Page 5 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast
Results 101 to 125 of 136
  1. #101
    Thailand Expat
    chassamui's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Bali
    Posts
    11,678
    Quote Originally Posted by Maanaam View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PhDstudent View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Maanaam View Post
    PhDStudent, สวัสดีครับคุณนักศึกษาบัณฑิตศึกษา.

    I guess your study will be impartial observations, but will you be formulating an opinion based on the results? And offering that opinion in your dissertation? If so, what stance will you be taking?
    I think many here on this forum, and Westerners throughout Thailand, would like to offer their opinion, but we have no voice. That's fair enough as we're guests, however, amongst us are many good-hearted and wise people and our ideas would very likely be very beneficial to Thailand on the whole.
    I think some are hoping that you will be a conduit.

    Just saying.
    สวัสดีครับ
    Sawasdee ka Khun Maanaam, all the received opinions will be discussed in my paper ka, I'll try to cover every issue. So far, I found so many brilliant western retirees and thoughtful Thai stakeholders that I can learn a lot from them. So, what stance should I take? I think it should not just be a simply right or wrong thing. Instead, the results should not sound like blaming the other side, but rather informing both side about the situation and see whether mutual benefits can be achieved.

    By the way, regarding the word "Farang," it is an informal word yet it was used/ mentioned in several academic literature. In my opinion, it's just a very common word which is easier for speaking than the formal one, i.e. ชาวต่างชาติ (Chao Tang Chad), which has 3 syllables, comparing to Farang that have only 2 syllables.
    Indeed your stance might be best read if impartial and informing.

    I think what irks most Western retirees is the insecurity of not being able to truly put down roots. Many of these (mostly men) people have pensions coming in to Thailand every month, at the very least, and some have savings and other income. This is free money for Thailand. Thailand offers them no social security, The presence of these people costs Thailand nothing, yet they bring in money.
    With the vast increase in internet users, the downsides of retiring in Thailand are getting widely publicised around the world. More and more Western retirees are choosing other countries, such as South and Central American countries, or other SE Asian countries. If Thailand wants to get this free money, Thaialnd needs to treat these people with a bit more respect and try to make their retirement easier, not harder. Retirees are not causing problems like with some tourists are.
    The land ownership laws, although understandable, could be relaxed....for example a Westerner may obtain a legally rock-solid long-term lease on land, or buy a single small plot (say one rai).
    Fiji has in it's constitution that only 5% of all land is freehold, and may be bought by anybody. Fijians own some of this land, and foreigners own some, but never will the country be in danger of being bought out by foreigners. Thailand could do something like this, with the added caveat of size restrictions to prevent large companies snapping up all the available land.
    In cities, this restriction should be one or two hong, and in rural areas, one or two rai.
    The visa regulations are a bore, and serve no practical purpose but to emphasise who's boss. Really, what possible good to Thailand, what useful information will be gathered, each time a 70 year old married retiree from England goes in to report every 90 days? Marriage visa the same. It's not as if this reporting in, or border-running adds to security. Tourists, sure, security and overstaying are important issues to police, but retired and married folk?
    Silly rules in bureaucracy abound. For example, taking a photo of yourself in front of the house you rent (or wife owns). A photo? How does that help anyone in the office? What does it prove? I can take a photo in front of thousands of houses...it proves nothing. Paperwork, in duplicate, triplicate, and quadrupilicate. Thailand needs to get with the 21st century and cut down on all this pointless paperwork. An example.....I have to provide the house photo every year....I have not moved address, the house has not changed shape or size, the photo is in my file, but i have to get another one and submit it. Silly. Not just the photo, but other documents....the office has the documents on file, but I have to repeat the process every year. Why? Unthinking following of old and archaic rules is possibly why.
    I could probably write a dissertation myself on these matters, lol.

