harm children again!!!

I really f**king hope someone like me is around to do these things in Thailand

Were you in the SAS too?

In his fantasy world, he probably still is

Seems it's OK for Che to be cool but not Adolf. Che was a despot too.

As for Hitler chic, it's just another round of the elder generation being upset with those crazy kids. The younger generation always pushed the boundaries and long may that continue.

Your grandparents probably shook their heads about rock n' roll the same way you are shaking your heads about this.

Storm in a teacup.

You sir, fit right in with the ignorant Thais. You are comparing the nazi politics with rock music. That just shows the level of your education and knowledge. Zilch. You do not even have more sense than parading your ignorance openly.

As for Guevara, whatever he was, he was not responsible for the killing of millions. Your ignorance shows again.

The Japanese committed many atrocities in Asia but their symbol does not offend. Nor Soviet symbols though millions died in Gulags including plenty of Jews and Gays...Why is Nazi symbolism so offensive after all these years. Ghengiz Khan is as bad as Hitler.. Best accept it as Provocative art of the youth generations and see the humour in it.

There are plenty on here who are accusing the Thais of ignorance, having basic lack of knowledge and education, but by reading many of the posts, it appears the ignorance and lack of education goes a lot further than just Thailand.

The answer is: that there is no excuses or justifications for this sort of crap, under any circumstances. The Holocaust that keeping in mind 5 million non-Jews were also murdered is only a part of the events of the Second War World. But for those of you that can view any of this as humorous, or as an art form, can find justifications for the slaughter of millions of men, women and children in what became known as the Holocaust, must be mentally disturbed or just plain psycho and should seek treatment.

I strongly suggest that some of you do your research before you begin making comments on a subject you seem to know nothing about, have any understanding of and what was actually involved during that shitty war.

And you feel the same way about the slaughter of innocents by Genghis Khan, the Crusaders and their opponents the Saracens? Vile actions by humans against those that they deem lesser than themselves is nothing new as events in former Jugoslavia have shown us more recently.

Historically genocide is nothing new. Why are the West Indies populated only by European/Africans? What happened to the indigenous peoples who were there in Columbus's tme? Why are there so few indigenous people in Australia compared to the 400 language groups that were there at the time of colonisation? What was the purpose behind the US "Indian Wars" if not to remove indigenous people from land coveted by invaders?

It is human nature to cope with tragedy by adopting humour to protect the self against tragedy - how many tragic events have been almost immediately greeted by "sick" humour eg NASA = "need another seven astonauts" following a disaster.

If the events that occurred such a long time ago become part of a new humorous chic, that is nothing new; I suggest that you look at how the war against Germany has been treated in both US and UK tv programmes. Then ask yourself why it is so important to you that such a disgusting event took place should matter so much more than what took place in the Balkans when you were alive

I actually have nothing against having a socialist and even a communist party in Thailand but I think as one poster pointed out ... the leaders of the reds pitch a great socialist theme to the lemmings that follow them blindly but in reality their agenda is about lining their own pockets and those of big business at the expense of their followers.

So true.

So ! if any particular party appeals to you and that is the leadership you want, what do you do...........yes, clever lad, you follow it. The fact that there are so many followers only means that this is the party most desired by the people and the fact that the Dems are not after all, "Born to rule"

'Born to rule' when did the Dems say or suggest that?

'Most desired by the people', sorry but IMHO this means the party which is best at hoodwinking very large numbers of people with short-term items which have no real impact on reducing the gap.

Your opinion is meaningless when you say that PTP is best at hoodwinking. I suggest that you start thinking of why the Thai electorate prefer PTP to the Democrats. Perhaps a reasoned argument might show why you make senseless statements other than to support those of a similar disposition

A lot of time passed since the days of Adolf Hitler, so let's relax a bit and be less hypocritic! This includes the Israeli ambassador who should just shut up as Israel is not doing much better with the Palestinians these days...

I think the shirts are really cute, is not just an image of Adolf but making something else out of it, great imagination really! And making the link with Ronnie McDonald the symbol of imperialistic US is of course great! Hats of to the guy thinking of this.

Let's laugh instead of being too rigid, wearing such a T-Shirt is not going to make Thais becoming Nazis!

I don't think they are particularly cute but I don't think that they are offensive any more than the Che Guevara poster/t-shirt is offensive (mainly to Americans - it was extremely popular elsewhere) or the CND badges that were so fashionable in the 1960s. I suspect that posters on here have no memory of Hitler since that war ended a long time ago.

Why they get so uptight about a historical horror event that took place before they were born puzzles me.

I asked my girlfriend if she new about the history of Germany and England, she said you won two world wars and one world cup, i said good girl.

And lost much of the uk empire. I don't think the brits won ww1 & 2, they were merely holding their own until the yanks joined in. Stupid yanks, should let Europe fight their own civil wars.

The British and Commonwealth offensive of 1918 consisting of British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand forces managed to break through the formidable Hindenburg line and led to the Germans seeking terms for an Armistice. Hollywood obviously has it`s own slant. In WW2 the Americans bore the brunt of the war against the Japanese but In Europe they were one of a number of allies with the Soviet Union defeating the majority of the German field army. At sea the Germans were defeated by the British and Canadian navies.

