dumbnewbie

Why ashamed? Because in the 1970's Iran was a great country, on the verge of becoming a first world country and one of the great powers. (Hey, it's got a bigger population than the UK or France, so why not?). But now, it's just another F-ed up Muslim country, and everyone thinks that's what Iran is all about. The first thing everyone pictures is scowling, crazy Ayatollahs, fearful women scurrying around in black sheets, bearded savages waving their fists in the air and screaming "Death to America! Death to British! Death to Israel!", etc. People are stoned to death for having sex. Girls are whipped until bruised and bloody for not covering all their hair, have their lips sliced with razor blades for wearing lipstick, etc. Virgins are raped before being executed because virgins can't go to hel_l. The kind of torture that goes on there every day these last 30 years makes anything that happened at Guantanamo or Abu Graib look like a joke by comparison. It's hel_l on earth, and it's terribly embarrassing...

I wouldn't be ashamed. Sins of the father etc.

My father is Fijian. His great great grandfather cut out the heart of his enemy and ate it on the battlefield to signify his victory. Barbaric. I'm not ashamed, in fact I'm proud of my ancestor's prowess. But do something like that here and now.....Hannibal Lecter! It's all relative.

While I appreciate that you're trying to empathize with me and make me feel better, I have difficulty with that analogy. Cannibalism is long forgotten, and hardly anybody thinks "cannibal" when they think of Fiji, and nobody associates cannibalism with modern-day Fijians.

A better analogy would be if cannibalism had experienced a massive revival starting around 30 years ago, so that it was once again prevalent not just in Fiji but in all the islands, and also among Melanesian communities in New Zealand and other Western countries, where they killed and ate not just each other but also many non-Melanesians, year after year. Furthermore, let's say the government of Fiji announced it's intention to destroy the states of New Zealand and Australia (to liberate the "natives" and drive the rest of the populations into the sea)? To top it all off, suppose the Fijian government was developing nuclear weapons. How would you feel if today most people in the world associated the words "Fijian" with "savage" they way they do "Iranian" with "terrorist"?

Having experienced racial discrimination from whites and blacks, being half caste, and every time I've experienced it I have known that the racist is ignorant and fearful, I have a perspective that makes me biased against bias .

I find it hard to tolerate intolerance.

Well, we agree on this, except that I would argue that by tolerating Islam you are tolerating intolerance. You view Muslims as poor victims of irrational intolerance whereas I view Islam as worse than Nazism in fostering intolerance, hate and murder all over the world. There is some truth in both points of view. Muslim immigrants might suffer some discrimination even if they weren't Muslim, due to their ethnic or cultural differences from the host populations, but Islam certainly makes things much worse for them, and for all of us.

sometimes the immigration officers even came to the cumpus and they don't ask Uhm, you ar Thai? Will you work illegally? No? Really, are you small liar or big liar anyway?

Ha!

It's the same there, poor foreigner they don't like, rich one is OK

Probably right. But something else is going on, and it's a bit of a mystery. Why are these governments so paranoid about keeping out poor Thais (for example) when the doors are wide open to dirt-poor, even illiterate illegal or criminal immigrants from other countries - Mexico & Central American countries for the US (& Canada?), some other countries for the UK? (And I'm not saying all or even mostLatinos are these things - clearly they're not. I'm just pointing out that in contrast to the rigorous vetting of applicants at embassies in Thailand, nobody at all is checking who's walking across the US-Mexico border - anyone can and does just walk across, and everyone knows that the so-called efforts to patrol the border, or build a few miles of fence here or there are a total joke and just for show).

My theory is that these governments are deliberately building a class-structure stratified along racial and ethnic lines. I think the reasoning might be that this kind of society would be more stable than one strictly based on class, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous. They seem to want people to confuse class with ethnicity. (But to what purpose? To reduce class mobility, and thus make society more "stable"?)

