Thai Red Shirts Declare 'Class War'

[ableguy]

Since he is in exile, Thaksin must be Leon Trotsky.

Montenegro, like Mexico, begins with an 'M'.

Do they have ice picks in Montenegro?

[Jerrytheyoung]

Agree that the situation is now quite different.

From some high level Thai officers, I have gotten the information that the end of the communist guerilla in Northern Thailand has been done through a very difficult and tricky negociation, and nobody want to be again in such a situation...

[ableguy]

I wonder how much money Thaksin is throwing Montenegro's way...it is after all a potless former communist country.

What is not mine, no one will get it!

Can't people see Thailand is destroying from now on? BIllions of billions he has now still not enough for his egos. Some millions buying The Red shirt leader. The protesters baths 2000 x 100,000 persons = 2 millions baths. Those millions is the price of the immage '' Siam Land of smile ''. Tourism stop, draw the whole Thai economic down. Let' Apisit do his jobb !!.

Hi Somebody.

Clearly English is not your first language, but you have made your point.

Let' Apisit do his job !!. Exactly what the country needs to happen.

Clearly no high up on mathematics too, try twenty million but still a good point

[mca]

The protesters baths 2000 x 100,000 persons = 2 millions baths.

No wonder the government are concerned about a water shortage!

[anotherpeter]

By the time I'd been in Thailand three years, I was aghast because of the cultural and civilizational deficits and deficiencies some 75% to 80% or so Western Europeans I met or worked with suffered relative to the society, culture and civilization of the United States. It's even worse among those 'Westerns' I met from the down under regions of the South West Pacific, this time to the tune of 85% to 90% of them. The ignorance, prejudices, biases towards the United States and its people was outdone only by their complete disconnect from life in the US. I simply was speechless and mortified by the willful and systematic contempt these people have towards the US.

It's really a frightening and pathetic deficit disorder of a serious cultural and civilizational magnitude over in those places. I of course got used to it and since simply dismiss their blissful world of the surreal and bizarre when it comes to the United States. We have more Nobel Prize winners in every category, usually by a huge difference, except for literature in which the US is 2 winners behind the leader France. We have the world's best and leading universities etc etc.

Yet the cultural deficits of the Western Europeans and of the Down Unders I've met are appalling. Worse, they are beyond repair or recovery. One Belgian idiotically said to me that Pres Kennedy's statement in German during his visit to Berlin, "I am a Berliner" was spoken in erroneous German.....this wild and malicious claim was made by the guy despite the German language statement having come from the West German Embassy in the US and from German language experts at the State Department and leading universities of the US. That's willful malevolence towards the United States, which must be dismissed immediately and out of hand as not credible or reasonable - as simply irrational and mean spirited.

Tsk tsk.

I'm sure you could apply some of these generalizations to 99% of people in the US who think that kangaroos hop up the main street of Sydney.

There are stupid people everywhere.

[ableguy]

One Belgian idiotically said to me that Pres Kennedy's statement in German during his visit to Berlin, "I am a Berliner" was spoken in erroneous German.....this wild and malicious claim was made by the guy despite the German language statement having come from the West German Embassy in the US and from German language experts at the State Department and leading universities of the US. That's willful malevolence towards the United States, which must be dismissed immediately and out of hand as not credible or reasonable - as simply irrational and mean spirited.

5555 can't tell Eton from a University. but wanna impress with their nobel price winner. (which takes an different turn if you check the Laureates per capita proportion for the respective Nations and/or filter out the immigrants.

anyway you should not only cherry-pick the best things don't forget or ignore the worst things too. you should also consider that your opinion don't have to be the only valid opinion.

seems you don't understand a joke when it not comes with canned laughter. that is what the "ich bin ein berliner" story is about. the Belgian bloke was trolling you and you fell for it.

is it really that easy to pull a leg of an US-American? i hope for them that is not true.

