PeterRS

It seems particularly true in the hothouse entertainment business. The pressure these kids selected for the K-Pop groups is intense and never ending. It seems few are able to enjoy any form of life of their own. Little wonder, perhaps, that some feel so trapped the only way out for them is suicide. China As worrying, suicide rates among young people in China are on the rise. Figures suppllied by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that in the 5-14 year old age group, suicides increased by 400% between 2010 and 2021. Among the 15-24 age group, there was actually a drop of 6.8% from 2010 - 2017. But thereafter it has surged at an annual rate of 19.6% up to 2021. That is not China's only problem with young people. Youth unemployment hit a record high in April with 20.4% of those in the 15-24 year old group unable to find work. Add to that the more than 11 million students who graduated from Chinese universities last month. How will they find work? Having a degree from an international university used to be a passport to success. No more. President XI has a lot more to worry about than Taiwan! The communist party needs the endorsement of the people. Young people may soon wonder if that endorsement is worth it. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/Chinese-youth-suicide-rate-quadruples-in-over-a-decade https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/01/china-graduates-jobs-market-youth-unemployment

Clearly they are like bees to your honey pot!! 😁

Yesterday evening part of the Onnut-Lat Krabang expressway which is under construction collapsed when a crane raising a four-lane road section overturned. The Bangkok Post states 2 were killed and 10 injured. The collapse is captured in a short facebook vdo on the Bangkok Post page. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2609423/2-killed-10-hurt-as-elevated-road-collapses-in-bangkok

I have been asked numerous times why I live in Thailand when I could have stayed in Hong Kong or moved somewhere with a more pleasant climate etc. etc. I always reply: where else would I just be able to walk down virtually any street in any town or city and see several adorable young guys whom I would love to bed, whom I smile at and who give me a heart-melting smile back? The smile itself is one of the joys of life!

Last week the very popular Hong Kong singer Coco Lee committed suicide. She was just 48 and had been suffering from depression. This follows what seems to be a sad trend among Asian pop singers and pop idols. Just a couple of months ago K-Pop singer Moonbin of the ASTRO group was found dead in his apartment aged 25. Also this year Haeso died after leaving a suicide note in her apartment. One of the first Korean artists to die was in 2004. 22-year old Seo Jae-ho was killed when his car crashed into a truck in an action that was assumed to be deliberate. Since then there have been more than ten suspicious deaths of pop stars when driving cars or motor cycles. In 2008 actor Ahn Jae-hwan took his own life. A month later his good friend Choi Jin-sil, one of the country’s most in-demand actresses, also committed suicide. In what became a family tragedy, two years later Choi’s younger brother killed himself. Three years later, her ex-husband and the father of her two children also killed himself. Much more recently, the industry has lost Hara, then Sulli, Goo Hara and Cha In-Ha - three singers who all died within two months of each other - Song Yoo-jung, Jonghyun and Jeon Mi-seon. All died in suspicious circumstances. Jonghyun had been the lead vocalist for the group SHINee for 9 years. A note made public after his death read, “I am broken inside. The depression that gnawed on me slowly has finally engulfed me entirely.” Jyonghyun The saddest death was surely that of 24-year old Lee Ji-han who died last year in the Itaewon crowd crush which killed 153 mostly young people.' Lee Ji-han A star in Indian movies, actress Jiah Khan hanged herself aged 25. Popular Chinese actor Kimi Qiao Renliang took his own life in 2016 aged 29 after a long battle with depression. Jonghyun’s note about depression has seen echoes not only in the K-Pop industry but in other parts of Asia. Unquestionably the most famous actor/singer to commit suicide was 46-year old Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing in 2003. Massively famous around the world and not only in Chinese communities, Leslie seemed to have everything. A record of 33 consecutive nights of sold-out concerts at Hong Kong’s 10,000 seat Coliseum, twice nominated as Best Actor at the annual Cannes Film Festival Awards, a steady banker boyfriend since his childhood years – yet unknown to all was a creeping, insidious depression that engulfed him in his last years. In his suicide note, he wrote, “In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?" Leslie (left) in a poster for one of his first films. Also in the photo is Danny Chan playing the violin who died of an overdose in his mid-30s and Paul Chung who committed suicide aged 30.

A worthy effort indeed. The article dealing with the political situation illustrates just how well the army generals did in the last constitution to ensure the longevity of their own position and to deny the will of the people. The comments from two of the army appointed senators (all 250 are army appointed) are utterly disgraceful. The attempts to disqualify Pita from the Premiership on the basis of ancient (in parlimentary terms) ownership of shares in a media company is appalling and shows just how far into the sewer the elite will go to ensure they stay in power. Did not Thaksin senior own a massive number of shares in his own media company? And did he not bribe the Constitutional Court to ensure he was elected Prime Minister when he should never have been allowed to assume the post after his gardener and housekeeper were found to own millions of those shares? I think someone posted this Tom Lehrer song relatively recently. It deserves a second airing, the more so when you substitute Thailand for Amerca and corruption for pollution.

Anyone know if this new cinema is in fact a reincarnation of the RCA indie movie house off Rama 9 close to the Bangkok Hospital? I see RCA is now closed. We only once went to RCA when it was showing "Call Me By Your Name". The movie, despite a few small cuts, was extremely popular and ran for weeks and weeks.

Excellent news. This should make an ideal replacement for the much lamented Bangkok Screening Room just off Saladaeng Soi 1. This offered a variety of interesting movies and documentaries in a small cinema off a bar with drinks and snacks. Sadly it closed 2 years ago.

Or maybe it could be a new budget business class!

I see I have joined @scott456 on @Olddaddy's blocked list! 🤣 @scott456 had made an innocent comment as a bit of banter which led to @Olddaddy taking umbrage. Funny that, since he wrote some months ago: "Scott, don't take that personally , posters are just having a joke , and a bit of banter 👍😅" Funny too that sometimes his own comments are the total opposite of his earlier comments. In August 2022. @Olddaddy wrote: "If I was old lonely ( which I am😂)" Yet the next day "My Filipino BF here in Australia wants to marry." On this thread, he wrote about a farang being in another bar - Yet in July 2022 he wrote of an experience in another bar: "Now I saw other farangs kissing boys next to them ,one in particular didn't look like he was enjoying it but on leaving the Farang must of left a small tip because the boy never even said goodbye to him and opened the folder and turned his back on the Farang . . . I noticed he had been deep kissing him for like 20 minutes" Aha! In company of others for at least 20 minutes! As for travel, almost a year ago he wrote: "I am poor!!! Despite being over 60, I still fly economy". Oh really? Funny that because the very next day he wrote: "I can't fly anything else other than business for long trips ." Prefers to be alone. Happy when the one other farang departs: And yet tolerant of other farang in another bar at another time when sitting amongst them for at least 20 minutes! Make of it what you will for I am blocked and he will not respond!

The Chinese peoples have a particular reverence for their ancestors. All around the country there are graveyards or merely simple gravestones, usually slightly circular with a concrete pllnth where descendents can place their offerings of flowers, fruit and the departed's favourite dishes. Hong Kong has several, the large ones in the built up city areas, the individual ones dotted around what used to be called the New Territories. But as one of the most densely populated parts of the planet, land for graveyards ran out years ago. As a result, many families kept the ashes of their ancestors in urns given a special place in their homes. But as the size of family homes has become smaller and smaller, other solutions have had to be found. One of the city's zillionaires who made her money in jewellry and property, Margaret Zee, is the latest to jump on this money-making bandwagon. She has constructed a 12-storey building specially designed by a German architect to store the remains of loved ones in the best possible way. Shan Sum offers a resting place for up to 10 years at a starting price of $53,000 - US$ that is! Not that all you get is a hole in the wall measuring around 1 sguare meter! The building can accommodate urns for 23,000 of the departed. This facility is both air conditioned and humidity controlled, it has a roof garden and greenery lining its stairwells and other areas. What happens after 10 years is up in the air as such facilities are subject to government regulations and the maximum at present is 10 years. Perhaps renewal will involve some sort of discount. As Ms. Zee claims, the space is as much for the peace and enjoyment for living relatives as for the dead. Not that Shan Sum is the largest or most expensive repose for the dead. A spot in a temple-like complex close to the Chinese border presently sells for US$66,000. But that is not all. Annual Management fees per urn space are a whopping US$25,000! If you do not belong to the class of the rich and famous, the government is trying to increase the construction of a similar number of facilities for the dead. A 20 years lease on these far simpler plots costs US$300 but competition is fierce with long waiting lists. Hong Kong land values have always been monstrously high and continue to skyrocket. I can remember back in 1996 the car park spaces in the three underground levels of my 34-storey apartment building (which I rented) were put on sale for US$96,000 each - with a management fee on top! https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/07/asia/hong-kong-columbarium-real-estate-price-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

A very good point. For decades I had an annual travel insurance policy valid everywhere in the world. It had several general exceptions for personal accident - like winter sports - but nothing as far as I can recall regarding individual countries unless the British government had given specific warnings in advance of travel. Having given that policy up due to cost and reduced travel, like @unicorn I find short term policies do request a list of countries visiting, although not the airline.

I readily apologise if I am in the wrong and am happy to bury hatchets when posts of mine are considered to have caused some offence. In the case of @Olddaddy, I have nothing to apologise for and no reason whatever to take part in a "truce"! What on earth was the point of his rant against me above? Did I describe @Olddaddy as a 115 kg loner (he told us his weight in an earlier post) who is virtually a hypochondriac given all the various maladies he has informed everyone reading this Board he suffers from - or believes he suffers from? Nope! Did I say he refused to consult a doctor? Nope! He did! Did I call him "sometimes nasty and spiteful"! Noper! He did! Have I asked why last year he wrote two contradictory things about himself very soon after each other - 1. that he lived alone, and 2. that he lived with his Filipino boyfriend? Nope!

How very funny! This is the second time @Olddaddy has written almost exactly the same post about my replies to his posts. Even thereafter, though, he has clicked "like" on a good many of them! He needs to get his thinking into some sort of order, and I wish him well.

I've been discussing Thai law, as I stressed in my post. If as @forky123 points out a British court would take the case, which in itself must be doubtful in the absence of a mountain of paperwork about the event itself, witnesses affirming the state of upkeep of the hotel and the stability of its balconies, any previous similar cases, the activities of the young man and his friends througohut that evening, whether they had been drinking and what the young man's blood alcohol level was on arrival at hospital, in addition to calling several expert medical witnesses which it might be impossible to pay for from Thailand, the family might perhaps have a case, I expect. Under Thai law, though, the family could find itself very much deeper in debt. They'd be spinning some form of roulette wheel with the chances of it stopping at the right number all but zero. Unless you know a bit more about Thai law than I. Then there could be a secondary but equally important issue. If their number did in fact come up and it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a UK court that the hotel was at fault, the chances of the family actually getting the monetary award out of Thailand would be quite another matter. All but impossible, alas!

Bars and boys are there to serve customers - plural. If you want to avoid other people, either get a boy from the apps and organise something in your room, or don't go to bars. I'd have thought that is self-evident. Being selfish in such a situation does, I suggest, illustrate somewhat nasty behaviour.

It seems that MYAirline is using both terminals at KUL - i.e. the full service terminal and the low cost terminal, both of which are branded as KUL. It's important to note that it can take up to 30 minutes to get from one to the other, so check on booking which terminal your flight will be using. The half-hourly airport express train from/to the city stops at both terminals. Similarly the regular limousine service from KL Sentral station stops at both. Surface transport between the two terminals is by bus which departs every 15 minutes. I have no idea what happens if you are entering and departing on international flights using both terminals - e.g. Singapore to KUL using one airline arriving at the full service terminal and KUL to BKK using another airline at the low cost terminal. I assume there has to be a way of transiting without having passports stamped. Best to check.

I'd have thought at the present time that would send most farang out of the bar. Hardly surprising that the one farang you mentioned soon disappeared. Doubt if that did the bar many favours.

I can remember my first couple of flights to Singapore at the start of the 1980s when the city's airport was located at Paya Lebar. There were relatively so few flights, a dual carrageway road passed through the taxiway. This had to be closed every time a plane had landed or was about to take off! Changi only opened at the end of 1981! More recently, many will recall how Hong Kong's single runway Kai Tak which closed in 1998 had the scariest landing if the flight arrived from the west. Descending low over the Kowloon peninsula, the aircraft had to make a sudden right turn just seconds before hitting the runway. It used to be said that Cathay Pacific pilots could identify not only those apartments with the televisions on but also the channels which their owners were watching! Not all went well with the landings as this vdo of a Thai Airways 747-400 illustrates. Kai Tak's problem always was that the runway did not align with the summer and winter monsoon winds. Extending from north west to south east, the summer monsoon comes in from the south west and in winter from the north east. But it was the impossibility of extending Kai Tak further that resulted in its closure and the development of the new airport north of Lantau island. The third runway at the new airport opened exactly a year ago today.

Funny now to recall that when BKK opened, the government wanted to shut down Don Mueang!

