joekicker

No, what you quoted was my pointing out the sub-set of THAIS who are Isan gals living with white men. I wanted to write about Thais in general including those gals, but NOT ONLY those gals. Of course there are exceptions, but you aren't Thai, you aren't a sub-set and you aren't an exception. I was being REALLY general, much more general than most posts in this forum or this thread, but about Thais, not about people of pallor. But since you talk about that.... Everyone's a little different. But the one thing I didn't etalk about was money. I was posting about feelings, heart (jai) and so on. But everyone seems fixated on the money to prove their point. Of course economics is part, important or not, of these mixed relationships. But that wasn't what I was posting about. In fact, by bringing up money you are not addressing what the vast majority of Thais would be discussing, which is jai. I'm not attacking anyone at all, I'm just commenting generally on the cultural divide that a lot of guys in this thread haven't spanned. I'm sure an equal number of Thais in my mythical thread would be the same but taking the opposite tack. My point is way different from flaming or knocking that- my point is simply to note that there *is* a divide. Hub, all of your posts I've read seem to say you and yours both realise there's a divide that you work to get over. Ironically, this particular one I'm quoting doesn't really address it at all.

Actually the three words beginning with "dw" are dwarf, dwell, dweeb and dwindle. Same with punctuation; actually there are several quite different dashes for example. And there are other landmarks that move backwards including glaciers and the Chicago River. Fun to have questions outside the box, though. Good one.

Of course. It's the sub-unit she lives in. "Family" is the only word available. But as you say, she hasn't cut herself off in any manner. Unless she is unique, she considers "her" family as "our" family. She also considers "your" family as "our" family, I'm sure. Exceptions are rare but from what you wrote so far, your wife isn't an exception. I think you haven't got too deep into how she views all her relationships, and it's not all that important until one day, for some reason, it becomes important - let's say an emergency in "her" family. She may, and probably will, view that as "our" emergency. It would be strange if she did not feel the exact same way about an emergency in "your" family as well. What money has to do with that, or why you brought it in, I have no idea. As I said above, if this were a thread involving the Thai people, it would have a far different tone and direction. Almost all Thais would accept your family as their family "for better or worse", whereas most people in this thread don't accept that definition of family. It's a very definite cultural thing. Most westerners don't even give it a thought, most Thais don't think to bring it up because they don't realise how much westerners cut themselves off from their families at 18 or 22 years old. Thais never really move out from their families. This has NOTHING to do with money.

More bobbies on the beat never hurt a town. And lord knows every Thai town could use it. The problem is they sorta kinda have walkie-talkies, yes -- more of a jungle telegraph. You see it all over Thailand - in Bangkok the illegal street (or pirate) vendors. It should happen, but I'm pessimistic it would help with these child gangs, more's the pity. You won't get a Thai law that makes parents responsible, they're very American about that (as usual). It's been talked to death for 40 years I personally know of, principally in Bangkok, and it's not going to happen. Nor should it in my opinion. Mr Fang and Oliver (Twist) are Dickens.

I wish I had an answer in four lines, but I don't. I'll tell you some reality. One is that if you even THINK of locking up these kids, you can forget it OR prepare for the biggest fire-xhitstorm of your life. The last time the Chon Buri and Pattaya cops proposed setting up a nice little remand home for the gangs, the whole country tore into them. You won't be locking them up and you'll be on every front page in the country as a heartless baxtard to boot. You might find Oliver in Pattaya, but Mr Fang has been fired and retired, without pension. That's reality. It's not up for debate. Another reality is that contacting the parents is as helpful as implanting teats on a boar. The parents are in on it slash the masterminds slash "just can't control him". Making cops into social workers wastes time and annoys the cops. Another is that even if you make the cops into social workers, who gets to be cops? Another is that if you make the cops social workers, then YOU are actually and really making excuses for the pixx poor policing, not just fantasising about how some other poster is doing it when he most certainly is not. Again, I'm the one ASKING for fresh ideas. If I had a four-line or 40-line solution, I'd give it, and for free.

