NOV 2014
Kjetil Paulsen Compassionate & business-like diplomat ScandAsia.dk
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14 NOV 20
Coming Events
Danish Christmas Lunch Time: Friday, November 28th, 2014, 12:30-17:30 PM Venue: The Royal Danish Embassy
en auls til P te & Kje a n t io iploma mpass d Co ss-like busine a.dk
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Cover photo: Disraporn Yatprom
Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Thailand ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in Thailand. We also publish a ScandAsia magazine in China, Singapore and the rest of South East Asia.
Please sign up for your own FREE copy: www.scandasia.com Publisher : 211 Soi Prasert Manukitch 29 Prasert Manukitch Road Chorakae Bua, Lad Prao Bangkok 10230, Thailand Tel. +66 2 943 7166-8, Fax: +66 2 943 7169 E-mail: news@scandasia.com Editor-in-Chief : Gregers A.W. Møller gregers@scandmedia.com Managing Editor: Thana Poopat thana@scandmedia.com Advertising : Finn Balslev finn@scandmedia.com Piyanan Kalikanon piyanan@scandmedia.com Nattapat Maesang nattapat@scandmedia.com Graphic Designer : Peerapol Meesuwan Peerapol@scandmedia.com Printing : Siamprint Co., Ltd.
Daily news and features here: www.scandasia.com
The Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce proudly invites you to our biggest, most-anticipated event of the year: the traditional Danish Christmas Lunch. The Danish Christmas Lunch is a great social celebration held in familiar and beautiful Danish surroundings at the Danish Ambassador’s residence.The traditional Danish Christmas lunch buffet includes a wide selection of well-prepared tasteful dishes. The 33 delicious dishes include all good from the sea (caviar, smoked salmon, herring), mouthwatering roast beef, homemade liver pate, roast duck just to mention a few. Additionally, you will be served cool snaps (aquavit), and a free flow of beer and soft drinks. For the entertainment, we have secured the best live band and provide you with the opportunity to catch a rare guitar performance by our Danish Ambassador, Mr. Mikael Hemniti Winther. Celebrate this traditional Danish Christmas Lunch and invite your business associates such as your customers, suppliers, sub-suppliers, joint-venture and strategic alliance partners to join us and make day memorable. THB 1,950 net for DanCham members THB 2,450 net for Non-members * For reservations of more than 10 persons, you will get a private table! ** Kindly note that there is no parking area at the Embassy. *** Registration will begin at 12:30 and the lunch will begin at 13:00. Enjoy your Christmas Lunch with A chance to win lucky draw! At the end of our cozy Christmas event, you might get lucky and win some Christmas presents from our lucky draw. For the winners, we have exciting Christmas presents from Pandora, ECCO, Royal Copenhagen and many more.
Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar at Nichada When: November 29, 2014, 10.00 am-4.00 pm Where: Nichada Plaza, Nichada Thani, Pakkred, Nonthaburi Kids Action for Kids (KAFK) and Scandinavian Ladies with their international friends at Nichada are pleased to invite you to Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar organized by on Saturday, November 29 at Nichada Plaza. KAFK, a Norwegian charity organization established in 2009 and run by children with the help of adults, organizes this Christmas event for the second time to raise funds to conduct surgeries for children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and facial deformities in Thailand and soon in Myanmar. “This year our Christmas Bazaar will be even bigger and better. On top of making sure the Raffle prizes are continuously wonderful, we have expanded the selection both on the Crafts & Gifts stall and the Christmas Café, and we have yet more high school students organizing fun activities for the whole family” tells the Bazaar Leader Anne Gry Ranchil and continues: “ The Crafts & Gifts will include beautifully packed Christmas cookies and lots of different all so elegant Christmas decorations i.e. elves, lanterns, ornaments, even DIY alternatives and so on, and our cozy Christmas Café will serve everyone’s appetite with delicious Scandinavian snacks, cakes, glögg and much more.” The KAFK ISB High School Club with its 20 members will work at the different stalls of the bazaar and make sure all visitors will be happy and entertained. “We are super excited to participate in the work with the Christmas Bazaar, which will hopefully raise funds to finance a great number of the coming surgeries. Another important fundraiser for us is coming not until the spring time, the annual Charity Triathlon”, says Anders Brekke from ISB KAFK Club.
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10 years
with cycling Vikings Bangkok based bicycle club Viking Wheeler’s celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a solid luncheon and of course a 25 km cycle trip. The club started as the Danish Thai Chamber of Commerce’s cycling team but has become a Scandinavian club for anyone who wants to join their monthly cycling trips in Bangkachao. By Lasse Henriksen
M
en in lycra shor ts and special designed cycling jerseys gathered with a few women and a single child fifteen minutes to nine in the morning Saturday the 25thOctober. If it wasn’t for the grey hair, cigarettes and waistlines the longtime members of the Viking Wheeler’s could have resembled an amateur cycling team. According to founding member and co-leader of the bike club Hans Henrik Melchior, this contrast has always been a part of the team. “From the beginning it has been a fitfty-fifty combination of cycling and fun. We have always been kidding around when we stop to rest, and there is nothing like the feeling of having a beer after riding 90 kilometers,” he says. At nine everyone except three were present and the almost 20 cyclists snaked their way through the traffic of Sukhumvit soi 24 to the pier and boat that would take everyone to Bangkok’s 6 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
green lung Bangkachao. The three missing cyclist would join later. At Viking Wheelers they like to leave on time, on the boat trip across the Chao Praya river, Hans Henrik recalled a time where the club started cycling instead of waiting on a member that had travelled all the way from Australia to join the trip.
Gearing down While the club started with weekly bike trips and until 2011 had longer yearly trips, the Viking Wheeler’s have slowed down their activities the last few years. The weekly trips has turned in to monthly Bangkachao cycle invasions and the number of members that wants to join the longer trips have fallen to a level where it does not really make sense to arrange them anymore. “In 2011 only 3 people joined the trip and one of them was driving the support car. When we go on our long trips, whether its week long or weekend trips, it takes a lot of preparation to
plan the route and book the hotels, when there are only three people joinging it is not worth the effort” Hans Henrik Melchior says and adds that if there is an increased interest in the longer cycle trips again, the club would not mind arranging them again. After a sweaty 25 kilometers around Bangkachao, the club headed back to Admiral’s restaurant at Sukhumvit soi 24, where ice water and wet towels were waiting for the cyclists. After a quick shower, a cold beer or both, a few old members and friends of the club joined for an impressive Danish buffet, consisting of three types of pickled herring, all the classic cold and warm meats, traditional fatty salads, fresh potatoes flown in from Myanmar and a selection of cheeses. When it comes to future prospects, Hans Henrik Melchior is clear. “We continue as long people want to join our trips.”
News Brief
Jorgen Lundbaek’s big 70th birthday party Photos Disraporn Yatprom
J
orgen Lundbaek celebrated his 70 year birthday on Sunday 12 October 2014 with a big party in Captains Pub & Restaurant on the ground floor of Mermaid Hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 29 in Bangkok. The 70 year old Dane is one of the resident Danes who has been living the longest time in Bangkok. “I first came to Bangkok by ship in October 1960 but then went on to Vietnam. When I came back in November 1966 it was with the intention to stay one month. I had a good job in Vietnam, but I never went back.” Looking back, Jorgen Lundbaek defines the turning point for his business success as the time when he joined Thoresen & Co. “I started in the Marine Surveying business and doing that I realized that nobody was selling marine safety equipment services.Then I started that business with Viking from Denmark and that was the start of the success.” “I didn’t join the Scandinavian Society during the first year that I came back from Vietnam, so it must be in 1967 that I became a member,” he recalls. This was the same year that the SSS was joined by a bunch of other old timers: Anders Normann, Ib Ottesen and Henrik Hansen. Later, when the Danish Thai Chamber of Commerce was formed, he also joined that and has remained a member since the beginning.
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Making it possible Nordea Bank S.A, Singapore Branch is part of Nordea Group, the leading financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions. Some products and services may, due to local regulations, not be available to individuals resident in certain countries and their availability may depend, among other things, on the investment risk profile of persons in receipt of this publication or on any legislation to which they are subject. Nothing in this publication should be construed as an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to purchase, subscribe to or sell any investment or product, or to engage in any other transaction or provide any kind of financial or banking service in any jurisdiction where Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch or any of its affiliates do not have the necessary licence. Published by Nordea Bank S.A., R.C.S. Luxembourg No. B 14.157 on behalf of Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch, 3 Anson Rd #20-01, Springleaf Tower, Singapore 079909. www.nordeaprivatebanking.com subject to the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (www.mas.gov.sg).
