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Family Money: Congratulations ‘PM’!
By Leslie
Wright,
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.
What was the Thai stock market doing 10 years ago this week? Where were people looking for growth stocks? How did the UK market look at the time? Do you remember? Few will, so don’t worry too much about it.
The only reason I ask the question is because the Pattaya Mail has just celebrated its 10th Anniversary! Congratulations ‘PM’! So it seemed appropriate to take a quick look back at the past decade and what has happened in world markets and to people’s pockets in that turbulent period of boom and bust.
Back in mid-1993, all investors’ eyes were on the boom in the ‘Asian Little Dragons’ - Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, which were enjoying an unprecedented stock market boom that year. This would - as I predicted - peak right before Chinese New Year in 1994, and then plummet.
Indeed, it had taken just 5 years after the notorious “Crash of ’87" (sparked by the property scandals in Japan) for Asia to become the darling of investors once more.
In 1992 Sterling had been under attack by the currency pirate George Soros and his Quantum fund, which brought so much leverage to bear that even the Bank of England could not withstand the onslaught, and had to allow Sterling to float, and plummet some 25% in international value. Not that that affected Sterling investors at home very much, but it had a dire effect on the global balance of trade and overseas investments in Sterling assets.
But history passed, and here we are again with a relatively strong pound and a weak dollar. What goes around comes around, they say - if you wait long enough.
The oft-forgotten “Global Meltdown” of 1994 started with the chairman of the Fed Reserve Bank, Alan Greenspan, and effectively America’s money manager, unexpectedly raising interest rates in February ’94, which took the markets by surprise and caused an unprecedented 20% drop in the bond markets. This in turn caused Mr Soros et al to have to sell off huge holdings in equities to cover their bond exposure (and lose about $800 million in the process), and started the whole snowball rolling down the hill, gathering momentum as it went.
Since then we’ve had the Russian Debt Crisis, the Mexico Peso Crisis, the Argentinean and the Brazilian Money crises, and various smaller ones - not to mention the demise of LTCM, the infamous hedge fund that cost the US Federal Reserve some $2.5 Bn to avoid a meltdown in the US banking system - all of which the stock markets have somehow survived, despite the TV pundits predicting doom and gloom for the world economy every time one of these crises occurs and lights up the TV news, giving the Talking Heads something to talk about as if the financial world was going to come to a grinding halt overnight.
But back to Asia
In the mid nineties the markets wallowed in the doldrums for a couple of years before Asia rose again like the Phoenix from the ashes, and things started to look okay again - until the “Crisis of ’97", sparked by scandals in Thailand and rumours about currency speculation in Malaysia (nicely nipped in the bud by the Malaysian Prime Minister before Mr Soros’ minions could do to Malaysia what they’d done a few years earlier to the Bank of England). The crisis rippled throughout the region, with stock markets losing up to half their value almost overnight and massive devaluations as well. The economy of Indonesia was so badly affected that the government fell, and lots of moneyed people fled the country.
The same nearly happened in Thailand, but swift action by the government prevented a total collapse of the economy, although some of the miscreants were able to ‘flee the scene’ and have yet to return.
The banking reforms which resulted from brave action by the Prime Minister of the day stabilised the situation, and although we had a rough couple of years, things did gradually improve. It is nonetheless estimated that it will take a generation to clear the massive indebtedness that the government has been forced to assume.
Major Markets in Crisis
It has been the major markets - principally the USA - that have fuelled the bumps & slides of the past three years, starting with the collapse of the TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications) bubble in the 2nd quarter of 2000, about which I warned in this column in March 2000, which was ignored by most at the time.
Many who had jumped on the dot.com bandwagon in the run up to the new century had their fingers at least scorched if not seriously burned when the bubble inevitably burst, and were thereafter reluctant to touch stocks.
This led to massive negative sentiment, which has continued virtually until now - exacerbated by the accounting scandals which lost investors so much confidence, and of course the immediate knee-jerk reaction to the heinous attacks of 9-11. Curiously, although the stock markets did dip markedly at that point - unsurprisingly - they recovered remarkably quickly, and (for those chartists amongst you) returned to the same gradual downward slide quite quickly.