i would only argue that you can't really compare a Berliner, the pastry, with a doughnut. it is a different thing, Polish paczki are coming closer too it for my taste, and Berliner, the pastry,Berliner, the residents, call Pfannkuchenand not Berliner. anyway, that is an another regional in-joke that you can't get Berliner, the pastry, in Berlin, and it is kinda a shibboleth, a social code, Berliner, the residents, like to distinct them selves from people that are not born there but came recently to town, the New-Berliner usually from other regions of Germany where the pastry in fact is called Berliner. New-Berliner try hard to blend in and hide the fact that they are new in town, various jokes are poked on them by the real Berliner. and when it comes to the pastry New-Berliner can involuntary expose themselves by calling it Berliner a word that never would slip over the tongue of an Old-Berliner. btw. their word Pfannkuchen stands in other parts of Germany for something totally different.

Berliner, the residents might be not go the nearest baker's shop to buy some Pfannkuchen, but would be prepared to take a detour to get their Pfannkuchen from their favorite baker's shop where they taste slightly different. one reason that makes it so difficult to compare them with something like doughnut. Berliner, the residents are serious about being a real Berliner and not a new comer, you have that in all big cities, and the are serious about their Pfannkuchen and they make jokes about US-Americans who can't speak a single word in a second language and trying to make a big show of it. Berliner aren't much impressed by politicans, Celebs, leaders or awestrucked by Presidents of the United States or anybody else with a hubris.

Kennedy's words 'Ich bin ein Berliner' had some forced cultural impact in Germany and are part of the cultural memory of the Germans. Another US President hold also a speech in Berlin. Ronald Reagan, where he spoke his "famous" words: "please mister Gorbachev open this wall".

Now many years later it can come to the following curios situation. person A comes from that cold region behind the iron curtain. person B comes from the US of A and like to boast about his dead and living presidents. B will tell A how important the speech was, that they made history and maybe he will delude himself to the point where he he declares that Reagan's speech actually helped to tear down this wall. Person B will look in disbelief and say: nope, not a tiny bit. it didn't make any impacted or changed anything in theway the things that happend and when the wall was teared down, none of the people who did it kept hearing Reagan words. believe me my American friend, that must be a totally forced meme by the US & Reagan historiography. in Berlin nobody cares or cared about it. person B will still insist on the importance and declares A to one of these European with cultural and civilizational deficits and deficiencies. person A keeps his impression of that rude and overweening US american in memory.

you should be more open minded, most europeans and i guess any other foreigners you might come across too aren't the way you wanna paint them. and even if they have some grudge on the US foreign policy or whatever, they can distinct between a Country and an individual citizen. respect could be in your case the issue. what goes around comes around .

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ YAWNZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[ableguy]

By the time I'd been in Thailand three years, I was aghast because of the cultural and civilizational deficits and deficiencies some 75% to 80% or so Western Europeans I met or worked with suffered relative to the society, culture and civilization of the United States. It's even worse among those 'Westerns' I met from the down under regions of the South West Pacific, this time to the tune of 85% to 90% of them. The ignorance, prejudices, biases towards the United States and its people was outdone only by their complete disconnect from life in the US. I simply was speechless and mortified by the willful and systematic contempt these people have towards the US.

It's really a frightening and pathetic deficit disorder of a serious cultural and civilizational magnitude over in those places. I of course got used to it and since simply dismiss their blissful world of the surreal and bizarre when it comes to the United States. We have more Nobel Prize winners in every category, usually by a huge difference, except for literature in which the US is 2 winners behind the leader France. We have the world's best and leading universities etc etc.

Yet the cultural deficits of the Western Europeans and of the Down Unders I've met are appalling. Worse, they are beyond repair or recovery. One Belgian idiotically said to me that Pres Kennedy's statement in German during his visit to Berlin, "I am a Berliner" was spoken in erroneous German.....this wild and malicious claim was made by the guy despite the German language statement having come from the West German Embassy in the US and from German language experts at the State Department and leading universities of the US. That's willful malevolence towards the United States, which must be dismissed immediately and out of hand as not credible or reasonable - as simply irrational and mean spirited.

Tsk tsk.

I'm sure you could apply some of these generalizations to 99% of people in the US who think that kangaroos hop up the main street of Sydney.

