caller wrote:And I would just like to pubicly pass on my apologies to Jockey. (should read "publicly" to change it further would detract from Jaimes next post!!! Read on)
I re-read what he wrote and there's a lot of emotion there. I think maybe that kind of influenced his tone and how I interpreted it.
If he'll accept, a beers on me next time I'm in HH.
Nothing that has been written here has changed my opinion or views, although I'm open to ideas.
Interesting to noted the shift in reporting today, looking at Israeli casualties, maybe its not so newsworthy to keep doing the other? Thats my cyniicism about the press, by the way.
I guess these topics are just not appropriate for a forum like this? Everyone has their own opinions and maybe they're best kept quiet.
I've learnt my lesson.
Well said Caller. Of course everybody has an opinion on such an emotive subject and some of us receive different information than others. We also all have different influences both current and historical.
I lived for many years, just across the road from you in civilised Berkshire and I know that if I made some of the statements that the freedom of this forum allows me I would have probably had my head kicked in many times in the local pub. At the best I would have been in a vociferous majority.
As Pete says. What can we do about it but move if we disagree with the policies of our home nation and its friends. That is what many of us have done.
The point here is that in Thailand we are allowed the freedom of speech that the western societies boast of but do not actually deliver. Double standards appply. Also there is evidence to me, having lived in the west for so much of my life that, however freely you think your thoughts are you are always inadvertantly being brainwashed by the western media either directly or via the opinions of your peers who are exposed to the same media sources themselves. Of course other in the world are exposed to mother forms of brainwashing from sources with their own interests.
Travel allows the opening of the mind and the ability to hear a completely hear opinion.
If this forum is not the correct place to discuss this then I would like to know where it could be discussed openly. I suspect many such sites in the west would be monitored.
I have had my feelings for many years about the Middle East particularly and the involvement of the west in its affairs. I feel more comfortable and have found many more like minded thinkers here than I ever did in the UK or the US.
Pete
