Bad Experience At American Consulate In Cm

[tigerbeer]

A crime committed in a foreign embassy or consulate. Whose laws are the perpetrator subject to? The country of the embassy or consulate or the host country.

Anybody know??

depends who catches him/her/them doing it. If its pot he is smoking, he might have to share it with the rest of his colleagues

[cm-happy]

Someone receives poor service at the American Consulate's entrance and the rednecks are calling for the marines - sad, sad and pathetic.

REDNECK???? Hardly. But it might provide some new material for Jeff Foxworthy. You might be a redneck if ............

[chanchao]

Does anyone else I feel suddenly all warm and fuzzy inside noting that cm-happy managed a negative-ish post, and even flamed Ulysses!!

You're human after all.. Big hugs!

[anonymouse]

Does anyone else I feel suddenly all warm and fuzzy inside noting that cm-happy managed a negative-ish post, and even flamed Ulysses!!

You're human after all.. Big hugs!

mmm...not really

but I did enjoy the thread just for the contrast in replies from "come back when the consulate is open" to "send in the marines"

[chanchao]

His turn to tha Dark Side is just a matter of days now. He'll be pissing vinegar with the best of 'em!

[cm-happy]

Does anyone else I feel suddenly all warm and fuzzy inside noting that cm-happy managed a negative-ish post, and even flamed Ulysses!!

You're human after all.. Big hugs!

AW SHUCKS!!! was looking for an embarrassment emoticon.

[JimmyTheMook]

How could Consulate possibly hire security guards at the entrance with zero English skills. The guards are located inside the security hut within the consulate compound and as such were on American soil, not Thai soil, and representing the American consulate, when dealing with visitors. Last time I looked, English, not Thai, is the primary language in America!!

[mr_hippo]

Believe it or not, I had a similar incident this morning. I went to my local Tesco (British company) but the automatic door did not move; I pulled it and pushed it - nothing happened. I could see Thai employees and security guards on the inside and I hammered on the door.

Meanwhile the guards said go away come back later. Lost my temper with them. shouting "Look dam_n it! I'm a British citizen" and this is MY Tesco. You don't tell me what to do here. I don't want to buy durian, I demand my English Breakfast Tea!" They seemed to get the message, Thai friend translated my tirade into Thai for them so there was no question that they did not understand.

They still would not let me in so I just went home, had a cup of Liptons and I'll think about going back later!

[cm-happy]

The "Duke" (John Wayne) is good. George Patton would have need better

[chanchao]

Hm. I thought it a bit inappropriate for a country basically built and made great by immigrants, voluntary ones or otherwise.

[cm-happy]

Believe it or not, I had a similar incident this morning. I went to my local Tesco (British company) but the automatic door did not move; I pulled it and pushed it - nothing happened. I could see Thai employees and security guards on the inside and I hammered on the door.

Meanwhile the guards said go away come back later. Lost my temper with them. shouting "Look dam_n it! I'm a British citizen" and this is MY Tesco. You don't tell me what to do here. I don't want to buy durian, I demand my English Breakfast Tea!" They seemed to get the message, Thai friend translated my tirade into Thai for them so there was no question that they did not understand.

They still would not let me in so I just went home, had a cup of Liptons and I'll think about going back later!

5555

[Flatouthruthefog]

Believe it or not, I had a similar incident this morning. I went to my local Tesco (British company) but the automatic door did not move; I pulled it and pushed it - nothing happened. I could see Thai employees and security guards on the inside and I hammered on the door.

Meanwhile the guards said go away come back later. Lost my temper with them. shouting "Look dam_n it! I'm a British citizen" and this is MY Tesco. You don't tell me what to do here. I don't want to buy durian, I demand my English Breakfast Tea!" They seemed to get the message, Thai friend translated my tirade into Thai for them so there was no question that they did not understand.

They still would not let me in so I just went home, had a cup of Liptons and I'll think about going back later!

Er, terribly sorry old chap and all that, but actually no, I don't believe you.

