zzzxtreme commented : hmmm gohmer, If I do see a similar shirt bashing my country Malaysia, I guess I would feel hurt and uncomfortable too. Well, no reason to boycott the whole mall, just the store would be okay. I would not deny we malaysians owe a great deal to America for the atom bomb. Grandma had to walked over 10 miles while being pregnant with my mom to give birth because of Japanese occupancy. There was no food, no milk, only sugar water. Hmmm I don't know, I'm not an intellect about these stuff. But let's past be the past. Now the whole world perceives America as being arrogant. So you will see such shirts in every country. What can you do? Just smile and laugh, when you see people talk bad about america while drinking their Jim Beams and smoking malboros, and wearing their Levi's.

moto commented : [quote="Eric":1lmgadms]It's not easy to find one Shangrila. Malaysian live in fear of crime and the police. That's the sad fact of life in Malaysia. Crime is a big concern and is rising. Petty crimes like snatch, carnapping,theft are serious concerns even among its citizens.:[/quote:1lmgadms] Malaysian live in fear of crime and the police? LOL... you've never lived in the United States, have you?

EODGhost commented : [quote="moto":ridhtvv3][quote="Eric":ridhtvv3]It's not easy to find one Shangrila. Malaysian live in fear of crime and the police. That's the sad fact of life in Malaysia. Crime is a big concern and is rising. Petty crimes like snatch, carnapping,theft are serious concerns even among its citizens.:[/quote:ridhtvv3] Malaysian live in fear of crime and the police? LOL... you've never lived in the United States, have you? [/quote:ridhtvv3] Apparently neither have you. I don't ever remember "living in fear of crime and the Police" in the States. I don't walk around with rose-colored glasses mind you, but I never remember constantly looking over my shoulder.

davido commented : [quote="EODGhost":20eetz5s][quote="moto":20eetz5s][quote="Eric":20eetz5s]It's not easy to find one Shangrila. Malaysian live in fear of crime and the police. That's the sad fact of life in Malaysia. Crime is a big concern and is rising. Petty crimes like snatch, carnapping,theft are serious concerns even among its citizens.:[/quote:20eetz5s] Malaysian live in fear of crime and the police? LOL... you've never lived in the United States, have you? [/quote:20eetz5s] Apparently neither have you. I don't ever remember "living in fear of crime and the Police" in the States. I don't walk around with rose-colored glasses mind you, but I never remember constantly looking over my shoulder.[/quote:20eetz5s] Why are you in fear of the Malaysian police? lol... I'm a Malaysian middle class chinese, and they've never bothered me... And neither am I in fear of crime, and in fact not even been robbed/mugged since I was in high school. I think you might have had a bad experience and just branded the country negatively. While its true there's discrimination between the Bumis and non-bumis. And there's a lot of crap going on especially if you're a muslim. But those are local matters and if you're a foreigner, as long as you don't break the law, you are free from harassment.

HybridEm commented : to answer the point of this thread...why farangs live in this paradoxical land is the same as why marginalized asians, and latinos and whoever-else choose to live in America and suffer its indifference towards blatant/ institutional racism is because they're willing to tolerate it, and they themselves understand the indifference in life itself; and as Mr. Surin Province pointed out..the problems are just the same in any other country. On a side-note - to think that China, Malaysia, or India are non-racist countries is quite a nice illusion.

Sean Moran commented : [quote="HybridEm":16cvdlc2]to answer the point of this thread...why farangs live in this paradoxical land is the same as why marginalized asians, and latinos and whoever-else choose to live in America and suffer its indifference towards blatant/ institutional racism is because they're willing to tolerate it, and they themselves understand the indifference in life itself; and as Mr. Surin Province pointed out..the problems are just the same in any other country. On a side-note - to think that China, Malaysia, or India are non-racist countries is quite a nice illusion. [/quote:16cvdlc2] That's an excellent contrast, and the invention of the web-forum really enables us to examine both sides of that same coin from the same terminal, like here. I just did 11 months on a forum mainly populated by ex-pats in Thailand, followed by another 11 months on another forum mainly populated by ex-pats in the USnA, and the ratio of sensible people to whingers was probably not all that different, considering that the ex-pats in Thailand averaged around 30 years older than the ex-pats in the US. Maturity has a way of adding a little more diplomacy to the way people speak about things that bother them, or perhaps angry young men don't live as long as the rest of us? On the whole, maybe all of us have some axe to grind about something that we feel unjust, whether that is because it truly is, or whether we just copped a bad run with something, or whether we simply don't understand the mechanisms behind it? That latter one seems to be the most annoying cause for gripes IMHO, because it's like crying wolf a bit. It's probably quite a normal experience when you first get off the boat in a new place, to not expect to understand everything about a place where you have less understanding than a local kindergarten student. However after a few years as an ex-pat, those sorts of mysteries might be overcome as one learns the reasons they are in place. Still, there will always be problems that we might encounter that cause us to perhaps regress back to those initial perceptions and rant away.

Asianexpat commented : [quote="philhal2":2bop54r1]Very little knowledge displayed here . Simple internet search shows requirements for Thai citizenship , 5 years continuous residency , able to speak Thai and have sufficient funds or suitable employment .100 people from each nation are able to apply annually .I guess unless you can have dual citizenship most " FARANGS "would not forgo the benefits of their own homeland , pensions ,embassies etc !!!!! [quote="overhaul38":2bop54r1][quote="Ian":2bop54r1]I've never been completely sure about why exactly this "special" treatment exists. I''ve never found it in Indonesia - for example - where I used to travel a lot. Nor in Malaysia. Nor Singapore. Nor in Cambodia, Laos. I can only compare it to Japanese racism - but Thais have always seemed far less rampantly racist that what one finds in Japan.[/quote:2bop54r1] It is only a matter of a minor degree. The prime similarities are: 1. Denial of citizenship. To my knowledge no farang has ever been granted Thai citizenship. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong. 2. Denial of land ownership. 3. Special pricing at some facilities/markets. 4. Personal reporting requirement every 90 days. I don't know Japan's.[/quote:2bop54r1][/quote:2bop54r1] In Taiwan one can not get a local passport without giving up their own local passport and I believe that is the same in Thailand. Odd how the US allows them to keep their own passport while giving them a US passport while the Thais and Taiwanese will not give them a local passport unless they give up their own. Biased or Hypocrisy?