The rally at the beginning of 2002 looked as though it might continue and get us out of the swamp that the stock markets had been wallowing in for the past two years. I freely admit that I was one of those who believed that there couldn’t be a third year of negative returns from equities (it hadn’t happened for 30 years), and although my instincts told me “no” I took a bit of a punt and cautiously went back into major market equities. How wrong I was! Major equity markets in the first 9 months of 2002 lost over 30% of their value on average.
After unravelling that mess and licking my wounds in mid 2002, I moved to a conservative stance (bonds and property mostly, spread geographically), and that ‘safe’ move has saved a lot of the downside that equities continued to experience last year in the run up to Big George’s determination to get Sadam Hussein out of his seat of power, under which might have been hidden a couple of nasty buttons which none of us wanted to be set off.
So a spread of bonds, gold (always a good alternative in times of crisis), and selected property funds have been the ‘safe bet’ that have made money for investors (as opposed to short-term speculators) in the past six months or so.
Of course sentiment - which did so much to hold back the stock markets - is now waxing euphoric and declaring that now the Second Gulf War is over (is it, indeed?), things will soon return to business as usual, and the rallies in the Dow and FTSE we have seen these past couple of months will carry us back to the dizzying heights before all this began.
I wish I could be as optimistic. Perhaps I’m a cautious old cynic, but I don’t believe the uncertain geopolitical situation in the Middle East - ignoring the danger of North Korea and the possibility of that area flaring up again - can lead us to any sense of political security, nor believe the war is really over: the factions are still flexing their muscles and the knock-on effect on the world’s economy could still be far from the positively euphoric that some who look only at the newspapers and nightly TV news would have us believe. I prefer to sit on the fence for a little while longer.
Snap Shot: STime Exposure made easy! And no exposure
meter either!
by Harry Flashman
How many times have you used the “time exposure”
facility on your camera? Probably the “B” on the dial that stands for
the old-fashioned setting called “bulb” but more on that later. So
when was the last time you tried using a time exposure? Probably
“never”! That is the usual response to that question.
Early
morning sunrise - pic by Ernie Kuehnelt
The reason for this is simple. It all sounds too
complicated, you need to have a tripod, don’t know how to work it out,
the list goes on. It is a shame that people feel this way, because you can
get some spectacular shots with time exposure and it really isn’t all
that difficult these days. Let me show you how!
Let’s address the “too technical” first. A camera
is purely a device that lets a certain amount of light fall onto
sensitized film for a predetermined amount of time. This is the old “f8
at 1/60th” sort of routine (also known as the photojournalists creed -
f8 and Be There!). The number of the “f” stop (the aperture) tells you
how large the hole is that lets the light in, and the 1/60th denotes how
long the hole was left open. Is that really technical? No!
Way back, film material was so insensitive that the
exposure times were nowhere near as “short” as today. 1/60th was
unheard of - it was more like a fortnight at f8 in those days! With
today’s super-sensitive film materials and printing papers you can get
away with “short” time exposures and you don’t even need to be
accurate any more. Near enough is good enough! There is a thing called
“exposure latitude” that is on our side.
What do you need for Time Exposure photography? Well, a
camera is a good start, but it has to be one with “T” or “B”
settings. The “T” setting stands for Time Exposure - one “click”
opens the shutter, the second “click” closes it. “B” originally
stood for “bulb” and the way that works is by holding the shutter
release down keeps the shutter open until you take your finger off, which
closes it. Why two settings? Simple, use “B” for time exposures up to
a minute and “T” for longer ones (mainly because your finger will go
numb holding the button down for 20 minutes!)
What film? The new 400 ASA is fine (but you can use
anything, I generally just use the standard 200 ASA film I use for
everything). Now you may have read about “reciprocity failure” with
long time exposures. Give up reading! It’s photo industry techo-talk and
won’t stop you getting good pictures, it just changes the colours a bit.
The final piece of equipment you need is a tripod, but
even that is not 100% necessary. But it is easier with one.
The important point to grasp, is that all Time Exposure
photography is “hit and miss”. There’s no real way anyone can tell
you exactly “f8 and 24 seconds”. There’s too many variables, but all
you have to do is to take the same scene or picture with several different
exposure times - one of them will be right. Believe me!
