drummer

Happens all the time in India. A woman who's dowry is deemed insufficient can be burned to death by her husband. Its illegal now, but it still happens regularly. Women have been known to pour the gasoline themselves. Some men are known to have killed several wives this way. Jring si!

Now THAT is crazy.

How do you like THEM apples?

Hardly new, and hardly surprising.

This http://www.afa.org.sg/issue/issue27/13.htm/b] is a great article written by Thais that compares and contrasts education and results. It starts off like this

Sanitsuda Ekacha

Bangkok Post 14/08/02

Thai parents have always frowned on premarital sex, and yet their message is falling on deaf ears. Why are Thai teens doing it sooner than their peers in the West?"

The long and the short of it: (pun intented, of course)

Education works, demogogy doesn't. Saying "Just say no" just doesn't work. What does work is telling teens, adults, and whomever else what the facts are. They are perfectly capable of choosing for themselves. This is not just true for sex, but also drugs and Rock'n Roll as well. Good decisions are inversely porportional to dogma.

Apprantly, the freer a country is with information, and the fewer taboos, the healthier the sex is. The later the average age of sex, the higher the condom + prophylactic use.

Unfortunately, Thailand warns you about the dangers of spaghetti straps instead of the dangers of AIDS.

Well, I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Ford had a record 12 billion loss last year. It's only the new amendments in FBA that have influenced this decision.

In other news, Ford has decided to invade Iraq in order to save money....

A 12.7 billion USD loss is astonishing and if Ford wasn't cutting costs, then that would be equally surprising.

Hey Guys,

I'm not familiar with all of the customs and regulations in Thailand. Question on the topic at hand: My wife recently got hired to teach english at a hotel in Khao Lak.

What kind of background check would they do and what is a discriminating black mark?

Also what kind of education is she required to have to get a work permit?

In theory, you wife needs a college degree and/or TOEFL/TEFL/etc. In theory. In practice, don't worry about it ... this is in all likelyhood a smoke screen. If they actually implement it, though, things will get better for most everyone in LOS. Not least of which is the Thais!

To obtain a work permit to work legally in Thailand for a year, one of the requirements is to have a university degree........

This is a current loophole in the Thai recruitment regulations, which has allowed pedophiles, radically under-qualified individuals and other undesirables to teach in Thai schools.

So a paedophile with a degree is allowed to teach???

I am sorry this just typical of the muddled, knee jerk thinking employed by Thai officials.

ROFL The Thais "muddled"? Seems to be going around, it does... Great post, Tonyinthailand. ROFL. Couldn't have been said better!

Good and bad.

Good that they actually do background checks on people. Unqualified teachers makes EACH AND EVERY farang in Thailand look bad, be they tourist or teacher, qualified or not.

Of course, Thailand will find itself short of teachers if it actually does enforce this requirement. This will lead to either relaxing of standards (but hopefully looking to make sure they aren't pedophiles or otherwise undesirables) or raising pay. Both of these raise the general quality level and benefit farangdom generally through Thailand.

If the former, (the most probable, IMHO) than unqualified teachers will benefit because they will now no longer be unqualified to teach @ the jobs they are already.

I wonder who thought the fence would be good idea? LOL this is <deleted> hilarious. Anyone of have any photos of the said fence?

Well good deeds don't earn income, so I suspect this won't go very far. Easy to do good deeds when you have no other worries, but lets face it most thai(s) live day to day.

People who live day to day do more good deeds than people who don't!

Kinda flies in the face of merit-making reincarnation but it is true nonetheless.

The pro-moral bit is no different than you get anywhere else, with 'family values' getting stressed. Thats just a PC way of saying the same thing.

I'm actually rather pro-junta, for the most part. They seem to be doing a lot of things right. More than not. Certainly better than Thaksin. A lot of the fears seem to be unsubstantiated. The censorship of Thaksin may be a little overprotective, but then maybe they know something we don't - like the power of the media and the abilities of a well funded group to affect public opinion. Could easily be far more unstable otherwise. Their release of power, albiet slow, is encouraging, as well.

They do ask that. There is a whole section about people who don't get in - thats what the criminal background check is for. Theres a whole bit about insanity, too. As well as terrorism and drugs. The idea being they don't want people getting in specifically to commit crimes. They don't seem to disallow being a john, but they do disallow being a pimp and anything to do with human trade.

You can make a case that having prostitution illegal creates these problems to begin with - prohibitions on ntural human tendendencies (i.e. sex, drugs, rock+roll, the free flow of information, etc) almost always exacerbate the problem they are attempting to solve - BUT that is not the point. They aren't singling out anything here.

How do I set up this account? The closest thing I could find on their website is an email newsletter...

