Boys - Outside Thailand

[Gaybutton]

Hopefully in Thai, if the conversation is verbal.

Where do you expect to be when you ask that question? My guess is in bar, talking to a bar boy. I'd say asking a bar boy what his job is might be a bit superfluous . . .

[Jun]

Where do you expect to be when you ask that question? My guess is in bar, talking to a bar boy. I'd say asking a bar boy what his job is might be a bit superfluous . . .

A good point.

In practice, a high proportion of my introductions are actually on the phone apps.
It's slightly impolite to assume I'm talking to a money boy, particularly outside Pattaya.
So asking about his job provides a good first invitation for the lad to declare his intentions.

However, whilst I can now read a few basic words, learning to spell and type is a very low priority.
Cutting and pasting phrases is clunky too.
So, for now, I only envisage trying to communicate in written Thai if I'm off the beaten track & there's an exceedingly hot lad who can't write in English.

[Jun]

Once upon a time, Berlin used to be an interesting weekend trip.

They had some acceptable boys in the rent boy bars. Also, Club Sauna Brasil, with an interesting mix of regular customers and rent boys.
That sauna closed years ago.

The rent boy bars now seem to attract only middle easterners, who all have beards and some are overweight. I wouldn't leave with one of those if they paid me & that's certainly not their business model. I avoid all intereaction with them.

The one shining light is the Belgian-Asian lad behind the bar in Tabasco. Now he is gorgeous and quite good fun too. However, it doesn't take much effort to figure out he's the only bar staff, so isn't going to be offed in a hurry. However, he does brighten up a visit to the place.

Beer Eur 3.5 for 0.4l. Which is about 10% more than Jomtien, after adjusting for volume.

[Gaybutton]

Once upon a time, Berlin used to be an interesting weekend trip.

Now that some elections in Germany has yielded successful results for the far right which the news dubs "The most extreme far right since the Nazis", I wonder what that will mean for gay life and gay venues in Germany, although anti immigration seems to be the main focus.

I hope this isn't the beginning of history repeating itself.
__________________________________________________________________________

German chancellor condemns first state election success for far-right party since WWII

“Our country cannot and must not get used to this,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party triumphed.

by Carlo Angerer

September 3, 2024

MUNICH — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday pleaded with mainstream parties to not change course and decide to enter a coalition with the first far-right party to come first in a state legislature election since the Nazis held power 80 years ago.

“Our country cannot and must not get used to this,” Scholz, a lawmaker for his center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), said a day after Alternative for Germany (AfD) triumphed in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony.

“The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation,” he added.

The anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party is being monitored for extremism by the country’s domestic intelligence agency.

While mainstream parties have traditionally boycotted the AfD, meaning they will not form governing coalitions with the movement, its growing popularity is believed to have pulled other parties right. Meanwhile, traditional parties have lost ground in Germany, as in other parts of Europe, amid growing voter anger at mainstream politics.

After the AfD received 32.8% of Sunday’s vote in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, the party’s leader in the state, was jubilant as he celebrated with his colleagues and party members.

“I think the mood is very clear. People want change,” said Höcke, who was fined twice this year by German courts for using the Nazi-era slogan “Everything for Germany” at two AfD events in recent years. He has appealed the rulings.

There were similar scenes in Saxony where the party came a close second behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after securing 30% of the vote.

Ahead of the elections, the conservative CDU, which came second in Thuringia, said it would not work with the AfD.

AfD leaders indicated that they were hoping their strong showings would induce the CDU to join with them in governing coalitions, which are common in Germany.

“The voter has decided. He wants the AfD to participate in the government,” Alice Weidel, the AfD’s national party leader, said in an interview with Germany’s ZDF broadcaster.

Saxony and Thuringia lie at the heart of what was once communist East Germany, the half of the country that had strong ties to the then-Soviet Union.

