brahmburgers
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Posts posted by brahmburgers
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In Thailand, here's what gets fined:
>>> some girls smiling and dancing in public, while all the folks around were smiling and having a good time.
Here's what doesn't get fined:
>>> EGAT paying 175 million baht for a faulty 'Feasibility Report on whether Thailand should go nuclear' with a foregone conclusion - to an company which is in the business of engineering nuclear power plants.
>>> Thai authorities stacking young men like cordwood in the back of trucks (Tak Bai) - resulting in many of the men dying of aphyxiation while in custody.
>>> selling something for hundreds of millions of baht (to Singapore), and paying no taxes.
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What can we do to help. How about a Thaksin defense fund. I'm starting one. I just put one baht in a jar. Anyone wanting to donate can send money to me, and put it in the jar.
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He didn't hit his wife but was just a yanking her arm a bit aggressively. What is all this PC crap? Domestic abuse? He got drunk and make a nuisance of himself as half of Pattaya does on a nightly basis. <br>
So, because abusive behavior is endemic in Pattaya, it should be allowed everywhere?
Perhaps some tough guy in New Orleans, when observing Cage behaving like a buttplug, should have slapped him around a bit - to show what it feels like to be manhandled by someone stronger.
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Anyhow, is the "Thai Way" one of incompetence, stupidity and evasiveness?
Yes.
To compare with an experience I had recently in Burma: I bought six small packages of dried seaweed snack which were in one larger plastic quantity bag from a store in Burma. That evening I ate the contents of one bag. That night I couldn't sleep because of tossing and turning from MSG (yes, I'm sensitive to the stuff). The next morning, I went back to the shop with the remaining 5 unopened snack packs. Before I uttered three words of explanation, the management understood my predicament and immediately gave me a refund for all six packages. No argument, no hemming and hawing, no emotional bullcrap, no raised voices.
Could such a scenario happen with Thais in Thailand? No way.
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Freelance journalist Andrew Drummond in Thailand has been closely following the cases and reported the Thailand Department for Disease Control said so far there are no links between the deaths of cases examined of people visiting Chiang Mai in January and February, and no link to the Downtown Inn.
- with files from Andrew Drummond
".....no link to the Downtown Inn." Like the ending of the Wizard of Oz: "disregard the man behind the curtain, he is of no concern to you. Keep looking at the image in front of you."
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Ironically, "Leaving Las Vegas" (for which he won his ill-deserved Oscar) he played the main character - which was the role of a hopeless drunk.
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......announced that the hawk systems have undergone warm testing at Khondab nuclear facility near the Central city of Arak and successfully hit their targets.
Doesn't that just give you a warm and cuddly feeling?
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here are some related links I found in a quick search
http://www.roe.com/n...p?ArticleID=155 - Bangkok office opening
http://www.recruit.n...A68915C11B1A218 looking for mechanical engineer - power plant design
other jobs Power Consulting Senior Resident Executive Director (Thailand) http://www.roe.com/c...ings.asp?ID=178
http://investing.bus...ivcapId=4773296 - bloomberg link
http://investing.bus...ivcapId=4773296 people to look for.
I can imagine what the job description for "Power Consulting" would be: Show your degree. We'll show you the text that EGAT wants in the Feasibility Report. You copy the text, and make it look important. We hand it to EGAT. They pay us 175 million baht, everybody's happy.
Addendum: It's rare for a Thai corp to use an odd number like 175 for a big ticket item. It's possible the actual price for the feasibility report was a round number like 200, and it may have happened that 25 million baht somehow got misplaced in the shuffling of papers.
If you don't believe me, try something like this next time you happen to sell something to a Thai person (or anyone, for that matter). Let's say you have an item you're selling that's worth roughly Bt.200,000. You tell the buyer you want 214,000 baht for it. He's going to look at you askance and say, 'how about I pay you 200,000.' It can work the other way. If a Thai wants to sell a bit ticket item to you without a marked price. You offer 188,000 baht, he's surely going to think you're weird, and come back with a round number like 200,000 or 250,000.
All kidding aside, here are actual excepts of the requirements for whomever got the job to write the Feasibility Report.
"The Senior Resident Executive Director in Bangkok, Thailand is responsible for completing the Burns and Roe Feasibility Study Project for EGAT."