WW2 in Europe was won, IMO, by the overwhelming manpower of the Soviet Army coupled with the bombing campaign of the US and UK air forces on German cities that terrorised the civilian population into despair and defeatism.

Hitler's big mistake,like Napoleon's was taking on the Russians and opening up a second front. In the political situation at that time, had he ignored the rest of Europe and gone for Russia first, he would have been supported by most Western powers which were as vehemently opposed to Soviet Communism as he was.

It is a big difference to watch Hogan's Heroes at home than running around with an Adolf Kitty printed on your shirt.

Over the last 15 odd years, I have seen some of the weirdest stuff printed on Thai's shirts. From a very dark-skinned lass wearing a White Power slogan to a reprint of a Hallmark Sympathy Card - In Deepest Sympathy followed by a truly awful poem. None of then realise how truly inappropriate their shirt is, or intend any offense.

I treat it with amusement.

So do I Mick.

Hung outside a ladies clothes shop on the main street through a small town near where we are, there was a ladies shirt with the words" People Are Sh*T" ( not edited ) across the front in big letters.

All very innocent really.

As you all know, at any major crossing with traffic lights, there will be vendors of those garlands to hang from your mirror; my favourite incident was the pretty young teenager selling these protective religious symbols while wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the message "I fuc_ked your boyfriend"

Maybe Thais do have a sense of irony or maybe she didn't understand what it said

Oh oh oh . I think I know the answer to this riddle.

Is it, perhaps, because she is being extra polite and trying to communicate with you in your own language even though she is . . ummmm . . Thai and the conversation is happening in . . . . ummmm . . . Thailand?

When there are no Farangs about they all speak in perfect English only switching to Thai in the presence of a Farang, just to make a Farangs life difficult cos they don't want us here.

That's not Thailand - that's Wales

I mentioned your being Australian merely because I asumed that you would know that Western Australia's salination problems were also caused by deforestation and the solution proposed was to plant more trees. I know little more than you or reasonableman about which species would be most suitable but, I believe that any tropical deciduous tree will expirate a very large amount of the moisture taken in by its roots. I have observed frequently how easy it is to propagate trees here and indeed how difficult it is to kill them. Equipment is not a problem - anything that will create a furrow will do the job.

As I said above, I have no problem with them doing it. It is definitely the right thing.

I just doubt very much that it could be done in 3 months. For the amount of planting that they want to do, I doubt that they could plant everything in 3 months, let alone organise it all.

I questioned your post that implied that the deadline was unrealistic on the basis that, without the technical knowledge you were speculating; at least we are now in agreement that you merely doubt that it can be done.

I beg to differ on that point. Thailand has people, picks and shovels, pickups for transportation of people and plants. I really believe much can and should be done if the human resources can be inspired and motivated with strong leadership.

You are making excuses to justify your speculations; location has nothing to do with politics but appropriateness, you have no idea whether sourcing is a problem, being a Bangkok resident. Perhaps you ought to visit the countryside a bit more to see what is available in the nurseries. I thought that, being an Australian, you might have some idea of how easily and efficiently saplings can be planted. However carry on with your game.

No excuses. Just explaining my post and that it had nothing to do with the growing of anything (except trees once they are planted, of course).

The selection of locations has everything to do with politics (and / or money ... but either way it's politics). Locations aren't going to be chosen, negotiated and approved overnight.

Nurseries don't have millions of plants sitting around hoping that someone is going to buy millions of trees for a one off large scale planting. Even in this climate, it takes a few weeks to get the right saplings to a planting stage. If you're suggesting they do, I would think that they'd be going out of business pretty quick when ever the government isn't planning on a large planting project.

Being an Australian (which is actually quite irrelevant in this case) I am aware that it takes time to plant large areas IF you have the right equipment. I would suggest that Thailand doesn't have enough of the right equipment available for the large scale planting that is needed.

I mentioned your being Australian merely because I asumed that you would know that Western Australia's salination problems were also caused by deforestation and the solution proposed was to plant more trees. I know little more than you or reasonableman about which species would be most suitable but, I believe that any tropical deciduous tree will expirate a very large amount of the moisture taken in by its roots. I have observed frequently how easy it is to propagate trees here and indeed how difficult it is to kill them. Equipment is not a problem - anything that will create a furrow will do the job.

Even the planting of trees in 3 months is pretty ridiculous considering it still needed to be decided where to plant the trees, and the saplings needed to be sourced ... and then the trees needed to be planted.

If you have made a career in tropical arboriculture, you might have some credibility. Otherwise you are speculating.

Actually, it's got nothing to do with the growing of trees.

It's got everything to do with politics (where), logistics (sourcing) and man power (planting).

You are making excuses to justify your speculations; location has nothing to do with politics but appropriateness, you have no idea whether sourcing is a problem, being a Bangkok resident. Perhaps you ought to visit the countryside a bit more to see what is available in the nurseries. I thought that, being an Australian, you might have some idea of how easily and efficiently saplings can be planted. However carry on with your game.