Loz

Congrats to you, Loz. You can't win all the battles but if you win most of them you are doing okay. I have the greatest respect for teachers who actually want to teach the children how to learn... rather than just repeat things from rote. The children who WANT to learn are the hope for the future of Thailand... or any country for that matter. My daughter and her husband are both teachers in Canada where the focus is in actual learning and not just memorizing.

While I was still healthy enough I'd become a vigilante and start offing all the bent bastards who are the bane of this country.

I think that the Chunky1 maybe more correct than incorrect with assertions.  

I read it as we (non-Thais) should keep them (poorer Thais) at an arms length as they cannot understand why we would be nice to them.  I mean, live a life where society says that you are to bow and grovel and then someone does something nice, what are you going to think? You would be totally confused and not know how to react.  I think that is what he was saying.

Think about all the guys with girls complaining about how the girl never says please, thank-you or any other niceties that most of us are accustomed.  Maybe in her level of society no one says please or gives thanks for things so they cannot grasp the concept of why it is done.

Think about the times you have heard about service staff, in some venues, grumbling about someone leaving a small tip.  Maybe someone tipped them more before and now they expect a certain amount regardless of the level of service.

My example of this is that once, while in a good mood, I bought one of the hawkers on Walking Street a 2 or 3 sticks of chicken.  No big deal really, I was just in the mood.  For the next 3 years, every time I saw that hawker, she asked me for some chicken.     WTF?  Did the purchase I made sign me up to the, "I will buy you chicken every time I see you club?"

Did the hawker become confused by my gesture of kindness?  Right or wrong, it gave me the impression that you really cannot be too nice as people will look at it as a freebie and expect it whenever they see you.




TheWalkingMan

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Thai guy with a bit of money sorts himself out with a younger wife - you tell us she's never been on the game - hardly a surprise really, like almost any Thai man he's not going to marry a prostitute.

Is this so for all the old Farangs married to younger women from Isaan?

If not then you're hardly comparing like with like are you.

rsn, on 2010-09-27 10:38:47, said:

Break the phone and ship it as scrap with nil value.  She can get it repaired here.

SC

The key line in teh article, right from the Horses's mouth.....

“It looks pretty good and they look pretty happy,” said Rojjana Udomsri, 30, who is married to a Thai man and has a 2-year-old son. “They have money to spend and they can go anywhere they want.” But she said she had her doubts.

“I don’t know if they are really happy,” she said. “There were times I wanted to have a good life like them, but I can’t live with a person I don’t love. With someone I love I can go through all the hardships of life together.”

I think so yes, but it's not just Thai related, many people in the world have this internet problem.  Most of the time it's because of a social disorder, they have trouble in social situations, making friends, keeping friends, thinking people are out to get them so they can't get the interactions all humans need.  So they find a captive group like the internet where even the most extreme person can have a friend to get the social interactions they need.  Interestingly negative responses feed the same need, so often times those kinds of people become pestering or harassing and say people are picking on them.  They often create controversy so it can be all about them. What happens in the end studies show is that other like minded people come along and some chat room becomes dominated by these types of people in the end and those who speak out against them get run off or banned.  

     I am not sure if it is good or bad .... I am glad these people have" places to go " but studies show that the behavior and the disorder actually becomes worse, in real life people would walk away or maybe punch someone, so the person would have to change his personality disorder, on the internet they end up actually taking a large amount of control of the situation and that feeds and increases the ego and disorder making the people falsely believe it's everyone else who is "crazy".  They may dominate a chat room and make numerous complaints over the years about numerous things and people and rather than being made to know that they are the root of all these problems and the cause they mistakenly feel like the chat room hero and the problem worsens.


   It is very rare for this type of person without actually getting medical help to be able to overcome this.  Over time it gets worse and worse and harder and harder to cure, the patent will without proper help almost never be able to reenter a world of human interaction with ease.  This is because people face to face don't have moderators and you can't ban john from the local coffee shop because he used a racial slur in the grocery store, and people face to face don't tolerate sarcasm or or other rude behaviors that they are in the habit of doing, just because it falls within the chat room rules.