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14/08/2014 13:43 November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 7
News Brief
Pandora to expand with a new factory in Northern Thailand
D
anish jewelry manufacturer Pandora is currently in the process of acquiring land for a new factory in Northern Thailand. “We were already searching for a factory manager in May,” Pandora’s press officer, Jakob Risom, tells Ritzau Finans. Since 2003 Pandora has produced all of their jewelry in Thailand. At the moment 7000 people are employed at their factory in Bangkok, that produces 2 million pieces of jewelry weekly. Last year there were speculations that Pandora might open a factory outside of Thailand, due to fears of natural disasters and political unrest. Back then Pandora’s CEO Thomas Nyborg told Business.dk that it could be risky to put all of your eggs in one basket. ScandAsia has earlier quoted Ritzau Finans for saying that the land was already acquired, this was a misinformation, Pandora is in the process of acquiring land.
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Consul General Ib Thomsen passed away
I
b Thomsen, Honorary ConsulGeneral of Thailand in Hvide Sande Danmark passed away on 21 October at the age of 76. In January this year he could celebrate 25 years of service, working closely with the Thai Embassy in Copenhagen to promote Thailand in Denmark. Ib Thomsen was born in Grenaa in 1938 and was the oldest of three siblings. As Consul-General for Thailand in Denmark, he was very popular and always ready to help Danish businessmen with the paperwork they needed to obtain the correct visa to Thailand. At the news of his death, many wrote personal tributes to the Consul-General on the social media.
Skolebakken 13, DK-5800 Nyborg, tlf +45 65 31 02 17 post@nyborg-gym.dk, www.nyborg-gym.dk
Se svensk tv i Thailand! Det bästa från Sveriges Television för dig som semestrar, arbetar eller bor utomlands. Nu kan du se dina favoritprogram när du vill med vår nya catch up-tjänst. Fråga efter SVT World på ditt hotell och fyll i enkäten på vår hemsida och få en gåva som tack. Läs mer på svt.se/svtworld och följ oss på facebook.com/svtworld Teckna abonnemang på www.connova.se eller +46 (0) 141-20 39 10
8 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
News Brief
Pöyry awarded instalment of 130 MW solar project in Thailand
E
nergy Absolute Public Company Limited (Bangkok, Thailand) has awarded the international consulting and engineering company Pöyry (Vantaa, Finland) with engineering assignments for the “EA Solar Lampang” solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Thailand. The total installed capacity of the PV project will be about 130 MWDC with an annual solar power generation of 207 GWh, according to Pöyry’s press release. A total of 424,800 solar PV panels will be installed on a mounting structure with a single-axis tracking system. The project will be executed up to the end of 2015. The project, developed by Energy Absolute PCL, is located in Lampang province, northern Thailand. This project will be Asia’s largest solar PV power plant incorporating a tracking system, Pöyry emphasizes. “As one of the world’s leading renewable engineering consultancies, with an accumulated total installed capacity exceeding 32.000 MW, Pöyr y continues to suppor t the Thai power sector in its rapid expansion in the renewable energy sector”, says Didier Mallieu, Vice President of Pöyry’s Hydropower and Renewable Energy Global Competence Line.
Energy Absolute Public Company Limited has awarded Pöyry with engineering assignments for EA Solar Lampang solar PV (photovoltaic) power plant in Thailand.
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November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 9
A
Agneta’s World
Dreaming of a
s a typical Swede, I’m used to eat all kind of food, but of course I try to think of healthy food. What is healthy food? One month it says you should not eat chicken, the other not beef, the third no beans and the next, no rice, what can we then eat? Personally I listen to my body that mostly tells me what it wants. And I sometimes dream about a really good piece of steak, red and juicy. I know it says it’s not healthy to consume too much red meat, but when your body really screams for it, what to do? A while ago, I paid a visit to the latest shopping mall Central Embassy and passed by a tempting steak house, Great American Rib Company. As my stomach was begging for lunch I went in to this, very special restaurant.The walls are covered with Hickory wood, the interior design reminds me of a lodge up in the mountains. It’s simple, but tasteful. This restaurant at Central Embassy was opened this year on July 4th, America’s National Day, but already in year 2006 the first Great America’s Rib Company opened a restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 36 and today there is also one in Hua Hin. All restaurants are open 7 days a week from 10 a.m to 10 p.m.
“bloody steak”? Photos by Daniel Herron
There are 3 owners and the main owner is Thai, the co owners American /Thai. The meat they use for their excellent steaks is imported from Australia and of the very best quality. My mouth is watering just by thinking of the steak I was offered, grilled to perfection. Of course they don’t have only red meat on the menu. They also serve the classic Buffalo Wings, worth trying. They have the smoked, tender ribs, marinated with mustard, a shrimp cocktail with a tasty cocktail sauce made of tomatoes and spices and last but not least, the most delicious Blue cheese sauce, best I ever tasted. All sauces and salad dressings, they do themselves and I couldn’t resist begging them to start selling these sauces, I would be the first one to pick the Blue Cheese and Tomato Cocktail sauce. On the menu you also find Tex-Mex cuisine with some awesome dishes. The prices for steaks are affordable. A Rib Eye Steak wil for example cost you 965 baht, a reasonable price if you compare to many other restaurants serving steaks. Also the wine list is great. A glass of house wine cost you 150 baht and if you prefer a carafe – I would say it’s about 3 glasses – you pay 435 baht. I was happy after my first meal at this little restaurant and I’m sure I will be going back for more next time my stomach is longing for a steak. Healthy or not, but I promise you, it tastes heavenly! Agneta Bekassy De Bekas is writing her own blog at http://agnetacatarina.wordpress.com/ If you have suggestions or comments to Agneta’s World you are welcome to write to agnetabekassy@gmail.com
10 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
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November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 11
Swedish ByNika fashion A beachwear collection ready to take the world... By Agneta de Bekassy
O
ne beautiful sunny day while walking on the beach, my Swedish friend Anika, started to think of what would be the ultimate beach garment? As Anika is kind of globetrotter and travels a lot between different climates, she needs items which are easy to pack and easy to wear. She started to drew samples of kaftans and tunics and had them assembled at a tailor shop in Bangkok. Anika splits her time between Sweden and Thailand and feels home in both countries. She is just as happy with the cold and snow as with tropical heat. She started to wear her own designed garments on trips to different beach destinations and it didn’t take long before friends asked her where she had bought the colorful, lightweight beach clothes.The more she designed the more interested and dedicated she became and soon the collection ByNika was born. Anika often visits Sampang (China Town) in Bangkok to choose the fabrics for the garments.
