Johpa

Just backing up the currency intervention with some verbal reenforcement I think. Difficult to see the BOT having the guts to raise interest rates now, even if they should. Would be like throwing oil on this political fire everybody seems worked up about.

BTDT: The mistake made in America was believing in recession-free capitalism. With the benefit of hindsight it looks like they should have taken the pain back in 2001. What Benanke could do now is announce that he intends to raise rates 25 points per month for the next 9-12 months. Reign the oil bubble in, give banks a sense of urgency with regards to righting their balance sheets. Forget avoiding recession, concentrate on avoiding long-term damage like that which has crippled Japan.

Wrong. The mistake America has made is thinking that socialism and prosperity can walk hand in hand.

It doesn't, not for the masses anyway. Never did, never will. They are diametrically opposed. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that most of these nitwits can't even define it .

Uh, before you begin talking about other nitwits, perhaps you can elaborate upon where you see socialism permeating American economic policy because, frankly, I just don't see it myself. Perhaps you can also elaborate on how you perceive 'prosperity'. Are you suggesting that a socialist country like Norway has not seen any increase in prosperity over the past 50 years? Is there an underground of square heads seeking to emigrate and flee economic oppression? And then perhaps you could be a wee bit more definitive and explain what it is exactly that your imagined nitwit can't define.

It is called gonad snacthing, the Arabs have us by the "Gonads"

If you think it is the producers causing the price increase then perhaps you are afraid to look who else is grabbing on to your gonads, you petrolphobe you. Don't want to admit to being fondled down there by Norskes, Brits, Slavic types, Turks, Farsis, Nigerians, Venezuelans, and of course the hosers up in Canada eh?

This ain't rocket science folks. You have a limited and slowly dwindling supply of a commodity (sweet crude) that is becoming increasingly expensive to extract while at the same time a burgeoning demand for that same product. Sweet baby Jesus, it don't gets too much simpler.

A new twist on the garlic farmers protest...

Above: If growing garlic has no price (return), we’d rather grow marijuana instead.

- from 2Bangkok.com

Chaiyo!

I would agree that the traditional Thai text was recorded on a สมุด and not a western style book. It was not that long ago that all government records were kept in those ubiquitous black marbled notebooks. Which leads to the equally interesting question of from where did the word หนังสือ for book derive?

What about America's constant support for Israel? Regardless of Bush/Obama - Any mafia involed there? Just wondering..

Ah, that old classic diversion, blame it on the Jews, works every time century after century.

Johnpa, Layoff the koolaid and try a few Sing Ha's, I am certain that you will feel much better and your outlook just might improve as well The speculative oil bubble will burst very soon and all will be forgiven, in the mean time try to enjoy life

First, I have never enjoyed "bia singh" and still prefer a Mae Khong soda.

But perhaps more interestingly, just the other week a few of the talking heads on CNBC, the US financial television network spent a half hour arguing, actually agreeing amongst themselves, that the recent spike in oil was, as you also seem to believe, a result of speculators and that these speculators were, in the long run, good for the financial markets as they provided liquidity, whatever the heck that means. They then interviewed by phone the former head of exploration and a former very high mucky muck at Exxon (née ESSO née Standard Oil of New Jersey née Rockfeller) who I would assume is a tad more knowledgeable about the oil industry then the television commentators. To the clear chagrin of all three TV commentators, I mean you could see the wind being knocked out of their sails, the former Exxon exec made it clear to them that, in his opinion, only an insignificant fraction of the current price was based upon "speculators".

I am currently reading an excellent book on the subject, Peter Tertzakian's A Thousand Barrels a Second which presents a very reasoned and very readable explanation of why this is not a speculative bubble.

Oh, and rest assured, I do enjoy life.

There are several units similar to mine owned by Thais but they are Bt20K to Bt50K more expensive to lease per month. They may remain empty forever but no one is going to take advantage of the owner by getting a cheaper price. It is just crazy to leave these spaces empty for years.