Here’s the rough guides. In all of these the aperture
(f stop) is set on f8. Now to take a street scene at night, try 2 seconds,
4 seconds and 8 seconds. For the interior of a room, lit with ordinary
light bulbs, try 5 seconds, 10 seconds and 20 seconds. To take a picture,
just before dawn try 5, 10 and 20 seconds. Now, for a completely dark,
night landscape (or seascape) try 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes. And
for a different sunset, try one second and half a second.
Make a note of the order your time exposures were shot in, and jot down
the “best” result after you get your films back. Sure, the colours
will be strangely different - but if you wanted a “normal” shot
you’d have taken it in daylight, wouldn’t you? Try time exposure this
weekend!
Modern Medicine: Cattle Class Syndrome and Aspirin
by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant
Air travel is very much part of my fortnightly routine
these days, so it does mean that I am more likely to suffer from Economy
(Cattle) Class Syndrome than before. (I have tried saying that I should
fly Business Class, but the request appears to have fallen on deaf ears.)
However, I do take a daily medication which should mean that I am even
less likely to get the economy problems.
Getting right down to tin-tacks, the Economy Class
Syndrome is just a fancy title for a Deep Venous Thrombosis, or more
simply, a blood clot in a deep vein in the legs. We shorten this to DVT,
because we doctors like acronyms, and what’s more they easier to spell
than the long names.
DVT’s occur not just in plane passengers, but in
hospitals in the post operative period. In fact, the latest figures from
Australia would indicate that 50% of people who have orthopaedic surgery
are likely to get a DVT. Even 20% of general surgery patients are in line
for this condition.
And this gets me back to my daily medication,
prescribed for me by the new generation’s hope for salvation, the young
Dr. Jonathan Corness, a new breed medico about whom I am very proud - but
I digress. Dr. Jonathan prescribed one of the oldest medications in the
world for me - Aspirin. So why would this up-to-the-minute medico
prescribe something as old hat as Aspirin? Quite simply, because it works!
In therapeutic doses to stop headaches and relieve
arthritis, we are looking at something between 300-600 mgms four times a
day for most people and Aspirin works well here; however, at that dosage
you run the risk of upsetting your stomach, to actual bleeding and
ulceration. There are also people who show allergic reactions to Aspirin,
from asthma right the way through to anaphylactic shock and death! Yes,
this is potent medicine.
However, there are other conditions for which Aspirin
is the drug of choice, and not in the big doses either. We are talking
here of 100 mgm doses taken once a day only. This way the chances of
allergy/asthma and gastric bleeding are greatly reduced. What the Aspirin
does is work on the aggregation of platelets. This is where the red blood
cells sort of form into clumps and these become clots and are the start of
the Deep Vein Thromboses (DVT’s). And this is what happens in the
Economy Class Syndrome, if you are unlucky.
Now medical science has found that by taking 100 mgm of
Aspirin daily you lower your chances of heart attack, something much
higher on my personal risk table than Economy Class Syndrome. You see,
clotting can occur in many areas of the body, and a clot in the coronary
arteries can be extremely life threatening. And life shortening! And yet
so easily avoided, with one little tablet every day. You can buy baby
Aspirin, but I used “Cardiprin” - this is more expensive, but comes in
a push-through calendar pack, which gets me to remember to take it better
than just a bottle of tablets on the breakfast table.
Now getting back to flying, the secret to health in the air is purely
to maintain good circulation and avoid dehydration. To maintain
circulation to the lower legs you should get up and walk around the plane
once every hour. Simple. Dehydration is easy to fix - drink more water,
not more alcohol! That’s it!
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
I will be coming to Thailand later this year and I am not sure how to handle
the money side of things to take over with me. I have heard that it is
dangerous to use credit cards because there is a lot of credit card scams. Is
this correct? What should I do, I won’t be bringing much with me because I
haven’t got much to spend, but I don’t want to lose it either! I used to
use travellers cheques, but they were really a pain. What is your suggestion?