Hey - I'm about ready to send my I-130 petition for my Thai wife off. I'm in America with our son, and she is in BKK waiting for the visa to come through.

I have a pile of forms literally over an inch thick, but I have a feeling I'm forgetting something. Specifically, I saw a few places where people said that the USCIS e-mailed responses, but there was nowhere on the forms where I'd put an email address.

This is what I have so far:

• I-130
  
• G325a his+hers, in quadruplicate
  
• passport photos, his+hers, with names on the back
  
• Birth Certificate (mine)
  
• Birth Certificate, (our son's, both from the Embassy and from Thailand, with translation)
  
• Certificate of name change
  
• Marriage Certificate + Translation
  
• Check for $190
  
• Passport copies -My wife's, and our son's Thai and US passports.
  

I also included

• Relationship photos
  
• High School Diploma
  
• English Certification
  
• Character reference
  

Mostly just for yuks. Can't hurt. ( right??? )

The next step, as I understand it, is they send me a reciept that they recieved the I-130, then they make me file a I-129F ????

Then, My wife schedules an interview with the US Embassy in BKK (or rather has one scheduled for her) and brings ith her a pile of forms equally thick. They will then issue the visa.

Is this correct?

thanks!

If take her back home then you might need the name change documents. You will have to change all the documents (including her passport).

No, she does not lose any rights if she uses your name. My wife uses my name on her ID and passport and has had no problems buying land, buying condos, buying cars, or registering my private plane in her name. Many years ago it was a problem but no worries now. I wondered also if she would be treated differently because she has a farang last name and happily she is treated with respect just as before.

FYI - Hi-So Thais don't really have to worry much about losing their status. Its one of the reasons they smoke at a MUCH higher rate than middle class Thais.

In my (my wives, that is) experience, it is no problem, technically speaking, but sometimes she runs into the same problem of the poor woman who had the pills thrown at her ... some Thais do not like farang, and they like mia farang even less. A farang name can get her treated VERY badly on occaision.

Mostly it is no problem, and I do kind of like having the same last name. her choice, btw ... she didn't change her name for the first year. Before the name change, she never got that kind of blatant disrespect. Its pretty rare, but it happens.

Of course, if she's got money to throw around, then everyone will defer to her - thats just the nature of having money, especially in Thailand.

All of this is the results of an evolving society and culture. In many ways it is "Som Nam Na" - you wanted the benefits of westernisation and did not want the effort of managing the side effects, now you are paying the price of that laziness - you had visibility of what it had done to the west before you began westernising, and you were too thoughtless (or too arrogant) to think it could happen here despite the warnings from westerners, which you ignored.

Som nam na, mai pen rai, arai geh dai

Gaz

From The BKK Post.

http://www.afa.org.sg/issue/issue27/13.htm

Thai parents have always frowned on premarital sex, and yet their message is falling on deaf ears. Why are Thai teens doing it sooner than their peers in the West? Why is it so hard to educate youngsters about the birds and the bees?

Despite Thai parents’ stern preaching on virginity and their rigid stance against premarital sex, the problem of pregnancies outside wedlock remains rife. Thai girls have been taught since childhood to rak nuan sa-nguan tua, meaning to take pride in being “untouched” and “sexually reserved”.

Yet, the statistics on first-time sexual experience, pregnancy and abortion among Thai youngsters are much higher than for their peers in Western countries. According to Public Health Ministry statistics, the teen abortion rate in Thailand is as high as 16.2 per 1,000 births. “This is pretty startling compared to 3.1 per 1,000 in Germany, 4.2 in the Netherlands and 8.9 in France,” said Ruj Komonbut, an AIDS activist and mass communications lecturer at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications, citing a study by North Carolina University at Charlotte.

A very good article, IMHO. It basically says that a "just say no" campaign results in MORE unwanted activity. While this is hardly unknown in the West, it is HARDLY a result of globalization. In fact, more information = better informed choices. The more you open up your borders to information, the better the decision making of your population becomes. Teens included!

when asked ... "so, you had no involvement?"

this is the instant reaction:

tell us what you really feel, Thaksin!

hahaha - great work Grover!

...the big picture is that Thailand has never effectively been colonised and the ruling elite has historically sought to protect the countries independence from outside control (internal corruption being an 'unfortunate' side effect). Toxin was seen as going against the 'independent' spirit with his singapore sale. The country is being increasingly buffeted by globalisation and does not want to be bought and sold on the open market. the resulting policies are the result of tilting at windmills. falang attempts to run a small/medium sized business in LOS might be caught in the crossfire but the screams and shouts are from those who do not fully appreciate the country's history. BTW, in this week's FT a leading insitution is recommending further strengthening of portfolio exposure to Thailand. Everybody but everybody who was a participant in the creation of a nominee company to purchase land/houses etc ###### well knew it was a 'fiddle'. The justification was that the assessed risk was 'low'. Well blow me down the double zero came up on the roulette table........................................................

