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Snap Shots: Daylight Robbery!
by Harry Flashman
No, this is not an item about processing charges, it is
an article about getting robbed. Or should I say, about avoiding getting
robbed! This was prompted by a reader who had unfortunately seen all his
camera equipment disappear, and wondered what I did these days to protect
my investments - the reader remembering that I had written about being
robbed, from a personal viewpoint a few years ago.
 Bank
robber Ronnie Biggs
One problem with the theft of cameras is that they are
easy items to carry. Nobody looks twice at someone walking down the street
with a camera over one shoulder, while someone carrying a fridge would
definitely be remembered! Cameras are also easy for the thief to exchange
for money. There are several pawnshops near you that would only be too
happy to give you a 1,000 baht for a 30,000 baht Nikon system. No
questions asked!
Having accepted the fact that cameras, and photo gear
generally, are good currency, you have only two avenues that you can
follow. One is insurance, and the other is safeguarding.
After my cameras were stolen I went through a stage of
total paranoia with the replacements. I would carry them everywhere with
me, never leaving them at home if the house was empty. I developed muscles
in my right arm from carting two bodies, three lenses, a Metz 45 CT-1
flash, several filters and a small table-top tripod. This was crazy!
Instead of safeguarding my gear, I was inviting any half skilled car door
opener to take it.
It was time to look at my house again. Bars on the
windows were fine, but the miscreants had come through the roof. 50,000
baht spent on polyurethane spray to the inside of the roof lowered the
temperature in summer, lowered my electricity bill for cooling/heating,
and virtually seals off the likely ingress for the local kamoys. It has
been money well spent, and an investment that will be recouped with time.
It has also helped lower the paranoia level. I also admit that I put the
camera bag with its contents in with all the other empty suitcases on top
of the wardrobe. The other option would be to install a safe and put the
cameras in there, but I work on the principle that if a safe can be
carried into the house by human beings, it can be carried out too!
When all else fails, read the instruction manual, is
one of my favourite jokes, but in this instance, when all else fails it is
time to make sure you have insurance. There is much misinformation about
insurance that is really related to smoke and mirrors, but if you talk to
a reputable agent that handles reputable insurance companies (there are
some) then the smoke can be cleared.
You can decide to cover your photo gear against theft
from your home. The usual provisos would be that there must be signs of
forced entry, police reports and the like, but it is possible to insure.
The premiums are something over two percent, plus statutory fees, VAT and
take away the number you first thought of and multiply by your birthday.
A more expensive option is an “all risks” policy
which covers your cameras and the like at all times. This is the one that
I have taken out, and covers my photo-gear away from the house as well as
being left in my abode. This is more expensive (naturally) and in my case
works out at around five percent of the agreed value of the equipment.
There is nothing to be gained by overstating the value (they will check if
you claim) and nothing to be gained by underestimating either. Again
naturally, there are exclusions including terrorism and acts of war,
declared or otherwise. Damage from moths, mildew or vermin is also not
covered, so if the rats eat the case of your Canon EOS, tough luck
Charlie. Likewise if the fungus begins to grow across the expensive AF
zoom lens you just bought.
So there you are, that’s what I do to protect my equipment. I suggest
you do the same!
Modern Medicine: Antibiotic Resistance - a danger with bird flu?
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
Right from the outset, let’s get one thing
straight. Antibiotics are not the preferred (or correct) treatment for viral
conditions, and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in these situations is
dangerous. Why? Because this leads to the development of what I call
‘superbugs’.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning that the
incidence of drug resistant strains of bacteria is on the increase. This has
produced problems for the treatment of TB, malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. All
of these are ailments we do not want, and to think that we might end up with
nothing to fight them with, is more than worrying - it is a world-wide problem!
The WHO goes so far as to say that if governments do not make
greater efforts to control disease and stem the spread of resistance there will
be a return to the pre-antibiotic era and entire populations could be wiped out
by ‘superbugs’ for which no treatment exists. The director general of the
WHO said that, “The world risks losing these valuable drugs and our
opportunity to eventually control many infectious diseases because of increasing
antibiotic resistance.”
