Family Money: Establishing Trust

By Leslie Wright

Many expatriates living in Thailand have entered into ‘Spring-Autumn’ relationships. There’s nothing wrong with this, so long as their financial planning has been properly considered.

For instance, what happens when you die? If you have young children, have you made adequate provision for your new family’s support? And making a Will is by no means the end of the story. Sometimes it’s only the start.

Spring-Autumn relationships

I have come across numerous cases of ‘Spring-Autumn’ relationships that have been resented by family members from an earlier marriage. Sometimes the children resent their father’s “abandonment” of their mother; sometimes the mother herself feels great resentment at having been “replaced” by someone half her age.

The poet’s oft-misquoted statement, “Hell hath no fury like a woman spurned,” sums up this situation rather neatly.

When you die, your former family can, if they have a mind to, quite easily contest the Will you made leaving everything to your new spouse and family.

If you have never entered into a formal marriage with your new partner - which many Pattaya residents have not - then the family “back home” has an even stronger case for contesting what in their eyes is an unreasonable Will, leaving the bulk of your assets to the “floozy”, to their cost and detriment.

Protecting the interests of your new family is of course a vital aspect of sound financial planning. It is surprising how few have really thought it through, or the ramifications of the former family potentially taking exception to your wishes.

Another aspect that should be considered is the ability of your new partner to manage the assets you leave her (or him, as the case may be). Thai families are very close-knit, and it is not unknown for all the family members to flock round the widow with all sorts of wonderful ideas on how to divide up the late-husband’s assets amongst them.

How can you protect against this happening? Or ensure your young family will have a good education up to international standards once you’re gone?

The answer is actually quite easy. Place your investment assets into an offshore trust.

Assets held in trust do not have to go through probate, so there’s no inheritance tax to pay.

Assets held in trust cannot be frittered away on someone’s whim or fancy.

Even if your new wife (or boyfriend) is a principal beneficiary, restrictions can, if you wish, be placed on how much of the principal can be accessed; and limits can be placed even on the income derived there from.

You can, with a properly executed trust, keep quite a tight rein on the purse strings even after you’ve departed this life.

Assets held in trust will be distributed by the trustees exactly how you had specified; and if properly established in the first place, cannot be effectively contested in court. (Resentful family members who may have been excluded may try, but contesting a properly-established trust is a lot more difficult than contesting a Will, and probably won’t succeed.)

Myths & legends

A lot of myths surround trusts. These have largely arisen through ignorance of how trusts work; and like most things that people don’t understand, create fear.

The most common myth is that trusts are only for the super-rich, and not available to ‘ordinary folk’.

Not true. A trust can be used to protect most transferable assets, and are much less expensive to establish and maintain than most people imagine - typically only a few hundred pounds a year.

Of course, the costs will vary depending on the number of assets, their complexity, and the amount of administration required of the trustees.

Another common myth is that any and all assets may be placed into trust. While in theory that is true, it is only practical (and cost-effective) to place liquid or realisable assets into trust.

Overseas property - in Thailand for instance - would be very difficult to transfer into an offshore trust. (Although the shares of a company which owns the property could be placed into a trust.)

Typically, one would consider transferring investments such as shares, bonds, and offshore investment instruments (unit trusts, unit-linked insurance policies, and the like) into an offshore trust. But not the car or the house, unless these formed assets of a company, the shares of which were placed in trust.

Another myth is that once you place assets into a trust, you can never get at them.

Not so. You can be a principal beneficiary of a trust throughout your lifetime, so you could draw down an income for life from the trust, and access your capital at any time you might need some.

You as Settlor and principal beneficiary simply write a letter to the trustees requesting them “to consider” (to use the correct phrase) sending X amount of money to your bank account. They will normally act upon this request within a few days.

Yet another myth is that trusts enable you to escape all taxes. That is not necessarily so.

Inheritance tax may well be avoided, inasmuch as you have relinquished legal ownership of the assets into the trust when you established it. Those assets therefore continue as assets of the trust after you die, so no probate problems are encountered, and no inheritance tax becomes due.

However, if the beneficiaries receive either capital or income from the trust, they may well have a liability to tax, dependent upon their residence at the time they receive benefits from the trust.

For instance, UK legislation has been amended in recent years regarding onshore residents benefiting from offshore trusts, so if you are a UK resident, you are liable to tax on amounts received from an offshore trust. I therefore don’t normally recommend establishing a trust if the Settlor or principal beneficiary is UK resident.

However, one type of trust that is useful for UK-resident wives & children of offshore residents is the Power of Appointment Trust. This allows you access to the capital throughout your lifetime, but makes your spouse the default beneficiary whereby the investments held in trust are transferred from your estate to hers, and are thereby exempt from inheritance tax under current legislation.