Corruption is HARDLY result of Thailands "independent" spirit. Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Syria, Nigeria et al were ALL colonized, and all are rife with corruption. **Extremely** Eurocentric to think that if only Europeans had control here that there would be no or little corruption. On the contrary, evidence suggests that colonization, if anything, promotes it.

Toxin was going against Thailand's "Thailand for Thai" nationalism. We are mostly Western here, and don't need to feel the need to save face by "walking through the roses" This is hardly unique to Thailand. One aspect that I think (I could be wrong) is fairly unique to Thland is how this plays out in the percption of a Thai "team", and how selling to Tamasek would thus be felt as 'treasonous' and 'backstabbing' to other Thais who thought he was on 'their side'. This is really not the same as an "independent spirit"

you might be able to get residency at this point - worth asking about anyway. Then ou wouldn't need a work permit at all.

Of course, wheen you have guy that wants you out, then he can get you out, one way or the other. The way that University professors with tenure et "fired" is they just keep getting noe unreasonable demand after another placed on them, until they finally decide that it is easier to quit than keep the job....

Best to take care of this sooner rather than later

WHA? This first part of your post was pretty good, but then you follow up with this aristocratic BS?

That was actually more nouveaux riche BS rather than aristocratic BS.

Point taken. I've more than a few friends who would take his 'new money' and shove it... so to speak. Again my point that people like to take their own qualities and hold them up as a measure of what a person should be.... C'est la vie....

Oops ... I wouldn't put it past certain players to do the bombings...

I've been arguing that Carlyle associations lend more credence to Thaksin/supports carrynig out the bombings (by associating him with people who have a long history of doing very much the same thing.

There is another side to it, too. Project Ajax, the blueprint for government destabilization plans, was carried out as a favor to Great Britain. While money makes the world go 'round, it is personal connections and networking that is the glue. Busines people often do things just for the sake of a relationship.

Having said this, the bombings were almost certainly carried out by Thais, indiciating that this was mostly "in-house." On the other hand, there are covert anti-terrorism units in Thailand fighting the "War on Terror"... Just speculating that help would be plausible. No power play would be made without powerful support...

This response simply compounds your folly.If you rely mainly on eccentric websites or googling for your information, you are going to be wrong on almost everything.You don't seem to have taken on board any of the information in Carlyle's own web site. I know your opinion will never change (the use of the term "international crony capitalism" gives your game away) but you are completely and utterly misguided on this subject.

International Crony Capitalism?

naaaahhhhh - it could never exist. Afterall, all corruption is strictly limited to Thailand, and Thailand ONLY. There is no way that Western businessmen could even engage in anything illegal.

And if you need any proof, jus ask THEM!!!! say... that really streamlines the justice system. "So, Pres. Clinton. Did you hve sex with that woman?" "No sir" "Ok, thats good enough for me!"

The world's major ethical investor, Calpers, out of California is a significant investor in Carlyle incidentally.

You are also comically ill informed if you think the directors of Carlyle would lift one finger to help Thaksin out of his predicament.Thailand doesn't figure in their investment portfolio and never has, though they had a recce at the time of the economic crisis in the mid 1990's.

You are trying to make it look like I'm performing VooDoo! Its really quite simple. OK - Bush has been a major player in the oil and intelligence fields for decades. His father , Prescott Bush, was a major player himself and Bush Sr got his start with a silver spoon, in the form of contacts.

Bush Sr. was clearly involved in Iran-Contra. Almost certainly a playmaker. I don't feel the need to defend this point. If you need proof, go back and read the records.

Incidentally, Ollie North led the raid to free the Iranian Hostages in '79 ... this would be the one that got plced in a sandstorm despite the use of high res satellite imagery - which they had+used but was classified back in '79

While Carter had negotiated the release of the hostages, he had timed the agreed upon release of the hostages for October, to give him an election boost. Bush renogotiated the release time for January, until after the election. To convince the Mullahs, he agreed to sell them weapons. The money from the weapons sales was then laundered through BCCI and subsequently used to fund the Contras.

Again, there are plenty of sources available for you. Unless you still believe that Clinton "did not have sexual relations with that woman"

since he was Reagan's VP, and you can link GHW Bush to the Caryle group since he worked for them later,

and just for good measure you throw in the personal slur against me that I must believe that Saddam personally picked the 911 hijackers and that I must consider Ollie North to be a hero.

