I Think It Takes Balls To Leave The Homecountry

[katana]

I left home at the age of six and took a job mining diamonds in the Congo. Shortly before puberty I moved to Siberia and ran a herd of caribou (750 head, 3,000 legs) along the northern shores of Lake Baikal, that was a great job and I thought I would be there forever -- until NASA called. By the age of 15 years of age (really now, could it really be anything but years? Can't I just say, By 15 ...) I was driving F-1 racecars and sailing round-the-world yachts -- fending off the odd Somali pirate.

Yeah, it's a fairly sedate lifestyle but I wouldn't change it for the world.

I'm so cool that I've foresaken the notion of nationality and see myself as a citizen of the world -- isn't that deep? I figure that if aliens ever swoop down to subjugate the planet, I'm the one they'll seek for advice and consultation. I'll instruct them to vaporize anyone over the age of 18 (entirely unnecessary that age of phrase) who has not left their hometown. Simply unfathomable.

*Edit* One of the caribou calves had five legs, so 3,001 legs.

lol

[Gaccha]

Thats a little better at least you are showing some evidence towards your thinking.

Basic facts from me - I wasn't happy with immigration/crime/under acheiving education system/to big a welfare system etc....

Now this is my own opinion and based upon reading newspapers/on line journals/conversation with people and other sources of information.

Are you trying to make this easy for me? This is my central point. People such as yourself through the wrong perception of how life has gone wrong in the UK, have unintentionally truly messed the place up. My central contention is that it is you (not the immigrants/education system/welfare system)-- the Daily Mail reader-- that has ruined the UK. You must read my two examples again.

The truth of the matter is that most people have similar concerns which is supported by the Home Office poll which i put a link too.

Exactly. This is like shooting fish in the barrel. If you had shown otherwise my argument would have been lost. You can walk into any pub in England and immediately identify your way of thinking as the central discourse in those that identify with the language of the Daily Mail (the 'middle englanders')

Where are your ideas coming from about farangs being a force for good, pioneers for Western civilisation?

Are you doing a history or sociology course based around history of migrant movement!

I'm trying to be serious but cannot help laughing when reading/saying farangs see themselves as pioneers for western civilisations forces

Have you read why the other people came to Thailand ! go on have a read and then tell me if these people saw/see themselves as pioneers for Western civilising forces!

Have you checked the calendar lately

This is draining and way off from my central contention. Just as I totally blew away your position on the Thai thinking I could do the same with your thinking of foreigners. But I am not your performing Monkey. You need to do this yourself. Go out and read deep.

Try: Skair , Leslie, 2005 "The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture in Globalizing Cities", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29/3 (Sep):485-500

[F1fanatic]

no doubt don't see such a major life decision as such a big deal, especially the well travelled/frequent traveller.

The 'something-must-be-done' brigade; the sergeant-majors and young professional ladies who read the Daily Mail. Their insistent (and ludicrous) belief that if only the government did [fill in with whatever news story concerns them] then life would be better. That is: they have a naive 'cause and effect' vision of the World. They overestimate the power of the State. If I was to reveal to them that the State does not have the answers, that it really does not know what to do, and that its failure to make things better is not a consequence of incompetence or malevolence, but rather, nobody knows, this would break their perceptual framework develpoed from years of reading the warped Daily Mail.

The government in the UK reacts with breathtaking speed to this constituency as it regards them as critical to electability. Consequently, we have seen the profoundly evil development of the Police State, under the 'if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about' ignorance of this constituency. The latest version of this state crassness arrived last week with the unveiling of yet another registration agency. This time the quangos job will be to inform women who have boyfriend's with bad histories. Not simply criminal records of domestic violence but even simple complaints, including bullying, threats and indeed anything else that encompasses typical domestic life outside of a tinted 1950's vision of domestic life. Hilariously, this will mean if her boyfriend is a convicted murderer she will not know, but if he insulted a past girlfriend and she reported him to the social workers, then his new girlfriend will know. And in this day and age of 'better safe than sorry' she will dump him. His life will be ruined by hearsay and vengefulness.

