Johpa

I have discussed it with my wife. We both think it's best for each of us to speak our mother tongue to him.

Absolutely the correct course of action. But be prepared in the beginning years for the kid to respond to you in Thai. Be happy, and don't get frustrated, with the child only showing comprehension and not a lot of production (speech) in English until later, or perhaps not until a trip overseas. But as long as there is comprehension you are succeeding in raising a bilingual child.

Need some help with an area of Thai vocabulary that until now has been outside of my experience range. The terms are:

criminal trespass

breaking and entering

illegal entry

Thanks in advance

AGW science works like this. We throw the unpopular woman in the lake: If she drowns, she was innocent. If she floats and survives, she’s a witch and we burn her at the stake. We can't lose. Whatever happens, it's "climate change. "

Future generations will relegate the AGW zealots to the annals of history along with millenial cults, domesday soothsayers, Jonestown followers and all the rest of the delusional, easily-led masses of people that have ever congregated under a rubric of doom.

It is a sad day indeed when we see non-scientists, who are perhaps otherwise rational people, conclude that a significant number of members of the scientific community, some would argue a large majority of the global scientific community, are psychos who deserved to be lumped together with an assortment of irrational behaviors.

And I believe that the "AGW" hypothesis, that human activity causes global warming, is not based upon anything remotely similar to medieval witch hunting practices but based upon statistical analysis.

But the really interesting question to ask is why would those who dispute the AGW hypothesis with an alternative hypothesis be so adamant given the most likely outcomes? If the AGW is correct then we avert tremendous suffering by taking steps to reduce the warming trend, if it exists. And if the hypothesis is wrong and we still act then we get a more energy efficient and cleaner world. There is nothing to lose by accepting the AGW hypothesis, even if it turns out to be wrong, and yet there is a tremendous amount to lose by not responding if the hypothesis is correct. I just can't get my finger on the motivations of those who come under the classification of "deniers". I just can't figure out the answer to the question that always needs to be asked in such situations, "cui bono?".

I think the emerging global threats are actually these three:

-The decline of scientific credibility

I have just been reading an excellent book on this very subject. Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health by David Michaels, published by Oxford University Press. This book, exhaustively documented by a professional epidemiologist with most excellent credentials (PhD), documents the common methods corporate interests use to create doubt in the minds of non-scientists and undermine the public's support of the scientific community and then naively hand that support over to the corporations. The literature is extensively reviewed and the author notes that the term "junk science" is most often, if not always, applied to independent scientific research opposed by the corporations because the results might impinge upon profits and that the term "sound science" is most often applied to research that is funded by corporations. It is a fascinating look into the world of corporate deception and how the corporate elite used their financial and political power to increase profits at the expense of public health.

Flexaccount's have a VISA card with all the international benefits associated with it.

Be prepared to see international benefits for using any VISA card sharply reduced in the coming months. You are about to see increased fees for both the owners of the cards and for the shops that accept foreign issued cards. Expect to see more and more shops refuse to accept cards issued from another country and be prepared to see more fees for using such cards outside the issuing country.

Well I once got to meet Ole Lama, or is it Lama Ole. He too may not be a MLK, but he certainly never sounded depressed. But I suppose that being of the Tantric tradition he would be denied a visa into Thailand so as not to offend the PRC.

The end of the Dream would be the end of an era. I once saw a poll that rated the Dream the best two-wheeler ever built when considering together design, price, durability, and overall quality.

I asked my wife what am I to do with these fish in a bottle. She told me if you get one it is a sign of respect. I thought what have I done to deserve respect. I couldn't think of anything. My wife told me that I went with him to his home on the 1st offer that was respect to him.

So the man is somewhat traditional and it is his way of showing thanks for a good deal on the bike. You now have a local friend who feels a tad of bunkhun towards you. So shed your ex-pat bubble and enjoy the real Thailand. Now go back to a local shop and buy a bottle of Sangsom and invite him over to share it with you.

