Thread: What's the Thai word for 'Initiative'?

Originally Posted by tsicar

half the isaan kids are malnourished

Not my observation Tsi.
I am pretty familiar with my wifes village in Ubon, and I reckon in nutrition terms (Not palatability) their diet is better than many a western diet. Every meal is accompanied by raw veges on the side, and the diet, though simple, has all you need.

It may vary elsewhere in Isaan- the local area has a lot of forest, so the locals diet comes from a mix of what they forage (mushrooms, herbs & veg), hunt (rats, lizards, insects & birds), grow (mostly rice of course, but many other things) and raise (mainly chickens & pigs).

Originally Posted by DrB0b

I don't believe that tsicar has ever been to Isaan. I think he's an 8 hour a week English teacher who lives on the 32nd floor of a 1,500 baht per month condo block in Lad Prao and has been unable to cope with life in Thailand since the day he got drunk during a showing of Naresuan and gave Lek the Lad Prao Ladyboy a blowjob in the back row of the Lad Prao Majestic.

How very wrong you are. I don't want to get involved in your spat but I can vouch for Tsicar and his knowledge of where we both live here in Isaan. Things may be different in other parts of the wood and Isaan is a big wood.

Originally Posted by Ivor Biggun

Originally Posted by DrB0b

I don't believe that tsicar has ever been to Isaan. I think he's an 8 hour a week English teacher who lives on the 32nd floor of a 1,500 baht per month condo block in Lad Prao and has been unable to cope with life in Thailand since the day he got drunk during a showing of Naresuan and gave Lek the Lad Prao Ladyboy a blowjob in the back row of the Lad Prao Majestic.

How very wrong you are. I don't want to get involved in your spat but I can vouch for Tsicar and his knowledge of where we both live here in Isaan. Things may be different in other parts of the wood and Isaan is a big wood.

I have no interest in the state of your and tsicar's wood. Keep it for your all-male getting-to-know-your-own-sexuality encounter group.

Fair enough.

Originally Posted by thegent

I'm terribly sorry tsicar, I didn't know you were a total idiot.

Best we refrain from any further interaction.

Seems like your usual way, name-calling when you run out of arguments.

As tsicar I have got the impression you have never been to Isaan.

Originally Posted by DrB0b

Originally Posted by Ivor Biggun

Originally Posted by DrB0b

I don't believe that tsicar has ever been to Isaan. I think he's an 8 hour a week English teacher who lives on the 32nd floor of a 1,500 baht per month condo block in Lad Prao and has been unable to cope with life in Thailand since the day he got drunk during a showing of Naresuan and gave Lek the Lad Prao Ladyboy a blowjob in the back row of the Lad Prao Majestic.

How very wrong you are. I don't want to get involved in your spat but I can vouch for Tsicar and his knowledge of where we both live here in Isaan. Things may be different in other parts of the wood and Isaan is a big wood.

I have no interest in the state of your and tsicar's wood. Keep it for your all-male getting-to-know-your-own-sexuality encounter group.

at least tsicar and ivor both know that they are male. how about you, bob? a little "confused", perhaps?

Originally Posted by Reaper

Originally Posted by thegent

Poor Isaan folk unable to subsidise their income from proceeds of industry denied to them because there are simply bugger all opportunities

I like the apologists approach. There are opportunities in Isaan if people want to make use of it. The government gives almost everything for free. I usually hear such tripe from people married to a local prostitute. They run the same old arguments of no help or money - lies!

Let me give you a few examples:

1. A senior nurse at a Bangkok hospital who speaks near perfect English and makes a very good salary. She comes from a single parent family. Her mother is a farmer. The Thai government paid for all her training. From school right up to nursing college. She works 6 days a week but pulls in 30k a month.

2. A medical intern at another hospital. He also speaks near perfect English and the Thai government has paid for everything. From school right up to including his medical studies. I asked him about the finances and said that he was on a bursary scheme that the Thai government provides.

