bkkguy

Far be it from me to suggest that saying "Far be it from me to argue with someone as opinionated on the subject as bkkguy" is actually expressing a not very subtle negative opinion about that person and with all due respect, expressions like "far be it from me" are usually used to make expressed opinions or criticisms seem more polite than they actually are bkkguy

democracy is a lot like encryption - the underlying theory may be sound but poor implementations often leave open the possibility of exploits and manipulation and ultimately failure democracy and encryption are are also alike in many other ways - you need education to help people understand the issues, you need respect for freedom of speech, you need reliable sources of information and resources to make an informed decision, you need a long term timeframe to achieve real results for a country like Thailand that is supposedly trying to transition from a feudalistic patronage system via an imperfect democracy to hopefully a better democratic system (where better means better for the country as a whole long term, rather than better for a few short term), short-sighted simplistic attitudes like these above (both from Thai and falung) go a long way to explain why I see there are no realistic good options for Thailand! I have been accused in another forum of being an impossible idealistic libertarian, but I do believe that democracy can be a good for Thailand, but the current implementation of the "bells and whistles' here currently ignores some fundamental issues of democracy and I would rather see those addressed rather than fall in love with other "saviors". bkkguy

forgive me for being a cynic, I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, I just doubt the sincerity - he gave this interview in Singapore just before a meeting with Pheu Thai MPs who had flown there specifically to discuss Pheu Thai policy despite his frequent claims that he is no longer interested in influencing politics in Thailand and a few days before a Skype call to a Pheu Thai party meeting where MPs where being told to vote on party lines about the constitutional amendments that were made specifically to advantage him! And for every opinion expressed in the Washington Post or the New York Times there is always another one expressed by some farmers in a remote corner of Texas who vote too, particularly on issues like teaching "Creationism" as "science" in schools - your point is? bkkguy

you may be right, I am a subscriber and have registered on the web site and may have more access than unregistered/non-subscriber visitors but you don't really have to go back that far, here is a link to his articles from the last few months that I think should all be readable: http://www.bangkokpost.com/search/news-and-article?xAuthor=130&xAdvanceSearch=true and keep reading every Sunday! "no good choices" were actually firecat's words, but I suppose basically there are zero realistic good choices - there are lots of choices, many of them bad, but unfortunately the chances of the good choices being made are square root of f**k all without significant change to the very fabric of Thai society before the last coup Thailand was a totally corrupt feudalistic patronage based society where "democracy" was a game played by a select few for their own benefit but then along came someone who played this game too well so too many other players were losing out, post-coup the various factions have become so blinded by their own selfish objectives that reconciliation is a pipe-dream OK so maybe I have more of a fixed idea about Thailand's glass being half-full or half-empty compared to Khun Voranai and I am not trying to put words in his mouth, but read his op-ed piece today where he posits two possible positions Thaksin could take - he does not directly identify one as "good" or "bad" or even directly rate which one is the most likely outcome but I would suggest neither is likely because for Thaksin it is a game to be played for his own benefit so the waters just get more muddied and Thailand continues to suffer! if you (or others) read the article, I would be interested to hear what you think! bkkguy

I have lived in Thailand for most of the last 20 years and have no plans to leave any time soon and even though I have an opinion - sorry, as you and firecat69 would prefer, I am opinionated - I have I have no vote so yes it is up to the Thais to sort it out! you were the one to introduce and support the quote about future generations - do you live her permanently? and the quote was from Thaksin, but he has so far had little "chai" luck getting his son into politics, but much better "ying" luck with female relatives! but then "he" doesn't live permanently in Thailand either so I am not sure quite what point you are trying to make here! anyone who has spent any time here knows that in Thailand there are never two sides to an argument - there is always the "third hand" or other mysterious forces at play! I thought that was my point! but you don't have to take my opinionated word for it - search back through the Bangkok Post archives for any of the Sunday op-ed pieces by Khun Voranai Vanijaka for a Thai perspective on why "there [are] no good choice" in Thailand! bkkguy