The AfD’s success was also condemned by Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

“More and more people are voting for the AfD out of political conviction, a right-wing extremist ideology manifested through protest. A populist BSW still leaves a lot unknown, but what we know about this new party and its top personnel does not bode well,” he wrote in an op-ed in Bild Germany’s highest selling tabloid.

The left-wing Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) or Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, a new party around its leader Sahra Wagenknecht, also won seats but is unlikely to work with the AfD.

Founded in April 2013 as a movement against the euro currency, the AfD has shifted its focus to Islam and immigration. It has grown in popularity at both local and national levels ever since, particularly in the former East Germany, which has lagged economically behind the west of the country.

Polling ahead of Sunday’s vote showed there is more skepticism about NATO and Germany’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Both played roles in the AfD's triumph, Sébastien Maillard, an associate fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told NBC News on Monday.

Immigration was the main issue for voters as they headed to the polls, he added.

More than 1 million people benefited from then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s doors to asylum-seekers in 2015, making the country by far the largest European destination for refugees. But the issue of integration is a thorny one and the AfD harnessed hostility toward foreigners as it emerged from the fringes.

It became an even hotter topic after three people were killed and eight wounded in a knife attack in the city of Solingen last month, for which the Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility.

The suspect is a 26-year-old Syrian citizen, identified by the German federal prosecutor’s office as “Issa Al H,” who had applied for and failed to gain asylum in Germany. It later emerged that he could have been deported to Bulgaria where he was first registered as an asylum-seeker, but that authorities failed to do so, a fact that was seized upon by the AfD.

“That just gave help to that trend, but that was already there,” Maillard said. “It’s a worrying vote for Scholz and his coalition who really are weakened by these results.”

While Scholz’s SDP won small percentages of the votes in Thuringia, their federal coalition partners, the environmentalist Green Party and the pro-business Free Democrats, were not able to get the minimum 5% of the vote required for a seat in the state. Both the SDP and the Greens won a small percentage of the vote in Saxony.

At a national level, Maillard added that the three-party coalition was “almost crippled,” because it’s always contradicting itself, the chancellor is always being challenged by the vice chancellor, so it looks quite weak.”

This could have longer-term effects on both next September’s federal elections and at the European level, he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/germ ... rcna169199

[Jun]

German chancellor condemns first state election success for far-right party since WWI

I'm not sure what that has to do with the topic of this thread.

However, under the liberal politicians of recent years, Germany has had totally uncontrolled immigration of very large numbers from the middle east. Rather than integrating, these just import their customs to Germany. I'm not surprised the far right get so much support. It could happen in any country where the mainstream politicians do so badly.

Having a PR system which allows parties to grow from a small base also contributes.

[Gaybutton]

I'm not sure what that has to do with the topic of this thread.

You talked about Berlin. Last time I checked, Berlin was still in Germany. With what is currently going on in Germany, we'll see what, if anything, happens to gay life in Berlin.

[Jun]

The thread topic is "Boys - Outside Thailand".
Boys in Berlin fit into that category.

I struggle to see any connection to an AFD regional election win, in a state that's miles away from Berlin.

[Gaybutton]

I struggle to see any connection to an AFD regional election win, in a state that's miles away from Berlin.

Do you really want to have that debate? Count me out.

[christianpfc]

So asking about his job provides a good first invitation for the lad to declare his intentions.
However, whilst I can now read a few basic words, learning to spell and type is a very low priority.
Cutting and pasting phrases is clunky too.

They and I often ask "What are you looking for" - "หาอะไร" which elicits the answers "friend/fun/travel or drinking buddy/money".
Spelling and typing came naturally to me when I started learning Thai. Nowadays I can touch-type the most common Thai letters.
I have the most used sentences in English and Thai in "clipboard" on my phone (name and function might vary with brand and OS) and choose from there.

As for current politics in Germany, the greatest threat to Yes and Gays (and women, basically everyone who is not a Muslim) lies in Muslim immigrants and not German right wing politicians and people who vote for them. There is even a group "Juden in der AfD" - "Yews in the AfD".