Family Money: Land of the Free?

By Leslie Wright

Investing outside the US is not easy for Americans because of restrictions imposed by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

These two agencies create challenges for individuals who seek offshore alternatives by regulating investment and imposing broad tax liability on all citizens.

The SEC has severely limited the ability of Americans to purchase securities outside the US. This was accomplished by the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The 1933 Act is meant to compel full disclosure in public offerings and prevent fraud in connection with the original issuance of securities, while the 1934 Act is intended to ensure a fair and honest market for the trading of securities once in the market.

Section 5 of the 1933 Act requires that, unless there is an exemption, all offers or sales of securities in the US must be registered with the SEC. The 1934 Act makes corollary requirements in Section 12, which requires registration and periodic reporting of foreign issues that have securities listed on a US exchange.

While there are certain exceptions to the registration requirements, from a practical standpoint what this means for US investors is that all foreign investment opportunities are prohibited unless they have been properly registered with the SEC.

This means US investors are confined to the domestic market and foreign issues that have been registered and, further, that they do not enjoy the right to invest freely in the world market.

The Tax Man’s catchall

If an American discovers a way to invest offshore in non-SEC registered securities, the aspiring offshore investor faces a second challenge of tax liability.

Most people who invest offshore seek not only flexibility of investment, but also want to minimise the tax consequences of the returns that are earned.

US citizens, however, are taxed on gross income. This is broadly defined as "all income from whatever source derived" and is hence meant to include income generated worldwide.

Therefore, whether a US citizen has domestic gains or gains from offshore sources, there is a legal requirement to report it, and there will be a tax liability.

Many Americans do not understand why gains earned offshore are taxable when the ventures have not enjoyed US protections. In fact, most find this situation repugnant - perhaps understandably.

But these are the two central challenges facing Americans interested in investing offshore.

The corporate route

Many Americans simply "forget" to report their offshore income, and hope they never get found out.

This is one reason the IRS has become so diligent recently in pursuing US citizens who have salted away money and investments overseas.

But even if an American with unreported offshore investments manages to evade getting caught throughout his lifetime, his heirs may well find themselves in trouble when they come to collect their inheritance - especially if they repatriate it to the US.

The solutions to this dilemma are not necessarily complicated. They begin with the simple fact that foreign corporations are for sale in practically every jurisdiction in the world.

A corporation formed in a jurisdiction outside the US is obviously beyond the jurisdictional reach of the SEC. By virtue of its domicile outside the US, a foreign corporation enjoys access to all the markets in the world and all the securities issues that exist - not just the ones that have been registered with the SEC.

This is true economic freedom and a limitless opportunity for growth and diversity.

The first important point about the tax challenge is that many offshore financial centres do not impose taxes on their corporations so long as they do not actively carry out business locally.

>From a US tax perspective, foreign corporations are not liable for taxes under certain conditions. The tax liability for foreign corporations is articulated in IRC Section 882.

This states that "a foreign corporation engaged in trade or business within the US during the taxable year shall be taxable as provided in section USC on its taxable income, which is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the US".

Taxes, therefore, only accrue when business is carried out in the US. Capital gains from securities’ trading by foreign corporations fall outside this definition.

This is further clarified in IRC Section 865 (a2), which states the general rule: "Except as otherwise provided in this section, income from the sale of personal property by a non-resident shall be sourced outside the US."

Hence, foreign corporations do not incur capital gains tax liability.

This should lead to some obvious conclusions about how SEC and IRS rules may be legally circumvented.

Clearly, what cannot be accomplished from within the US may be accomplished internationally using corporate vehicles. Both investing and tax mitigation may be accomplished through a corporation established in any of a number of tax-lenient jurisdictions around the world.

But that’s neither the end of nor the complete story. What has not been addressed is how a US citizen may practically avail himself of these benefits - and how he may still fall foul of the US tax authorities if he’s not careful.

