OxfordWill

Ask three Bangkok hiv doctors on the current states and you get 3 very different responses.

About signatures though- when I get fined for some traffic offence the cop signs MY name in english for me. How am I gonna later prove I didnt sign it? Just because it doesnt match my passport signature? Well who checked that it did to begin with? I dont think that advice about signing holds any water. Not unless its notarised/witnessed in some formal way

You supplying a time travel device with that helpful advice Wiggy?

My friend lost his job when the uni did a chexck on his criminal record, but this is something they did on their own and not something which was part of his work permit application.

edit: sorry, should add this was not the same uni as you! it was an international school.

Someone using propositional logic in a thaivisa thread! I think I just came. 10 out of 10 for effort although could use some formalising.

Read a few books on thailand before you come, once youre in Bangkok send me a PM (message) on this forum and ill help you out with some basic things. That is if you decide to come to bangkok. Just make absolutely certain you keep either a return ticket or enough money somewhere you cannot easily spend it, for a return flight home.

<<<, bristol born and bred.

To answer that to my satisfaction it would have to be more like 50 000 but thankfully there are plenty of ethnographies out there.

Ill have to settle for a D- grade

Or you can buy me a beer sometime and Ill wax lyrical for as long as you like You specifically asked against this but "generally" I have found the book's statement that Thais' primary source of self esteem is generosity to be correct. The main argument against this these days is how modern toys like cars and so on are overtaking but I would argue this is due to the increased amount of generosity one can afford when one is rich. Common mistake is to interpret this in the western way- we are taught to be generous in a selfless way, but Thais have a system which results in generosity being self serving too.

When we get robbed by someone from our town we seldom blame it on our culture. I got robbed in Bristol and I didnt blame it on English traditions. Idiots here get robbed in Bangkok and suddenly its Thai culture to blame. They are, plain and simple, complete morons. Normally, too old to be taught differently either.

Always nice to hear from the "I havent read it and Im not going to" crew who are still struggling to read their first book in life.

Can I also recommend

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearc...34303&itm=1

and a detailed understanding of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism...l_underpinnings

And to the OP your observations were interesting, I would advise you to leave off conclusions about the generosity aspect until you have more experience in Thailand, and also would only add that this book cannot do all things to all people- but it is a good introduction. It isnt much more than an introduction, however, and reading the book I linked to above before reading this one might also help some.

They hate it and anyone who says otherwise needs to open their eyes.

I hate my job, and I never said these girls didnt hate theirs. I, like them, have choices. NN, PP and CB, exclusively.

Maybe we ought to start an organisation- Im going to call it "Gat Dan Yuu" (anyone get that?) and itll work to save girls "rescued" by this woman from these areas, to help them and their families survive the ordeal financially before the girls can get back to work.

So, have you read the book yet?

Take the stuff out your pockets before he can reach into them. He'll always want to smell the ciggies

Im normally in such a good mood after returning to Thailand I end up tipping way too much to my first few taxi drivers, catching up on news, etc. But with regards suitability and your question, the meter plus 50 baht is generous enough.

Her video interview is worth watching, here again:

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-woman-works-to-...ead_story_title

Highlights include:

Americans are responsible for prositution in Thailand

Ladyboys are ladyboys due to prositution

The Thai culture is loosely based on the book of John

and I had to stop watching because my girlfriend asked me why steam was coming out of my head.

Thank God there are people like Celeste McGee in this world. What some don't understand is that she is gaining merit by j attempting to help these prostitutes and not by how often she is successful.

Thanks churchill for starting this topic.

Could I have some of your money please? Im going to try and stop the killing of babies in Russia, by giving it all to the circus. So long as Im trying, right?

Actually the above reductio is better than what this woman is doing. In the above situation I am being up front with you about how your money will be wasted, so likely you wouldnt donate it to me. What this woman is doing is providing falsehoods as to the reality in order to pursuade you to part with your money, knowingly or not.

But then again, it could be that this woman actually used the money outside of these areas, and used their names to help raise money. Maybe she did her research, then fabricated the location and other details to help achieve her financial goal. Then maybe she went to the actual problem areas and did good work. We can hope.

// its a sad state of affairs!

That is quite funny though.. obviously hit a raw nerve.

Christ.. I bet the cowboy, nana and patpong girls are loving this woman and her organisation- another source of freebies. Why cant they take their good intentions and money and use it where actual sexual slavery goes on. only need to travel a few miles in any direction away from voluntary services of the cowboy, nana and patpong girls.

Taking Bonobo's point completely, especially about the deplorability of it, if you, Oxford, really feel that way, (and I have no doubt that you're right), then contact the woman and steer her to where she can do her Lord's work better.

I'll add her to the list, Harcourt.

kblaze- why is it amazing? She's plain wrong on the whole fundamental of her mission. Just wrong, offensively, damagingly, uselessly, wrong. No doubt good people gave good money in good faith, who would want to be the one to tell them its doing absolutely nothing to help girls out of sexual slavery? Not me. Or, if you prefer, think of the girls in sexual slavery who could have been helped if she had done some proper research and found them? Their suffering continues. Its not enough to say oh she tried her best. If you set yourself up to do this line of work you should be held accountable, and she has failed, if we are to believe the journalist reporting this.

legal smoking areas outside swampy.

Christ.. I bet the cowboy, nana and patpong girls are loving this woman and her organisation- another source of freebies. Why cant they take their good intentions and money and use it where actual sexual slavery goes on. only need to travel a few miles in any direction away from voluntary services of the cowboy, nana and patpong girls.

I can't believe no-one has pointed out a basic fact yet, so I'm throwing it into the mix. I haven't been living in Bangkok for long, but cutting cut in front of really pissed me off UNTIL i figured out a basic fact.

How to not get cut in front of = mentally over-ride your Western sense of personal space and simply stand so close to the person in front that you are basically committing frottage. I'm not inciting anyone here, and I know you'd be arrested if you tried it back home - I'm just stating the overlooked fact that Thais have little sense of personal space - weird huh? You get cut up because you give other's a Western personal space for their privacy. I'm NOT saying you should make bodily contact, by the way.

boom. Watch how the thais form their qs, they are practically dry humping one another. Dont cling to your "personal space" because to alot of Thais, that just looks like youre still thinking through what you want to buy and are happy not to be served yet. But to the ones who obviously dont even consider you or others waiting, if they are younger than me I usually make some sarcastic remark, and to the older ones, make it in my head only.

Civilization demands a moral/legal base to function.

Thailand has one, you are simply ignorant of it. I speculate you are looking for the only moral bases you know- that of your own culture and cultures you have enough experience of, and when not finding it or them, assuming there is none. Volumes have been written on the varying "moral bases" as you put it that exist in different cultures around the globe, can you be sure you know how to spot all of them? I certainly cant.

START A THAI VISA THREAD

hahaha!!

JR the Thai system works to support "civilisation" the problem is, as a non Thai, you are not covered by the insurance policies that exist within it. Either become more Thai so force yourself into the "web" or dont play in the same sandbox.