12 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
She designs her kaftan or tunic from the paper sketches These clothes are the perfect companions for busy businesswomen on the go. You can wear them at the beach, for lunch at a restaurant, evening functions or home on the terrace. They are wrinkle resistant and can easily been washed in a hotel hand-basin. They are hard to overlook as the colors are mostly bright with interesting patterns. With a background as a marketing executive for different businesses, among them H&M and International Telecom, Anika knows how to market her collection.Today you will find ByNika in the prestigious Oriental Hotel boutique in Bangkok, at Soneva Kiri, Koh Kood and at Four Seasons in Chiang Mai. You can also go online to order as well. She has loyal customers all over today and her friends, including myself, are happy owners, of at least, one ByNika. For more information about ByNika, please visit www.ByNika.se
November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 13
Finland
showcases learning solutions
at Thai education expo
By Thana Poopat
E
ducation experts from Finland, one of the world’s education powerhouses showed up in force at Educa 2014,Thailand’s premier international education forum, attended by some 50,000 members of the teaching profession and education administrators, on October 15-17 in Bangkok. Conference-goers were informed that Thailand had already tapped into Finland’s educational knowhow and learning solutions. Two Thai teams, one consisting of math/science teachers and another made up of administrators of middle schools run by the Bangkok city government, have already undergone a series of training/workshops led by Finnish experts in Bangkok and at Oulu University Teacher Training School and in Helsinki in Finland. “There is willingness to acknowledge problems that need to be solved [in Thailand’s education system]. We believe Finland is best for Thailand,” said Finnish Ambassador to Thailand Kirsti Westphalen. The ambassador said Finland, with its successful education system, had much to offer at a time Thailand is embarking on a drastic education reform to try to improve teaching standards, learning competency and international competitiveness. 14 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
Since 2001, Finland has consistently been placed at the top or near top of the list of countries that perform exceptionally well in the world’s rankings based on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The envoy said she started discussing with Deputy Bangkok Governor Pusadee Tamthai about possible cooperation on education between Finland and Thailand six months ago. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s school system provides education to 300,000 students from kindergarten to high school levels, and is staffed by 15,000 teachers. “Step by step we discussed how to take cooperation further,” she said. The Finnish Embassy and Finpro, the Finnish trade promotion agency, have worked closely to match up Finnish universities, educational institutions and private companies with their Thai counterparts. The Finnish envoy said she would take a further step to discuss with Thailand’s Education Ministry about the possibility of expanding the cooperation to all parts of the country, possibly starting with several pilot projects. Westphalen said educational knowhow and learning solutions are a growing business with good potential as export from Finland. “We had made constant improvements in
education for the past 20 years or so, and in the past 10 years we have had excellent education results,” she said. “Seeing that many countries around the world are struggling with the same problems that we were dealing with in the 1960s.” The ambassador acknowledged that exporting education is not easy because one cannot transfer or implant educational model directly on another country. “You can’t take Finnish model and put it in, for example, the US or Thailand or Russia. Because everything [about education] is so culturally tied in. Every country is different,” she said. “But there are certain areas, and this is backed up by international studies, that when you do very well in areas, such as teacher training, in which Finland focuses its attention and which bring consistent good results. Then why not look at what Finland has to offer?” Pasi Kaskinen, CEO of Finland University, a joint venture of three top-level Finnish research universities, University of Turku, University of Tampere and University of Eastern Finland, said the Finnish educational model focuses on competencies and equality, which over long term has proven to produce more creativity and help the country compete more successfully in the fastchanging world. “We provide our client organisations with educational solutions based on world-class scientific research. Finland University is capable of tailoring programmes and courses, including teacher training, to suit client’s professional development needs, offering education and training on campus, online or in the workplace. “Thailand is a country that is still seeking harmony in [education management strategy]. You look at Finland, Singapore and other more successful countries,” he said. “The ongoing cooperation with the BMA, with 15,000 teachers, is a good start. In order to effectively reform the educational system,Thailand needs critical mass and decision makers who understand the problems.” Finnish model concentrates on competencies and lifelong learning, he said, adding that in the long run, it produces more creativity and enhances global competitiveness. “Some countries are doing well at individual student level but at the country level you have exclusive top schools for rich people. It’s better to create equality. If more of people are doing well, the country as a whole will do better,” Kaskinen said.
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Kjetil Paulsen Compassionate & business-like diplomat
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Norwegian Ambassador to Thailand Kjetil Paulsen looks forward to engaging Thai society in dialogue on democracy while seeking to enhance bilateral trade and investment By Thana Poopat Photos Disraporn Yatprom
16 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
ne of the first outings that Norwegian Ambassador to Thailand Kjetil Paulsen went on was a visit to Klong Toey slum community, Thailand’s single biggest shanty town right in the middle of Bangkok. There, a Norwegian non-governmental organization helps maintain a daycare center and kindergarten for children from underprivileged families. As someone from one of the world’s most egalitarian societies, the ambassador’s reaction was uncharacteristic in the sense that he was neither shocked nor judgmental about what he saw. That must have a lot to do with his 31-year diplomatic career, with strong emphasis on humanitarian and human rights affairs. Ambassador Paulsen has seen the whole range of human miseries caused by wars, natural disasters or epidemic outbreaks, in many international hotspots spanning continents. So perhaps it’s only natural that he immediately switched to pragmatic problemsolving mode. “It’s a problem that I hope can be solved,” the envoy said matter-of-factly in a recent interview with ScandAsia. “Let’s hope that there will be some kind of conscience that - in any society, not just Thailand - if you are doing okay, you got good education, are making good money and have risen up in the society, then it’s important that you don’t pull up the ladder thus preventing struggling people from developing, pulling themselves up.” He said Bangkok may be the wealthiest city in Thailand, but there are still hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty. “I went there [to Klong Toey] because I wanted to see how people are living - not only those who live in fancy high-rises but also people who live under the expressway, in slums in very poor conditions.”
Inequality: a breeding ground for conflicts The ambassador said reduction of poverty and inequality is important in any country and that if such related issues as lack of access to education, poor sanitation, unemployment and social injustice, are left unattended to, then there will always be a source of conflicts. He pointed out that any
social and economic development model that ignores inequality will not be sustainable. “People cannot forever accept that situation. Wise politicians should be aware of this. It should be one of their highest priorities.” In line with the position taken by most western democracies on what happened to Thailand’s democracy, the ambassador said Norway regrets the ouster of a democratically-elected civilian government by the military, trying of civilians in military courts and restrictions on civil liberties. He hopes that Thailand will return to genuine democratic rule as soon as possible.
Continuing dialog despite setback to democracy Meanwhile, Norway wants to continue to engage in dialogue the [current] government along with the civil society and stakeholders in Thailand’s political, social and economic life. “So we are not running away. And as ambassador I have no restriction whatsoever in interacting with the Thai government,” Paulsen stressed. He said military governments used to be common among developing countries in 1970s and 1980s. Then gradually democracy has grown stronger in Latin America, Africa and Asia. And for a while in the past several years there were only a handful of military governments in world. Against that background, it’s hard for Thailand not to be seen in negative light, Paulsen said. Norway has always had strong commercial interest in Thailand.The ambassador is keen to meet with the Commerce Ministry and ICT Ministry to discuss issues related to foreign businesses and the country’s telecom policy.
Transparent business environment sought With Telenor/dtac on the verge of implementing a strategy to make additional huge investment to make internet available to every person in Thailand. “We want to see good framework for businesses that has strategic goal for Thailand.That investment if go through will be a big step forward for both Thailand and Norwegian businesses.” For many years now, Thailand has not re-
ceived any traditional foreign aid from Norway or other countries. Most of Norway’s ongoing cooperation programmes in Thailand are about natural resource management, fisheries and climate and related issues on the transboundary development framework in Southeast Asia, he said.
Growing people-to-people exchange About 150,000 Norwegians visit Thailand each year. 7,000-8,000 residents live in Pattaya, Phuket, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai. According to Thai Embassy in Oslo, there are about 14,000 Thais, most of them married to a Norwegian, living in Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok issued almost 10,000 visas for Thais to travel to Norway every year. Another key responsibility of the Norwegian Embassy is to assist nor Norwegian citizens who need help. “Norwegian pensioners are getting older and sicker. We have to make sure we can assist them in proper way. We will need help and are exploring possibility of cooperation with Thai authorities and maybe to also get Thai businesses involved.” The Embassy has 15 people working on assistance to Norwegian citizens. According to the Norwegian Embassy, it is estimated that the approximate 8,000 Norwegian retirees who live in Thailand full-time or most time of the year, collectively spend about 500 million krone, or the equivalent of THB2.5 billion baht, drawn from their pensions, including medical expenses.
A down-to-earth diplomat Acknowledging that Thailand is far from a “hardship post”, Paulsen said Bangkok has everything that a diplomat with busy schedules like himself needs to lead an active professional and pursue leisure activities. The Norwegian Embassy is only one BTS Skytrain train station, or a few minutes’ ride, away. “I normally use Skytrain if weather permits,” the ambassador said, adding that for convenience’s sake he regular plays tennis at a neighbourhood club, at a walking distance from his residence in Sukhumvit area. Paulsen shares the spacious residence with 17-year-old son Trym, who has just finished high
school in Oslo and is now taking the time off to contemplate his options and to keep his company. The ambassador’s wife, Pia, who is assistant to the State Secretary in charge of European affairs, lives in Oslo with their other son, 19, who attends university in Norway. “She is happy for my posting in Thailand. But I hope she misses me,” the ambassador said. As for his impression of Thai people in general, Paulsen said: “Thai people are very sympathetic, cautious, pleasant and a bit subtle.”