Avoiding complications

A US citizen who seeks a safe haven offshore needs to begin working with a professional in the industry because it is not as simple as buying or setting up a personal international business corporation. There are a host of additional concerns which must be addressed.

For instance, if a US citizen owns the foreign corporation, the tax avoidance effort has been for nothing because of IRS provisions concerning Controlled Foreign Corporations (CFC).

Where CFC rules do not apply, other circumstances trigger tax consequences, such as when the foreign corporation makes a distribution.

Further, in the course of these activities, if a US citizen has had "an interest in or a signature or other authority over a financial account in a foreign country, such as a bank account, securities account or other financial account," this must be reported.

Finally, any funds that are repatriated to the US must be classed as income and taxed accordingly.

The methods by which funds are accumulated offshore are beyond the scope of this article.

It is important to note that if such funds are accumulated through transfers from within the US there could be withholding or gift tax consequences. Therefore, anyone seeking to secure wealth offshore should consult a professional advisor.

The exemption for offshore issues is Regulation S, which comprises rules 901-904 of the 1933 Act. It clarifies that the registration requirements of the Securities Act do not apply to offers and sales outside the US.

To qualify for the Regulation S exemption, there can be no direct solicitation of US investors, no buy orders placed within the US or share delivery within the US.

Hence, while this is an exception to the registration requirement, it effectively minimises the chances of an offering outside the US reaching US citizens. This is clarified in Internal Revenue Code section 61 (a).

The other exemption for offshore investments is the American Depository Receipt.

This technique interposes an American bank that makes the securities purchases, which are held in trust for the beneficial ownership of the investor. But this does not afford the flexibility that American investors seek.

Clearly, for a US citizen to be able to invest directly offshore, it is necessary to have a foreign vehicle through which transactions are performed. This is the only way in which goals may be achieved while complying with SEC and IRS rules.

While it is clear that a foreign entity is an absolute requirement, the nature of the relationship between such an entity and a US citizen is a particularly delicate matter that should only be undertaken with the advice of a qualified provider.

If you have any comments or queries on this article, or about other topics concerning investment matters, write to Leslie Wright, c/o Family Money, Pattaya Mail, or fax him
directly on (038) 232522 or
e-mail him at [email protected]. Further details and back articles can be accessed on his firm’s website on www.westminsterthailand.com.

Leslie Wright is Managing Director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd., a firm of independent financial advisors providing advice to expatriate residents of the Eastern Seaboard on personal financial planning and international investments.

The computer doctor

By Richard Bunch

At the risk of being boring, on March 26 yet another e-mail virus was discovered. It is called W97M Melissa, which takes advantage of users’ email address books to replicate extremely quickly and has already infected thousands. W97M/Melissa is a Word 97 Class Module Macro virus that through the "convertation" feature can also spread to Word users.

The most common method of infection seems to be through Outlook. Alarmingly, users will be unaware they have become infected and the sender will not know the document has been sent. A user may become alerted to the infected document if the Word Macro Security settings are enabled.

When the infected document is opened, the virus checks for a setting in the registry to test if the system has already been infected. If the system hasn’t been infected, the virus creates an entry in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\"Melissa?" = "... by Kwyjibo". If this key is present, the email process will not execute but the virus will still infect.

The virus also creates an Outlook object, which then reads the list of addresses from Outlook Global Address Book. An email message is created and sent to the first 50 recipients of all the address books, one at a time. The message is created with the subject "Important Message From - <User Name>" and the message reads "Here is that document you asked for ... don’t show anyone else ;-)". The active infected document is attached and the email is sent. The most prevalent document being seen is one called List.DOC, however this is NOT the only document that can be sent or received.

Once the system is infected all documents that are opened are infected. As any document can be sent, a user that receives the infected document, who hasn’t been infected, can become infected with this document, and the process will continue. The virus has a payload and if the day equals the minute value, when the infected document is opened this text is inserted at the current cursor position: " Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game’s over. I’m outta here."

