Winebibber’s Grapevine

Dear Hillary,

I am so fed-up with my life, my husband and everything. Right now, my husband and I have fights every day. And to make matters worse, we have been having a lot of money problems lately. It’s been many months now - my husband messed around with a bar girl - that I feel that our relationship is over. He keeps telling me that he doesn’t see that girl anymore, but I just cannot believe it. I know his working schedule, but he never comes home in time. I just can’t trust him anymore no matter what he will say.

But that’s not the only problem. We don’t talk much to each other anymore. We have no understanding for each other anymore. It seems both of us are happier if we don’t see the other person. I still feel we should stay together for the kids, but now I almost believe that this could be worse than getting a divorce. But then I think, when a couple is already struggling with money issues, wouldn’t separating aggravate the money issues further? I guess my real question is: When do you know that the relationship is over?

Fed-up

Dear Fed-up,

Plan ahead and try to imagine all the steps you will need to take and all the roadblocks you might be up against. Then try to think of how you would deal with any of those steps and roadblocks. If you take a, "I’ll deal with it when I get to it" attitude after you leave, you can really be setting yourself for major stress. Then if you go back to your marriage in that state of mind, it can get even worse.

Before you do leave your marriage you must be certain that you have given it your best effort. Most couples haven’t.

Effort means not just hoping time will take care of everything. Effort means both you and your husband doing something that’s not easy, but that is for the benefit of the marriage. Usually that means both you and your partner doing something positive (or NOT doing something negative) that will make them feel better about their life, themselves, the marriage and their partner.

Have you both really listened to each other? Have you both tried to get where the other person is coming from?

Have you both remorsefully apologized for times when you hurt each other? Have you both thanked each other for the good things the other person did for you? Have you tried to let go of anger and grudges? Have you tried to do what’s good for both of you or just what’s good for yourself?

No matter where you go, unless you learn these relationship-building skills, any relationship will have problems.

Dear Hillary,

I am married to a man I love with all my heart. He says he no longer loves me and he wants a divorce. We have three children. At first he said there was no one else and he just wanted to be free, then after I begged him to reconsider, he admitted there was another woman. I would get down on my hands and knees if I thought it would do any good. I tried to tell him how much I loved him. I even kissed him, but he stood there like a statue with his hands in his pockets. I am desperate. How can I get him to love me again? The divorce is coming up soon in court. No fault. No chance. Help me. I don’t want to live without him.

Left Alone

Dear Left Alone,

You aren’t alone. You have three children, which are three good reasons for living. Since there is another woman in the picture, your chances for making him "love you" again are zero. Furthermore, there is nothing less appealing to a man than a begging, pride-less woman. So dry your tears, square your shoulders, and chin up. Concentrate on making a new life for yourself. Sometimes good luck comes disguised as disaster. I wish you all the best!

  Modern Medicine: Tinea

Presented by Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital

by Dr. Iain Corness

Ever had such an itch between your toes that you wanted to take a wire brush to it? Ever had a spreading circular red rimmed lesion on the skin, especially in the groin? Well, if the answer was "Yes" to either, then most likely you have had a Tinea infection.

Tinea is often referred to as Athlete’s Foot or sometimes called "Ringworm" but this really is a misnomer. It is most certainly not restricted to athletes, nor caused by a worm. It is, in fact, caused by a vegetable-like organism, a fungus, which grows in the deeper layers of the skin, causing the redness and itch. The principal organism is called Trichophyton rubrum, closely followed by Micosporon and Epidermophyton. These little blighters we can identify on a skin scraping, looking for their "branches" (called "hyphae").

The organism likes warm, moist areas of your body, so the groin region is a popular meeting place for our friend Trichophyton. Infection there, we call Tinea cruris or "Dhobie itch".

The other Tinea infections we tend to classify by their geographic location on the body, so you can have Tinea capitis (scalp), Tinea pedis (feet), Tinea ungium (nails), Tinea corporis (body) plus a funny one we call Tinea incognito, which relates to incorrectly treated Tinea which then changes its appearance.