Not so crazy if the unit is being used to launder money. That giant gray market described in Achaan Pasuk's classic book Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja: Thailand's Illegal Economy and Public Policy has never gone away and all that cash needs to get a washing before it is wired abroad. Whether it be condos in Bangkok, resorts up north, or restaurants in the provincial towns, the story remains the same.

It is true that different people have different palates. For some, expensive gourmet foods, wines, and spirits are a complete waste of money because they lack the genetics combined with experience to appreciate them. For the super tasters among us (I am somewhere in between) low quality food and drink is a kind of torture.

And I am sure that is why "Two Buck Chuck" won top awards at a national wine competition judged by people we can only assume who are even more genetically blessed and even more experienced than the Jing Thingy. Sorry Jingy, the concept of a super taster is a hoax.

Well, I think the restaurants are the snobs. I can't get Lao Kao in any of them so I don't go anymore. I drink it straight but after two glasses I have got to go home. Any more than that and I can't find my house anymore.

A few years ago I couldn't even get a bottle of Mae Khong at a nightclub. Not wanting to drink that rock gut blended "Scotch" so mysteriously favored by so many younger Thai men, they sent someone down the street to purchase a bottle for me and then they poured my favored Mae Khong into an empty bottle of "Scotch" to maintain appearances. A slightly less pathetic instance occurred at a slightly upscale Thai eatery, but at least, after having me run down the soi in search of a bottle, they allowed me to display the bottle on the drink cart at the end of the table without having to resort to subterfuge.

It is a global downturn in the property sector..

The world is in real trouble on many levels...

sorry, but the sky is falling.

Yes, well, modern western capitalism was always just a big pyramid scheme built upon cheap energy (oil). The house of cards is finally beginning to tumble, more literally it is running out of gas, whilst the believers are down on their knees praying that their new god Technos will bring them salvation. Meanwhile those who prospered will more than likely keep the military generals happy by plying them with wine and women and false riches whilst fooling the foot soldiers into thinking they are protecting gods and country (propaganda), and will have orders issued to protect them, the current elite, from the historical "rabble".

Chaiyo!

Oooh, you old cynic you Johpa. Don't spoil the illusion for some of 'em, who also think that the Yanks are really the good guys, Saddam was an evil monster and TV is a neutral technology.

What happens to their brave new world when they are forced to realize, although they may all be too far gone for reality, that the Internet is the virus. Perhaps it is best we maintain their illusions so they won't go home and beat their wives and kids in frustration.

Can anyone figure this out?

Late 2006 when it gained to 35 they were panicking and trying to weaken it to keep it above 35, but now that it's weakened from about 31 to 33 they want to strengthen it again.

What?!? You think economics is some sort of science to be "figured" out? Have you not noticed that even Nobel laureates argue over basic assumptions? Ok, some physicists may argue over how many theoretical dimensions extrapolate from string theory, but you don't see them arguing too much over more fundamental basic issues involving Newtonian mechanics. Heilbroner got it right. economists are worldly philosophers and not scientists, philosophers who diddle with numbers.

Why not let the market itself regulate it. I was supposing it was a capitalist system. This way to act is not by anyway a capitalist one , but simply a way to protect the economical interest of a very small part of the population.

And you think that the capitalist system is not set up to protect the economical interest of a very small part of the population? Other than hunter gathering societies, is there any economic system that did not set out to protect an economic elite?

So some of you folks actually believe in "Free" markets. Do you still believe in the tooth fairy as well?

I knew two US military vets up in Chiang Mai who never went back to the US, although they had somehow retained American citizenship and arranged some sort of official discharge. One of them has now passed away and I believe the other has also passed.

About 20 years ago I became friends with the then US Naval Attaché posted in Chiang Mai, a position that assumes a certain degree of inside knowledge. I noted that I spotted what I thought was a Farang plowing a rice padi. He confided that the government estimated about 50-60 MIAs had "walked" out and gone native in Thailand, something akin to the "bush vets" in the US.