... one man wants to continue to rape the country? bkkguy

the only thing he ever did for the poor was to make sure they stayed poor - "How [else are] Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm [and voting for you]?" it is not in his interest - or the interest of his family, or his cronies, or even the opposition elite - to do anything else! why else do you think the Pheu Thai party's rice pledging scheme has left more poor rice farmers even further in debt but enriched the middle-class rice millers and traders? why else do you think the Democrat's rice price guarantee scheme returned some extra funds to poor farmers but not enough to really make a difference? why else do you think any government in the last 20 years - regardless of shirt colour - has not supported moves by independent farmer co-operatives to move to organic fragrant rice production or multi-cropping where poor farmers can earn substantially more without "help" from the government? why else do you think any Thai government - regardless of shirt colour - is so willing to throw money at education provided it does not actually achieve anything in educating the proles? tablets for all anybody? and the red shirt Pheu Thai MPs are really showing their true colours now - they are happy for "him" to be included in the amnesty but not Abhisit and Suthep! and the reaction from the relatives and victims of the crackdown on the red shirt protests show they are not likely to just roll over and get f***** one more time! you want to put an end to it - this is not the way! see the editorial cartoon in the Bangkok Post today! or keep reading their coverage of this - OK preaching to the converted but ... bkkguy

And this is your idea of acceptable business practice but defending their legally registered trademark through standard legal channels is not? you will fit in well in Thailand! bkkguy

check the fine print on any package - at that price in Thailand "unlimited" would mean 500MB or 1GB at 3G speeds then the rest of the "unlimited" month is at 2G speeds, so text messages, some email and some surfing the web no problem, but skype can chew up the MB very quickly at 3G speeds but is almost unusable at 2G speeds when you exceed you "unlimited" limit. it worked for GoldMember for a week but depending on your usage two weeks or more may be pushing it for such a data plan! perhaps do some estimates of the cost of mobile or cheap phone card call home at per minute rates v's the price of a skype call at data rates bkkguy

Well according to the wikipedia article : so it would appear no jail sentences in Burma either! sure a corrupt police or other official in Burma may decide to selective enforce the law in your case, but the same possibility exists here in Thailand - the way the prostitution laws are phrased in Thailand means that a corrupt police or other official could construe almost any sexual contact between a Thai and a western visitor or expat as prostitution and according to the penal code in Thailand customers of prostitutes face a jail sentence of up to 3 years and a fine up to 60,000 Baht but again the law is never enforced according to a police spokesman in the Bangkok Post today if you want to use straw man arguments to keep you away from Burma then to be consistent the same arguments should keep you away from Thailand as well as many other countries - are you familiar with the laws in Singapore? Malaysia? some states in the USA? bkkguy

I assume you mean "do not" in the second line as well? I don't want to appear "crude and rude" but as this is not a grammar or spelling issue I feel safe - it is however a classic example of why you need to proof-read your posts carefully if you want people to understand you! the same often applies to "there", "their" and "they're" etc - dyslexics and non-native speakers aside, everyone can make mistakes sometimes but too many posters consistently seem like they could not be bothered spending their time to proof-read their message before clicking post so why should I waste my time trying to decipher it or give their opinions any credence? bkkguy

Of course it is not just in Thailand - "Paid in full with one glass of milk" was a popular US version of the same idea quite a few years back: Snopes has a discussion on the veracity of "The milk of human kindness" story - while the gist of the story may be true, reality has been greatly embellished! still the Thai video was much better - TrueMove really lived up to their name! bkkguy

glad you are enjoying your Nespresso Michael, I still think it is one of the best options on the market today - I can make a better latte at home by pressing two buttons than I can get at most of the cafes and restaurants around Silom! just got my latest order today (only placed it Wednesday!) including some of the new Vanilio, Ciocattino and Trieste blends - my taste buds are panting just at the thought of trying them! I just wish Thailand would cut its import duty on coffee and we might start getting capsules at the more reasonable prices seen in surrounding countries! bkkguy

substitute yellow for black and you also have the portrayal of Asians in Hollywood movies and on UK TV for many years - R&H's The King and I is still banned in Thailand, etc etc etc! and yes skin colour in Thailand is a status issue not a race issue - we in the west get a tan to show we can afford to lead a life of leisure, in Thailand you have dark skin because you are labouring in the fields! The real race issues here are about the neighbors in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and it is very much about lampooning their inferiority - sometimes it seems half the population of Bangkok thinks the only reason Laos exists is so the Isarn people have someone to look down on! and yes for Thais foreign blacks are a novelty quite exploitable in this advertising context and defiantly not sullied by the local negative connotations of dark skin and farm workers, and who in Thailand really cares about western prejudices and politically correct sensibilities? bkkguy

