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Reply to Richard Franklin regarding Thailand real estate

Well said John

Wouldn’t want to use wheelchair in Pattaya

Noise pollution in Jomtien

Reply to Hawaii Bob about FTPA

Reply to Richard Franklin regarding Thailand real estate

Editor;
Richard, I would imagine that I deserved your overview of me as I certainly made some assumptions about you, but the very fact that you have a business in Thailand would tend to indicate that you are still into making money. On the other hand, I had a bar and apartments in Pattaya for about a year and decided to abandon it and go to my wife’s home town to raise our soon to be born child. That was ten years ago. I have not worked since, nor will I ever again.
I have everything to gain by the real estate market in Thailand being stimulated as I have an average sized home on a very big lot in Yasothon City and about five rai of land just outside of town that my wife uses as an orchid breeding farm. I certainly am no great humanitarian, but right is right and there is no reason to believe that a Western invasion in the Thai housing market would not bring on the same disaster that it has brought on in the Western world.
The crash was not caused by Bush. It was caused by average Americans starting to buy “income properties” way back in the sixties.
Smart accountants advised people to refinance their existing home and use the excess money as a down payment on another home or condo as a rental. The practice spread like wildfire. In 1973 I bought a home in the L.A. area for 33,000 dollars. Within two years it was worth 133,000 dollars as things began to escalate. It has been ten or fifteen years since any average person could afford a home in the United States, so the moves Bush made were necessary in order to get the average man into a home and thus keep the market moving and postpone the crash at least until George got out of office. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite make it.
Everyone in America from Joe the Plumber to the highest of the high contributed to the crash that real estate has had because more money was made in real estate in America in the last fifty years than any other business in existence (with the possible exception of drugs). And none of it would have happened had someone in America had the foresight to put some controls on the purchase of real estate. But had they have done that, it would have killed off the automatic ATM that a home creates and no one would have had the money to take part in the spending orgy that went on and on. If you were a President, would you have wanted that to happen during your term?
Take a look at Thailand. Despite the present political turmoil, it has been a relatively stable country for quite a few decades. It is a tourist Mecca and food growing gold mine and it appears to love Western music, movies and television. Westerners are obviously welcome because there is a small army of us here. But most notable of all is that property is still relatively cheap in comparison to the West. Are you going to suggest to me that all of the people that made killings in property investment in the West over the last fifty years are not sitting and licking their chops and just waiting for some moron in Bangkok to open the gates?
Come on Richard. You are a little too intelligent of a man to try to pass that one by.
It would not be wrong to change the law and allow foreigners who have lived here for a set number of years to own one piece of property. The only problem with that, is that many people will find ways to use those laws in order to get their way and that once such a law is in existence, they will begin to push for revising the laws further and we all know that like that little hole in the damn, things begin to wear away.
Sorry Richard, but if you think what I wrote is drivel, than I can only suggest that drivel is preferable to the either naiveté or poppycock that you are asking us to believe.
Western discount stores are slowly gobbling up the Thai retail trade and should Western real estate speculators be turned loose in Thailand they and their Thai counterparts will slowly gobble up Thailand. You and I both know that wealthy and influential Thais are already doing this in Bangkok. All that is needed for the remainder of Thailand is to open the doors to an army of people who believe that any piece of land in Thailand is under priced compared to where they just came from.
John Arnone
Yasothon

Well said John

Editor;
Well said John Amone, you hit the nail on the head. Foreigners must never be allowed to own land in Thailand, as it is purely selfish, profit making reasons that foreigners wish to buy land in Thailand. If you want to live in Thailand there are many options available without pricing the Thai people out of their own homes and land. Also, surely a marriage is built on love and trust, if the house is in your Thai wife’s name, so what? Do you love and trust her? If you don’t, why marry in the first place? It’s getting back to the same old thing: foreigners trying to dictate how the Thais should live their lives and what laws they should have. I don’t like every law they have, but it is their country, not ours, and if you don’t like it, you know what to do don’t you.
Mickyfin,
Burnley

Wouldn’t want to use wheelchair in Pattaya

Editor;
After reading ‘Pattaya City wins award for being disabled friendly’, I thought of numerous occasions in a far off country when I pushed my mother around in a wheelchair and I certainly would not want to do it on any of the sidewalks in Pattaya. But on reading the article further it seems a few supermarkets and Pattaya City Hall were in fact ‘Disabled Friendly’; rather erroneous reporting, as the rest of Pattaya is mostly ‘Disabled Unfriendly’.
RW

