One Comment on the Latest US Massacre

One article I read, which mentioned that the issue of gun control may arise yet again, had a quote from a pro-gun organisation saying that if everyone had been armed, the shooter would have been stopped at the beginning of his rampage and fatalities would have been far less. While that's probably true, the guy should not have had a gun in the first place.

In Australia, about 10 years ago, a mentally deranged guy shot and killed more than 30 people at a tourist park in Tasmania. The country was horrified, just like in the US.

Unlike the US, the Australian government immediately implemented a real gun control act, and instituted a gun buy-back scheme. A few farmers and hunters immediately wrapped their oiled AK-47s in plastic and buried them, but thousands and thousands of guns were taken off the street and crushed.

Guns are not outlawed in Australia; they can still be bought, but you need a permit and you have to take a safety test. But it is a fact that crimes involving guns have been reduced.

However, there is a large and growing violent criminal element in Australia, especially in the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. Most of these criminals appear to be young men from SE Asia (principally Vietnam), Arab countries (Lebanon and Syria), and the Balkans. They form gangs of men of the same nationality; these people seem to have no problem whatsoever getting guns and having shootouts.

When my wife and I sold everything and left Canada in 93, one of the eastern US states passed a gun control law just before we left Ottawa. That law prevented anyone from buying more than 5 hand guns in a week. That's the American idea of gun control. Sphere: Related Content

Worth Looking At

Predictions of the Year 2000
from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900

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Busy Lately

I haven't posted much lately, mostly because I am running out of time. I ran out of money many months ago, and have been borrowing money from a bank in Canada to keep me and Thai Culture Publishing afloat. It's a new company and isn't profitable yet. I figured it would take a year.

Things weren't helped by one of the founders deciding her ex-boyfriend needed money more than the company did and embezzling more than 50,000 baht. What hurts is that I treated this girl as a daughter, as she was pregnant, and didn't want to tell her aged father. I gave her free room and board for three months, bought her a baby bed and other baby needs, and generally acted as her substitute father, and she paid me back by stealing money. "No good deed shall remain unpunished" is very true.

She also hurt the start-up of Thai Culture Publishing, as she did this in the first few months after the company was formed last July. We lost three months as well as the money. We started over again in September, with a new partnership, and had to pay the start-up expenses all over again, including new CDs and new packaging.

The good news is that the new Managing Director, Kanokporn Boonjan, has proved to be an excellent choice: highly motivated, eager to make this a success, and good at marketing besides. The company is a limited partnership, owned by three Thai people; I am neither a shareholder nor partner, I am merely their mentor: Ajarn Doug

In any case, I have to return to Canada and get a job somewhere, anywhere, just to make some money to pay down the bank loan and continue supporting the company until it's on its feet. The company is making progress; they have sold more than 500 CDs now, but have only been paid for 60 or 70 because the big book distributors here act like elephants on the sidewalk, treating small suppliers very badly. Thai Culture Publishing is coming close to breaking even this month (April), and may break even or make a small profit in May.

So around May 8 or so, I will be on my way back to Ottawa, a 36 hour trip, which I will probably break up with a couple of hotel stays in Seoul and Vancouver.

In the meantime, I have pretty much abandoned Thai software development, and have been working feverishly, 18 hours a day, on web sites and Internet marketing. The Thai Culture Publishing site now has half a dozen products listed. I have also set up an Alzheimer's site, an eBooks site, and a Windows Stupidities site, all of which will hopefully generate some additional income in the long run.

In the short run, I have been experimenting with various advertising and promotional techniques to try and generate some immediate cash, but so far I have spent a lot of money for very little gain. Sigh.

This is a particularly stupid time to leave as we are finishing the development of Speak Easy Isaan Lao and Tricky Dictionary Thingy. The goal is to get these out the door before I go, but I am not sure that's possible. If the book distributors take these up, they will generate money 4 or 5 months from now.

I have repackaged Speak Easy Thai into a subset, about 120MB, that can be downloaded as a free trial. As of today, 68 people have downloaded the trial. One person subsequently unsubscribed from the mailing list. I sent out an e-mail suggesting people donate US$25 to get the bonus files; one person did, and 66 people didn't. So what does that mean?

The program works but is crippled without the extra sound files and images. So either people aren't using it, or found it too complicated, or aren't motivated enough about learning Thai to actually pay money to do it. Sigh. If 20 people had donated, I could have paid the bank this month and would not have had to return to Canada. Such is life. Sphere: Related Content