PeterRS

In Japan, the name Johnny Kitagawa was until recently revered. In the 1960s he had started up the all-male agency which went on to manage most of the country's mushrooming boy band entertainment groups. He was arguably the most influential and powerful figure in Japan's entertainment industry. His agency was the gateway for many thousands of young men hoping to become stars. When he died in 2019 aged 87, his death was a national event. Even the Prime Minister sent his condolences. For those not clued in on Asian pop prior to K-Pop, J-Pop was its predecessor and a huge favourite both in Japan and around Asia for decades. When I worked in Japan in the 1990s, it was almost impossible to turn on the television without at least one programme featuring J-Pop bands. Now, thanks to an investigative team of reporters from the BBC, it has been discovered that Kitagawa was a sexual predator of the worst kind even before starting his agency. In the new documentary Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop, the reporters uncovered a scandal that is at the least on a parallel with that of Harvey Weinstein in the USA - only it seems to have gone on for much longer and involved many more individuals, in his case boys. As with Weinstein, there were many in the know - but no-one dared to speak out. Several singers openly tell the BBC they were scared their careers would be over if they did not give in to Kitagawa's sexual demands. One states the abuse started when he was 15 and lasted four years. When Kitagawa was alive, some of the allegations against him were proved in a civil case. But Kitagawa sued for defamation on more than one occasion. Japanese media failed to cover the allegations against him for decades. The reporters discovered that Kitagawa's family management knew of the abuse and allowed it to continue for decades. Even his niece knew what was going on. After his death, she took over the management of his company. She finally resigned today. But in her place is Noriyuki Higashiyama. He was one of the first talents recruited by Kitagawa's company. He states he was never abused by Kitagama. The future of the agency which was once known for fame and glamour which has been so publicly disgraced will no doubt be a matter for a long public debate as more and more men tell their stories of sexual abuse at the hand of a monster. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66737052

I have never looked up Spacey's past. But there are plenty of other people who have been "tortured" in one way or another as they were growing up, often by relatives. I do not think that necessarily means their lives are "ruined". Therapy helps a lot of people who have endured often shocking childhoods. Did he seek any? I have no idea. I just know from the basis of what friends who have met him have told me that he is not someone I would wish to meet or whom I admire as a person. As an actor, I think he has shown many fine qualities. It is, I suggest, interesting that today we have news from the BBC's website of a massively long string of abuses of underage boys by the founder of the agency which had the largest stable of boy bands in Japan. In view of the depravity of this man, I have started a new thread. It's interesting, I think, that the legal system in Scotland is different from that in England and Wales. Under Scottish Law there is a third verdict a jury can deliver - Not Proven.

If that was for a return ticket, it was an almost unbelievable deal! Under the standard Asia Miles award scheme, that should be a minimum of 170,000 miles. But then other One World airlines often have different mileage requirements.

With most airlines still increasing mileage requirements, can any member advise what is the best site for finding out the cheapest mileage redemption tickets? I can find several but all seem to be based on travel ex-USA on US airlines. Asia has always been more stingy when it comes to mileage redemption and it is Asia in which I am more interested. Thanks in advance.

As I understand it, the plan is to extend the rail line to Bangkok and then on to Singapore. Timetable of the existing high speed service is here - https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/laos/

Isn't this true of almost all mileage tickets now? Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles programme is about to increase mileage requirements yet again after a major overhaul only 5 or so years ago. On my last trip to Tokyo 4 years ago, an economy round trip ticket using Asia Miles BKK/HKG/TPE/TYO/BKK cost around 45,000 miles. Now this iitinerary would have to be built around individual sectors at over double required mileage.

