Pattaya however is a fun place that can be experienced by everyone. The only people that truly need worry are the people who lack self control, and being a novice in this place of extremes and temptation. If you are a skier, Pattaya is most certainly a black diamond trail.

A fresh first timer to any place quickly falls prey to people who look to take advantage. This is universal any place you go. Just take a trip to some holiday tourist trap near your home, and the first thing you will notice is the prices are ridiculous. Food is about 125% to 200% of what you would pay and services are also just as absurd. But to the novice without the experience of local price comparison, the higher price is accepted with little or no question.

However because Pattaya offers so many different things, not everything is over priced. You can go to a basic restaurant for Thai food or you can go to a fancy restaurant and pay more for the same food. It is up to each person to decide on the surroundings they eat at, but the extra cost is spent pleasing your eyes and offers no nutritional value. Thai food is basic and simple so paying extra for a fancy setting can be outdone by a street vendor and often is.

The key in Pattaya is not being a novice and having good self control. After a few beers better judgment starts to fade and in a place of temptation, less than good choices are frequently made. Going with friends is often a wise choice as long as collectively there is enough sober brain cells between the bunch to avoid stupid mistakes. So taking precautions to avoid the traps is a wise move by all who look to indulge in the extremes of Pattaya.

But even the best and most seasoned person can fall prey to a scam. So once again the common sense rule is know the person for at least 1 year before accepting advise or entering into any money making venture. Dealing with organized crime and payoffs is all part of trying to have a business in Pattaya, and this makes the cliffs very steep off that mountain road. Even with a sound business plan things are at a handicap, particularly so with bars and entertainment venues. This all contributes to that zero bank account balance and is part of the price to pay to live and work in pleasure island.

So to summarize, this is part of the price of lax rules and law enforcement, and that is the real trade off. Live in a place that is an over protective super strict politically correct hell, or live in a place where it is up to each person to watch their own ass. If you have what it takes then Pattaya can be your dream lifelong destination free of stress and loaded with smiles. If not then Pattaya becomes the place your mother warned you about when you were young.

Believe it or not, Pattaya is such an extreme place for fun, people who live in Bangkok can only endure a few days at a time. The full on fun of Pattaya can take its toll on the body as well as the wallet. Even that Pattaya is only a 2 hour ride on a bus from Bangkok, it is a world away.

For a non Thai living in Pattaya, they will tell you that they would rather die before going back to their home country. The ironic part is that is no joke. The suicide rate in Pattaya is about one per week. Often these are people that Pattaya has consumed and the display on the ATM machine simply reads ‘Game Over’ with a zero balance with no hope of recovery.

Connecting the Dots did a story some time back that was named “Pattaya’s most extreme sport.” It talked about the unusually high suicide rate and that there are western mental health professionals available to those in deepest despair. Because that link is worth saying again, here it is.

The thought of going back home to some politically correct hell after living in Pattaya is simply too much to take. Imagine being able to tell someone they were attractive without the fear of hurting their feelings or the threat of being sued, then suddenly being thrust back into that world of eggshells and you can see why suicide is seriously contemplated. In Pattaya people are free to be themselves and enjoy what nature intended people to enjoy. Think about why men who long to be men once again and be free of the suffocating political correctness that the west has become, and you can clearly see the mental health connection. To many this form of freedom is priceless.

But Pattaya is not only a male only playground as women also enjoy it. Living and shopping is cheap by most standards. You can live comfortably on 25% of what you would spend in the west. Good food, warm tropical weather, and the only annoyance is the occasional drunk obnoxious tourist. So once a person gets use to the laid back low stress lifestyle Pattaya offers it is hard to go back to anyplace else. Compared to Bangkok’s noise, pollution and traffic, Pattaya is most certainly an upgrade with a view.

One of the down sides of Thailand in general is the lack of accurate information. Without good information, sound financial decisions are a bit like playing the lottery. Pattaya may be a bit worse than the average for bad information. Seeing that a significant number of unsavory people call Pattaya home, they feel obliged to indulge in their bad habits that negatively affect other people. Because of that the down side of this pleasure island is also just as extreme as the fun side.

