Johpa

Question: Why do the drivers flee the scene? It s not like the bus companies do not know who they are?

It is the bus and truck companies that tell them to flee the scene so that the company phuu yai can do the talking and negotiating with the police.

There's another matter that people rarely mention. Tibet is a very strategic region of control. It's a beachhead of sorts because China is surrounded by dense mountainous terrain. All humanitarian issues aside the Chinese government has legitimate concerns over national security over this region. There is a stratfor military analyst article that explains things much better than I can and it's fairly balanced in its point of view over China's concerns with the Tibetan region.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/chinese_geo...nificance_tibet

An excerpt:

The Chinese have a fundamental national interest in retaining Tibet, because Tibet is the Chinese anchor in the Himalayas. If that were open, or if Xinjiang became independent, the vast buffers between China and the rest of Eurasia would break down. The Chinese can’t predict the evolution of Indian, Islamic or Russian power in such a circumstance, and they certainly don’t intend to find out. They will hold both of these provinces, particularly Tibet.

Startfor is a very conservative political organization based in of all places, surprise surprise, that great State of Texas, with links to the Neo-cons, you know those brilliant strategists who brought the world the recent invasion of Iraq for similar "strategic" purposes. These folks maintain the 19th century view of the world favored by America's leading war criminal and political consultant, Henry the K. By rationalizing the invasion and colonization of Tibet by Chinese forces with such specious "strategic" reasoning, so too do they reattempt to rationalize their support of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. You would think they would learn from the total failure of this demented type of "strategic thinking" in Vietnam.

How would a powerless vassal state react? It'd be business as usual. Although all of the foodstuffs normally bound for China would probably have to be transported via land instead of sea... but really that's all just theoretical "Axis and Allies / Risk" talk. The only war that China and the US will ever have is the economic one that is just about over.

Yes and no. Unlikely but not exactly impossible. China is rising, the USA is decling, obviously. In future, we can easily predict (more) wars over food, water, and oil. Eventually China is probably going to grow even bigger cajones. Whats to stop them from taking over Taiwan, Cambodia, etc, as they already control resource rich Burma. What force in the world would there be left to resist this empire building? The Netherlands?

Taiwan and China are just a younger brother and older brother who don't like each other but know they are family. No reason to go to war, especially when there are about a thousand Taiwanese owned factories in China helping on the economic 'front' against everyone else. China has long been setting up economic influence in Africa, the Middle East, and South America, I wouldn't worry too much about Cambodia. People don't resist (as much) because they want to do business.

The long term problem for China, AKA the Asian Borg, is that with many of their own neo-sahibs being like Heng here, they are imperial in nature and given to a larger dose of racism towards the indigenous natives, such attitudes historically generate rebellion amongst the governed peoples. Tibet is symptomatic and requires a large military presence to insure suppression. In Burma the heavy Beijing economic presence benefits a very small minority run by a psychotic ruling military elite that brutally, and I mean brutally, represses a majority that would gladly forego all those economic incentives for a small taste of relief from the brutality.

The question is whether the situation in Burma deteriorates further, with increased and open rebellion which would require the PRC to send in troops to protect their colonials, and then how does Thailand react to the possibility of Chinese troops along its borders.

those who are stupid with their money deserve to be separated from it, it is the best way to learn financial responsibility

No, the best way to learn financial responsibility is to teach basic finances to young people in school. Knowingly giving out loans to people who clearly should not be taking on that debt is the irresponsible behavior.

Thailand has been colonized by the Chinese from the inside. They came a few generations ago and married into Thailand. Now, the Chinese are the only businessmen who truly have the decks loaded in their favor.

I hope the Olympics are a HUGE failure and a major loss of both face and money for the Chinese. I, personally, won't even watch it on TV.

And if that didn't happen, the indigenous folks would still be playing tokraw and rolling/mashing up balls of sticky rice.

Alas, there are so many other otherwise well educated people of Chinese ethnicity who believe such racist nonsense as well as the totally improbable nonsense that Tibet is somehow part of China. If nothing else the anti-Olympic protests will force at least some Chinese folks to questions some of the more ridiculous myths that have been instilled into their collective consciousness before they learn that always hard lesson of life encapsulated in the old proverb that pride goes before a fall. Too bad all those wacko Chines evangelicals don't take the sin of pride of heart.

