greytown

I'm turning 65 in April. I've applied for the OASP and a small CPP contribution.

Lived in Thailand since 1989. Last filed Canadian taxes around 1976. Understand I may have to start filing if I get the OASP! (<deleted>!)

I do own a vacation house, have an old camper, small bank account. I'm in the opposite conundrum. I'd like to prove residency IF it will get me the Guaranteed Income Supplement, effectively doubling my meagre pensions.

However, I've just discovered one needs to live in the old country 183 days per year. Sounds like prison to me.

Like to know if they'll discount my OASP and CPP 25% because I'm living overseas even though it will be paid into my Canadian bank account.

If you havn't filed since 1976 you are already in trouble. The law states you must file even if nothing to declare. You also need to have lived in Canada for 20 years to be deemed eligible for living off shore or else all benefits stop after 6 months.

I dare say you are in quite the pickle expecting any benefits. I would suggest to you to do some serious required reading on the Services Canada site specially under the CPP and OAS sections. Regarding guaranteed income supplement that is only available based on income and expenses in Canada. Very hard to get and checked regularily

"If you havn't filed since 1976 you are already in trouble."

This is total BS and scaremongering......filing requirements are listed here....

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/flng-blgtns/menu-eng.html

Good link which spells out the facts clearly.

oooh the noise. Get a grip everyone is trying to enjoy themselves. We have all been young.

Especially when *FUN* appears to be a concept on its way to extinction. I don't recall a time when there was less fun to be had than now. WAY too much misery around.

Did someone put a shotgun to your head and force you to have a screaming child? Did the same person force you to live in a city condo?

I suspect not.

I suspect that you chose to have a child and chose to live in a condo, both of which are 100% avoidable to everyone, and as a result you blithely subject others to your appalling noise purely to suit yourself. You should be more considerate.

Animal owners, music players, party people, shouters and raisers of children should either not be living in condos at all or they should be living in condos dedicated to people of their type. It's really very simple.

The main problem in Thailand is that apparently no developer has the wits to create condo buildings with specific rules absolutely banning noisy types of people and activities.

Ah yes, condos should only be inhabited by people just like you. Any "others" whose lifestyle is not identical to yours should have no right to be there. That's the definition of selfish intolerance right there.

Generally people live in condos or apartments because they don't have a better option available.

Some people just talk Boll_ _ _ _ and its normally do gooders and people not willing to stand up for themselves. We all have rights one of which is to live a peaceful happy life.

Have you got endless money are you going to keep moving house all your life due to your neighbors bad behavior.

In my home country the government passed a law called ASBO to tackle this very issue of neighbors behaving badly and affecting the quality of life for others this includes their kids of any age.

In many cases it is not the kids fault it is the fault of the parents and in my home country they can be dealt with by the law.

Parents with screaming unruly brats should be held to account for their actions and the disturbance that they cause; why should we have to suffer their noise and bad behavior because the parents have not got the skills to control or pacify their kids of whatever age.

This can go on for years if nothing is done and saying sorry does not help the situation; history repeats itself over and over generation after generation.

I don't know if the UK ASBO system has worked very well. Though when dealing with borderline criminal behaviour there certainly needs to be rules in place. But what happens when everyone takes a hostile stance by default when dealing with others? You get nothing but hate and intolerance all around. One big nasty mess.

In the past couple of years I've had a few problem neighbours and I attribute this to people's increased intolerance and even shear contempt for anybody else. Pure selfishness and hatred everywhere. The only way to improve things is to break this cycle and turn things around. Do something unselfish. Easy to say but surely not easy to do.

I think its extremely selfish to think she wants me to carry the burden of her child too. She should have thought of that before moving in or better yet before having kids

Hmm anti social much?

This is what happens when society breaks down and everyone is alienated from one another. Intolerance festers and everything turns to sh*t. We as humans are called to look after one another, to be our brother's keeper.

In a perfect world the reaction should be: how can I help this lady calm her child? Not, should I call the police?

"DO GOODER ALERT" "DO GOODER ALERT"

Get out more mate go to places where there are young women with kids and you will see bad parenting, bad behavior and bad manners and the mother and father doing nothing or shouting at the kids and the kids ignoring them.

Realize you just cannot help some people especially some mothers they seem to be immune to their offspring’s noise and bad behavior.

It's bad parenting the same if you are in a restaurant and on the next table there is an unruley kid noisey and running around do you say;

"how can I help this lady calm her child"

You will get abuse from her "F off and stop interfering" and there will be nothing you can do about it apart from shut up and grin and bear it and have a miserable night out.

Yeah I know it's terrible to be a do gooder. Much easier to just follow the first impulse and start bitchin'.

I've had problem neighbours a few times and as much as I wished I had handled things with great tact and civility, I did not. In one situation we were either going to kill each other (slight exaggeration here) or someone was going to have to move. So I moved. It can be hard as hell to do GOOD sometimes. Much easier said than done. But I think it is the right thing to do if we can find the actual strength to do it.

I think its extremely selfish to think she wants me to carry the burden of her child too. She should have thought of that before moving in or better yet before having kids

Hmm anti social much?

This is what happens when society breaks down and everyone is alienated from one another. Intolerance festers and everything turns to sh*t. We as humans are called to look after one another, to be our brother's keeper.

In a perfect world the reaction should be: how can I help this lady calm her child? Not, should I call the police?

For individuals that are severely handicapped, I suppose begging is the only form of employment possible for them. Even if they are exploited by gangs who keep the bulk of the money, their "handlers" must surely look after them and provide them at least basic living necessities. What other options do these unfortunate people have available to them?

Coco Ishibanya is not my idea of a good curry unless you like precooked processed curry sauces!

Yea, and everywhere else they prepare the curry sauce fresh from scratch at your table...