The virus checks for low security in Office2000 by checking the value from the Registry; if the value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software \Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\Security\"Level" is not null, the virus will disable the "MACRO/SECURITY" menu option. Otherwise Word97 menu option "TOOLS/MACRO" is disabled.

The top anti-virus software vendors have posted the remedy on their web sites for downloading, so if you haven’t already done so, get downloading now.

This just highlights the importance of keeping your anti-virus software up-to-date.

Please let me have your questions, I’ll try to help.

The comments contained within this column are not necessarily the views of the author or Pattaya Mail Publishing Co., Ltd. Letters may be edited.

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]

Richard Bunch is Managing Director of Action Computer Technologies, providing total Information Technology solutions to clients on the Eastern Seaboard.

Successfully Yours: Jorgen Lundbaek

by Mirin MacCarthy

"Jorgen" Lundbaek (pronounced "Yern" in Danish) runs Mermaid Maritime, a large marine survey and safety company in Laem Chabang. Born is Esbjerg, Denmark, he has now been in Thailand for 33 years. He certainly has the stories to tell - if you could slow him down long enough!

Jorgen Lundbaek.

Jorgen, although not of Viking stature, followed his family tradition of all becoming seamen. At fifteen, an age he exaggerated, he joined the Danish ship the Maerskline as a deckhand which took him to Asia. This was at the beginning of the Vietnam War and in 65 to 66 Jorgen had a job working with the U.S. Marines in Da Nang transporting ammunition. After that year he went to Bangkok and got a job with a civilian company, Conam, supervising tugboat and barge transport from Sattahip to Bangkok Port, as well as working in the maintenance and radio repair at Sattahip until his contract expired in ’68.

Jorgen’s next endeavour was to team up with an Englishman, Captain Bent, to form a company "Maritime Survey". By 1982 he was working as a surveyor and joined with another Danish seaman to form the company now named "Mermaid Maritime". Jorgen speaks with rapid-fire bursts of enthusiasm about his company and claims that work is all there is for him. "If you retire and do nothing you get bored and fed up I love to work."

The work his company does is varied. "A marine survey business does all kinds. We do servicing and survey, which is testing and repairing to international standard and certification, and we also send trained people out to the oilrigs to do the same. We handle safety equipment, life rafts, fire fighting, commercial diving, civil engineering projects, marine electronics, and ships chandelling."

Jorgen’s business is no small affair, employing nine expats and fifty Thais and even boasts two, four men decompression chambers. He enthuses about the new services Maritime Marine are providing in training for underwater welding, cutting, ultrasonic thickness gauging (no they don’t use dolphins), as well as dry land, marine and oil rig welding. They have set up a joint venture to run internationally recognised, certificate training here in Pattaya. "I believe training here in Thailand will be a big business in the future. It is the first of its kind in Asia."

Jorgen is happy here. He speaks Thai fairly well and even reads it. He was married twice, though his Thai daughter and son prefer living here despite being taken to visit Denmark five years ago. He does not forget his origins, however, despite the length of time he has been here. Even his company logo has a ship’s buoy encircling the famous mermaid of Copenhagen sitting on a rock, perhaps just to remind him.

Scratch the surface and you find Jorgen does have other strings to his bow besides work. He admits to exercising in the gym, lifting weights and running. He casually mentions a hotel-restaurant and a nightclub he is a shareholder of in Bangkok. The forty-room hotel-restaurant the "Stable Lodge" came about by chance. He was dining there about eight years ago when he discovered they would take only cash, not credit cards. His response was, "If you guys are that hard up, I’ll buy the place." By the end of lunch he had!

The most important values to Jorgen are: "Health, money enough to have a beer or two when you want it and to have a good time." So would he do it all over again? "Yes, but I would make ten times the money if I had the time back."

Jorgen Lundbaek, the dynamic Dane, certainly gives the impression he would know how!

Snap Shots: Off the wall!

by Harry Flashman

Have your photographs become boring? Do they all look the same? Predictable pictures that no longer excite you or any of your family either for that matter? So dull that you have almost given up taking photographs?

OK, for you this weekend, we will take some of the wildest shots you have ever done and the end result will be such that people will say for years "How in heck did you take that?"

The first step is to pop down to the photoshop and buy some slide film. Yes, slide film! Don’t worry if you haven’t got a projector, never used slide film before or any other of the excuses I hear people say when Harry here mentions slide film. If you normally use 100 ASA print film then get some 100 ASA slide film. Simple, so far! Do not get the Kodachrome that you have to send away for processing, just get ordinary slide film that can be processed here in Pattaya. Look for the cheapest - it will be perfect for what we want.

The next fact is that you do not need to know anything about f stops, shutter speeds, zoom lenses or the like. The special photographs we will end with can be taken by anybody with a fully automatic point and shoot compact camera.

OK, load the camera with the slide film (it’s just the same to load as print film - for most cameras, put in the cassette, pull the tail across and shut the back of the camera. Hey Presto!)

Now let’s go and shoot. For the effect you are going to get, some good landscapes or seascapes are excellent here. Pop down to Jomtien and take some shots of boats on the water and then some of the beach scenes. Now get in the car and go up to Buddha Mountain and take some shots there. Finally, go across the road and up to the radio station lookout and finish the roll of film.

Now take the film for processing, and here is an important part. You ask for E6 slide processing, but DO NOT MOUNT THE SLIDES! Leave the slides either as a roll or cut into strips of 6 and put in sleeves like your usual print film negatives. Impress this on the girl behind the counter. You do not want them mounted.

When you get the film back, just hold them up to the light and select any one shot that you like the look of (or even only half like, it doesn’t matter!). Go back to the photo processing shop with the following instructions ... "I want you to print number X as if this is a negative. I know it is a slide, but I want you to print a picture, using this slide as the negative." It will probably take quite some repeating before the technician will reluctantly take the job on, with much warnings about it will not look right, etc. Ignore all warnings, just have faith in Harry Flashman. While you are at it, tell them that you do not want the usual size, but get an enlargement done straight off. 10 x 8 is sufficient and costs around 80 Baht. Repeat your instructions, tell them you know the colour will be wrong and leave them to it.

You see, what happens with colour prints is that the processing machine recognizes certain colours in the negative and converts that to green for grass, blue for skies, etc., in a photochemical way. By giving the autoprocessor grass that is already green and skies already blue totally confuses its auto brain (and the girl in the shop usually) and it will produce a print with the wildest psychedelic colours you will ever see. Expect orange trees and yellow skies - you can get anything! It is almost impossible to predict, but the end result will be wild. Try it this weekend. You will not be disappointed.

Modern Medicine: A bloody mess!

by Dr Iain Corness

People do faint at the sight of blood. In fact, in my class in medical school we had such a fellow. The poor chap managed to last till third year but kept on fainting, even when we were being shown slides of anything a little gory. Needless to say, he did not make it through the compulsory six years!

However, "blood" is not a "magic" fluid. It is mainly a water solution with oxygen bearing red and white blood cells floating in it. Unfortunately, we do need blood to circulate or otherwise the tissues starve of oxygen and we die. That simple.

Our blood circulation system is also very simple. It is truly a closed circuit pumping system - the heart pumps the blood through the arteries till eventually they get smaller and smaller. They then hook up with tiny veins that get larger and larger and return the blood to the pump (the heart).

Because it is a closed system, we do not get to see this blood rushing around - until we somehow open up an artery or a vein. It is then the red stuff falls on the floor! The common way this occurs is when we cut ourselves, which we medical folk call "lacerations". No matter how it happened, if you split open a vein or artery, the pump keeps on pumping and the blood pumps out.

Now if it is a vein that has been opened, the blood is moving along at a fairly low pressure, so you get a nice steady ooze at the site of the cut. But if it is an artery that has been cut, then these are high pressure blood carriers and the blood will tend to spurt in rhythmic pulses, in time with your heart beat.