But I do believe wholeheartedly that a true Brit like yesself would require REAL tea, as opposed to the yellow labelled floor sweepings that Lipton have the affrontery to foist on the good people of Thailand.

I have secret stocks of Typhoo, Tetley and Yorkshire Gold. But wild horses would not drag the location out of me.

PS: Er, are we a little off topic here by now??

[JimsKnight]

Mr Hippo, that's exactly what I thought.

I appreciate CM happy's angry and fustrated but whining like he's the chosen man of CM that can bypass the rules others have to follow is just plain arrogant.

CM Happy, you need to take a look at other nations Consulates, the US consulate is not your personal office you can waltz in and out of.

You should try visiting the British Consulate some time! Comparing it the US consulate is like chalk and cheese! The entrance to the US consulate is a veritable fortress in comparison with a low walled, open-plan garden.

It's a nice enough place and the guards are friendly, but forget anything effective about them. Glorified security guards is all they are I'm afraid. Lets not even mention certificate of residence fees

The days of a nations soldiers guarding consulates are long gone, with the exception of the US embassy I don't think any embassies have a home nations soldiers guarding them anymore.

Back in 2000 I could visit the British Embassy in BKK and get a genuine 'Welcome to the British Embassy' by the Ghurka guards. I could speak with a British Citizen representing the Embassy face to face.

Nowadays the Ghurka's have been replaced by Thai Security guards. The place is unfriendly, overcrowded with 'tourists', and have'nt any British folk there to deal with British citizens enquiries.

'The times, they are a-changing' goes the song....

[JimsKnight]

. . . . . The guards are located inside the security hut within the consulate compound and as such were on American soil, not Thai soil . . . . .

A ten-minute Google search I just did produced some compelling evidence that embassies and consulates are in fact not the sovereign soil of the nations they represent. It seems that they have special status in the host nations in which they are located, but the soil they are on remains the sovereign soil of those nations.

I am not suggesting that this, even if true, has anything to do with the rights and wrongs of the rest of your post, but I thought you and others might be interested

Going a step further, how about international travel on foreign flag carriers. If flying on a Us flagged carrier, UK flagged carrier or whatever. On board the plane am I on the flagged carriers sovereign ground? Or does it depend upon whose air space the plane happens to be in at the time of the crime.

Anybody know??

It's a grey area. If theres a hijacking or terrorist incident then it's open season, if not then it's usually left alone.

A few years ago you may remember the incident where an ex-SAS commander Simon Mann attempted an abortive coup against Equatorial New Guinea.

The TV film Coup! implies that this is the case:

The Commanders plane landed in Zimbabwei to refuel and then fly onwards to ENG to get the coup underway. The Security Forces only suspected that the plane was full of soldiers and used a ruse to get aboard, as opposed to launching an all out attack and causing an international incident. So they offered the pilot and passengers refreshments, compliments of the airport. Foolishly agreeing the doors were opened to them and they were all arrested on the spot!

So a plane is kind-of in the foreign exclusion policy and kind-of not...

[WaiWai]

Since we have already exhausted the topic as it began, I have two questions.

1. When I was at University in Australia, it was often said that Universities have their own jurisdiction and police coukd not enter without permission of the Dean (or whoever's the top knob at a University.) Urban myth ?

2. Know about King Leopold of Australia ? If not, google. Could it be done here ?

Edited December 13, 2007 by WaiWai

[WaiWai]

Is Leopold the wrong name, fellow Aussies ? Can't seem to google it.

But did find :

[

edit] Australian developments

Micronational activities were disproportionately common throughout Australia in the final three decades of the 20th century.

The Hutt River Province Principality was founded in 1970, when Leonard Casley declared his property independent after a dispute over wheat quotas.

1976 witnessed the creation of the Province of Bumbunga on a rural property near Snowtown, South Australia, by an eccentric British monarchist.

The Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina was created in a hamlet on the New South Wales north coast in 1978.

An anti-taxation campaigner founded the Duchy of Avram in western Tasmania in the late 1970s; "His Grace the Duke of Avram" was later elected to the Tasmanian Parliament.