Tinea is quite contagious and is passed on by physical contact with the hyphae which then invade and proliferate in the layers of the skin. When large groups of people shower together, like athletes after a game, it becomes very easy to pass on Trichophyton - hence the "Athletes Foot" description. Be careful using communal facilities - and never share a towel!

The treatment is generally a local anti-fungal cream, though a mild corticosteroid cream can be used as well to calm the itch and redness. My own preferred regimen, in Australia, was for the patient to shower and then use a thick application of the anti-fungal cream at night, followed by another shower in the morning plus a very sparing application of the steroid. This should bring the infection under control very quickly, but continue to use the creams for a few days after the lesion has disappeared.

Tinea in the nails and hair is harder to eradicate and may require up to three months oral therapy, as well as some local applications.

Remember that if you have some skin rash or irritation which will not go away - go and see your doctor!

  Thai Idiom:

Dta Chae

Saturated Eyes
‘I’ve heard of sponges being saturated.’
‘Me, too. But saturated eyes?’
‘Why must they always obfuscate things?’
‘So abstruse! Why can’t they just use simple words?’
This idiom does have a similarity to the ‘saturated sponge’. If one eyes are ‘saturated’, it means one has not slept or ‘overworked’ the eyes. So they become ‘bleary’ or Dta Chae
The first word has a mid-tone. The second word is a low tone with a very short vowel.

  Family Money: Commodities are useful things

By Leslie Wright

Everyday goods we take for granted start off somewhere as raw materials.
The orange juice and coffee we had for breakfast; the sugar we sweetened it with; the corn that went into the cornflakes; the wheat that made the flour that went into the bread for our toast; our bacon rashers, and even the cotton that went into the tablecloth.

All these things are called ‘commodities’, and trade in them is very big business.

International exchanges

Although most commodities are produced in more than one country, international trade in these goods is often carried out through only one designated place called an ‘exchange.’

Each commodity exchange is located by international agreement in an international trading centre such as New York, London or Chicago (to name but three), perhaps thousands of miles away from where the commodity is produced.

Because of the huge volumes of these commodities consumed by world demand, these international exchanges enable traders and producers to buy and sell these commodities more efficiently, and at internationally agreed prices, which tends to make life simpler for everyone.

Thus anyone interested in, say, the sugar trade, need contact only one exchange rather than haggle with suppliers in each of the dozens of countries that produce sugar.

These commodity exchanges are, however, free marketplaces, so the price of a single commodity - such as sugar (or coffee, or cocoa, or soy beans, wheat, corn, orange juice, pork bellies, and so on) - goes up and down according to the Keynsian economics’ principle of supply and demand.

What goes up...

Most items are produced in more than one country, and the production or harvest in each will be affected by several factors, including such uncontrollable variables as weather and volcanic eruptions.

A drought at the wrong time in one country and a flood at the wrong time in another may reduce the expected overall harvest, adversely affecting the supply, which may result in a world shortage, which drives up the international price of that commodity.

Similarly, good weather at the right time in all the producing countries may result in a bumper crop which results in an oversupply, thereby pushing prices down.

The good of the nation

A commodity’s price can be affected by several other factors, including adverse reports, sensationalist rumour or the actions of self-interest groups. Such manipulation of prices can even affect the economic well-being of whole nations.

For example, in the late 70s when reports came out that cooking in coconut oil was bad for the health (on which the Pattaya Mail’s correspondent Dr Iain Corness may well have some comment), the price of copra - the raw material from which coconut oil is produced - dropped dramatically as international demand went through the floor.

Because the Philippines was one of the world’s principal producers of copra, with a considerable proportion of the Philippines’ economy being devoted to coconut production, the country’s economy was severely affected, after having only just started to recover from the slump in sugar prices just a few years before - itself partly as a result of reports that sugar was bad for the health, and health-conscious consumers turning to sugar substitutes and ‘diet’ soft drinks.