    PS...Inconsistancies between different offices of the same department! It's as if staff are not properly trained if the staff at, say Phuket Immigration Office have different rules to the staff at Chiang Mai Immigration Office. It seems as if it all depends on who is at the desk and what mood he or she is in. It would be nice for the rules to be clear and for a Westerner to be able to say, "No, sorry, the rules states xyz, I'm sorry, but I do not need to comply with your request for ten more documents..." and still get your passport stamped correctly.
    Thailand as a developing country has instituted measures to protect the rights of its own citizens. Most of it may seem backward and unnecessary to us as westerners. While I agree with most of the points raised, it would take a much more forward thinking democracy than the present Junta, who see rulings and bureaucracy as the only way forward.
    Europe has enveloped itself in red tape which forward thinking politicians are tying hard to unravel, so Thailand is not alone in this respect, just a long way behind
    You ask for respect toward foreigners. I would suggest that it has to be earned, especially here.
    The point about increased social media (internet use) is a valid one and may actually help to bring things forward more quickly. Banning online games would help enormously in this respect. It helps to deal with adults instead of millions of children.
    Your point about putting down roots is also highly relevant. See my avatar location comment. It has been unchanged for 7 years.

  2. #102
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    I would love to be able to put down roots in Thailand, and until such time as I can I know I am just a begrudged guest subject to the whims of every public servant, and the petulance of the Rich whom I Know don't really want us here because of our big mouth and our 'Freedom'. And yes- we do have a big mouth.

    So there- put that in your Survey. I'd love to be able to trust your 'survey' but I can't- because TiT.
    Last edited by sabang; 26-03-2016 at 01:38 PM.

  3. #103
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    15,541
    Quote Originally Posted by wjblaney View Post
    Maanaam, indeed it would be nice to know that PhD would use collective comments on this thread in his research toward his thesis. However, the OP specifically states:

    Quote Originally Posted by PhDstudent
    I registered to this forum because I would like to ask whether any of you be interested to participate in my study, which is an online questionnaire.

    Hopefully, the research results will become part of policy recommendations, which aim to constitute mutual benefits for both retired expats and Thai society as a whole. In addition, please be informed that Information related directly to you will be kept confidential. Results of the study will be reported as total picture. Any information which could be able to identify you will not appear in the report ka.
    So, it seems he's only interested in his questionnaire.

    That said, it still would be nice to continue with comments along your vein, whether in this thread or moved to somewhere more appropriate. In the meantime, I'd like to comment on your post.

    It would be nice to know where in Thailand you've lived the most and live currently. It might help immensely towards understanding your overall perspective, which does not make your specific comments any more or less valid. (it might not even make any difference at all in your perspective to the whole of TH). In fact, I agree with what you said. That is, the things you mentioned would be nice. My perspective currently revolves around life in Chiang Mai and I do consider that perspective to almost 100% affect my overall perspective towards Thailand. I haven't lived in BKK but consider that one of the biggest ghettos in the world. I have lived a month in the jungles (almost: Singburi) and would use any excuse to get out of there. Like BKK, it experiences annual flooding. So, first of all, before TH puts any more money into retirees they definitely need to put more money into their own people, like infrastructure, for example. Bangkok and Singburi aren't rice fields. Why do they flood every year? Even Chiang Mai's streets can't handle the yearly rains. That's absolutely ridiculous. Have you ever been to Seattle? You know people drive on freeways at speed during storms bc the water is so well sluiced off? Furthermore, there are no standing pools of water: it's directed where it's needed. NOTE: I don't mean to digress about Seattle bc of some exaggeration. My final perspective (outside of Chiang Mai) is Phayao/Chiang Rai, which I would escape also for lack of size. But the north has been a much better place for me, I would say, because of the weather, although not the women (that is, before we get to Chiang Mai). Enough of me. Back to you.

    I would like to quote this para of yours, because it seems significant, from another perspective.

    Quote Originally Posted by Maanaam
    With the vast increase in internet users, the downsides of retiring in Thailand are getting widely publicised around the world. More and more Western retirees are choosing other countries, such as South and Central American countries, or other SE Asian countries. If Thailand wants to get this free money, Thaialnd needs to treat these people with a bit more respect and try to make their retirement easier, not harder. Retirees are not causing problems like with some tourists are.
    What's significant to me in particular is the complete freedom from crime Western expats experience in LOS. I had to highlight the middle sentence for the simple reason, true or not, they are going to find a lot more crime there or worries about it. I'd rather have peace of mind here in that regard.
    She. Phd is a she, and a well-educated she to boot.
    I live in the south. Muslim insurgency country. Indeed the people here are different to BKK, Chiangmai Pattaya etc. Younger strangers call me loong just exactly as they would call a strange older Thai, neighbours call me loong just exactly as they call older neighbours, indeterminate age strangers call me khun, older neighbours call me simply by my first name. My landlord insists I call him "nong" and he calls me "pi". One of my students dads has a birthday 3 days after mine and it is now a standing joke that he (rich official guy) is nong and I am pi. They are polite here and not jaded by the "farang tourists", and I love that.
    Freedom from crime???? Really? Where do you live?

