Surviving poverty

[Guest IT Manager]

A friend/customer has asked me what to do.

He has no money, no job, no girlfriend, and is too ugly to be interesting as a sex object.

I have no idea so I said I would ask my friends, the experts.

Make suggestions please. He gets the thread via smoke signals from my palace over the palm trees and fruit orchards, and past the tourist oases of Chiang Mai.

[jayrockwell]

Go home? where does he come from?

J

[pnustedt]

He has no money, no job, no girlfriend, and is too ugly to be interesting as a sex object.

Is he the guy that when they circumcised him they threw the wrong bit away?

He could try willing his body to science but I'm sure that science would contest the will.

[frequentatore]

A friend/customer has asked me what to do.

Nice customer!

Your business is going strong!

[Mackerel]

Easy! Just tell him to hang out on Pattaya's beach road. He'll soon make many friends with the misfits that hang around there.

[Guest IT Manager]

A friend/customer has asked me what to do.

Nice customer!

Your business is going strong!

My business isn't based on him, which is why I said customer/friend. Suggestions like going home have been made but I am more inclined to be positive. He is European by birth but is more inclined to keep looking for jobs here.

I have suggested cheaper room, new area, different lifestyle, no girlfriend is a plus as that is one less expense. I know there re many people like him around the place, because we see them in CM on occasion. It isn't impossible to live on very little money here, it can be done. It just takes some work.

On a similar vein, it occurs to me that having no money doesn't mean a person is some sort of scum bag. We all know ppl who have come to LOS to live on a reduced income eg., pension, and then get their heart muscle in a twist and who have a hard time recovering. I decided to try to assist where I could, a bit of food here and there but more importantly push him towards finding an income method based on his skill set.

Let's try to be a little bit positive shall we.

[frequentatore]

Let's try to be a little bit positive shall we.

If you want some serious replies, don't start a topic with a silly text!

[Thetyim]

OK lets try to be positive.

If he has no money then he will have to rent a doss house room and find work. THis would mean having to live in a city. Does he speak fluent English ?  

What are his skills, and how old is he ?

[Nat]

good questions Thetyim  . IT Maanger, you said he was european - how fluent is he in english and does he have a degree? If so he can work as an english teacher - just a suggestion  

[Nat]

oh! just thought of another idea. Please don't laugh at the following suggestion as I'm just brainstorming: how about volunteer work? There are quite a few ngo's in thailand - maybe he can check them out  

[Edward B]

IT, if you're a real friend you will tell him to go back home. THAT is being positive. Encouraging him to stay here imo seems to be detrimental to his well-being. Obviously he will not be able to legally gain employment in Thailand without some qualifications. One false move and he'll be locked up quicker than a prostitute parading through the streets of Bangkok in broad daylight carrying a rocket launcher and yelling obscenities at his royal highness.

[Guest IT Manager]

Thanks guys a few good ideas coming in.

He has some qualifications, but very very specific, in systems analysis. Thai companies don't seem interested in using his ability to fault find for them, since their own system administrators won't accept they have problems.

His English is fair to middling IMO, and while I accept that his going home is an option, I suspect he wants to keep it for the very last one.

The NGO one was good but volunteering usually means no pay which is sort of defeating the whole process i some, not all aspects.

English teaching maybe one short term thing but I don't think that's where I would say his skills lie.

[Nat]

Hi ######

Was a bit worried at the response volunteering would get   . Some orgs offer a stipend, so you do get some spending money, but not sure how much. Each org is different so it involves quite a bit of running around - doing a google search is a good start.

Has he tried applying for work at some of the international companies? He could even apply for work in one of the neighbouring countries where he may be able to work in his qualified field.

Just a bit more brainstorming  

[geezer]

could always go and work down boys town sell his bum u never know he might like it  

[Rambutan]

Stay in a temple for a while.  

[plachon]

Thanks guys a few good ideas coming in.

He has some qualifications, but very very specific, in systems analysis. Thai companies don't seem interested in using his ability to fault find for them, since their own system administrators won't accept they have problems.

His English is fair to middling IMO, and while I accept that his going home is an option, I suspect he wants to keep it for the very last one.

The NGO one was good but volunteering usually means no pay which is sort of defeating the whole process i some, not all aspects.

English teaching maybe one short term thing but I don't think that's where I would say his skills lie.

Hey IT, I'd approach his problem in three possible ways:-

1. Swallow his pride and become an English teacher in some out of the way school or college, where as far as the other teachers are concerned any old farang will do, so long as he is the real McCoy. (I once came across a very strong accented Norwegian teaching in an Isaan teacher's college). However, not being interested in girls could be a distinct handicap, as these places are usually hooching with 'em.

2. Look up some tricks on cheating mates in the other thread, make a few bob, do a runner to the other end of Thailand, and then set up some small guest house business on Koh Samui. Again, finding a Thai partner in crime is key for easing the cogs, so his choices are limited. Is he gay?