The Japanese curry place Coco Ishibanya serve some very tasty curry. Simple menu but very good.

look more bargirlish than hi-so.............lol.

There's like 5000 photos in that image set. You might find one you like.

this thread is sorely lacking in visual references.

On a personal note I was "educated" as a Catholic and as early as 10 years old saw how ridiculous the whole concept was

Awesome. Must be amazing to be this wise. Surely you must have published some sort of pamphlet by age 11 exposing the whole religious thing as a scam aimed at manipulating the feeble minded? Good thing you saw right through it!

Being that matters of faith are of the soul (or the heart?) approaching these things from a cerebral angle seems incorrect. Can science explain love?

Yes

How does science explain love?

why don't you ask science? there is a wide body of research on the subject.

Why would I ask science about love? Love is something I want to feel. Science is not gonna help me with that. No amount of psychological analysis or brain scan examination could convey what love feels like. I'm thinking the same goes for spiritual faith.

Science is a good thing. However I believe science is simply not the right tool to explain things that are of a spiritual or supernatural nature.

what is?

Being that matters of faith are of the soul (or the heart?) approaching these things from a cerebral angle seems incorrect. Can science explain love?

Yes

How does science explain love?

Science is a good thing. However I believe science is simply not the right tool to explain things that are of a spiritual or supernatural nature.

what is?

Being that matters of faith are of the soul (or the heart?) approaching these things from a cerebral angle seems incorrect. Can science explain love?

Science is a good thing. However I believe science is simply not the right tool to explain things that are of a spiritual or supernatural nature.

One of my spiritual experiences came when sitting in a car with this amazing 98 year old yogi. It was 5 am one morning and we were going from Oxford to London. She suggested we meditate and I felt a total separation from my physical body and such peace, and bliss. Something I will never forget.

"Defamation of religion, sin and corruption have increased so much". That is certainly true. The Catholic church is a corrupt and bankrupt institution. When religion becomes corrupt, people turn away from it. But what do they turn to? The absence of moral and spiritual law leaves the field wide open for evil to fester and take over. Without the guiding light of spiritual law, all is darkness.

Sure, Christ says love your enemies.....

How about "an eye for an eye"?

How about "slave, obey your master"?

How about destroying Pataya, oeps, sorry I meant Sodoma and Gomorra?

As a True Believer, you are surely familiar with those quotes?

Christ says turn the other cheek, which obviously is in contradiction to what is in the old testament. We don't have to look far to find contradictions in the Bible, which causes many to give up on it and dismiss the whole thing as nonsense.

I do not profess to be a true believer. As a matter of fact my opinion on these things has changed and shifted quite a lot over the years. However I am certainly willing to listen and re examine what I might have dismissed in the past.

None of those things are thought by Christ.

Correction, this should read: None of those things are taught by Christ.

What is Christ trying to teach us? That we should love one another and should not sin. What is so objectionable about that? Let's even suppose that Christ was only a mythical figure that never existed. Wouldn't living by those rules make our world a better place? Of course this would mean sacrificing all the selfish indulgences that are so hard to resist. Much easier to reject the whole idea and carry on with our own selfish little lives where we make our own rules to suit ourselves.

Greed, lust, envy, pride, wrath, sloth, gluttony are the roots of all evil.

What is objectionable, is any religeon becomes a hate group sooner rather than later. You may recall good Christians burning their fellow men alive just few hundred years ago.

You asked what is objectionable? I say burning people Christians disagreed with, and countless other crimes and atrocities Christians have committed.

Christian hAte groups like Westboro Baptist Church are operating out in the open, taking cover and being protected by US Constitution freedom of speech amendment.

That is what is objectionable.

In broder terms, this whole cult is a hate group. Something like this can operate only in USA, in any other Western nation all members would be charged with hate crimes.

None of those things are thought by Christ. Any church that preaches hate is certainly not Christian in any form (Christ says love your enemies!) Your issue is with organized religion or churches, and they are indeed all vulnerable to corruption and can and have been used to manipulate and corrupt populations. The good news though is that we don't need the churches. We can go directly to the source if we have the sincere desire to listen.

Morals pre-date religion! And christianity (and other religions) doesn't just teach love and not to sin etc, you also have to accept it encourages a lot of discrimination, bigotry, mysogyny and general judgemental, self-righteous behavior...Like I've said, people can be good without gods especially as they don't have a book of nonsensical fairy tales telling them what to do.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Discrimination, bigotry, misogyny or self righteousness are all exactly contrary to what Christ speaks about. Any "Christian" church that would preach or encourage those things are clearly corrupt and deeply misguided, and yes, there are countless misguided, ignorant, hateful, intolerant so called Christians out there. These are not Christians they are hypocrites and are as far from righteousness as the worst criminals.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow

This passage refers to God providing for those who have (true) faith, therefore they need not worry.

Are the millions of faithful who starve to death in Africa not 'true' Christians? Are they not true believers?

Apparently not. True faith is a rare thing. I would reckon very few church goers actually have true faith. Certainly hypocrite Christians abound.

Many people I know seem to be proud that they are an atheist and that God is for the weak. IN my experience it is the other way around.

Simply, I think that religion is for those who don't want to go to Hell but spirituality is for those who have already been there.

There are many that would argue that our time spent here on earth is actually hell. The argument is that if the Christian God loved his children so much, why require them to go through an existence of pain and suffering on earth. You have to admit, civilization as we know it today is a pretty f'ed up proposition.

Accepting to consider the possibility that whatever is on the other side of death to be eternal (Heaven and Hell), that would beg the question, what is the purpose of our (very short in comparison) passage on earth? It would seem like this material life may be nothing other than a spiritual trial to determine the destiny of our immortal soul.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow

This passage refers to God providing for those who have (true) faith, therefore they need not worry.