>From the point of view of stopping the blood loss (which we call haemorrhage), it does not really matter whether the blood loss is venous or arterial. Even arterial blood is only at 3 p.s.i. pressure and you can stop the flow with your thumb.

While blood loss may look gory and horrible, you can stop 99% of all haemorrhages by putting a piece of cloth (a handkerchief, rag, torn piece of shirt, etc.) over the site of the wound and applying firm pressure with your hand.

Now some parts of the body are better supplied with blood vessels than others, so these are the areas that really bleed. The scalp, the ear lobe and around the mouth are classic sites for lots of gore. Fortunately the treatment is just the same. Cloth and direct pressure and the flow will cease. Of course, you will still need to see the doctor for the closing of the laceration - but you will not bleed to death in the meantime!

Don’t be like my unfortunate classmate in medical school. Keep your head and apply direct pressure over the wound. See you in the Casualty Department!

Dear Hillary,

When my husband of 5 months and I make love, he calls me his "little girl." The problem is, I’ve caught him a few times winking at actual little girls. Sometimes he plays with our neighbors two little daughters, 3 & 5, and I do not like the way how he’s touching them. He also told me many times that if we have children he wants only girls, no boys. And he once mentioned that when he was younger, he babysat for a couple who had a 2-year-old girl, and he had to get into bed with her to make her fall asleep. Telling me so, I could see how much he enjoyed it thinking back of it. Maybe I’m being silly and overreacting, but sometimes I get the feeling that he’s a sick pervert. I’ve never talked to him about it. How could I? What can I do?

Confused wife

Dear Confused Wife,

Child molestation is such an ugly crime that even the faintest suspicion is worth checking out. And in this case, that means talking to your husband. There’s no need to be confrontational. On the contrary, if you share your sexual fantasies with him, especially the depraved ones, and then explain why his calling you "little girl" gives you the creeps, he’ll understand right away what you’re getting at. If he says anything to confirm your suspicions about him, you’re in a position to urge him into therapy right away. Whether or not you stay with him is another question entirely. But don’t be surprised if he’s startled by your suggestion. If he called you "kitten" in bed, would you assume he was sexually interested in cats? See what I mean? Lots of people of both sexes wink at little girls because they’re adorable. And plenty of men want daughters because they think they’re easier to raise and present no threat to their male dominance of the family. Furthermore, had there been anything weird or perverted about his babysitting experience, he wouldn’t have told you about it. The thing is, once you suspect something is amiss, everything he says or does, no matter how innocent, is going to reinforce your fears. So, it’s not a question of how you talk to him, but whether you can afford not to.

GRAPEVINE

Dining Out: Savour the flavour

by Miss Terry Diner

With so many different cuisines available in Pattaya, the Dining Out Team has to admit that Indian cuisine has not been one of its more favoured varieties. Perhaps the introduction to Indian food many years ago - an incandescent Chicken Vindaloo that burned on its way in (and out) - left me with a permanent distrust and a long lasting impression that all Indian food was too hot and too harsh. It is with pleasure that I report that all that has changed after a visit to the Sher-E-Punjab on Soi Pattaya Park off Thappraya Road.

We were also very fortunate to have two "Indian foodies" with us on that Dining Out evening, Graham Macdonald and Kim (Delaney’s) Fletcher. With the multitude of dishes on offer it certainly made more sense for your reviewers to be able to sample much on the menu and this required numbers of diners!

Sher-E-Punjab.

The menu is indeed comprehensive, covering soups, starters, Tandoori Khajana, Murg "E" Bahar, mutton specialities, seafood specials, vegetarian cuisine, rice and breads.

We were advised to order several dishes from the starters menu. Particularly the Samosa’s. These are like large curry puffs with a crispy pastry. Coming in several varieties (vegetable, chicken and mutton) they were flavoursome and light with no greasiness. We also tried the Shami Kabab which is similar to a rissole, but loaded with aromatic spices and herbs.

