PeterRS

From today's BBC website Putin begins biggest Russian military call-up in years President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia's highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military. The spring call-up for a year's military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million. That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

Understandable perhaps, but then were you not the one who disregarded "facts" when forming your "opinions" about the farmer who held on to his land at Narita?

I was first aware of Russian roulette when I watched Michael Cimino's movie "The Deer Hunter" in an open air cinema in Penang almost 25 years ago. At the time I merely thought what a senseless game. I still consider it senseless unless one has a burning desire to play games with death as the ultimate outcome. Although, as this British man discovered, death can be delayed with perhaps decades of impaired living ahead of him.

Given the extensive posts on Myanmar in another thread (yes, I'm guilty!), I suggest we should start a new one since a lot is happening in that country. First, there is a massive amount of reconstruction required in various central parts of the country. The new capital of Naypyitaw was the second most badly hit after Mandalay with the Prediential Palace, the Parliament Building, the War Office and other buildings badly damaged. Since the capital is only around 20 years old, the junta leader has ordered those who constructed the buildings to rebuid them! Yet, he has also awarded a contract to Aung Pyae Sone who just happens to be the junta leader's son, to rebuild damaged military structures. "In Myanmar military parlance, GE officially refers to the work of military engineering units responsible for construction, fortifications, logistics infrastructure, and other engineering support for combat and non-combat operations." Aung Pyae Sone is the owner or a director of quite a number of different companies. Sky One Construction Ltd. is one of them. Is it merely coincidence, I wonder, that SKY, under its Chinese name Xin Ke Yuan, is the company being investigated for inferior steel suppplied for the building in Bangkok which collapsed during the Myanmar earthquake? Could the Myanmar and Thai companies somehow be interlinked? Frankly I do not know. I merely throw it into the pot of speculation. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/firm-owned-by-myanmar-junta-bosss-son-reportedly-tipped-for-quake-reconstruction.html Second, Al Jazeera has reported that with the junta's conscription drive now nearing the end of its first year, it is likely to be close to hitting its target of 60,000 for drafting into the army. But the junta has changed its rationale for enlisting new troops. Richard Horsey, a senior adviser on Myanmar for the International Crisis Group, said new conscripts are getting harder and harder to round up. While some answered the draft willingly in the first few months of it coming into force last year, that has changed. “Over time, the authorities have had to resort to ever more draconian measures to get conscripts, including abducting young men from bus stops and other public places,” Horsey said. “Local officials have been extorting money from potential conscripts in order to avoid the draft. Some officials have been killed when they entered communities attempting to compile draft lists or enforce conscription orders,” he said. And instead of being posted to guard duty around military bases or other posts behind the front lines as first intended, many of the draftees are said to be getting some of the riskiest battlefield assignments. “There are many reports of conscripts being given the most difficult and dangerous duties that more experienced soldiers are reluctant to do, such as being airdropped behind enemy lines. They are unsurprisingly failing at these tasks – either being killed, defecting or fleeing if they have the chance,” Horsey said. The conscripts are also being rushed into battle with far less training than the soldiers they are joining or replacing, in some cases as little as three months, and treated more like cannon fodder than fighters, said Kyaw Htet Aung, who heads the conflict, peace and security research program at Myanmar’s Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent think tank. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/11/myanmars-military-drafts-thousands-in-first-year-of-conscription-drive

An article in today's Guardian newspaper suggests that the days of airline boarding passes may be over in about 3 years. The International Civil Aviation Organization is working on plans for a major shake up in air travel with the introduction of a "digital travel incentive." The changes would mean the end of boarding passes and checking in for flights. Instead, when booking a flight, the information will be downloaded on our phones and updated if necessary. This will be then be linked to our passport details also on the phone. Together these will be called "journey passes". Valérie Viale, the director of product management at Amadeus, the travel technology company, has said the changes are “the biggest in 50 years”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/11/boarding-passes-and-check-in-to-be-scrapped-in-air-travel-shake-up-plans