"Have you eaten yet?" is perhaps the most common greeting encountered throughout rural Thailand. Amongst neighbors it is usually followed, if answered in the affirmative, by 'kin khao kap arai?', what did you have to eat. The second most common greeting, used with strangers or more distant acquaintances is 'pai nai?' , where are you going?, or 'pai nai maa?', where are you coming from.

All in all far more sensible then the western tradition of immediately asking the far more existential 'how are you?', a phrase that many Asians find a bit bewildering.

As for the reu pronunciation vs the leu pronunciation, the /r/ and /l/ liquid consonants are in pretty free variation throughout Thailand. It is totally by happenstance that when and where the alphabet and "official" spelling were devised that the local dialect of Thai tended towards the /r/ variant.

You are with respect mistaken plachon, and if you would like to check the record you will see that I have constantly emphasized that the war on drugs was Thaksin's worst crime.I do think he should be tried for this charge.Has it occurred to you however to wonder why he hasn't been charged with them instead of the relatively footling set of charges he does actually face?

Just a reminder that the "war on drug's" was one of Thaksin's most popular decisions amongst Thais, especially amongst the rural Thais who had suffered the most from the yaa baa plague that had been allowed to fester into an outright pandemic by previous administrations. It is true that some police used the campaign to settle some personal scores, but the Thai police never really needed a war on drugs to unilaterally use their power and position to settle such personal scores and those types of crimes continue. Although it is nearly impossible for a westerner, including myself, to condone the actions taken, it did succeed in removing the drugs from both the upper grades of the elementary schools as well as, to a slightly lesser extent, remove the drugs from the high schools. From a Thai perspective the "crimes" committed were more than offset by the positive benefits to the communities and thus he will not face any charges on this matter, only accolades.

This is the 21st century

Monks are cool and hip now, using modern technology is a must for all...

Yea, and it was a bit embarrassing entering a local public Internet establishment at the local town to see the men in orange looking at porn. Better they should buy a computer and ruffle their robes in private. The Thai Sangha, with a few noticeable exceptions, is a disgrace. Forum rules prohibits detailed analysis.

Remember what Prince Damrong wrote in 1906: "But in the whole tambon (sub-district) it is impossible to find one rich man with 200 baht or more stored away. Yet you cannot find a single person who is poor to the point of being another’s servant. They must have been like this for a hundred years. Because the villagers can farm to feed themselves without resorting to cash, the feeling that they need cash is not strong. Money does not have the same power as in the city which is called “civilized”. So nobody accumulates but you cannot call them poor because they feed themselves happily and contentedly."

There's inflation-proof, for you!!

Prices don't matter when there's nought you need to buy.

The population of Thailand was around 8 million people during Damrong's days. The rural areas were still sparsely populated, one could still find decent land to farm, and the issue of landless peasantry had not yet arisen. Today, as for past past several decades, there are many who must purchase their rice as they no longer own padi land of their own. Although we have not seen too much hunger in the countryside, I expect that will change as the inevitability of the end of oil approaches. Inflation is only just beginning.

"I think justice systems all over the world fail all the time"

Sorry but Wolfie is wrong in his post above yours

They do but cases like OJ etc arenot the norm in the USA and the likes of the UK and is why they are so sensational.

Murderers getting away with it in Thailand for nayone with the money IS the norm though - thats the problem and not outliers like the OJ case - some people really need to see the reality and stop the rose tinted glasses act.

Its just another facet of corruption and one of the reasons Thailand is being held back and one way the powerful in Thailand keep their people down.

But it is that same system that nurtures the affordable environment so beloved by the majority of the residents of these boards. The ex-pats can't actually integrate into the system unless they are willing to enter into a patron-client relationship with a phu yai, something most western ex-pats are hard put to accomplish for a number of cultural reasons, but they are able to sit on the sidelines and enjoy the show from the betters seats.

You will see the posters here flock to a group BBQ, but don't expect them to congregate to demand justice thereby rocking the boat.

Okay, I just rewrote those parts of the novel. Nittipat now has a Tai-Yai mother with Thai citizenship, a Tai-Yai father born in the Shan State, and Thailand birth for himself. Nittipat will become too famous to have his citizenship revoked, and will be Thailand's first world-famous gay superstar... prompting Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre to come out of the closet. That's what I like about writing fiction: just realistic enough to be believable, just absurd enough to be entertaining.