A-Mex
Dear A-Mex,
Hillary doesn’t have these sort of credit card problems, because Hillary
doesn’t have a credit card, mainly because the lousy editor pays me in one
baht coins, so I just carry it all in my purse. But being serious for a while,
as a tourist, the easiest way to carry money is to have deposited your holiday
money in a debit card account in your country and draw on that when you are
here at ATM’s, as you need it, and then pay cash at retail outlets. This way,
nobody gets your card numbers on a merchant’s carbon copy, and by using the
debit card, rather than “credit” card you won’t overspend. As far as
scams are concerned, we get our fair share, as do all countries in the world
these days. Crime does not recognise international boundaries! Finally, if you
are still worried, you can try posting large numbers of unmarked notes to
Hillary. Just put “chocolate bars” on the outside of the parcel, and the
postman will not be suspicious. On second thoughts, do include choccy bars, and
then I won’t be tempted to spend your money on chocolates (though champagne
could be a problem)!
Dear Hillary,
I was really staggered the other day when I was helping a young lady in a bar
understand what some falang had written to her. The guy had written that he was
coming back at Christmas and how he was looking forward to seeing her again,
and maybe they could go somewhere together. I said to her that he sounded like
a nice guy, but she didn’t remember him! “Where he come from?” was the
reply. When I said Germany, then she remembered that it was either George or
Robert! How can these girls keep living like this? Have they no sense of
responsibility?
Amazed
Dear Amazed,
You should not be amazed, it is Hillary who is amazed that there are still
people like you around, who think that there are “rules of association”
with girls in bars. Petal, these girls are working there. Their “job” is to
look after unattached males in return for financial rewards (and not the
editorial one baht coins either - more like the 30 baht gold weight chains).
Her George or Robert was just another passing face in the crowd, but don’t
worry, five minutes after he arrives she will have recognised his wallet and
will make up her mind at that time whether to go away with him on holiday.
Dear Hillary,
Does everybody get the offensive emails I get every day these days? I look at
the strip at the top that tells me I have 20 emails waiting for me “out
there” and I know before I begin to click that half of them will be rubbish
and the other half unforgettable offers or the long lost third cousin of some
assassinated African King offering me a slice of 25.5 million dollars that he
had hidden away in Amsterdam. Is there nothing we can do to stop this? You must
get a lot of emails Hillary, what do you do?
Fed Up
Dear Fed Up,
Hillary feels for you, I do, Petal, I do. This rubbish, known as SPAM and those
annoying computer viruses make life for the communicators of this world very
difficult, when today’s technology should have made it very easy. Some of the
servers show you how to split up the incoming mail into the ones you “may”
want and the ones you definitely “don’t” want, but it does not last long
before the system is swamped and useless. As far as all these relatives of
assassinated kings, government officials and the Office of the National
Petroleum Institute in Nigeria are concerned, it amazes me that these keep on
coming up. Hillary gets a minimum of three every day, including some newer and
more inventive ones that claim to come from Iraq, with untold millions salted
away by Saddam before he turned into a pile of US missile mush. If there is
anyone out there with the answers for Fed Up and Hillary, please write (but
don’t send an email, I’ll probably delete it if I don’t recognise the
address).
Dear Hillary,
Is the food you see on the little wheely carts safe to eat? I often go to some
little places up country but so far I’ve been too afraid to try. Do you eat
hawker food?
Gourmet
Dear Gourmet,
Yes, I eat hawker food. In general it is tasty and nutritious and very cheap.
However, it may be a little spicy if you are not used to it. Stick with
omelettes and stir-fries until you are more experienced.
A Slice of Pattaya History: The beginnings
of Pattaya Mail
by someone who was there
Back in the spring of 1993, a handful of enterprising
Pattayans decided that what this town needed was an English Language
newspaper to show “our” side of the story. Pattaya was getting an
increasingly bad rap in the international press – written by
“reporters” who’d come here to enjoy the diverse lifestyle and
entertainment on offer, take notes on the fun they were having,
sensationalize it (because that’s what the publishers wanted to see),
and then file their copy, basically receiving a paid holiday in a fun
place, only to turn their back on it. The international press ate it up,
and Pattaya became the world’s favorite “bad” holiday resort.