How valuable these polls are is always questionable. Yet Skytrax has gained in popularity if only because its voters are (mostly) real travellers and it has a huge respondent base. So here are its 2025 top 10. 1. Singapore Changi Airport 2. Doha Hamad International Airport 3. Tokyo Haneda Airport 4. Seoul Incheon International Airport 5. Tokyo Narita International Airport 6. Hong Kong International Airport 7. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport 8. Rome Fiumicino Airport 9. Munich Airport 10. Zurich Airport Not really surprising that the top six are all in Asia. Nine are in Europe. The only one from North America is Vancouver at #13. Top US airport is Houston Hobby (never head of it! It seems it has just one international route to Dusseldorf - and so I have to wonder how did it gain so many votes?). Houston George Bush comes in at 33 but pipped by New York's LGA at #29. Perhaps not surprisingly JFK is way down at #89. https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2025/

I believe I am correct in adding under Thai law passports have to be carried by non-Thais at all times. I know some members here take photo copies rather than actual passports which ought to be of the details page and the page with the visa. Even if you decide not take take actual passports during Songkran, take the photocopies in your plastic bag with the phone. Yes, I am sure some plan to take photos with the phone rather than carrying a camera. That said I assume the police are lenient during the Songkran Festival, unless you inadvertently get into some melee.

I assume that is a joke. Even if there are several ways of shaking hands, westerners learn these as they are growing up, much the same as Thais learn the wai - which does have several important position.

I have been shopping at several different TOPS for years. In the last few years I have noticed that this supermarket chain has got worse at its stock taking and refilling items that are sold out. I accepted that the pandemic must have caused major supply disruptions. But the situation has been normal for well over a year. Not replenishing stock for a few days or even weeks I can understand. But sometimes certain items disappear for six months before returning to the shelves. At one of its main stores in Central Chidlom I asked a supervisor why a certain item had been absent from the shelves for months. After checking she replied the supermarket would no longer stock it. A couple of months later, it was back! Another item of frozen food has totally disappeared and been replaced by a different brand which costs 35% more!

I'm rather shocked that no passengers saw what was happening and reported them to the flight purser.

I have not been to the Park but you may be right. Depends I suppose where the entrances are.

I think I'm right in suggesting that the Queen Sirikit MRT station is the closest to the Park. Asoke BTS/Sukhumvit MRT a cose second.

I'm certain you must have enjoyed Italy. I have a good friend slightly older than I who used to work for the large Beaverbrook Group of newspapers in the UK. In 1974 - yes, as early as then - even journalists with just a couple of years there were offered early retirement if they voluntarily left the organisation. Charles, who had always loved Italy, took the cash and moved to Piacenza not far from Modena. All his career he taught English. Whenever I started visiting Italy he would try to meet me. One of the joys of those meetings was his deep knowledge of wherever we met. Another was his even deeper knowledge of Italian cuisine and restaurants - not the expensive or even moderately expensive places. The simple ones where you could visit the kitchen, chat with the chef and jointly decide what we'd eat. I recall in partcular one vsit to Venice where we had a very large 4-hour lunch accompanied by two litres of wine! We last got together when I visited him in 2019. He took me to a town about 30 minutes from Florence which he calls one of the loveliest in the country, Pistoia.