If Thongchai is living in a closet it must be a closet made of clear glass.

One need not be a newbie, A few years ago one of our more influential neighbors, a high Sakdina type, offered me a very generous deal on something I owned and I politely declined. So even us dinosaurs can make cultural mistakes when our egos blind us to the cultural realities of Everyday Life in Thailand, blinding even those of us who consider the book of the same name to be our survival guide to living amongst the Thais.

Sorry, I asked my question wrong. In my novel, I have a recently arrived Tai Yai family arriving from the Shan State about 1981, with an infant who would get Thai nationality only by bribes. Would even a baby born in Thailand of Tai Yai (Burmese, Shan) parents not be entitled to Thai citizenship? Would only a baby born of a Tai Yai and a Thai parent easily have citizenship?

Minority people are not automatically bestowed Thai citizenship, even if born on Thai soil. And even though that child was born on Thai soil, marries, and has a second generation Thai born child, that child too is not automatically bestowed Thai citizenship. And if citizenship is bestowed, it can revoked as happened last year up in Amphoe Mae Ai, north of Fang, which led to some protests. For better details on the Thai Yai you should stop and have some noodles up at Baan Mai Mok Jaam, the large Tai Yai town a few kms northeast of Thaton along the Kok River.

A minority woman can usually marry a male Thai national and obtain citizenship for her children by listing them on his house registration (tabian baan). I am not sure about the ease of the less common Thai female marrying a minority male. It really all depends upon the mood of the people working at the local Amphoe, and especially the disposition of the District Head (naay amphoe).

Fact is that although many of the Kham Muang people are comfortable and at ease living alongside the northern upland minority folks, the same is simply not true for the vast majority of Thais, especially the folks from Bangkok, who hold all those traditional global negative stereotypes of minorities.

My advice (as I tell students of both English and Thai) is to stop asking the question why? and stick to when?

You know the tones so just stick to that, I've almost completely forgotten the rules now as on a day to day basis I have no need to recall them. I do, however, seem to be able to read and guess the tone right more often than I get it wrong.

I too have long forgotten the tone rules, and even the consonant classes. They are very useful in the beginning as a learning tool, but ask the average Thai about the tone rules or consonant classes and you will get this quizzical look.

As in any other writing system, you eventually internalize the written word as a single unit, written words all becomes like Chinese characters in the brain.

For a beautiful resort in the mountains, I would recomend Doi Angkhan, north...near Fang. great settings in the Royal project and cheap bungalows or upscale Amari acomodations.

Do a google on it....

Agree on Doi Ang Khang being a great place, but not sure about a sunset view from down in the basin.

Due to the topography, there aren't many great sunset views as the sun tends to go below the mountains well before it sets upon the horizon. However last summer I drove the relatively new road from Mae Chaem to Khun Yuam in the late afternoon and the views as the sun was going behind the mountains to the west, around 4:00PM were fantastic, but no resorts had been built as yet.

A Tai Yai legal resident carrying an ID card identifying them as (or grouping them with) a Thai hilltribe person (i.e., they are a legal resident) said they are not allowed to get a driver's license. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this?

I intend to go ask at the DMV but thought I would ask on this forum first.

I don't know about prohibiting the obtaining of a drivers license, but I do know that the first number of the Thai ID card does encode people into various levels of 'Thainess'. In the past, the categorization was done by color coding the card. There is a professor at CMU, Achaan Pinkaew I believe, that gave a talk on the subject at a seminar that I eavesdropped on.

When using a Protector I can shave without shaving foam in the shower in 2 minutes. When I use an ordinary shaver it takes 10 minutes, cuts everywhere and lots of bloodied tissues...

Crikey, clearly your father never taught you how to shave properly. And that shaver that you are pimping, I think most men would be embarrassed if others spotted that ridiculous looking thing in their home, you freakin wuss.