Air New Zealand does weigh passengers for international flights but not to charge extra for those who are overweight. It is conducting a long-term survey to find out what the average weight of passengers on its long haul flights is likely to be. It still uses averages per passanger as set by nation's Civil Aviation Authority. But I remember seeing some years ago an episode of the Air Crash Investigation tv series about the crash of a small commuter aircraft somewhere in the USA. It occurred about 20 years ago and one reason was that the average weight of passengers as mandated by the FAA had been considerably exceeded. The Accident Report recommendation was that this average weight had to be increased. Clearly the larger the aircraft, the more likely it will be that the average weight is higher than mandated. In a small 20-seater, individual passanger weights become much more crucial.

Someone in authority is going to suffer financially due to this. Presently Thais can buy their way out of military service. It's some years since I last spoke to a Thai friend about this but I believe it was around 35,000 baht.

Interesting point - and very factual. The railroad between Vientiane and Kunming is costing Laos a pretty penny for its 30% share of a loan totalling around US$3.54 billion from the China ExIm Bank. Yet it could perhaps result in significant commercial development for Laos. Certainly for those in Thailand, it will be an easy way to reach Kunming and some of the wonders of China in Yunnan Province.

The desperate state of Chinese property developers was outlined in the following forum last month. Having taken over as China's No. 1 property developer company from massively indebted Evergrande, Country Garden has been warning of its own disastrous financial position. At the end of last month it issued a warning to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its first half year loss was close to US$6.72 billion. It has also defaulted on overseas loans and is likely to be booted off the HKSE. In Malaysia,some of its woes are there for all to see. Its massive residential development outside Johor Bharu and close to Singapore was launched under China's Belt and Road initiative. The ambitious aim of Forest City was to provide housing for 700,000 residents. Many were expected to be purchased by Chinese from the mainland seeking to park their savings offshore. One such investor was 29-year old Zhao Bojian from Henan province who purchased one of the existing 26,000 apartments prior to completion 5 years ago. He is one of only 9,000 residents. Most of these, though, do not actually live there. Despite the Malaysian government being desperate to encourage local buyers, especially from neighbouring SIngapore, few have done so. To attract more overseas buyers, a special economic zone has been developed with duty free shops, a special income tax rate and multiple entry visas. Llittle has worked. With China's economy now in a very bad state, the flood of Chinese buyers has evaporated. Consequently, much of the overall development is incomplete. There are no streetlights, for example. Worse, the 4-lane access road has collapsed forcing drivers to take a longer detour. Country Garden is now saddled with debts of almost US$200 billion. Its ability to continue with Forest City is unlikely. Virtually a ghost town, Forest City is destined to become an enormous whilte elephant. Photo: AFP https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysias-forest-city-teeters-over-china-property-giant-woes

The leaders of both Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew, were constantly at odds over the degree of power each would wield in the new Union. There were frequent and sharp exchanges between the two. Lee was frustrated at the delays in getting KL to give Singapore industries the agreed pioneer tax status, and KL was frustrated that its constant requests for a greater share of tax revenues from the Singapore entity were not met as it sought to combat confrontation from Indonesia. Then the two main political parties (PAP and UMNO) started bitter political wrangling, often publicly, in particular re UMNO's continuing insistence on dominance for ethnic Malays in governance. The imbalance in populations between the greater Malay population on the one hand and the greater Chinese population of Singapore on the other did then lead, as @vinapu points out, to race riots in July and September 1964. It was at the Commonwealth leaders Conference in London in 1965 that the Tunku announced privately the Union with Singapore had to end. In the ensuing negotiations, most Singapore ministers and departments were kept completely in the dark. Lee and his colleagues did not want to leave but they were left with no choice. Lee still believed that Singapore could not succeed as a nation on its own. How wrong he proved to be!

Try as I have, I totally fail to see the connection.

A perfectly fair account. Could one perhaps also suggest that Vietnam was not unlike Laos in the 1950s/early 60s with a staunchly nationalist regime in the north which was virtually a communist-like state? Like Laos, Vietnam was decimated during the US war and remained so in the early years of reunification. It was then one of the world's poorest countries. It did not start to develop economically until the mid-1980s. Since then its economic development has been remarkable. Yet Vietnam is also an authoritarian single party government. We can assume that the authoritarian government in Laos has severely hampered development. But had Vietnam started its development after it managed to kick the hated French from its territory in 1954, we cannot know if the country would have developed more quickly. We also cannot know if in so doing it would have dragged other countries in Indo China along with it.

Thanks for that clarification. I had just assumed that as a result of Brexit, those living in the EC would be treated similar to those living in Thailand. Indeed, I cannot imagine why they are not.

That yahoo story is dated June 24. GIven that Prigozhin was murdered long after, I cannot imagine his comments now bear much weight in Russia.

Ok, just go and try it! There are such things as passports and the information about entry and exit to the UK is recorded and passed to more than one government organisation. In order to qualify for the full UK pension and access to the National Health Service facilities, you must stay in the country for a minimum of six months each year. Having an address is useless unless it is known you are staying there!

Yes, I am British. Britain's hands were not nearly as 'clean' in the Indo-China wars as stated at the time. Prime Minister Harold Wilson was a shifty, duplicitous character who managed to convince the British public that Britain stayed out of the war, but this was a lie. Recently declassified documents show that Britain did indeed play a role in the American illegal war in Laos. But I can find no information that it bombed Laos. It did send intelligence flights over Laos as well as ship war materiel for use by the Amerians from Hong Kong to the illegal secret CIA airbase at Long Chang. There is even evidence now that Britain did send forces to Vietnam. In a 2022 article in Declassified UK, it is reported that in 1962 Britain's Military Attache in Saigon, Col. Lee, wrote to the War Office in London attaching a report by someone whose name remains censored but who is described as an advisor to the Malayan government. The advisor proposed that an SAS team be sent to Vietnam, which Lee said was unacceptable owing to Britain's position as Co-Chair of the Geneva Agreement. Then Lee added: "However, this recommendation might be possible to implement if the persnnel are detached and given temporary civilian status, or are attached to the American Special Forces in such a manner that their British military identity is lost in the US unit." In essence, Lee recommended that secret British forces be "grafted on to the American effort in the fleld." This team was sent, and was known as the Noone Mission. The covert operation began in the summer of 1962 but there are only a few further references to it in the available files. One shows that it was still in operation in 1963. As Rhiannon Vickers wrote in the article Harold Wilson, The British Labour Party, and the War the Vietnam War for the Journal of Cold War Studies, in order to stay in power Wilson had to maintain a very delicate balancing act. While many in his party, including most of the leadership, saw the war in the context of the Cold War, many of his rank-and-file members saw Vietnam (for what it really was) largely a war of national liberation. Until release of these documents, Wilson was praised for having stayed out of Indo-China whereas Blair has been excoriated (rightly in my view) for his involvement in Iraq. Wilson does not deserve such plaudits in view of the lies he told. https://declassifieduk.org/britains-secret-role-in-the-brutal-us-war-in-vietnam/#:~:text=The Royal Air Force also,MI6 station heads in Hanoi. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26923428

With respect I think your view of history is incorrect. Malaysia wanted Singapore to stay. It was Lee Kwan Yew who decded to leave. No. I wrote and meant "our". Although to be fair you could substitute "our own".

How on this good earth can you state that with any degree of certainty? You cannot. And I cannot either. Neither of us have lived in countries which were the most bombed in the entire history of warfare or had well over a million of our fellow citizens massacred by our countrymen. During those years, Japan developed from a bombed out shell into what was to become an economic powerhouse. During those years, Japan's exports increaased by an annual 15%. You and I have zero idea how much economic development might have taken place in Laos and Cambodia during the years of the illegal US wars and their horrific results. Nor can we determine how wealthy the countries might now be.

Goodness knows what their reasoning is, but not contributing to the economy of the country granting the pension is plain nonsense. In the UK, all employees pay into what used to be called National Insurance. This is what guarantees two things - a pension from the relevant age and access to the National Health Service. This was always the case and was the case when i moved to work abroad. Because I was not sure if I might return to the UK or not, I continued to pay what were called voluntary National Insurance contributions every month. I continued to pay these in full until the 40 years of contributions was complete. The problem is that at some point during the Thatcher and Blair governments, decisions were made that (1) those living overseas would have their pensions frozen from the first year of drawdown, and (2) access to the UK national health service similar to other UK citizens would be withdrawn after six years abroad. What is so wrong about these new decisions is that they were never informed to those who were working overseas. I never had anything from any government department. Absolutely nothing. I had to find out for myself. And what is unfair is that I deliberately elected to pay the contributions into the National Insurance Fund as required by the government. So I paid for benefits I am no longer allowed. As for not spending money in the UK, I actually save the country money by having my own private health insurance and not being a drag on the National Health Service and quite a few other services available for older people. Besides, those people in receipt of basic pensions pay no tax. That argument is a false one. Not true. If you are a UK citizen living in the UK and having contributed annually to the National Insurance scheme, your pension increases each year. It is only if you live outside the UK that your pension is frozen. The basic state pension for single men and women living in the UK in 2023/24 is £203.35. Those living overseas who started to draw down ten years ago receive £110.35.

ASEAN will do nothing re Mayanmar without China's nod. And China will continue to do everything to avaoid problems on its borders. Nothing has changed!

So what has changed? Absolutely nothing!

You are exceedingly lucky. Living overseas UK pensions are frozen from the moment you start withdrawing them. If you are now 80 and started drawing it down aged 65, although you paid your full national insurance contribution which provides for your pension, you would probably be getting around £95 per week - or less than 18,500 baht per month! No one living overseas can live on that. Had that hypothetical person been living in the UK, his pension would be close of triple that, I guess. So if you think you might wish to live overseas in retirement, you have to start financial planning decades earlier so that you have a financial pot big enough, literally, to last a lifetime. That and/or some private pensions as well. As for going back to use a public health system, that sounds all very well and good - but what happens if you have a serious coronary or a stroke and require major medical treatment before you can get near an aircraft to take you home? You're screwed (but not as you like to be screwed 😵)!

When we talk about Laos and poverty, we should never forget that the country was all but destroyed by war - an undeclared war by the United States. The 1962 Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos was signed by the USA, the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and 10 other countries. Yet that did not stop the USA from starting a covert undeclared war against the country, a war run by the CIA taking orders not from Congress but from the White House. In the years from 1964, the USA dropped a planeload of bombs on this poor landlocked country every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years - 580,000 bombing runs. Can any of us imagine what that must have been like? Most of those were cluster bombs of the type now banned by many countries. It is estimated that 30% or 80 million bombs did not explode, but they continue to do so, maiming and killing 20,000 Lao people since the bombing officially ended, many of them children. Initially, the bombers came from U-Tapao airbase in Thailand which had been leased to the USA. Soon they were coming from aircraft carriers off the coast of Vietnam. The number of planes which failed to drop their full load of bombs on Vietnam could not land on a carrier with bombs on board. So they just flew a few extra miles and dropped them indiscriminately over Laos. Unsurprisingly, Laos became the most bombed nation in history per had of population - with more bombs dropped than during the entirety of WW2. If any nation requires international aid to recover from that absolute disgrace, it is surely Laos.

As has been noted in other threads, the world in general is much more welcoming for gay visitors than it was even a couple of decades ago. Many potential tourists have already been to Thailand more than once and done Thai temples and other cultural elements that the Tourism Authority of Thailand think should interest visitors. I have gay friends for whom a beach is the priority. They are tired of Phuket which has become expensive and overrun with tourists. They now prefer to visit the Maldives or Sri Lanka. They have also discovered Vietnam's beaches which in many cases are better and cleaner than those in Thailand, especially in the central area. The increasing availability of gay guys also makes Vietnam very attractive. I believe younger gay tourists have different priorities from those of us who loved coming to Thailand 20, 30 and 40 years ago.