Potential beneficiaries are the children and other relatives. About six months after establishing the trust, the trustees execute a deed appointing your children (or grandchildren) as beneficiaries. If your spouse survives seven years from this date, the investment will not form part of her estate for inheritance tax, so passes to the children tax exempt.

While US citizens can inherit assets from an offshore trust without any immediate inheritance tax liability, they will thereafter have to pay tax on the income derived from any assets they receive from an offshore trust.

Protection from third parties

A fear that many international investors have is that their assets may be frozen or seized by a government. This fear is especially prevalent in those regimes which are politically unstable.

Placing their accumulated assets into an offshore discretionary trust in a financially & politically stable regime (such as the Isle of Man or Guernsey) protects the trust beneficiaries from, for example, exchange control restrictions, capital taxes, and other government restrictions.

Discretionary Trusts have another benefit for those citizens of common-law countries where forced heirship rules apply (such as France, Spain & the Philippines), whereby the trustees would distribute the trust fund according to your wishes, rather than the laws of the country in which those people reside. This enables you to retain control over which family members get what, rather than this being dictated by the government.

This aspect can be taken further to exclude certain family members, or restrict their access to your capital - even after you’re dead.

Such exclusions or restrictions in a Will could easily be contested in court, and the aggrieved heir might well succeed in having your Will declared invalid.

This would be very much more difficult to do with assets held in trust with a legitimate, well-established trust company.

I even had one rather bizarre case where the original owner of the assets - the Settlor of the trust - wanted his younger son not to have access to any of the father’s capital unless the son changed his lifestyle and stopped wearing women’s clothes.

The trustees accepted this stipulation without question - although to enforce it, they would of course have to check up frequently on the son’s lifestyle, and this could prove expensive to the trust. But the father’s wishes would be followed by the trustees, and the son couldn’t get at the money unless he followed those wishes.

Another benefit of trusts is of course tax efficiency. If established in an offshore regime, there would be no capital gains tax or income tax applied to the investments held in trust.

As you are no longer the legal owner of those assets, the investment may not be taxable in the country you live in.

Expatriate residents of Thailand may draw down an income from any overseas investments (whether in trust or not) without any tax liability in Thailand, so this is a minor consideration for the Pattaya expatriate community.

But protecting their new spouse, life partner or young family against inheritance tax, potential financial mismanagement, greedy relatives, estranged wives and/or resentful children, are concerns that many expatriate residents of Pattaya should consider. And placing their overseas assets into one form of trust or another (with expert professional guidance I must emphasise) will give them peace of mind and continuity, in a simple and cost-effective manner.

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. If you have any comments or queries on this article, or about other topics concerning investment matters, contact Leslie directly by fax on (038) 232522 or e-mail [email protected]. Further details and back articles can be accessed on his firm’s website on www.westminsterthailand.com.

Editor’s note: Leslie sometimes receives e-mails to which he is unable to respond due to the sender’s automatic return address being incorrect. If you have sent him an e-mail to which you have not received a reply, this may be why. To ensure his prompt response to your enquiry, please include your complete return e-mail address, or a contact phone/fax number.

By Mirin MacCarthy

Matti Harnphanich is the man with the Midas touch; everything he touches turns to gold. It is no accident that he named his new hotel the Success Inn. “If I do anything I succeed,” he said disarmingly.

Matti has an amazing welcoming presence, a regal bearing, even in a tee shirt, and a more than passing resemblance to Yul Brynner. He appears to be twenty years younger than his true age and carries himself with the distinctive grace of someone who practices martial arts or Tai Chi, although he does not do either. He attributes his fit appearance to his practice of jogging and weight lifting. “I don’t smoke and I don’t drink so it is easy to stay healthy,” he said with a laugh.

He is proudly Chinese-Thai and was born in Bangkok into a wealthy family of five other brothers and sisters. His parents owned lumber and a then a rice mill. “My early family life was sanuk; I did my schooling in Bangkok then I went to Detroit, Michigan in America and studied Business Administration.”

He enjoyed Michigan and stayed there for thirty-seven years, was married and divorced and has two sons living there. “My wife was an original American Hillbilly,” he laughed. The most striking characteristic of Matti is his beaming happiness, sparkling sense of humour and his love of humanity. He has the rare gift of making everyone who approaches him feel valued and welcomed.

His wealth and success have not isolated him. When asked if he had inherited his obvious sense of humour he replied simply, “No, I think the way I lived in the States made me a better person. I see things more clearly because of it. In Thailand people don’t always honour what they say. One of the things I have learnt is that everything you do returns to you. I love people and people love me back, I hate people and people hate me back, if I do good things they return to me.”

That attitude alone I believe is the real reason behind Matti’s success, yet he smilingly refutes this. “Everything I have my hand on I make sure I achieve the goal. That is what success means to me. I am doing new things all the time. It is most important to be honest and to treat people with equal opportunity no matter whether they are Farang or Thai. I never go back on my word.”