3. If he's as ugly as you say, he could try becoming a farang version of the elephant man, by buying a tent and traveling around temple fairs, asking 10 B a look or 20 B a touch. Small investment, gets to see the country and I'm sure the queues of young kids and girlies would stretch far and long. Probably the most lucrative of the three and by the time the authorities caught up with him, he'd probably be living in a 2 M baht mansion in Phuket.

Volunteering for NGO's is out. They want people with some recognisably useful skill and staff are usually highly qualified - not some off the streets bum who "fancies staying in Thailand for a bit". In fact, they hardly employ foreigners at all these days, as there is an abundance of Thais who can do the job much more ably.

Your plea wouldn't be autobiographical would it IT?

[muggs]

Bcome a monk.

Daily exercise, free accomodation, free food and plenty of freetime and maybe a little s...

[geezer]

or better still just jump of a building mate do yaself a favour

[Gfunk]

i'm with geezer down a bottle of jack and have it off the next building

[geezer]

nah sod that cut ya sausage of first become a ladyboy then jump off it dont look to bad then

[keestha]

He could consider renting a cheap shophouse in a somewhat bigger city with very few farang residents such a Suphanburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nakon Phanom or wherever, and start a language school.

Because I am not a native speaker my career as an English teacher stopped dead in its tracks about 11 years ago, so I am not really an expert in this field, maybe some of the teachers on the board could shine their lights on the question how realistic this option would be.

[Guest IT Manager]

Volunteering for NGO's is out. They want people with some recognisably useful skill and staff are usually highly qualified - not some off the streets bum who "fancies staying in Thailand for a bit". In fact, they hardly employ foreigners at all these days, as there is an abundance of Thais who can do the job much more ably.

Your plea wouldn't be autobiographical would it IT?

The volunteering for NGO's with a small stipend may work.

No it is not autobiographical. My sons and my wife would have whacked me into some semblence of reality before I got to the point he is at.

He does have advanced skills but no real capacity to market them IMO.

Staying in a temple may work but wouldn't get him work.

Thanks for the input anyway. I have sent it off to him for consideration.

[sam77]

Learn to know the history of  the grand palace and wats, etc.

learn to speak abit of Thai

dress clean, and don't forget to roll on extra drie

go to stand on front of grand palace or wat and be a guide tour

[Membrane]

Have him contact his embassey.

[ericsshop]

I am shocked to say the least with your feeling that it is better for him to stay here at the moment and try and find anything for little or no money as opposed to returning to his home country.  Why is that?  I mean he now has a better idea on many aspects of Thailand especially the in areas of the heart, where I take it his problems started as you elluded to it in your post.

Well I would suggest returning home for a year and working himself silly at two jobs and planning out a better return to the LOS.

I first came with a friend in Sept 2001 with a friend that had been coming to the LOS for years.  He had a plan but needed someone like myself to to help him both with money and action in getting things going.  I was not here a week before I realized it was not going to work out,  but like others fell in love with the LOS.  I stayed for 3 months to try and learn as much as I could about everything and to look into possible ways to not only live in the LOS but to earn a living here so as to live here as I do at home in relative comfort.  

I returned for a year and in addition to working my regular job (which was my own business) I worked nights as a server in a Bob Evans picking up any and all shifts I could.  After a year I returned went after my plan with avengence and the rest is history.   I now live better than I could have in the west while my friend that stuck it out working as a teacher in east ja'bip left last year tired and broken down both emotionally and physically.  As well I helped out 4 other farangs triple their trips to the LOS helping them get their own things going.  They still only visit as they have commitments at home (children etc) so I know it was not just a fluke.

Staying in ones home country for a year on the cheap (renting a room not and apartment etc) and socking away as much capital as possible is far better than grasping at straws here and living on the very cheap.  Sometimes we cannot see the forest for the trees and unfortunately everytime one steps foot outdoors in Thailand the trees are everywhere (beautiful, beautiful sexy trees   )  Just my opinion, and only and opinion.

BTW anybody that wants any help seeing a way to make it in Thailand rather well with little investment drop me an email and we can have a drink and I will try and help.  And NO!!!! this is not investment to me or any company or any guru or any service etc   Its just what it means you have to invest little in YOUR own business.  I don't want a any money none not a Baht nor do I want you to give a Baht to anyone  (though you could buy me beer if it all works out   ).  I say this as many may feel I am some scammer etc,  I am not, just someone who is helpful and desire to keep my karma how I like it, positive.

[Begs]

Some wise words Eric, to be broke in Thailand is no joke, it only takes an accident when you have no money to realise that you are in the wrong place.

If you have no money, go home, work your balls off 6 months , then 6 months in LOS, but dont get broke if you can help it.