3. Another one I know owns a medium sized IT company. Like the above two he has near perfect English. They are motivated to learn English because they know that to deal with foreigners you need to understand the language. When you understand the language - that is where the money is. He has an MBA, however the odd thing is that he has no parents. He grew up in a temple and attended a temple school. Made his way with government bursaries.

4. Then there is the Issaan farmer. Great guy with no English skills. His parents borrowed money from the government land scheme and bought him a few Rai of land. He farms that land and is successful. He is 30 years old married with a kid.

What do they have in common? They are motivated to get ahead and to stay ahead. If they can do it then why the hell cant the rest. I get so bloody tired of listening to tripe about no opportunities. They are there but people are to lazy to make use of it. YES, the above sample of people are a very thin line of Thais' who actually made their way from the right bottom to the middle and up but it proves that it can be done.

Originally Posted by thegent

Given the cost of what most would recognise as the basis of a nutritious diet added to what interest may accrue on loans to pay for health, a piece of land and whatever misfortune might befall the hapless Isaanite

They are not helpless they are bloody lazy. They accrue loans on their land because they gamble the money away. The government gives those loans specifically to help them get ahead by developing their land. Instead they piss away the Thai governments money. Health care? Have you not heard about the 30 Baht scheme?

Motivation and Innovation is just not part and parcel of the Thai psyche. There are of course exceptions to the rule as I have posted, but few and far between however don't try and leave us with the impression that the Thai government does not help - they do.

thank you, reaper.
and here i thought you were just another fat farang falling off his barstool.....
some people have their heads so far up their arses that they just don't see what is going on around them!

I've noticed this phenomenon before in farang who imagine they have an insight into the heart of the Thai psyche. Quite pathetic really, as it is so obviously a mechanism that only serves to reinforce their own innate prejudices as they try to come to terms with a society to which they cannot truly belong.

Nevertheless, Reaper it's interesting to note that you allow yourself the luxury of stereotyping without affording me the same. Clearly, your prejudices are infinitely more valid than mine and I bow to your superiority so amply demonstrated in your skewed polemic valiantly supported by that kaffir,Tsicar.

I really must remove those blinkers that have so blinded me to the embarrassment of riches that is evidently Isaan. Next time I travel to my " prostitute " wife's village I shall confront those assembled with my new found knowledge that their failure to embrace Taksin's iniatives to their full potential has nothing to do with economic folly but everything to do with their laziness.

The 30 Bt scheme is of course a shining beacon of success envied throughout Asia and marks a miraculous development in social medical care beyond par. I suppose it was simply carelessness on the part of my mother in law who so stupidly drifted into a diabetic coma on a Friday night when no doctor would be available at the local hospital until the following Monday under this much vaunted scheme of yours. How lucky it was for her " prostitute " daughter to have married this farang who could pay for the private care that saved her life. In hindsight, I now see that the old biddy was just being lazy and should have got sick early in the week like all the other achievers.....

Christ, deliver us from the sanctimonious.

Originally Posted by thegent

I've noticed this phenomenon before in farang who imagine they have an insight into the heart of the Thai psyche.

If you know different, why don't you enlighten us instead of throwing a few insults at those you disagree with? You seem an intelligent chap (a bit brainwashed by the PC brigade perhaps) so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to make your point using real facts and intelligent discourse. You've yet to do so in this thread.

Smarting a bit, are we?

My dear Marmite, one can lead the proverbial to water but as far as making it drink? Well, that's up to the individual and frankly, in my experience, the prejudiced generally cling to their ignorance like limpets to a rock and no amount of information will shift them lest they somehow drown in enlightenment.

Thailand's position in the Asian league tables as far as expenditure on social welfare, medicine and education as a proportion of GDP is well documented as is their earnings per capita etc., etc..

Seek and ye shall find.

You never know, you may learn something.