This handful of enterprising Pattayans knew well that
Pattaya had a lot more to offer than what was being harped upon in the
international rags, and set about to set the record straight. Freely
admitting that Pattaya had its downside, they were quick to point out that
it was no worse than many other cities and towns all over the world.
As the idea began to come into focus, an office was
rented on Soi Diana next to the Cafe Kronborg and the first few members of
a team were hired. An editor was brought aboard, who, unfortunately
didn’t make it to the first issue, so another was brought in, who would
shape and mold ideas and concepts into an actual newspaper. A small sales
staff was assembled, a photographer brought in (one with BBC credentials),
a sports reporter hired, a couple of Thai reporters brought in, and slowly
the Pattaya Mail began to take shape.
Those first few months were anything but successful,
and if it weren’t for the determination and downright stubbornness of
the small but resourceful team, Pattaya Mail would not have made it to
Christmas. The offices upstairs occasionally looked more like a barroom
brawl than a business, as differing ideas and strong constitutions met
head on. The most often question asked during the first couple of months
was, “Will there be an issue next week?”
But the idea apparently was a good one, for once the
first few issues were out, there was no turning back. Causes were fought
for and boundaries pushed, sometimes too far, and the news began to get
out. And even though none of us had a clue as to what we were doing or how
to do it, we eventually, through trial and error, began to at least get it
partly right.
Just slightly to our surprise, the reading public began
to snap up our 7 baht, 16 color pages of local news, sports and features.
Before long it even started to become fun to put our little newspaper
together. It must’ve been, because trying to get paid in those early
days was not the easiest of tasks.
Over the first few months, we changed from full color
to spot color to all black & white and back to spot color. We were
proud when we were able to produce 20 pages and keep it at that level. The
“will there be an issue next week?” question died out. Advertising
sales began to pick up, and we were on our way.
The staff began to get paid regularly and was even
expanded – a small but efficient production department was put together
to help the overworked editor, who in the early days gathered in the news,
sports and features from the various contributors (including Thai news
being translated into English by a German), assembled it, designed the
newspaper and laid out the pages, plus designed most of the artwork for
the advertising. He eventually burned out and left after a little over
three years, but that’s another story for another time. (Just so you
know, he is now happily living in the middle of nowhere in northern
Thailand – well away from the things of man…)
This week the Pattaya Mail is celebrating our 10th
Anniversary. How we made it this far is anyone’s guess, and the things
we’ve seen and reported on over these first ten years would fill
volumes, but again, another story for another time. This space is reserved
for a quick look at how it all began. It wasn’t easy.
Personal Directions: Prayer is a building block
by Christina Dodd
Prayer is not exclusively a tool for the faithful or
religious. Last week we touched on spiritual nourishment as a necessary
ingredient to purpose, meaning and happiness in life. As John and Melody
Anderson so well put it in this essay ... prayer is a building block of
our personalities and lives.
“The power of prayer is exalted in selected circles
as the individual’s direct link with the inspiration that communion with
a supreme being or god provides. However, it would be a mistake to
consider prayer as the sole domain of the devoutly religious, for prayer
in itself has little to do with worship as such and much to do with
inspiration. Prayer is effective only when the individual gives themselves
over totally to its power with complete and utter commitment. It is this
commitment and indeed trust, which forms the substance of the praying
itself. It is a demonstration of trust. But more importantly, prayer is
the most intimate expression of desire, if the prayer is sincere.
Looking at desire and the way it tends to lead to
achievement, it is possible to observe that very often, it is those
moments of quiet and seemingly insignificant feelings of desire that can
have the most impact. In daily life, the most powerful examples of desire
seem to be those desires that come and go, almost unnoticed, slipping
quietly into the ether to work their magic.
It is also possible to recognize a distinction between
this kind of desire and those desires that we may be more verbal about,
the desires which might seem to preoccupy us constantly. These persistent
desires are not necessarily less effective, but we tend to attach other
feelings to them that could inhibit the easy attainment of them. Most
usually, those small intimate desires that occur in a moment tend to be
desires without additional attachments. That is to say, they are things
that we genuinely desire without condition, they seem to be without
significant implication. We are able to be unconcerned about these desires
and thus, they are easily and quickly attained.