There are stupid people everywhere.

Could not agree more, most of the USA bashers I have met have never been to the USA have no intention of going could never find the funds if they changed their minds. Ask a few simple questions who leads the world in space, business, democracy, who rescued Europe and rebuilt it 1940s, Secondly who are these USA people, answer immigrants who had the sense to get the hel_l out of of the poxy little countries these fools still inhabit. USA USA YEEEES.

[daboyz1]

to win a class war first requires a working class hero.

John Lennon - Working Class Hero

As soon as your born they make you feel small,

By giving you no time instead of it all,

Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,

Till you're so fuc_king crazy you can't follow their rules,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,

Then they expect you to pick a career,

When you can't really function you're so full of fear,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,

And you think you're so clever and classless and free,

But you're still fuc_king peasents as far as I can see,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still,

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,

If you want to be like the folks on the hill,

A working class hero is something to be.

A working class hero is something to be.

If you want to be a hero well just follow me,

If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

I'm a little slow. Can someone tell me the point of this post? I'm not getting it.

[ableguy]

When Petrol prices rose in the uk. There were protests outside the petrochem works , which stopped petrol gas and oil being delivered all over the country , crippling the u.k. Bringing it to a stand still after a few days there were no cars busses or trains . No one could get to work it was great

If there serious why dont the Thais follow suit bring Bangkok to its knees .

They will have to listen then ???? wont they ..

I LOVE ANARCHY 2010

when did this happen?

Trains in london use electric

he tube yes, never hear of diesel trains Jeeeeez

[anotherpeter]

By the time I'd been in Thailand three years, I was aghast because of the cultural and civilizational deficits and deficiencies some 75% to 80% or so Western Europeans I met or worked with suffered relative to the society, culture and civilization of the United States. It's even worse among those 'Westerns' I met from the down under regions of the South West Pacific, this time to the tune of 85% to 90% of them. The ignorance, prejudices, biases towards the United States and its people was outdone only by their complete disconnect from life in the US. I simply was speechless and mortified by the willful and systematic contempt these people have towards the US.

It's really a frightening and pathetic deficit disorder of a serious cultural and civilizational magnitude over in those places. I of course got used to it and since simply dismiss their blissful world of the surreal and bizarre when it comes to the United States. We have more Nobel Prize winners in every category, usually by a huge difference, except for literature in which the US is 2 winners behind the leader France. We have the world's best and leading universities etc etc.

Yet the cultural deficits of the Western Europeans and of the Down Unders I've met are appalling. Worse, they are beyond repair or recovery. One Belgian idiotically said to me that Pres Kennedy's statement in German during his visit to Berlin, "I am a Berliner" was spoken in erroneous German.....this wild and malicious claim was made by the guy despite the German language statement having come from the West German Embassy in the US and from German language experts at the State Department and leading universities of the US. That's willful malevolence towards the United States, which must be dismissed immediately and out of hand as not credible or reasonable - as simply irrational and mean spirited.

Tsk tsk.

I'm sure you could apply some of these generalizations to 99% of people in the US who think that kangaroos hop up the main street of Sydney.

There are stupid people everywhere.

Could not agree more, most of the USA bashers I have met have never been to the USA have no intention of going could never find the funds if they changed their minds. Ask a few simple questions who leads the world in space, business, democracy, who rescued Europe and rebuilt it 1940s, Secondly who are these USA people, answer immigrants who had the sense to get the hel_l out of of the poxy little countries these fools still inhabit. USA USA YEEEES.

I think you missed the point of my post ... I wasn't saying anything good about the US. But it's the same everywhere.

[ableguy]

they must be taking a leaf out gordon brown/labours book in the uk,who have declared a class more against the conservation public school boys party who are out for the upper classes first and foremost..

pretty similar to here

and the conservative and dem leaders both went to eton

I hope David Cameron wins the next UK election. It will mean good ties between the UK and Thailand. Eton has produced some really great leaders and I think Khun Abhisit, given the chance will do a lot for this country.

Two most important countries in this world.Both drive on the left side.The rest of world on the right.Oh forgot that makes them so special.

