It has been another two weeks of the “can they or can't they pin something illegal on Wacky Tacky” show. I think the moral case has been made several times over, but this is LOS and what is immoral is not necessarily illegal. As a Nation leader pointed out, nailing WT for something that everybody has been doing for years might break the rice bowl of future government ministers.
In Western terms the trading of his wife and children would have raised several questions that no answer would have satisfied. It does seem likely that the revenue department is about to take about $3 million off the two oldest children in respect of the Shin deal, but that is a symbolic pin prick!
Nobody seems to want to answer the question of why the deal was ruled tax free by the revenue department when it happened, but has now been ruled not tax free by the same people.
The Leader in today's Nation sums up the above is much stronger language.
Otherwise, all seems to be quiet, with the change of government only a reality if you read the newspapers.

This week I have several bigger stories in Scuttlebutt so for ease these are the links and the headlines.

Stickman stalked
A very expensive gogo for sale
Farang managers: good or bad?
Date rape drugs
Thanksgiving Party

Stickman stalked
One of the talking points of the week has been the removal of the stickmanbangkok.com site from the net. The reason for its demise is that what many of us first thought was a bit of fun has actually turned very nasty.
The notstickman site started as though it was a mickey take on Stickman and I think most of us were mildly amused. I even posted a link to the site here a few weeks ago. However, I did not realise, nor I fear did many people, that this guy is in reality a stalker. And sadly, as with most stalkers, he has eventually become dangerous.
He started posting personal information about Stickman and ended up publishing pictures of his co-workers and trying to identify the school were Stickman works. Suddenly we realised this was not a piss take, but somebody trying to harm Stickman.
The web boards were full of supporters of both sides, although the consensus was that notstickman, also called John Galt, was out of order. And I agree.
Stickman is not always right; in fact he is sometimes very wrong and a number of bar owners have taken grave exception to the misinformation he has posted. I don't believe the inaccuracies were anything other than a slip-up, and to be fair, I doubt they ever did anybody any real damage. It goes back to the old adage that there is only one thing worse than bad publicity, and that's no publicity.
Most websites try hard to get their facts right, but I'm sure that even I get it wrong, sometimes. The problem for Stickman is that he has a serious day job as a teacher, and anybody who thinks you can live off a site such as Stickman or Baronbonk, is in cloud cuckoo land. Maybe Galt is! And that has led to massive speculation over John Galt's true identity.
Maybe here I should say a little about pen names, pseudonyms, nom de plume and the like.
There are many legitimate reasons for using a pen name. Indeed, some of the most famous authors in history wrote under an assumed name – Mark Twain, C S Forester and Voltaire are three that spring to mind. It is an old tradition, as is the practice of not exposing the identities of those behind the names. The truth is that many people know who Stickman is, just as many others know the barons of Baronbonk. John Galt seems to be anxious to hide his identity, while abusing the right of Stickman to do the same.

Very early on it was discovered that Galt's real name is Keith Summers and that he has a Thai business selling LED lighting electronics and controls, and runs a website named asiansignals.com. It was then found out that he is also makes a living, like many other farangs here, as an Ebay trader.
A recent email to me reveals more. Keith Summers first came to Thailand in 2001 on a mantour.com package. This is essentially a company that promotes sex tours to Thailand and it seems Keith liked what he found. There are several pictures of him on the website including the obscured one here. He looks harmless enough so I am not sure what his gripe is.
I understand Stickman's site may soon be back up. Summers has clearly broken several Thai laws and could be dealt with legally. I expect that will happen if he does not get back in his box. Reading Keith's latest ravings, he seems to be most upset by the fact that Stickman won't even acknowledge him. He is truly a stalker; a lonely, sad individual who requires recognition: so be nice to him, he needs your help.
I have no intention of getting into a fight with Galt, Summers, or whatever he wishes to be called, and thus I shall not, for the time being, publish the rest of the personal information I have about him, or for that matter the unobscured picture. I hope the matter ends here!

A very expensive gogo for sale
In Nana Plaza, Rainbows 2 and 4 are for sale at a price of Bt64 million each – about £1 million – which seems an awful lot of money for a place with a lease that has less than a year to run, and a head lease that has about three-and-a-half years to run. While the vendors probably think they can justify the price based on existing earnings, the lengths of the leases are really the problem.
Nana Plaza owners will say the leases are always renewed with a reasonable increase. But the fact remains that the Plaza itself is running out of lease, and what happens then is the big unanswered question. The value is bolstered by the ban on new gogo licences. Then the next problem is that there will still be two other Rainbows and one has to wonder to which the girls will be loyal. It would be easy to buy the operation and then find a month later that you have no stock. In reality, the dancers are the main asset, and without them you have nothing.
I often wonder how much money the Rainbow's really make. Their main raison d'etre is to sell girls (offs), so they always have a vast number on stage. With current salary levels as they are, they need at least 50 per cent “off” a night just to break even.
I prefer the deal Eric the Clock got when he bought Big Dogs for Bt30 million from Boss Hog. That looks like a better deal than this. Although, as always, asking doesn't mean getting. My informant values Rainbow 2 at Bt20 million and Rainbow 4 at Bt40 million. I still think that is pushing the envelope given all the factors.