The picture I paint is of a State that does not trust its citizens. It does not trust them to do what they wish behind closed doors. Mistakes cannot be made. Real lives must not be lived. A State invading every area of our lives.

If you want to understand this further then please read Foucalt's 'The Birth of Biopolitics'.

I am then very happy to live in a quasi-democracy where police and military can kill with impunity (see The War on Drugs and the lack of any prosecutions over the 2,400 deaths). I like it because the State is not insidious enough to get involved in my life. It leaves me alone as long as I do not threaten it.

Let's be very clear about this - professional women do not read the Daily Mail! Its only read by stupid, uneducated people (whose friends read the Sun or Mirror), who suffer under the illusion that reading this rag will make them look more intelligent!

Incidentally, I don't know how long you've been out of the UK, but The Express is the benchmark for this type of person nowadays!

You're also way off the mark as Mail/Express readers are deeply Conservative and their beliefs are the opposite to those you express - i.e. they want no state interference, believing that if the government involves itself in anything at all, they're showing communist tendencies. They've been proven right - the government left banks to regulate themselves and look what happened.

I suspect that your story about quangos informing girlfriends of their boyfriends history, just goes to prove that you've been reading (and believing) the Daily Express! How on earth would any quango know about a boyfriend and girlfriend???

Do us all a favour and learn to think for yourself rather than believing any old rubbish you are told in the tabloid newspapers.

[jimbeam1]

Hi. I just got fed up with things in England. Politicians, crime, being bled dry, the lousy weather. So decided to leave and come to Thailand. But I didn't burn all my bridges. I still own a property, in England, which I rent out. I think you need some form of insurance. You never know what will happen. Certainly for me I feel it is the best move I have made.

jb1

[Hawkup2000]

Seen mud volcanoes, fire temples, old temples (Thai, Cambo, Korea, Indo, Japan) and lived in an old castle (Bjertorp Slot).

Small world! My childhood home is next door to Bjertorp. So we have been neighbors. Now you also know that I am a first degree baan nok . Old and old...I think the castle is from 1911.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Hawkup2000

[Bakeman]

I'm not an Expat (yet), I live in the UK, but I often look around me and wonder how many of my fellow Countryman would have the courage to make such a move.

I also have respect for the immigrants in the UK who have left their Homeland and try a new way of life here

It's refreshing to read someone who understands both sides of this issue.

Could not agree more GH.

To the OP, if any means possible. Try to find employment that allows you to take say one year contract overseas. So much easier and nicer to go when you arrive with a job. Possibly with proper expat package including accommodation and transport etc...

I agree with MrJo.

13 years ago at the age of 21 I took my first job in Singapore.

Since then I have worked in Azerbaijan, Russia, Russia (Sakhalin), Sweden, Korea and Indonesia but have visited many more countries.

I have played Aussie rules footy in Singapore and Vietnam (televised in Aust.), been married and had kids in Thailand.

Seen mud volcanoes, fire temples, old temples (Thai, Cambo, Korea, Indo, Japan) and lived in an old castle (Bjertorp Slot).

I have driven in different countries on both sides of the road (not always the correct side) in both cars, Motorbikes, rickshaw (HCM, and I crashed it) and even a Tuk Tuk.

I lived in a bamboo hut on a bamboo bed in a mountain village in the Phils.

I have been in the middle of riots (Azerbaijan), violent worker deomonstrations (Korea) a coup and been held hostage by Russian Border Police looking for a payout.

I have seen cave paintings painted in the BC Era and played rock instruments made in the same era (Cobustan).

Crawled through tunnels built to defend against the French and later the Americans in Vietnam and fired AK47s, M16s and assorted weaponry left over after the American War.

the list goes on.

Yet, when I call my mates back in Aust. (very rarely now) they tell me they won the pool comp at the same local pub we all drank at as teenagers.

It doesn't take balls so much, it takes a broad mind, an eagerness to explore, luck and a hel_l of a lot of patience at times.

But, if given the chance to roam, the world is a big place and just awesome. So don't hold back. Just do it.