Sorry guys, not the size you think the title means. There was a programme on tv last night about the construction of the Merdeka Tower 118 in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia proudly tells everyone that this is the second tallest building in the world at 678.9 meters above ground. Yet, in my view, it is nowhere near that! Opened in 2024, it boasts a spire of 160.7 meters. True, some people can go up into it to access a small observation deck. But take away that spire and the height of the building is actually only 515 meters. The top habitable floor is 485 meters up. The Shanghai Tower which has no spire is 632 meters high and has 10 floors of habitable space more than the Merdeka 118. Merdeka 118 is actually the 10th highest in the world. Presently New York's World Trade Centre sits at No. 10 but it has a spire of 124.3 meters - so it slips further down the list. It reminds me of a feud between two of Hong Kong's top commercial banks. When HSBC opened its then new Norman Forster-designed headquarters in 1985, it was regarded as an iconic building in terms of the way it was constructed. Its height is 180 meters. Next door is the Standard Chartered Bank sitting on a vastly smaller land footprint. When it opened its own new HQ redesign in 1990, its tapered design reached 191 meters. Pure one-upmanship! (In the photo you can see the tiny stepped building next to the very large HSBC HQ.) One wonders when skyscrapers will boast ever larger spires. What sort of bragging rights does having the 2nd largest skyscraper in the world give to Malaysia when it is not even true?

Living here for more than a couple of decades, that is always what I have been told! Interesting that she mentions "Keep the displays of affection private". There was a thread on this issue some years ago with some posters basically saying, more or less, I'll do what I want. Part of the conversation dealt with 2 guys kissing in a very public place. Not a peck on the cheek but a full blown lengthy French kiss on a Skytrain platform. Some felt that this should not cause any problem as Thailand is a tourist-oriented country and should accept such behaviour, even though it is not what Thai's would do. I totally disagree. In a pub, club or disco, OK. But respect for and an understanding and acceptance of local sensibilities is important re tourism in all countries. When in Rome . . .

After more than 30 trips and with good friends in one of the coastal cities (New York) and in middle America (Louisville) whom I have regularly visited, I now have no desire to return. Loathing of Trump and his actions is only part of the reason, the ghastly and increasing profliferation of guns being one other. Scenically there are still parts of the country I would like to see, but there are also other parts of the world. I'll concentrate on those.

If you want to find a party scene in Chongqing or Chengdu, I really suggest you hook up and get to know a local first. Also bear in mind that the Chinese have some expectations of foreigners. May I suggest that you first read the Gay China forum and also watch the video I posted in there.

Last Friday US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the most inane of comments: “'If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,' he told reporters in Brussels." Funny! I was always taught that in making public statements about any touchy subject you rolled out only good news - even though it may not be not so good! Rubio's stupidity has not stopped the fall-off in tourists from Europe to the USA already furious at Trump's behaviour in office aligned to his tariff tactics. Fear of detention by US Immigration authoriites has only made the situation worse. "After forecasting a 5% dip for inbound travel to the US this year in February, travel forecasting group Tourism Economics has revised its projections, telling CNN Travel that it now expects that figure to almost double to 9.4% . . . Summer hotel bookings from European travelers for Accor properties in the US are also down a whopping 25%, CEO Sébastien Bazin said in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV. Jean-François Rial, CEO of France’s leading luxury tour operator Voyageurs du Monde, said that ever since Trump’s inauguration in late January, bookings for US travel among his wealthy French clients have dropped a “colossal” 20%. In the 30 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve never seen anything like this for any destination. It’s huge,” he told CNN Travel. It's not just that Europeans are chosing other destinations. Many who have already booked, have cancelled those bookings despite losing their siginificant deposits. Yesterday Forbes also highlighted the fact that European tourism to the USA was down 17% in March compared to the same period last year. The US National Travel and Tourism Office is no more optimistic. “'Trump Administration policies and pronouncements are resulting in a negative sentiment shift toward the U.S. among travelers,' wrote analysts at Tourism Economics, which revised its 2025 forecast for a 9% loss of inbound foreign tourists after initially predicting a 9% jump. That 18% swing could be the beginning of a long-term decline, with the analysts adding, 'We expect the negative impact on international travel to the US to be strongest in 2025, but it will likely persist in degrees through the remainder of Trump’s second term.'” https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/travel/european-travelers-skipping-us-trips/index.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/04/09/european-travel-to-us-plummeted-in-march/