Not sure you have done much travelling.

[craigt3365]

By the time I'd been in Thailand three years, I was aghast because of the cultural and civilizational deficits and deficiencies some 75% to 80% or so Western Europeans I met or worked with suffered relative to the society, culture and civilization of the United States. It's even worse among those 'Westerns' I met from the down under regions of the South West Pacific, this time to the tune of 85% to 90% of them. The ignorance, prejudices, biases towards the United States and its people was outdone only by their complete disconnect from life in the US. I simply was speechless and mortified by the willful and systematic contempt these people have towards the US.

It's really a frightening and pathetic deficit disorder of a serious cultural and civilizational magnitude over in those places. I of course got used to it and since simply dismiss their blissful world of the surreal and bizarre when it comes to the United States. We have more Nobel Prize winners in every category, usually by a huge difference, except for literature in which the US is 2 winners behind the leader France. We have the world's best and leading universities etc etc.

Yet the cultural deficits of the Western Europeans and of the Down Unders I've met are appalling. Worse, they are beyond repair or recovery. One Belgian idiotically said to me that Pres Kennedy's statement in German during his visit to Berlin, "I am a Berliner" was spoken in erroneous German.....this wild and malicious claim was made by the guy despite the German language statement having come from the West German Embassy in the US and from German language experts at the State Department and leading universities of the US. That's willful malevolence towards the United States, which must be dismissed immediately and out of hand as not credible or reasonable - as simply irrational and mean spirited.

Tsk tsk.

I'm sure you could apply some of these generalizations to 99% of people in the US who think that kangaroos hop up the main street of Sydney.

There are stupid people everywhere.

Or the 99% of the people in the US who think elephants walk down the main street of Bangkok. oops...they do!

Enough US bashing, the topic is the Red Shirts and a class war....

Edited March 19, 2010 by craigt3365

[thaibeachlovers]

Quote from above:

Though the Red Shirts have succeeded in calling attention to their agenda, the major societal forces of Thailand appear stacked against them," said Paul Chambers, a Thailand specialist at Heidelberg University in Germany.

"This includes the monarchy, soldiers in top positions, courts, the ruling coalition, and most business groups."

A good read is Siam Mapped by Thongchai Winichakul

Explores the ways in which..never mind the myth that Thailand has never been colonised..Thailand/Siam has colonised large areas of what is now its territory. One result is that in many areas Thai is a minority language. The North Eastern/Issan people speak Lao, in the South East they speak Khmer and in the North Kammuang..there are a myriad of tribal dialects..about 80!! ..see Studies in Tai Linguistics in Honor of William Gedney..and then there is the issue of Teochew, the Chinese, spoken by great numbers of people in the Central/Southern area and Bangkok. Thailand is a highly fragmented country. At its peripheries: on the borders with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia, where refugees, insurgents, disenfranchised and denationalised hill tribe ethnic groups survive, Thailand barely maintains its sovereignty. A country massively centred on one city Bangkok and a tacky tourist industry is held together, just, by money, plentiful food, strong families, the hegemony and 'benevolent' autarchy of the monarchy and the unpleasant nationalism/racism that has been diligently constructed to create the notion of 'being Thai'. It is a great shame that the clearly constructive aspiration to representation by the so called 'rural poor'...not that poor!!..is hijacked by the demagogue and mobile phone and silk tycoon Thaksin..the Chinese Slim of Thailand.

"tacky tourist industry"?

I guess you have to "read between the lines" on that one, and yet if we're honest, it's why a great many of are, or wish to live in LOS.

[YORKSHIREPUD]

Shame That they seem intent to try and drive a bigger wedge between the classes here. Instead of Montenegro, Mr Thaksin should have took an easyjet flight to European ski resort, as it seems he's on a slippery slope.

Yes my friend, on a slippery slope with a pair of roller blades on. As for the red shirts spraying their own blood on the front of the official building, a load of BULL****, they took blood from a very few for the Media coverage and than collected PIGS Blood in 25 litre bottles to pour on the doorstep of the PM.