By Jove Tuky! I think you've got it!

[Bakeman]

i have balls, do you?

I don't have any, but I have a nice pair of Udders

Funny girl!

[Gaccha]

Let's be very clear about this - professional women do not read the Daily Mail! Its only read by stupid, uneducated people (whose friends read the Sun or Mirror), who suffer under the illusion that reading this rag will make them look more intelligent!

Yes they do. It quite deliberately targets them. The young GP, criminal lawyer.

Incidentally, I don't know how long you've been out of the UK, but The Express is the benchmark for this type of person nowadays!

No, the Express style is not what I mean. The Daily Mail's strategy of creating envy or fear and then riding off of it is quintessentially Daily Mail-esque. The Express is just plain right wing.

You're also way off the mark as Mail/Express readers are deeply Conservative and their beliefs are the opposite to those you express - i.e. they want no state interference, believing that if the government involves itself in anything at all, they're showing communist tendencies. They've been proven right - the government left banks to regulate themselves and look what happened.

I suspect that your story about quangos informing girlfriends of their boyfriends history, just goes to prove that you've been reading (and believing) the Daily Express! How on earth would any quango know about a boyfriend and girlfriend???

Do us all a favour and learn to think for yourself rather than believing any old rubbish you are told in the tabloid newspapers.

How do you think they would know? Any contact with any government worker now can result in a written record of the family environment. Perhaps a baby seen crawling in the kitchen alone underneath hot pans and pans. A local council worker, say an odd job man in a Council house, within their contract is now asked to note issues of the family environment. The most obvious route is via the Social Worker. And how woul dthe girldfriend know... well, she would ask. It's for her benefit, says the insidious state.

You have noted a dramatic irony in my perception. The Daily Mail reader certainly believes they believe in less state intervention. This has not been lost on social critics. They point out the Daily Mail readers decry the Nanny State but underneath the swagger they have a real love for it. Every news story has shrill calls for action by the government.

The Daily Mail readers demands for the State to spend their money wisely, to not be wasteful, to be competent, to sort out social ills, force the government's hand. Since the only thinking the government can do is leverage the power of the state, so the State's role is increased. It's very simple: choose any topic that concerns Daily Mail readers, see how the government has had to appear to know how to solve it (the intellectual classes understand this simple view of the World is silly but if the government was to explain it does not have the answers this would create a disorientation, a fear, in Daily Mail readers), look at how it has 'solved it', look at the inevitable disappointment, but most of all, for the purposes of this thread, concentrate on the profoundly evil consequences of the State's actions.

You are being hoodwinked. Your view of the world is certainly how the masses see it. It has a certain appeal. Us versus them. It quite pleases the State as it reinforces loyalty to it and accretes greater powers to it. If I am wrong, then where else is the government being pressured to do what it does...? (it is best not to travel down the path of analysing the banking regulations-- I do want to assert that if you believe the Banking was free of government control then you are being played here as well).

What I am trying to do is make you think beyond the 'news view' of the World. Try to look deeper.

To quote Edward Kennedy's eulogy to JFK: "Some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were, and say why not".

[Riley'sLife]

Wow, there are four threads running concurrently here:

1. posts actually addressing the OP’s statement,

2. posts from TV’s resident cast of “Carry On…Thailand” who only read the word “Balls”,

3. posts made to the tune of, “I’ve been everywhere, man, I’ve been everywhere.”, and then there’s

4. Gaccha’s pseudo-intellectual Daily Mail readers’ rant.

Every thread should be like this, saves loads of time clicking to new topics!

[sanook2me]

Try: Skair , Leslie, 2005 "The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture in Globalizing Cities", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29/3 (Sep):485-500

Thats all i need to know thank you very much, just as I thought. Sociology at it worst lurking on a fun forum.

It bored me to death when i was forced into taking Sociology modules at university and it still gives me panic attacks that i had to spend £45 on a book that was always under used and is now sitting in a garage in storage in the UK.

This forum i enjoy for its light hearted sense of humour about Thailand and the differences between farangs and Asians, while there is still alot of useful information to be found here for people about Thailand.