When will Trump realise that he cannot win in a trade war with China. He can hike tariffs as much as he wants but China will brave it out. At the same time, the US consumer will lose out - at least in the short term. WIth his ridiculous list of tariffs announced prior to his backing down, five top tech leaders who supported him have collectively lost around $1.8 trillion since the start of the year. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/tech/tech-leaders-supported-trump-lost-money-dg/index.html Similarly, he backed down not for the stated reasons but because his Treasury and Commerce Secretaries had warned him of the danger of a sharp sell-off of normally safe US government bonds. As CNN reports, Trump's threshold for political pain is precisely one week! https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/politics/trump-tariffs-retreat-bond-market/index.html

To round off my contribution to the Myanmar debate, let me just thank @Raposa for his contribution, something I should have done yesterday. He clearly knows a lot more about the country than I had at first assumed and I should have recognised that. I hope others may now know at least a little more about that blighted country, how complex the situation is there, and how difficult a solution to the ending of endless civil war and leading the country forward will be. I do hope that anyone interested in learning more will read Thant Myint-U's excellent "Hidden History of Burma." As one reviewer wrote: "Thant Myint-U is the one indispensable author on Burma. This is an accessible, understated but powerful story of modern Burma's journey from hope to tragedy." If ordered through the UK or USA amazon sites, there is a Kindle edition at £5.03 or $8.51.

Yes, the remains of the KMT in Yunnan which were unable to flee with Chiang Kai Shek to Taiwan did cross into Burma's Shan State in 1950 and were supported by the USA through the CIA, the ROC from Taiwan and Thailand. But they were not welcomed by the Burmese military, the Tadmadaw. One reason for its anger was the KMT had become involved in the lucrative opium trade. Another was its presence on the border with China compromised Burma's declared policy of neutrality. Having refused to depart the country after many requests to do so, in 1953 the Tadmadaw launched Operation Nagar Naing against the KMT forces. This resulted in a defeat at the hands of the KMT forces. The Burma government then complained to the United Nations about the KMT invasion of its territory. The UN told the KMT to withdraw. They did not. Like Chiang in Taiwan, those KMT forces in Burma intended to build up their forces and then help to invade communist China. Early in the following year in Operation Bayintnaung, though, the Burmese army managed to force much of the KMT out of the country into Thailand. That May these KMT forces were flown from Chiang Rai to Taiwan. About 6,000 KMT forces remained in Burma, but merely a rump of those who had invaded. Most of these remained on the Shan State border with Thailand - and sometimes across that border. Some have argued, as @Raposa has, that this group helped build the Burmese army into a true army that enabled the 1962 coup. But far from all agree with this. Some commentators have argued strongly that this is based on propaganda emanating from Taiwan. Having looked at various sources and their authors, I believe in this propaganda theory.

If I were to visit Pattaya, I'd usually head for Beertique apart from one reason - live music. If i want a beer with friends or even on my own in the hope I might chat with someone, I do not want music blaring over my shoulder. I have never understood this fascination with live music in eateries and bars.

If Washington does come up with that accusation, I trust someone in the USA will recall that Trump will effectively be calling the kettle BLACK! In the 1980s, the Reagan administration accused Japan of maintaining too low an exchange rate in order to boost its exports. It then used a number of measures to 'persuade' Japan that it had to increase the value of the ¥. From around US$1 = ¥250 when I started visiting the country in 1981, the rate by the time I left in 1992 after two years working there was close to US$1 = ¥115. This was entirely due to US pressure. And of course one indirect effect was that Japan endured an entire decade of deep recession in the 1990s.