Matti is the owner and developer of the Pattaya Bazaar shopping centre opposite the Dolphin roundabout. “I don’t take advantage of people,” he continued, “In the low season I drop my rent for two months. In the bad times I drop the rent too.”

Always working, Matti must have boundless energy, as he has thirty-five bungalows in Naklua that he is slowly renovating himself. This is in addition to the 66 room Success Inn Hotel which he has just opened and a 120-room condotel ‘Sea and Sand’ in Jomtien Beach that is on the drawing board.

Matti returned to Pattaya about four years ago after he retired from property development in Michigan. The property on North Road was owned by his parents and had been vacant for eight or nine years. “I dusted it off and developed it. It had a family of security guards who were doing nothing - just sleeping, so I fired them. One of the areas was full of heavy old antique furniture but it was full of termites. I could not throw it away because there is nowhere to put it. So I put it all on the footpath and put a price tag of 200 baht on everything and people came from miles and took it away. I hired three more people as security guards and they cleaned the place from top to bottom. It cost me 18 thousand baht to build each shop unit and I put a sign up to rent each shop for 20 thousand baht. People just came and wanted them - I opened ten shops at a time so I built the shops for nothing. I put the money back in the business. I don’t take it for myself. When I hire staff I say to them it is enough if you are honest and sincere, you don’t need education. Most of them cannot speak English when they start but I teach them. You only need 60 sentences to be able to work in a hotel.”

The important values to Matti, he said without hesitation, are to “Help other people who have no job. Be good to people, be honest, treat people the same as yourself. That is what I teach my sons.”

His advice to other would be businessmen is: “Listen to the customer, listen to what they want. The customer always comes first. Do not try to take advantage of the people.”

Obviously a success, why is he so tirelessly working, what motivates him? He laughed. “I enjoy it and friends just ask me to do things.” Truly a charismatic man, he projects loving kindness to everyone and it shows.

by Mirin MacCarthy

by John D. Blyth 

In 1934, the Great Western Railway obtained the first of what was to become a highly successful fleet of diesel railcars, forerunners of that vast fleet of diesel ‘multiple unit’ trains which were introduced to British Railways as part of the 1955 Modernization Plan. The car had been built as a works project by the famous makers of London’s buses, AEC, whose works at Southall were alongside the GWR line to the west; it is no surprise that they took an interest, and in due course bought the car.

Nationalized and in ‘Blood and Custard’ livery, No W2OW stands at Cheltenham in 1953.

Seating 69 passengers and running on two bogies, the car had one 130hp diesel engine driving all wheels of one bogie through a fluid fly-wheel and Wilson epicyclic gearbox - a very new device which gave smooth and silent gear changes in an era when this was not usual. The GWR put the car into local service between London and Reading; an instant success, it covered 60,000 miles in its first year of service. Success led to an order for three more cars, similar in appearance, but designed for fast services on cross-country routes. They had two engines with separate transmissions, fewer but better seats, and there was also room for a small buffet. Maximum speed was pushed up from 60 to 75 mph. In the autumn of 1934 they went into service between Cardiff and Birmingham, two round trips a day, with stops at Newport and Gloucester. Local protest soon gained a Cheltenham stop as well, although not much used; this was my home town, and later, duly accompanied by a parent (I was just eleven then), I tried out a diesel train for the first time and was duly impressed. I had the pleasure of a seat with the driver for part of the return run.

Only slightly different externally from the original No. 1, No. 16, brand-new, stands at Southall in AEC’s yard in 1936.

Their limited seating was their undoing, as they could not be coupled together, and at times of peak travel they had to be substituted by a steam train. This type was therefore not perpetuated; now 5 to 16 were of similar technology, but arranged internally for local traffic with no luxuries. No. 17 was again the same technically but had no seats, three pairs of sliding doors either side, and was used in the London area for the quite substantial flows of parcels and mail traffic which passed between many of the stations around London.

No. 18 was a real change, as it was fitted with drawgear and buffers at either end, with equipment for the vacuum brake as well, so that it could haul a single coach; it was used for a time on the Lambourne branch where there was time to transfer this vehicle to the other end for the return trips.

From No. 5 onwards the AEC Company supplied parts but the building was done by the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Co. - from No 19, the GWR Swindon works took over and built the remainder.

The first car with full buffers and coupling gear, No. 18, with a coach attached.

Although the rest were built by the GWR themselves, a number of important parts, not surprisingly, were supplied by AEC or other specialists.

