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   FEATURES

HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
“Long tongue” wins Ripley’s face off

First serious Nishikigoi research & development in Pattaya

Royal Cliff Beach Resort says “Thank You”

Fredi Schaub elected President of the International Gourmet Club, Pattaya

PSC enjoys the Christmas spirit

A Thousand Years of History

Why we must embrace “Transformational Leadership”

“Long tongue” wins Ripley’s face off

Pattaya resident Mr. Kryd Samkhananon was able to distort his face better than 24 other contestants to win the Ripley’s “Face Off” Contest last week. The winning expression? Kryd was able to lick the inside of his own nose while arching one eyebrow, bugging that eye out so far it seemed it would nearly pop out.

Kryd Samkhananon presented the strangest face of all to win the Ripley’s Face Off contest.

For his strange facial expression, Kryd was awarded 10,000 baht and a certificate from Ripley’s. Kryd’s face will now also be immortalized in Ripley’s Museum and his face will be represented in a cartoon called “Believe It or Not!” presented all over the world.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Pattaya held the “Ripley’s Face Off” contest at the Ripley’s World of Entertainment on the 3rd floor of the Pattaya Royal Garden Plaza Business Center on Saturday 18 December 1999.

For the contest, Ripley’s was looking for the strangest, funniest and most peculiar face, unlike anyone seen before.

First runner-up was a young boy named Amphon Salabsri; second runner-up was Makawan Thongyaem.

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First serious Nishikigoi research & development in Pattaya

by Dr. L.L. Riedesel

Nishikigoi carps are becoming increasingly popular throughout the world, with their striking patterns and brilliant colors. The keeping of these carp began first in the early 19th century with the advent of colored mutations of the common European carp Cyprinus Carpio (Germany, Poland). These first fish, kept by Japanese farmers in the Nigata region, were probably produced by accident, but since then, selective breeding has resulted in the bright colored numerous varieties, available today in Japan, Israel, United Kingdom and the USA.

SNRD (1998) is an independent scientific Nishikigoi research and development member of the Redemptorist Center of Thailand. It was founded in 1998 and is already considered of being a leading Nishikigoi aquaculture station. It is now the target of SNRD to establish in Thailand a new Koi rearing region. Based on the annual constant positive parameters, this planned program will start most successful with the beginning of 2000. SNDR will not only use their modern hatchery facilities for the culture Nishikigoi fry and adults for sale, but will also be of highest assistance for Thai Koi keepers, providing an utmost effective service in all lines. The main factors for rearing and keeping Nishikigoi, mainly in ponds, are as follows:

1. Optimal water quality is doubtless one of the most important factors in a positive stress free and disease free keeping of Nishikigoi and must be permanently controlled. Drilled ground water can be used in no case because of its low dissolved oxygen content and various negative mineral substances. Carp keeping requires optimal fresh water with a dissolved oxygen level of over 8.5 ppm, and a pH level ranging between 6.8 - max. 8.0 ppm and a water-hardness between 2.0 - 20.0 DH. Any levels of Ammonia, Nitrite, Choline and Chloremine will result in high stress development and high mortality rate. Water tests concerning this factor must be done every 10 days. Furthermore, an optimal functioning Nitrogen cycle is of highest importance to avoid stress and disease development.

2. Utmost effective filtration of the culture water is essential, by undertaking regular large partial water changes or, more effective, by installation of suitable filtration systems. There are various principles of successful filtration systems available. SNRD is using optimal biological filtration systems developed by SNRD.

3. Optimal nutritional feeding technique is another very important factor. SNRD has, after careful research, developed an outstanding pellet program of various protein (ranging from 42% - 50%) and lipid (ranging from 12% - 15%) levels. SNRD pellets are based on the optimal Amino acid levels as well as utmost coloration enhance, resulting in brilliant coloring and an outstanding positive development of Nishikigoi carps at all life-stages.

4. General disease prevention, breeding process of mature Nishikigoi brood-stock and general maintenance factors. Prevention and acute treatment of the various Nishikigoi diseases as parasitic infestations, bacterial, fungi and viral infections are absolutely necessary. Long research of SNRD led to the development of an utmost effective prevention and treatment program and now they are in possession of optimal therapists and special treatment aquariums. SNRD is proud to confirm that diseases and mortality rates at their research center at all life stages of Nishikigoi are only 2% - 3%.

If those factors are sufficiently provided, the Nishikigoi, since they are not too sensitive, will show a significant resistance against stress and serious diseases.

SNRD consists at this moment of over a total of 150,000 l various hatching and rearing facilities including modern biological filtration systems. They now have 75 Nishikigoi brood-stock varieties at a body-length of 20 -23 inch, 115 adult sized and 400 fry sized (4 - 10 inch) Nishikigoi. Already during spring 2000, SNRD will be starting their own fry production program, based on the breeding cycles of selected brood-stock spawners, which will result in a high amount of brilliantly colored Nishikigoi fry at a body length of 3 - 6 inches per spawning cycle, having 6 spawning cycles during the year 2000.

The project leader, Dr. L.L. Riedesel, has more than 20 years experience in aqua culture, both at scientific and practical fields and especially in Nishikigoi development. He can also be of great assistance for Nishikigoi keepers, either private people with a small pond or hotels with a larger sized pond. The provided services for those clients are: sale of adult and fry sized Nichikigoi; technical assistance in the layout, construction and optimal filtration in all pond systems; scientific and practical assistance in providing nutritional feed-stuff products; water test examination; disease control and treatments.

Nishikigoi carps are usually very costly fish. Prices for Nishikigoi carps are based on the body length and variety. They are ranging in the USA between 400 US$ and 4,380 US$, up to the selection. Prices in Japan are much higher than in the USA; for example a Nishikigoi with a body length between 25 - 30 inches will cost app. 125,000 US$ and more.

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Royal Cliff Beach Resort says “Thank you”

For many years, the Royal Cliff Beach Resort has held a thank you party during Christmas for all its supporters from the travel industry and the press.

This year, the venue was the new PEACH convention center and as always, everyone accepted the invitation from Panga Vathanakul, the Managing Director of the ‘Cliff’. Some 500 people showed up to party with the management and staff, as befitting longtime friends, and everybody received a nice Christmas present.

Chan Vathanakul (left) Managing Director of Bangkok Life Insurance, Somsak Kiratipanich (2nd left), President of the SKAL Club, HE John G. Janse Van Rensburg (4th from left), the Ambassador of South Africa, Panga Vathanakul (4th from right) Managing Director of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, and HE Tauno Kaaria (3rd from right), the Ambassador of Finland.

Amongst the guests of honor were: HE Jan Becka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic; HE John G. Janse Van Rensburg, Ambassador of South Africa; HE Tauno Kaaria, Ambassador of Finland and his wife; Dr. Sergei Briginevich, the Russian Trade Commissioner and his wife; Kees Van Oye, the Sales Consultant of KLM and Somsak Kiratipanich, the president of the SKAL Cub.

Khun Panga expressed in her welcome speech her thanks for the unparalleled support received from the travel agents and the press over the years, as they share in the revelry of the coming Millennium. She then introduced PEACH to the guests and at the same time announced the opening of a Spa at the Royal Cliff Grand. After introducing all her managers, Khun Panga wished the audience a Merry Christmas and a good start into the new Millennium.

Ross Ferguson, the Resident Manager of PEACH, introduced his team, as did David Holden, the Sales & Marketing Director of the Cliff and Ms. Sunisa, the Director of Sales & Marketing of the Bangkok team.

The Sales & Marketing team, a young and energetic crew from Bangkok, had some surprises in store, performing dances and songs, almost as perfect as professional entertainers, before and during the sumptuous food presentation, which was truly a feast of Asian and Intercontinental specialties. The Royal Cliff Beach Resort said ‘thank you’ once again in great style.

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Fredi Schaub elected President of the International Gourmet Club, Pattaya

by Pedro Lionel

At a dinner held at Bruno’s Restaurant last week, Fredi Schaub was invested with the title of President of the International Gourmet club, Pattaya.

Members and guests came together to toast Fredi and take pleasure in feasting on excellent food, enjoying warm fellowship, consuming superb wine and taking delight in the excellent taste and aroma of the finest cigars in the world.

Fredi Schaub at his inauguration

At his inauguration, President Fredi expounded on the virtues of this unique club and it’s members. “This club is only for people of the same ideals,” said Fredi. “These ideals are very simple. They must believe in comradeship, contentment, polite company and charity. Complemented by the love of fine creative food and a passion for the preference of fine wines.”

Investigating deeper into the beginnings of the club, this lover of fine food and wines, amongst many other things was introduced to Romano Maspero, who had a very interesting story to tell.

Founding President Romano Maspero (holding club plaque), Founding VP Hansj๖rg Leeser (far left), and Fredi Schaub (tall one) with some of the Gourmands.

Romano, a very distinguished Swiss gentleman, took us back through time and recounted the period, twenty years ago, when he commuted between Zurich and Hong Kong on his business trips. Romano always took the opportunity to stop over in Pattaya. Like thousands before him and millions afterwards, Romano fell in love with Pattaya and made this seaside resort his second home. The responsibility, the duty and the feeling to protect and see a better future for Pattaya became stronger. What with all the “Pattaya Bashing” going on in the foreign press, publicising only the negative aspects of Pattaya, Romano decided to contribute what ever it took to prove to the world that Pattaya had more than it’s fair share of decent living, comparable to the finest cities in the world. That’s when he decided to establish the International Gourmet Club, Pattaya. December 18, 1997, marks the day of the club’s founding. Since then members have been meeting at Bruno’s Restaurant as often as possible. They also meet and enjoy dining at the many fine restaurants in Pattaya.

Members and guests enjoy fellowship at the banquet.

“There is another purpose to these cordial meetings,” added Romano. “We don’t want to be seen as selfish people who only think of self indulgence. We have therefore adopted the most important law of our club and that is ‘Charity’. All funds collected from membership plus generous donations from members and guests are committed to the expenses for the well being of the children at the Pattaya Orphanage.”

Membership is by invitation only and those interested in assisting the charity may contact Fredi Schaub at Bruno’s Restaurant.

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PSC enjoys the Christmas spirit

Nearly 400 Pattaya Sports Club members turned up for fine food and friendly company at the annual PSC Christmas party at the Town in Town Hotel on Wednesday, December 22nd.

PSC President Peter Malhotra and Party Chairman Ken Crow enjoy the fun.

An international and Thai buffet was set up, there were plenty of liquid refreshments, and the many lucky draw prizes all contributed to make this annual event more than worth the paltry 300 baht entry fee.

The Pattaya Sports Club has become one of the biggest clubs in Thailand, with over 8,000 members. All who attended the party were in agreement that the organizing committee, headed by party master Ken Crow, did an excellent job.

A lovely lass accepts the grand prize on behalf of Carl Engel, surrounded by John Macallen (left), Mike Franklin and Ron Herbert, with Dick Caggiano emceeing the event in the background.

Sponsors were also very generous with donating prizes to the lucky draw. Prizes included restaurant meals, hotel accommodations, airline tickets and the always favored gold chains.

The big winners of this year’s lucky draw were: Khun Pornthip won 3rd prize (1/2 baht gold chain), Don Antonio won 2nd prize (one baht gold chain), and Carl Engel won 1st prize, an airline ticket sponsored by GM Tours & Travel.

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A Thousand Years of History

by Barrie Kenyon

December of the year 999 AD was even more worrying than the present one. Monks were wandering around with placards warning the one percent of the population who could read that the End Is Nigh. Some had even convinced themselves the Y1K bug would strike on January 1st causing every single parchment in the world to shrivel up unless it had been coated with a secret millennial potion. This particular liquid was on special offer from the Papacy, the tenth century equivalent of Microsoft, at a knock down price of seven groats per phial, or thirteen groats for two. On other fronts, the future King Canute was still a young boy but he was already practising unsuccessfully the art of the turning back the tides. For this purpose he was quoting extensively from The Concise Encyclopaedia of Odin which was the nearest thing around to The Miracle Man movie. And the pope himself was trying to organize an emergency crusade to drive back the Turks before they turned out to be the 666 avenging demon mentioned in the Book of Revelations.

As events turned out, January 1st 1000 came and went without any disastrous happenings. An architect drew up plans for a new tower at Pisa and told everyone that some day every building would look like his, a prediction which was reasonably close to the mark in the case of Bangkok. A traveler from China brought back a small supply of gunpowder but made the mistake of soaking it in water. Western Europe thus had to wait over three centuries before realizing how to blow up people in great numbers by lighting a litmus paper and retiring to a safe distance. A doctor around this time produced the first known medical advice which was to place two leeches on the infected bit and not to pester him at weekends. Whether mankind has really advanced very far since the Dark Ages is a question still being debated.

In spite of history now being part of the national curriculum, it is far from clear that anything of significance has happened over the last thousand years. It is certainly true that Ireland and England have drifted twenty yards nearer, but you still have to catch a plane to visit your relatives in Dublin. The sun may have cooled by a couple of cosmic degrees but it’s still very hot indeed as evidenced by the fact that dark glasses are still in widespread use. A lot of things look exactly the same as they did at the start of the millennium, for example the Milky Way, the Grand Canyon, the treasures of ancient Egypt and most parts of the Amazon rain forests. Even the surface of the moon is roughly the same, except for a collection of flags and a solitary golf ball.

Then again, take politics. The names may have changed but not a lot else. England still has a monarch, the French are still going on about military glory even though they have seldom won a war and the Russians still can’t control their minorities. Only the Americans have managed to rewrite their past, largely by wiping out the descendants of anyone living there before the seventeenth century. Meanwhile, human foibles continue to take their toll. King William Rufus was murdered in 1100 AD at least partly because of unnatural practices which may well have happened as late as this century to Prince Eddie who was scheduled to succeed Queen Victoria. Cosmo de Medici, like President Clinton, had a lot of trouble shutting up witnesses to his marital infidelities, although the former made a permanent solution to his embarrassment by judicious use of the public executioner. The President had to rely on speeches.

Futurologists are already debating what the headlines will be at the end of the next millennium. A global warming conference held at a tropical palm resort in the Antarctic will be told that the effects have been grossly exaggerated. A sporadic missile war will have started between Earth and its human colonies on the distant planet of Rinso. There the inhabitants are complaining that they have to pay taxes to the center of world government in New York but haven’t any voting rights, tend to be left out of the decision making process and can’t get the newspapers delivered on time. Meanwhile, on the social scene, there will be anguished debate about whether the old age pension should begin at 150 or 200 years old and whether it was a good idea to classify tomato ketchup as a vegetable in order to get children to eat healthier foods. As the ancient philosopher pointed out, “The more we change, the more we remain the same.”

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Why we must embrace “Transformational Leadership”

by Richard Townsend, 
Corporate Learning Consultant

Autocratic, army or public service style ‘Instructional’ leadership encompasses hierarchies and top-down use of power. The leader is supposed to know the best way to administer the business, issues instructions and closely monitors ‘the lower levels’ work. The main problem with this form of leadership is that good administrators aren’t always great operators nor can they keep up with real-world business trends, technological advances or shifting customer demands. Another difficulty is that this form of leadership concentrates on the growth and safety of business, with the development of followers, often becoming a secondary priority. Modern business requires ‘the team’ to be “the servants of a collective vision,” thus leaders must fulfill the role of coach, cheerleader, problem solver and resource finder. Autocratic ‘instructional’ leadership, has therefore, many argue, outlived its usefulness.

Another form of traditional leadership is ‘Transactional’ leadership. Transactional leadership (or bartering) is based on an exchange of services from staff for various kinds of rewards such as a salary & benefits. ‘Leithwood’ (1992) says this type of leadership “doesn’t stimulate improvement”. Mitchell and Tucker (Leadership Way of Thinking) add that “transactional leadership works only when both leaders and followers understand and are in agreement about which tasks are important”. Experience suggests that it is not often that staff and management (even departments, sales vs. production, R&D vs. financial control, etc.) truly agree on what is, or is not important. It is arguable, therefore, that this form of leadership is also ready for the waste bin.

What is Transformational Leadership?

The idea of transformational leadership was first developed by James McGregor Burns in 1978 and later extended by Bernard Bass as well as others. Burns and Bass studied political leaders, army officers and business executives. An article in a 1995 issue of the Journal of Leadership Studies states, “Perhaps the most central notion of the transformational leader is the explicit purpose behind leading others. A transforming leader ACTS TO MAXIMISE THE NEEDS OF THE FOLLOWER. Leadership must also stimulate the needs of the entire organization of people constantly moving them to higher order needs. The term ‘transformational’ stems from the leaders’ ability to develop people as resources and move them to a more satisfactory state of existence. Burns contrasts the transforming leader with a power wielder (transactional leader) suggesting that the transformational leader has an interest in the personal development of the follower, “leaders can also shape and alter and elevate the motives and values and goals of followers...” To Burns, transactional leadership is immature because it is based on the needs of the leader rather than the follower, “The object [in transactional leadership] is not a joint effort for persons with common aims acting for the collective interests of followers but a bargain to aid the individual interests of persons or groups going their separate ways”. Bass and Avolio (1989) argue that the transformational leader motivates followers (should be uses followers motivation) to act in the interest of the organization rather than to maximize self-interest.

Worth a thought!

http:/www.orglearn.org

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