People who look to open shop in Pattaya be it Thai or non Thai, they must deal with people who spend all their time figuring out how to rip off other people. The thought of a legitimate job for them is off the menu. Considering that the unsavory people probably chose Pattaya because living below the radar is easy, you can begin to see that Pattaya is like a winding mountain road without guardrails.

Next Part 5of 5

To a man that has been to Pattaya once, it becomes a place he dreams about. Pattaya is so far removed from the politically correct world it is actually intoxicating. But as with being intoxicated, foolish choices are made often with disastrous results.

For the person on holiday, 2 weeks in Pattaya can be the reward for dealing with the world for the other 50. Men can be men without having to answer to someone who is trying to force them into a mold that does not fit and by no means is natural. Men enjoy freedom as much as women enjoy shopping without the need to pay for what they buy.

For the most part Pattaya is all about sex, beer and general fun. For a man who has scored a zero on his sex life at home, romping in bed with as many young beautiful Thai women as he has the stamina for is a dream come true. After all sex is part of the purpose of life, so why not partake in the reason we are on the planet.

To say that the lure to Pattaya is other then sex is just a lie meant to shut someone up. There is plenty of other things to do in Pattaya other than sex. Beach activities in, on or over the water are in ample supply. There is just about everything you can imagine in Pattaya. But as Pattaya attracts the good, it also attracts the bad and not everyone is there for sex. The crime rate in Pattaya is much higher on a whole, and many crimes are committed by non Thais. To say that organized crime is not there is simply not true. Elements of major organized crime are found there from a variety of places. But if you behave yourself and only interact with the people who work there, for the most part you will be fine.

One of the biggest pitfalls for a tourist in Pattaya is being manipulated with sex. Let that happen and you will soon be looking at empty bank accounts and an empty bed. There have been many men that have fallen prey to the charms of a Thai women who has figured out the money game. They play for money and not love. Unfortunately for the average tourist they do not know what to look for as warning signs. All they see is a beautiful woman who can rock their world between the sheets who is in need of money.

For these men (and there are plenty) they feel a bit like a spiders prey that has just been cut loose from the web as all that remains is an empty shell. They are broke with not even enough money to eat. They in turn seek help from wherever they can find it being their countries Embassy to friends at home. Many cases they are out and out robbed of things like phones, computers, and passports. This only happens to people that have forgotten the rules of keeping your wits and never fully expose yourself to anyone who you have not known for at least 1 year.

Next Part 4 of 5

For many Thais Pattaya is a place a lot of money can be made. But as the world is not the wonderful loving and caring place that Catholic schools teach about, there is a price to pay for that big money.

It is no secret to Thais that Pattaya offers many opportunities to access money from beyond the borders of Thailand. Some Thais head to Pattaya in search of a husband, some head there for work that is not part of the sex industry, and some go with the specific intent of partaking in the sex industry. But because no plan is perfect Pattaya does offer many things with plenty of defects.

Thais in search of a foreign husband will find plenty of men, but unfortunately most are sex tourists not looking for commitment at this particular time in their lives. But then again if the young Thai woman can manage to capture his heart, she may have lucked out and found love.

There is at least 1 village in Surin (a Provence in northeast Thailand) that has used Pattaya to prosper. Many families from that village pack their young virgin daughters into a bus and take them to Pattaya looking to sell their virginity for a significant chunk of cash. Many of these girls are between 15 and 17 years old. What often happens is the charm of a young innocent Thai wins over the heart of the man who deflowered her as she is encouraged to stay with him and not make it just one round of sex. So at this point the man feels he is about the luckiest man in the world to have a young beautiful Thai as a girlfriend. So to keep her for himself he sponsors her to return to her village in Surin so she will not be with other men.