To your question I have to say I have absolutely no idea, very sadly. As I wrote in an earlier post, the huge problem facing Myanmar should the militias win and the army is truly beaten is - is there an individual with the power and charisma who can both lead and unify? At one time I think we all assumed that Aung San Suu Kyi would fill that role. Sadly she is now thoroughly discredited and disliked, both within Myanmar and around the world. Besides she is over 80 and, as one who initially admired her and ended up speaking out quite forcibly against her, President Bill Clinton's once Ambassador at Large in his diplomacy with North Korea, basically told the world she "lacked moral leadership." The situation is somewhat similar to what existed in the mid-1930s. Britain then still regarded Burma as a Province of India. Many students actively felt betrayed by this and formed associations to find a way to gain independence. Ms. Aung's father, Aung San, became this group's natural leader. As war approached, Aung had taken note of the Japanese successes in China. He was almost certain that the Japanese intended to widen its war in Asia. So he spent a year in Japan, learning the language and studying its military methods. When the Japanese did invade Burma, General Aung believed that they did so primarily as a route to India where they intended to foment rebellion against the British. He sided with the invaders and became the second most important man in the Japanese occupying force. In that role, he was effectively fighting the Karens from Kayin State who fought on the side of the British. It was only when Aung realised he had been duped and that the Japanese were intent just as much in pillaging and raping Burma that he changed sides. At this time, the British had started their slow return to Burma. In London it was realised that the end of Empire was on the horizon and Burma would be one of the first countries to be granted independence. Winston Churchill was furious at General Aung whom he believed had been a traitor who should be tried and hung. He might have got his way had it not been for Admiral Louis Mountbatten, then the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in South-East Asia. Mountbatten argued with Churchill that such a move was a recipe for disaster. He considered that only one man was capable of keeping Burma together as a country - General Aung. Mountbatten got his way. In the April 1947 General Election four months prior to independence, Aung's party won 176 of the 210 seats. Three months later Aung was having a cabinet meeting when four armed men burst into the chamber and asassinated Aung and six of his ministers. Although the country's pre-war Prime Minister U Saw was arrested and hanged for his participation in the murders, the guns and buillets used had come from a cache of British armaments. Rumours persist to this day of British involvement. Certainly there were some shady British ex-army characters who had joined the Burmese police about whom much has been written. One had allegedly been killed in 1950 but was then found to have been spirited back to Britain from Bangkok in 1955 using false papers! Britain's Secret Service monitored a group based in London interested in Burmese affairs. The fact that most of the documents remain sealed in the Brtish archives suggests - although there is to date no proof - that Britain could have been more heavily involved. All that can be assumed is that there were powerful people in Britain who wanted a different course for an independent Burma. Balloons Over Bagan Although considerably older than you, that also remains one of the few items on my bucket list. I have been told that some of the temples were almost certainly affected by the earthquake. The last major quake in 2016 sadly did considerable damage.