just how "broad" should we expect those "strokes" to be - 80% of the information he gave in the listing was meaningless, misleading or wrong! most sex workers - as disinterested as they can be - manage better "strokes" than that! so start/buy a listing site, post any crap you like, mislead and confuse potential customers and perhaps cause problems to venues till someone else steps in to correct you, and while letting others do all the work for you correcting the crap you get all the kudos and ad revenue etc - Scooby obviously thinks this is a PERFECT plan as well! bkkguy

you almost make this sound like a bad thing to pocket the 18 Baht - but at Coffee Society their advertised price is 95 Baht but I actually have to pay 102 Baht, I have to go to the counter to order and to pay and they usually only begrudgingly offer to bring my drink to my table, I am not American - perhaps someone here could explain to me why i should even begin to consider leaving them 18 Baht in this scenario! of course the owner's fantasy about how he can maximize his revenue from such customer manipulation is another issue! bkkguy

you obviously need some feedback because you don't seem to know much about it! I would say it is a cafe rather than a coffee bar, but that is maybe being pedandtic it opened last year then recently closed for extensive renovations and re-opened again last week, I suppose that is "some time now" and yes it is still the same management - they also manage Tarntawan Place and Dick's Cafe More importantly they also have a mouthwatering selection of cakes made exclusively for them by a local pâtisserie available also for take-away! They offer a great selection of single plate Thai lunches at very reasonable prices (very popular with local office workers) - but if you need a late afternoon breakfast you can certainly get it! interestingly you say they are open till 2:00 PM (which is wrong) - what do you class as "late afternoon" for breakfast? flowers@cafedesfleursbkk.com is obviously an email address not a web site! their web site http://www.cafedesfluersbkk.com seems to be still under development the venue is both a cafe (downstairs) and a florist (upstairs) hence they have two email addresses - one for the florist flowers@cafedesfleursbkk.com and one for the cafe coffee@cafedesfleurs.com this facebook page has nothing to do with the Cafe des Fleurs you are listing here their current hours are 07:00 AM - 08:00 PM weekdays, I am not sure of their operations on the weekend bkkguy

I was having a coffee at Coffee Society (Silom, BKK) yesterday - I have never really liked their service or staff attitude so it has been a while since I have been there but I was meeting a Thai friend and it was his choice! it is order at the counter so I looked at the menu and ordered an iced late - 95 Baht, got 100 baht out of my wallet to pay only to be told by the cashier that it was 102 Baht I politely re-opened the menu and pointed to the price and the cashier, oh so condescendingly, pointed to the text "price exclude VAT" in small print on the opposite page I have been visiting and living in Thailand for more than 20 years and except at international hotel chains and a few other places this was never the norm in Thailand and I get increasingly pissed off as more and more places here try to mislead customers this way - I have no choice about paying VAT so tell me how much the item will really cost me, don't try to make your prices look cheaper by excluding VAT - or give me a calculator with the menu so I can work out the real price myself! and if you don't want to pay your staff a real wage and expect me to make that up as a forced tip or "service charge" then include that in the price printed in the menu as well or give me a calculator with the menu so I can work out the real price myself! disappointingly at least 50% of the small cafes and coffee/dessert places in Silom Complex now list prices as + or (more usually) ++ in their menu! as I say it is a while since I last visited Coffee Society so this may have always been their policy and I have just forgotten - at least given their usual poor service they did not have the audacity to add a service charge as well! if you are good at maths 7% of 95 Baht is 6.65 Baht (as they do show on their cash register receipt) thus the total is actually 101.65 Baht, rounded to available note/coin combinations that is actually 101.75 - but I doubt they would accept 101.75 Baht as the receipt clearly said 102 Baht OK so I am being pedantic and I am sure Coffee Society is not selling the millions of coffees a day that would make this rounding a major financial benefit to them, but why not just include the real price to me the customer in the menu and in their tax return pay whatever they need to pay for VAT? bkkguy

you can play the same game with "and" the classic answer is 5 where the owner of the Pig and Whistle pub complained to the sign-writer that he had got the spacing wrong between "Pig" and "and" and "and" and "Whistle" but if you choose a better name and a worse sign-writer you can get that up to 13 - but I will leave that as an exercise for the reader! and if you start talking about case sensitive password pairs then I stopped counting after "AND" and "and" and "and" and "AND" and "AND and "And" and "And" and "AND" .... bkkguy

you want to know about that "that"? I thought I had already told you that: that that "that" (that "that" that that man used) was grammatically correct. bkkguy