Most can't be bothered since prejudice and ignorance takes less effort but hey, maybe they're just being lazy!

Was just gunna say the same. Why all the fancy words to say not much at all. Thailand has it pretty bloody good. The locals piss me off most of the time, but they usually deliver when needed (knock on wood and all that).

Oh Scampy, why are you so stupid?

The kaffir South African is a refugee from a society that no longer exists. In escaping to Isaan, if that is indeed his bolt hole, he conforms to type and is compelled to assume a superiority over the locals since that arrogance is crucial to reinforcing his very nature. How else could he exist unless there is an underclass of the stupid and lazy ?

Makes him feel at home.

Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr

Was just gunna say the same. Why all the fancy words to say not much at all. Thailand has it pretty bloody good. The locals piss me off most of the time, but they usually deliver when needed (knock on wood and all that).

Intelligent discourse, with this?

You're not desperate yet gent but you're stubborn.

Originally Posted by thegent

Oh Scampy, why are you so stupid?

The kaffir South African is a refugee from a society that no longer exists. In escaping to Isaan, if that is indeed his bolt hole, he conforms to type and is compelled to assume a superiority over the locals since that arrogance is crucial to reinforcing his very nature. How else could he exist unless there is an underclass of the stupid and lazy ?

Makes him feel at home.

When I first saw his user-name I found it strange that he would be so willing to describe himself as being something that was, theoretically at least, unacceptable. I no longer find it strange, tsicar knew better than I did the blindness and ignorance of the masses and I respect, if nothing else, his ability to take advantage of that.

Originally Posted by thegent

Intelligent discourse, with this?

Come on mate, its just about midnight on Sunday, not sure there is much intelligent intercourse happening in the lounge at this time. Hope you're taking the piss .

I just greened Wayne, couldn't think of a comment.

Originally Posted by thegent

Oh Scampy, why are you so stupid?

The kaffir South African is a refugee from a society that no longer exists. In escaping to Isaan, if that is indeed his bolt hole, he conforms to type and is compelled to assume a superiority over the locals since that arrogance is crucial to reinforcing his very nature. How else could he exist unless there is an underclass of the stupid and lazy ?

Makes him feel at home.

actually, i DO feel at home in isaan. makes me uncomfortable, though, (the fact that it is so much like "home"), and i feel it would be a better place if this was not so.....
there is an underclass of the stupid and lazy in every society. if they CHOOSE to be stupid and lazy, that is ok by me, but then they should not bemoan what befalls them. actually, the isaan thais do not bemoan their lot. they know the cost of being stupid and lazy, and embrace it.
then along comes someone like you, who tries to tell us all that they deserve more for being stupid and lazy.......

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

If you know different, why don't you enlighten us instead of throwing a few insults at those you disagree with? You seem an intelligent chap (a bit brainwashed by the PC brigade perhaps) so it shouldn't be too difficult for you to make your point using real facts and intelligent discourse. You've yet to do so in this thread.

I have not much hope that he may come up with some facts, in fact he already weaseled out.

Now just the question, what is his agenda behind labelling the isaanites as vitims of the supposed evil thai society?

Originally Posted by thegent

..my new found knowledge that their failure to embrace Taksin's iniatives to their full potential has nothing to do with economic folly but everything to do with their laziness.

Show me where I mentioned "Thaksin's initiatives". I clearly spoke about bursary schemes for students, free education up to M2 and a 30B health care system.

Originally Posted by thegent

The 30 Bt scheme is of course a shining beacon of success envied throughout Asia

Actually it is. Do the Cambodians or Burmese have the same? Now that Social Security has come into full swing in Thailand, can the other Asians also claim to be able to draw a pension? Shining beacon? More a glimmer of hope.

Originally Posted by thegent

....carelessness on the part of my mother in law who so stupidly drifted into a diabetic coma on a Friday night

Carelessness - Where is the responsibility? Is that not what this debate is about, taking responsibility for your own future with what is available?