You only have to look at the penicillin group to see what
happens. When penicillin first arrived, it was going to be the saviour of the
human race, courtesy of Alexander Fleming’s work in 1928. Unfortunately, the
bugs became resistant, so we invented “super” penicillin, which we called
Amoxycillin. We were back on top again, throwing Amoxycillin around like
confetti at weddings, and so resistance to this drug appeared. Nothing daunted,
we produced a combination of Amoxycillin with Clavulanic Acid (known best by the
trade name Augmentin). This was going to stop the bugs - and it did - for a
while. But by now, the bugs are on the ascendancy - the now Augmentin resistant
bugs are on the march again!
The interesting fact that emerges from the research into this
problem is that there are two main reasons for the emerging drug resistance -
underuse and overuse. The first is seen mainly in underdeveloped countries and
is through failure to complete the full course of the antibiotic treatment. When
the patient feels much better and so then stops treatment to save money for
further drugs, colonies of the organisms are still alive, and these subsequent
colonies grow up and replicate as now drug resistant strains. That bug strain
when passed on to a new “host” will produce the ailment (pneumonia, for
example) but the bug will not respond to the usual course of treatment. In this
way we produce such bug creatures as the MRSA, or Methicillin Resistant
Staphylococcus Aureus (sometimes called “multiple” resistant). Of course,
sometimes we do not complete the course of antibiotics because we just forget,
or can’t be bothered when we are obviously getting better.
In the affluent countries, through patient demand (or
expectations), there is overprescribing of antibiotics and so the bugs become
“used” to the presence of the drugs, and once again, subsequent colonies
develop as drug resistant strains. You only have to look at the self-medication
with the ‘wonder’ drug “Cipro” and you can see what I mean.
So what can you do? Well, firstly it is better to let the
doctor prescribe courses of antibiotics, rather than grab a handful from the
chemist, and secondly, go right to the end of the course. Finally, remember that
antibiotic therapy has no place in the treatment of viral infections! Bird Flu
or no Bird Flu!
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
Your ascerbic (sic) comments when replying to people with lesser spelling
ability than your own are always amusing, if sometimes somewhat unkind.
However, when setting oneself up as an arbiter of standards it is important not
to make errors of an elementary basis. Sam Goldwyn did not say “Count me
out”, he said “Include me out”, much more worthy of repeating in an
august column such as your own. Choccies will be delivered in May or June.
A
Dear A,
Thank you for attempting to impale me upon my own poison pen, and I do stand
corrected. The only excuse I might offer is that my blood chocolate level was
low that day. However, my little pedantic Petal, it is “acerbic” not
“ascerbic”, so perhaps it is a case of the “biter bit”? Or put another
way, if I can quote a friend of mine called, let us say A, “when setting
oneself up as an arbiter of standards it is important not to make errors of an
elementary basis.” You will be forgiven your indiscretion when I receive the
promised chocolates. The alternative is Hara-Kiri with a biro pen.
Dear Hillary,
First off I would like to say I love reading your column. I do not have
promises of Champagne or Chocolates and I am sorry for that. I do have a
question for you though. Do all girls in Pattaya flirt with all tourists or am
I just a walking sign board that says here I am come take advantage of me? Well
I don’t really know who is taking advantage of who but at times I feel that
there really is a spark, a kind of connection. Am I dreaming this or is it
possible?
Dreaming in Dakota
PS North Dakota is a really nice place with very friendly people, lots of
farm land and very little to do. It’s the world’s number one producer of
barley as well which is used to make that wonderful beverage beer.
Dear Dreaming in Dakota,
First off, thank you for the brief promo for North Dakota, and I am sure all
the beer drinkers out there will be pleased to know that North Dakota makes it
all possible. As a friend of mine said, if you get your barley over there, you
can get your oats over here! However, I note that you do say that the folks
there have very little to do. This I suppose explains your letter, my
under-worked Petal. Lots of time on your hands, eh? Now to your specific
questions - do all girls in Pattaya flirt? No, all girls do not. A percentage
do, and that percentage increases exponentially as you approach the bar areas,
until after you have passed through the “Welcome! Sit down please,”
threshold, the percentage is nigh on 100 percent. Is there a spark, a kind of
connection, as you so eloquently put it? Of course there is! That connection is
called “money”. Not necessarily Thai baht, but American dollars are fine,
or any other currency accepted by the banks in Thailand (so Dirhams are
doubtful). Don’t worry about the exchange rate, the young ladies will know
already.
Dear Hillary,
I have been coming to Chiang Mai for a few years on my holidays, and while I do
enjoy the sceneries and the like, I also like to sit back in the evenings and
enjoy a few drinks with some of the lovely ladies of the Rose of the North. I
have gotten close to some of these, and although I know they are in what you
might call the nightlife area, I wonder if it is possible to have a good
relationship with one of these ladies. I just think that they are either very
good actors, or perhaps there is a spark of genuine emotion in there. Tell me
Hillary, is there?
Minnesota Fats
Dear Minnesota Fats,
A difficult question, as I have never met a Thai girl called Rose, working in
the North (or was that the Top North)? I want you to read the reply to Dreaming
in Dakota, and where it says “Pattaya” insert the word “Chiangmai” (or
“Amsterdam” or “London” or “Moscow” or even “Minnesota”). Of
course you can have a relationship with one of these ladies, but it is a
commercial relationship, Petal. That is why they are there. They are not there
as representatives of the TAT to ensure that visitors enjoy themselves on their
holidays, just the same way as the ladies who frequent the red light areas in
Minnesota are not placed there by the Minnesota City fathers. They are there
because after Eve ate your apple, you men have been suckers for any pretty face
thereafter that might offer you a little bit of core, any sort of core, soft or
hard. However your Eve (or Toy or Wilhelmina or Jane or Olga or Billie-Jo) will
only sell you that apple core, not give it away. It is a commercial
transaction. There are rules and regulations and stiff problems for those who
forget payments on time, there being no time payments, other than short or
long. In short, there is emotion. It’s called avarice.
A Slice of Thai History: The Abbe de Choisy, priest and transvestite
Part 1
by Duncan steam
Thailand has had many unique and
interesting characters visit its shores through the centuries, but one of
the strangest must surely have been the Abbe de Choisy.
Brought up as a girl by his ambitious mother, Francois
Timoleon, the Abbe de Choisy, was born in Paris on 16 August 1644 and
lived during the time of the greatest of the French monarchs: Louis XIV.
In 1661 the 22-year-old Louis XIV assumed full control
of French politics following the death of his chief minister, Cardinal
Mazarin. Although he embroiled France in a series of European wars from
then until his death in 1715, Louis was also interested in the expansion
of French influence across the world.
De Choisy’s father was a member of the household of
the Duke of Orleans and his mother, a close friend of Anne of Austria
(Louis XIV’s wife), was regularly invited to amuse the French king. For
some reason, de Choisy’s mother dressed him as a girl, complete with
earrings and makeup. He continued to dress as a female until he was 18
years old, and was feted by one of Louis XIV’s brothers, a homosexual
transvestite. Although he began wearing male attire, he again reverted to
female clothing on the advice (almost certainly satirical) of Madame de La
Fayette, a noted French author.
Through his royal connections, de Choisy became a
celebrated character in Parisian noble circles until he was publicly
rebuked by the Duke de Montausier for his extravagance. De Choisy, who had
been made an abbe in his childhood, left Paris and went to live on his
incumbency at Sainte-Seine in Burgundy.
Here he continued to wear extravagant female clothing
and enjoyed seducing young girls, very often with the unsuspecting
assistance of their parents. It was here that he also made friends with
the soldier and writer Roger Bussy-Rabutin, who is best known for his
statement, ‘...God is generally on the side of the big squadrons against
the small ones.’
In 1676, de Choisy travelled to Rome with Cardinal de
Bouillon and shortly afterwards suffered a serious illness that caused him
to change his lifestyle.
So it was that in 1685, the 41-year-old de Choisy was
appointed to accompany the embassy of the Chevalier de Chaumont to the
court of King Narai in the kingdom of Ayutthaya.
Personal Directions: I Have A Dream...
by Christina Dodd
Indeed these are words that have had a profound impact on
society and history and the way we live our lives today! They are words that
belong not only to one or a few, but to everyone who cares to embrace them
and touch them with their hearts and their passion.
These words are also yours. They can mean the beginning
of a new life ... if you dare to act upon them!
What we achieve in our lives is limited only by our
imagination. Our imagination has the ability to inspire and to drive us
forward, to pick us up and to allow us to fly, to strengthen our reserve and
to instill a stronger will, to give us confidence to carry on in the face of
incredible obstacles. It is so powerful we have not even begun to realize
our potential.
Just by simply closing your eyes you can use the
magnificent ability you have to visualize and imagine. You have at your
fingertips a tool that can help you change the way you live your life. By
giving yourself the opportunity to utilize this power within you can start
the process of realizing your potential and realizing your dreams and, turn
your dreams into goals and into reality.
Today I have a passage for you to either read to
yourself, or better still and for optimum results, have someone read to you.
Through the guided imagery in the passage, you will be able to visualize a
wonderful scene in your future and you will basically come to understand
that imagining a bright future can help you set inspirational goals!
Take a bit of care and thought, however, when
participating in this activity. Try to find a quiet place that has no
possibility of disturbance or interruption. Really give 100 percent of your
effort to it.
This activity or passage is a great help if you want to
perform at your peak; stop procrastinating; envision and work towards
achieving your goals; overcome anxiety and the fear of failure. It is also
helpful if you want to get through some tough times; fight boredom and lack
of direction; motivate and spark your performance. It is not only a tool you
can use for yourself alone, but for others around you.
Let’s start: Place yourself in a relaxed position.
Breathe easily and if someone is reading this passage to you close your
eyes.
Passage: “Breathe easily and clear your mind. I’m
going to take you on a journey. Just focus, concentrate on my voice and the
feeling of relaxation that’s beginning to grow in your body... keep
relaxing...
Around you now is darkness... You’re completely
surrounded by darkness... You feel warm and comfortable, relaxed and at
ease. Focus on your breathing. Make it slow and easy. Focus on the
comforting blackness around you. Off in the distance you see a small, round
object. Slowly, gradually, it moves closer to you, until finally it’s
about three feet from you, suspended in the blackness, in front of your
face. The object is a clock, and both of its hands are on the 12. It’s a
plain clock, with plain black hands on a plain... white... face.
You begin to feel that time has completely stopped as you
continue to focus on the face of the clock, and its two hands, pointing
upwards towards the 12. Now, slowly, the minute hand begins to move
clockwise around the dial, very slowly at first, then somewhat faster, and
the faster still. In just a few seconds, it’s moved completely around the
dial, so that the hour hand is now on the 1. The minute hand continues to
move, faster and faster and faster, so the hour hand moves from number to
number to number with increasing speed... As the hands continue to whirl
around the face of the clock, you feel yourself being pulled... tugged
gently into the future... Wisps of air rush against your skin as you move
forward through time... until, finally, you begin to slow down... The hands
of the clock have finally come to a complete stop, and 10 years have passed.
You look to your left, and off in the distance you see
someone in a lighted area. It’s you, in an ideal life/work situation,
exactly 10 years from now. Everything is perfect in this setting. Everything
is ideal for you. Merge your awareness into the future you and feel the
warm, positive feelings of your future self. Now look around you. Who’s
with you? What kind of environment do you see? What kind of equipment or
furniture is there? Try to concentrate on the sounds. What are people
saying? Is there a window? Can you see outside? If so, what do you see?
Focus on whatever details you can see or feel or hear, and let yourself
experience the fulfillment and pure satisfaction of your future self...
Now you feel yourself being pulled again into the
darkness, until, off in the distance, another scene begins to emerge. Up
ahead, you see yourself in another lighted area. This time, you’re in an
ideal situation at home, exactly 10 years from now. Everything is perfect...
everything is ideal... Your body is filled with warm positive feelings...
Look around in that lighted area. Who’s with you? What faces do you see.
Try to concentrate on the sounds and the voices that you hear. Let the
images grow clearer. Focus on whatever details you can see or feel or hear,
and let yourself experience the feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment of
your future self.
Now the lighted area darkens as you are gently, very
gently, pulled into complete darkness again... When I tell you to open your
eyes, you’ll be back in the present, and you’ll remember images you saw
of your perfect future, and you’ll retain those wonderful feelings of
fulfillment and satisfaction... Now gradually, very gradually, open your
eyes and return to the present.”
Until next week, dare to dream and dare to act. Open your
eyes to the world around you and seize every opportunity... What have you
got to lose!
And by the way, many thanks to those readers who have
expressed interest in the coming Destination Success Program. Full details
will be published shortly and keep those emails coming to Christina.dodd
@asiatrainingassociates.com
Social Commentary by Khai Khem:
Tourists are confused, but not amused
The new rulings about early closing hours for
entertainment venues have provoked a flood of comments about the impact they
will have on tourists coming to Thailand. Frankly, it’s a tangle. Even some
business operators don’t seem to understand just exactly where they fit in to
the new categories. What seems to be crystal clear is that many small business
people will suffer from loss of income, lay off most of their staff, and
eventually go under. The job losses are bound to create shock waves.