    Get with the game. It's in everyone's interest, both westerner and Thai, to have the Thai government support Western retirees and Western married blokes. It's win-win.

  4. #104
    Thailand Expat
    Roobarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Last Online
    23-04-2016 @ 12:30 AM
    Location
    UAE
    Posts
    1,617
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I would love to be able to put down roots in Thailand, and until such time as I can I know I am just a begrudged guest subject to the whims of every public servant, and the petulance of the Rich whom I Know don't really want us here because of our big mouth and our 'Freedom'. And yes- we do have a big mouth.

    So there- put that in your Survey. I'd love to be able to trust your 'survey' but I can't- because TiT.
    Says it all. I'm a long way off retirement, but all things being equal I'd choose to retire in Malaysia where one can, within reasonable limits, settle. I would then travel to Thailand as a tourist as and when I feel like doing so.

    Unfortunately a broken and corrupt society tends to attract the broken and corrupt from elsewhere. As has been mentioned previously, if it was not for either existing marriage or the hope of partnership, I wonder whether Thailand would attract retirees in the number it currently does.

    Whilst I applaud the OP's motivation, and her reaching out to engage both foreign retirees as well as government officials, I can't help but feel the questions should be posed to those retirees who chose to live somewhere other than Thailand.

    Unfortunately I think that meaningful change, and by that I mean change that makes Thailand as a society an attractive proposition to Western retirees rather than relying on the relationships of solitary individuals, would entail dismantling much of the tenets on which Thai society is currently based.

    I wish the OP the very best of luck, for her thesis to make a real difference she'll need it.

  5. #105
    Thailand Expat
    taxexile's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    19,335
    Unfortunately a broken and corrupt society tends to attract the broken and corrupt from elsewhere.
    very true.

  6. #106
    Thailand Expat
    Sumbitch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Last Online
    29-04-2020 @ 04:54 PM
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    5,596
    Quote Originally Posted by jimbobs
    I will build a house in loas or Cambodia
    Duly noted. What are your motivations to live in SEA?

  7. #107
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    18,022
    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    Unfortunately a broken and corrupt society tends to attract the broken and corrupt from elsewhere.
    very true.

    That subject matter would be a more interesting research project than the expected that many would pursue...

  8. #108
    Thailand Expat
    chassamui's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Bali
    Posts
    11,678
    Are there any existing academic studies on the subject of retirement of westerners? The only stuff on google is from self interested expat business interests.

  9. #109
    Newbie

    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Last Online
    22-09-2017 @ 11:54 PM
    Posts
    15
    Quote Originally Posted by chassamui View Post
    Are there any existing academic studies on the subject of retirement of westerners? The only stuff on google is from self interested expat business interests.
    https://scholar.google.co.th/scholar...n&as_sdt=0%2C5
    There are 5-6 new articles (2015-2016) that I have to read T.T
    BTW The migration of westerners to Thailand: an unusual flow from developed to developing world (2009) also surveyed opinions from those who already left Thailand.

  10. #110
    Banned

    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Last Online
    19-01-2019 @ 03:32 PM
    Posts
    2,854
    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    How much more effort does it take to use 3 syllables rather than 2?

    Many foreigners do find the word offensive.
    Only PC twats who also wet their pants at Japs and wogs etc, we slag Thais off enough without moaning about falang, it don't bother me.

  11. #111
    Thailand Expat
    chassamui's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Bali
    Posts
    11,678
    Quote Originally Posted by PhDstudent
    https://scholar.google.co.th/scholar...n&as_sdt=0%2C5 There are 5-6 new articles (2015-2016) that I have to read T.T BTW The migration of westerners to Thailand: an unusual flow from developed to developing world (2009) also surveyed opinions from those who already left Thailand.
    Thank you PhD Student. Although this link, https://books.google.co.th/books?hl=...page&q&f=false deals with Malaysia, I found the distinction between expats and anti-expats a very interesting one and equally applicable to Thailand.