Yet another example of Thailand being the most southern Monthol. Perhaps Thailand is not quite the example of a Buddhist Kingdom that Prof. Keyes postulated in his book of that name (Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State). Certainly the actions of the Thai givernment are not protecting Dhamma in this instance.

And I always find it a bit odd that even educated overseas Chinese see Tibet as somehow being an integral part of China despite having a different language and a different culture, not to mention the distance between cultural capitols.

Not a tank but an old M113 APC.. and I mean OLD.

Yes, a 1960s vehicle that is now used by police and armies to quell civil unrest as the light side armor provides little protection from modern weapons. But rest assured from my experience a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away that you would be hard pressed to find an all-terrain vehicle that is more fun to drive. Despite its age, the M113, if maintained, is in no way obsolete.

Call her คุณแม่ will be fine.

Not only fine, but it would be the most appropriate term by far to address the mother of any friend. I can't really think of another term I have used over the decades to address such a person.

After dealing with druggies, junkies and all that stuff for all of my working life, I say, execute all of the bastards. SIMPLE.

Well said tonglen!

Except that the hapless couriers (mules) usually caught at the airport are most often just poor ignorant folks trying to support their families or people who have been blackmailed into working as couriers. The top folks and their bankers are never touched and getting out the pom poms and shouting "off with their heads" only deflects notice to the real perpetrators of these crimes.

From airport smuggling to a baseless attack on big pharma .... more like a transgression than a digression.

Not a baseless attack. Big Pharma sells at an incredibly cheap price heroin in a pill form in products like oxycontin. But instead of calling such drugs opiates they are euphemistically called "pain killers" as it is much more socially acceptable to become addicted to a euphemism than to an opiate. But having had a fling with opiates in my youth and then decades later having been prescribed some of these "pain killers" for a kidney stone, I do not see much difference in either the pharmacological effects nor the detrimental social effects between the illegal opiates and the legal pain killers.

FWIW, I have been acquainted with Kaewmala for many years and she is the real deal here. She provides the rare opportunity to get feedback from a true bilingual and bi-cultural Thai woman with both a substantial academic resume as well as an impressive resume from working for major NGOs in the social sphere not only in Thailand but throughout Southeast Asia. I doubt anyone was more surprised than me to see her pop up here on SCT. Her presence here in the Thai language forum brings an entirely new dimension, a very positive and complementary new dimension, to this board.

My goodness, do they still use them ??.

I havnt bought travellers cheques since Prem was PM.

Just never liked the rates.

The difference in rates are not so bad compared to using an ATM or just plain old cash, especially for smaller amounts. And soon, at least for those of is based in the US, the rates will be very good compared to using cards in ATMs as those exchange rates are slated to be increased. Also a good idea to have some TCs for those instances where the ATMs are not working in your neck of the woods.

For longer stays and for the true ex-pat, opening up a local bank account and wiring over funds is probably the best option.

Wake me up when Suzuki Thailand begins to sell the V (or Wee)-Strom here.

Who's behind the threats? Someone who does not have the best interests of Thailand in mind. (sounds like Mr. T to me)

Since when do any of the sides have the best interests of Thailand in mind? All sides are only concerned about enriching themselves with nary a patriotic thought amongst the whole lot, regardless of the color shirt they wear. The sad truth is that all sides benefit from the uncertainty and instability. They all like the fluid nature of the current politics as it gives them all more freedom of action.

Anyone have a degree in Asian History? Asian Studies in any respect? Any decent reading?

I have an undergraduate degree in anthropology, a degree whose course selection that would now be issued under the newer degree program offered in Southeast Asian studies. By the time I got a masters degree back in 1990 I had read the majority of published academic works in the social sciences wriiten on Thailand, ranging from Cornell to Manoa to Murdoch to the publishing of the Journal of the Siam Society. I have read a smaller number of works published after I left academia which tend to have a more post-modernist flavor of trans-this and trans-that. You can keep abreast of these newer publications by stopping by New Mandala from time to time.

