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losworld

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  1. Andrew Drummond has written a seperate article about the Royal Marines jetski scam incident along with pictures>>>

    http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2009/09/07/...ith-thai-mafia/

    Note at the end he mentions JJ claims his father-in-law is one of the top cops in Phuket...what a surprise eh!!!

    Sorry guys but this looks way too rigged. If anyone thinks reality tv is real they are crazy. I know people in the business and here in America the actors are paid. The reality crew amazingly just happened to be there... right... lmao. This imho was an orchestrated event. I'll bet they guy paid the Thais to go about business as usual and get one of the marine guys. We'll be in the area. DON'T BE SUCKERED. I think ripoffs occur but this is the first one I have heard with the "room out back and the gun".

  2. What to expect in Part 1 on monday...from Andrew Drummonds' site...even the British Royal Marines get scammed in Phuket!!>>>

    Britain's only saving grace, outwith the volunteers, in the first part of this eight programme series, comes from the Royal Marines who arrive at Phuket on HMS Bulwark.

    As the sailors disembark for shore leave they are advised not to hire jet-skis on Patong Beach. But at this stage they are advised only. US military are banned from hiring them.

    We cut to a scene where a young Marine is banged up in some sort of builders-yard-come-boat-warehouse in the back of beyond. He faces a gun. It's either pay up or face the consequences. The Thai jet-ski operator is demanding 44,000 baht (£798) for damage to his boat. Its a scam and a nasty one.

    The Thai boss 'JJ' makes it known on camera that he will resort to violence and has done in the past.

    Around the scene are heavily tattooed Thais stripped to the waist.

    More Marines arrive. Then along comes the ship's Military Police Sergeant Major.

    JJ insists on his cash, raising his voice as his 1% of integrity slips to Norway's initial average scores in the European Song Contest, but that's a little difficult to maintain anyway in his tacky lair.

    'I'm a f..cking businessman!'

    'Don't you shout at me! You're corrupt. You're a f…cking crook. This damage is old damage. It's turned brown already!' shouts the Sergeant Major at JJ, 'How come this happens every single f….g day here!"

    The Royal Marines must miss the water quickly. Lots of them have been hiring jet-skis apparently.

    I wanted to shout a few more expletives at the little worm on the screen myself.

    'Go now!' The Sergeant orders the poor unfortunate captive Marine to leave the scene. JJ then orders his neanderthal buddies to close in.

    There's a stand off. The Marines are ready to fight their side. It's clear there are links between the local mafia and local police. But at the end of the day the Marines know they cannot start an incident.

    Eventually the Navy agree to pay a lesser amount, but only because the young Royal Marine had been bullied into agreeing to it verbally earlier. Series producer Gavin Hill was of course in the middle of this stand-off which would have cost a fortune to reconstruct with actors, and this was the real menacing truth.

    The Royal Marines had just come from Helmand Province. I admired their patience. ( But I guess or rather I know they let some steam off in Soi Bangla where the military police were trying to save 'Our boys' from drewling ladyboys).

    The Sergeant Major's contempt was palpable, just as if he had just gobbled down a a couple of those 'Brussels Sprouts' which the ship's HMS Bulwark's Captain has apparently put down as 'an enemy of the state' and banned from his quarters.

    I almost started singing 'Rule Brittania'. A pyrrhic victory for the Thai thug accompanied by a trashing, sadly, for Thai tourism.

    Coincidentally this week the Governor of Phuket has stepped into the local jet-ski rip-offs row.

    Punters are paying up to £50 for half an hour on these machines, then ripped off for up to £1000 for alleged damage, which includes loss of alleged earnings while the jet-ski is being repaired.

    The first programme in the series 'Big Trouble in Thailand', Vera Productions for the Bravo Channel, goes to air on Monday. Better than a lot, and I mean a lot, on the mainstream channels, it's as good an introduction to the non glossy side of tourism in Thailand that you'll ever get,…. but the beaches and the 'craic' still look great. I would want to go and have a look. Its a voyeurs paradise if nothing else.

    Sounds like a scripted encounter to me at least from the Thai perspective. What is to stop the producers from going to a jet ski vendor and slipping them a few baht to create a confrontation? Do you really think Thais would be pulling guns in front of the cameras?

  3. Two things are needed to live a successful life teaching in Thailand. A BA or BS degree and a work permit. If you have neither, be prepared to work illegally, be subject to fines or being arrested and expect that your income will be under 15k.month. Furthermore, I don't know if you are a native speaker or not, but you will be payed less if you are not.

    So question is why would the individual not be able to apply for a work permit? Only thing I can think of is maybe collecting welfare or disability from home country? I hope there is a better reason? Curious to know. Any thoughts. Seems odd to look for a full time job and not want to get a work visa processed.

  4. And what is democratic about anything that would replace it? Nothing. Michael Moore is to the left what Rush is to the right. An equally self promoting moron of about the same weight and dimensions. We can only hope they cancel each other out. Blob meets blob.

