PeterRS2

That's a long time. Was it to the earlier Gay Thailand site? I've been on it and this for more than 20 years, but of course GT was going for longer. So I defer to your longevity.

My bank arranges the cover through my credit card but the insurance is placed with either Zurich Insurance or Allianz and these companies provide the policies. And yes I have read the detail and am happy with it - so far!

The 2025 Department of Health Service Report reported - Reviewing statistics on school violence undermining the mental health of Thai youth in 2025, the Department of Health Service Support found that 65.54% of Thai youth have experienced bullying. The Consumer Council revealed survey results covering four dimensions of school violence. The data is gained from relatively small groups - physical violence (337 respondents involving hitting, punching and kicking), verbal violence (335 respondents involving emotional abuse, gossip and sarcastic remarks, mockery of body shape or personality), social violence (337 respondents involving mocking and shaming in front of others, spreading rumours, exclusion from groups), cyberbullying (336 respondents involving posting insulting or derogatory messages, spreading rumours, exclusion from online groups). Various sectors made the following six proposals to the Department of Education to promote Thai schools as a safe environment for all pupils - 1. Establish accessible mental health care systems by allocating sufficient resources, training teachers to provide in-depth student support, and implementing monitoring systems for at-risk individuals. 2. Improve infrastructure safety by enhancing security measures in schools, such as secure restrooms, strict control of e-cigarettes and drugs, and prevention of unauthorized persons. 3. Address cyberbullying seriously by incorporating online rights and violence issues into curricula and training teachers to understand these problems. 4. Protect children's rights and create participatory spaces by providing safe complaint channels and enabling students and student councils to monitor and communicate issues. 5. Strengthen family roles in mental health care by educating parents on depression and risky behaviors to make homes safe environments. 6. Develop sex education and sexual harassment prevention by training teachers and students on bodily rights, sexual diversity, and establishing counseling centers in schools. These proposals stem from collaboration among various sectors, emphasizing that creating safe schools is not the responsibility of any single party but requires joint effort to ensure children grow up effectively and safely. https://en.thairath.co.th/scoop/infographic/2951346 If the Education Department is anything like some government departments of which I have direct experience, I fear little if anything will change! I also suspect the above is not dissimilar to many other societies, yet does not explain why violence is quite deeply rooted in parts of Thai society.

I am sorry I cannot help because I know virtually nothing about schools in the Thai educational system. What I do know is that once kids get out of the main school system there are certain secondary vocational and technical colleges particularly in Bangkok where groups of students are virtually in open gang warfare with one another. Frequently the police do not want to get involved, even though students are sometimes killed. I find this quote from The Taipei Times shocking! Two years ago, a gunbattle in broad daylight at a gas station, involving a motorbike chase, left one student dead and two other people wounded. Au, a 19-year-old studying to be a car mechanic at Thonburi Technical College, was one of those who fought at the gas station. “It’s not about politics. The fight is just to prove that we are better than them. It’s about dignity. We can’t stand their insults,” he said. Prosecutors decided that Au and his friends acted in self-defense, so no case was brought against them. Police have little appetite for tackling violence among students. https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2023/11/04/2003808682 I can also recall the case from 2018 when a student who was helping his mother at her roadside stall was shot and killed by a student from a rival college driving by on a motorbike. The 21-year old in this article below was killed with a gunshot to the head. He was a student at the Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok Uthenthawai Campus. There students seem to have a particular rivalry with students at the Pathumwan Institute of Technology whiich is near the MBK Center. https://www.vice.com/en/article/student-shot-dead-as-thailands-strange-trend-of-university-gang-violence-resurfaces/ This vdo of a brawl involving knives was between two sets of students at MBK Center last year. With the police more or less having given up on trying to end this 50 year rivalry - yes, it has lasted that long - my only advice is run if you see groups of students seemingly on the warpath. What I have outlined goes way beyond bullying, but I suspect the Thai education system has to tolerate it if school leavers end up in gangs.

Can't be expensive if you paid for it 😉

I wonder if the Administrator could advise members when the upgrade will be complete. Three times this morning I have received the following message on screen - We're sorry, but a temporary technical error has occurred which means we cannot display this site right now. Too many connections You can try again by clicking the button below, or try again later.

Yet another one - but this time in Thailand. Two days ago at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School northwest of Bangkok a 14-year old took a gun belonging to his grandfather, allegedly shot both his grandparents and then took the handgun to school where he killed three teachers and two school officials before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. Yesterday he claimed another victim when a 12-year old schoolgirl died. 14 remain in hospital of whom seven are in serious condition. Most of the wounded are children aged between 12 and 14. Within hours of Friday’s shooting rampage, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledged to introduce a new firearms control law in the country. Anutin, who previously tightened gun laws during his tenure as interior minister, said he would now propose a law to restrict the carrying of firearms by the public. “The new law will only allow government officials on duty to carry guns,” he told reporters, without giving any further details. Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, second only to Pakistan and far surpassing its Southeast Asian neighbours. Thailand is estimated to have 10.3 million guns in private ownership, 40% of which are not registered. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/8/families-retrieve-bodies-after-deadly-shooting-rampage-outside-bangkok The East Asia Forum website had a long article in December 2023 outlining why Thailand has so many guns in private ownership. It is believed that a large proportion of the guns in Thailand are from the so-called ‘gun welfare program’, which allows government officers, including retired police officers and state-owned enterprise staff, to buy personal guns at cheaper than the market rate. The Thai government initiated this program in 2009 and the latest round of ‘invitation to participate’ was circulated among ministries in April 2022. The official rationale of this program is to enable these officers ‘to perform one’s duty and to protect one’s own life and property’ . . . A significant portion of these illegal weapons are Thai-style homemade guns capable of firing .22 or .38 calibre bullets. This ‘local wisdom’ has been passed down through generations, predating the 1947 Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, Fireworks, and the Equivalent of Firearms Act. The ubiquity of these homemade guns — even on online platforms — after nearly a century of gun control, underscores the sustained demand for firearms in Thailand . . . Thailand’s elevated gun ownership is likely rooted in the populace’s diminishing faith in law and order. Other factors such as toxic masculinity norms and high levels of tolerance for violence have also played significant roles. https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/12/13/thailands-growing-gun-problem/

As one who does from time to time introduce political, historical or cultural elements into posts, I partly agree, especially in this particular thread. If I recall correctly, back years ago moderators would find a way of pulling such elements into a new thread. On the other hand, with @jimmie50 being so wonderfully frank and open about his path with Cam and outlining future plans, I think it is inevitable that such discussions sometimes move into tangents that are bascially very relevant. Since 1950 very little has occurred in the Asian continent worse that the US decision to start illegal wars in Cambodia and Laos and play a trick based on a lie that persuaded Congress to agree to military action against North Vietnam. This period lasted approximately 20-23 years depending on how you interpret Truman's initial actions. It had a massive effect on Cambodia that still continues with the heavy involvement of China - and Cambodia is @jimmie50's new home, even though having made the decision there was a lot of history he did not at the time appreciate.

I am only a lapsed Christian and so I take almost everything in the Old Testament with a large grain of salt. The best thing to come out of the David and Jonathan tale is in my view Handel's wonderful masterpiece - his oratorio Saul first peformed in London in 1739. It is surely Handel's most striking setting of any Biblical drama. Many will actually know part of it as the "Dead March" is played at the funerals of many major figures worldwide. In the oratorio it is played following the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. There is also a poignant final lament "O fatal day" by David when he grieves for the loss of Jonathan. The recording below was made back in the 1970s with the superb Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras along with the English countertenor James Bowman. It remains one of the finest, even though more modern versions generally use a smaller orchestra and chorus. Endowed with a rich countertenor voice and appearing at a time when countertenors were only beginning to come into fashion in opera and concerts, Bowman helped establish the voice, especially in the early music repertoire. Ironically, though, Handel wrote the part of David for a female mezzo-soprano voice. Bowman made almost 200 commercial recordings.

It's been almost 33 years since the actor River Phoenix died from an overdose of several drugs. He was just 23 but one of the leading young actors of his generation. His coming of age drama movie Stand By Me directed by the late Rob Reiner is being re-released to mark its 40th anniversary. Most may recall My Private idaho where he plays a gay street hustler for which he received several accolades. For one so relatively young, I had no idea he was in 16 mostly major movies. These are discussed in an article in Thursday's Guardian newspaper. Three decades ago, queer parts for straight-identifying actors were still thought of largely as awards bids (see William Hurt’s transparently covetous performance in Kiss of the Spider Woman) or career-killers (even at the end of the 1990s, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio all turned down Brokeback Mountain). In that context, the boldness of Phoenix and Keanu Reeves in unselfconsciously playing sex workers in My Own Private Idaho, a kind of Midnight Cowboy cross-pollinated with Shakespeare’s Henry plays, should not be underestimated. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/06/james-dean-has-got-nothing-on-that-kid-river-phoenix-films-ranked

Not my balcony? 😵

The balancing selection threory, the older brother theory and others clearly do not to work in those countries where the number of children per couple has been falling for years and is still falling - Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and many others. No matter what these governments do - dating nights, cash incentives for more children etc. has worked AFIK. The vdo also does not consider straight, married men who become homosexual later in life - and there are several who have confirmed this on this Board. It also does not look at men who have been very gay up to their 60s who then "turn" straight, as has a friend of mine whom I got to know in Hong Kong and now lived in New York for over 10 years with his wife. As the OP vdo ends, it stresses the diversity of humans are features in the human story - as we are well aware from corrrespondents on this Board 🤪 . Interesting that being gay are one of humanities "oldest traits".

Very true!

https://airinsight.com/lufthansa-joins-emirates-in-rejecting-early-build-777-9s/

I am glad you are there to correct errors and add additional points not in the newspaper articles from which I quoted and which are included in my post. Thank you.