You on the other hand are boring me to death on this forum by looking at books and other websites to gather your thoughts to be creative in your writing style when posting. purr lease!

My opinion again and you can make as many assumptions as you wish is that.

Crime is rampant in the UK (check out online news from your local areas)

Immigration has gone to far out of control - far too many immigrants and the wrong sort! (ie not educated and bringing something positive to the UK)

Most social issues are related to the failed/failing education system which is funny enough been run by left wing/socialists and liberals since the 60's and see where it has got us.

The police do a good job and should have more power

teachers should be able to whack kids at school

oh i could go on....

Once again for OP

I left England because i could have a far better lifestyle living in Thailand for the same money as in England

Plus here

I get to eat fresh cooked food everynight

listen to live bands everyweekend

never worry about fighting in a club

can 100% whole heartedly enjoy myself where ever i go and don't have a concern...

oh the girls are better looking too.

No horrible tattoos on the lower back while puppy fat is hanging over the too tight tracksuit bottom and a off white g string is showing..

puke!

I lived in Exeter which is a nice small university city but walk down the high street to see the horrible welfare states! yack! makes me puke

Here i go to Central apart from the mangy toes get to see some lovely sites!

[GuestHouse]

Here i go to Central apart from the mangy toes get to see some lovely sites!

The Grand Palace, Wat Po, or perhaps the ancient ruins at Ayutthaya - I wasn't aware Central had such a prime position for the views!!

[PeaceBlondie]

Nice expats from the UK live here..I don't know what kind of blokes are still back there. Maybe the best have moved here. UK politics are as boring as the politics of Arkansas and Alberta. Back to the title of the OP: it took courage for my ancestors to leave England in 1630, and for me to leave Texas for Thailand. They didn't need to learn a new language.

[Gaccha]

Thats all i need to know thank you very much, just as I thought. Sociology at it worst lurking on a fun forum.

How else do you look at society? Sociology is just the name for looking at society. You are engagin in sociology with writing on any topic in this forum. Stop your crass anti-intellectualism.

Interests me you said "at its worst". Surely, at its best. It is being used to assert an astonishing counter-intuitive revelation.

I like your use of the word 'fun'-- a 'glitter word'. Everyone wants things to be 'fun'. But then why do you not want to go and play with Action Man in the school nursery everyday. Surely, that is more 'fun' than sitting on your bar stool discussing society (which you are not interested in). Because what appeals to people depends on their intelligence, their level of reading, their experiences. You chose to engage me in this forum and not vice versa. Of course you do find the conversation 'fun', but so long as it stays at a superficial level and does not create too much cognito dissonance. Read more.

You on the other hand are boring me to death on this forum by looking at books and other websites to gather your thoughts to be creative in your writing style when posting. purr lease!

Heck, if you can't win, then just go personal. You asked me to present 'evidence' to back up my thoughts, my opinions. You now complain when I do as you asked...

My opinion again and you can make as many assumptions as you wish is that.

[cut] Having established you are not interested in understanding the World, then your opinion is largely worthless. But your assumptions beautifully tie in with my expectations of your outlook on the World.

The conclusion to my perceptual framework, if you (the third party reader) buy it, is that with these people with their burnt out, exhausted, melancholic, pessimistic, vengeful, aggrieved, putrified views of the World arrive in Thailand en masse, then there is a real risk that they could start to damage this country. Luckily, so far, they have almost no political influence. But you can see in Spain and the election of expat local politicians of a real risk. Obviously, we just have to pray that no Daily Mail reader ever gets past their bar stool in Pattaya and enters the local government house.

[JoeThePoster]

I Think It Takes Balls to Leave The Homecountry, ... and become an Expat.

I strongly agree.

Balls - Never leave home without them.

[mrtoad]

Thats all i need to know thank you very much, just as I thought. Sociology at it worst lurking on a fun forum.

How else do you look at society? Sociology is just the name for looking at society. You are engagin in sociology with writing on any topic in this forum. Stop your crass anti-intellectualism.