Given that Burns and Roe has defined the Southeast Asia region, including Thailand as a core business source with strategic clients such as the Vietnamese Govt, Malaysian Govt and Thai Government and EGAT, the Senior Resident Executive Director in Bangkok is responsible for nuclear power business development in Thailand. He is expected to develop marketing strategies for nuclear and fossil power projects in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia based on program plans of the Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian Governments defining specific business opportunities for Burns and Roe.
He will coordinate the proposal follow-on negotiations leading to new projects contracts for Burns and Roe.
He will provide new project oversight to ensure the objectives of Burns and Roe management and the Client are met and that the profitability and Client satisfaction objectives are also met.
BB's comment: is it just me, or is there a conflict of interests in the job description. On the one hand, the person is to write the Feasibility Report which, one would assume, should be an objective report designed to gauge the feasibility of Thailand going nuclear.
In the following paragraphs, the job description for the same person goes on and on describing how to gain contracts and maximize profits for Burns and Roe, which is in the business of engineering nuclear power plants.
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sorry to post twice in a row, but I just thought about how there are some 'silver linings' to Japan's nuclear problem.
>>>> Since Asians in general, and Chinese in particular are so dazzled by sharks fin soup, perhaps their awareness of the inevitable radiation stored in shark fins will dampen the trade, and give sharks a break.
>>>> Similarly, radiation will get concentrated in other marine species which are high up the food chain: dolphins, whales, tuna - and lessening their harvest will give then some chance to replenish their numbers. Same for species which are low on the food chain, like albacore and smaller fish.
....maybe. I don't know. Will the Chinese and Japanese give credence to the likelihood that seafood will now become irradiated? And if so, will that slow their habits of ingesting such things en masse? Time will tell.
For the past decade, tuna populations have gone dangerously low in the Mediterranean (and elsewhere) because of the insatiable demand and highest prices paid by Japanese. Shark fins, served in upscale Chinese and Bangkok restaurants, are scalped off all sorts of sharks, even docile whale sharks, with the scalped fish left to slowly die in the sea. The Japanese also play a game about pretending to do scientific research on Minke whales, in order to harvest hundreds of whales each year, thereby skirting international bans on killing whales. The Japanese are also known for slaughtering thousands of porpoises dolphins each year, though most of the world's fishermen leave those species alone.
The biggest 'silver lining' to the Japan's N disaster is it will dampen their and other countries enthusiasm for building nuke plants.
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Would anyone like to join with me on a class action lawsuit against EGAT and Burns and Roe - claiming malfeasance in their collusion on that expensive bogus report? Thai taxpayers paid for that report indirectly. That 175 million baht was a clear waste of money by a government/public owned Thai company - on a ruse that fooled nobody.
Class action does not exist in Thai law. Nevertheless, I do think that such action could be taken in the country where Burns & Roe are located--USA?
Yes, I'll join and help with planning such a suit, in Thailand and overseas.
ok, probably won't really happen. But just discussing it, as we are, might spread the idea back to Burns and Roe's head office in New Jersey. When big shot businesses hear even a rumor of a lawsuit against them, they get fidgety. Well, Burns and Roe deserve to get a lot more than fidgety - they took nearly $6 million for a report with a foregone conclusion - a report paid indirectly by Thai taxpayers and ratepayers. Not only that, the report was just plain faulty. Maybe I'm a bit jealous. I mean, if EGAT had dangled Bt.175 million in my face asking me to write a report that they dictated to me ("Nuclear is clean, safe and cheap") I probably would have grabbed the money also.
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riveting photos indeed. I'm sure I'm not the 1st to say it looks like a tactical military strike. If this had happened to a US N plant, the Arabs would be dancing and celebrating in the streets.
Just a year ago, EGAT published a summary of their 175 million baht 'Feasibility Report' for whether Thailand should go nuclear. The whole thing, of course, was a farce, as the recipient (Burns and Roe Asia, Ltd.) of that money knew beforehand what Apisit Patchimpattapong, Ph.D. and other heads of EGAT wanted to see. Indeed, the contract was probably 200 million, and EGAT heads could have easily put 25 million in to their deep pockets.
Here's a quote showcased in the report's summary: ""Nuclear power has an excellent safety record" Source: H-Holger Rogner, Head of Planning & Economic Studies, Dept. of Nuclear Energy, IAEA, 2010
And the overall summary of that report: "Nuclear power is reliable, low and stable cost, and has no greenhouse gases emissions."
Would anyone like to join with me on a class action lawsuit against EGAT and Burns and Roe - claiming malfeasance in their collusion on that expensive bogus report? Thai taxpayers paid for that report indirectly. That 175 million baht was a clear waste of money by a government/public owned Thai company - on a ruse that fooled nobody.
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I grew figs in northern California, no problem. I took some cuttings of black mission here to northern Thailand, here's what happened: Started out growing good, then, yet after about 15 months, the leaves would curl, blacken and fall off. There were also small white moths, and their tiny green caterpillars ate the leaves. Frustrating. they eventually died. I don't spray chemi, but maybe I should have.
Then I got some cutting from Soidog (thanks!), and the new ones are doing better. They're growing leggy (long stems), but am cutting them back to get them to bush. Not many figs yet, but they're still young. Not surprisingly they like a lot of water. They also like a lot of manure, but not easy to get here where I reside in Chiang Rai. All the chicken farms around town went out of business when SARS hit.
I also mulch them heavily, about 6 inches deep. Don't dig around the roots (that will damage them), but just put lots of mulch on top. Roots spread wide.
Similar to avocados, Thais don't appreciate fresh or dried figs because they simple don't have them in their markets.
Incidentally, there are about 9 types of wild figs which grow in this area. Am wondering whether pathogens from wild and domesticated figs go back and forth (some of the wild ones are dying also, even when they're large and healthy looking just weeks prior). Note, figs are the earliest domesticated plant - earlier than wheat and other grains, as evidenced from ancient figs found at an Israeli archaeological dig. Scientists figured they had to be domesticated, because edible figs only grow from cuttings, not from seed.
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If you are American, can't you open a company under the Thai/American Aminity Treaty and not worry about all this biz with Thai partners......but that's only for a specific nationality.
I've been hearing that for years, yet I believe the reality is; it applies to larger scale corporations. I believe it was written with big scale corps in mind (7-11, Pepsi, KFC, etc) and the requirements are too daunting and expensive for the little guy to fathom. If that's wrong, please let US know (pun intended). I'm American, btw.
My understanding is it applies to any US citizen.
Please mention a specific SMALL business run by an American in Thailand which has benefited from that 'Amity' provision. Thanks.
Also; I'm mildly surprised that no one commented on the 39%(farang) and 61%(Thai) ownership of a Thai corporation which enables the farang to own his shares without the requirement of him having to park a large sum in a Thai bank.
Either everyone reading this already knows this (which is highly doubtful), or it's a big 'mai pen rai.'
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Thanks for the link. I looked at it. 70 million baht per day (indefinitely) for maintaining an N plant that doesn't generate electricity - that's sobering stuff. Indeed, a big part of that maintenance cost is probably paying for electricity coming in from elsewhere.
I bet a lot of Japanese are looking a lot more seriously at solar and thermal and wind. Too bad they got greedy not-too-bright leaders who still want to charge headlong in to nuclear.
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I have a personal 'rule of thumb' I adhere to as a neighbor. I have Thai neighbors, so of course I cannot expect them to adhere to it, but here it goes:
As much as possible, I try to keep toxins/annoyances spreading across my fence line to neighbors. I put in a good septic system, I carry bagged trash to the proper place, I don't have animals (barking or otherwise), I keep plants from growing over the fence - which might annoy others. My Thai neighbors, on the other hand, burn plastic, have barking dogs, allow sticker bushes to grow over their fences in to my yard, make loud noises (parties, radios, arguments, etc), and bright outdoor lights shining all night. Maybe it's just an Asian thing, to not care about adversely affecting neighbors.
It's not hard to see how this mini-rant relates to the crippled Fukushima plant. It was a poor decision to start with. Then they had questionable planning/engineering, and then, when an unprecendented (to the planners) natural calamity struck, they continually tried to downplay the seriousness and generally dealt with it unsatisfactorily.
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I switched from electric HW (several units) to propane and/or solar. Did it with several units and gave the electric units away. The solar is for pre-heat or, in some showers I've set up, is the complete heat element. Solar heated water is a lot cheaper than you might think it is, especially if you use re-cycled water holding tanks.
If Thailand had a countrywide campaign to install cheap solar hw and lessen Air-con use, it could cut its electricity usage IN HALF! That's the sort of thing Thai politicians should be doing, instead of slapping lese majeste suits back and forth, playing golf 5 hours a day, and visiting their mia noi and getting drunk (on Johnny Walker they get for bribes) the rest of the time.