Isn't the problem here the actual legal costs of suing in a country 9,000 kms away from home like Thailand where laws sometimes appear to be fluid and dependent on the verdict given by just one judge (no juries in Thailand) and whose verdicts can be, shall I say, 'odd' given the facts of a case? In case you did not see the recent thread in which I mentioned the infamous Spice Trade trial in the rearly 2000s about the arrest of the directors of Utopia Tours, can I suggest you read the following. It is long but a fascinating - some might say horrifying - look at the Thai justice system. In all cases everything depends solely on the judge. In the Spice Trade case he clearly disliked gay magazines and based his erroneous judgement on that. If a litigant is expecting to be awarded substantial costs when the defendants will point out a clause in tiny print buried somewhere in the text in a language the judge will not fully understand, I would have absolutely zero confidence in winning the case! https://web.archive.org/web/20050606015724/http:/www.yawningbread.org/arch_2005/yax-435.htm

I have no idea if you are actually replying to my post or to an earlier one made by another poster because it seems to have little to do with mine. But if the reply is to mine, let me tell you that i have never smoked and I have never taken recreational drugs - except once in Marrakech more than 40 years ago! As for alcohol. it is one of the joys of life provided it is taken in moderation and usually in the company of others. I certainly enjoy some alcohol but rarely beer and usually as an accompaniment with food. My partner and friends consider I look quite a few years younger than my age! Because life is about balance, about enjoyment, companionship, making decisions and weighing up compromises - amongst others. It is not, as most of your posts seem to suggest, about sex, concern about your erection, illness and old age. Naturally these are factors that have to be weighed into that balance. But there is far more to life and if you fail to take the opportunities that life throws at you and fail to find consistent enjoyment, then you are far more likely to look your age - in my view.

That's a more than outrageous comment in my view! Do you really believe that someone infected with syphillis iis going to enjoy life as much as he would if he did not have syphillis? In my view you seem to have a rather unhealthy 'thing' about ageing as is born out by your nickname. We can all "go" - as you put it - at any time, or don't you believe that? Furthermore, some of those in their 70s today are likely to live into their 90s. And I for one doubt if any of them would actually be happy living with syphillis!

That may certainly be true in Tokyo, but I have been in Paragon in Bangkok several times in the last fortnight. You cannot keep people away from quite long queues at the stores of most designer labels, especially Hermes, Gucci & co. And these are certainly not "poor' people given the way they dress. Some will unquestionably be foreign tourists, but quite a few are youngish Thais. That said, I don't think I have ever seen older Thais queuing. I can recall the decade of stagnation (the 1990s) in Tokyo when department stores were very concerned that those who had previously purchased extremely expensive designer goods were almost afraid to wear them in public. So there would be special nights when owners of such goods could come to wear them and wander around the stores showing off their purchases! Somehow I find it funny to think of middle-aged ladies popping into the loos to change from their Burberry macs to show off their sable fur coats. The world of high-end watches is far larger than most of us probably expect. The most expensive is said to be the Graff Diamonds Hallucination watch valued at US$55 million (I never heard of Graff before today!) I have heard of Patek Philippe, though, but not of its Grandmaster Chime - a snip at US$31 million! A very long time ago when I left one company after 8 years, I decided I'd like a nice watch. I'd always fancied a classic and classicallly simple Patek Philippe with an extremely simple dial with Roman numerals, a small second hand and a gold dimpled surround. I knew the most I'd get from the company would be a lunch but thought I might give it as a present to myself. Discovering it was US$5,000 there was no way I'd buy it. However, it so happened that one of our clients was the agent for Patek Philippe. I called him, told him how much I loved that watch and would like to have one. I expected him to offer a discount. No such luck. "Not company policy." He later called me to say there were none of this make of watch in stock. But a new batch would soon arrive. As he was leaving on vacation, he'd told his manager to have one set aside for me. As I was about to say there was no way I could afford it, he said for me there would be a 50% discount! Even then, it was far too expensive and I did not pursue the matter. Just as well because if you do have a high end watch, it is important that it is serviced every 3 years. I cannot believe that is especially cheap! I'd never have a Rolex, though, because I am certain around half the price I'd pay would be what Rolex pays in advertising at events like Wimbledon. Same with Nike which pays humungous amounts to athletes to wear their swoosh. It paid Michael Jordan US$60 million annually. As a result of royalties, that has risen today to US$100 million per year. Roger Federer got US$100 million for a 10-year deal. Rafael Nadal is said to make slightly more. Before his fall from grace and form, Nike paid Tiger Woods US$100 million for 5 years. Rory McIlroy gets US$200 million for 10 years. But Nike's biggest sponsorshp is for the aging soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo now playing in Saudi Arabia. He earns US$24 million per year from the company. And it is the youth market that the biggie sponsors are after. Soon we will know what mega-deals 20-year old tennis Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz will be signing. He has fantastic skills, youth, good looks and great manners on his side. Assuming he goes on winning and attracting gazillions to his social media, I'll put money on the table that the total will be in excess of anything so far dished out!

I liked the slogan and cartoon on T-shirts that were commonly seen on Silom and other Bangkok street vendors 20 and more years ago - AIDS KILLS Don't Be Silly Get That Condom On Your Willy