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TAXES IN THAILAND IV: More about deductions
Spectrum, Published on 08/01/2012
» Last column, we began a discussion of deductions. You'll recall that we established earlier that your assessable income in Thailand is what you earn that's exposed to Thai tax. Deductions and exemptions are subtracted from that. What remains is your tax
Myanmar's rising drug trade
Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 12/02/2012
» Professor Des Ball pushes plates of what is left of a roast duck and barbeque prawn dinner to the side as he spreads a large map across the dinner table and stabs his finger at a point where northern Thailand meets Myanmar.
The long road to mercy
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 19/02/2012
» Seven, she favours that number. She's seven times seven years of age and has been "Mother Gung" to our HIV/Aids kids under seven for seven years now. It's been, she says, "a long journey, and I choose to stay".
Voices of the silent
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 11/03/2012
» Last Thursday was International Women's Day, an occasion that for a century has served for people to demand greater civil rights, representation and equality; to honour wives, mothers and girlfriends and the accomplishments of women; to call for an end to global hunger and poverty; and, increasingly, to highlight the plight of refugees and the displaced.
Honour thy parents, a lesson learned too late in Klong Toey
Spectrum, Published on 27/05/2012
» He doesn't wear amulets, but says his tattoos are the best on the planet. Amulets, nowadays, can be fake, or even worse _ not even blessed, no power. You can't be too careful. So tattoos are safer. His Chinese dad told him that long ago.
Tattoo master leaves mark on rich and famous
Spectrum, Published on 08/07/2012
» Finding Wat Mae Takhrai isn't easy. Driving from Chiang Mai to Mae On district, which by the most direct route takes no more than 40 minutes, we spend two hours winding up and down narrow, ill maintained back roads following conflicting sets of directions offered by villagers along the way.
Left to wander and wonder who will give them shelter
Spectrum, Published on 22/07/2012
» Kaek isn't quite sure how old she is. She could be 41 as her temporary ID card indicates, or, she could be a decade older as her hangdog demeanour seems to reflect. Despite being middle-aged, she has never had a place to call her own. Kaek was born near Sra Ket Temple on Bangkok's Rattanakosin Island some time in the 1960s or early 1970s, she says. Her parents left her in the care of the only nun at the temple, who raised her until she was forced to leave at the age of six.
Ex-street kids fight the nightmares and find the dream
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 05/08/2012
» Ever since she was 11 and on the streets, Noi had always dreamed she would get married in the proper style, with a dowry, a ring and a bridesmaid. Her husband would have a real job and talk nice and love her. After she met the right man she promised herself that she would make it happen, and she wanted it even more after her two children were born. Her husband Somchai, also street-raised, always had the same response when she told him of her matrimonial dreams: "Why not?" But that was as far as it went.
Fear, loathing and lies in Rakhine state
Spectrum, Published on 02/09/2012
» Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Western Myanmar, has become a city full of stray dogs. Hundreds of them roam the streets abandoned by their owners, who were among the thousands forced to take refuge in camps for internally displaced people or otherwise relocate after a murderous wave of sectarian violence between the Buddhist Rakhine majority and the Muslim Rohingya minority erupted in the region two months ago.
Miss Dao and her amazing feats
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 23/09/2012
» She has mostly had to learn everything herself. Mum couldn't be there for her, and Miss Dao also has to take care of Granny, as she'd promised her mother. You know, things like mixing her betel nut chaw and holding her hand crossing the street. She has three older half-brothers and a half-sister, but they aren't close. Her half-sister is married, and Dao only saw her once at the temple for her mother's cremation.