Less than 11,000 baht to Sydney/Oz - that's sensational. If you want to go to Ozzie for two weeks before the end of the winter, it's a brilliant price. It's almost like they're capitalists, eh, Gabor? Loved this: - Date change are cannot.

The name of the town in Burma is Mandalay. It's also the name of about 10,000 knock-ons such as the Samui Mandalay. Someone posted a while ago about the horrible spelling in this forum and, by extension, the world. I don't think you have to spell every word in a post correctly. Typos happen. But I think you have to spell names right. samui mandalay and now GIYF.

But it's not that simple a choice. If you provide that preventative presence, you're a bully who should be out catching real criminals - since no one has broken the law after all. Assuming you spot and stop a kid who's pick-pocketing, what then? Handcuff him and try to find a judge who will keep him in jail a year awaiting trial and then sentence him to 10 years? Seriously, what do you do? It's not easy for the cops at all.

In an average October, it's hot. Also, for around half an hour almost every day, there's rain. About once a week it's for more than half an hour. Sometimes there are flooded streets in Pattaya. If you have iron body parts, they could rust. If you're a chocolate soldier, you may melt. Otherwise, plan to use the rainy-time productively, at a bar or with an afternoon companion in a bed somewhere or other - if you last more than 30 minutes of course.

Good! The police have never heard of child pickpockets I'm sure. bolly, there's no reason not to warn - any valid warning is a good warning, no matter how old. But this is just another example of a tired, old scam that started the day after Eve told him to eat the apple or there would be no puxxy.

I just recently read a good piece on the actual NorKors coming back to England and still getting a good reception. I presume it was a doco, the newspaper piece I saw was a little vague on why they had come back for a reunion of sorts.

Relentless aren't they? The US was sort of mouth-gasping and the yellow shirts just kept coming as you say. Better team won, the other team did the game proud. I think there's no argument now the US are world class, if not world champs. The more top teams the better, bring on the World Cup. A propos of that, FIFA is supposed to rule on those horns but the ridiculous Blatter person says it might be racist to ban them for an African tournament. WTF??? Further a propos of that, anyone planning Joburg next July better pack long johns and mufflers. The crowd did not look comfortable at all!

I spoke to my daughter in the USA on the phone at half time and offered to bet her Brazil would win. They they scored immediately. The US is in that lovely position of where it is virtually impossible to be embarrassed, whoever wins.

Halftime, I don't think the Norte Americanos need worry about being embarrassed no matter what happens now. Mr Kaka and associates, on the other hand.... The second US goal was absolutely brilliant, as good as anything since Maradona, and the Americans actually KICKED the ball home. (Tempted to say "to boot" but it's so obvious). .

Okay, I don't agree. Hockey expanded, and actually the NHL hasn't done all that well. All you have in the west is the pros - the "triple A" teams and double-A teams and high school teams don't draw flies for all intents. But you can make the argument you make, I understand.

They've never had one. That's a commercial gimmick, nothing to do with July 4 picnics. They have always had watermelon-eating contests for the kids, find-your-shoes in the pile. Egg toss has become traditional for Bangkok at least. Tug of War and three-legged races. It's a US-style party with absolutely no bars on who attends.

Gee I think that getting to the final match of a really major tournament isn't very embarrassing. It'd have to be something like 12-0 in the last game to be embarrassing now. I don't buy this "good for the sport" doohickey, though, any more than Pele playing for New York was great or the US women winning the world championship was good for it or Beckham was. Lots of people like soccer. There's all kinds of it on US TV - I noticed while quickly surfing past it that New Zealand-Iraq World Cup playoff was live on ESPN 2 a week or whatever ago - a very popular station where all the Wimbledon tennis plays. But soccer just won't get the numbers and notice and attention in the US that it gets in one-sport countries, most of which are in Europe. It will always have to share. Yeah, this is kind of my point. You can't get better than Lake Placid. But hockey didn't gain (or lose) because of it. But we all love it when they play the game and the underdog wins, I think. It was a good day for the Americans against Spain, plus the US has a very good team at the moment. If the beat Brazil, it would be a real kick, no pun intended. One good deal about being the underdog is it's really REALLY hard to be embarrassed. The only team in danger of being embarrassed is Brazil. ADD: I just checked the US TV listings, and I see this final match is on live on the Numero Uno Top ESPN channel in about three hours (as I write). An hour after the game, there's a baseball game but good for the US ESPN people. .