The sakdina system was not similar to the caste system in India. It was similar to the feudal system in Europe, being a land based determinant of social status. Today capital has replaced land as the determinant of social status and this brings forth many new dynamics. Thus sakdina does not exist today apart from a metaphorical sense.

As far as readings, the best general history, IMHO, remains Wyatt's Thailand: A Short History, and Keyes' Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation State. Slightly less academic but a good read is Pasuk and Bakers more recent book A History of Thailand. Check out the bibliographies in the back of these books for books and articles that focus on more specific issues and time periods.

Sakdina was not set up with the Chinese-Thais in mind. This ethnic group is now fully Thai and exercises power through money, networks and savvy (that's how they got the money).

The Thai Chinese got the money, along with the ruling elite of the time, the high sakdina individuals, because they were invited to become the new merchant class at the same time Thailand was moving away from a non-monetized economy to a monetized economy. The vast rural Thai peasantry, being of low sakdina, or more commonly recently freed slaves, was not immediately allowed to participate within the newly monetized economy, an economy they had no understanding of, and they continued to pay taxes indirectly through the old corvee labor system, or other favors to the local ruling elites, or by being paid below market values for their rice. As recently as 20 years ago it was very difficult for ethnic Tais up-country to have access to capital through the major banks which then only hired and loaned to Thai-Chinese.

This is not to say that the Thai Chinese are not industrious or not savvy. But they had a privileged economic position from the get go. And today, many Thai-Chinese still see themselves distinct from the ethnic Tais as do the ethnic Tais themselves. I find the OP's understanding of sakdina to be a tad weak, but if there is one politician who might epitomize sakdina, in a metaphorical sense of course as the system does not map onto the current landscape too well, is Sonthi more than Taksin. His backers are overwhelmingly the old sakdina guard and their long time partners the Bangkok Sino Thai elite. Sonthi is always putting down the rural folks as being below him and advocating a reduction in the importance of the rural vote.

Now let's see what happens to some of the other encroachments all over the country by resorts and golf clubs such as Alpine in Pathum Thani.

Perhaps we should start a list

The Phuket Yacht Club on what was formerly the public lands known as Nai Harn beach

Koh Phi Phi Island in its entirety

The Four Seasons Regence in Chiang Mai

Shinawat's sisters encroachment onto public forest in Sankampeng

Metaphorically speaking, learning styles tend to be on a continuum between left brain analytical styles extrapolating from learned rules to right brain styles absorbing from global contexts. The "natural" methods currently adapted by AUA stress the global methods where emphasis is placed upon effective communicating and not grammatical rules. The methodology tends to emphasize comprehension first, and then later production, thus delaying speaking. It follows, in the order given, what I call Buddhist linguistics: right understanding; right thought, right speech. The idea is that first you understand, then begin to play (think) with the item in your mind, and only then speak.

The older methodology, still perhaps taught at AUA is exemplified by Marvin Browns original course which emphasizes the structure of the language and the teaching of grammatical rules and example sentences such as the classic "raan ahaan nik yuu thii nai?". Most current language teachers are taught to abhor this methodology. I was taught to abhor, from an academic perspective, this methodology as well when I was in graduate school back in the 1980s. The difficulty was that my Thai professor was a peer and colleague of Marvin Brown, used the AUA textbooks for his first year Thai class, and was remarkably effective incorporating the method into his syllabus.

So I came to believe that not only the learners tend to be all over the continuum of learning styles, but that the teachers also have different preferred teaching styles and that it is more important that the teacher use the style they are most comfortable with. These days most teachers are most comfortable using the "natural" methods, but still many students benefit, IMHO, from an occasional dose of rules.

And so what ever happened to the black shirted military units commanded by regular Thai Army officers that were once encountered along the Burmese border regions in the far north?

Don't believe for a minute you've got anything in common with "many of the people posting here". Most have earned respect with years of contribution. Your self confessed idiocy is only matched by your sarcasm.