Based much more on normal railway practice, the later cars had something like normal frames, to take the end-loadings normal with ‘buffered’ stock, also provision for steam heating of attached vehicles, vacuum brakes, which now operated brake blocks on the wheel treads, instead of road-type brake drums, etc. Most obvious, though, was the external ‘square’ appearance, which was supposed to allow a greater floor space than the stylish curves of the early bodywork.

It is also noteworthy that no new cars were built between 1937 and the outbreak of war in September 1939, but No. 19 appeared from Swindon works in 1940, and others were duly completed up to the end of 1941; it may seem odd that units burning short supply diesel fuel were completed at such a time, but it is possible that the materials were on hand when the war started. There were variations, some having a two ratio gear box to allow trailing vehicles to be hauled at a lower sped, whilst others, intended solely for branch line work at lower speeds had a single low ratio only. Most notable were the last four, No.’s 35 to 38, built as single end cars with one driving position only, and intended to be permanently coupled in pairs. The demands of the time ensured that provision was also made for the insertion of an ordinary coach with (it is to be assumed, but never stated) the needed connections to allow the driver to operate all four gear-boxes at the same time, also all throttles, etc. Even then, on the still-operative Cardiff-Birmingham service, the accommodation was not enough, and steam trains were permanently substituted, the diesels being sent where there was less demand. No.17 was another car for parcels traffic.

The original livery was, of course, the historical GWR ‘chocolate and cream’; state ownership turned this into Carmine and cream (or, if you like, ‘blood and custard’), and later still, the overall dark green of the later diesel trains and much local stock as well.

Withdrawal began soon after the war, with one or two that had suffered fire damage. One or two have been preserved, in working order, but all the rest had gone by the end of 1963. They were pioneers, and their fore could have gone either way; as it was they were a useful addition to the stock of the GWR and later of British Railways. Maybe even more important, they were the forerunners, as already mentioned, of the large fleet of diesel trains which, although (it seemed to me) a bit under-powered and slow in acceleration compared with the GWR cars, did such a useful job in keeping parts of B.R. going that, without them, could not have survived.

Photographs of these cars are in short supply in my collection, but I have managed to find three which are representative, one of an early branch car No. 16, one of the odd one, No. 18 with a coach attached, and a later single car, No. W2OW, in early B.R. livery.

On the Beaches

Good news for a change: Pattaya’s wastewater treatment system is finally ‘operational’. Of course, it is now the year 2001, and the building of this miracle of technical advancement has taken years to complete, but let us count a blessing, if indeed, this is what it will turn out to be. For this little gem is being touted as the magic ‘fix’ which will turn our city respectable, simply because sometime in the future, the water will be clean enough for overseas visitors to swim in the waters off Pattaya, in the same way that those who visit Phuket already enjoy.

In truth, I always see lots of people swimming in the waters off Pattaya’s Beach Road and Jomtien’s beaches. Most of them are Thais and their children, all of whom seem to be immune to the local bacteria and toxic waste. The others are European tourists of a great age who hail from countries which are not exactly known for their tropical beaches, such as Austria, Poland, Latvia, Iceland, some of the more obscure territories of Canada, and a few frigid regions of the former Soviet Union. The rest of us know better, or soon find out after a stern lecture from our physicians as to how we acquired the skin fungus which looks more like the first stages of leprosy when examined closely, or the mould growing out of our children’s noses and ears, which can no longer be blamed on the family pets.

These massive lumps of humanity, which form the bulk of our reliable tourist season, all seem to arrive at the beginning of the temperate zone winters, and loll around in the scorching tropical sun like huge beached whales, until they are tanned to the colour of an old cowboy boot. All through the day, they consume gallons of beer and kilos of food. Then, after a hard day at the beach, they shower and dress for dinner, and go searching for a restaurant where they consume gallons of beer and kilos of food.

Occasionally you see petite, middle aged Thai women wrestling with rolls of fat and bulging muscles, attempting to apply the art of physical massage on these foreign leviathans. I once mentioned to some of the women who do this work on the beaches of Pattaya, that if they charged by the inch, instead of the hour, they could afford a new Mercedes, and pay in cash. From the complaints I have heard of the two-tier charging which is so common with Thai entrepreneurs, some apparently took my idea to heart.

If one doesn’t actually live in a seaside city like Pattaya, one simply reads the travel magazines and brochures and dreams about tropical beaches in warm climes. All the photography in these publications shows beautiful men and women, who are healthy and gorgeous. Shot on location with a background of powdery, white sand, and elegantly fanned palm trees, the models, wearing the most minimal of costumes, are chosen carefully. Lithe and slender, these perfect specimens of the human gene pool always grace the posters which are displayed on the walls of travel agents’ offices. And, naturally, if the destination is touting Pattaya, one of the Far East’s last places of lewd debauchery for the tight-fisted, these images can really get the juices flowing. Unfortunately, when you actually arrive here and do a visual survey, all you seem to find is elderly retirees with huge bellies and cellulite. Sorry. I know that’s unfair. Pattaya beaches are also popular with young amputees and wheelchair occupants, and the local, upcountry maids, who’s skin is not as precious as the monthly remittance to the family’s rice farm.