Diplomatic career • 1983 Start of career in the foreign service. • 1985-88 First posting as second secretary at the Norwegian Mission at the United Nations, New York City. • 1988-90 First Secretary, Embassy of Norway, Lagos, Nigeria (political and economic affairs). • 1990-91 First Secretary, Embassy of Norway, Bucharest, Romania (political and economic affairs). • 1991-94 Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of Norway, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Acted as well as the Resident Permanent Representative of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). • 1994-2000 Head of Division, Political Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo (humanitarian and human rights affairs). • 2000-2002 Deputy Director General, Department for Development Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo. • 2002-2006 Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Norway, Geneva (United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament). • 2006-2009 Senior adviser, Depar tment for Security Policy and the High North, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. • 2009-2012 Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia. • 2012-2014 Project manager and senior adviser, Department for Competence and Human resources, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. • From August 28, 2014 Ambassador to Thailand and Cambodia November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 17
TSCC
25 years ball The Gala Dinner marking the 25 Year Anniversary of Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce took place on Saturday night 25 October 2014 at Landmark Hotel, Bangkok with 200 guests participating in the celebrations. Text: Gregers Moller / Photos: Disraporn Yatprom
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xecutive Director of TSCC Mr. Peter Bjork presented Mr. Stuart Ward as the MC of the evening, mentioning that since he was British by birth, but Swedish by choice, Stuart Ward was in a way more Swedish than anyone else at the Dinner. The MC then gave the word to President of the TSCC, Mr. Jan Eriksson who held the main speech of the evening. Outlining what was still ahead of them, Mr. Eriksson encouraged the guests to relax, the men to feel free to take off their jacket and for all to have a good time. Many guests followed his suggestion, although the speakers all remained in full attire. The inauguration of the Chamber in 1989 had taken place in the presence of Their Majesties The King and Queen of Sweden. In February this year, His Majesty had wished to congratulate the Chamber and sent a Congratulation Telegram to the Chamber via the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok. The Chamber had obtained a copy of this from the Royal Court in Stockholm which Mr. Peter Bjork read to the guests followed by a long applause. 18 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
Mr. Eriksson went on to warmly thank all the sponsors of the Gala Dinner, whose logos were all prominently displayed on the backdrop. Going beyond this, he also thanked all the companies who had taken part in the three Swedish Days called “Beyond Innovation” which was held in CentralWorld coinciding with the Anniversary. In the very best of Swedish party traditions, Mr. Bjork then led the guests in a “Helan gaar”-song before the aquavit that had been waiting in iced glasses went down. The dinner started with marinated herring and salmon on dark bread, continued with snow fish and culminated in an amazingly tender, slow cooked meat dish, accompanied by an excellent mix of nostalgic music by Swedish DJ Joakim Persson. During the dinner, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Head of the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok, Mr Christoffer Berg, greeted the members on behalf of his Ambassador Klas Molin, who could not be present. Mr. Berg pondered over whether the Chamber was old or young. For some of the founding members, the Chamber was
likely not that old, while for him when he arrived here he thought of it as, well, rather “established”. Before leaving the stage, he called up Mr Jan Eriksson and presented him with a hammer and a portrait of Mr. Eriksson himself and encouraged told him to start a gallery of Presidents of the TSCC. The dinner was accompanied by excellent white and red wines and mixing with the aquavit, more of the male guests had by the time the desert buffet was served indeed removed their jackets and were chatting loudly around the tables. This was also the case when Mr. Eriksson again took to the stage and called up many of the founding members who were present in the audience. One by one they were presented with a commemorative gift, handed to them by Mr. Jan Eriksson assisted by the long-serving Assistant to the Executive Director, Mrs. Vipaluck Chomchuenjit or Khun Mam as most members know her. Khun Worachai Bichanchitr and Anders Lundquist both said a few words and thanked for the commemorative gifts. At this point the famous Swedish magician Mr. Seth Engstrom was given the
seemingly impossible mission to re-focus the party at what was going on at the stage. Mr. Engstrom, however, quickly accomplished that with a remarkable display of energy and a set of stunning tricks. When the audience was recaptured and fully in his hand, he then threw in a series of card tricks with close up video. In the silence during his performance you could hear the audience gasping in awe when he twice said he would “reveal” how the trick was done – only to pull yet another stunt. Mr. Engstrom’s performance was followed up by three songs performed on stage by the lead singer of Sweet Inspirations, the fabulous resident Filipino band that plays at The Huntsman Pub in the basement of The Landmark Hotel. The songs revealed the remarkable voice of the lead singer and served as strong encouragement for all the remaining guests to continue the party downstairs once they were done with the well assorted desert buffet.
November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 19
It’s our joint ambition to increase and deepen an already existing dialogue on innovation between Thailand and Sweden. I want to thank the Chamber, its partners, but also all the Thai counterparts for showcasing this ambition here today.
Innovative
Sweden event During three Swedish days in Bangkok, some of the most advanced Swedish companies gave the general Thai public a taste of what Swedish innovation in Thailand is all about. By Joakim Persson Photo: Christer Nilsson
20 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
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hai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce (TSCC) launched its flagship 3-day exhibition connecting to its 25 Years Anniversary at CentralWorld on Friday 24 October 2014. In his opening speech, Sweden’s Ambassador to Thailand, His Excellency Mr Klas Molin said that with the growing relations between Thailand and Sweden came also a growing demand for technologically advanced and environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions – for innovation. “The companies you see represented here today all rely, I dare say, on innovation in their own way. Many are world leaders in their fields and many invest in assembly and production here in Thailand.” “Innovation is at the core of this joint success and it’s the ambition of the Chamber and of the participating companies to give you a taste of what Swedish innovation in Thailand is all about.” “It’s also our joint ambition to increase and deepen an already existing dialogue on innovation between Thailand and Sweden. I want to thank the Chamber, its partners, but also all the Thai counterparts for showcasing this ambition here today.” The other speakers at the opening ceremony were TSCC President Mr Jan Eriksson, Mr Piyabutr Cholvijarn, Board of Trade; and Mr. Suthipak Chirativat, Central Pattana.
On Saturday, the Embassy held a Swedish Food Show at the TSCC exhibition. Two Swedish chefs, Mårten Karlsson and Peter Hagstedt, prepared traditional Swedish food and gave the audience tips on how to best cook the meals. During the show, the food cooked by the chefs was handed out to the audience so that everyone could taste how delicious it was.
Participating companies The leading Swedish companies who showed their innovations and technologies during the event were: • ABB • Aritco Lift AB • Atlas Copco • Alfa Laval • Cabinet Interior Design • Diakrit • Electrolux Thailand Co., Ltd. • Gunnebo • Husqvarna • Jonkoping University • KTH - Royal Institute of Technology • SAAB • Tetra Pak • Ms. Pattama Chotbunyong • Volvo Car • Volvo Group • Yammix
November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 21
The stakes are high when you gamble on health
Every year, many Scandinavians without health or travel insurance end up putting family members in lifelong debt. Uninsured people who do not have relatives or other means of funding their treatment are at risk of being thrown out of a hospital despite a desperate need for medical services. by Lasse Henriksen
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orget about your national insurance cards. If you live in or travel to a country outside of the European Union, the blue health insurance card or any national health insurance card becomes useless. You need to buy an insurance policy if you want to make sure not to end up with ruinous medical bills. Most people are well aware of this, but people often underestimate the costs related to medical treatment and some decide to take the chance in order to save a little money in the short term. Insurance or not, accidents and unexpected illness can happen to anyone. According to Danish Consul Birgit Sarah Carlstedt, just last 22 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
year, the Royal Danish Embassy in Bangkok had 85 cases concerning uninsured people in need of financial assistance for treatment they could not afford. The money usually comes from the family or from a pension. Most of the 85 unlucky Danes needed treatments worth several hundred thousand DKK. If the Embassy cannot find the necessary funds people will be denied treatment.. Even though living costs in Thailand are considerably much lower than in Scandinavia, an unexpected visit to a hospital can be a very costly affair. According to Birgit Sarah Carlstedt, this applies to both private and public hospitals. In both places you will have to pay for everything from taking up space in a hospital bed to medicine,, nursing care,
medical examinations and operations. “Typically the cost will add up to hundreds of thousands DKK depending on the patient’s needs. For relatives of a patient, who does not have the financial means to pay out of his or her own pocket for this kind of expenses, most of them will be in debt for many years to come. Regardless of whether the relatives are capable of obtaining such huge amounts of money,” she says the Danish Embassy’s advice is clear; get an insurance before you jump on a plane to go to Thailand. However the insurance market is somewhat blurry with large difference in price and coverage. Some people might be able to acquire a cheap health or travel insurances through their home
insurance, while others will have to find a separate insurance on a market where prices vary by several thousand Kroner on what seems to be the same insurance policy. ScandAsia spoke to the Danish Consul Birgit Sarah Carlstedt, to hear just why it is so crucial to get an insurance and what you should make sure your insurance covers.