In Victoria, a long-running dispute over flood damage to farm properties led to the creation of the Independent State of Rainbow Creek in 1979.

The Empire of Atlantium was established in Sydney, in 1981 as a non-territorial global government.

A mortgage foreclosure dispute led George and Stephanie Muirhead of Rockhampton, Queensland, to briefly and abortively secede as the Principality of Marlborough in 1993.

Another Australian farm tried to establish itself as a secessionist micronation on 1 May 2003 as the Principality of United Oceania.

The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands was established in 2004 as a symbolic political protest by a group of gay rights activists based in southeast Queensland.

The United Federation of Koronis, based in Australia, claims the Koronis family of asteroids as its territory.

The Principality of Ponderosa, based on a small farm in Northern Victoria, achieved notoriety in 2005 when its founders — Vergilio and "Little Joe" Rigoli were convicted of tax fraud.

The Principality of Snake Hill, founded in 2003, is located 45 km from the regional town of Mudgee, northwest of Sydney, Australia. The principality is roughly 1.6 km² in size, establishes Prince Paul as the ruler of the land, his wife as Princess Helena and his daughter as Crown Princess Paula.

[WaiWai]

I have been away too long,

King Leonard it is.

Edited December 13, 2007 by WaiWai

[Johpa]

I hope your letter wasn't used for toilet paper.

I can't think of any better use for the letter. As a fellow Ahmerican, all I can say relative to the OP is what an embarrassment.

By the way, not having been to the Consulate in decades, are the security guards still hired from "GUTS" security?

[cm-happy]

I hope your letter wasn't used for toilet paper.

I can't think of any better use for the letter. As a fellow Ahmerican, all I can say relative to the OP is what an embarrassment.

By the way, not having been to the Consulate in decades, are the security guards still hired from "GUTS" security?

Learn to spell AMERICAN! Still having problems earning that GED are we? Relative to your post all I can say is what an embarrassment!

[cm-happy]

Mr Hippo, that's exactly what I thought.

I appreciate CM happy's angry and fustrated but whining like he's the chosen man of CM that can bypass the rules others have to follow is just plain arrogant.

CM Happy, you need to take a look at other nations Consulates, the US consulate is not your personal office you can waltz in and out of.

You should try visiting the British Consulate some time! Comparing it the US consulate is like chalk and cheese! The entrance to the US consulate is a veritable fortress in comparison with a low walled, open-plan garden.

It's a nice enough place and the guards are friendly, but forget anything effective about them. Glorified security guards is all they are I'm afraid. Lets not even mention certificate of residence fees

The days of a nations soldiers guarding consulates are long gone, with the exception of the US embassy I don't think any embassies have a home nations soldiers guarding them anymore.

Back in 2000 I could visit the British Embassy in BKK and get a genuine 'Welcome to the British Embassy' by the Ghurka guards. I could speak with a British Citizen representing the Embassy face to face.

Nowadays the Ghurka's have been replaced by Thai Security guards. The place is unfriendly, overcrowded with 'tourists', and have'nt any British folk there to deal with British citizens enquiries.

'The times, they are a-changing' goes the song....

What are you going on about?? What does this thread have to do with the British Embassy or Consulate? Try reading the thread carefully and point out to me where I made a comparison between the American and Brititish Embassies or Consulates.

As far as going to the British sites I would not have any reason to do so. Nice troll try!

[PeaceBlondie]

The point that non-Americans wish to make is that many of the other embassies are far worse than the American ones. Also, many of us Americans have encountered little or no problem with the embassy/consulate staff members. In fact, this topic is hardly about diplomatic employees at all, but about the Thai guards outside the consulate in Chiang Mai.

C'mon, cm-happy; let's not start a tirade against a simple misspelling or perhaps a joke of how Lyndon B. Johnson sounded like, "Hello, mah fellow Amurokaans."

[marshall]

Thai security guards would probably be totally ineffective at controling anything, not so the US MArines.