a "hands on" approach is always to be applauded but in the world of modern medicine it is usually a difficult path and it should come as no surprise that different people's approaches leads to different decisions there was an interesting segment earlier this week on NPR's "Morning Edition" about DCIS - a non-invasive form of breast cancer that may be an indicator of increased risk for invasive breast cancer. DCIS is increasingly being found as breast cancer screening continues to increase and traditional (often knee-jerk) treatment options offered are often very invasive one patient, a young mother with young children, searched for and found a practitioner that was willing to do a double mastectomy (even thought the second breast had no anomalies) - at the extreme end of the invasive spectrum - because she wanted to completely eliminate any chance of future breast cancer. she did not want to be unavailable to her children on an ongoing basis for scans, radiation treatments and the associated sickness, etc another patient, an older woman with grown up children, searched for and found a practitioner that offered treatment at the other end of the spectrum - hormone control therapy and on-going monitoring rather than lumpectomy and radiation therapy or (single) mastectomy. she was willing to submit to ongoing monitoring (and the stress and uncertainty along with that) before she would be willing to submit to more invasive up-front therapies like mastectomy as I said in my post above I am not a quadriplegic so my opinion on the treatment options available comes from a different prospective, and while most of us will probably never be diagnosed with DCIS or become quadriplegics looking at stem cell therapy as an option, we will all be faced with serious (for us) treatment decisions at some stage - more so as we get older. the sad fact is the growth of miss-information on the Internet and our increasingly limited access to multiple (and alternative) medical opinions under our "health plans" makes our own "hands on" decisions that much more difficult! Prostate cancer is a classic case in point that should be high on most of our lists of things to consider - yet the recent media beat-up of the fish oil/prostate cancer issue and the growing controversy around PSA screening tests make this a minefield for men wanting to make an "informed" decision! bkkguy

Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds? Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii? Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?If you can't drink and drive, why do you need a driver's license to buy liquor, and why do bars have parking lots? Do you need a silencer if you are going to shoot a mime? How does the guy who drives the snowplow get to work in the mornings?If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors? If a cow laughed real hard, would milk come out her nose? If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they make Teflon stick to the pan? If you tied buttered toast to the back of a cat and dropped it from a height, what would happen? If you're in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights? Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM? Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards as it is forwards? Why is it that when you transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it's called cargo? If a black box in a plane is indestructible, why can't they make the whole plane out of it? Why is it that when you're driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio? Why is it so hard to remember how to spell 'mnemonic'? If someone invented instant water, what would they mix it with? Why is it called a TV "set" when you only get one? Why does your nose run and your feet smell? Why does an alarm clock "go off" when it begins ringing? If pro is the opposite of con, is progress the opposite of congress? Why is it, whether you sit up or sit down, the result is the same? Why call it a building if it's already been built? Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?Does 'virgin wool' come from sheep the shepherd hasn't caught yet? What do sheep count when they can't get to sleep?When you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? Does fuzzy logic tickle? Do blind Eskimos heave seeing-eye sled dogs? Do they have reserved parking for non-handicap people at the Special Olympics? Do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?Why call it "take" a dump, when you leave something behind? What was the best thing before sliced bread? If you throw a cat out a car window does it become kitty litter?If corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from? If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?Is there another word for thesaurus? Is the color orange called that because it's the color of the fruit of the same name, or was the fruit called orange because that's its color? Which came first, the color or the fruit? After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water? How can there be self-help "groups"? If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi? If a mute swears, does his mother make him wash his hands with soap? If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation? Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure? Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?Just before someone gets nervous, do they experience cocoons in their stomach? It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost and blamed it on the cost of living. If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? Why is a pear called a pear when there is only one? What do they pack Styrofoam in? Do boxer shorts box?Why do you wear a pair of panties and only one bra? Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?Why is it called a "near miss" when you don't hit something? When sign makers go on strike, is there anything written on their signs? Before the light bulb was invented, what appeared over peoples heads when they had an idea? If a vegetable goes into a coma, is it called a person?If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done? Why does the word monosyllabic contain five syllables? If you wear an antennae to a wedding, would the reception be better? Why is abbreviated such a long word? If you put a chameleon in a mirrored box what color would it change to? Why is there an 's' in lisp?If you were scared half to death twice, would you be 3/4 dead or 100% dead? If you ate pasta and antipasti, would you still be hungry?If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest end up drowning as well? If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?If ATM stands for Automatic Teller Machine, why do we call it an ATM machine? And if PIN stands for Personal Identification Number, why do we call it a PIN number? Sweet meets are candy, but sweet breads, which aren't sweet, are meat. Quicksand works slowly. Boxing rings are square. Tell a man that there are 400 billion stars, and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint, and he has to touch it. Why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, humdingers don't hum, and hammers don't ham? If you can make amends, can you just make one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and you get rid of all but just one, what do you call it? Why do you recite at a play but you play at a recital? How can a SLIM CHANCE and a FAT CHANCE be the same, while a WISE MAN and a WISE GUY are opposites? How does a building burn up as it burns down? Why do you fill out a form by filling it in? When the stars are out they are visible, but when the lights are out they are invisible. Why do we wait until a PIG is dead, to "CURE" it? Why do we wash BATH TOWELS - aren't we clean when we use them? Why do we put SUITS in a Garment Bag, and put Garments in a Suitcase? Why doesn't GLUE stick to the inside of the bottle? Do Roman paramedics refer to IV's as "4's"? What do little birdies see, when they get knocked unconscious? When you open a bag of cotton balls, is the top one meant to be thrown away? Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"? Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food? Why do they report power outages on TV? Is it possible to be totally partial? Would a fly that loses its wings be called a walk? Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them? If a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound? If a turtle loses his shell, is it naked or homeless? Should vegetarians eat animal crackers? Why is it that we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway? Where do homeless people have 90% of their accidents? If you drove your car at the speed of light, and you turned your headlights on, would they work? If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? If you choke a smurf, what color does it turn? Why isn't the word 'phonetic' spelled the way it sounds? When companies ship Styrofoam, what do they pack it in? What do you call a defective Milk Dud? Why do they sterilize the needles for lethal injections? If you shoot a mime, should you use a silencer? What was the best thing before sliced bread? How come abbreviated is such a long word? If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be? Do fish get cramps after eating? Why are there 5 syllables in the word "monosylabic"? Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? If all those psychics know the winning lottery numbers, why are they all still working? What is the speed of dark? Why are there Braille signs on drive-up ATM's? What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free? After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water? If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi? Why are builders afraid to have a 13th floor but book publishers aren't afraid to have a Chapter 11? What happened to the first 6 "ups"? If someone has a mid-life crisis while playing hide and seek, does he automatically lose because he can't find himself? If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success? bkkguy