Nothing racist about it as we haven't driven the indigenous people's out, nor have we slaughtered them en masse. Our method of colonialization is both humane as it is absolute (I do concede that Tibet isn't our traditional method... it's more like the western method a.k.a. the really old Mongol method). We don't force them to become one of us, we simply become one of them... at the same time maintaining our key attributes. No mess and relatively light resistance. Regcognizing that if left to their own development, it would have been at a slower rate is just a fact.

I suppose you believe that Native Americans and Oz aboriginees would have had their own industrial revolution if left to their own rate of development?

I rest my case. Forum rules and decorum prevent any further response.

Thailand has been colonized by the Chinese from the inside. They came a few generations ago and married into Thailand. Now, the Chinese are the only businessmen who truly have the decks loaded in their favor.

I hope the Olympics are a HUGE failure and a major loss of both face and money for the Chinese. I, personally, won't even watch it on TV.

And if that didn't happen, the indigenous folks would still be playing tokraw and rolling/mashing up balls of sticky rice.

Alas, there are so many other otherwise well educated people of Chinese ethnicity who believe such racist nonsense as well as the totally improbable nonsense that Tibet is somehow part of China. If nothing else the anti-Olympic protests will force at least some Chinese folks to questions some of the more ridiculous myths that have been instilled into their collective consciousness before they learn that always hard lesson of life encapsulated in the old proverb that pride goes before a fall. Too bad all those wacko Chines evangelicals don't take the sin of pride of heart.

Thailand assures smooth passage for Olympic torch relay

BANGKOK: -- The Thai government will conduct an Olympic torch relay next week, and believes there will be no violent protests over China's crackdown in Tibet as had happened in some other cities.

Let's see, several years ago, in order to appease their true lords in Beijing, the Bangkok government refused to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama, despite Thailand's pretentions, propped up by some western Academics, that it be a Buddhist nation. So why would there be protests about China's "crackdown in Tibet", as the TNA so politely describes the imperialist occupation of Tibet by Chinese troops. Thailand may be a nation of Buddhists, but it is not a Buddhist nation.

Chaiyo!

While growing up in Thailand in the '60s, my brother (who at that time was working as an economist for ESCAP -UN unit at Sala Santhitharm in BKK, offen recited what the French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) said about China....." China is a sleeping giant, once it wakes up, it will shake the world."

He was so right, although it takes more than over two centuries.

Seeing how China has shaken up Tibet, not to mention their deplorable human rights record, I would prefer waiting a few more centuries.

I do fell for the guys who planned their retirements on the dollar rate but it doesn't take a genius to work out that the world order is changing and our oriental cousins the Chinese are the top of the pyramid

If you are one who didn't like the Thais calling you Farang then you are really not going to like the person at the top of the pyramid calling you Gwailo.

I trust and believe in His Majesty's choice, I hope the three new members can provide HRH with wise consultancy.

Considering the ultimate role of the Privy Council, which goes beyond providing sage advise to HRH, I do hope that in that ultimate role they will also make the wisest choice for the Kingdom.

I find that holding up a few thousand baht bills often has the same effect.

Careful there, we are only one year away from the 10 year anniversary of a notorious internet libel case that had its roots in a claim that the Thai translation for "I love you" was "haa roi baat".

I remember being invited to dinner at a few upper middle class Thai homes in the late 90s only to find they really wanted to recruit me to sell this stuff as part of their pyramid. Annoying and uncomfortable

Me too. Same with that A#way and A*A insurance bunch of clowns. Keep drinking the Kool Aid.

I remember all to well the original Amway infestation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A few people made lots of money. And then a whole lot of people either made nothing for their time and efforts, or lost money. But even those who made some money lost most of their friends. The problem is that amongst the more traditional Thais, failure to purchase goods from a friend or relative who makes a sincere effort to sell you the goods is seen as a tremendous loss of face (khai naa) and the typical response is for the seller to get upset and end the friendship. I know several people who quit their jobs, including two teachers, to become Amway dealers, only to have to completely rebuild their social networks. The typical scenario is for the friend to purchase the product once to maintain face (raksaa naa) and sustain the friendship but then refuse the second time. And as any retailer will tell you, one only makes a profit when the customer returns again.