Just exactly where do all of these beautiful creatures head off to for a holiday after a hard day’s session of modelling for the tropical beach brochures? Well, times have changed. From my experience on the road as visitor of tourist destinations, it seems the beautiful people are now all heading to ski resorts around the world. Athletic, energetic, and propagandised about skin cancer and sun damage to the skin, this generation wraps those alluring bodies in ski suits and covers those handsome faces with caps and goggles. All those trim bodies are carved in a fitness gym, and mixed salads and bottled designer water keep them maintained.

New trends and attitudes now leave the Pattaya beaches with the ageing Baby Boomers and elderly pensioners, who have time and money to spend, but not much energy or motivation to live up to the image of ‘body beautiful”. Never mind. They deserve to swim in clean water when they get here. And we will just have to be satisfied with all of that respectability they will give our city in the future. After all, the foreign journalists are simply gong to report on the clean water, not the vulgar nightlife for which we will no longer be infamous. After all, clean water is a hell of a “scoop”.

by Richard Bunch

From Gerry Pace, Pattaya: First of all may I congratulate you on your column in Pattaya Mail; most informative and knowledgeable. In the next few months, cash permitting, I will be totally upgrading/replacing my system and would like to visit you for your recommendations. As an aside, I wonder I you could help me. I will not bore you with the lengthy background, but I would like to know how I could find out the originating IP address of a received e-mail. I know it can be done and will show a reference such as 203.54.153.220 indicating it came from Telstar Internet, Canberra for example. Thanks in advance.

Computer Doctor replies: Firstly, I would be pleased to discuss your future requirements with you. In the meantime though, the problem of faked IP addresses seems to be becoming an increasing problem; this is often used by people to send information or hate mail from a fake address. This can be achieved remarkably easily, simply by changing the “Sender” and “Return-to” fields in the e-mail client to something different. You can do this, since these fields, i.e. your identity, are normally not checked by the mailserver when you send mail, but only when you receive mail.

Every email has what is termed a header. The header is the part in which the route the email has taken is reported. Since the header is often fairly bulky and not usually required by the recipient most e-mail clients hide this. Every email program can display them, though – check out the “Options” or “Preferences” menus.

The email shown below is a typical, but rather unsophisticated example of faked email. Fortunately for us journalists, most people are not more sophisticated than this. You should, however, be aware of the fact that there are much more sophisticated ways to fake mail.

Received: from SpoolDir by IFKW-2 (Mercury 1.31); 13 May 98 15:51:47 GMT +01

Return-path: [email protected]

Received: from bang.jmk.su.se by ifkw-2.ifkw.uni-muenchen.de (Mercury 1.31) with ESMTP;

13 May 98 15:51:44 GMT +01

Received: from [130.237.155.60] (Lilla_Red_10 [130.237.155.60]) by bang.jmk.su.se (8.7.6/8.6.6) with ESMTP id PAA17265 for <[email protected]>; Wed, 13 May 1998 15:49:09 +0200 (MET DST)

X-Sender: [email protected]

Message-Id: v03020902b17f551e91dd @[130.237.155.60]

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii”

Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 15:49:06 +0200

To: [email protected]

From: Kuno Seltsam [email protected]

Subject: Important Information

X-PMFLAGS: 34078848 0

To translate that into English…

Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 15:49:06 +0200

To: [email protected]

From: Kuno Seltsam <[email protected]>

Subject: Important Information

These lines indicate who purports to have sent the mail, to whom it was sent and when.

X-PMFLAGS: 34078848 0

This is a number, which your email program may add to the mail to keep track of it on your hard disk.

Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii”

This states that the message contains normal, plain text.

Message-Id: <v03020902b17f551e91dd @[130.237.155.60]>

This line contains a tracking-number, which the originating host has assigned to the message. The Message-ID is unique for each message and in this case contains the IP Number of the originating Host. If at this point you doubt that the message really came from someone at “seltsam.com”, you can use this number and translate it into something more meaningful. This is easily accomplished using a program like TJ Ping from http://www.topjimmy.net/tjs/files/tjpro.exe which tracks IP Packages online and resolves IP-numbers.

Using this will reveal the genuine name of the originating computer this maybe for example:

Starting lookup on 130.237.155.60 - May 14, 1998 22:01:25

Official Name: L-Red-10.jmk.su.se

IP address: 130.237.155.60

This is actually the originating computer from which the message was sent and not the mailserver. If the address was at a location with a large number of users, like an educational establishment, this is not terribly useful, since there will be many users of this computer on a given day. However, with home users and often companies users tend to have a dedicated computer which is much more exact. If the header doesn’t show any further information, you could use this information by calling for example the system administrator and asking who’s using ????