A relative of mine thought it was a good idea to use propane in the gas heater although it says LPG.
RIP
Propane is LPG (liquid propane gas).
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sad news. the guy went beserk. so much harm, very bad.
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Darn, Chiang Rai usually has that accolade as having most deaths and injuries for Songkran. Shucks, we'll just have to try harder to get back to the top.
Well, at least anyone who likes driving through red traffic lights will still have free reign here in C.Rai. There has never been a traffic stop for going through red lights here, so it happens tens of thousands of times per hour.
Beat that, Bangkok.
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A bizarre and painful form of population control. Condoms should be readily available everywhere in places like that. It's a region, similar to the entire middle east, which is waaaaaaaay beyond its carrying capacity for this one species.
At least 64 people were charged under the blasphemy law, including Aasia Bibi, a Christian farmhand. In addition, three men, including two Christian brothers who were accused of blasphemy, were killed in police custody.Only a religion as insecure and paranoid as Islam would kill people for not agreeing with their dogma.
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I resent it when nuke plant supporters describe how those opposed to nuke plants think. A couple days ago, a letter in the Bkk Post claimed that nuke plant opponents '....don't even consider the effects of other nuclear disasters.' And now the letter above which states 'everyone now thinks that the film "The China Syndrome" was about Three Mile Island.' I'm part of 'everyone', and I certainly don't think that. I was actually driving towards 3-Mile Island when it was crippled.
The long comments copied and pasted by 'unblocktheplantet' are valid on this topic, in that they show some peoples' reactions to Japanese problem nuke plants. It's good to hear the whole spectrum, from the vested establishment who claim such things as 'nuclear power has an excellent safety record' (EGAT's 2010 report), to others' views.
I have always known nuclear has the potential to toxify the planet, and now we're seeing it, feeling it, tasting it first hand, particularly if a person is downwind from Fukushima. The genie is out of the bottle, and its poisoning the atmosphere, the oceans, landmasses, and many living things. You can call me an alarmist, but it's like Japan opened a little bottle of extreme toxicity - and now the poison is wafting to nooks and crannies all over the world.
I resent the planners who implemented Fukushima, but I have a particular disdain for the people (mostly greedy lying businessmen and politicians) who continue to lie to the general public about how clean, safe and inexpensive nuclear power is. The manipulators at Thailand's EGAT are at the top of that list.
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<snip>
Nuclear power has never lived up to any expectations for cost or safety, it has only prolonged the need to develop sustainable technologies. We continue to travel down this road of increasing dependence on quick fixes that only maintain the illusion of sustainability, mostly benefits the rich and robs millions of people of their lives.
I'm sorry - who or what has robbed millions of people of their lives?
At the last count there were 2 dead at Fukushima, and not from radiation, so where were the other 999,998 lives lost?
Maybe he meant to say 'robbed millions of people of quality in their lives' Certainly man-made/man-released radiation from fission has shortened many peoples' lives, ever since Madame Curie died young. Many other deaths and diseases have come about directly or indirectly from bomb tests and nuclear mis-haps in the past 70 years. The repercussions from Fukushima will last for decades. Many of those people may not show up in statistics. People are just one species. What about the scores of other species which will be adversely impacted?
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The lady is right. Arabs in general will always rally around the strong man who talks/boasts the loudest. And they'll always be cowed by the religionists who compel them to feel too guilty and scared to stray from strict adherence Islam. The few who dare to have bright thoughts for an egalitarian future will always be smothered by the few (on the other end of the spectrum) who seek draconian control. The cycle will go on and on. The only 'free' Muslims will be the ones who are lucky or rich enough to move far afield - to freer countries.
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Some of these guys are elected officials are they not?
Do they ever do any of the things they're elected to do?
If Thailand had decent politicians, they would be working morning 'til night trying to find tangible ways to ease the plight of regular people - people who are trying to make ends meet, raise families, etc. Instead, Thai politicians do a whole lot of grandstanding, playing golf, taking naps, and slinking out to meet their mia noi.
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As much as anything else, this time of year means; very little bicycle or motorcycle riding for me. If I have errands in town, I'm compelled to use my car (more gas guzzling) because it has windows.
Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor
in World News
Posted
"the stage of a 'Cold Shutdown'" is a wishy washy statement which means nothing. It's like if your mother asks you whether your clothes are clean and you tell her; "they're in a stage of being laundered."