Blackmailing your own family A large number of the Danes that end up in Thai hospitals have been involved in accidents. According to Birgit Sarah Carlstedt a lot of these accidents involve motorbikes. Even though riding with a safety helmet on is required by law in Thailand, it is widely known that tourists and Thais alike, often ride without one. But this is not only a foolish decision because of safety issues. The fact that it is illegal to ride without a helmet means that an insurance company can categorize injuries as self-inflicted and therefore have the right to reject the request for compensation.With or without insurance Birgit Sarah Carlstedt urges you to avoid the risk and protect your head. To illustrate her point, Birgit Sarah Carlstedt provides a scenario in which a person without a health or travel insurance gets involved in a traffic accident, sustains serious injury, such as a fractured skull and is brought to a hospital suspending between life and death. “The hospital will carry out emergency medical services required to keep the person alive while figuring out if further treatment can be funded.The money may come from relatives, who may have no other choice but to put themselves in debt for the rest of their lives by taking out loans from what should have been their retirement fund. They do this because the alternative will be for the hospital to turn off life support system and their relative will die” Birgit says.
No money - big problems In a scenario like this, the hospital will contact the Embassy to hear if they can fund the treatment. While The Embassy cannot cover the expenses directly, it will act as an intermediary between hospital and relatives,. Embassy staff will try to locate funds and make sure the hospital keeps the patient in stable conditions until all options for fundraising have been tried. The process takes longer when the hospital is not in direct contact with an insurance company. The Embassy will notify the Foreign Ministry and ask them to make the police in Denmark notify the closest relatives. Once the relatives have been notified the Embassy can act as a link between family and hospital. “As long as we are trying to find funds, the hospital will keep the patient stable, but it is obvious that they can’t keep a patient hospitalized and cared for open ended without having a certainty that they will be paid. In the worst cases they have to throw the patient out on the street,” Birgit says and adds that the funds often can be found within a day if everything plays out perfectly, but if the relatives are hard to reach or their banks are slow or unwilling to grant a loan, the patient may risk a longer wait, perhaps even up to a week before the necessary resources are located. The money does not have to be in the hospital’s bank account for the doctors to star t operating, as long as the Embassy can get a writ-
ten guarantee from a bank in Denmark that the money will be transferred, the Embassy is able to guarantee the hospital that the money is on its way and the required operation can begin. “Usually we find the money one way or another, but we have had experiences where there were no funds. Then it is often up to the doctor, and his interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath (An oath taken by all doctors, where they swear to heal the sick) to choose if he will operate or treat the patient. But this is not something you can take for granted,” Birgit Sarah Carlstedt says
Even healthy savings accounts comes short The Embassy has previously been contacted by people who thought they would be able to afford a treatment if they ever needed it, just to realize how high the cost can get. When you enter a hospital the meter starts ticking immediately and you will be charged for every single service. “We are sometimes contacted by people who want to hear if it can be true that the prices are so high. They usually want us to negotiate a lower price. But the Embassy is not in a position where it can bargain with the hospitals,” Birgit Sarah Carlstedt says. As a tourist or resident a great and overlooked expense is when a person needs to fly back to Scandinavia under medical supervision. This type of journey can rarely be booked far in advance, you are going to take up at least three seats on the flight you will have the nice but expensive company of a doctor or nurse and often other types of medical equipment you need to survive the trip. The bill for such a trip typically adds up to an astronomic amount.
Cover the essentials Regarding both health and travel insurance Birgit Sarah Carlstedt advises everyone to make sure that all types of hospital treatments are covered. When it comes to travel insurance it is important to have the option for accompanied transport home. As mentioned before, accompanied home transpor t means that you will have medically trained personnel accompanying you on the flight. As a tourist or expatriate you have to remember that a health insurance is different from a travel insurance and might not cover the same things. “It is important to have an insurance that covers legal expenses. A good lawyer is expensive and with the right insurance you can make sure that you can afford a lawyer who can assist you if this is part of hospitalization [you are entitled to] like, for instance, a traffic accident,” Birgit Sarah Carlstedt says. When all the essentials are covered you should make sure that all your extracurricular activities are covered as well. For instance diving is categorized as an extreme sport by some companies. This means that diving accidents will not be covered unless you pay an extra charge beforehand. In general you should adjust your insurance to your needs. According to Birgit Sarah Carlstedt, even though there might be large differences in the price, most travel insurances basically cover the same, with extreme sports as the main exception. Even though it might sound obvious, it is important to take out an insurance policy before
you get sick. You cannot insure against expenses related to a chronic illness you have while signing the policy.The same pretty much goes for age.You have to find an insurance company, before you are in an age where few companies want to take you on as a customer. As you get older insurance companies demands a more and more thorough health report.
Bigger might be better When it comes to health insurance there can be a larger variation in the coverage, it is important to make sure that the insurance covers the more expensive operations or procedures, like being submitted to an intensive care unit. “It is really impor tant to study the terms and conditions of your insurance, to see what it actually covers, that it covers more than patching up a wound and getting a tooth pulled out,” Birgit says. Apart from investigating how you will be covered, you have to consider the company’s credibility as well. “I myself would take an insurance with a reputable international company, partly because you know they have the financial capacity to cover the claims and generally they don’t want their brand to be damaged by bad stories. Smaller, local companies might not have the same feeling about their reputation,” Birgit says.
10 pieces of advice for the tourist 1. Buy a travel insurance that covers transportation to your home country including if you die 2. Register at dansker-listen http://um.dk/ da/rejse-og-ophold/rejse-til-udlandet/ danskerliste/ 3. Avoid overstaying your visa - if your stay in Thailand is too long, you risk being jailed and being blacklisted from returning to Thailand ever again 4. Use a helmet if you are a driving or sitting at the back of a motorcycle 5. Always carry a copy of your passport it is decided by law that you should be able to legitimize yourself at all times 6. Bring your medical certificate in English http://um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/ rejse-til-udlandet/medicin-paa-rejsen/ 7. Be respectful when you travel as a tourist http://um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/ rejse-til-udlandet/god-stil-kampagne/ 8. Report suspicion of child abuse http://thailand.um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/ hjaelp-med-at-stoppe-overgreb-modboern/ 9. Only buy gold an jewellery at wellestablished retailers http://thailand. um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/hvis-uheldeter-ude/tyveri-og-roeveri/koeb-afsmykker/ 10. Get your veterinarian to research the rules of bringing pets on the vacation http://um.dk/da/rejse-og-ophold/rejse-tiludlandet/kaeledyr-paa-rejse/
November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 23
The elephant is an important animal in nature and this magnificent creature has been a cherished symbol in Thailand for centuries with an important role in our history and culture. We must do everything we can to save this great animal. This is why we urgently need stronger regulation to protect it. And that’s what l’m working on accomplishing.
A Strong Woman’s
fight for the elephant Dr. Pensak C. Howitz has seen her fight to introduce new regulations for trading in ivory in Thailand shot down by the political divide in Thailand. Twice. Now, CITES has given Thailand until March next year to solve its huge ivory laundering business - or else... By Gregers Moller
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hailand risks a total ban on trading in any items on the CITES list of endangered species because the country cannot get its act together and ban selling all ivory products. An attempt by CITES, supported strongly by WWF, at a meeting in July this year to impose sanctions on Thailand was eventually avoided, but only by setting a deadline by March 2015 for Thailand to act decisively on the matter instead - or else... A ban on trading in all items on the CITES list would cost Thailand billions. Exports of Thai orchids and exotic wood like rosewood would suffer the most. The whole issue could long have been settled, if only the Thai - Danish former Senator Dr Pensak C. Howitz had been given the opportunity to complete what she was about to accomplish when she was a member of the Thai Senate during the years 2000 to 2007. A key problem is the distinction in the Thai legislation between ivory from wild elephants and ivory from domesticated elephants. It creates a loophole for ivory from wild elephants abroad - in particular Africa - as well as within Thailand 24 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
to be re-classified as ivory from domesticated elephants. “We need to define all elephants as endangered and ban selling of ivory never mind how domesticated the elephant was before he was killed,” she says.
Dr Pensak’s political battle It wasn’t exactly in the cards that the well-being of Thai elephants was going to be Dr Pensak’s area
of focus when she was Senator. But in the Senate she discovered that many of her colleagues were only talking about companies, industry, city planning, and oil. ‘ ‘Why isn’t anyone talking about biodiversity and our wild life?” she demanded. Hereafter it was quickly decided by a vote that she was going to take care of this area. ‘’So you see, it was quite by coincidence that elephants and wild life ended on my table,” Dr. Pensak C. Howitz says and laughs. ‘’But l said to myself that this is so important that l’m going to spend my time on making a difference to preserve biodiversity and the wild animals.” Unfortunately, the military coup in 2006 put a temporary stop to the work she was doing. At that time, the Thaksin government had already prepared legislation that would have prohibited the sale of ivory and it was almost passed in 2007 - but eventually it stranded and it when the Pheu Thai party was back in power again, it was not a priority for Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra’s government.