X-Sender: [email protected]

This line tells you who was logged on to the mail-server when the message was sent. Unfortunately, not all email clients add this line. You have now established that the user who sent us the mail is “o-pabjen”, the IP-number is that of the mailserver revealed with TJ Ping i.e. bang.jmk.su.se. Armed with this information you could send a reply to the message by sending a mail to [email protected] or [email protected].

Should you want to investigate further, for instance if you would like to know the users real name, then you can try to “Finger” the account. Finger is a command that reveals basic information about the account holder. But as privacy becomes more of an issue many servers have disabled it. Nonetheless it is worth having a go, you never know! Using a program like WS Finger simplifies the task. It will reveal Login name: o-pabjen in real life: Pabst Jens. This additional information is very useful for a System Administrator to act on.

Normally this is enough, because you now know that “Kuno Seltsam <[email protected]>” is really Jens Pabst <[email protected]>.

Send your questions or comments to the Pattaya Mail at 370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, 20260 or Fax to 038 427 596 or E-mail to [email protected]. The views and comments expressed within this column are not necessarily those of the writer or Pattaya Mail Publishing.

Richard Bunch is Managing Director of Action Computer Technologies Co., Ltd. Providing professional information technology and Internet services which includes; custom database and application development; website design, promotion and hosting; domain name registration; turnkey e-commerce solutions; computer and peripheral sales service and repairs, networks (LAN & WAN) and IT consulting. For further information, please e-mail [email protected] or telephone/fax 038 716 816 or see our website www.act.co.th

by Apichart Panyadee

Offshore and seaward, the sea bottom slopes down into the plain of the continental shelf, and the salt marsh, kelp forest, and seagrass bed give way to the benthic upper layer of water. On this seabed rests a layer of sand and mud. This is the continental shelf and it is where our most important fisheries lie. Here is here we will find shrimp, lobsters, crabs, clams, cod, sardines, rockfish, and bottom fish. The shelf sediments are inhabited by a world of burrowers such as sea worms, clams, tunnelling crustaceans, and an army of anemones, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea stars, ambulatory crustaceans and other creatures which adapt to live on the surface of the sediments.

Lobsters on the seabed

Nutrients arrive on the continental shelves from two directions: in the run-off from land and in upwelling along the continental margins. Here this organic debris fuels the bloom of plankton over the shelves, which in turn does the photosynthesising and promotes the food chain.

Canada’s Strait of Georgia is an inland sea which separates the mainland province of British Columbia from that of Vancouver. This strait abounds with fjords, islands and estuaries. Tidal currents surge through it, bringing water so rich that when examined by marine biologists, it was found that only one quart of this seawater held literally millions of plants and animals. The plankton which abounds in this region attracts many larger creatures, which in turn draw fisherman and scuba divers in large numbers. Because the plankton is so dense in summer, it obscures visibility for divers, who will brave the frigid winter waters just to observe this beautiful underwater world with its myriad of mysteries. The wealth of animals that dwells in this region is as colourful as many tropical reefs.

Canada’s Straight of Georgia

South Australia’s fertile waters churn with the energy of blizzards that originate thousands of miles away in Antarctica. In reclaiming the edge of the continent, the rolling waves have sculptured the ‘Twelve Apostles’; the limestone pillars which stand off Port Campbell, south east of Spencer Gulf. Dangerous Reef, located at the mouth of the gulf, is home to the great white shark. Considered the most agressive of sharks, the great white may be drawn to this region because of the presence of the sea lions, on which it feeds. It also eats tuna, dolphins, and other sharks. One of the “terrors of the deep”, humans are not part of the sharks normal diet. Studies conducted are suggesting to scientists that the rare assaults on swimmers and divers may occur because of mistaken identity, invasion of shark territory, or perhaps just bad luck and timing.

If the shores and shelves of the temperate oceans are where people first began to understand the ocean, then it is also here where we are coming to see the damage we are doing to the seas. In the late 1980s more than a million bottom fish died in the American state of New Jersey’s Raritan Bay. These fish were trapped in a dead zone of toxic waste. Later that year, medical wastes such as bloody bandages, syringes, and bottles of prescription medicines began washing up along the beaches of the USA’s northern Atlantic shorelines. In the same period, 18,000 seals died in the North Sea. They were killed by pneumonia and liver infection. Industrial waste and toxins are not only killing off our marine life all over the world, but the poisoning of our oceans are sparking birth defects in new populations. A public, shocked and enraged, has forced the nations of our globe to start making amends.

by Marion

by Lesley Warner

In the Hot Spots: In an effort to woo the boozing public out into the wilds of Naklua, the Pussycat ogling den has introduced drinks at just 60 baht all night on Sundays. This includes cocktails, spirits, beers and even Lady Drinks, making them just about the cheapest in town. Pussycat was the first ogling den to set up operations in Naklua and became famous for its annual Miss Pussycat contest, a night that always drew a standing room only crowd.