The pitfall of this is because she is under 18, he can not get a visa for her to return to his home in whatever country he is from. So she will be receiving money from him every month to stay at home and wait for the time he can get her a visa. That amount of cash is often much more than the actual need.

But not all stories have such a happy ending. There are many Thais who go in search of money and not love. They end up working in various places from restaurants to hotels to massage. Some may even try to set up their own small vending business. Some may take a job as service staff in a Go-Go bar and eventually fall prey to the temptation of money. What they make in a month can be made with 2 or 3 men in a bed. So before long the girl has traded in her working uniform for a chrome pole to dance with.

There are many more Thais who simply can not make the cut in Pattaya and for them there is loss of face as the entire reason they are there is to support their family back in the village they came from. That can lead to decisions that are unfortunate to put it in a nice way in a place that is so different from the loving and caring village they call home.

Next Part 3 of 5

In the Pinocchio story there is a place called ‘Pleasure Island’ that is filled with wonderful exciting and fun things. It is also a place of peril and that if you stay too long you eventually turn into a donkey. In the real life Pleasure Island that is in Thailand, it is filled with wonderful exciting fun things as well as perils. The one difference is you won’t turn into a donkey, but there is a good chance you will turn into an ass.

The place is called Pattaya Thailand, and it is an adult playground like non other. There is every form of fun you can imagine for a tropical paradise from Para sailing, scuba diving, beaches, bars, discos and plenty of sex. As Thailand has a reputation of being a sex playground, if Thailand were a sex mine, Pattaya would be the Mother Load vein.

Pattaya is a community that is on the go 24 hours a day. You can sit and watch the main Beach Road change and evolve every 2 or 3 hours into something new. At Dawn roughly 6:00 am there are the morning joggers and beach walkers. By 9:00 am venders have set up shop. By 10:00 am many beer bars open and an early crowd starts to wander in. By 1:00 pm some of the Go-Go bars start to open and almost all bars except the evening Go-Go bars are open. By 3:00 pm free lance prostitutes start to appear in greater numbers. By 6:00 pm things start to pickup and the mood of Beach Road changes from beach goers to party goers. By 8:00 pm there is a near continuous flow of people heading out for a night of whatever fits their desires. The vendors for the most part start packing it in and only store fronts remain into the evening. The party mood continues to rise to about 1:00 am and then a slow decline to about 5:00 am as revelers walk, ride or stagger back home often in the company of someone they had just met. Then the cycle starts all over again.

There are basically 4 groups of people that you will find in Pattaya. There are Thais who live and work there who are not part of the sex industry, and then there are the ones that are. There are non Thais who are on holiday and the ones that live there. This story will cover all four groups.

In general Pattaya is a world onto its own, and no matter who visits there is subject to the same perils of police who can rotate their heads 180 degrees to look the other way, or fine you on your shoe being untied. Needless to say law enforcement is not universal, it is very selective based on who pays who for what. But all that aside Pattaya is a great place to have fun if you stay in control of your senses. Loose control and you will discover the dark side of Pattaya that is Pattaya eats peoples lives leaving many in dismal despair.

Next Part 2 of 5

Nearly everyone has got a few of I need your help emails. They are clearly bogus to all but the most novice of Internet and email users. So if you have ever thought about where these scam artists are, you may be a bit surprised.

This ripoff has been going for about as long as email has been around. Governments with agencies like the FBI  have been involved in nailing these people down. Some older but unverified information Connecting the Dots has is that emails coming from certain countries or places are flagged or marked and eventually result in raids to catch the culprits.

So now after a few raids and some jail time being dispensed by the courts, a countering tactic is being used by the scam artists. That tactic is to fly to other countries where they can stay for an extended period of time on a tourist or other type of visa. As it would be Thailand is one of the places that now inadvertently hosts these scam artists.

Our information comes second hand but non the less we feel it is accurate. Many of the scam artists are hanging in and about Internet cafes in and around the Nana area of Bangkok. Recently there has been a huge influx of people from the originating countries that the scam artists come from, and apparently they have set up shop blasting out their scam letters.