You may call them gangs, but the vast majority of Burmese do not - and certainly do not consider themselves as gangs. They are fighting for freedom, first and foremost, from a succession of military juntas. A small handful, perhaps, see control of natural resources as a secondary aim - but the numbers are tiny compared to the total in the militias. If anyone, it is the Chinese in the Shan State who have for years been after the country's raw materials and other resources - and that has not stopped. I absolutely cannot agree. The situation in Myanmar is hugely complicated and that is not merely the view of your so-called "experts". I would certainly trust a small number of Myanmar historians like Thant Mint-U to provide a very detailed and accurate picture. It seems you are suggesting that the situation in Myanmar is not as complex as I and others have suggested. With respect, perhaps you might therefore tell us more about your own detailed and extensive research that brings you to that view. As far as engaging in discussion with those Burmese outside the country, the fact is that almost no-one has much clue about what is going on within, and this is made more difficult by the day-to-day changes we hear little about. As I have written before, there are about 300 Myanmar journalists camped out near Mae Sot who manfully bring to the world as much news as they can from inside the country. Trump's slashing of USAID means that many now work for either penuts or nothing at all. I have written a book about a boy born in the Shan State in the year 2000. He is now in Switzerland. Three of his siblings have managed to flee to Thailand but his oldest sister and father are still in the country. Typical of the average Myanmar citizens, they have little clue about what is going on within the country as a whole - merely their own small district. That is just not true! The military conscription law covers all males between 18 and 35 - and is likely to have the upper age limit further extended. If Burmese live officially overseas, they can only get new passports if they show certificates either proving their service in the military or a specific reason for not serving. Those merely renewing work papers will have to pay a new tax to the junta government. Some 3 million Burmese work legally in Thailand. If they are illegals in non-essential work, they better hope they are not caught because the Thai government has not been slow in deporting Burmese back to Myanmar. As Roisai Wongsuban, a policy advocate for a Thai NGO said in January, "While all nationalities face similar risks, Myanmar nationals face dual risks - both political opposition groups and ordinary workers uninvolved in politics. If deported, they might be drafted into military service, risking their lives." https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/thai/myanmar-refugees-thailand-migrants-01252025163854.html I agree with the point you make in your last sentence. But even to suggest "it is misleading that colonialism is the sole or even the primary cause of the current predicament" is absolutely untrue! It is the primary truth! Do you really know anything about Myanmar before and during the British colonial era? Are you aware that the British tore the country apart in terms of governance, economics and religion - all for profit of the British. Are you aware of King Mindon's major reforms for the country which effectively made it the most powerful monarchy in South-East Asia? Are you aware that in the three wars against the British, Mindon's successor Thibaw in the capital Mandalay was so concerned about the British bringing vast numbers of Indians into the lower part of the country they then controlled, that he asked the French for help in getting the British out? Are you aware that Randolph Churchill, Winston's father and at that time Britain's Secretary of State for India, was so infuriated by this he ordered 10,000 British troops to sail up the Irrawaddy and dethrone Thibaw who became Burma's last king? Are you aware that the British terminated the millennia-old alliance between Buddhism and governance of the country? Are you aware that the British destroyed the hitherto self-sufficient economy of Burma? Are you aware that the British uprooted the extensive mangrove forests in the irrawaddy Delta to make way for a vast increase in rice farms? The opening of the Suez Canal had created new markets for rice and these the British intended to and did exploit making Burma the largest rice exporter in the world. Are you aware that this resulted in soaring land values and major inflation? Are you aware that the British allowed Indian and Chinese merchants to control the rice trade? Cheaper labour from India was then imported resulting in massive unemployment amongst the native Burmese? Are you aware at the beginning of the 20th century, more than 250,000 Indians each year were flocking to Myanmar to work? Are you aware that the governance of the country was in the hands of the British and Indians, without any native Burmese? One who witnessed the destruction of Burma by the British was one of their own. Eric Blair had been born to a poor family in Bengal. Thanks to a scholarship he was educated in England at Eton before returning to work in the Burma colonial police force. Blair took the trouble to learn Burmese, but he hated his time there. He hated the corruption. He was devastated at how Britain was destroying the country. After five years Blair left Burma and became a writer. In his most famous novel, he wrote, "“Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” He learned that from his time in Burma. His name as a writer is George Orwell and that novel is "1984". That is another wholly inaccurate statement. The Chinese Civil War started in 1927 and continued with a short WWII break until the communists won in 1949. Communism in China was a fact 13 years before the 1962 military coup. Communism or fear of it had virtually no role whatever in the Burma coup. As in many countries, it was student uprisings that started that ball rolling. But it was another colonial act which spurred events. Prior to departing the country, under the Panglong Agreement the British colonial government had promised the huge Shan State (almost four times the size of Switzerland) independence within a united Burma ten years after the country's independence. The army was against the agreement and determined that it be torn up. The army feared any form of outside influence if any State broke away. After rebellions in the Shan State, the Panglong Agreement was shredded. I could go on and on. I spent much of last year researching Myanmar and its long history. I am no expert, but I believe I now know vastly more than I did before I started. I am happy to argue further on specific issues, but generalisations are rather a waste of time in my view.