This new move to offer cut-price booze is aimed at trying to get people out of their normal routine and experience a different atmosphere. If you like the place, then chances are you’ll come back on other nights also, especially if one or more of the dancing maidens catches your roving eye.

In the Boozers: To be perfectly honest I absolutely abhor Karaoke bars, and the recent surge in the numbers of these infernal places really leaves me cold. However, the TJ Noi Karaoke (behind Soi Skaw Beach and next to the Cupido Bar Complex) is an exception, for a couple of reasonable reasons.

First, the bar is completely enclosed and therefore the noise of people being slowly strangled (well that’s what most would-be warblers sound like when they get hold of a karaoke microphone) is confined to the bar, rather than broadcast to the population of Rayong. Since the bar is situated in what should be known as Karaoke Alley, the fact it is enclosed really is a major plus.

Second, the drink prices are more than reasonable considering the joint is air-conditioned and the seating is of better quality than most other establishments.

Finally, and best of all, the English-language music features some great original material from bands and singers like Steppenwolf (Born to be Wild), Abba (Waterloo), Procul Harem (Whiter Shade of Pale), The Beatles (I Saw Her Standing There) and Cliff Richard (Summer Holiday) among a host of others. What’s even better is the video footage happens to be the original; in most cases black and white.

The material ranges from the 1960s through to the 1970s (the decade that style forgot) and for those of you who dabble in social anthropology, you may be surprised to see that there are a number of people living here in Pattaya who still dress the way they did back then. Follow the bouncing ball.

Out of the Rumour Mill: A couple of long-term ex-pats around town who like to sneak off every now and again into the Sierra Tango (S/T) bars for a bit of dine and dash have been finding themselves spending just as much time down at the quack treating the less than attractive after-effects.

As anyone who has lived here long enough knows only too well, the number of Sierra Tango bars in Fun Town has skyrocketed in recent times, so the chances of picking up that little bit extra that you hadn’t bargained for have probably increased exponentially.

However, if the punters frequenting these establishments start getting a few too many nasty little surprises then the dine and dash business will really start to suffer, especially as these joints tend to be patronised by significantly more locals than tourists. I would strongly suggest to the publicans operating these outfits that they insist on the working ladies having regular, and more to the point, genuine medical check-ups. It is in the interests of all concerned: the punters and the working lasses in particular as well as the publicans.

Does this bus go to 42nd Street? The Pattaya to Bangkok bus terminal up on North Road issues tickets that not only give you your seat number and the time of departure but also the number of the bus that you should be boarding. However, the reality is that the bus number is completely inconsequential, the only thing that matters is the time of departure. If you have a ticket that, for instance, says departure at 11:00am on bus number 48-16 and the bus waiting to depart at 11:00am happens to bear the number 79-08, don’t worry, just get on board.

My e-mail address is: [email protected]

by C. Schloemer

Good points: loyal and affectionate, good with children who do not tease

Take heed: must have space, not suitable for apartments, needs daily grooming, must have firm, loving handling, can be fiery tempered

The Afghan is dignified, aloof and fond of comfort. Though it enjoys nothing more than surveying the scene from a cosy armchair, the Afghan is not the ideal choice for apartment dwellers, nor those with small houses and a tiny garden. For, despite its beautiful house manners, this gorgeous creature is basically a hunting dog. It is warmly affectionate with its owners, and usually trustworthy with children, but it is independent in character and can often have a fiery temperament, particularly in adolescence. So the Afghan needs loving but firm training from the start. As a hound, its obedience training must start early and stay consistent.

But this is an affectionate dog and it is impossible to show it too much love and attention. On the other hand, it will not be bullied. It is important to maintain superiority from the first, especially if you want to show this dog in the show ring, or you may suffer the humility of wrestling with a powerful creature with a mouth full of large teeth.

Size: Ideal height: dog 68.5-73.5 cm. Bitch approximately 5 to 7 cm smaller

Exercise: Afghans need free running to keep fit and happy. Their original task was to hunt wolves and gazelles in the deserts of Afghanistan. So a stroll in a suburban garden will not be sufficient exercise to subdue their boundless energy. A puppy from the first should be allowed unrestricted exercise during waking hours. This should be in a safe, enclosed place. An adult should have a minimum of half an hour’s free galloping a day as well as disciplined walks on the lead.

Grooming: Daily grooming is vitally important to keep the dog’s thick coat from matting. Owners of Afghans come to terms with this job, for a well groomed Afghan is a delight to behold. And a neglected specimen is an abomination. Indeed, this breed is definitely not for those with little time for grooming and exercise.