Interests me you said "at its worst". Surely, at its best. It is being used to assert an astonishing counter-intuitive revelation.

I like your use of the word 'fun'-- a 'glitter word'. Everyone wants things to be 'fun'. But then why do you not want to go and play with Action Man in the school nursery everyday. Surely, that is more 'fun' than sitting on your bar stool discussing society (which you are not interested in). Because what appeals to people depends on their intelligence, their level of reading, their experiences. You chose to engage me in this forum and not vice versa. Of course you do find the conversation 'fun', but so long as it stays at a superficial level and does not create too much cognito dissonance. Read more.

You on the other hand are boring me to death on this forum by looking at books and other websites to gather your thoughts to be creative in your writing style when posting. purr lease!

Heck, if you can't win, then just go personal. You asked me to present 'evidence' to back up my thoughts, my opinions. You now complain when I do as you asked...

My opinion again and you can make as many assumptions as you wish is that.

[cut] Having established you are not interested in understanding the World, then your opinion is largely worthless. But your assumptions beautifully tie in with my expectations of your outlook on the World.

The conclusion to my perceptual framework, if you (the third party reader) buy it, is that with these people with their burnt out, exhausted, melancholic, pessimistic, vengeful, aggrieved, putrified views of the World arrive in Thailand en masse, then there is a real risk that they could start to damage this country. Luckily, so far, they have almost no political influence. But you can see in Spain and the election of expat local politicians of a real risk. Obviously, we just have to pray that no Daily Mail reader ever gets past their bar stool in Pattaya and enters the local government house.

[tuky]

Seen mud volcanoes, fire temples, old temples (Thai, Cambo, Korea, Indo, Japan) and lived in an old castle (Bjertorp Slot).

Small world! My childhood home is next door to Bjertorp. So we have been neighbors. Now you also know that I am a first degree baan nok . Old and old...I think the castle is from 1911.

Kvernam? Vara? Skara?

I was working out of Vara in Emtunga. That Pharmadule Emtunga company has an interesting local history.

I did find it odd that the Kronan pub (Vara) was only open on Saturdays, and then only 3 times per month. But as with the locals we made the most of the one night a week

Interestingly, the Bjertorp was built by an Azeri Oil magnate and the smoking room is supposed to be a direct copy of the smoking room in the Kremlin. However, never having been to the Kremlin I can't verify that one

[t.s]

im with the guy who said its easier to leave than return

Edited May 12, 2009 by t.s

[mauGR1]

im with the guy who said its easier to leave than return

Agree,in the average you have more money when you leave.

So,don't burn the bridge is a good idea too.

[polecat]

In regard to the police not looking under the burqha

I think you find you can spell burkha in various ways as it's a transliteration from Arabic and no spelling of it in English is the correct form

burqa, burkha, burka or burqua.

Wrong. The word is now a part of the English language and can be spelled burqa, burkha or burka. If there were no official spellings for the words English has assimilated from other languages, then English dictionaries would consist of only two words. Both of which refer to flatulence.

Topic? Yes, easier to leave than to return.

[sanook2me]

In regard to the police not looking under the burqha

I think you find you can spell burkha in various ways as it's a transliteration from Arabic and no spelling of it in English is the correct form

burqa, burkha, burka or burqua.

Wrong. The word is now a part of the English language and can be spelled burqa, burkha or burka. If there were no official spellings for the words English has assimilated from other languages, then English dictionaries would consist of only two words. Both of which refer to flatulence.

Topic? Yes, easier to leave than to return.

Thanks for the update but I was trying to point it out to some one else who obviously thought their spelling was correct as they had highlighted my spelling of the word in an earlier post..

Returning is easy - but wanting to stay is a different ball game!

[OriginalPoster]

A simple question. How many expatriates reach the top of their profession, or end up in the top levels of commerce or business, in countries like Thailand? Few, if any.

Why not? Partly because of language and cultural barriers - but partly because the higher quality professionals and business-people stay in their home country, or go to other first world countries.