By this stage we were starting to appreciate the subtleties in this restaurant’s cuisine. While there was "spiciness" there was also an aromatic flavour that would come through and tickle the taste buds.

With much ceremony, Garry the Maitre d’ (a handsome Omar Shariff type) brought in the mains. Many of these came in individual copper plated pots with matching serving spoons. These included Tandoori Prawn, Fish Tikka, Tandoori Chicken and Paneer Shashlik. Many of these were cooked in the Tandoori oven, that special oven used by the Punjabi for their cooking. We ate the mains with an assortment of breads including a Keema Parantha and (my favourite) Garlic Naan.

Every dish had its own distinctive flavour, and again I must thank Graham who so patiently took me on the discovery trip through Indian cuisine. It was an eye opener and a taste experience that will be repeated.

We washed the multitude of dishes down with some nice red wine and Carlsberg. (No Singha Gold - an oversight that many restaurants share in Pattaya. Are you listening to me, restaurateurs?)

It really was a most pleasant culinary evening. We ate Indian food we would never have had the courage to try before - and what is more, we enjoyed it! If you are, as we were, afraid of the Indian dishes you can discuss choices with Garry and order without fear. The Dining Out Team can recommend the Sher-E-Punjab without hesitation.

As a final suggestion, Sher-E-Punjab should perhaps consider printing a set menu to cover the most common items for those diners not as fortunate as we were to have Graham and Kim as dinner companions. It certainly would take some of the hesitancy out of ordering Indian food for the novice.

Animal Crackers: African Grey Parrots

by Mirin MacCarthy

African Grey Parrots are the best known pet parrot in Europe and highly sought after. Due to distance and import restrictions they are expensive in America and Australia. Widely renowned as the best talkers, they are affectionate, highly intelligent and long lived birds.

Where did I come from, Mummy?

The African Grey hails from equatorial Africa and is usually imported in a somewhat traumatized condition. Recently I was fortunate to purchase a two month old chick from the Chatuchak Market, still being hand fed. It was bred here in Thailand thus making it easier to rear and tame. We just had to name it Nelson after Nelson Mandela, the grey African.

Red tails in the sunset

The bird is shades of pastel greys, with a black beak, a squat bright red tail and a large bare facial area around the eyes like macaws. They grow up to be about thirteen inches long as adults.

Grey matter

African Greys are unusually intelligent and perceptive. These parrots have shown the ability to understand tasks and concepts such as same or different, absence, quantity and size.

Although they talk superbly and readily mimic the human voice they do not screech noisily like cockatoos. They usually begin talking at six months of age but some can take up to two years before they are saying words and sentences.

Mother’s tucker

As chicks up to four months, old they are hand fed with a spoon on Kaytee bird rearing formula if you can obtain it, alternatively hot baby cereal ‘Nestle’s Cerelac’ mixed in with small amounts of bottled baby fruit or vegetables. Adults eat sunflower and safflower seed, boiled corn, green vegetables, fruit and dried dog biscuits.

Disposition or dat position?

They are strong, active birds with powerful beaks and a fairly large sturdy cage or aviary with heavy gauge wire is essential for them to swing and play. They love to hang upside down and attack their toys! They are very affectionate birds and crave attention and physical contact, i.e. hugs and pats. African Greys are alert, curious and responsive pets.

Snail tale

One day a tortoise was ambling down the road, as tortoises do, when he was unexpectedly leapt upon by a gang of Snails from Hell. They thoroughly beat him up, robbed him and then scampered. The tortoise then inched his way down to the police station to make a report. The nice policeman asked him if he could identify any of the snails in a line-up. "No I’m sorry, I can’t," he said, "It all happened too fast!"

Auto Mania: The good times have gone!

By Dr. Iain Corness

The visit to the 20th International Motor Show in Bangkok confirmed my suspicions that the world is starting to stagnate. Motoring trends that are "new" are a joke and the much publicised crowd pleasers are revamps of old classics. Let me expand further.

Take, for example, the "new" Beetle. This car looks like the pictures your six year old son drew of the venerable Beetle of yesterday. Honestly, it’s a caricature! The much vaunted Audi TT coupe looks like a scaled down Chrysler Airflow and you can add in the new Veedub Passat, obviously from the same design studio. Move through to Jaguar and the new S type with the re-created old S type grille had people panting excitedly, with clever graphics comparing the old and the new. The Jaguar XKR is pure reminiscence of D type and E type. Chrysler even had a road going production "hot rod" from the 50’s on display.

The technology of today is much better than that of the 50’s and 60’s - so why is this retro car styling so popular? A visiting auto designer from the UK, Fran Cush of Cush Design Studios, suggested that for many people the future does not look inviting. For the world at large, the good times are not coming - they have already gone! So for these folk, the retro look recalls the good times they had and which they cannot see coming again. If he is correct, this is very depressing. Is the new millennium going to bring us such beauties as the 1940’s Ford Anglia, the ‘50’s Nash Metropolitan, or even the Bat-wing Chevrolet? The mind boggles at the thought!

So was there anything new at the show? There was, and it was sensational. It was the new VW W12. In brilliant yellow and did 300 kph standing still. It reiterated my statement of a couple of weeks ago when I said that Veedub under MD Pietsch has the design team and the financial clout to produce anything. It was simply gorgeous.

Other exciting and interesting vehicles included the Honda S2000 sports - a brutish sports car reminiscent of a smaller Dodge Viper in some ways.

The latest Nissan GTR was also on display - another brute. Called "Godzilla" in Oz, these twin turbo 4WD machines are sheer excitement to drive. They have an electronic brain that tells the centre differential what the split should be to the wheels. In ordinary driving it is 100% rear, but turn on the tap and it progressively feeds in more power to the front wheels. At full noise can get the 50/50 split and you know you’re there, I can tell you. Performance figures in the mid four second range for 0 - 100 KPH is real grunt.

Electric shocks

Probably one of the more interesting stands at the show was put up by Electric Vehicles Thailand. They had some nice little scooters and mopeds, all electric with around 6 hours between recharging for the scooters and 3 hours for the ‘peds. With a good tail wind the scooters claim 50 KPH and cost 42,500 Baht (including VAT). The little ‘uns do 30 KPH and retail around 20,000 Baht. Certainly a nice quiet pollution free alternative to the noisy little smoking two strokes we have at present.

Pug lion shows its claws

Peugeot in this country are really trying hard at present. Their CKD 306 and 406 models are being very well promoted and are competitive price-wise with the more usual Japanese offerings. In addition, I would consider the Peugeot range to be more "sporting motorist" oriented. Pug has been the leading European over here for the past 3 months and this has been the result of the keen pricing and promotion. On their stand at the show was their WRC 206 screamer. I want one! Definitely a Pug with claws.

More show bits

The motor show was much better than last year’s effort. More cars, more accessories and generally a much better feeling than the despondency of 1998. Motor vehicle sales may still be very depressed, but the mood this year was not.

One of the biggest problems on press day at the show is the razzamatazz and hype that seems absolutely mandatory. Some exhibitors definitely confusing the ceremony with the substance.

What happens is, that following a strict timetable, the camera crews and the newspaper paparazzi line up at the manufacturer’s stand. At the cue, out come the promo girls, usually dressed in some totally outlandish costume (Ford had girls in silver jodhpurs would you believe) all with radio mikes and then they parrot off their rehearsed and memorised spiel about the new cars. The local MD’s then have a little say and then the finger food and booze gets attacked by the frenzied horde who rip off any free goodies and anything else they can get their sticky little paws on. The freebies run out and it’s on to the next stand for a repeat. Judging by the number of "Press" badges, Thailand must have 397 newspapers with a dedicated motoring column. After the Pattaya Mail and the half a dozen rags in Bangers, I’d love to know who the other 390 publications are!