Now, it is not practical to suggest that we can turn
every desire into the sort of desire that occurs in a moment without
concern because many of our desires do have implication for identity and
lifestyle. However, there is much that can be learned from the state of
being which characterizes the fleeting and pure desire. It is a very
personal sort of desire, it is a desire that is often only known to the
individual. Not because the individual seeks to hide it, but because of
its fleeting nature and sometimes, its way of occurring in the form of an
impression. This is why it can seem as though we do not really know that
we have the desire. Resonance shows us that indeed the desire existed
prior to its achievement, although it seemed more akin to an impression
than a specific conscious knowledge of something desirable.
In these private moments we can be sure that the desire
is genuine, for there is no motivation to manufacture an impression for
others, or to pursue falsehood when there is no one around to perceive it.
We are alone with ourselves and in those moments, provided we do not seek
to hide from our own company or to ignore it, we can be truly honest about
what we want and don’t want. Obviously there is no great panacea to cure
the tendency to distract oneself from these intimate moments alone with
the self. There is no drug to stop the individual hiding from their own
thoughts, feelings and desires, there is no foolproof technique to force
an individual into this honest relationship with their own being. Herein
lies the catch. However, those with an earnest desire for more, will allow
these moments to become very crisp, very clear and very useful.
Prayer then, could be used to great effect as a way of
crystallizing those moments of quiet sincere desire and bringing them into
conscious recognition. But there is another side to prayer, which can
prove to be useful and it requires some sense of a knowledge of oneness.
In situations of greatest challenge, it is possible to be consciously
aware of a part of ourselves, which seems to be responsible for guiding us
through difficulties with a kind of persistent and more enlightened
knowledge of what is happening, what is going to happen and how to make it
happen. This is often referred to as the second mode but in a sense, that
is a rather simplistic way of describing it. For it would seem that with a
sense of oneness, it is possible to feel that, not only does this mode
seem to represent a part of ourselves, but indeed it seems to be a part of
everyone and everything else - a part of the whole essence of life itself.
Some might say, a part of God.
Therefore, in all sincerity, it is possible to appeal
to this part of God, a Supreme Being, or life or the universe or whatever,
and to express our desires. But more than this, to ask for help in
achieving them. Indeed to ask for anything at all, with a knowledge and a
trust that our desires will be heard and attended to accordingly. All too
often we can forget to make use of these what could be called the
spiritual part of ourselves that is linked with magical happenings,
messages and signs, coincidence and change. We know that genuine desire is
always met with the fulfillment of it. In these quiet moments, when
identity and pretenses are stripped away, when the individual truly faces
themselves, this entreating can be very powerful and very immediate. And
although spiritual is a much misused word and concept and although it is
less than adequate, we must not be afraid to tap into the spiritual part
of ourselves.
We must not forget to venture into these unknown and
unseen forces that seem to guide the course of, not only our lives, but
the course of humanity and the world. If we are part of some spiritual
dimension and that spiritual dimension is part of us, then without it
dominating our lives in a very unnatural and unempowering way, in the way
that religion might, we can allow that spirit to enter our lives and
indeed allow our life to enter it. This union, through the power of
prayer, through the intimate relationship of communing with the unseen
dimensions of ourselves, could surely be interpreted as a fundamental part
of living a meaningful life.
For if it was not, why on earth would it exist at all?
...”
If you are interested in finding out more about how our
training programs can assist you or your staff, please contact me at Asia
Training Associates (see advertisement) or by email to christina.dodd@
asiatrainingassociates.com
Until next time, have a great week!
Social Commentary by Khai Khem
“"Thank you" Pattaya Mail for 10 years of great reading
Newcomers to Pattaya may find it hard to envision the
city without an English language newspaper. But those who’ve lived here
a bit longer and saw the birth of the Pattaya Mail will tell you that it
was hailed with much appreciation. A decade has seen the publication
achieve much, grow and mature. From the very first issue that hit the
streets to the one which celebrates its 10th birthday; those who have
tirelessly worked to make the newspaper what it is today will admit the
long uphill climb wasn’t easy. Print journalism isn’t for everyone.