Farang managers: good or bad?
One of the hot issues among gogo bar owners is the value, or not, of farang managers. If you don't have the time to meet and greet every night, make certain your music has not changed into car alarm blaring, check your dancers are not sleeping on the poles, or ensure your mamasan isn't pocketing more than the odd extra bill, then maybe you need a farang manager.
What is interesting is the difference between Pattaya and Bangkok : being almost diametrically split on the manager issue.
Pattaya, which is the more competitive environment, nearly always has a farang manager in a farang-owned gogo, whereas the opposite applies in Bangkok . I have said on many occasions that I cannot understand why the ever failing Crown Group does not employ a few farang managers. The argument of the Bangkok-owned bars is that there are no decent managers out there.
I suspect the truth is twofold: there are no decent managers out there at the pittance being offered, and members of the wife's family are too closely involved. A farang manger who finds the fiddles may create more problems than he will ever solve!
The above outburst is because I want to tell you a story (as the late Max Bygraves used to say).
I caterpillared into a bar in Soi 4 recently and took a seat at the bar. A couple of girls came up to me and, to be fair, everything was fine. A few other farangs trundled in, wandered around and left again. Sitting at the far end of the bar hunched over a computer was youngish farang. After a while I asked said farang; what he was doing.
“Oh! “I'm the manager,” he answered.
“I thought you should be meeting and greeting,” I said.
“Well, yes, I suppose I should, but I'm bored.”
“You didn't even say hello to me.”
“I was in the middle of a game.”
“Or the other people who came in.”
“What other people?”
“Where are the owners?” I said, changing the subject.
“They are opening another bar. I'm in charge here.”
“Maybe you should do more meeting and greeting!”
“Yes, maybe I should.”
I move on to another bar and finally get to a gogo where I know the boss well and there is no permanent farang management. I am happily enjoying the view and the atmosphere when a mamasan comes up to me. Is the boss coming, she wants to know. I tell her I am not sure.
She says there is a farang in the bar being difficult. The police have been, but he is still a problem.
Okay, I say, what's the problem? I then find a drunken 30-year-old with a plain-clothes policeman sitting next door to him. I know the routine. After he had explained he been ripped off, I looked at the bills and his change and assured him he hadn't lost a single baht.
After looking at the house's copy of the bills, the problem was solved and he was free to go. He was still muttering about the prices, so I suggested that if he couldn't afford £2 for a beer then he'd better not drink in gogo bars. I let the nice policemen escort him out.
This drunk was lucky. Had he behaved like that in a Thai-managed bar he would have received a rude awakening on the facts of life in bars. But so often these silly problems can be solved by somebody who speaks the language properly: or should I say, has a farang face! Is that justification for a farang manager? Probably not, but it goes a long way to validating such an expenditure. Just make sure he's not into computer games.
The tale of two bars and with two different management policies – and it seems neither got it right!

Date rape drugs
I have said it before but it keeps coming up; and all too often it is Thailand regulars who get caught. Beware the so called date rape drugs. They are being used daily in Bangkok and, I believe, also in Pattaya.
Despite their name, the drugs are principally being used to facilitate robbery. They make you malleable and drowsy but still able to be moved (walked). So a person who has been drugged will generally just appear to be drunk.
Sometimes the drugs will cause you to give up information, such as pin numbers etc. At the very least, your hotel room, or apartment, will be cleaned out.
One description of the drugs reads: “ The drugs often have no colour, smell or taste and are easily added to flavored drinks without the victim's knowledge. There are at least three date rape drugs ……… The drugs can affect you quickly. The length of time that the effects last varies. It depends on how much of the drug is taken and if the drug is mixed with other substances, like alcohol. Alcohol can worsen the drug's effects and can cause more health problems. ”
I know of two people who have been drugged in the area around the Nana Hotel: one in the bar, we think, and one outside. The area immediately outside Nana Plaza and the hotel car park is truly full of thieves, child pickpockets, dishonest katoeys and criminally minded mangdas.
Be careful out there. Don't drink from open vessels (glasses) in late outside bars, buy a bottle, make certain you see it opened and then keep it with you.
A man and his wife were drugged in an outside bar near Soi 7/1. They later woke up outside a hotel high up Sukhumvit, without their gold and money.
In Pattaya a while ago there was talk that katoeys put the drug on their nipples, thus disproving the old adage that one of the most useless things in the world is tits on a bull!
Apart from wariness additional protection is to make certain any place you stay insists upon taking the id of late night visitors. I know many do not like it but it is in your interest.
Similarly, wearing a lot of gold in public will attract the attention of the criminal element, as will flashing money, so be discreet out there.
Needless to say paying bar should protect you from these problems: saving that bar fine can be very expensive!
I can't stress enough that the people I know to whom this happened are worldly wise, have been to Thailand regularly or live here. They are not idiots. This can happen to anybody, so take care.

Thanksgiving Party
To all those it concerns, Thursday, November 23 is a very important day. It is the day the Ashes start!
It also Thanksgiving Day , a day as bad for turkeys in the USA as Christmas is for them in the UK.
There will be various parties around town but the one I know of is at Bully's (on Sukhumvit Road twixt Soi 2 and Soi 4), where Ed promises suitable merrymaking. The Bt490 all-you-can-eat buffet is sure to include turkey, but I've been promised legs of lamb too. The extravagance runs from 2pm-10pm. Sounds like a deal to me. I shall go and have my first turkey of the season!