whether you interest is to satisfy your own desire for knowledge or to perhaps enable you to advise you friend's friend, Google is perhaps your best source but bring along an analytical mind in any field of medicine that is at the forefront of our existing knowledge there is always a conflict between conservative research based medical institutions that want to test and verify the efficacy of treatments before raising hopes for gullible sufferers and want to improve clinical approaches to diseases and medical conditions in the long term; and there are commercial business that style themselves as "research" establishments and "hospitals" that want to sell untested, unproven treatments as a panacea for many different medical conditions; and then there is the reality that is somewhere in-between! keeping that in mind a quick Google search for any combination of keywords like stem cell, paralysis, quadriplegia, walk again, etc returns a huge set of results - usually 90% of the results are positive and are from businesses more at the commercial end of the spectrum selling "cures" or from the general media touting real research results unrealistically, 10% are from the medical establishment saying we still have a long way to go before this yields real treatments you, and your friend's friend, need to draw your own conclusions from these Google search results - a few video clips on YouTube of "cures" from stem cell treatments at clinics in India does not really convince me, but then I am not a quadriplegic desperate to walk again! as for Better Being Hospital, their website is chock-a-block with bleeding edge keywords (with lots of spelling mistakes) - do a few Google searches on any of the diagnostic and treatment options they offer and again you, and your friend's friend, need to draw your own conclusions from the search results I am not trying to say that conservative western medicine has all the answers - I have recently been involved with some doctors using nutritional medicine in the treatment of some patients on the Autism spectrum that have achieved spectacular results that more conservative practitioners are just beginning to understand and support - but the other end of the debate has to be taken with a considerable grain of salt as well bkkguy

thanks for the tip - and while my school English teacher may be turning in her grave at the grammar I am sure "Shirley" from Skyhooks would be turning in his grave if I was to reply "I just like you 'cos you're good embed" bkkguy

if you didn't follow the other links on the page it is interesting to look at Kim's original version before mentoring by the pro directors, writers, etc bkkguy