This was good for the U.S. petrochemical industry, which makes sugar substitutes as a by-product of oil, but not good for some smaller nations whose economies were almost solely dependent upon sugar production.

Some of these countries were forced to find alternative sources of revenue, such as tourism or - in the cases of the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, and Mauritius, to cite just three examples - offshore investment banking.

Rumours of political instability or a coup in an important producing nation may force up the price of a commodity, inasmuch as traders will take into account possible shortages resulting from being unable to harvest the commodity and it rotting in the fields, or port closures preventing the goods from being exported to consuming nations.

Political strife or industrial action lasting just a few days can result in total losses of shipments of highly perishable commodities such as pineapples or bananas left rotting in unloaded ships or on docksides. These losses can run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, and drive up the worldwide price of affected commodities.

In an age of instant worldwide communication rumours and reports and reports of rumours all have a marked and virtually instant effect on the price of commodities, and prices can change drastically literally from one minute to the next.

A report of frost in Florida will instantly drive up the price of orange juice on the exchange; a favourable long-term weather report for Columbia or Brazil may well cause a downturn in the world price of coffee.

Not only consumables

Consumables such as the various examples cited so far are not the only items traded internationally on commodity exchanges.

Oil and metals of all kinds are also traded on commodity exchanges, and are subject to the same fluctuations for much the same reasons.

While the trading price of consumables can fluctuate wildly from minute to minute, the international trade in metals tends to be kept relatively more stable by arrangement.

For example, the international price of gold is set each day in London. Each morning a group of learned men get together and announce the price which prevails internationally for the rest of the day.

This is not quite so arbitrary as it sounds, however. In fact, they take into account all the relevant factors such as production estimates (and hence supply), and demand on the trading floors, thereby determining whether demand exceeds supply or the other way round. The spot price is announced, and that’s the fixed trading price until tomorrow morning.

The ‘spot’ price, incidentally, is the price you have to pay for immediate delivery; different prices are quoted - either higher or lower, depending on how the various traders view the market - for delivery of your commodity purchase next month, or the month after, or even six months hence.

These prices are therefore the fixed prices you will have to pay on your contract for future delivery - hence the term ‘futures trading’, about which more later.

First, though, yet another of these often-misunderstood technical terms crept in there: a contract.

We all know that a contract is a promise to do something. In the case of commodities, a contract is a promise to deliver (called a ‘sell’ order) or take delivery of (called a ‘buy’ order) a certain fixed amount of the commodity in question.

All commodities are traded in terms of ‘contracts’ of set amounts. A contract of gold, for example, is 50 ounces, while a contract of sugar is 50 tons.

Therefore, if you buy a contract of gold, you are promising to take delivery of 50 ounces of gold on a certain set date, and pay the fixed price prevailing at the time you buy the contract (i.e., now), even if the delivery date is next month or three months away.

Similarly, if you sell a contract of sugar, you are promising to deliver 50 tons of sugar on a set date, and for the fixed price quoted by the exchange at the moment you made the contract.

That all sounds straightforward enough if you happen to own a gold shop or a sugar mill.

Well, in fact, you’re putting yourself at considerable risk. What if the price in the marketplace changes between now and the time you actually take delivery of your commodity contract?

If you’re making gold jewellery, here in Thailand you sell your goods at the prevailing market price by weight. If the market price of gold has risen since the time you bought your contract of gold, you will have made a windfall profit when you sell your jewellery. However, if the market price has dropped, you stand to make a loss - because you still have to pay the commodity exchange at the contracted price.

How then do manufacturers ensure they don’t make a loss from this market-price fluctuation? They hedge their bets. How? By trading in futures contracts.

And this is where it all starts to get really interesting!

But I’m going to keep you waiting till next week for how futures work...

