Martin2 commented : e to live rent free on public water (not land!) for a lot of years!!!

GenetheMachine commented : metal shacks without running water. I think to myself I must be more grateful because compared to them, I am rich. I have a roof over my home with running water and I have food in my stomach. I have a car. It is not a Mercedes but it is reliable. These poor people will never own a car. I have not been to Isan (or Esan). I have not seen how they live. If a woman from Isan were to come to my house she might consider herself rich. Being required to speak the language of the country you live in is not a bad thing. If I move to Thailand I will learn to speak Thai. I hope everyone has had plenty of notice so they will be prepared to pass this new test.

taurus commented : [quote="beau58":1azqz6ij]Voice My appologies for making an assumption about you. However, I stand by my conviction that people in Isaan are generally not interested in education. Parents their seldom support their children going much beyond Mor 3 and would rather they simply went out and worked. While universities and therefore university attendance has increased dramatically in Isaan, it still falls well short of the national average. I'm not some rooky either. If you have read my earlier posts you will know I was a professor in Thailand for 13 years (Chula, Thammasat, Bangkok U.) and one of my specialties is Thai culture and society, which I have researched in depth. My knowledge and therefore comments are not merely anecdotal, but based on solid research, information and experience. By the way, my GF's comments are not isolated. I have heard the attitude that "Thai culture is not my culture" many times from people outside the central region. Part of this has to do with the fact that large portions of the country (such as the north) were foreceably annexed by the central Thais. However, the people in the north still think of themselves first and foremost as "Lanna" rather than "Thai".[/quote:1azqz6ij] Obviously yours is the voice of experience and I for one agree entirely with your opinions , A good friend of mine's wife who teaches English at a senior level in one of our nearby schools informs me that absenteeism amongst the male pupils is rampant , where many seem to have a lackadaisical attitude to further their education , I often read how the youth of today is neglected up here in Issan , but having lived here in Buri ram province for well nigh 7 years IMHO this statement rings somewhat hollow ,as the old saying go's "YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER BUT YOU CAN'T MAKE IT DRINK" And in closing of course I only relate to my area (Issan's a big place)

prommee_NE commented : ng a school project to make a water pump for the school pond to irrigate the vegetable plots that are popular with all rural schools. I gave them some plans of the water pumps built by NGOs in Cambodia, based on a simple rope pump design. It was agreed that if they built one, I would make a certain donation to the school and if they decided to have a competition, I would also have a prize for the best working design. All would be done to coincide with the School Open Day the following year. I explained the plans in detail and the teachers said they understood and there would be no problem. The headmaster questioned them several times and I explained I would be available to answer questions whilst there over the next fortnight and then by e-mail when I left. I heard nothing and when I arrived back the following year they had done nothing. The headmaster told me he raised it in School meetings often but there was always some excuse or other for putting the project off. Then to cap it all, they still asked me to provide the donation I had offered. I gave them an idea, I provided the plans, I gave an incentive but nothing happened. No they did not get the donation I offered...They got a couple of hundred school team wear instead. I am interested in the research that was carried out and what conclusions were drawn from it. My personal experience has been that some very clever children have been left by the wayside because their parents have been unable to afford further education for them (as opposed to thinking education is not worthwhile). Others, with less ability have succeeded simply because their parents can afford the schooling. Personally, I would like to see scholarships for a few more of the brighter students being offered around. Perhaps the MoE should take up the idea.... One other point...No I do not have broad experience of education in Thailand...No I am not a professor...but I am a professional and one who teaches professionals rather than children.

Michael Bukit commented : out of all the disgusting backwater third world countries and cities around SG, KL is the most manageable among these third world cities. Do you know how much the average graduate makes in Thailand? The fact that you still need to spend about under S$3 for a meal in a food court there, about S$1 less than a food court in Singapore, makes the place a bigger joke. All your retorts strangely, highlight what a great place SG is compared to the country you tried to compare with."[/quote:t6hio6pc] Hello Greenfrog! Yes Thailand is still need a lot of work to get the right standard. What most people see is just a window dressing to keep up with the west as a lot part of the country is till very much in the third world lifestyle that you had experience. That is why we are in discussion over how it should be improves. Country like Singapore has kept up their standard learnt from the English colonisation. Thailand hasn’t had that and trying it best to copy what it can through European has develop for their country. Don’t know it all so it just a little bit of one or two pieces from here and there put it together, so they never have the whole completed one. It seems to look good from the outside but from the inside the whole structure is incompletes. We have people who graduated from abroad some with good degree but because of the whole culture of mentality and customs therefore the challenge prospects will be missing and nothing will ever happens to improves our country in the way it should. I also think our mentality has kept us away from progressing ourselves. With poor standard you will never get anything perfect. It also very strange that when these people who has good education abroad think differently when they are at home when they could see and think like people abroad. So we never progress![/quote:t6hio6pc] Hi Voice. What make you think so that country like Singapore has kept up their standard learnt from the English colonisation. FYI, what make Singapore today is because they had uncorrupt and good leadership government. Many people have thought the same like you when they discuss about Singapore achievements. When the British left Singapore, Singapore is just a third or fourth world country with nothing except the Singaporean. No resources at all and even waters had imported from Malaysia. Because of their good leadership and uncorrupt government and the hardworking people that how they prospers until today. There are many countries colonized by the British before and today they are still a third world country. Look at Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and many more in the continent of Africa. In Asia, you only see 2 places that are colonized by the British that are doing pretty well. That’s Singapore and Hong Kong because of their hardworking people. The rest are still struggling and some are doing just fine, except country like Brunei with oil.