  12. #112
    Banned

    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Last Online
    19-01-2019 @ 03:32 PM
    Posts
    2,854
    Quote Originally Posted by Roobarb View Post

    Unfortunately a broken and corrupt society tends to attract the broken and corrupt from elsewhere..
    Says a bloke living in an the United Arab Emirates

  13. #113
    Newbie
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Last Online
    13-08-2019 @ 01:23 PM
    Location
    Bangkok, Thailand
    Posts
    6
    Well it's no harm and might even produce positive results?
    Why does he not ask for personal interviews - much the best for honest replies.

  14. #114
    Newbie

    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Last Online
    22-09-2017 @ 11:54 PM
    Posts
    15

    Completed dissertation

    Dear all Teakdoor.com members,

    I am please to inform you that now I have finished my Ph.D. study. My Ph.D. dissertation entitled "International Retirement Migration of Westerners to Thailand: Decision-making Process, Wellbeing, Assimilation, and Impacts on Destination" will be available on Chulalongkorn University database by September 2017.

    However, I also upload the file on - - - 27 July 2017 ice Ethesis with Chula Watermark

    I would like to thank all kind participants for making this study possible. Any mistakes are solely my own.

    Best regards,

    Kanokwan Tangchitnusorn (ice)
    email: kanokwan.tang@student.chula.ac.th

  15. #115
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 08:43 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,222
    Congratulations, when is the party?

  16. #116
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    15,541
    Promising. At first I thought your dissertation was a little biased and underplaying many of the problems faced by foreigners. It's not just traffic!
    I still think that you understated the problems.
    However, this part of your conclusion was good, if a tad understated.
    From page 212 onwards...

    Hmm can't cut and paste. No matter. P 212, "Conclusion". Good.

    Well done. A lot of work there.

  17. #117
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    18,022
    Quote Originally Posted by Maanaam View Post
    Promising. At first I thought your dissertation was a little biased and underplaying many of the problems faced by foreigners. It's not just traffic!
    I still think that you understated the problems.
    However, this part of your conclusion was good, if a tad understated.
    From page 212 onwards...

    Hmm can't cut and paste. No matter. P 212, "Conclusion". Good.

    Well done. A lot of work there.
    Dissertations, like most everything, will be subjective to one degree or another.

    Ever absorbed any such studies or papers that weren't of this nature.

  18. #118
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Congratulations, Doctor. You have earned them, and may your diligence and curiosity take you much further in life.
    Thailand needs more educated, curious, intelligent people to help coax it into the present century.

  19. #119
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,534
    Quote Originally Posted by thaimeme
    Dissertations, like most everything, will be subjective to one degree or another.

    Ever absorbed any such studies or papers that weren't of this nature.
    I think you might have excelled yourself there.

    A reassuring mix of a statement of the obvious, combined with the heady elixir of utterly incomprehensible drivel.

    Bravo!

  20. #120
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    18,022
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Congratulations, Doctor. You have earned them, and may your diligence and curiosity take you much further in life.
    Thailand needs more educated, curious, intelligent people to help coax it into the present century.
    Curiosity, critical thought, challenging, question ain't allowed and certainly quite systematically discouraged.


    Next...

  21. #121
    Thailand Expat
    chassamui's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Bali
    Posts
    11,678
    Quote Originally Posted by thaimeme
    Curiosity, critical thought, challenging, question ain't allowed and certainly quite systematically discouraged.
    This very post is a perfect demonstration of the point in question Jeffrey.

  22. #122
    Thailand Expat
    Eliminator's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Last Online
    26-11-2020 @ 11:56 AM
    Location
    Thailand
    Posts
    3,804
    Please post your complete paper and YOUR thoughts there of.

  23. #123
    Thailand Expat raycarey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    15,054
    Quote Originally Posted by Eliminator
    Please post your complete paper and YOUR thoughts there of.
    what are you on about?

    a link to the file is included in a post on this page.

    it's her thesis for FFS...what else would it be than her "thoughts there of"?

  24. #124
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Last Online
    Today @ 02:09 AM
    Posts
    24,760
    Quote Originally Posted by thaimeme
    Curiosity, critical thought, challenging, question ain't allowed and certainly quite systematically discouraged.
    that opinion is because of the people you hang around with

  25. #125
    R.I.P.
    DrB0b's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD
    Posts
    17,118
    Quote Originally Posted by Eliminator View Post
    Please post your complete paper and YOUR thoughts there of.
    She's linked to the thesis, you mindless pinhead. Sheesh!

Page 5 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •