HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Family Money

Snap Shots

Modern Medicine

Women's World

Heart to Heart with Hillary

Grapevine

Shaman's Rattle

Antiques, are they genuine?

Animal Crackers

The computer doctor

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Roll over Rover

A Slice of Thai History

Family Money: US/UK Double Taxation Treaty

By Leslie Wright,
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.

A reader asks: “I have read about the new Double Tax Treaty between the UK and US, and wonder if this will apply to me. I work for a British company and, for tax purposes, consider the UK to be my domicile. My employer has asked me if I would be interested in working in our New York branch on a nine-month contract from September 1 2002. I will remain on the UK payroll during this time and continue with UK ‘Pay as You Earn’ income tax and National Insurance contributions. I assume I will not have a tax liability in the US, as my assignment is short-term. Is this correct?” The answer: working short-term in the US can indeed be a tax-free event under the provisions of the new US/UK tax treaty depending on the duration and timing of assignment, and other terms.

After almost three years of negotiation, a new Double Tax Treaty was signed on 24 July 2001. This will replace the existing agreement that has been in place for over 20 years. Subject to instruments of ratification being signed before December 31 2001, the new treaty is expected to enter force during 2002. There is a 12-month “grandfathering” provision that allows the current treaty to continue to apply in its entirety.

The timing of your forthcoming assignment in New York allows you to choose whether to abide by the existing or the new treaty provisions. Under article 15 of the current treaty, you may claim exemption from American taxation provided you are not in the US for more than 183 days in the tax year concerned and if your remuneration is paid by an employer who is not resident in the US. In addition, your remuneration must not be borne by a permanent establishment or fixed base that your employer has in the US.

The 183-day test under the old treaty provisions examines each US tax year separately. As you will be spending less than 183 days in the US during each calendar year 2002 and 2003 (US tax year), you will meet the first test. Also, if your employment costs will not be recharged as direct salary costs to a permanent establishment of your employer’s in New York, you will meet the other requirements. A permanent establishment, in your case, would be the US branch of your UK employer.

Having met the requirements, you will be exempt from US taxation, but you will still need to file your treaty-based US returns in 2002 and 2003, reporting the income for which you are claiming exemption and substantiating your residence in the UK.

Significantly, under the provisions of Article 14 of the new treaty, the 183-day test will now be calculated over any 12month period beginning or ending in the relevant tax year. Therefore, it will no longer be possible to look at each tax year in isolation and, although you will spend less than 183 days in the US during each tax year 2002 and 2003, the duration of your entire assignment is more than 183 days. Additionally, under the new treaty provision, relief will not be available if your employment costs are recharged to the US even if they are part of a general management charge rather than direct salary expenses.

You will, therefore, fail to meet the tests under the new treaty and will be liable to Federal and New York State tax in 2002 (for four months) and 2003 (for five months) as a non-resident alien. The taxable amount is calculated based on the number of workdays you will have in the US and the amount of income that is generated during these workdays in each tax year. Remaining on the UK payroll will not preclude you from paying US tax.

As you will continue to be resident and domiciled in the UK whilst working in the US, you will also be liable to UK tax on your worldwide income. There will clearly be double taxation of income during your nine-month assignment in the US. To avoid this, you can claim a credit for US Federal and New York taxes that you pay against your UK tax liability on this portion of your income. Unfortunately, you will suffer the higher of the two tax rates (US or UK) on this portion of your income.

Using the 12-month grandfathering provision in the new treaty, which allows you to apply for the application of the old agreement, will clearly be more beneficial to you. If your assignment is postponed to any time after January 2003, you may not be able to revert back to the old provisions and will be liable to Federal and New York tax. Keeping good records of your days (business or vacation) at home and host countries is essential when you are on assignment. I recommend you keep a diary as one extra day could mean more tax for you or your employer.

Snap Shot: Shoot the entire family - peaceably!

by Harry Flashman

Look through the bundle of photographs you have in that drawer in the lounge room. What are the subjects of the majority of the snapshots? If you are like 99% of most non-pro shooters then it is the members of the family that come out on top in the photographic subject stakes.

For many people photographs are the ideal record to show a growing family, from naked on the bunny rug, to first communion, to marriage. Every family has these shots. A source of joy for grandmothers and a source of embarrassment for young teenagers!

This week I want to help you produce better shots of your family, be it the younger members or the older ones. There is no need for fancy equipment - even a box Brownie would do. What we are talking about here is photographic technique, not the photographic technical details. So stick a roll of film in the point and shoot compact and let’s go!

Take the thorny problem of children first. It is Harry’s experience that all children are a problem, and photographing them even more so! In fact I actively dislike taking kiddypix, but you have got to take them. The problem comes in the fact that children have an attention span measured in seconds, while teenagers have an attention span that can be measured in nano-seconds, unless they “want” the photograph, whereupon they spend all the time hogging the limelight.

Rule 1 is then to set up the shot you want, before children are brought into it. This does mean you have to “see” the shot you want and then make it happen. Since the child is the important subject, select an area with a “nothing” background. You do not want a cluttered, busy background to take the attention away from the child. Generally, a blank wall works well, particularly if you position the subject as far away from the background as possible. In this way, even with point and shoot compacts, when you focus on the child, the background will not be in sharp clear focus too. Try for neutral colourings too. A grey wall is better than a white one.

The next most important thing with kids is to get down to their level. You will not get a great shot looking down at them while they squint up to look at you. The camera should not be higher than the subject’s face when taking good kiddypix.

Only now, bring on the junior “stars” and start shooting - fast! Move in close so that the head and shoulders fill the frame. Don’t worry if you crop into the hair - just get close. More shots are spoiled by being to far away, rather than the reverse.

Now let’s look at photographing the older members of the family. Grandparents. Nobody wants to see themselves as dried prunes. If Mum and Dad are really getting on a bit, then consider using a soft focus filter to just soften those crows feet just a little. Harry refuses to use the term “laughing lines” as he believes they are not a laughing matter! And don’t shoot prunes!

So you’ve only got a compact and can’t screw a soft focus filter on - don’t worry, stretch a piece of nylon stocking tightly across the front of the camera and it will work OK. Fortunately, parents do have an attention span that can be measured by standard wrist watches, so you can try placing them in different areas of the garden for different effects. As people getting on in years tend to have white hair, look for darker backgrounds as contrast.

Think too, about getting the older folk to sit down. Comfortable garden chairs are good, but place them together and slightly facing each other. You do not want the “sit up straight” school pictures look with 75 year old grand-parents. And get down to their level too. Move in close, let them fill the frame and see if you haven’t got a great shot out of that roll of film.

Modern Medicine: Men’s Health Issues - are they different from women’s?

by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant

At the outset, let me set a few ‘ground rules’. I admit that I have never been a politically correct animal. I believe in classification by sex - i.e. two easily remembered groups called males and females. (I shall, for the point of this exercise omit references to katoeys and other transsexuals.) I believe that little girls play with dolls because ‘mothering’ is inherent in females and little boys play war games because fighting is inherent in males. To back up this system belief I cite the fact that men are XY and women are XX when you look at the chromosomes. Anatomically men have appendages that make babies which women do not have and women get the necessary organs to carry and nurture children after the female’s eggs have been fertilized by the aforementioned men’s dangly bits. No, men and women are not the same! I am afraid that the old ‘hunter-gatherer’ sociology still exists. The more aggressive of the two sexes, the males, go out and hunt, while the less aggressive, the females, stay behind, look after the children and cook the food. We are still following very primitive instinctual patterns, despite equal opportunity boards and attempts to make little boys play with dolls.

When it comes to men’s health issues it may be interesting for you to know that there are differences in the (ill) health patterns between males and females too. And I am not talking about problems with the danglers here - I am talking about the whole health picture. For example, men consult their GP’s half as often as women do. Why?

Well, there are many reasons for this. Men do not place personal health care as highly in their priorities as women. For many men, seeking help or admitting to stress or other disability is perceived as a sign of ‘weakness’ which should not be displayed. Men are also much more ‘private’ creatures and worry about lack of confidentiality. There is even the ‘man-to-man’ interface with which a large percentage of men do not feel totally at ease. For these and many other reasons, men do not consult a doctor until, in many cases, it is too late.

The outcome of all this is reflected in no small way in the death statistics. While the death rate will always be the same - one per person, women live significantly longer than men. And that is in all societies, so we cannot say it is the “stress” of modern corporate living that does it all.

Accidental deaths are much greater in the young males than females too. Why is this? Well it is partly societal, partly hormonal and partly the instinctual patterns again. Risk taking is all part of that. The great warriors who have been heralded through history were risk takers, right from Hannibal through to Genghis Khan. That same risk taking can be seen on motorcycles, just as well as on elephants and horses. I mean to say, tackling the Alps on an elephant was hardly rational, even then.

So what was the point of this long winded diatribe? Just to get you men to think about your health a little more, get regular check-ups and follow some medical advice. You’ll enjoy yourselves longer for longer, if you get my drift!

Women’s World: “Li le ma?”

by Lesley Warner

Continuing with my “women of other lands” series, this week I have chosen China, another race we hear various different tales about - but they seemed to have it all worked out.

Once upon a time it was a problem to remain single in China, and to be divorced was even worse. Accommodation for a single person was difficult but they could manage if they were content with a small room that just housed a bed. Divorce was quite a different matter, public opinion was against you from the start and one needed to be very bold to cope with this and to persuade your partner to agree to a divorce was very unusual.

Getting married in China was traditionally considered a must, even in the late 1970’s. They had a motto: “It is natural to get married when you grow up.” So when a girl reached 28 and was still single, she received a lot of pressure from relatives, neighbours and even co-workers.

How quickly things changed! In the 1990s, divorce became much simpler and public opinion was no longer so strict; it almost became taken for granted.

Now things seem to have gone to the opposite extreme - getting divorced is much easier than getting married. The latter becomes more and more difficult since the demands and standards are very hard to meet, either materially or ideologically.

Nowadays for women in Beijing, the growing divorce rate is a reflection of a new social and economic freedom, of the rising expectations that women bring to their marriage. Women now initiate more than 70 percent of divorces; divorce lawyers say that the most common reason given is that the husband has had an affair.

Chinese people have greeted each other on the street for years with a question that reflected the nation’s primary concern: “Chi le ma?” (“Have you eaten?”)

Now, according to a popular joke in Beijing, people who see a friend on the street ask a new question: “Li le ma?” (“Have you divorced?”)

Chinese women have now also gained the right to retain their maiden names. In old China most women had no formal name before marriage. They adopted their husband’s surname after they married. In today’s China, every woman has her own formal name.

These days a woman can enjoy the same rights of possession and inheritance of family property as men. In the majority of families, husband and wife jointly own family property and they have equal access to its use and allocation.

The woman’s right to decide whether or not to bear children is protected and they can discuss with their husbands on an equal basis whether or not they will go through with a pregnancy. Historically, Chinese women were victims of early marriage and burdened by excessive numbers of offspring. They now display great enthusiasm for the state’s family planning policy and the overwhelming majority of them are willing to marry late and have children late and to have fewer so as to guarantee a better quality of life for them.

Women’s economic independence has promoted their status in the family. As they have become economically independent, Chinese women have gained more management and decision-making power in principal family and economic matters. The share of women’s earnings in total family income has risen from 20 percent in the 1950s to the present 40 percent. In some rural families the money brought in by women can be as much as 60-70 percent.

China now has 21,000 women judges and 4,512 women lawyers; 1,200 women diplomats; 80,000 policewomen; 240,000 women officers, soldiers and other military personnel.

Heart to Heart with Hillary

Dear Hillary,

I think you do something of a disservice to lonely-hearts farang males looking for stable sincere relationships with Thai women. The disservice lies in giving them hope that such relationships might be likely or even possible with the prostitutes by way of romance. For example a few issues back you reassured some farang that the ladies are looking for a good man. True, they surely are, but you failed to mention that the good man should be Thai, not farang; no matter what they may say, they really don’t want a farang, and their reasons are both cultural and racist. Then in the 1 Feb column you humorously suggested that maybe Frustrated Frank isn’t a good lay. Actually Frank was lucky that none of the 15 prostitutes took serious interest in him; if so, it would have merely have been to set him up for a fleecing. With the odd exception, there really are only two ways for a farang to meet one of the very few good, sincere, eccentric Thai ladies who, without a primarily financial motivation, will seriously consider a farang as a prospective husband. One way is to meet one, say, a colleague or a student, in the course of working in Thailand. The other way is to be introduced by an already “known good” Thai, say a trusted wife of another farang. The first test of a lady’s sincerity is not to give her any money beyond basic expenses and see whether she is willing to work at a real job for her own money, or for more family money, just as most farang women do.

J. Sixpack

Dear JS,

Aren’t you an embittered one! Hillary is doing a disservice by giving some males a little hope! What are you doing for them, Petal? As far as your methods of meeting up with these paragons of virtue, by getting an introduction from the trusted wife of another farang, it all seems a bit chicken and egg to me. What comes first? How does your farang friend find his trusted one? No, J. Sixpack, the way of love is never smooth, as can be seen by the divorce statistics in your own country which is currently around 50% of the farang-farang marriages which fail. And how much does it cost to get out of a farang-farang marriage down under? So should we say that farangs should not even try to connect with another of their own? Or only date friends of mate’s “trusted” farang wives? Time for you to knock the top off another from your sixpack and “get real” as you impudently suggested Hillary does. By the way, I am glad that you understood the humour in suggesting Frank wasn’t a very good lay. You have me a little worried. There is also a small army of Thai women happily married to farangs that would like to meet you.

Dear Hillary,

I am writing for information about language schools and learning the Thai language. The advertising literature for some schools indicate that a certificate from the Ministry of Education will be granted after 3 months (60 hours) of study (and the payment of 15,000 baht). The ads also state that you can speak and understand Thai “like a Thai person within 60 hours.” I have asked to see a copy of the certificate but I get double talked. I asked if the Ministry of Education requires an examination and is it level 6 or what level. My questions answered with many words but no information. Hillary, my question is does any language school in Pattaya, for Thai language, issue certificates with the seal/stamp of the Ministry of Education? Would it be possible to check with the Ministry of Education? I would like to go to a school that issues a genuine certificate.

Languageless Les

Dear Languageless Les,

Hillary thinks you may be under a misapprehension here. The Ministry of Education (MOE) licenses language schools to teach Thai, so you know that those schools with the certificate have reached a certain standard acceptable to the MOE. However, the schools cannot then issue a certificate to a student on behalf of the MOE. Certain courses are available for people to teach their own native tongue to foreigners, and on successfully completing that course the native speaker may then be “registered” with the MOE as an accredited teacher. Hope that this clears everything up for you.

Dear Hillary,

Why is it that all the Thai girls I meet do not want to get out in the sun? Having come from the UK, getting a sun tan is what is almost the number one thing in my mind. I want to bask on the beach, but none of my regular Thai girlfriends will join me on the beach. I may as well not have them with me during the day. It would be cheaper too, considering the amount of som tum they can devour in one sitting!

Bronzed Bruno

Dear Bronzed Bruno,

The answer is simple, Petal. Everybody wants to be something they are not. White folks want to be brown, the brown folks want to be white, curly haired people want it straightened, straight haired folk want a spiral perm to make it crinkly. Old people want to be young and young folk want to be old. Even a fair swag of the old people want to look young. Flat chested ladies want pneumatic fronts and ladies with “nom yai” want them reduced. Why they cannot be content with what they’ve got, I do not know.

Grapevine

Shaman’s Rattle: To Sleep Perchance to Dream

by Marion

Shakespeare was surely aware of the restorative power of sleep even without the aid of modern research. In their book, “Natural Highs” (ISBN 0-7499-2254-0) Patrick Holford and Dr. Hyla Cass state that, “A good sleep is the cheapest, safest, most available and most natural high going.” Sleep deprivation, aside from being an ancient method of torture, has a big impact on health and performance. “Concentration and judgement decline, accident rates increase as does irritability, and gastrointestinal, hormonal, cardiovascular and immune problems,” say Holford and Hyla.

“During REM sleep (accelerated dreaming and rapid eye movement) the brain replenishes its supply of neurotransmitters, such as noradrenaline and serotonin, crucial for new learning and retention as well as mood stabilization. Thus adequate REM sleep is vital for memory storage, retention, organization, new learning and emotional balance.” This may be information that we are instinctively or subconsciously aware of.

In spite of having been seen to determinedly clutch the bedclothes on the intrusion of the alarm at 5 a.m., at sometime or other we have all lain awake staring at the walls listening for creaks in the night. Perhaps because of a looming appointment with the dentist or the taxman, coffee or cigarettes before bed, or simply for no reason at all. Then we find sleeping pills, which are so heaven sent for a temporary unusual situation such as a lengthy international flight, are just not the answer. We discover pills interfere with normal restorative REM sleep, are habituating and worse, quickly lose their effectiveness, requiring increasing amounts. So it is a huge relief to discover there are natural remedies that are far more effective than ‘mothers little helper’.

Good habits help. Planning for eight hours sleep a night and going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time each day sets up a triggering pattern. It seems obvious but so does avoiding naps in the middle of the day!

“Our genetic blueprint for sleep has not evolved quickly enough to keep pace with our fast paced modern lives. In the days of candles most people slept an average of ten hours a night. In the 50’s and 60’s the average dropped to 8 hours, now it hovers around 7 and continues to fall.” Our mind and bodies pay the price, unless you are a monk or lama or meditation adept with perfect mind control, then at least eight hours sleep each night is vital for repair and rejuvenation.

An effective sleep inducer is the relaxation response, progressively relaxing all the muscles. Similarly is meditation, by emptying the mind of all thought and just concentrating on breathing. Indeed some advanced yogis and practised meditators need very little sleep, being able to slow their brain waves while apparently awake. Attempting to practise lying meditation does it for me every time, in minutes I am sound asleep and snoring, which is not the point, but it’s still restorative, if not very spiritually advanced.

Stimulants before bedtime are often the unsuspected culprits of sleepless nights, so it helps to restrict daily caffeine and avoid coffee, alcohol and cigarettes altogether for at least a few hours before bed. Other late night stimulation such as watching or reading thrillers or anxiety provoking reports or projects are not to be recommended either. Although boring stories and study notes can often induce unconsciousness, even at inappropriate times some of us have found to our embarrassment.

Serotonin, the body’s natural antidepressant and neurotransmitter, improves mood, emotional stability, natural circadian rhythm or healthy sleep-wake patterns, and dreaming. Fortunately serotonin and its precursor tryptophan can be found in some foods; bananas, milk, turkey and tuna are all sleep enhancing. So there you have the ideal recipe for a nightly snack and there is something behind the old wives tale of a glass of hot milk at bedtime.

Playing soothing music very softly is often a bridge into the dream world as it has relaxing associations and helps mask out other intrusive noise. If all else fails you can always employ someone who talks underwater with a mouth full of marbles to sing you a lullaby.

Holford and Hyla further recommend, “If you need it try kava, valerian or 5-HTP ... Kava seems to work on the body to bring on deep restful sleep without interfering with natural cycles. Start with a dosage of 60-75mg kava lactones, up to 200mg as a bedtime sedative. Other sleep promoting herbs include valerian, Californian poppy, skullcap, hops and passionflower.”

Dr Robert Giller in his book, “Natural Prescriptions” (ISBN 1-85793-680-9) recommends, “Checking your medications with your doctor, as some common medications, such as cold remedies, some beta blockers, and appetite suppressants can cause insomnia. In addition to regular habits and relaxation techniques at bedtime, try the herb valerian, two capsules one hour before bedtime, and take a cup of passionflower tea.” Dr Giller reports, “I’ve had great success with some of my insomniac patients when they take a calcium supplement at bedtime, Calcium 1,200 mg.” So there you are, the eyes or should I say the ZZZ’s have it. Sweet dreams.

Antique, are they genuine? Glass in the USA

by Apichart Panyadee

Glass is collected in America with an enthusiasm and vitality reflected in the large number of clubs and societies covering every specialized topic. These organizations have done much to keep track of forgeries and reproductions. They have turned out to be a boon for the collector. For example, in 1985 the Heisey Glass Club purchased all the Heisey molds on the closure of the Imperial factory to prevent them from being used to make forgeries.

Pressed glass has been the mainstay of the American glass industry since its introduction in the 1820s. In widespread use today, it has also created some problems for collectors. In writing his book on milk glass, E. McCamly Belknap felt the chapter on fakes was the most important to help differentiate between antique and reproduction. For instance, the Westmoreland Glass Company in Pennsylvania continued to make clear pressed milk glass reproductions of early American originals alongside their own creations from 1889 onwards. The later addition of the initials “W” or “WG” helps to trace their products.

All of these are American fakes exposed by Mary Gregory in her book on 19th century art glass. She discovered them in a museum listed as a selection of Mutzer creations.

A similar situation arose with the works of John E. Kemple in Ohio. In 1947 Kemple had acquired 150 old molds and very quickly unsigned milk glass appeared from the factory and was sold through two large outlets.

Fortunately molds do eventually wear out, so production is limited to some extent. But old pressed glass can still be difficult to attribute because the companies who supplied the molds often sold copies of the same mold to factories in America and England. In view of the many complexities, the best advice to the aspiring collector is to join one of the many glass societies and get to know the subject by talking to fellow collectors.

In the area of blown glass the classic American style is the blown 3-mold. In 1941 the MCKearins bought a group of glasses that supposedly came from the Mutzer family in the early 19th century. After some initial doubts the group was proved to be fake, possibly made in Pennsylvania between 1920 and 1929. About 50 pieces have been located since.

In New Jersey the Clevenger Bros. Glassworks made reproductions which could be ordered by mail as late as the 1970s. Other typical American patterns like the Lily Pad or the Hobnail are prime targets.

Copies of art glass include the expensive Peachblow and Burmese. Imitations of Wild Rose Peachblow from New England were made in the 1950s but not in the original patterns and with poor chalky colors of white shading up to red. The Burmese imitations one will come across are rather easy to spot. They have a various color shading from a weak pink to yellow. They suddenly appeared in antique shops in England in the 1970s. Of a grainy, sugary texture, they probably come from Murano.

Animal Crackers: Bats in the Belfry

by Mirin MacCarthy

While repairing his ship on the north-eastern shores of Australia at a place now known as Cooktown, Captain Cook and his crew made several historical discoveries, one of them was the bat or flying fox as the larger varieties are called. The story has it that a terrified seaman rushed to the captain reporting coming face to face with a devil, “As large as a one gallon keg and very like it, he had horns and wings, yet crept slowly through the grass.” That sailor of three hundred years ago had the same superstitious fear of “flying devils” as we do today.

Flying Foxes (Pteropus scapulatus) make their home in tropical rainforests and mangroves of Northeast Australia and Southeast Asian islands. They probably earned the name ‘flying fox’ because of their small fox like faces and eyes and reddish brown fur. They have leathery black wings, black noses, and a wingspan of up to 200cm, weighing in at roughly 800 grams.

Unlike their smaller cousins, the bats, flying foxes roost outside in the sun rather than in caves. High in the rainforest canopy, camps of flying foxes hang upside-down together, in loud bickering shrieking colonies of as many as a million!

Flying foxes use their excellent eyesight more than echolocation, or bouncing sounds, to locate their food at night. These creatures are fruit eaters and are not at all popular with Australian mango growers. Flying foxes have a long bristly tongue that’s great for lapping up juicy fruit, and for licking and grooming themselves and their friends!

These social creatures will lick and groom each other to express affection, and often nuzzle snouts! Male flying foxes get a girl’s attention by singing loudly and flashing bunches of hair on their backs! Female flying foxes think these hairy backs are the latest hot foxy fashions!

There are over fifty different varieties of bats in Australia of two major groups, the larger fruit bats including flying foxes and the smaller insect eating bats. Bats generally are among the least understood and most persecuted of all animals. Their nocturnal habits and eerie location abilities have given them an evil rap.

Bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight. Numerous species are important as pollinators and seed dispersers; many provide natural insect control, while others have played significant roles in medical research. Australian Aboriginals hunted bats as a delicacy ages ago and bats are still used as a source of food in some countries, while other countries mine bat guano (excrement) as a valuable fertilizer. Despite these contributions to mankind, bats are often needlessly destroyed.

Many unfounded myths are often associated with bats. One misconception is that bats are blind and will become entangled in a person’s hair. In fact, bats are keenly perceptive, using both vision and high frequency sounds to navigate. These sounds are often called sonar or echolocation calls and enable bats to detect, and possibly identify, insects smaller than a mosquito.

Another common misconception is that bats are flying rats. Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, meaning “hand-wing”, and are actually more closely related to humans than to rodents.

An understanding of the varied lifestyles of bats and the numerous benefits we receive from these fascinating creatures may help to dispel these fears.

Next week: vampire bats, fact or fiction?

The Computer Doctor

by Richard Bunch

From SC Pattaya: I am a European living in Thailand. I recently heard some strange rumblings on the grapevine about the use of copied software (un-licensed) used in Internet cafes and sold elsewhere.

I was wondering if you can clarify this issue, as I have heard nothing officially. Nor have I seen any articles in the Pattaya Mail about this matter.

I have heard that there have been many arrests in the Internet cafes of South Pattaya. Surely, the police have to send out warnings to all Internet cafes in Pattaya giving them a date as to when their software must all be licensed. I have a friend who owns an Internet cafe in North Pattaya and she is worried sick. She hasn’t received any official notification or letter from the police. She bought the whole cafe as a job lot and the Windows software was pre-installed.

I have also heard through the grapevine that this is not happening in Bangkok? Sure this has to be done properly with official notification. Why pick on the Internet cafes when tourists are riding around on copied Harleys, wearing copied designer clothes, not to mention that just about everything else in Pattaya is copied.

Can you offer any light on this subject? Can you email me please, ASAP as my friend is very concerned? Thanks for your time.

Computer Doctor replies: My, we have opened a ‘can of worms’ haven’t we? Normally I wouldn’t answer a letter on this subject but in this case, I will make an exception. Firstly, this column is intended to provide advice to bona fide individuals and companies, so it is not really surprising that this topic hasn’t previously been aired here.

On the subject of software piracy, whilst it is true to say that this software is readily available here in Thailand; no one is making you either buy or use it. The vendor is committing an offence as is the purchaser who uses it. There is very little software available that doesn’t require a licence; such software is generally known as Freeware, and similarly some Shareware programs allow a trial period after which a licence fee is payable if the software remains installed. However, mainstream applications from developers like Microsoft do require licensing. When their software is installed, the licence agreement is displayed and requires your agreement before the installation can proceed. Aside from the legal issue, one of the main reasons for using licensed software is the availability of technical support, patches and often upgrades.

As to whether the police are raiding establishments in Pattaya or anywhere else for that matter, I’m afraid I cannot comment. Irrespective of how your friend came by the software, if she doesn’t possess valid licences then she risks the due process of law. If your friend is as you say worried sick then the remedy is in her own hands, namely to obtain licenses for the software she is using. The police are hardly likely to advise when raids are to take place. Your software should already be licensed; after all if your house was full of stolen goods would you expect the police to advise you they were on the way?

Send your questions or comments to the Pattaya Mail at 370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, 20260 or fax to 038 427 596 or e-mail to [email protected]

The views and comments expressed within this column are not necessarily those of the writer or Pattaya Mail Publishing.

Richard Bunch is managing director of Action Computer Technologies Co., Ltd. For further information, please telephone 0 1782 4829, fax 0 3871 6816, e-mail: [email protected] or see the firm’s website www.act.co.th

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Vacation offers sights and insights but no escape

One of the great pleasures of traveling abroad, if you’re lucky enough to get to do it, is that for a few deluded days you get to abandon your problems. Your personal problems? The nation’s problems? You throw some clothes into a suitcase, dash off for the airport, and once the jet wheels pop off the tarmac, all those problems shrink as fast as the gridlock down there on the ground, as insignificant to you now as those dirty dishes you left in the sink.

“I’m going south, far south, to some place of little interest to bin Laden and his buddies,” my American friend recently joked to anyone who cared about his upcoming vacation. Ha! Let’s face it; no one really cares about anyone’s vacation but their own?

January is summer in Buenos Aires. The jacaranda trees are in lavender bloom. Old men teach tango to passersby in the street. The cabbies in their tiny Peugeots and Renaults used to take American dollars as happily as they took pesos. Now they grab at them like they were life support systems. My friend got a relatively cheap fare. So-called “cheap” since we all know Argentina is not exactly around the corner from Pattaya.

Of course when we were all curious as to why he chose that particular country just now, he simply shrugged and said it was as far away from his problems as he could find on the map. Problems? Who’s got problems? We all live in Fun City. Who could have problems here?

The Argentineans certainly have some problems. But that’s the luxury of being a mere tourist. The problems of the place you visit aren’t your own. You can learn about them with curiosity, even empathy, but then breeze on. Just watch the tourists on Beach Road. Do they look like they are very interested in Thailand’s problems? Hell no. They are ticked off because they can’t drink and carouse until dawn anymore.

So every day since my friend departed, I read, with a foreigner’s curiosity, about Argentina’s problems in the Buenos Aires Herald which can be pulled off the Internet. In real print it is a thin tabloid with smudging ink so taking off the web is great and doesn’t smear my clothes with black streaks.

It didn’t take long to learn that the Argentine soul, like the average soul everywhere, is stirred primarily by what is local. Bin Laden and the American war against him always grabbed a few inches of the lower half of the front page, but they were never the lead story.

I read about Argentina’s economic crisis and about thousands of protesters marching in the streets to complain that the government was trying to reduce the deficit by reducing pensions and health care for the poor. I read about the floods, the worst in Argentina since 1914, that have drowned half a million acres of wheat fields and left thousands of people homeless. The more I read, the more the economics and politics of the place worried me, but they still remained someone else’s problems. I was curious as to whether my friend who was vacationing there was having any fun.

When he finally returned I found out that he did actually have a pretty good time. He and a fellow traveler had decided to wander far a field to find some place where he thought terrorists wouldn’t find him. Apparently Iguazu Falls, where Argentina meets Paraguay and Brazil is one of the world’s natural wonders. “No terrorists in Iguazu Falls,” he figured as he and his buddy planned the excursion. When he returned the local newspaper had a front-page story which made him cringe. “U.S. authorities have evidence that Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization headed by terrorist Osama bin Laden, has a base of operations on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay,” the daily O Globo reported. Terrorists in Iguazu? In blissful ignorance my friend had a marvelous time. He saw blue butterflies and swam in the crystal clear waters below the roaring falls in scenery we would all describe as “picture post-card”.

My friend had been imagining a trip as far as an American could get from the fears of his own country, and it turns out he may have been frolicking next to a terror cell. Travel always teaches you things you didn’t know and realize you should have. It expands the world and shrinks it, teaches you how big it is and how small. And, just as sure as those dishes will still be sitting dirty in the sink when you get back, it teaches you that in a world as linked as this one, there is no true escape.

Roll over Rover: Why bother training?

by C. Schloemer

Exley, named after a famous writer, is a three-year-old male German shorthaired pointer who lives in Pattaya. His owner acquired him from a good hearted veterinarian in Chonburi who offered to find him a home when the previous owner went back to England because of personal health reasons and could not take Exley with him.

The new owner, a petite Thai lady, and Exley loved each other at first sight. Unfortunately she found that she simply wasn’t strong enough to override her dog’s boundless energy. Exley pulled on his leash during his evening walks, dragging her along the sidewalk, as she struggled to keep up with him. He only listened to her commands when the mood struck him, and was destructive when she left for work. He was also a headache when she entertained guests. But all in all she seemed to think that the relationship was working; however, she sensed that Exley wasn’t as happy as he could be. She asked me to come over and observe Exley for a while and come up with a few suggestions as to how she could train her canine friend to accommodate her wishes without so much hassle.