Noise pollution in Jomtien

Editor;
As a recent letter to Mailbag pointed out, we at Jomtien Beach are constantly harassed by cars with enormous loudspeakers blasting all over Jomtien Beach. It makes little sense that tourists and residents are forced to endure this night in and night out.
One would think it would be possible for the police to put an end to this, stop and fine these horrible cars as they pass right by Dongtan police station several times every evening before parking and partying somewhere along the beach.
However, to be fair to Dongtan/Jomtien police, they do act swiftly if you call them. So I would recommend all hotels, tourists and residents to please call Dongtan/Jomtien police station 038 232 331 whenever your sleep is being disturbed by these monsters.
With Kind Regards,
Ib Ottesen

Reply to Hawaii Bob about FTPA

Dear Editor;
Thanks, Hawaii Bob, for “setting me straight”. I obviously touched your sensitive nerve with my “opinion” of FTPA. But am I alone?
In a previous letter titled “Problem with farang volunteer police” (Oct. 17 issue) Phillip Taylor wrote, “this [FTPA] officer replied, ‘You shut up - I don’t need a bar girl to tell me how to do my job.’” He went on to write, “He then told me to get out of his sight before he arrested me. All the other [FTPA] members with him laughed.”
B.C. Brown in the letter titled “Let the Thai police look after traffic” (Sep. 19 issue) wrote, “I was stopped on a motorbike by farang volunteer police checking my bike license and hired bike registration, etc. One volunteer policeman mentioned that he was sure the motorbike had been stolen and I must have stolen it and I will be in big trouble. He then gave me a lecture about Thailand’s traffic laws. I feel he was belittling me in front of the others. Since then I have read many letters in newspapers about others being treated the same way in Pattaya, only by falang volunteer police, and would not be visiting Pattaya again.”
Seems I am not alone in the confusion as to what the FTPA really are. From the actions described by Mr. Taylor and Mr. Brown, it appears some of the FTPA members are confused as to what their function is also. Due to some FTPA members’ actions plus their police-like uniforms and Hawaii Bob’s admission that, “some do carry handcuffs (used when ordered), some carry batons (never used to my knowledge), some of us even carry pepper spray” and, “[we] protect the expats and the tourists,” they appear to be cops to everyone I talk to. We also wonder if the handcuffs, batons and pepper spray are part of your issued FTPA kit or do you guys take it upon yourselves to purchase these additional (unneeded) items on your own. Regardless, if you look like a duck, quack like a duck and act like a duck, people are going to call you a duck.
But more importantly, Hawaii Bob confirmed my point about removing the word “police” out of the FTPA’s name and getting the members out of police type uniforms. He indicates he is a good citizen, belongs to some clubs, showed no substantiated reason any FTPA members need to carry handcuffs, batons or pepper spray, and he contradicts himself when on one hand he states, “helpers we are not,” and then later writes, “most of our evening is helping tourists sort out a bar bill, figure out where their hotel is, or what to do with a bar fine that did a runner on them.” Sounds like “helpers” to me.
I realize Bob is trying to justify the FTPA’s existence, and I’m sure those FTPA members who are decent well meaning folks get a warm feeling when they provide a “helpful” service. Having “help” available for tourists, both on the street and at the police station, is a valuable asset. However, foreigners looking and acting like police does not promote a positive image of Pattaya. Less “para-police” and more “helpers” would give Pattaya a much friendlier image. I’ll venture to say that; if the changes suggested are made, those members on a power trip within the FTPA ranks will thin out and only those members truly interested in giving back to the community will remain.
By the way Bob; slander is verbal and libel doesn’t apply here. According to law, libel requires defamation of character. Defamation requires the issuance of a false statement about another person which causes that person to suffer harm. I didn’t make a false statement, it was an abstract “opinion” that didn’t cause anyone harm. According to law, if a person makes a “statement of opinion” as opposed to “fact,” the statement does not support action for defamation. Furthermore, the FTPA members are public figures. To bring an action for defamation a public figure must prove an additional element: That the statement was made with “actual malice.” Malice is defined: desire to cause injury or distress to another. No malice was intended.
Michael Smith

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