Do they realise or even care how much they are damaging the Thai economy. Wake up the reds, how much went into your pockets to alleviate your poor living conditions in the north, Do you think Mr T will put money in your pockets if he was to be reinstated( which can't happen )Nothing will be yours to improve your quality of life and living.

I'm married to a Girl from the North East and have just spent a month near Sakhon Nakon so I do understand how poor you are, If Mr T was to Offer to Pay each household 100,000Baht to improve living standards, he may stand a chance, but it's not going to happen. NEVER!.

[aras]

a spokeman of the reds said on aljazeera that he estimates that 60% of the reds are thaksin supporters and the rest don't care about thaksin....mmm

[YORKSHIREPUD]

I wonder how much money Thaksin is throwing Montenegro's way...it is after all a potless former communist country.

What is not mine, no one will get it!

Can't people see Thailand is destroying from now on? BIllions of billions he has now still not enough for his egos. Some millions buying The Red shirt leader. The protesters baths 2000 x 100,000 persons = 2 millions baths. Those millions is the price of the immage '' Siam Land of smile ''. Tourism stop, draw the whole Thai economic down. Let' Apisit do his jobb !!.

Hi Somebody.

Clearly English is not your first language, but you have made your point.

Let' Apisit do his job !!. Exactly what the country needs to happen.

I don't think English is your first language BUT you got your point over and i agree with your post.

[Grey11]

to win a class war first requires a working class hero.

John Lennon - Working Class Hero

As soon as your born they make you feel small,

By giving you no time instead of it all,

Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,

Till you're so fuc_king crazy you can't follow their rules,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,

Then they expect you to pick a career,

When you can't really function you're so full of fear,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,

And you think you're so clever and classless and free,

But you're still fuc_king peasents as far as I can see,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still,

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,

If you want to be like the folks on the hill,

A working class hero is something to be.

A working class hero is something to be.

If you want to be a hero well just follow me,

If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

I'm a little slow. Can someone tell me the point of this post? I'm not getting it.

[Grey11]

to win a class war first requires a working class hero.

John Lennon - Working Class Hero

As soon as your born they make you feel small,

By giving you no time instead of it all,

Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,

Till you're so fuc_king crazy you can't follow their rules,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,

Then they expect you to pick a career,

When you can't really function you're so full of fear,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,

And you think you're so clever and classless and free,

But you're still fuc_king peasents as far as I can see,

A working class hero is something to be,

A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still,

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,

If you want to be like the folks on the hill,

A working class hero is something to be.

A working class hero is something to be.

If you want to be a hero well just follow me,

If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

I'm a little slow. Can someone tell me the point of this post? I'm not getting it.

I don't get it either. Sounds like Yoko helped him write it. Lennon did believe in class warfare however, though a very wealthy man.

[moo9]

Classwar? Communism never worked in the world, except on paper, but talking about it is popular in a society of envy.

After all, I don't know which side the red shirts are on, communism or nationalism or a mixture of both?!

And all these words out of the former owner of AIS etc. - it is just getting ridiculous. He ripped off people, the country and never earned his wealth by hard work but built his empire by corruption just like others.

The fatal thing is, that I would never trust any political party in this country, as all have their scandals and secrets.

Make the poor rich in 6 months? Even if the government would invest today in better education, better teachers etc. it will take still 2 or 3 generations until the country may have reached a decent level! And those free PC's won't help either, as all the kids would be chatting, gaming all day, as neither parents nor teachers are motivated to teach them something important!

I don't see any end soon for this trouble.

[moresomekl]

The protesters baths 2000 x 100,000 persons = 2 millions baths.

No wonder the government are concerned about a water shortage!

LOL

[moresomekl]

Clearly no high up on mathematics too, try twenty million but still a good point

200 millions actually !

[Jerrytheyoung]

Shame That they seem intent to try and drive a bigger wedge between the classes here. Instead of Montenegro, Mr Thaksin should have took an easyjet flight to European ski resort, as it seems he's on a slippery slope.