New legislation stranded - again Although Dr. Pensak is today no longer a Senator, she has not abandoned the fight for the elephants. Together with influential people such as researchers and politicians she pushed for the Yingluck government in 2013 to promise to issue new regulations for the trade. At the CITES meeting in 2013 in Thailand, these promises were made and a hopeful Dr. Pensak then said: “I sincerely hope that the proposal will be accepted. We have waited long enough,” she said. But once again, the entrenched problems in Thai politics hampered her attempts. The Thai parliament was dysfunctional most of 2013 and as no new legislation was passed, the year instead became the worst year ever for trafficking of illegal ivory which tripled in Thailand during that year. More wild elephant tusk than ever before was laundered into white and domesticated ivory products and freely sold to thousands of tourists in markets and exclusive souvenir shops all over the Kingdom. A few months ago, an alarmed Chairman of CITES, the Norwegian Øystein Størkersen pushed for sweeping sanctions to be imposed on Thailand. He was supported by WWF, but eventually the meeting which took place in Thailand ended setting a deadline of next March 2015 for the country to fall into line or risk wide-ranging sanctions. With the axe hanging in the air, the Business Development Department of the Thai Ministry of Commerce in October set up a specialized center to provide advice on the ivory trade.
“We intend to prevent illegal ivory trading and create better understanding about trade regulations,” the department’s director-general Pongpun Gearaviriyapun said at the opening. According to Pongpun, his ministry is now “stringently” regulating ivory traders and has encouraged them to register with the ministry, to prevent illegal trading and protect Thailand from international sanctions.
Dr Pensak: Not enough According to Dr Pensak C. Howitz, a ban on selling ivory is not the only thing needed. One of the strongest threats against the elephant in Thailand is not poaching like in Africa, but deforestation, human encroachment, habitation destruction, and water and food resources conflicts. More research on elephants and how they reproduce is also needed, since Thai elephants are not as reproductive when they live in captivity. “All elephants must be counted in Thailand in order to be able to follow up on how they are doing - the ones in nature as well as the ones living in captivity. “Thailand’s national registration system for elephants now includes provisions for collecting DNA data. We will use this DNA information to keep wild elephants out of our captive herds. Lowering the registration age for young elephants will also prevent unscrupulous traders from laundering wild-caught elephants as domestic animals. These improvements are mandatory for going forward,” she says. One of her creative ideas is to issue mahouts
with a license. If the mahouts are given a test to pass and an official mahout license, several things would be accomplished in one strike. The mahouts would gain professional recognition and self esteem and by registering the mahouts you would at the same time indirectly also be building up a register of his elephants. An added value could be that the mahouts could as a group voice suggestions how the whole business of domesticated elephants could be regulated better. November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 25
Young and determined couple Andreas Hoffmann and Christine Bruun feel they have matured several years in the process of moving to Singapore. Their life as expats has strengthened their relationship and gotten them married a lot earlier than they planned to. by Lasse Henriksen
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n one seemingly ordinar y Wednesday Andreas Hoffmann Kristensen called his girlfriend Christine Bruun with a short but significant message. “I took a job in Singapore, are you ready to move?” Even though Christine’s first thought was “I’m not ready for this,” the phone call was the culmination of years of hard work and personal sacrifices, so she knew they had to find a way to make it work. 22 year old Christine, 23 year old Andreas grew up in Naestved and Holme-Olstrup, a small town 10 kilometers outside of Naestved. The two have known each other since they were kids, where Christine and her friends would hang out near the football field where Andreas and the boys were playing. Years later, when they were both attending Zealand Business College in Naestved and taking their driver’s license at the same place, Andreas decided to make a move. At a driving lesson while he was driving down the highway with Christine in the backseat he winked at her in the rearview 26 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
mirror. Christine found the wink charming and they started dating. From the very beginning of their relationship Andreas told Christine that he wanted to live and work outside of Denmark and that he was going to dedicate a lot of his time to achieve this goal. At first Christine was perfectly happy just living in southern Zealand, but Andreas’ visions inspired her, and as time passed she got more and more excited about moving abroad.
Eyes on the prize Andreas has basically wanted to work in a foreign country as long as he can remember. At the business school he took a 3 year course in Chinese and after school at the age of 19 he went to China for half a year putting his Chinese skills to work as an intermediary between foreign teachers and the school board. A few days after returning from China, Andreas started working as shipping trainee in Koge about 40 kilometers from Naestved. At that time Christine was working to become a lingerie stylist. After Andreas came back the couple moved into
an apartment together, but they already knew that they were not going to stay there for long. As a trainee Andreas worked long hours aiming for the goal – to leave Denmark. “It came to a point where we did not even hammer nails into the wall to hang pictures, because we knew it was just going to be a stopover. The one and a half year I lived there the walls were blank and we did not even paint. It has been hard at times,” Christine says before Andreas cuts in, “Yes, in order to make it possible to leave Denmark at such a young age, we had to do without one another a lot of the time, but I think we had our eyes on the prize the entire time. Every time it has been hard, we knew it was going to be better when we could go away together.” The couple lived together in the apartment for 7 months when Andreas got a job as a marine fuel trader in Fredericia, a good two hour train journey from Naestved. In order to avoid wasting time on commuting back and forth, Andreas found a small place in Fredericia, where he could stay during the weekdays. After working half a year as a bunker fuel trader in Fredericia, Andreas
in Singapore
The couple showing a picture from their wedding. The wedding itself was planned in no time and was only attended by Andreas’ boss and the curch’s chef, since the couple plan to renew their vows and celebrate their marriage with friends and family in Denmark.
was offered the job in Singapore. Even though the couple had been telling friends and family that they were going to move out of the country, a lot of people were startled when the couple revealed that they were actually going to do it. “My family was not as calm as Andreas’, they were wondering where I was going, why I was quitting my job and if Andreas would even want to support me financially down here,” Christine says before Andreas cuts in “But they never really knew me that well neither. I have always been the guy who was working, instead of going to the family gatherings” , Christine continues ”At that time a lot of my family members still believed that I had some sort of imaginary boyfriend, they had never met Andreas.”
6 months with a bed, a chair and an X-box as the only furniture The first half year Andreas went to Singapore and lived by himself. Christine was working as a lingerie stylist in a store, and neither Christine nor the shop-manager was ready for Christine to move to Singapore at a few months’ notice. She
made an agreement with her boss, that she would train the girl replacing her. Then Andreas could do the practical things like finding and furnish an apartment, setting up the internet connection before she arrived. Spending the first months in Singapore alone suited Andreas well. He could get familiar to his new job, working 13 hours a day without worrying about giving Christine the attention she deserves. Also Andreas did not mind living in an apartment with nothing but a bed and an X-box for half a year while saving money for proper furniture. Andreas’ boss who is also a Dane helped him find the apartment and walk him through the do’s and don’ts in Singapore. But no matter how much good advice you get, you can’t be prepared for everything. ”After finding the apartment the next hurdle was to make it look like a home, the first night when I moved in, I went to IKEA to buy a madras, but they couldn’t deliver it on the same day, so I had to sleep on a blanket in the empty bed frame. When I moved in, there was no furniture and the rooms were brown and pink,” Andreas says
adding that painting the walls white really helped making the apartment feel more like a home.
Are we really doing this? When it was finally time for Christine to fly down to Singapore and move in with Andreas, they were going to live together again for the first time in 9 months, in a country completely unknown to her and more than 14.000 kilometers away from Naestved. “I had to call Andreas from the airport, to make sure this was not some kind of weird joke. I called him and said ‘are you sure that you want me, we haven’t lived together for a long time, and we haven’t even seen each other for months’,” Christine says. The couple had joked around, kidding that Andreas might be too busy to pick up Christine at the airport in Singapore, but they both felt the significance of what they were about to do, so of course Andreas was at the airport. On the taxi-ride from Changi Airport to their new home, Christine’s eyes were glued to Andreas, no matter how much he tried to make her November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 27
look out of the window and see the city she was going to live in, she could not stop staring at him. Thoughts were jolting around her head. She felt that somehow she had to make sure that it actually was Andreas who picked her up in the airport.