If you have any comments or queries on this article, or about other topics concerning investment matters, write to Leslie Wright, c/o Family Money, Pattaya Mail, or fax him directly on (038) 232522 or e-mail him at [email protected]. Further details and back articles can be accessed on his firm’s website on www.westminsterthailand.com.

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.

  Health & Nutrition Facts: Give yourself a “C”

by Laura Zubrod,
Registered Dietitian

We’re not talking about school or grades here, so getting your C is OK. If you’ve ever heard about vitamin C, it’s probably been in conjunction with drinking orange juice or eating an orange. Sure, lemons, pomelos, oranges, and other citrus fruits are a great way to get your C, but there are some even better sources that might surprise you.

Ever consider your vitamin C when eating chili peppers? Chili peppers as well as green peppers and red peppers are packed with vitamin C. How about a guava? One medium fruit provides almost 2 1/2 times the amount of vitamin C you need for a day.

You can also get a day’s worth of vitamin C from the following foods: half a small (200 g) cantaloupe melon, 1 mango, 10 strawberries, 1 orange, 2 tangerines, 2 tomatoes, 100g papaya, 100g lychee, 100g longan (dragon’s eye fruit), or 1/2 cup cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or broccoli. Other good sources of vitamin C are honeydew melon, pineapple, raspberries, rhubarb, sweet potatoes, and cabbage.

Vitamin C is easily destroyed when exposed to air, light, or heat. For example, asparagus kept at room temperature will lose about half its vitamin C content within two days. To reduce the loss of vitamin C from fruits and vegetables, choose the ripest, freshest, and brightest you can find. Bruising, slicing, or cutting fruits and vegetables can cause vitamin C loss. Use fruits and vegetables as soon as possible and store them in a cool place or in the refrigerator. Be sure to wash fruits and vegetables quickly. Don’t soak them in water. Trim or shred them using a sharp knife, as dull blades can bruise food and promote losses of C. Eat fruits and vegetables raw whenever possible. If cooking them, do so as quickly as possible in a small amount of water. Steaming is the best method. Save the cooking liquid for use in soups or gravies. Store leftover fruits and vegetables in tightly covered containers in the refrigerator.

Since vitamin C is not stored in the body, adults need 60 milligrams of vitamin C each day. That’s the amount supplied by 180 milliliters of orange juice. Pregnant and breast-feeding women need slightly more, at 70 mg and 90 mg respectively. Smokers need at least 100 mg of vitamin C daily. At 200 mg a day, body tissues are fully saturated, taking more is like simply flushing money away. Vitamin C is water-soluble, so excess amounts are excreted in your urine. Very large doses could cause kidney stones and diarrhea. Some people proclaim that megadoses of up to 1,000 mg of vitamin C can stop a cold in its tracks. However, no research has proven this, although a little extra vitamin C may shorten a cold’s duration.

What does vitamin C do for you?

helps produce a connective tissue called collagen that holds muscles, bone and other tissues together,

keeps your gums healthy,

helps cuts and wounds heal,

keeps your immune system working properly to help protect you from infection,

helps form and repair red bloods cells, bones, and other tissues,

protects you from bruising by keeping the walls of blood vessels and capillaries strong,

helps your body absorb iron, and

acts as an antioxidant, helping to protect cells against certain types of cancer, cataracts, and heart disease.

Vitamin C deficiency is very rare. A severe deficiency leads to scurvy, a disease that causes loose teeth, excessive bleeding, and swollen gums. Without enough vitamin C, wounds may not heal properly.

Vitamin C performs many essential jobs in your body. This important vitamin is found in a variety of foods that taste good and are easy to find. Enjoying at least one serving of vitamin-C rich foods daily is a good way to get high marks on your nutrition score card.

Readers may write Laura care of the Pattaya Mail with questions or special topics they would like to see addressed.

Copyright 1998 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand 
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected]
Created by Andy Gombaez, assisted by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek.