Of course it also depends on your personality and desire, you sure can make a lot of effort to expand your vocabulary, if you are outgoing, talkative, socially active and have a strong desire to connect with people and engage in vigorous conversations that lead to nowhere and have no professional purpose. I am just saying it is not required to talk a lot for a simple quiet life, in English or Mandarin.
I don’t know how many people would be interested in the discussion of “the snake chasing its tail”.
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Seems checks more, make sure you have money to holiday.
Here’s Japan’s response to destitute travelers:
Are we not all travellers? Do we not all journey through the vertigi
I finally realized that the problem is not destitute travelers. It’s pretending to be destitute travelers and locals.
I’ve been all round South East Asia the past year, looking for a new country to live in, after COVID destroyed the Taipei business institute I worked for since 2018. I worked in Taipei for 5 years. Business was booming before COVID.
Guilt Trippers
I ran into these type of guilt-trip bar scammers, who I call the NGO kids.
They are only 5% of society, but they cause big problems in informal assistance networks, by playing on people’s guilt, to make money.
There’s a whole generation of young Asians who have figured out that all you have to do is make a sad face at the nearest white person, and the white guy will guiltily give cash to you. Big money. Big payouts. Making white people guilty is a sodding industry.
Christians are frequently, methodically targeted.
My efforts to build better microfinance software, and understand people claiming to have no money, have failed for several reasons:
- I kept communication unwritten, face to face only.
- Communication was non-public.
- I let too much bratty behaviour go. Way too much.
My bad. My fault. Wo ben dan.
** Building a Better Assistance Network / Social Safety Net with Open Source Software**
-
Keep everything written down, and clearly accountable. Use simple forms, to avoid uncomfortable conversations. Ignore wheedling emails, and soft-begging in messages.
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Keep it public. Kickstarter etc do a good job of keeping all numbers in plain public view. This outright forces community accountability.
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Use streamlined, standardized, quick to fill in forms. Forms are the bedrock and backbone of a modern civilization. You cannot whine at, guilt trip, or backstab a form. It sits immutable. You fill it out, or feck oof. Keep your distance from these people, all pretending to be down to their last meal.
In short… how can crowdfunding be further open sourced, fragmented, specialized and localized?
I have no idea what you is on about. Can someone summarize?
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Looks like crowdfunding for people
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Sure… you’ve been all over SE Asia, right? Did you ever meet some guy or girl in a bar who laid a big guilt trip on you? The old Sick Water Buffalo routine, which is now a meme…
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A guilt trip for what?
Like give me money kind of thing? No.
It wouldn’t have worked.
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That’s good to know. 
Don’t you get targeted by bar scammers outside Taiwan? Do I have a big sign on my face or something? ha.
BTW, lots of deadheads in Thailand.
Bollocks?
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Only three times in Taiwan have people tried to scam me - at least knowingly. Once a guy had a nail supposedly stuck in this arm and needed money to go to hospital. The second a young woman tried to get money off me on the MRT for some reason that I no longer remember. The third a very creepy elderly chap tried to get money for something related to traditional Chinese medicine that I didn’t understand.
It’s not been frequent, for sure.
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What are you talking about? I feel like I am reading something in morse code.
EDIT: @the_bear beat me to it. I wonder what illicit substances would be required to understand that post. 
Guy
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And yet you cannot look away…
I was going through why the informal assistance network on expat forums has not really served its purpose. There are three main reasons why it has failed, and three principles which I could use to build something better.
The principles are the inverse of the failures, if you catch my drift.
I had probably just woken up, and the grammar might be a little rough… but it seems perfectly lucid to me. I imagine muggles might find it moderately taxing.
Or do you mean that specific sentence? Have you never heard the Chinese phrase Ben Dan?
And you are right… I am making ginger and galangal bread, and wine.
tl;dr: What factors have made it possible for local guilt trippers to coax large amounts of money from naive NGOs?
I don’t drink or frequent bars. And in the day, no. There were no such thing as begpackers in 90s.
Ugh, one would hope not.
Its very rare behaviour in Taiwan, for sure.
It is far more frequent in other South East Asian countries.
Imagine if your experience goes from three times ever, to three times per month, or week. You are going to understand their psychology far better.
I know this local guy who spends his entire day hanging outside the foreigner supermarkets, spinning bigger and bigger sob stories to anyone who will listen.
Thank you for your in depth assessment of my writing.
I think we should start a gofundme for @HenHaoChi so he can go away and form a lucid thesis.
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Look I’ve invested a lot of money into medicines for sick water buffalo in Isan over the years. I consider it money well spent.
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I am frugally happy Bear… but thanks for your consideration.
Rereading my first draft, I can see the wording is somewhat pretentious. I should redraft it and remove all the bizarre flourishes.
What about a crowdfunding site called sick water buffalo? That would stick it to the Thais. ha.