Somewhere between housewives and party people The experience of moving to Singapore have made Christine feel like she has grown a few years, her interests have shifted and even her style of clothes has changed. Living a life that is suddenly very different from what she used to, is making it harder to stay close with the friends at home. “Whether you want it or not, you can’t keep from sliding apart. There are happening so many things in my life and in their lives. It just takes too long to catch up all the time. So now, when it comes to all the small stupid things that I would usually discuss with my close friends, I now have to discuss with Andreas. We have always been each other’s best friends, but now he can’t have peace from me,” Christine says. From the start Christine has actively been using the Scandinavian community to find friends and acquaintances she can share stories and pieces of advice with. With Andreas working long hours Christine arranges social events like dinner with other couples. Sometimes she can’t help but feel like a PR-agent for Andreas, especially when the stay-at-home spouses often talk what their working partner do and discuss how they might be able to do business together. Many expatriates come and go in Singapore. Christine finds it nice but also frustrating. The expiration date on the friendships forces her to put an effort into getting to know people in a short period of time, but then again she has to say goodbye to the people she just got to know. “It can easily turn superficial, when you just sit around and talk about why people are here and the same standard questions. But it can be nice too, we are all in the same boat, and I get to talk with a lot of people I would never had talked to in Denmark,” Christine says. As one of the youngest couples in the Scandinavian community, it can be hard to find friends that share their experiences. Andreas and Christine falls between two chairs, and some of the expat wives Christine talks with introduce her to their children. “I never really know what person I am supposed to be in what setting. When I’m with the other wives they talk about washing powder and how they have taught their maid to make Danish meatballs. When I’m with my younger friends they talk about which bars to go to, and then suddenly I am the one laughing about accidentally washing a pale blue shirt with the black laundry,” Christine says. According to Christine it is easy to make friends in Singapore, but harder to get close friends. She will not tell her friends in Singapore if she and Andreas have been fighting. In this way Andreas has become Christine’s only really close friend in Singapore, and even though this sounds like potential trouble, it has actually made them grow stronger as a couple. “Our ability to communicate with each other has improved while living in Singapore. When we 28 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
had a fight in Denmark we would go to friends and family and talk with them about our problems, here we have to confront our problems and talk it out,” Andreas says No matter how much the couple enjoy each other’s company they do need some time apart. While Christine has some time alone every day when Andreas is at work, he does not have any moment alone. So to meet their needs for solitude and socializing, the couple have one or two weekly days were Christine organizes a ladies night while Andreas stays at home where he can enjoy his alone time by watching the TV-series Suits or just do whatever he pleases.
Marriage was a smaller step than moving Before moving abroad, the idea of getting married was not alien to the couple, but it was more a thing they expected to happen somewhere down the road. In Singapore though, making their love and relationship official was very convenient since Christine wants to get a job. The marriage means that the couple does not have to worry about visas and that it becomes easier for Christine to obtain a work permit.The decision of getting married was made rather swiftly while the two were brushing their teeth one evening. “I spat out the toothpaste and said, ‘the ladies in the Seamen’s Church said it would be really
smart to get married,’ then Andreas spat and said ‘yeah, if it makes it easier’, and that’s how we agreed to do it,” Christine says. Even though it can seem a bit hasty to decide on getting married in a matter of minutes, the couple felt that this was a minor choice compared to the ones they had already taken. “For me it was a bigger decision to move to Asia, to live together with me as the only provider far away from the support of friends and family, than to just simply saying yes in a white house,” Andreas says, and Christine agrees, “That’s what I always say when people ask if we were ready to get married. I mean we live on the other side of the planet, god-dammit, so yes we are quite confident that we are going to stay together.” It is important for Christine and Andreas to make it clear that they will renew their vows and have a wedding for friends and family later on, but that this was just a more convenient time to get married. “We have never doubted that we were going to stay together, have children and get married somewhere down the road. We meant it when we promised each other to stay together in illness, poverty and all the things you say at the altar,” Christine says.
White dress but no flower bouquet Since the couple knew that they were going to
For me it was a bigger decision to move to Asia, to live together with me as the only provider far away from the support of friends and family, than to just simply saying yes in a white house
Andreas and Christine use the strong Scandinavian network in Singapore to meet new people and get help and advice from experienced expats. Here the couple is attending a Danish football tournament in Singapore. Since Andreas work most of the day, it has become Christine’s responsibility to socialize and find events that Andreas wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for her.
have a new ceremony and celebration later on, they did not want to make a big fuss about the wedding. Andreas invited his boss as a witness and the couple literary pulled the church’s chef and caretaker out of the kitchen to act as a second witness. Christine originally intended to wear a dark blue dress but just felt uncomfortable in it in the morning, so she changed to a white dress with a better fit, since she was really nervous and wanted to feel comfortable in the church. After the wedding the couple went out to celebrate by themselves with good wine and food. Christine have not told her friends about the wedding yet, and she has chosen only to tell family members if she have had time to explain why they got married in secrecy. When Andreas casually told his grandparents that Christine was now his wife, they laughed and did not believe him until he showed them the wedding pictures on his smartphone. Andreas’ grandparents were not the only ones who would not believe the couple had married. “I was discussing the Danish tradition of covering bachelors with cinnamon on their 25th birthday with my friends, when I told them that they could forget about spraying me with cinnamon since I was now legally married to Christine. First they wouldn’t believe it and when I finally convinced them, they insisted that they would
cover me in cinnamon anyway, since they did not get to take me on a bachelor party,” Andreas says.
More than you see on Instagram Christine started blogging in Singapore with the intention to make it easier for friends and family to follow her life in Singapore. Her blog has become a way to show the people at home who think she lives the perfect life, dining on the top of skyscrapers and living with her own walk-incloset, that the often solitary life of an expatriate housewife is not just a bed of roses. “The pictures I post on Facebook or Instagram are from the rooftop of Marina Bay Sands or when I have cooked a delicious meal, but it can be tragic to be home alone all day, I don’t post when I’m just lying in my bed. A lot of people think that my life is one big party, but the ones who read the blog can understand that this is just a tiny fraction of my life in Singapore,” Christine says. Friends at home, even the ones that she has not kept in touch with for a long time, respond to her blog posts. Most of them in a very positive way, they appreciate that Christine writes about the not so flashy parts of the expat life. Christine blogs in Danish at www.bhsingapore.blogspot.sg.
In Asia for good Even though Andreas works for a Danish company, he is working on a Singaporean contract. It
was important for him not just to get a temporary contract that would send him to Asia for a limited period of time. At the moment he is happy working in Singapore, and when he starts speaking about the future he talks opportunities in Asia, not Denmark. “When you have already moved out of the country, it does not matter too much if the city you live in is called Singapore or Ho Chi Minh, cause you have already taken the big step and when it comes to friends, the ones we have here are always moving around anyway,” Andreas says and adds that if they moved to Shanghai they would already know people there because of the constant mobility and strong Scandinavian network. Christine hopes that she and Andreas can move to China in the future.The two have always had a weak spot for the country, and it would most likely be easier for her to get a job in a shop helping customers in China. To improve her future chances of getting her dream job in China, Christine has started to learn Chinese. “On my visit to Denmark this summer I realized that we are doing the right thing. I understood that the family and friends are still at home even though I’m living in a foreign country. When I left Denmark I was happy to fly home to Andreas, Singapore is our adventure,” Christine says. November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 29
Christmas
Guide
Drizzling snow, early dark afternoons, ice skating until your nose is running, making Christmas decorations, eating marzipan and ginger cookies... oh, how I miss winter and Christmas back home! Every plastic tree I see only makes it worse!
L
uckily we have several delicious Christmas lunches where you can drown your Christmas depression in roasted pork with sugar roasted potatoes with red cabbage on the side and a big serving of Ris a la Mande. The beginning of the julebord season is in late November, goes on throughout December and it lasts until Christmas Eve on 24 December and even beyond. Sometimes, the Chambers push their event into January to avoid the crowded month of December.
Stable Lodge The most traditional Christmas lunch in Bangkok you find at The Stable Lodge in Sukhumvit Soi 8. The restaurant has over the past 22 years become a fixture in the Scandinavian world and for many, a Scandinavian Christmas in Bangkok is complete without at least at least a few Christmas lunches and maybe even a Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve at the old familiar place. The Christmas Buffet Menu 2014 at Stable
30 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
Lodge is a nostalgic walk through the most popular Danish dishes linked to the Yuletide back home. You start with 3 kinds of herring, Fried fish filet, Smoked mackerel, Egg Caviar, Marinated Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Shrimps, all with assorted dark or white bread. Then you add four salds, Potato salad, Chicken salad, Curry Salad, and Herring Salad. Now you are ready for the meat, Roast Pork, Roast beef, Homemade liver paste w/bacon, Rolled spiced pork, Spare Ribs, “Sylte”, Swedish Christmas Ham, Homemade Sausage, Danish meat balls, Fried fish filet, Sweet Pork, Apple Pork and Roast Duck with Cooked and/or Sweet potatoes. Finally, you round it up with some cheese: Samsoe cheese, Blue cheese, Camembert, then a Fruits Salad and of course the Rice Pudding “Ris a la Mande” Why wait? Make your reservations at: Stable Lodge Hotel 39 Sukhumvit Road Soi 8 Bangkok 10110, Thailand
2014 From Nov. 29. - Dec. 28. Stable Lodge’s CHRISTMAS LUNCH Scandinavian buffet w/warm & cold cots BHT. 650.-++
Traditional X-mas dinner from 7pm. Pickled Salmon,Roasted Duck /Pork and Rice Pudding BHT. 1200.- Net. Children 1/2 price Ticket Available for sale at the reception.
Stable Lodge’s Famous CHRISTMAS LUNCH BHT. 750.-++ Please book your table, limited space.
New Year Buffet Dinner 7pm. to midnight BHT. 650.- ++
Start 2015 at Stable Lodge. From one o’clock . NEW YEAR LUNCH Bht. 1.- (one baht only)
The Admiral’s @ 24: Another well-known Danish restaurant in Bangkok is The Admiral’s Pub & Restaurant in Sukhumvit Soi 24, where a Traditional “Scandinavian Christmas Buffet” will be arranged the following Friday’s in December, the 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th from 19:00 – 22:00 pm. The “Eat All You Can” Buffet style treat is priced at 650 Bht. with half prrice for children from 8 -12 years and free for children below 8 years. On November 30th and December 7th and 14th and 21st Admiral’s will light the candles in their Advent Wreath at 4 pm in the afternoon and serve Gloegg (Hot Spicy Christmas Punch) priced at 180 Bht./Net. On Christmas Eve itself, from 7 to 11 pm, The Admiral’s will ser ve a traditional Danish Christmas Eve menu with marinated salmon w/ dill sauce and shrimp cocktail, oven roasted sherry duck, oven roasted pork with crackling and red wine gravy, sugar coated and boiled potatoes, home pickled red cabbages, ris a la mande sweet Christmas pudding w/ sherry sauce at 1,100 Bht. /Net per person and again half price for children below 12 years. For table reservation please contact Admiral’s @ 24 – Pub & Restaurant. B1 floor, Oakwood Residence 15 Sukhumvit Soi 24, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Chamber Christmas Celebrations All the Nordic Chambers of commerce have a tradition of celebrating Christmas in various ways with their members. It is a great opportunity for the business people to invite their customers, suppliers, sub-suppliers, joint-venture partners, strategic alliance partners and other good people to an afternoon they are sure to remember. Leading the pack is the Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce. Some years, the DTCC have had 200 members participating in their Christmas lunch which by tradition takes place at the Royal Danish Embassy. Yes, with a bit of luck you may again this year catch a rare guitar performance by the Danish Ambassador, Mr. Mikael Hemniti Winther. The DTCC Lunch takes place this year on Friday, 28 November 2014 from 12.30 to 17.30. The lunch is a buffet with no less than 33 wellprepared traditional Christmas dishes including caviar, smoked salmon, herring, mouthwatering 32 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
roast beef, homemade liver pate, roast duck just to mention a few. Additionally, you will be served cool snaps (aquavit), and a free flow of beer and soft drinks. Towards the end of the Dancham lunch there will be a lucky draw with Christmas presents from Pandora, ECCO, Royal Copenhagen and many more. The tickets are sold to members at THB 1,950 and if you make a reservations of more than 10 persons, you will get a private table! The Thai-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce is also planning a Christmas lunch for the members. This one will take place on Sunday 30th November 2014. Details on their website. A Thai-Swedish Chamber Xmas event is usually held as well, possibly with nice, warm Glogg and Lucia and co-arranged with SWEA Bangkok - bangkok.swea.org The Thai-Finnish Chamber of Commerce used in the “good ol’ days” to hold a Thai-Finnish “Pikkujoulu” for the members and their families.
Watch out for this on their facebook page www. facebook.com/groups/tfcc1/
More Xmas lunches? Other places to watch out for local Christmas lunches would be: • Huahindk.com - Network for Danes in Hua Hin • Skandinaver paa Phuket - www.skandphuk. dinstudio.se • Norwegian Seamans Church, Pattaya - www. sjomannskirken.no/pattaya • Scandinavian Expats Club, Pattaya - www.vikingpattaya.com/ • Swedish Association in Hua Hin - www.svenskforeningenhuahin.se/ • or simply check the ScandAsia calandar here: www.scandasia.com/thailand-calendar/ or subscribe to the ScandAsia Weekly newsletter on the same page. If you know of a local event, help other Scandinavians finding it by adding it to the calendar, please.
November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 33
มุมภาษาไทย
l
mum pha:să: thai
l
Thai Language Corner
Thai
When it Counts 2 By Klavs Johansen (thai@maprao.dk)
I
n the previous column, Thai When it Counts, we went through the Thai number system and we saw how three bottles of beer inThai is counted as เบียร์สามขวด / bia să:m khùat / ~ 3 bottles of beer (literally ‘beer 3 bottles’), and how – both in English and in Thai – we use ‘bottle’ as the ‘counter’. We ended the column by explaining that in Thai language we use such a ‘counter’ for all words, which we want to count and that, in most English language text books, such counter is referred to as a ‘classifier’. We also explained that this classifier is just a word, like bottle, and will depend on the noun we wish to count. This time, we will take a closer look at some of these classifiers and the way they are used to count in Thai. As usual, we use examples to illustrate more general observations. One of the most common classifiers is the word คน / khon / ~ person, which is used to count humans. We get for example:
คนไทยห้าคน / khon thai hâ: khon / ~ five Thais (literally ’Thai 5 persons), or ตำ�รวจสิบคน / tamrùat sìp khon / ~ ten policemen. ลูกสองคน / lû:k sŏr:ng khon / ~ two children (sons or daughters) In contrast, animals are counted using ตัว / tua / ~ body, so we get: แมวสี่ตัว / mae:o sì: tua / ~ four cats, and นกแปดตัว / nók pàe:t tua / ~ eight birds.
Only exception – I can think of – is elephants, which are special to the Thais, and may be counted using เชือก / chûeak / ~ rope, when in captivity:
ช้างยี่สิบเชือก / chá:ng yî: sìp chûeak / ~ twenty elephants. ตัว / tua / is also used to count garments, like shirts and trousers , as well as
เด็ก 5 คน dek hâ: khon five children
furniture,
เสื้อสองตัว / sûea sŏr:ng tua / ~ two shirts, เก้าอี้สีตัว / kâo î: sì: tua / ~ four chairs.
หมา 4 ตัว mă sì: tua four dogs
Other common classifiers are:
ลูก / lû:k / ~ offspring, used for fruits and ball-shaped objects, e.g. มะม่วงเจ็ดลูก / mámûang jèt lû:k / ~ seven mangos, ใบ / bai / ~ leaf, used for flat objects like sheets of paper, fruits (just as ลูก / lû:k /), and certain containers, like glasses and cups, แก้วหนึ่งใบ / kâe:o nùeng bai / ~ one glass, the latter being empty, as otherwise you would count the content using แก้ว / kâe:o / itself as classifier, โค้กสองแก้ว / khó:k sŏr:ng kâe:o / ~ two glasses of Coca-Cola. หลัง / lăng / ~ back, used for houses, tents and mosquito nets, บ้านหกหลัง / bâ:n hòk lăng / ~ six houses. เล่ม / lêm / is used for books and long pointed objects like knives, candles and needles, หนังสือสองร้อยเล่ม / năngsŭe: sŏr:ng rór:i lêm / ~ two hundred books. There are quite a few more, but the last classifier to mention here is the universal: อัน / an / ~ thing, which as such is used for mainly smaller objects, ไม้จิ้มฟันเก้า
อัน / má:i jîm fan kâ:o an / ~ nine toothpicks.
The use of classifiers is often the cause of some initial confusion for foreigners learning Thai, however there isn’t really any reason to make it more complicated than it is. Just as you know in English when to count things in bottles, bags, or Baht, it will, with a little practice, soon feel natural to use the Thai classifiers with the appropriate nouns. Until then, you may take comfort in knowing that you are likely to be understood, if you repeat the noun itself as classifier, or, considerably better, as long as you remember คน / khon / for humans, ตัว / tua / for animals, you may get away with using อัน / an / for just about everything else.Then, along the way, you can gradually refine your Thai by adding more classifiers for appropriate nouns to your active vocabulary. The question to ask the Thais is:
อันนี้นับอย่างไร / an ní: náp yà:ngrai / ~ how is this one counted? 34 ScandAsia.Thailand • November 2014
November 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 35
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