Yes my friend, on a slippery slope with a pair of roller blades on. As for the red shirts spraying their own blood on the front of the official building, a load of BULL****, they took blood from a very few for the Media coverage and than collected PIGS Blood in 25 litre bottles to pour on the doorstep of the PM.

Do they realise or even care how much they are damaging the Thai economy. Wake up the reds, how much went into your pockets to alleviate your poor living conditions in the north, Do you think Mr T will put money in your pockets if he was to be reinstated( which can't happen )Nothing will be yours to improve your quality of life and living.

I'm married to a Girl from the North East and have just spent a month near Sakhon Nakon so I do understand how poor you are, If Mr T was to Offer to Pay each household 100,000Baht to improve living standards, he may stand a chance, but it's not going to happen. NEVER!.

We are neighbour, I have spent several years in this region, regularly helping my in-laws, painting the wooden house (for the first time in 20 years), tiling the floor 9initially trodden earth), installing running water, a bath room...and subsidising the whole family. This family is just an average one in the village.

their income is less than 5,000TBT (without my support) dropping to 2,000TBT in the dry season, farming a sticky rice of poor quality, when they are not farming some are making some bamboo baskets sold to a mere 20 TBT for one day of work, or are fishing in the village lake/reservoir. Heavy work than farming, no tractor only an old "Tic Tac"...

The village school is just a little above a nursery level. discussion with one Thai "English teacher": some of her colleague cannot speak or write correctly, with a 465 TOEFEL level they were accepted as teacher, so when you visit Issan Universities, most of the students cannot communicate at International level, are banned from overseas study subsidises

I worry about the 2 kids future (100% Thai, adopted, my wife is widowed). It is why I participate to this forum discussion.

Industry is booming but Issaners have no return on this expansion, they are not part of this.

Big projects are on going, (even nuclear plants!!!), but nobody cares seriously about the future of the Northern population. Example of a poor managerial behavior:

"The Mekong is drying but we do not want that our Big Neighbour get angry, so instead to raise the issue before negotiation with the Neighbour, on contrary the influence of the dams is voluntarily minimised by us...."

It is urgent that a policy is defined and implemented: irrigation, modernisation of agriculture, de-localisation of Industry (and not concentration on a Megapole).

A drastic revision of the big projects is immediately required with a slowdown if necessary because priority number one is to inject part of the budget to secure 50% of the population as participants in the Country development.

Half of the population is sidelined: this is socially unacceptable and certainly not sustainable on medium/long term. Sooner or later big disorders can be predicted, and those disorders will disrupt the Economy. ...and the consequences will be far more costly than the required budget to sustain Northern development.

I remember "Charles de Gaulle" intervention in a similar situation;

"Je vous ai compris" (I have understood what you want) and immediately a serie of decisions have been announced with important impacts on the Budget, because the development of a Country cannot be done without a global support of the population: 50% on the road side can only be source of big troubles.

Abhisit has only few days to intervene. Today, he has some credibility because he has managed smartly the conflict until now and has more room for manoeuvering in its own side.

Tomorrow it will be more difficult, because the "class war" propaganda should work well in the Northern population, and things will become tougher.

time is working against him from now

[moresomekl]

Therefore, for a real class war to commence, to truly begin with an agenda of equality for the future; it requires that the red shirts start letting go, somewhat, of the obsession with Thaksin alone and offering a new leader that has a rural agenda

You guys seems to forget one important thing . Who finances ?

hel_l the financing of political parties is even in the West many times quite murky and controvesial

[mazeltov]

By the time I'd been in Thailand three years, I was aghast because of the cultural and civilizational deficits and deficiencies some 75% to 80% or so Western Europeans I met or worked with suffered relative to the society, culture and civilization of the United States. It's even worse among those 'Westerns' I met from the down under regions of the South West Pacific, this time to the tune of 85% to 90% of them. The ignorance, prejudices, biases towards the United States and its people was outdone only by their complete disconnect from life in the US. I simply was speechless and mortified by the willful and systematic contempt these people have towards the US.

It's really a frightening and pathetic deficit disorder of a serious cultural and civilizational magnitude over in those places. I of course got used to it and since simply dismiss their blissful world of the surreal and bizarre when it comes to the United States. We have more Nobel Prize winners in every category, usually by a huge difference, except for literature in which the US is 2 winners behind the leader France. We have the world's best and leading universities etc etc.

Yet the cultural deficits of the Western Europeans and of the Down Unders I've met are appalling. Worse, they are beyond repair or recovery. One Belgian idiotically said to me that Pres Kennedy's statement in German during his visit to Berlin, "I am a Berliner" was spoken in erroneous German.....this wild and malicious claim was made by the guy despite the German language statement having come from the West German Embassy in the US and from German language experts at the State Department and leading universities of the US. That's willful malevolence towards the United States, which must be dismissed immediately and out of hand as not credible or reasonable - as simply irrational and mean spirited.

Tsk tsk.

I'm sure you could apply some of these generalizations to 99% of people in the US who think that kangaroos hop up the main street of Sydney.

There are stupid people everywhere.

Could not agree more, most of the USA bashers I have met have never been to the USA have no intention of going could never find the funds if they changed their minds. Ask a few simple questions who leads the world in space, business, democracy, who rescued Europe and rebuilt it 1940s, Secondly who are these USA people, answer immigrants who had the sense to get the hel_l out of of the poxy little countries these fools still inhabit. USA USA YEEEES.

I think you missed the point of my post ... I wasn't saying anything good about the US. But it's the same everywhere.

555

you underestimate the plausibility that your '99%' comment has been probably not greatly exaggerated but accurate.

i think, that he thinks he belongs to that 99% group and he agrees with you. it is true: 99% of people in the US who think that kangaroos hop up the main street of Sydney.

confirmed by competent US-citizen, a man who knows his facts and is proficient in space technology, experienced in business and well-read in history. i can't argue about that immigrants build the land of the free and made it great. a spirit i respect.

one question still remains unclear, how many of that 99% think also that Sidney, great place, kangaroos hop up the main street, is somewhere located in the USA?

[moresomekl]

On an earlier thread when mentioning PM Abhisit Vejjajiva's degrees earned in England, I mentioned that he received a doctorate law degree or maybe I just said a law degree from Eton College, UK. I don't know who posted the following reply as I was unable to reply to it. I quote:

"He received his law degree from Eton!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a boys school they finish when they are 18, they don't do degrees because they are not a University. Christ on a bike! You must be an American.

Yes, I am an American living in Thailand. The poster's words seem to be telling me that I am ignorant because I am an American. This seems to be a majority belief among the vast majority of TV posters from the UK. It may surprise the poster that only a handful of people in the world - outside of the so-called "UK" - cannot name more than one university in England much less a prep school.

But, I am smart enough to type in Abhisit Vejjajiva in google or yahoo and read his biography. All that I have read mention that he received a law degree or an honorary law degree from Ramkhamhaeng Univ. schools, Eton College, UK. So I assumed that Eton was a college or university. It seemed to read that way to me. I often wonder why so many people on TV engage in personal attacks on others who are simply voicing their opinions. Calling other posters ignorant & worse for posting their comments is rude to say the least. And, I guess attacking the U.S.A. (or what many call America) and all of its citizens really gets old. It is a country of more than 300 million people and certainly they do not ALL think alike. I left because of several political reasons but I still think that the average American is and always will be first in line to help the people of any country in the world if it and its people experience a castastrophe. Always the U.S. will be the country that gives the most money. So hating all the people b/c of the sorry lot that are elected Pres. is just plain wrong.

Am french but totally agree with you .

Some americans back in the US seems to know close to nothing about what happen outside their state but those living abroad are far more knowledgeable in general .

[Old Man River]

one question still remains unclear, how many of that 99% think also that Sidney, great place, kangaroos hop up the main street, is somewhere located in the USA?

Sidney is in Ohio, USA. Sydney is in Austalia. A following comment is just too easy so I will leave it at this.

