Ian commented : [quote="AjarnV":2i0crtxo]For 90% of "us" this is much ado about nothing. One would have to be keeping a very large profile for this to be a problem. With all of the other §$%†, visa's and exchange rate deterioration to name a couple; I personally, am not going to get worked up about this. The 49/51% provision is a legit way around this is one believes they have a problem.[/quote:2i0crtxo] I'm inclined to agree, ultimately, like many things in Thailand, this is a money problem. The Thai authorities want to milk us of money and money assets, we have to find ways around this. My solution is simple, minimise my exposure, never let my investment in Thailand grow beyond a sensible "write off" level. I feel sorry for those who have committed themselves 100% financially to Thailand, but there were plenty of warning signs not just in Thailand but in places like Spain in Europe and Costa Rica in the Americas.

Ian commented : [quote="Voice":3e5a0pgs][b:3e5a0pgs]Hi, Chaiyo & Profiler, I hope you both are well, have not been able to get the internet link so often in Spain as I have to moving around a lot. So here is my small contribution. The difficulty for foreigners to gains Thai citizenship is because most of the elites supported by the establishment think that if one foreigner could become Thai citizen there will be more. If we have more foreign holding Thai citizenship our country would end up own by foreigners and that isn’t what they wants. Why are there more poor people than rich in Thailand? Why are there class divide or a large gap between rich & poor? Because it would give the elites & establishment opportunity to own & control. The rich can do what ever they wants while the poor are make to dependency hand to mouth on the daily basis. I am quite sure that most ordinary & rural Thai don’t mind foreigners. I think they are more positive thinking coming from rural Thai than those elites & establishment. People voice is always the most powerful thing in the world. For this reason the elites & establishment wanted to enforce the LM law to keep people at bay. Thing are make or unmake through people voice. The reason we has experience the political unrest in Thailand because they are worried that rural people started to have a single voice and that is Democracy, which it wasn’t like what used to be when it comes to voting time.. More people now are better educated than before and there will be more. If they can divide people voice then they could hold on to their power. Unity we must! to win our Democracy and the freedom we deserves. Like Chaiyo-Thailand said Profiler we are at the beginning stage but my question is who is going to leads them to the following stage? They sure needs a good leader to lead them there. Thaksin isn’t the perfect answer nor Ahbisit, so where are these able people of Thailand. People who’s could give majority voice back to our people. If PAD minority voice could over thrown the government who has majority voice something must be very wrong isn’t it? We must have our unity to win our voice of power back so untity means power. UNITY UNITY we must! [/b:3e5a0pgs][/quote:3e5a0pgs] I agree when the only choices seem to be a Thaksin stooge or a Elitist stooge like Abhasit, Thailand is in the manure

Ian commented : [quote="DKO":3g9az19s]I think the GBP will hold out for years to come. It is not as if the US$, and Euro are the only currencies. MOST of the World including big payers are outside these two currencies. Look at some of the EU countries such Ireland and the new Eastern countries they are in the Euros and in serious sh*t, Spain and Italy are also in crisis. I was in favour of the UK entry into the Euro. I recall at the time it was most likely to happen that it was being suggested the ER was too high and needed to reduce to around 1.38 to 1.43 I seem to recall. I cannot believe the UK would ever consider going into the Euro at a rate of 1:1 That would destroy the UK economy and would mean the UK going in at the worse rate ever between the two currencies. Why would they do that? I feel that will never happen at such a conversion rate, because as the UK public are already against going into the Euro and would never go in on such a massive devaluation of the GBP to the Euro. However I would be very interested in economists and currency experts view on the merits and on what level the GBP should consider going into the Euro if the UK so decided. Ian, I view the rates and history on http://www.x-rates.com/d/THB/GBP/graph120.html Any idea if they are the same or if not which is better.[/quote:3g9az19s] They will both get their data from the same sources, my link gives a more detailed graph.