Hey Guys, just remember farang cant buy land, so how can it be American soil, hee hee. We are in Thailand. The deal is with any embassy: employ the Thais and save money. It's slave labour (poor guys are probably on about 4000 baht a month). Maybe we could all pitch in and buy an English course for them.

[DavidOxon]

The Thai guards said go away and come back tomorrow, which is probably the same thing that Marine guards would have said. However, if you yelled at the Marines like that they would have most likely kicked your butt, which is probably why we don't use them to guard the consulate.

Semper Fi!

UG you're a Brit! So what do you know about it?? Stick to things you know, used books or Bake N Bite.

NOTHING British about Bake n Bite . . . .!

D

[Loaded]

If we can't own the land, how did HM's Government sell their old plot of land with a consulate on top, now used by the Chedi, 20 odd years ago?

[tom21]

Read the original post and had to laugh. After losing his temper it is a wonder they did not call the police to arrest him. If all he was to do was drop a letter off why not put it in the letter box I am sure they should have one for that purpose. I am surprised they even entertained him after he lost the plot.

[Viceroy]

According to the Consulate General's informative web site, the premises were a royal residence of the former hereditary princes of Chiang Mai, and have been leased from the Crown Property Bureau since 1950.

Issues of sovereignty, as mentioned, are the subject of various international agreements and bilateral arrangements.

With some exceptions, Marines are generally deployed only at embassies.

My experience with guards, staff, and consular officers at the Consulate General during the past fourteen years has been mostly satisfactory. I was disappointed that the staff required three weeks to issue a consular report of death following the passing of an old friend, but I was satisfied with their logical explanation and handsome apology. I have never expected perfection from them or anyone else. [Nor, I am relieved to say, have I found it.]

[mogoso]

Good move to get sorted out to vote for President in 2008. I think the expat vote here is mostly democratic and we need all the votes we can get. It's going to be closer than people think.

Curiously I ask, why mostly democratic? Sure the most vocally strident members tend to be socialistic democratic. But many of the people living in Thailand also were very productive in their lives and able to think for themselves on many issues and not follow a crowd, be that crowd gop or demo.

Kinda like using the debate tactic, as I'm sure you'll agree with... or as you know.....etc

Not trying to be ugly, just curious as to demographic assumption.

[JimsKnight]

Read the original post and had to laugh. After losing his temper it is a wonder they did not call the police to arrest him. If all he was to do was drop a letter off why not put it in the letter box I am sure they should have one for that purpose. I am surprised they even entertained him after he lost the plot.

His story has been published on another website

Angry Americans eh?

CM Happy, you're famous man

Edited December 15, 2007 by JimsKnight

[legag]

It is a lot easier to just go at the right time when they are open to provide the services you require.

That's right. You OP started issue in the first place and not happy cuz you didn't get the service you expected I kinda dig that but again, you can't expect them (the guard) to know much that English and they are not suppose to except such paper/document.

[JimsKnight]

Good move to get sorted out to vote for President in 2008. I think the expat vote here is mostly democratic and we need all the votes we can get. It's going to be closer than people think.

Curiously I ask, why mostly democratic? Sure the most vocally strident members tend to be socialistic democratic. But many of the people living in Thailand also were very productive in their lives and able to think for themselves on many issues and not follow a crowd, be that crowd gop or demo.

Kinda like using the debate tactic, as I'm sure you'll agree with... or as you know.....etc

Not trying to be ugly, just curious as to demographic assumption.

Off-topic, I think a lot of Demo's still have a bee in their bonnet about Ronnie Reagan cutting wasteful spending on the overseas embassies.

I agree with you, a republican government usually looks after it's own, including retired expats overseas.

A lot more than a democratic government would where it prefers them to be 'within range.'

From seeing what the left-wing PM Gordon Brown did when he changed a lot of the tax exile rules back in 2005-6 (as chancellor) to disfavour overseas expats I think the democrats/lefties certainly keep the apron strings a lot tighter than many would let on.