[moresomekl]

You should be careful using absolutes like, "the leaders of the Red Shirts are all Hi So" in your arguments. Using absolutes makes your arguments much less persuasive. While some maybe "Hi So" as your Issan wife refers to them, not all are, as not all of the Yellow Shirt leadership are aristocrats, some are simply power hungry idiots. What remains and is true and so, is that the Red Shirts have a legitimate complaint and right to seek redress from the current prime minister and party in power. The current government and prime minister owe their power to the military who usurped power from a democratically elected government in a coup. Unlike the current government the deposed government owed their power to the people. You may not like or approve of it but a majority of "those poor people" voted TRT.

Yes and after the coup two pro-rurals governements were kicked out . I can understand the red shirts frustration , its only natural .

Its nevertheless rather sad that Thaksin was so greedy as to use his position to enhance his fortune . Only Makapagal in the Philippines did better , she has a take in every big governement project , yet she is still in power

[Jerrytheyoung]

Therefore, for a real class war to commence, to truly begin with an agenda of equality for the future; it requires that the red shirts start letting go, somewhat, of the obsession with Thaksin alone and offering a new leader that has a rural agenda

You guys seems to forget one important thing . Who finances ?

hel_l the financing of political parties is even in the West many times quite murky and controvesial

First, in this Red Shirt crowd there are probably some newcomers in politics, and why not amidst them some new "leaders" that we are going to discover. Before May 68, who was knowing Cohn Bendit? (german origin, nowadays european politician). So do not worry, potential leaders are there, they will reveal themselves in the coming days...

Secondly, finances is not an issue, if Northern people adhere to the Class war concept. More, I think some neighbouring countries may support the cause

[moresomekl]

First, in this Red Shirt crowd there are probably some newcomers in politics, and why not amidst them some new "leaders" that we are going to discover. Before May 68, who was knowing Cohn Bendit? (german origin, nowadays european politician). So do not worry, potential leaders are there, they will reveal themselves in the coming days...

Secondly, finances is not an issue, if Northern people adhere to the Class war concept. More, I think some neighbouring countries may support the cause

Probably , hopefully, for the red shirts , a good leader for the future will emerge that gives a voice to the red shirts . Cohn Bendit did virtually disapear from the political scene after May 68 , you will notice

Well am NOT a communist , I have seen enough of the damages they did in Eastern Europe , its a totally failed ideology , so neighbouring countries beeing China . Laos and Cambodia ? Bit worrying

[Publicus]

"I am a Pfannkuchenand" or "I am a Pfannkuchen" just doesn't have the same geopolitical and rhetorical flair or pizzaz to it as did the Cold War and Berlin Wall assertion that "I am a Berliner." Pres Kennedy's assertive statement of political and military support brought an immediate and loud cheer from the huge mass of Berliners assembled to see the president and to hear his speech.

How many people in Italy knew the esoteric differences within the Germany and Berlin of the time between a Pfannkuchenand, a Pfannkuchen, a Berliener a Berliner or a piece of pastry? How many in Egypt? How many in Argentina (aside from former Nazis in hiding)? In China? Australia? Etc. Such obscure prattle completely misses the nature of the Free World vs Communist Nations mortal conflict of the time and buries us in the domestic Berlin demographics and social strata prejudices of the time.

People of the Republican Party and other right-wingers in the US love to claim, entirely for political reasons and purposes, that Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall. The fact is Reagan's high profile imperative statement, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" was the Republican/Right-Wing response to the Democrat Kennedy's "I am a Berliner" winner statement. Reagan's snarling statement was for domestic political consumption. However, Republican Party types in the US comprise one-third of the voting population. So kindly don't try to associate me or the other 2/3rds of the population with that facile claim of the 1/3 who can't make any serious intellectual or moral claim to swinging the demolition ball that destroyed the Berlin Wall. The former USSR of its own doing both built the Wall and brought it crashing down, the latter as a prelude to the Soviet Union itself crashing into bits and peices.

The statement about kangaroos in Sydney reinforces my point that 99% of USA bashers in Western Europe and Down Under suffer from severe deficits and deficiencies of a cultural and civilizational magnitude.

Tsk tsk.