The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

pompeybloke

^ Like this answer....It's all a paradox, a love/hate thing. What a carry on? Don't suffer fools, do they. Thick, they ain't. Avaricious they are, which is un-becoming.

Love my children and they have no pre-conceptions.......yet! Brain-washing might have its day...hope not though..hope they cling to me forever, like now.

daveboy

I have no problem with Isaan people in fact my mother in law is a wonderful woman I love her to bits.

Chairman Mao

mine spends hours attentively doing stuff like scouring my back and nose for spots to pop.

tiz like some sort of addiction.

genghis61

9/10 in the pointless thread stakes

what next? What do you think of (insert region/country here) people

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

daveboy

Do you smell of Yaks milk ?

Bangyai

Hmmm...I'm something of a master at the ' bombed ' thread meself, . Nonetheless it is worth pointing out that apparently ( from a statistical point of view ) some of the mosty ' pointy ' threads are :

1) What are you listening to right now ?

2) The Thai girls knickers thread ( full of real merit )

3) What did you have for lunch ?

4) Answer my question with another question


Etc Etc. When you have gone through the labour pains and conceived a thread of your own ( bless it ) it is only human nature to have a look at it from time to time to see if it is stillborn or full of spunk. And the strange thing is you never know whats gone fly like an eagle or dive like a penguin unless you try. Such is life as a single parent.

tsicar

i suppose that there are isaan people who are really good people.
i met one once: a real good old geezer who just could not do enough for other people, totally unselfish and genuine.
for all this he was rewarded by regularly being fuckked over by the other village idiots, and laughed at behind his back.
i have many good things to say about isaan people i MET, but almost nothing good to say about isaan people i got to KNOW long-term (above example excluded)
i suppose that if one does not judge them on the same scale as one would judge a person from a civilised country, then some of them are ok, but don't expect any of them to be able to hold an intelligent conversation (even in their own language) or be reliable, punctual, broadminded, honest or be able to drive properly.

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brrrzzzzt, brrrzzzt!
beep!. ting, ting
redirecting, please be patient..........:

hello, insect!
brrrzzzt, brrrzzzt..................

jizzybloke

Sorry to hear Dave, when did she pass away?

Mr Earl

Isaan people, Isaan food, Isaan pussy, all good.

genghis61

well I do like 2 of the above list; the music one has introduced me to some good new (for me anyway) artists . . . and the other one is . . . . one of the other three!

They're fun (not necessarily good clean fun!), it's the ones re race/nationality/politics that so often degenerate within just a few posts to a personal slagging match or an outlet for racism, i don't see the point.

Thanks for the reminder on the Thai knickers thread!

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Butterfly

of course they were, free money it was, who wouldn't

actually not true, a lot of failed businesses which had to be paid back to the government with loan shark money. Default rate on the loans were maybe low, but that's hardly an indication of success without proper accounting measures. In some sense, those loans gave them hope, but at the same time put them in a weaker financial position.

Butterfly

They are indeed colorful, love the music and the food, they are great for party

but only enjoyable in small dose, like any good thing, or else they can become very annoying

sabang

^^ I think your dislike of Thaksin is diminishing your Socialist credentials there BF. A large feature of the success of these micro-loans was that they were basically applied for, approved & distributed on a decentralised basis- in other words, at the Village or Amphur level- so the local yabba freak or drug dealer could hardly make a case for a micro-loan, but someone who honestly wanted a 10k kick start to get a noodle stand going could. My guess is that is why the pay back ratio (around 90%) was so high.

I certainly know that at least two of the local noodle places were started this way- which means the local eating scene, poor though it is, would be abysmal without it! really, 10K may be chump change to us, but not so in Isaan- unless you've already got a fair few rai or an established shop. And the Kubota guy proved to be a thrifty, astute businessman, but considering that he even started off poor by local standards, I suppose it was easy enough for him to live on a shoestring budget while he parlayed up his assets.

So, forget Thaksin for a while- gawd knows where he is anyway, but he sure ain't here. Isn't this local community based, modest empowerment of people what Socialism is all about? Or has modern Euro Socialism evolved into a more centralised bureaucratic type model?

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Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

beazalbob69

I like them more than most Americans I have met!

Seem like a bunch of fairly nice people to me (the ones I have met anyway!)

Wife's family are about the best I could have hoped for. They were doing good for themselves before I came on the scene. Work their asses off for what they have.

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Need to get out of the good ol' USA B4 it kills me!

Butterfly

nothing to do with him personally, more like about his policies. They had nothing to do with Socialism but all about a certain clientielism, at the end his policies were going to fuck them over. If you couldn't see that coming then

agree, and that would have been a good thing if 90% of those loans would have been that. But the truth it wasn't, it was used for different things, including making down payments to buy a new truck, open another mini-mart next to an existing one, so you will have 3 mini-mart in the same soi within 10m of each other etc... the fact that there were not any accountability of any kind for the projects, and that business opportunities were limited in the first place (there are so many noodle shops you can open in a village), the whole thing was a shame. Sure it served 10% of the people who needed such loans, but at what cost ? enormous waste of financial resources, money that could have been used more efficiently to finance public projects or pay for educations grants etc... the only surprising thing here was the honesty of the people to pay it back, even though the official rate of 70% would still be considered enormous for a normal bank NPL.

Socialism is traditionally centralized, and I think you are confusing Populism ideas with socialism. Socialism invest in public resources, not personal projects to serve politically a corner of the population.

Marmite the Dog

It's funny how the longer I live in Isaan, the more I can understand their support for Taksin. He's without doubt done more for the area than any other government has.

StrontiumDog

Indeed, it was a cunning ploy on his part.

sabang

Yes, it is his motivations I question, not his local policies as such. Few would question them who have spent any time living in a village.

Butterfly

when you are desperate, any hero will do. Can't blame them. He is god over there, and yet some claims that without him, they still could bring the same changes to Thailand, while in fact without him they are a lost cause.

sabang

Your Thaksobsession is eerily reminiscent of our Right wingers Obamobsession BF.
Personally, if I want to know what a Villager thinks, I would ask him.
But I do know he's got much better things to do around here than talk politics.