I saw that his pacing and whining habits were not signs of a mentally relaxed dog. Neither was the destructive chewing that went on while he was left alone, nor was pulling on the lead, which left him choking on the way to the park. Exley was a blur of excitement. Happy, yes. But he didn’t know what to do with himself. Quickly I reached for a ball, and luckily I had brought one of my teaching leashes with me. The ball was for Exley. The teaching lead was for my control. After just a few minutes I discovered a highly intelligent animal that eagerly soaked up every direction I gave him. He was a dog willing to cooperate. He just didn’t know what his new owner wanted from him. He was like a spoiled brat crying out for guidance.

Unfortunately, this is an all too common problem. From Exley’s point of view, he was the leader, first to greet company at the door, got attention whenever he wanted it, and led his owner to the park. So who could solve his problems for him? Only his owner could fix these problems. She had to take responsibility for creating the problems as well finding solutions. She could do all this by training, and by making a commitment to give Exley direction and by becoming his leader.

This is true of all owners and their dogs. Whether the owner’s problems are similar to the one just described or not, the importance of training is immense. Training is the solution. It defines the hierarchy. It puts the owner in charge and gives the dog the freedom to be dog. Both owner and pooch will be happier, more content with one another and less stressed out. Training can set both of you free.

A Slice of Thai History: The Opium Trade

Part Seven 1959-1966

by Duncan Stearn

Sarit was allegedly unconcerned about international opinion regarding the opium trade; however, General Thanom and General Swai, the police commander, convinced him that continuing the trade openly was against Thailand’s national interests.

Therefore, in January 1959, the Thai government passed the Harmful Habit-Forming Drugs Act, banning the production and sale of opium. All opium smokers were required to register with the Department of Excise and seek treatment in official centres within a period of six months. Within a short space of time, over 70,000 people registered as opium users. By June 1959, some 900 previously licensed opium dens had been closed down. Many were later turned into massage parlours.

The opium trade simply went underground and into the murky arms of underworld figures.

A Corsican criminal named Paul Louis Levet, a former gold smuggler, was one of the major suppliers to the European heroin market. Levet had plied his trade between Saigon and Marseille, but in 1955, following the collapse of the gold trafficking market, he turned to opium and moved to Bangkok, establishing the Pacific Industrial Company. This organisation, according to the US Narcotics Bureau, was a cover for opium smuggling.

Levet employed an airline run by fellow Corsican Roger Zoile to move his product from the Golden Triangle to seaports in Thailand, Cambodia and South Vietnam.

Zoile was one of three major players in Air Laos Commerciale, an airline otherwise colloquially known as ‘Air Opium’. The others were Gerard Labenski and Rene ‘Babal’ Enjabal, a former French air force officer, with the whole operation overseen by the Saigon-based Corsican Bonaventure ‘Rock’ Francisci.

However, in October 1962 Rene Enjabal was arrested when a routine smuggling flight from Vientiane to Cambodia and thence out into the Gulf of Thailand came unstuck when he fell asleep on the return journey and drifted into Thai airspace.

Forced to land by Thai air force jets, he was accused of spying and Enjabal confessed that he had been smuggling opium. Enjabal was given a six-week prison sentence and then allowed to return to Laos. However, the resultant international publicity brought about the end of his airline.

Then, in mid-July 1963, Paul Louis Levet’s activities in Thailand came to an abrupt end when he, and an accomplice, were arrested by Thai police at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok carrying 18 kilos of Burmese opium. His accomplice received a five-year prison sentence while Levet was released for ‘lack of evidence’ and deported from Thailand. He disappeared without a trace.

Following a major offensive by combined Burmese and Chinese forces against KMT troops inside the Shan States in January 1961, the majority of the 10,000 or so KMT soldiers fled into Laos. The United States offered to help in the repatriation of the KMT troops to Taiwan and during March 1961, over 4,000 soldiers crossed the Mekong River and were trucked to Chiang Rai where they boarded flights for Taiwan.

Nonetheless, some 2,000 KMT regulars remained behind in Laos and were hired by the CIA to help strengthen right-wing forces in the region.

However, as the right-wing position fell apart in early 1962, these KMT troops crossed into Thailand, with the knowledge and consent of the Thai government.

They established hilltop bases near the Burmese border and returned to the opium trade to finance their operations.

By 1966, with Thailand on the front-line of anti-communism in Southeast Asia, the government ‘employed’ the services of the KMT troops operating along the northern frontier, using them as a form of border patrol force. The KMT, for their part, exacted a duty on all opium entering Thailand.

Reports vary, but it was claimed that at one time the KMT patrolled the length of the northern border from Mae Sai to Mae Hong Son as a kind of surrogate customs force.