There is a growing community of crime being setup in a small two block area that caters to people from the Middle East and some African countries. In fact a nickname has been given to Sukhumvit Soi 3/1 as Soi Al Qaeda as there has been at least one high profile arrest in the area associated with terrorism and dozens of fake passports.

The Nana area of Bangkok is a tourist area as well as the location of several embassies. It is also an area that part of Bangkok’s naughty nightlife can be found with several venues including Go-Go bars and beer bars. It is a very mixed community with dozens of countries represented.

Stopping the scam artists becomes a much more difficult task than catching a greased pig. They are part of a well organized network. The person that contacts you is apparently just a fisher. Once they get a bite the communication is handed off to someone else who may be called a milker as they search for the potential victim’s soft spot. This person is likely in a different location near to where the potential funds will be sent to.

So until a money transfer has been made no crime has been committed. The fishers for the most part although are involved in organized crime are breaking no laws and thus nearly impossible to stop. They do not get the money directly so no crime is committed by them. They simply have passed along information about a person.

There is one website / blog that encourages people to engage these scam artists eating up their time and reducing the list of their potential victims. If you have the time and are looking for a new hobby, play this game stringing the scam artist along as they open their bag of sob stories. As long as you know the game, you can keep them tied up for months with leads that look promising to them but are ultimately dry wells.

The number if instances of banking fraud in Malaysia is on the rise. So much so that some American banks have pulled the plug on allowing ATM and debit card transactions from there.

So here you are on a wonderful holiday away from home, and you have decided to explore southeast Asia as a getaway. The wonderful charming cultures of the region can certainly help round out life’s experiences and enrich your wisdom. That is until you discover your ATM card does not work even that the ATM machine is sporting the proper banking network logo. That can very quickly cause panic, particularly if it was not expected and your wallet is empty.

The cases of banking fraud have risen dramatically in the last few months. So much so the banks have simply gotten tired of getting ripped off. So in one painful mouse click, Malaysia was removed from the family of working ATM machines and card readers /scanners.

This does not mean all American banks will be disabled. Each bank has the ability to disable a country. But that does leave a dilemma if you discover this after you arrive. People have grown accustom to just finding an ATM to access their money, and the days of American Express travelers checks have passed into obsoleteness or so one would think.

In recent months Thailand has been on a serious crackdown on banking fraud. Particularly so when an influential Thai was ripped off for millions of Baht. And yes Thailand too suffers from the same painful bank mouse click if you care to check. So what this suggests is the crackdown is working in Thailand, and the criminals have moved to the next best neighborhood being Malaysia.

However all is not lost. Some banks have been busy refining the options on that painful banning mouse click. If you plan to travel to a blocked country, simply check with your bank’s fraud protection department and see if they can add your account to an exempt list. This will allow your card to function normally with all the fees banks like to charge. Your other option would be the good old fashion travelers check.

This does not mean you will be free from risk. The bank may ask for some sort of waver of responsibility should you become a victim in a blocked country. So the suggested plan is to learn about how bank fraud is being done.

In Thailand it was false faces on ATM Machines to capture PIN numbers. So selecting an ATM that is not in a secluded place was part of the suggested self protection measures. Now the ATM machines have been fitted with some sort of devise that makes the false face very obvious to the untrained eye or impossible to install on an ATM.

The bottom line is check with your bank before your grab your passport and fly off as it could keep your getaway a dream and not a nightmare.

From time to time there is a story that pushes your buttons and just makes you angry. Ripping off people is bad enough, but when a reputable hospital starts ripping off sick patients, that just makes people angry.

Imagine if you would that you have some sort of medical condition that forces you to take some medication. Take for example insulin to help treat diabetes. A diabetic person is forced to refill their prescription regularly as insulin has a limited shelf life of about a month. Typically an established diabetic patient who knows how to handle their diabetes would be required to see a doctor once or twice a year. This is normal and does make all the sense in the world when you come and think about it.

What is happening as Connecting the Dots has investigated at least one hospital in Bangkok is forcing their diabetic patients to see a doctor at every refill. What that simply means is added costs to the patient from 10% to 100% depending on the cost of the prescription refill.

The hospital has decided this is necessary but in fact it is not. If you make enough noise or simply threaten to change hospitals, they will refill your prescription without seeing the doctor. However they will also try to slip in some added fees like nursing charges, and if you make noise about them as well they also will disappear.

From the outside it sends a bad message about the doctors who work their. It suggests that they are a bunch of inept fools if they can not make a proper diagnoses and need to see people for every prescription refill. The need to see them without reason tends to significantly erode respect in their ability and that of the hospital as well.

Connecting the Dots by chance talked to 5 people who had the same experience, and that was enough to fire-up the keyboard and write this post. We did not look past diabetic out patients, but in the sense if it is good for one then it must be good for all. So with that you can make your own assumptions as to how wide spread this rip off tactic goes.

The Hospital at the center of this is Bangkok Nursing Hospital (BNH), as there is no need to be anonymous with this. It is very clear this decision to rip off the sick is coming from non medical people. Very simply doctors would never deliberately dirty their own face by showing they don’t know what they are doing. The fact is the doctors at BNH are qualified, but someone looking to fatten their wallet at the expense of the sick is at the center of this scam.

There has been suggestions that this practice is seen in other hospitals. So the way to find out if you are being ripped off is simply check around both inside and outside of Thailand what is the norm for maintenance of your condition. If you discover that the frequency of doctor visits and tests do not match, it is suggested that some action be taken privately and publically. Medical tourism is a big part of Thailand’s self marketing. So of the government gets wind of this through very public means being the media or other, the practice will very quickly come to an end as this also dirties the face of Thailand as well.

Discovering That Thaksin was using different names in his stack of passports was news but yet not unexpected. Typically criminals do try to hide their identity to avoid capture.

Reading between the lines, this simply says Thaksin’s life is no where near as rosy as he tries to make it out to be. He is doing what common criminals do by pretending to be something else. This is nothing new anyways, as cases in the court pertaining to Thaksin’s billions have the same situation being what is on paper does not match reality. Simply Thaksin lies regularly about nearly everything. If he were Pinocchio he would have a nose miles long by now.

The name change now has other problems. It will be very easy to put an end to the royal pardon petition if you think about it and there would be little fuss that could be kicked up by pro Thaksin protesters. Thaksin changed his name so very simply the petition is invalid.

Looking into the true life of Thaksin you will find that nearly 100% of his waking time is involved in buying and manipulating people. So changing his name on passports is just part of that game.

How this will play out amongst his lesser educated supporters remains to be seen. Certainly it will make them think as to why Thaksin is doing that. No matter what they finally conclude it most certainly  will be more negative. The first obvious thought would be if he is accepted by heads of state as he claims, why does he need to hide who he is? When you couple that with his traitor image you can start to see popularity erosion on the logical thinking level even in the lesser educated.

This exposes the key to finally root Thaksin’s support out. Loss of image and face, coupled together with a new and better source of prosperity and Thaksin will simply be a memory no less significant than a wonderful meal.

This also invites the ‘Give Thaksin a Name’ game. It is easy to play and most certainly will be a popular drinking game. After all Thaksin himself has given people the idea. So aside from names that portray his physical characteristics, there certainly will be a creative selection to be joked about. So Connecting the Dots asks what name would you give Thaksin?

Unfortunately for Thailand, fraud, piracy and scams are the norm. and as it would be, Thais are not the only culprits. There are plenty of non Thais playing the game. But when it comes to the need of finding western professional help particularly when it comes to mental health, identifying the real deal can be a bit of a problem.

There are some jobs that are for Thais only and you can not get a work permit even if you are fully qualified. Doctors are just one such job. A non Thai doctor simply can not work as a doctor in Thailand. Although they make the option available, there is a written test that must be taken, and it is all in Thai. And even if you do manage to pass the test, granting a work permit is discretionary and not guaranteed.

Generally speaking in the medical field this is not a problem. An infection is an infection, a broken bone is a broken bone, and an inflamed appendix is an inflamed appendix no matter what language you speak or what color your skin is. The treatment is the same so in this case medicine becomes universal.

However when it comes to mental health it becomes another story. psychiatrists are doctors and the same Thai only laws apply. That is because psychiatrists are the only people in the mental health field that can prescribe medications. Psychologists and others can not, even if that person holds a doctorates in psychology. So once the psychiatrist gives you the psychiatric medication you are quickly off to your new private world masking all the problems.

Psychologists, clinical hypnotherapists and other such mental health professionals simply work with the grey matter between the ears. However as each country has different electric voltages, so do the way people think. When it comes to counseling or various forms of psychotherapy, if the counselor and the client do not have common ground being life experiences, it becomes difficult or impossible for the counseling/therapy to move forward. That is because talking about life experiences to use as examples during counseling is a necessary tool. To talk about sick buffalos or a poor rice harvest as a reference point when you are more use to dealing with rush hour traffic in New York, you can quickly see the problem as to how therapy can quickly stall and you begin to think this professional is a nut case. Because of that there is a need for western mental health professionals in Thailand.

Because this profession so closely mirrors a Thai only job, the need to hide or be deceptive about credentials is a necessary evil to get a work permit. A person who holds a doctors degree in psychology or clinical hypnotherapy may need to hide that fact if their additional qualifications come to close to that Thai only job. Because of that, it adds to the difficulty of identifying a qualified western mental health professional working in Thailand.

In places that have high foreign populations like Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, there are plenty of people who claim to be mental health professionals but are actually not qualified at all. Then again there are some who are qualified but are not allowed to work because they lack a proper visa and work permit. So this leaves a person in need with a real dilemma.

but as it would be it appears help is on the horizon. Connecting the Dots was made aware of a seed that is being planted that will hopefully provide an answer. International schools in Thailand have the need to send some of their students and perhaps the entire family to counseling if a situation is having a negative effect on the student. So they have requested from the real counselors that some sort of self governing body be created to insure the best possible professional help is available.

Eventually this new body looks to be available to the general public some time in 2010. Perhaps you could call this the ‘Seal Of Approval’ and should set you mind at rest that the people listed have been checked out. There is little more than a single web page announcing this at the moment, and you can see it here and it is worth bookmarking. But no matter how you look at it, this eventually will be a good thing for ex-pats in Thailand.

Deliberate misrepresentation of healthcare reform just to kill the bill is just immoral no matter how you cut it. Whoever is sowing this misinformation is doing so to serve themselves and not the American people.

Few things in life are as important as one’s health. Without good health the quality of life is reduced. So to spread misinformation to scare people away and to change opinion resulting in attacks on politicians who truly have the peoples best interest in mind, is down right immoral as well as unethical. To deliberately deny someone their health, amounts to passive murder if you come and think about it.

One bit of false information being spread was euthanasia is part of the healthcare reform bill. The simple fact is it is not, but tricking people into thinking there is euthanasia in the bill is actually euthanasia itself. If the bill was passed sick people would be allowed affordable healthcare, without it self elected euthanasia becomes their only choice.

Why someone would do this is answered by looking at who is doing it. Connecting the Dots does not want to name names simply because we are not exactly sure who started it, but we do know who is expert at planting the suggestion as covered in a previous post.

A picture of President Obama touched up to make him look like Adolf Hitler is part of this misinformation campaign designed to scare people, there is no other reason.

President Obama spent a significant amount of time and effort to debunk these lies. So to tie up The President for over 10 days simply shows the effort being put into perpetuating these lies.