For most people like that, if they come to Thailand at all it will be as a stepping stone in middle of their career. Come over to Thailand on a cushy expat package, be a managing director of a factory or take some other senior management post to demonstrate that you have the ability to take on broader responsibility than what you had before, and then after a few years either get a promotion that takes you back to your home country or jump off to another well-paid expat position in another country. It doesn't take balls to do that though, you just have to like money.

Edited May 12, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[timinchina]

Whatever the reason/outcome of the move I think it takes a lot of courage to leave the norm's and "comforts" of home and try a new way of life in another Country.

I'm not an Expat (yet), I live in the UK, but I often look around me and wonder how many of my fellow Countryman would have the courage to make such a move.

I also have respect for the immigrants in the UK who have left their Homeland and try a new way of life here

It also takes a lot of courage to battle on in one's home country, sometimes, accepting the responsibilities of family life and doing one's civic duty in the country of one's birth.

I worked for many years as an expatriate - and I admire those of my friends who stayed in their home country, raised kids and grand-kids, had worthwhile careers as teachers, or in the military, or caring professions; while I was earning more money, living in company-provided accomodation, and moving on when I had had enough.

It does not take "balls" to run away from your responsibilities - which some, not all of course, expatriates have done.

FILTH - "Failed in London, try Hong Kong". Many expatriates are second-raters, who simply could not make the grade in their home country.

Sounds like you include yourself in that,don't beat yourself up so much!

I've just moved out of Barcelona to live in South-East Asia,I work in finance and ran my own company in Catalunya,saw the credit crunch coming and took a year off last year.

Fact is I've always made 10 times the amount of money working on commission as an expat.than I've ever made in miserable old Blighty,lucky me!

I heard even the Iraqis and Afghannis that sneaked into Britain under a lorry want to go back to their home countries now as they'd prefer to live in a war-zone than modern-day Britain!

I have respect for people that make their home there working as professionals paying the highest tax in the World for alcohol,cigarettes and petrol,whilst being afraid to leave the house after dark for fear of being set upon by packs of roaming,feral youths high on "skunk" and stella waiting to record "happy slappings" on their mobile phones...good luck to 'em all!

Respect...or maybe sympathy would be a better word!

[EndofDays]

no doubt don't see such a major life decision as such a big deal, especially the well travelled/frequent traveller.

Yep. That would be me. Lived most of my adult life in Asia. Moving here felt as brave as visiting Poole.

One enormous irony is that I despaired at life in the UK precisely because of the unintended consequences of the very people who make it a habit to despair of the UK. Many of those people are clearly the other posters on this thread.

The 'something-must-be-done' brigade; the sergeant-majors and young professional ladies who read the Daily Mail. Their insistent (and ludicrous) belief that if only the government did [fill in with whatever news story concerns them] then life would be better. That is: they have a naive 'cause and effect' vision of the World. They overestimate the power of the State. If I was to reveal to them that the State does not have the answers, that it really does not know what to do, and that its failure to make things better is not a consequence of incompetence or malevolence, but rather, nobody knows, this would break their perceptual framework develpoed from years of reading the warped Daily Mail.

The government in the UK reacts with breathtaking speed to this constituency as it regards them as critical to electability. Consequently, we have seen the profoundly evil development of the Police State, under the 'if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about' ignorance of this constituency. The latest version of this state crassness arrived last week with the unveiling of yet another registration agency. This time the quangos job will be to inform women who have boyfriend's with bad histories. Not simply criminal records of domestic violence but even simple complaints, including bullying, threats and indeed anything else that encompasses typical domestic life outside of a tinted 1950's vision of domestic life. Hilariously, this will mean if her boyfriend is a convicted murderer she will not know, but if he insulted a past girlfriend and she reported him to the social workers, then his new girlfriend will know. And in this day and age of 'better safe than sorry' she will dump him. His life will be ruined by hearsay and vengefulness.

The picture I paint is of a State that does not trust its citizens. It does not trust them to do what they wish behind closed doors. Mistakes cannot be made. Real lives must not be lived. A State invading every area of our lives.