Hmm, does this mean a golden age for the Thai farmers, or a golden age for the middle men?

Any time a government spokesperson talks about a benefit to farmers, take that as a euphemism to mean a benefit to the CP Group.

Were a Thai to turn up in a Ferrari you can bet the price would have gone up as well.

Spot on! I remember back in the early 1980s at the original funky "Night Market" in Chiang Mai that the women running the shops and stalls had three prices: the lowest prices were for those who were speaking Kham Muang, the language of Lanna Thai; the middle prices were for western tourists, mostly lower budget backpackers as not many other tourists were showing up at the time; and the highest prices were for "Khon Thai", Thai tourists, mostly from Bangkok, who only spoke Central Thai.

``With its decision to maintain the rice stockpile, the Thai government wants farmers to fully benefit from the high prices as a new harvest comes to the market,'' Sumeth Laomoraphorn, president of C.P. Intertrade Ltd., Thailand's sixth-largest rice exporter, said by telephone today.

C.P. Intertrade Ltd, which I suspect is a subsidiary of the CP Group, is only concerned about themselves not missing out on the current high prices on the global market. They care not a whit about the farmers, but they certainly do not want smaller mill owners to be hoarding away what they perceive as their potential profits. If there is going to be any hoarding it will be done by the major exporters.

As others have noted, we have no way of knowing the accuracy of the quoted rice stockpiles in the Kingdom. The rapid increase in rice prices could easily serve as the catalyst to the perfect storm that is slowly brewing around Thailand, elements which include political instability, lack of political leadership, global economic uncertainty, and of course the other inevitability destined to fracture social cohesion.

And thanks to Lao Po for pointing out my error in reading the chart in the BBC article. Thailand still remains in the awkward position of being surrounded by countries who do not produce sufficient rice for internal consumption.

You might be able to make a small profit selling to a retail shop, but you may encounter difficulties selling it to a gold or jewelery shop. My wife once took some Thai gold chain, bought at the largest gold shop in Chiang Mai, to a Chinese gold shop here in the US and the owner just laughed at us and gave us a clear demonstration as to how it was just heavily plated gold. A few years later I took my gold wedding ring to see if a jeweler might be able to resize it a tad larger <blush> and he too just laughed and said no problem, but that I would have to sign a waiver if the ring broke if something other than gold was inside the ring. He advised me to swap it out in Thailand for a new better fitting ring. A few years ago I happen to have lunch with a relative of a high Sakdina family who confessed that at a certain level of Thai society there was a marked preference for purchasing gold in Hong Kong, but Yarowat Thai gold was seen as decidedly low class.

That being said, as long as the gold has the hallmark of any of the better Thai gold shops, it can be bought and sold within Thailand at current market rates for Thai gold.

my wife and i were going to buy some land 2 years ago..my wifes friend told us about it ..she is a school teacher and the other women is also..the women had been trying to sell this land for a few years and no buyers..my wifes friend told us the price..and so we all went to meet her..as soon as she seen me..she told us the price was double..to what she had been trying to sell it for before..and what she had told her teacher friend..i had this happen 2 other times in a short period..my wife had told me if we were going to buy land i needed to stay home so no one would see my face..but i need to go to make sure about papers..deeds..no money owed on land..size of land..my money i want to know. has anyone else had this happen.

Yes, it happened to me years ago. Long ago I realized that I must stay behind the scenes, whether it is purchasing land or buying materials to build a home. That doesn't mean I am ignorant of what is going on or that I am totally out of the plans, just that my active involvement stays behind the scene. It is just a quirk of living as a minority in Thailand. Don't take it personally.

On the other hand, when we hire people to do work such as build the house, I pay a little bit more and buy a few more meals and drinks and that generally leads to getting decent work done and also leads to making new Thai friends, friendships that often pay dividends down the road.

Get a real life.

All the above is my opinion and not to be confused with that of others,

Reality is in the eyes of the beholder. What you may perceive as having a "real life" I may perceive as something else. In any event, your opinion reveals a rather prejudiced attitude towards others who, for whatever reason, do not share your chosen lifestyle. In America we call such people Republicans.