Americans simply need to understand they are being manipulated and to stop reacting to the manipulation. What they need to do is go after the manipulators in no uncertain terms and deal with these people who would sacrifice the health of countless others for their own self serving reasons. As raw as it is, it seems a good old fashion lynch mob may be the correct medicine for this ailment to send the proper message. To spread a lie that may inconvenience people is one thing, to spread a lie that may kill them is quite another. So in this case a lynch mob seems to be balanced as the people who are creating these lies that may make people needlessly sacrifice their lives have essentially chosen the strength of the medicine.

If you have ever taken a child shopping, they would very quickly load up the trolley with everything that caught their eye if you allowed it. So paying respect to your wallet and not looking to spoil the child, the word ‘no’ is frequently used. But when an adult is told ‘no’ on one of his personal selections, it clearly shows something someplace is terribly wrong.

In Iran the President is allowed to pick his Vice President, or supposedly to at least give the appearance of democracy. But when Ahmadinejad selected his Vice President, he was promptly told to put him back and select another. This simple event sheds a lot of clarity and opens the door for many paths of debate. Some of them if not all of them are an embarrassment to Iran.

Some of the possible debates can be that Ahmadinejad is a complete idiot and is not capable of making his own decisions. This can be supported by his demonstration of failed history lessons on the Holocaust. That along with other rants that make absolutely no sense at all lend support to that theory.

Another possible debate is this is just further evidence that the recent Iran presidential elections were nothing more than a farce, and the outcome was established before anyone went out to vote. So the person who decided on who the president should be, is also deciding who the Vice President should be. This is also another path of debate, but it is not an either or choice where both could be true.

So once again it brings up the point of the protests in Iran. Apparently there is cause and effect here. So as to properly resolve the problem, the cause must be eliminated so as to stop the effect. The outcome of the presidential elections was clearly an effect. The cause is the country’s dictator hiding in the robes of a Cleric calling the shots.

With that scenario, it seems to be wasted energy at this point fighting over the puppet position of President of Iran. To allow the false democracy that is portrayed in Iran to be real, the dictator must be addressed and removed from power. Only then will the voice of the people be heard.

Once again the people of Iran are showing the world that not all Muslims are bad. The fruits of that image are already being felt around the world. The desired portrayal of hardline Muslims that all Muslims are of the same hardline breed is being quickly shattered by the events in Iran. In short, the protests in Iran are globally undoing all the stereotype damage cause by Muslim hardliners and Muslim terrorists that the world has been watching for decades. For this there is little doubt that Muslims around the world are grateful for what the Iran protests are doing.

When it comes to dealing with Thaksin Shinawatra, nothing is face value. There are layers upon layers of deception when it comes to sorting out the truth.

When dealing with Thaksin in a business venture, it is almost certain the venture will be investigated. This is because of the increasingly obvious method of how Thaksin makes deals. Thaksin has managed to call attention to himself in the western world’s business circles, and what was once a Thai only problem has now spread to other countries.

With Thaksin’s track record, it seems impossible for him to do anything straight forward over the table. There is always some shady under dealings that allow Thaksin to reap financial benefits unseen. Last year Connecting the Dots did a story called “Thaksin’s ‘Hide the Real Owner’ game with Manchester City begins.”  What was reflected in our story nearly a year ago, is now being seen in the news article below.

That story was followed up later with “Manchester City sale ruse” and once again you start to see the dots talked about in the story below.

Although the sale was said to have been completed, something did not sit right as it did not fit Thaksin. As a result Connecting the Dots mostly took a wait and see position on this, and did not accept the face value of the sale.

Quoting the Nation;

Thaksin ghost haunts Premier League again

Thaksin Shinawatra’s shadows continue to loom over the Premier League and may cause the football governing body to block Sulaiman al-Fahim’s supposed 60m-pound takeover of Portsmouth despite his installation as the club’s chairman yesterday.

The Guardian’s website reported that the takeover is being subject to more investigations because of fears Thaksin might have a hand in it.