I haven't really thought this through, so I could be way off, but I've noticed that for the most part, the US only allows in highly educated and/or entrepreneurial Asians, whereas the floodgates are open to the peasantry of Latin America. Each ethnic group tends to find its own niche in the economy. Persians & Indians = doctors or computer engineers. Sikhs = 7-11 owner/operators. Chinese (from whatever country, including Vietnam, Thailand, etc.) = restaurant and other small business owners. Philipinas = nurses. Mexicans & other Latinos = gardeners, farm labor, maids, etc.

In this way, people come to identify different ethnic groups with different rungs on the socio-economic ladder. I mean the truth is, most Asians, even today, are uneducated farmers, just like most Westerners were before the industrial revolution. But because of selective immigration policies, people in the US increasingly think of Asians as geniuses, when the truth is that the government only lets in Asian geniuses (or at least with education, money and the ability to rapidly adapt and become upper-middle class).

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this.

Most of my friends have quite a bit in the wawy of assets, so they have had no problem at all getting a visa. However, over the last 6 years or so, I have had 5 people without many assets apply for a visa to travel with me to the US for varios reasons (attending trade shows to simple tourism.) Only one was turned down, a woman who was so nervous that she forgot her address and phone number when asked during her interview. They others were all approved, with three of the four getting 10-year multiple-entry visas.

I have also had two employees apply for visas to man booths at trade shows, and both received their visas without problem.

Were you "sponsoring" these people somehow? Is that why they were all approved? I mean, you sound like a credible businessman, so I'm wondering if their connection to you is why they were given visas?

By the way whenever I fill out any of these poxy forms and it asks my nationalality I allways put in capitals ENGLISH even though their option list only offers Europeon or UK citizen

European? (or -peon, haha!)

But seriously, 'European' is a nationality according to official British forms? What is their official definition of European then?

Cambodia? Laos? Vietnam? Philippines? Malaysia? Singapore? Indonesia? Somewhere else?

Where would you go if you couldn't live in Thailand, and why?

Where would you not go, and why?

Its kinda funny but if Thailand had been conquered the standard of living would probably be much higher now.

Burma, India, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines were conquered but the standard of living is lower.

Japan wasn't conquered and the standard of living is higher...

rofl. nice try.

I thought he made a good point - what was wrong with it? Maybe you could clarify your original point, because I'm not sure what you meant. Almost every country that was colonized is still a third world hel_l-hole. Look at Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, Middle East, South Asia, most of Southeast Asia, etc.

Japan is the only non-Western country that truly became first-world, and it was not colonized. Turkey, Iran and Thailand were not colonized, and they turned out much better than their neighbors (but not nearly as well as Japan. In Iran's case you could argue this was due to repeated interference by the British, Russians and Americans - so not colonialism, but almost.)

The number of countries that were colonized and managed to turn out well can be counted on one hand... Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan & South Korea. I'm not going to count the oil-states like Brunei, Kuwait, etc. and I would also put settlement colonies like the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in a different category.

Now, if you're arguing that third-world countries would be much better off today if colonialism had never ended, then I would probably agree with you. I think if WWI and WWII never happened, colonialism would never have ended, the cold war wouldn't have happened, and the whole world would be hugely better off. Is that what you were trying to say?

...or the gov. closed one eye so the brief resistance could be used as an excuse in joining the Japanese in case of allies' victory.

Very clever - I bet this is what happened. The Thai government is clever like that.

As you know, many things in TL are not what they look like.

Not just in Thailand - in the whole world so many things are not what they look like.

Sounds like good advice regardless of whether one can live full time in Thailand. Falling in love is wonderful, but the problem is it never lasts, and sometimes you get your heart broken, and sometimes that heartbreak can be more intense and a lot longer-lasting than the love!

But easier said than done... any tips?

What a load of rubbish.... I couldnt disagree with you more dude.

You will agree eventually. In all probability, that is. But if you're one of the lucky few who find everlasting love, good on you!

Would love to see a map of areas annexed by Thailand while aligned with Japan. I know the French took a lot of Thai territory prior to this (all of Laos and Cambodia?) and I wouldn't be surprised if the Brits took Thai land to add to Burma and Malaya. So probably Thailand was just reclaiming its own territory.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess!

Where do you guys live in Thailand? Why did you choose to live there? What other places do you like, and why? What places don't you like, and why?

Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Koh Samui, Hua Hin, Cha Am, Pattaya, Pai, the Northeast... so many choices... how did you choose?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

Sure, but that's no fun. I'm thinking the answer is to never focus in on just on girl, but always have at least two going, or none. But then, of course, you're multiplying your exposure to STDs, drama, etc.

Oh, to be a sultan with a harem...

Another - Risk getting the sh*t kicked out of you by mindless, drunken yobs on a weekend. They often do that for 'fun'.

I've heard this about the UK, more than a few times. It's enough to put me off ever visiting the place. Where are the police? Where is the law? Unbelieveable.

My only advice to anyone who can't live full time in Thailand is to NOT FALL IN LOVE! That might be difficult to do when you are young and surrounded by lovely willing ladies, but you WILL get stung if you weaken.

Sounds like good advice regardless of whether one can live full time in Thailand. Falling in love is wonderful, but the problem is it never lasts, and sometimes you get your heart broken, and sometimes that heartbreak can be more intense and a lot longer-lasting than the love!

But easier said than done... any tips?

What about freelance translation work? Anyone know about this? What does it pay? What languages pay the most? (I'm asking specifically about translation, not interpretation).

I thought it was a German lesson. Does Wienerschnitzel stop you up or something?

If you're a citizen of one of these countries you don't need a visa to enter the US:

Andorra Iceland Norway Australia Ireland Portugal Austria Italy San Marino Belgium Japan Singapore Brunei Latvia Slovakia Czech Republic Liechtenstein Slovenia Denmark Lithuania South Korea Estonia Luxembourg Spain Finland Malta Sweden France Monaco Switzerland Germany the Netherlands United Kingdom Hungary New Zealand

Argentina and Uruguay used to be on the list, but got booted off. South Korea and the eastern European countries are new additions. You can also visit visa-free if you're from Canada or Bermuda. Interesting which countries are on the list and which aren't. Why Portugal and not Greece, for example? Why not Hong Kong, Taiwan? Why not Israel and the rich Gulf oil states? Supposedly because citizens of those countries are more likely to stay on illegally.

Any of you seen this movie? What are your thoughts? What rings true? What doesn't? Is it at all useful to learn anything about Thailand?

That would be Wienerschnitzel. But it normally comes out w/in 24 hours...

Have you ever visited Thailand before ? or will this be your first time ? If its your first time, you have a lot to learn, a very lot....... Good luck anyway.

Will watching the movie "The Beach" be of any help?

I think we all aware of that but it's fun. and i've bugger all else to do.

Yeah, I could bugger someone, but this is more fun!

Hey is that Jimmy "Page"?

I just want to know - how come such a "peaceful religion" causes so much hate and violence all over the world?

Another question - who exactly is behind these terrorists in southern Thailand? Is it the Malaysian government? Some Middle Eastern government? The UK or US? Anyone have any idea?

But, you should also consider looking other places. A lot of Thai uni chicks would love to have a 20 something year old farang boyfriend.

Yeah, but don't ever tell her you kissed a bargirl!

By the way, what other places should he be looking? Where (aside from a university campus) would he find a uni chick? And how would a newbie to Thailand be able to tell her apart from a bar girl (or a regular working girl, etc.)?

In Thailand there is no such thing as the stereotypical prostitute.

It is a very difficult situation to give advise on, from what I read, there are many nice girls that are forced in to prostitution . Maybe she is a nice girl who really likes you and wants a nice life.

Yeah, that was my thought. I mean, prostitutes all start out as normal girls, right? And this one appears to be pretty young, so maybe she's just starting and would rather just have a real boyfriend and get married? But if all she meets are cynical guys who treat her with skepticism or just flat out like a whore, well... isn't that how these girls become jaded, cynical and manipulative themselves?