    Perhaps Michael will visit North Korea and fail to return from his new found utopia. Please. :)

    I really fail to understand these all or nothing arguments. Who says Michael Moore is espousing socialism or communism? Although I haven't seen the film nor likely has anyone here I think he is probably arguing for a more true democratic system that is not controlled by an elite (i.e. Wall Street Media Conglomerate). This type of argument reminds me of when someone criticizes the Democrats and is immediately branded a Republican and vice versa. Maybe Capitalism and Socialism are currently like Democrats and Republicans in the "same crap different pile". If the goal of a system is simply to create a ruling class with special privileges then maybe there are more similarities than differences? I'm not saying dump Capitalism but rather reform it. You don't have to go to Socialism to reform a corrupt Capitalist system.

  5. Next time you meet a guy who claims to be with the SAS just say "Really? I fly with them all the time. Great airline. Are you a flight attendant?"

    lol... that would put things in perspective... must be a tough choice for some of these guys to either be spec ops or multi millionaire... guess it depends how many drinks they have had...

  6. I remember being east of Jomtien once and cruising on a motorbike with a girl on the back down an off road near a reservoir. It was an old dusty road and it became a turnaround near a small Thai house. Well sure as hel_l a very large Rotweiller comes ripping after us on the bike. I couldn't get speed up but luckily there was a water truck ahead and I was able to pull beside it out of site of the dog and stay there till we turned and left. Scared the crap out of me. If that truck wasn't there someone would have a ripped leg I am sure. And if you ever wiped out who knows what could happen. I'm not so eager to venture down these side roads where you can't get up to speed anymore.

  7. Prozac does not work in majority of depressed patients

    The antidepressant Prozac and related drugs are no better than placebo in treating all but the most severely depressed patients, according to a damaging assessment of the latest generation of antidepressants.

    SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, were supposed to revolutionise care of depression - by treating symptoms without the side effects of older drugs, such as tricyclics.

    But despite selling in vast quantities, a new meta-analysis of these drugs, from data presented to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), appears to suggest that for most patients they do not work. A previous study had indicated that the benefits of antidepressants might be exaggerated.

    UK and US researchers led by Irving Kirsch of Hull University, UK, studied all clinical trials submitted to the FDA for the licensing of the four SSRIs: fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine, nefazodone, and paroxetine (Seroxat or Paxil), for which full datasets were available.

    They conclude that, "compared with placebo, the new-generation antidepressants do not produce clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially have moderate or even very severe depression".

    <h3 class="crosshead">Dishing out drugs</h3> They did detect some benefits in the most severely depressed patients. But conclude that in this group the small effect is "due to decreased responsiveness to placebo, rather than increased responsiveness to medication".

    Given these results, they say that there is little reason to prescribe SSRI medications to any but the most severely depressed patients.

    David Healy, a psychiatrist at Cardiff University, UK, specialising in the use of SSRI drugs, says the latest study confirms suspicions that the drugs' effectiveness had been dramatically overstated.

    "Most importantly this new study shows that the people who did respond to the drugs would have responded to placebo, anyway.

    "It confirms that GPs should not be dishing these drugs out as first-line treatment for mild depression," he told New Scientist. The drugs were, he notes, "routinely being given to people who would get better without them".

    <h3 class="crosshead">Positive results</h3> Eli Lilly, which manufactures Prozac, says that "extensive scientific and medical experience has demonstrated it is an effective antidepressant". It adds that: "More than 50 million people with depression have been treated with Prozac since its launch."

    A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Seroxat, points out that the study only looked at a "small subset of the total data available".

    Healy notes however, that drug companies have tended to publish studies showing positive results of the SSRIs in mildly depressed patients.

    He says too that there have been concerns that SSRI drugs, particularly paroxetine, may cause dependence in some patients, and this underlines the need to avoid their unnecessary prescription.

    <h3 class="crosshead">Placebo benefit</h3> Healy warns however, that anyone taking SSRI antidepressants should not suddenly stop taking their medication and should consult their doctor before coming off the drugs.

    David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at Bristol University, UK, points out that if SSRIs provided some sort of placebo benefit, this should not be discounted. He notes that "the true drug effect is that of the drug added to that of placebo which is not the same as no treatment".

    Earlier this month, New Scientist reported claims by US lawyers that they had obtained documents suggesting that an inappropriate analysis of clinical trial data by researchers at GlaxoSmithKline had obscured suicide risks associated with paroxetine for 15 years.

  8. Engineer Mr. Uwe Keienburg worked with/for Vinci Consulting Co., Ltd. - Thailand.

    Vinci Consulting seems to be a respectable engineering/infrastructure and consulting company in Thailand:

    vinciconsulting.net/index2.html

    i don't know if the look of that website makes vinci consulting to a "respectable engineering/infrastructure and consulting company". there is a lack references of sucessful projects in the past.

    if i check the whois of vinciconsulting, i come to the healthmedasia.com adress. it's long gone, but few bits are on archive org. web.archive.org/web/*/healthmedasia.com

    check this for example: web.archive.org/web/20040903095029/healthmedasia.com/introduction.htm

    that looks like an odd business concept.

    why is it so unbelievable that people commit suicide? it's a sad thing, but it happen.

    the detonation cord looks like a leaveless twig to me. or some other piece of string.

    maybe he just made some small installation that the grenade hangs in the air and he have his hands free for a last prayer. or constructed somekind of a booby-trap, to be triggered by himself and explode behind his back. he could had fixed the grenade and the trigger with 2 different strings and when he moved forward the trigger got released. did some ritual or last meditation, before he felt ready to go and make his last step forward and it made just a click noise behind his back.

    psychologically maybe an easier process than hold the grenade in your own hand and face it for your last few seconds.

    As an answer to your first sentence: Mr. Keienburg worked for 2 respectable VERY LARGE companies in Thailand ( 1 from the USA and 1 from Italy/Thailand) and a.o. on the construction of the pavement on Suvarnabhumi airport:

    http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/German-Engin...13#entry2958113

    Of course that doesn't say anything but I wrote: "Vinci Consulting seems to be......".

    He was an engineer and not in a shady bar adventure but anybody can end up in problems in Thailand or any other country.

    Your last assumptions are speculative..maybe....maybe.

    If we would only know more.....but to commit suicide on such a strange place, far away from home in a rubber plantation, with a grenade (with detonation material, hard to get) doesn't make sense to most.

    But...who knows ? :)

    LaoPo

    I knew this gentleman quite well, and first and foremost, he was a gentleman.

    We had not been in touch of late and only a letter from a mutual friend in Germany made me aware of what has transpired.

    I am so deeply saddened at the moment and feeling for Araya and their daughter.

    This was a very, very good man. Please do nothing here to sully his name.

    RIP Uwe.

    I suspect his good intention or civic responsibility is what got him killed.

  9. The Court of Appeals yesterday said Pichet or Thaksin Kaewsamduang should receive the benefit of doubt.

    and why should that be?

    Because that is how justice works in every civilized country around the world.

    A court will only convict someone of such a serious criminal offence if they are 99% sure they are guilty.

    There is a saying, it is better that a 100 guilty men go free than one innocent man is sent to jail.

    Not so sure I agree with the logic of that as these 100 men could go on to harm another 100 innocent men. The idea of beyond a reasonable doubt seriously deters conviction of guilty parties... e.g. O.J.

  10. This thread might be construed as not relevant, not interesting, dangerous, and is done so by some members.

    However, as stated, 15% of the Thai population is considered to being of Chinese descent.

    Which means that the Chinese ARE indeed a minority in Thailand, the other 85%, whoever they are, consider themselves to be real 100% Thai.

    It has happened in a lot of other countries in Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma at the moment) that on a certain point in time the "original" population did not accept the predominance of the Chinese in business, ownership, politics and so on.

    The idea of the Chinese bringing jobs, business, money to the country was also heard in the countries where the Chinese were "checked" before the "checking".

    Same what you hear here in Thailand and in this thread: they bring jobs, money, business.........

    Even so, there might come a point the "original" population wants a bigger share of the pie, don't want to be inferior, or whatever reason may be cooked up by those who feel that it is maybe time for some realignement of business.

    So maybe this thread is interesting and relevant.

    My fiancee's father changed their Chinese surname to a Thai one back in teh seventies because as a recent law graduate it was easier to get work with a Thai surname back then. I think it is testament to how well the Chinese have managed to integrate into Thai society that there were no issues in Thailand after the 1997 Asian economic crisis. In other Asian countries such as Malaysia, the Chinese were often vilified.

    They just haven't figured it out yet. If the Malaysians and Indonesians were smart they'd let more farangs in so they'd have someone to blame. :)

  11. Yeah she's probably with another boyfriend or a "customer" if she works in the business and in that case maybe on a paid vacation around Thailand.

    Interesting she didn't take your money. Perhaps you didn't offer enough or weren't genuine enough or the amount was too small?

    Otherwise she's a good girl who has a new boyfriend or she wants to break it off with you.

    Either way not good news. If she really cared for you she would be answering your calls. Time to move on.

  12. But the plane was going down to land..... surely the doors must open easily in case of accident ?

    If they don't open, whats the use of them.

    On the ground, once the pressure equalizes they can be opened, but until then the higher pressure inside pushes out on these inward opening doors.

    Then how do you epxlain a guy like DB Hooper who jumped out of a jet after robbing it?

  13. Not a bad amount at all... I recently received a ticket in Culver City, CA for crossing a red light. It was on a left hand turn and the only way to get through a left turn is on an amber or red light. Additionally they have intentionally shortened the time of the amber to increase ticket revenue. People don't know it but Lockhead Martin installs the lights and keeps 50 percent of revenue. A real scam. Why not have the gov't install and keep all the revenue and lower the fine?

    So how much was the ticket? 400 U.S. dollars. &lt;deleted&gt; scam if there ever was one. And traffic school on top of it or you'll pay another few hundred in insurance costs at a minimum.

    There will be a lot more of this in coming years with all the broke levels of gov't in the U.S.

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