Voice commented : No resources at all and even waters had imported from Malaysia. Because of their good leadership and uncorrupt government and the hardworking people that how they prospers until today. There are many countries colonized by the British before and today they are still a third world country. Look at Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and many more in the continent of Africa. In Asia, you only see 2 places that are colonized by the British that are doing pretty well. That’s Singapore and Hong Kong because of their hardworking people. The rest are still struggling and some are doing just fine, except country like Brunei with oil.[/quote:3nmn5hy7] Look Michael I can agree with some of your comment but what make you think they are uncorrupt! Yes they have good leader without a doubt. Singapore chooses to keep up with their standard because they have a good example without it they would be like other. I know many good and corrupt people in Singapore but because they have only few million people it easy for them to manage. But it no denying that they do work very hard and always have very high standard in everything that they do. Even today they still have the old colony influence and they have adapted to their own style. We cannot achieve our goal without keeping up with good standard Michael. We all have a choice Michael but whether we choose to do them it something that make us different.

Michael Bukit commented : No resources at all and even waters had imported from Malaysia. Because of their good leadership and uncorrupt government and the hardworking people that how they prospers until today. There are many countries colonized by the British before and today they are still a third world country. Look at Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and many more in the continent of Africa. In Asia, you only see 2 places that are colonized by the British that are doing pretty well. That’s Singapore and Hong Kong because of their hardworking people. The rest are still struggling and some are doing just fine, except country like Brunei with oil.[/quote:2ddv9apf] Look Michael I can agree with some of your comment but what make you think they are uncorrupt! Yes they have good leader without a doubt. Singapore chooses to keep up with their standard because they have a good example without it they would be like other. I know many good and corrupt people in Singapore but because they have only few million people it easy for them to manage. But it no denying that they do work very hard and always have very high standard in everything that they do. Even today they still have the old colony influence and they have adapted to their own style. We cannot achieve our goal without keeping up with good standard Michael. We all have a choice Michael but whether we choose to do them it something that make us different.[/quote:2ddv9apf] Hi Khun Voice, thanks and good to see your reply to my earlier comments. When I said uncorrupt I don’t mean totally zero corruption. I mean minimize. Corruption is everywhere and every country. Click this link and have a look the least corrupt country in the world. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/gov_c ... corruption FYI, the first economic adviser to Singapore was Albert Winsemius a Dutch citizen. What Singapore had achieved today got not much to do with British colonization. But I will say the bigger influenced in the use of English and of course the laws that set by the British. You can go to this link to read more about him if you wish. http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/200 ... space.html If you had good advisers and doesn’t have good leaders, honest government, hardworking people and leaders that are not wishing to listen and take other advises it is useless. Singapore achievement is because they had all these and the leaders are willing to accept advises and listen to others. They then implements systems given by the advisers and at the same time improves them. You mention that because they have only few million people it easy for them to manage. This is what many people have thought. But look Khun Voice, there are many countries in this world with small population like Singapore and has been colonized by White European before with many natural resources but they are not doing as well today. And look at Japan with not much resources too and the population is almost 130 million, Korea with 50 million, Germany with 80 over million just to name a few. Their population is not small but they are doing well too. Or can we say they are doing well because they had a large population? To me population is not the issue. The leaders in the country must be honest, minimize corruption, capable to set good systems, provide good education to educate the population, good rules & regulations, laws and most importance they must also enforce them. Talk about the size of country and population. When the British withdraw from Singapore, the Brit had actually return Singapore to Malaysia in 1963. Then Singapore became part of Malaysia again. In 1965 Singapore was throw out of Malaysia and became independence. Because of Malaysia could not agreed with the minister of Singapore demands OR policies. Malaysia thought that if you are demanding all they wants it is better to throw you out and let you swim in the big deep ocean till you start asking for helps. Thinking that Singapore is so small and will not last and survive for more than a few years. Best is to kick them out first and then let them beg Malaysia to take them back if they can’t survive anymore. And Malaysia could have the right to say look, we can take you back but this is the terms & conditions. Accept it or forget it. Who will be so generous to give away an island the size of Singapore to other? A piece of only 4.6 sq kilometer of land at the border of Cambodia already with so many problems.Fortunately Singapore had survived until today and doing much better than Malaysia. Now the Malaysian has said the same thing like you. Singapore had made it because it is small and easy to manage. Today Singapore infrastructure is ones of the best in the world. Public transportation is first class and cheap too. I’ve spent many years living in Singapore that’s how I come to understand.