Reports in the Gulf claimed Fahim had completed his takeover and they were fuelled by the Pompey chief executive, Peter Storrie, who yesterday implied on Portsmouth’s website that the club had exited a formal takeover period. Fahim has passed the Premier League’s “fit and proper person” test and is now permitted to take a position on a club’s board.

However, according to the Guardian, despite his being installed as chairman, the paperwork that will formally give him ownership of the club has not been processed and the Premier League will seek to ensure that he is not acting for any third parties before allowing the deal to go through. It said yesterday: “As with all changes in club ownership, the Premier League will continue to monitor any material changes in circumstance.”

“The league’s caution is understandable since it must be satisfied he is not acting as a representative for Thaksin Shinawatra. The former Thai prime minister is understood to be living in Dubai and described himself last month as a “close friend” of Fahim but he would not pass league governance tests having been found guilty of corruption in absentia and sentenced to two years’ jail in Thailand last year,” The Guardian said.

Thaksin’s long-term adviser, Pairoj Piempongsant, was reportedly involved in the introduction of the two men. Fahim’s initial admission that his Al Fahim Asia Associates investment instrument had backers from the Gulf and the Far East prompted scrutiny of his relationship with Thaksin.

Fahim has since claimed he is the sole shareholder of Al Fahim Asia Associates, with Thaksin distancing himself from involvement at Portsmouth, The Guardian said.

The league is under pressure to uphold its ownership regulations, with a report from the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force stating last month: “Many clubs are financially in bad shape and their financial trouble could urge football clubs to accept funds from dubious parties.”

It added: “Football clubs are indeed seen by criminals as the perfect vehicles for money laundering [and] criminals often seek a status outside the criminal world, and football can offer the opportunity for acquiring such a patron status.”

Fahim, 32, becomes chairman of a heavily indebted club with only 14 outfield players in the first-team squad. However, he has persuaded Paul Hart to accept a two-year contract as manager and Storrie, who is among the highest-paid executives in the Premier League, remains as chief executive.

The democratic protests have fallen mostly silent in Iran for fear of unthinkable punishment. The seeds of democracy in Iran seem to have failed. But not because they were wrong, it is because they can only grow in the soil of a true democracy.

Stepping back and looking at the big picture, Iran has a dictator who has been hiding in the robes of religion. The position of President of Iran is actually only a facade that gives the illusion of democracy. Iran’s dictator will only allow a person who shares his views to hold that post. So with that thought, we do not see an election that was tainted, we actually see an election that never was.

What the people of Iran were protesting for is turning out to be a hollow shell, and that simply meant whatever loss of life there was during the protests, was for nothing.

This power structure in Iran was no secret, the Clerics behind the scenes were always seen as the power brokers. The position of President was created mostly to keep problems at bay both domestically and internationally. It allowed certain international privileges to be reaped because Iran was seen as democratic, while at the same time gave the people the illusion that they had a voice in the direction of their country.

Now that this farce has been exposed, what was once tamed with the illusion of democracy has now been aroused to anger. New tactics will be used, and with the bulk of the population young and eager to deal with this dictator, a top to bottom cleaning approach will be the task and not just the facade post of President.

To the west and particularly the US, this simply spells the start of allies inside the border of Iran. A growing undergrown movement will eventually take root being sooner than later if it has not started already. But those in Iran must reach out, because the US can not reach in.

The ramifications of this with the nuclear issue in Iran have changed the playing field, but it is too soon to say where all the pieces are.

Diplomatically other countries can look to bypass the President of Iran as it is clear he is just a puppet with a mouth who failed his history lessons on World War II. They can look to deal directly with the dictator. Before other countries had to deal with the facade, but now this provides the excuse not to. This will have the effect of showing the worlds discontentment with the violent events of a dictator securing his grip on power.

It is entirely possible that the position of President of Iran could be discontinued after a while seeing that the true reason it existed no longer exists.

Change is still coming in Iran, but not the way originally advertized. The people of Iran who truly want to change their country, have many more friends beyond the border of Iran than they realize. But these friend can only stand behind them as each country must fight its own battle for freedom.