I'm surprised that you didn't also bring up Walmart, Halliburton, Global Warming and accuse me of being in favor of tax cuts for the rich and clubbing baby seals. Your line of reasoning is interesting and definitely establishes wrongdoing on the part of Carlyle Group in the past, and since George HW Bush visted Thailand not long ago, it also makes clear that the Carlyle Group must be plotting the ouster of the Thai coup leaders.

I dont think you are stupid, nor evil. I just think you don't take the time to educate yourself. There are bound to be some good guys in the Carlyle Group, but there are very clearly some major neer-do-wells - Men with power and influence, and a history of covert and ammoral action.

I *WAS* rambling a little off topic, though I don't think there will be a re-coup. I think ththe current guys in are very capable, and also have the support of the King. I think Thailand will be very hard to destabilize. I am wary or the coup gov't, but am generally reassured by various happenings that these guys are in fact good guys to have in charge.

However, you must see that it is simply good business to affect policy, do you not? And that it has the most effect to do this behind closed doors? In addition, it is the M.O. of the CIA and other groups to destabilize. It is a blueprint laid down by Project Ajax, and repeated because it worked so very well. Again, I think Thailand is far more stable than most governments.

Oh ... and a few of the major players in Iran Contra include:

*Robert Gates, the incoming Secretary of Defense, replacing Donald Rumsfeld

*John Bolton, the outgoing US Ambassador to the UN

*Dick Cheney, current Vice President

*David Addington, now Vice President Cheney's chief of staff,

*Manuchehr Ghorbanifar+Michael Ledeen, important new sources for the Pentagon on current Iranian affairs (over CIA objections)

*Edwin Meese, on the new Iraq Study Group

*John Negroponte, Ambassador to Iraq, then director of national intelligence

*John Poindexter, head of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness program (formally disbanded about 3 years ago)

But, I'm moer than certain that all their re-appointments are merely a coincidence. Good on them to have all reformed like that!

you are not it a heigharchy postion to make judgements on those above you.

WHA? This first part of your post was pretty good, but then you follow up with this aristocratic BS? Ahhh, well, we all know people in all wakls of life who like choose certain aspects of their own situation, and hold them to be the most important thing ever, simply because they look good when viewed in that light.

I don't mean to be too harsh - I'm certin you are a nice guy and all, and its great that you made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean that other people can't have opinions ... even bad ones!

EDIT - meant to say that Thaksin himself is probably highly overrated as a player at this point. Thaksin had lot of very powerful allies who also stand to lose.

Like any business man he needs to spend money to make money. Thaksin stands to lose a lot more if he does nothing.

Not true John. TS is a major player in The Carlyle Group and The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with more than $46.9 billion under management. He's in there with players like the Bushes, the bin Ladens, John Major, Liu Hong-Ru, Fidel Ramos and do you remember this guy Anand Panyarachun. If this group wanted to put Thailand's economy in the dumpster it wouldn't take long, and I'm sure that the junta knows this. Thaksin may have much more clout while outside the country than if he was inside it at the moment.

Hardly! Thaksin is not exactly a major player. The Carlyle companies have some truly powerful industries behind them - far more so than 1-2-Call. And, while Bush Sr *IS* a major player, the Carlyle Group is powerful enough to tell him to shove it, should they want (they aren't likely to want though!)

Thaksin's use to the Carlyle Group stems from his political clout more than anything, and, having lost that, is far less influential than before. No 2 ways about it.

BTW - making governments unstable is a hallmark of covert regime change. After finding great success in in Iran in the 50s, the CIA and others have employed the concept in over a dozen countries. Carlyle have extensive CIA connections (George Sr was not just Pres + VP, he was also the head of the CIA)

Most posters barely seem to know what an investing institution does.Incidentally for the record I don't think Carlyle has any investments in Thailand.

Carlyle is heavily invested in Tamasek , remember those guys.

Former Thai PM Anand Panyarachun has been involved with the Carlyle Group for years. The Carlyle Group makes it a point to invest in politically powerful people. Affecting public policy is good for business. This is true for most businesses.

its funny that the fact that the officers turned down a bribe actually makes the story, as if it is supposed to shock you. I guess it does, but then again, there were probably dozens of officers on this case and perhaps Western help, so they werent allowed to accept the bribe, assuming the police werent already in business with these guys to begin with.

That would make the news anywhere, I expect. If you tried to bribe your local cop to get out of something, nd you got arrested anyway it would be newsworthy.

Locally, the Chief of Police of one of the suburbs here is getting roasted for getting a powerful friend a gun permit who shouldn't have gotten it. Front page of the papers....