Thailand is now a highly diversified country with a growing
economy. Tourism, however, is an important sector and a huge money spinner for
the nation, and Pattaya in particular.
One of the things we are most famous for is our scintillating
nightlife and free-wheeling atmosphere of fun, freedom and friendliness.
Admittedly, this inimitable speck of real estate on the world map has often
suffered from outside criticism which focused on some of our weak points, such
as prostitution, lewd behavior and unabashed corruption.
Sometimes we deserved the brick-bats, and when things got
really out of hand, tourist numbers dwindled. When we pulled together and
corrected some of our shortcomings, they came back in droves. Pattaya and its
surrounding areas have so much more to offer than we ever had in the past.
Thailand is now one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, and
Pattaya is right up there on the top of the list.
But the controversy surrounding the early closing hours for
entertainment venues that serve alcohol in the Kingdom is whipping up a storm of
discontent. Word has spread through the international tourist community that
Thailand has introduced an unreasonable law restricting entertainment venues to
a mere shadow of their former attraction. Even tourists who don’t haunt sleazy
beer bars and drink themselves into a stupor are annoyed. Bad news spreads fast
and the farther from the source it is heard, the more mangled and polluted it
becomes. By the time a potential tourist hears the distorted version, it is far
from the fact. We are sending signals that are not properly received.
Let’s take a look at the bigger picture. We can set a
target of 15 million foreign tourist arrivals a year - even more if you like.
Then take into consideration the campaign to boost the domestic market - Thais.
The average Thai tourist may not spend as much money in a short time as would a
traveler from abroad, but they will surely travel more often and spread their
journeys over a greater area of the country because they are less restricted by
time schedules, cultural and language obstacles.
Thais love ‘sanuk’ and even though we can all have fun
without getting drunk, Thais have never been teetotalers by nature. This is a
country that loves to party. People are going to find a way to enjoy themselves,
even if it means breaking the law. Close down the legal entertainment
establishments and underground “speak-easies” will spring up faster than
mushrooms after a rain. Prostitution, illegal gambling, drug abuse and violent
crimes are a given in every part of the world. What we don’t want to do is
‘criminalize’ honest citizens who would, if given a chance, support
themselves legally.
Locals are going to like the restricted closing times even
less than foreign tourists. Thais, not foreign tour groups, are the nation’s
most frequent customers of the very establishments which have been targeted for
eventual downfall. They are also the owners, employers and employees who will be
the losers.
Tourism is based on many things. Not all travelers are
‘culture vultures”. Is the real plan to replace the glass of Mekong or a
cold beer among friends with a non-stop shopping spree in Bangkok’s Fashion
City, or a back-breaking, bone shattering trip on elephant-back through the
highlands of northern Thailand, a holiday sleeping on rattan mats in huts with
rice farmers, or yachting trips for the rich? By the way, even the rich and
famous enjoy a glass of wine or a fine brandy after the sun goes down.
The truth is that we can have it all if we are prepared to
crackdown on the lawbreakers and trouble makers who genuinely propose a threat
to our society. If youngsters and teenagers are so out of control that we have
to roll up our streets at midnight just to bring them to heel, we’ve missed
the point.
Crack down on the youths and enforce a curfew on them - not
the paying customers who visit entertainment venues, hard working business
people and their employees. By all means, keep minors out of bars, kids in
school and break up the gangs who are making our streets mean and dangerous. If
drunks in bars are troublesome, haul them off to jail. Sort the wheat from the
shaft. If they were shop-lifters in a department store, would we limit the
business hours of the shop?
Worst case scenario. If every drop of alcohol in Thailand was
poured down the drain and every beer bar and disco was bulldozed and replaced
with a shopping center or theme park, foreign tourists would probably still come
here because we have so much to offer. However, how long would the ‘dry
spell’ (pun intended) last until they got used to our new image? Tourists are
a sensitive and fickle sector. They are mobile, have the whole world to choose
from and can go where they please. It doesn’t take much to tip them off
balance. SARS, crime, avian flu, military coups and terrorist threats have
proven that.
More to the point, what do the Thai people want? Will they,
can they, fold their present businesses and learn to start over in a new field
of endeavor? Does anyone one really believe that our Pattaya bar owners and
their lovely and accommodating female staff want to migrate back to Issan to
make plastic flowers or weave baskets in a remote SME production village? Guess
we’ll have to wait and see.
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