   The real problem is that the reason people spend each and evey day in a chat room is because they were already a failure outside of it so going back when your habits, behaviors and expectations are now worsened is very hard.  ..... Saying all that I think keeping people like that or at least giving them, an opportunity to have these "places to go" is better for everyone outside of the chat rooms so as to not have to deal with them.  And since they will probably never be all that happy anyplace else I am glad they have somewhere to go.

   The bottom line is the normal or non addicted person only comes and goes and can take it or leave it so it's no big thing to them ........Sso lets not belittle the disabled person who has very few other options barring medical help

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Using a satnav around Udon Thani.

" Turn right at the next junction into " Thai Brother-in-Law Came Home Wrecked Last Night  And Proceeded To Knock The Living Crap Out Of His Wife While The Whole Family Stood There Shouting And Screaming As I Tried To Convince Myself This Was Normal Behavior Avenue "

Proceed 200 metres and turn left into " Wife Isn't Speaking To Me Because Her Cousin Has Just Married A Swiss Guy Who Built Her A Bigger House Than Ours And My Wife's Jealous Lane "


At the roundabout take the second exit along " Father In Law Borrowed My New Vigo Without Permission And Stacked It Into The Side Of A New 5 Series BMW And I'll Have To Pay For The Damage Because He Hasn't Got 2 Satang To Rub Together Boulevard "


Take the next left along " I'm Down The Pub At 10 In The Morning Because I Just Discovered My Wife's Brother Is In Fact Her Husband And While I Was Back Home Attending My Grandmother's Funeral They Re-Mortgaged The House I Paid For And Blew The Lot On Playing Cards And Betting On The Premier League Cul-De-Sac "


You have reached your destination.


(All in jest folks)  

DP25, on 2010-09-26 13:21:04, said:

I thought the article was pretty balanced.    Why do you think it's "clueless"?

doggie888888, on 2010-09-25 15:37:27, said:

I think a lot of gentle readers will have missed the point of this story... That people are made to suffer for their opinions by people who are prejudiced against those that think differently from themselves; you may well find that the reason the gentleman in question tendered his resignation was on the basis of the persecution and witch hunt by the thought-police and PC HR, rather than the ethnicity of his superior - or even those irritating facets of his superior that conformed to the resignee's stereotype of a person of that ethnicity.

Let me explain by way of an analogy.
Mr X (that name was not selected to indicate any ethnicity or religion) dislikes racists, bigots and Nazis.  His employer believes that we should treat everyone equally, regardless of their views, and therefore assigns him to work for Adolf Boot-Boy.  Shortly after, Mr X resigns, saying "I cannot work for someone who spends such a fraction of his day shaving his head" whereas in fact he is fed up with having people in his office who cannot do their work because of their Ku Klux Klan masks, but he does not want to be branded intolerant, and ever since he started, his authority has been undermined by people criticising his viewpoint and his own character.

Sadly, racism and gender discrimination are not the only ills that befall our society, but luckily, they are relatively easily addressed.
Let us hope that we address them from a pro-active, thoughtful and long-sighted perspective, rather than with reactive, knee-jerk ignorance.

SC

sarahsbloke, on 2010-09-24 11:27:26, said:

Ha-ha. That line never gets old.

I'm pretty sure that if Mrs. T left me, she'd take the dogs. That's why I'm trying not to get too attached to them.

CHdiver, on 2010-03-25 12:27:17, said:

Even Thai's know that LOL

would be great to see this translated into Thai as well. Great insights



there are some more interesting clips here

bonobo, on 2010-09-22 09:54:10, said:

I agree with most of what you said.  I am sure there must be some white crows around although I have never seen one.  

By and large I think it is safe to assume if one is looking for a basketball player the best bet would be to go to the US.  Not everyone in the US is a basketball player and there are other countries with good basketball players as well but in general if one wants a basketball player the US is the best bet.  

If one is looking for a pay for play lady I think it is safe to assume Thailand is the place to go.  Not everyone is in the business and there are pay for play women in other countries but in general if one wants a pay for play lady Thailand is the best bet.  

How many Nigerian massage places are there in Sweden?  You want a nail salon get a Vietnamese girl.  You want great baking powder biscuits get a woman from Atlanta.  If my primary purpose in retirement was to dance the tango I would have gone to Argentina.

wintermute, on 2010-09-21 18:24:11, said:

I have to point out it does say " Australia's Favourite Cheese " on the pack in the photo mate.