If you want to understand this further then please read Foucalt's 'The Birth of Biopolitics'.

I am then very happy to live in a quasi-democracy where police and military can kill with impunity (see The War on Drugs and the lack of any prosecutions over the 2,400 deaths). I like it because the State is not insidious enough to get involved in my life. It leaves me alone as long as I do not threaten it.

Chill the poop out! Can I write 'poop'?

[timinchina]

I think people who disregard others as fools if theyre one of the many millions who read the Daily Mail /The Sun as jumped up <deleted>, would these people be as superior as yourself if they read the FT? or didnt read the news at all? Or read whatever socialist sh7te you form your opinions from.

Groan. I don't recall calling them fools. I think their pereptual framework of the World is wrong. They are not well read. The sources for their thinking are inadequate and inppropriate.

It is interesting you think I'm socialist. I have, as you may now understand, a rather nuanced understanding of the World. I am certainly a libertarian, but to say more would be a parody of my position.

You must have been to a Uni mill to churn out such rubbish 2:1 in Business Studies im guessing.

No one thinks the govt have all the answers, just 50% of our money to come up with better solutions.

PS I read every newspaper theyre all free online before you try to come across as superior by calling me a Mail reader, but are Guardian readers ok in your eyes?

I'm not sure I can be bothered responding to personal attacks. Whatever I say, you will have a well-honed glib response ready for me.

To understand the World, you need to go beyond reading newspapers. You need deep reading. You must not feel that when someone knows more than you they are being patronising. Take it on the chin and try to better yourself. Anti-intellectualism is a curiously British characteristic. For the time being, you are being played by a complex nexus of government and media. I wish you well.

Bury your head in a book,that'll teach you about life!

Did you come to Thailand to lose your virginity at 40?

[timinchina]

Thats a little better at least you are showing some evidence towards your thinking.

Basic facts from me - I wasn't happy with immigration/crime/under acheiving education system/to big a welfare system etc....

Now this is my own opinion and based upon reading newspapers/on line journals/conversation with people and other sources of information.

Are you trying to make this easy for me? This is my central point. People such as yourself through the wrong perception of how life has gone wrong in the UK, have unintentionally truly messed the place up. My central contention is that it is you (not the immigrants/education system/welfare system)-- the Daily Mail reader-- that has ruined the UK. You must read my two examples again.

The truth of the matter is that most people have similar concerns which is supported by the Home Office poll which i put a link too.

Exactly. This is like shooting fish in the barrel. If you had shown otherwise my argument would have been lost. You can walk into any pub in England and immediately identify your way of thinking as the central discourse in those that identify with the language of the Daily Mail (the 'middle englanders')

Where are your ideas coming from about farangs being a force for good, pioneers for Western civilisation?

Are you doing a history or sociology course based around history of migrant movement!

I'm trying to be serious but cannot help laughing when reading/saying farangs see themselves as pioneers for western civilisations forces

Have you read why the other people came to Thailand ! go on have a read and then tell me if these people saw/see themselves as pioneers for Western civilising forces!

Have you checked the calendar lately

This is draining and way off from my central contention. Just as I totally blew away your position on the Thai thinking I could do the same with your thinking of foreigners. But I am not your performing Monkey. You need to do this yourself. Go out and read deep.

Try: Skair , Leslie, 2005 "The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture in Globalizing Cities", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29/3 (Sep):485-500

Go out and get laid...please!

[geeky]

I think it takes balls to not leave a country like the UK(and most other EU-countries), where ordinary tax-paying citizens are treated as criminals and criminals as victims ... good luck over there with those extreme left regimes who hate/hurt you in every way they can for not being an irresponsible loser!

[MJP]

I think it takes balls to not leave a country like the UK(and most other EU-countries), where ordinary tax-paying citizens are treated as criminals and criminals as victims ... good luck over there with those extreme left regimes who hate/hurt you in every way they can for not being an irresponsible loser!

I'm having a bad one today. But you sir just cheered me up. Yes, all true.

[PastEgo]

as chef from southpark would say chocolate salty balls