Toyota, as usual, were the last of the big spenders. They had smoke, they had dancers, they had promo girls, they had concept cars. They also had a less than exciting stand with a Camry (yawn), Soluna (double yawn) and Corolla (yawn again). No English language press kits either (so much for it being an "international" show). Mind you, the three concept cars were interesting in a weird sort of way. The "Fun Carry" obviously styled by Walt Disney! Look at the pix if you doubt me.

The accessories exhibitors were out in full force this year. Lots of imported go-faster goodies, including steering wheels with imitation F1 type gear shift buttons (blows the horn instead of electro-shifting) and some interesting extractors. Wild lines in air dams, spoilers and wings - but none for the family Mira. Ah well, it helped save me money, I suppose.

More on the show next week, if we both can stand it.

Fitness Tips: Fit Facts

G’day Pattaya.

This week in Fitness tips I am going to pass on 3 bits of information, the first 2 are great news for us on the Eastern Seaboard and the third is an explanation for a problem that some of us suffer.

A Spicy entrée can work wonders

In direct contrast to the effects of a pre-dinned drink with a high fat snack, a spicy appetiser appears to reduce the amount of food eaten at a main meal. Canadian researchers have found that snacks made from red peppers, which include the spice Capsaicin, can lead to reduced food intake of around 200 calories at a main meal. Spicy foods are also known to have an impact, albeit slight, on metabolic rate. The current research suggests a positive benefit of low fat spicy foods as an entrée. It is not known whether other foods high in Capsaicin (peppers, chillies, curries, etc.) would have the same effect.

Implication: Suggest spicy, low fat foods as snacks or entrees in order to reduce the total amount of energy consumed.

Coastal dwellers are more active

Australians who have a postcode (zipcode) which indicates they live on the coast are 23% less likely to be sedentary than those who live off the coast. This is a finding from a survey by the New South Wales Health Department with over 16,000 people. Coastal dwellers are also 27% more likely to have an activity level defined as ‘adequate’ for good health and a healthy body weight, and over 38% are more likely to be regularly vigorously active. Whether living on the coast causes this effect or those who are more active tend to choose the coast to live is not clear. However, it does seem that being more active is more possible and more likely given a congenial environment. Moving to a coastal address might at least be a better solution for weight loss than the "diet of the week". At least the percentage chance of you achieving your goal is by far in favour of the move to the coast.

Implication: People living on the coast in Australia may find weight maintenance easier than people living inland.

The price of development

Living standards in the US, based on per capita income, are undoubtably amongst the highest in the world. Obesity rates are also amongst the highest, and this is often put down to over-eating in the U.S. A comparison of daily energy expenditures between U.S. women and Gambian women, however, show that this is not the whole story. According to a Laval University scientist Dr. Angelo Tremblay, average energy expenditure among women in the US is 1.4 - 1.7 times basal metabolic rate. Metabolic rate is the amount of energy required to keep a body alive at rest, and is generally considered to be around 70% of total daily energy expenditure. An energy expenditure of 1.5 would mean that all of the day’s physical activities (including exercise and non-exercise related daily movement) is only 50% greater than basal metabolic rate. Comparative measures of native women in Gambia (where machines are not as available to carry out daily work) are 2.35 times BMR. "This could amount to an 800 - 1000 calories difference per day between women in developed and non-developed countries," Dr Tremblay says. The answer for women concerned about their weight, it seems, is not diet, but to pack up and move to a less developed part of the world, leaving modern conveniences behind.

Implication: Concentrate on total daily physical activity at a level more than 50% of basal metabolic rate. For those of you who can’t readily measure their metabolic rate, try walking instead of using the car, the stairs instead of the elevator all the way up - I’m sure you get the concept.

Carpe’ diem

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