US$1,000/month - Poor lifestyle

US$2,000/month - Basic lifestyle

US$3,000/month - Reasonable lifestyle

US$4,000/month - Comfortable lifestyle

This is based on my opinion and the lifestyle that I prefer to live. I do not go cheap.

I second the motion.

Now I know where the term "Cheap Charlies" came from

Don't pay too much heed to the neo-sahibs who dominate these forums. One can live comfortable on $1,000 a month in Chiang Mai as far as normal day to day living expenses if you have not bought into the corporate consumerist material lifestyle. Now there are certain issues that others have noted, such as the minimum income required for a longer term visa. And as others have noted, you had best have reserves, just as anywhere. for unexpected health care needs. And you will also need to have a significant sum for startup costs such as transportation and housing needs. But once you get past those start up costs, and once you have planned and saved for medical emergencies, then day to day expenses can easily be met with a budget of $1,000 per month. Although as mentioned here, you may not be able to compete with some of the posters here relative to daily alcohol consumption and long and short term sexual needs paid to Thais for providing such services. But I daresay, if you are willing to co-habit with an age appropriate partner, even those needs can be met at the cost of room and board.

This article is an interesting but also frightening read !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7324596.stm#graph

Thanks for the link to the BBC article. Note that the top ten countries that import rice are not your UN models of stability, with over half of them being neighbors of Thailand.

These higher prices are excellent news, for the growers at least, but how can the PPP-led coalition-government claim the credit for helping the poor farmers, without being blamed for the higher prices to the poor Thai consumers ? Perhaps it is the fault of those danged foreigners, being willing to pay higher prices, curse them ?

And how to generate widespread brown-envelopes, to the faithful, from the solution ?

A vexing issue indeed.

I find it hard to believe that the growers will reap the benefits. The growers do not sell directly to the international market but sell to local mill owners who then sell forward to the few families who control the export of rice. It is those families for whom the news is indeed most excellent. That is not to say that the growers will not reap some modest benefits, but most of the increased profits will go to the few. And those few will decide how much rice will cost domestically and will try to max out their profits without crossing the line where the populace begins protesting that core rallying point that began the French Revolution that there was no bread. Shall the Thais be told also to eat cake?

As an earlier poster noted, in the rural areas people tend to only sell their rice surplus. Those who have no land, and there are many, either rent land or exchange labor during planting and harvest in exchange for rice. Those who rent padi land usually must give 50% of the crop to the landlord, so clearly the landlord will benefit. Alas for the poor who exchange labor for rice, they do not obtain a years worth so they will have to pay market prices for some of their year's rice. It is the urban poor who will be hardest hit by increased rice prices and will lead the way against the government if the families who control the rice market get too greedy for their own good. It will be up to the few families in control of the rice exports, with some modest pressure from the government, to keep rice affordable to the laborers in the Bangkok region. Otherwise, one can see the perfect storm brewing for trouble in LOS.

What is the difference in common parliance and technically among the terms:

คนไข้, คนเจ็บ and ผู้ป่วย ?

The RID says cryptically, "คนไข้ น. ผู้ป่วย, ผู้บาดเจ็บ."

In addition, what is the difference between "อัมพาต" and "อัมพฤกษ์"?

Thanks.

คนไข้: tends to refer to having a fever or illness

คนเจ็บ: tends to refer to pain or injury

Hmmm....how much do they get paid in an inactive post?

These people belong in prison.

They will get the same salary and benefits as before. Clearly he made the same mistake as Thaksin, his crime was failing to share. In the inactive post he will most likely now work directly for the private sector as a hired lobbyist.

Can anyone please enlighten me with the exact meaning and how to use the word? What else can I “หยำ“ ? Is the word used throughout Thailand or possibly only in the South? (my wife is from Trang).

It may very well be, or once was, a regional lexical item as the word does not appear in my Haas dictionary.

RIP TwoDogs (looks like he was erased)

Indeed, and unfortunately such actions remove the appropriate context for at least half the remaining posts. Further comment is not allowed by Forum rules and must be inferred by the reader.