Very good luck to you. I hope you get that left eye back 20-10. I really winced at your post. When I was 18 months old a doctor made one of those mistakes. I've been wearing glasses ever since and I have gone from 20-200 to 20-2000 in that eye until now. .

hmm little glitch, double posted. sorry.

Absolutely right on, which is why I suggested people stop bothering us and Thailand with their "this is the way they do it in (insert country) and why can't the gawdam Thais do the same" BS. They are NOT going to clean up the environment or stop dumping garbage because you say they should. But they certainly will if there's a baht in it. They certainly will if you take some time to educate. There are lots of conservation and environment groups already. It's a lot different here from 1969 and 1989. A lot. Stop preaching and you might be surprised. But even then it won't be like back home. You won't teach them to LOVE old stuff, love the forests or, especially, love the animals. Isn't going to happen in your lifetime. But you can accomplish all kinds of stuff if you climb out of your preconceptions and look around and try to adapt. Where "you" is generic, jacko. You (non-generic) at least do see the forests and trees both.

Oh stop sucking up to Don fergawdsake, people will get the wrong idea about you! The POINT is not what you know, because all of us know almost nothing. The POINT is what you can find out, and what a huge help the Internet and Google and the screen you're staring at right now can be about this. If you are ON the Internet and you cannot find out for days and days who Susan Boyle is, then you need a gentle prod about it, SOME kind of reminder.

Embarrass away. Tip du jour: You do not have to press Enter or otherwise make line feeds halfway through the sentence. The software here will make your linefeeds for you and it looks and reads ever so much better.

PLEASE don't bring all your silly force-fed preconceptions on this kind of subject. Leave them at home. Half of them are stupid, the other half are ignorant, and the other half don't matter. You have to be really half-crazed to believe Thailand is going to feed your fantasy of saving the Earth. Don't be a gawdam missionary. If you MUST do this xhit, go do it to your own countries. I'm not a huge believer in this love-it-or-leave-it stuff, but this is really one of those times. If you don't like the way Thailand is destroying your pitiful little helpless world, go home. dontheturner - You use printer cartridges? Made of unsustainable and non-renewable materials, starting with fossil fuels? How destructive of Mother Gaia you are. But look: What you really meant to say was: Does Thailand have places to recycle printer cartridges? You would have got answers, probably quite a lot of useful ones. But you didn't, so: If you don't know how to recycle your printer cartridges in Thailand, you don't know much. Thailand is a pioneer in this, and if you've never seen it, I have to question if you've ever even set foot in Thailand, let alone the IT section of a mall. The big printer companies have repeatedly called for trade sanctions on Thailand BECAUSE they recycle - like the software and music and movie companies for example. "It's unauthorised! It's hurting business! Those Thai thieves are recycling our cartridges! Send in the gunboats! Little children could get hurt if Thais recycle printer cartridges and they blow up because of the unofficial ink! Think of The Workers put out of their jobs because of Thai property thieves!" once again Don - GIYF. You can find out EVER so much if you just want to. .

Wow I am so impressed that you learned all that computer stuff without learning what it was for. GIYF. Really it is.

Quite a cultural divide here. I dare say that the Thai-language version of this thread might be a little different. Thais (and I do NOT mean the small sub-set of Thai women from Isan who consort with white men) believe that when you marry, the families marry. Thais have extended families, and the man-wife-children family unit simply doesn't exist. Most of the posters here aren't just taking their wives out of Thailand, they're trying to take the Thai out of their wives. That's fine, if they want to be like Professor Higgins and manufacture a dark-skinned, foreign-raised farang wife of course.