Long hours, grueling schedules, pesky breakdowns of
services and equipment, dreaded deadlines, a flood of daily of news items
which pours in 24 hours a day and a mob of people all going in different
directions speaking a multitude of languages all make for an atmosphere
which can either be viewed as nerve-wracking chaos - OR - a workplace and
a profession that is vibrant and exciting. It’s a hard, fast pace and
you gotta love it to do it.
The Pattaya Mail is much more than a weekly newspaper.
It has become a vehicle through which the community now has a voice. It
serves as a connecting link in a highly diversified and fast-growing city
populated by residents of different nationalities, languages, religions
and interests who sometimes share very little except the English language
and the news and information which is published in the Mail. That ties us
together with a bond we lacked 10 years ago.
We now have a platform from which we can voice our
opinions and complaints, advertise our goods and services, whine about our
politicians, tease each other with a little good humor in the Mail Bag,
track the progress of our city (or lack of it), and keep up with community
events, charities and even some gossip on the social scene. Imagine what
it must have been like 10 years before when all we had to rely on was the
bamboo-telegraph and rumors.
If the Pattaya Mail makes mistakes, the paper takes its
lumps and vows to do better. When some good comes out of what is printed,
the outcome is its own reward. The main goal at the Mail is to keep
setting its sights ever higher. There’s an old expression we all learned
as children: “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Make your good
better, and make your better BEST.”
Congratulations to all at the Pattaya Mail! We readers
are cheering for our favorite newspaper and hope to be reading it for
another 10 years.
‘Never missed an issue’
Woman's World: That golden glow part 2
by Lesley Warner
Last week I started to tell you about the downside of using sun beds.
There is one thing I forgot to mention to those like my youngest daughter,
who tells me all her friends use sun beds and don’t seem to have a
problem. Oh, the stubbornness of youth! Remember the sun bed industry is
still relatively young and skin cancers can take up to 20 years to
develop, but who’s listening to me?
I have come to the conclusion that the demand for a
suntan is here to stay and will not disappear, regardless of the constant
warnings of the dangers involved with sunbathing.
As I said last week there are benefits to be had from
the sun in moderation. Apart from the obvious positive associations we
have with a sunny day, sunshine can cheer you up, and the sun can alter
your mood chemically and can even prevent depression. Anyone living in an
almost ‘sun free’ environment like Britain has heard of SAD syndrome.
This is a real condition, not just something made up by a miserably cold
wet population. Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD is a suppression of
serotonin experienced by many who are deprived of sunlight during the
dreary winter months.
The sun also provides us with our main source of
vitamin D. Scientists have long been aware that this nutrient strengthens
our bones and muscles and boosts the immune system. Ten minutes of daily
exposure to sunlight will supply us with all the vitamin D that we need.
The principal function of this vitamin is to promote calcium absorption in
the gut and calcium transfer across cell membranes. This contributes to
strong bones and a contented nervous system.
Low vitamin D is associated with several autoimmune
diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis
and Crohn’s disease. Recent laboratory experiments suggest that vitamin
D can also prevent the growth and spread of cancerous tumours.
If you can’t find any sunshine try salmon; it is also
a good source of vitamin D.
However, be warned that even in relatively sun-free
country like Britain, it can take as little as half an hour to get a
sunburn. Remember, in the long term any sun exposure might pose a serious
threat to your health. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is the major
cause of skin cancer. I was very surprised to discover that melanoma
affects around 50,000 Britons annually, and the malignant kind kills more
than 2% of them. I read that a staggering figure of up to 50% of
Australians will develop the disease.
Children are particularly at risk. Babies less than 6
months old should never be exposed to the sun. Their skin cannot produce
enough melanin to protect them from UV light.
Melanoma begins as a formation of dark-pigmented
malignant moles or tumours. These are called ‘melanomas’. Melanomas
can appear suddenly with no warning or can develop from or around moles.
It is very important to notice any changes in the
number and appearance of moles on the body. Melanomas can occur anywhere
on the body but are most frequently found on the upper backs and legs.
After absorbing all this information I decided that
there must be another way - after all this is the 21st century, surely one
of these scientists who keep telling us not to use sun beds or lay in the
sun must have come up with a reliable safe alternative?
Take a good long look at the picture, next week I’ll let you into the
secret of how you too can look like this without putting your skin or
health at risk!
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