The only type of brush capable of getting through an Afghan’s coat is one with an air cushion behind the tufts. The best of all is a Mason Pearson real bristle, made for women with long locks, and it’s expensive. The nylon version is cheaper but remember to use a cream rinse or coat lubricant with this brush, otherwise static electricity will build up and cause the hair to become brittle. Here is an interesting point. A little research on the international dog shows of old show photographs of a very different looking dog. The Afghan Hound did not always show in the ring with the long coat you see today. When commercial shampoo companies came out with the product cream rinse for human hair, owners grooming Afghan Hounds discovered that using cream rinse prevented breakage of the long outer coat hair. The coat just grew, and grew and grew. The show-coat of today is long, silky and flows with grace.

Origin and history: The Afghan Hound is an ancient breed from the Middle East, thousands of years old. It is thought that it was crossed with the Saluki from Persia. A papyrus found in the Sinai desert dated c. 3000 BC was, from early translations, thought to refer to a “monkey faced” hound. This could have been the forerunner of the Afghan, which because of its facial features is often called a “monkey dog”. This dog was destined to find its way from Persia to Afghanistan, where it grew a protective coat against the harsh climate, and found favor with the royal and aristocratic families of that land.

by Anchalee Kaewmanee

Introduction

It has been said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Today, even outside Asia, and the sub-continent of India; in countries which do not place a lot of emphasis on the importance of astrology, people have picked up a smattering of knowledge on this subject. Small talk at cocktail parties and the odd magazine article has given them enough confidence to state confidently that Scorpios are sex fiends, Librans are lazy, Taureans are money crazy, Aquarians are just plain crazy, and Virgos lose their virginity some time around middle age. A world-wide mushrooming interest in popular Sun-sign astrology has produced an abundance of such misconceptions and stereotypes.

Although these common fallacies are humorous, they are for the most part distortions and exaggerations of astrological truth. The practitioners of Western pop-culture astrology are often to blame for the very misunderstandings they try so hard to avoid. Practically everyone knows his birth sign (or Sun sign) and almost everyone knows something about his own birth sign. Unfortunately, what they know is often incomplete or misleading. Scorpios have read time and again about how ‘intense’ they are. Taureans are tired of the sensual, stubborn, and comfort-loving descriptions they hear about themselves. Virgos are fed up with adjectives like fussy, critical, conservative and frugal. Cancers become defensive about being labelled ‘defensive’. And poor Geminis are no longer sure of who they are.

Because of the distortions and generalisation common to Sun-sign astrology, it is no wonder that people so often feel estranged from their own signs. Certainly, you may feel simpatico with some of the characteristics of your own sign. Most Librans will identify with the need for harmony and tranquillity, as most Capricorns will admit to the need to prove themselves to the world. But what about all those characteristics of your sign about which you do not agree? Those characteristics that just don’t fit? For example, there are many Virgos around us, who spend money without a care in the world. There are lots of Sagittarians who are practical and down to earth. And certainly, some of us must know Scorpios who are not totally controlled by their libidos; (although I admit they are hard to find). There are even a great number of Aquarians who are neither revolutionaries, nor raving eccentrics. Ronald Regan, former president of the USA, might have been an example to name here, although considering his present condition, now I’m not so sure. The point being, of course, is that obviously the Sun sign does not fully convey the complexities of a person’s personality. What is missing is the Moon sign.

This column will introduce the reader to the importance of Moon signs in the astrological scheme of character reading. A competent astrologer who works out a personal chart for an individual will always include the personal messages of Sun and Moon signs for a complete astrological portrait of that person’s emotional nature, hidden drives, and richest potentials.

What is the Moon sign?

The moon sign is simply the sign in which the Moon was in at the time of your birth. The Sun changes signs once each month. The Moon also changes signs, but much faster than the Sun, taking only a few days to pass through a sign. Did you ever wonder why in countries like Thailand and China, for example, so many things in everyday life, such as birth, marriage, and sometimes even finance and politics are influenced greatly by astrology? The methods of examination are much more complicated and complete than the simple, half-hearted ways Westerners view this ancient ‘science’.

Once an astrologer has determined your Moon sign, what can you do with it? What does it mean to have, say, the Moon in Aries or the Moon in Taurus? In traditional astrology, the Moon represents the emotional facet of your personality. It is the underlying force which determines your hidden drives, desires, motivations and ambitions. It represents your deepest dreaming and aspirations. The Sun sign, on the other hand, represents your obvious and already revealed drives and motivations. The Sun sign is your ego. It is what you expect of yourself in terms of achievement and potential. It is what you think of yourself and the way in which you deal with others. By combining the Sun and Moon signs, a much more in-depth portrait of astrological identity emerges.

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