Crikey, a few posters have earned some respect, but most are blabbering fools wallowing in the good life and cheap sex that they could never obtain back home, bad-mouthing the locals as they chug down another beer amongst their mates in yet another round of verbal circle jerking at the local ex-pat drinking establishment whilst watching their home country football or rugby games. This thread offers prime examples of "self-confessed" idiocy and my post contains not one iota of sarcasm.

THAI needs to urgently upgrade its business class product. Overall, cleaner and more efficient aircraft is always good news.

What TG needs to upgrade is their management class and replace it with professional business personnel as opposed to a social club engaged in crony capitalism. But you have to give them credit on the advertising front as they somehow continue to convince people to fly the over-priced skies of Thai.

I think the similarities are closer than you think.

Au contraire, the differences are greater than you are perhaps willing to acknowledge. The Karen are a minority within Burma, whose desire to retain some autonomy is being violently repressed by the Burmese military junta. Despite the narco-violence occurring in Mexico, the Mexican government is not raiding villages, destroying crops, and raping women in the Mexican rural provinces where many of the "illegal" migrants originate. Mexican "illegals" repatriated by the US government go back to real homes and not to burned out villages. Just because Mexico is also no Paradise does not set it even close to the same end point of the continuum representing good and evil where the Burmese junta has placed that nation.

History shows that a significant number of Hmong from Thailand were active supporters of the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT). This fact has not been not lost on the Thai military who still hold a grudge and lump all Hmong both Thai and Lao as the same. As a result the Hmong, even those born in Thailand, have suffered signifcant discrimination often including denial of Thai citenzenship here in their homeland. Nearly all Thais refer to the Hmong as Maeo (แมว) which the Hmong consider an ethnic slur. To escape this racism and look for a better life elsewhere, thousands of Thai Hmong are now claiming that they are really from Laos and that they were allies of the US in the 2nd Indochina War when if fact they were just the opposite. These false attempts to gain entrance into the US by deception have made sorting out the truly deserving from the scammers a very difficult task especially since most all Hmong born more than 20 years ago have no birth certificates or any other proof of citenzenship.

Poppycock. Most of the Thai Mong have been in Thailand since well before the fustercluck in Laos. There are some specific villages which were once refugee camps close to the border in Chiang Rai, but the many villages in the uplands in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai have been there for decades.

The CPT had minimal long term, if any, impact in the hills up north and I challenge anyone to find a single communist sympathizer in the highlands today. I have probably spent more time living up in the hills than most and have yet to meet one. The Thais countered the nascent CPT presence in the highlands, where at that time the Thai government previously had no presence to speak of, by building access roads to villages, building schools, and even building a series of pre-schools run by the social welfare agency in order to introduce the youngest kids to some Thai language as well as to the concept of the Thai nation-state before they entered kindergarten, a concept based upon the Head Start program in the US. This Thai government multi-pronged campaign (which included what might be called missionary monks) to win the allegiance of the highland minorities dwarfed the minuscule efforts of the CPT who were already moving down south.

To consider the Thai Mong communist is laughable for those of us who know first hand the industriousness and work ethic and subsequent financial success of many Mong over the past several decades as a result of switching from opium, a crop heavily price controlled by the wholesalers, to a wide variety of market cash crops. This crop substitution blossomed once there were roads to get fresh produce to the markets. Today many Mong villages are, if anything, more prosperous than many neighboring Thai villages.

Most of the Mong who have resided up north for many decades, if not many generations, have Thai citizenship although it was brought to my attention by a talk from a CMU professor that the Thai ID cards code for highland minorities. I have yet to meet a Thai Mong who feigned to be a Lao Mong eligible for refugee status in the US, although I have met a few US Mong visiting Thailand to look for a bride.

The Mong, as well as the other highland minority folks certainly suffer from discrimination; but more from the ignoramuses down in Bangkok, and perhaps alas the Thai military elite that is married into the Sino-Thai Bangkok economic elite, than from their neighbors up north. So Groongthep, you need to get out of Bangkok more often and escape the small mindedness that permeates the capitol.