PCT Thailand’s Free Expatriates Blog

Kaqoo - The Auction Alliance Forums. / June 28 & 29 2008

Ebay have become a dictator by taking over Auctions. They have become a Totalitarian Internet Estate crushing anyone who threatens their dominance. It is time for the people to fight back Kaqoo is run by the people; Kaqoo are fighting back

Kaqoo and their Allies recently reached the critical mass to make war against eBay. We are out-gunned and have a fraction of the financial resources, but we have RIGHT on our side and we have the manpower; we also have:

over 5000 downloads.
over 1000 active sites.
1000 Site Owners who provide 1st Class Customer Service.
1000 Site Owners who can be active sellers.
1000 Site Owners who can be active buyers; but ……………… most importantly,
a combined total of over 20,000 Members who can be buyers and sellers.

Kaqoo is no longer a network………………… Kaqoo is an ALLIANCE of independent auction sites ready to become the worlds largest trading alliance using the Kaqoo Auction Platform. With this critical mass and, a concerted effort, we can make our sites and members become ACTIVE buyers and sellers; leading to more ACTIVE sites and members benefiting the whole “Auction Alliance”. We will make this happen on June 28 & 29 2008.

“The Great Sell-A-Thon”.

We are bringing the Allies together on this weekend to list 100,000 USED items. With over 20,000 foot soldiers we need less than 5 listings per soldier to achieve our target. Why used items? Because everyone has used stuff lying around which they need to get rid of, so why not make some money whilst doing it? Books, CDs, DVDs computer games, magazines, toys, car parts, software, phones, cell phones, clothing, baby items and……….. you name it But we will be selling for a worthwhile cause, The Battle Against E.

The other target is to SELL 20,000 items in the following week To make this a success we need YOUR help to provide a whispering campaign through your own Resistance Group

We will need banners to add to sites and all over the Internet. We will need you to make as many people as possible aware of this war, in forums, in mail messages, when speaking to friends and relatives and in whatever other ways you can think of If you are of an artistic nature we need YOU to create generic banners which can be used by any site, 468s, skyscrapers, 250s, whatever folks can use to create the noise We need noise on MySpace & Facebook, on Squidoo and Yahoo, we need to work together to make the press aware of our campaign, to gain the publicity to create the groundswell to bring down the evil power. We have very little time to prepare for battle and need YOUR help NOW. Dont ask what your auction can do for you, ask what you can do for your auction.

Read up your notes from West Point and help to win the first battle We have the strategy; it is now for each General to formulate the tactics and put the plans into operation. Share your ideas to make this work: http://kaqoo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=919

If you are a friendly foreign power and wish to set up a separate headquarters for your briefings, contact Allied HQ and we will establish a forward base within the forums. Please nominate a 3 Star General who will run the show.

In closing this brief I must make you aware that there will be casualties, some will not make it to the end of the war, but by fighting in this initial skirmish, the people will eventually triumph and free themselves from tyranny.

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SOS Baby Hjælps Fonden www.sosbabyhelp.org shafted by Tele Denmark

SOS Baby Hjælps Fonden a foundation started in Denmark to help the needy children in Asia, worked with the “Rotary Club” and “Expats Club” in Pattaya Thailand during the Asian Tsunami, helping children and homeless in Phuket and Burma (Myanmar); is now helping in Burma again after Cyclone Nargis.

Money which danish citizens donated, using a 900 number provided by “Tele Denmark” (formaly “TDC ERHVERV A/S”) to the amount of 4.112.706,61 kr inclusive of 25% tax (normal for 900 network telephone numbers)

“Tele Denmark” failed to obey the danish rules and pay this tax amount (1.917.236,99 kr) to SOS Baby Hjælps Fonden. Letter from Tax Office to Criminal Police. “Tele Denmark” denied they have done anything wrong, even though the information in the letter is wrong.

The Tele Denmark representative that filed the wrong information was Gunnar Petersen

Members of SOS Baby Hjælps Fonden are in Burma now and need this money to help the 2,000,000 displaced people, with fresh water, food and medicine.

If “Tele Denmark” has shafted SOSBabyHelp.org! how many other foundations using #900’s have they failed to pay?

From a danish Newspaper 22 Apr. 2008: “TDC A/S adds 10 - 13% to all Danish Government Telephone Bills.”

INFO: SOS Baby Hjælps Fonden

Almen velgørende fond. Jf. Lov nr. 698 af 11. aug. 1992. Fond i Civilstyrelsen.

CVR Nr. / Se. Nr. 21 19 86 84 fra Erhvervs- og Selskabsstyrelsen.

Baby Hjælps Fondens status som selvstændig rets subjekt.

Fonden var fra indkomståret 1996 godkendt efter

Ligningslovens § 8A. som Velgørende Fond jf.

Told- og Skattestyrelsens Cirkulære 1996-17 pkt. 2.3.1.

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Food price rise affects UK restaurant menus

UK restaurants have slapped a surcharge on the cost of steaks and dropped popular dishes from their menus as they pass on soaring food costs to their customers.

Owners say the rising prices of staples such as rice, beef and chicken are forcing them to cut the size of portions, use more vegetables and re-write recipes to drop expensive ingredients.

Fish not fowl: Le Raj restaurant owner Enam Ali has introduced pangush fish as a cheaper alternative to chicken

A fillet steak surcharge of several pounds has been added to some menus. Other casualties include mozzarella cheese and chicken tikka biryani, while smoked mackerel is being offered as a cheaper alternative to salmon.

Skimping on side orders is another survival strategy being adopted, with extras such as coleslaw disappearing from plates.

Despite these measures, market analysts said they expected the rate of restaurants going out of business to increase with rising costs - accounted for largely by ingredients - already wiping out the average caterer’s profit margin.

Miles Quest, of the British Hospitality Association, which includes the Restaurant Association, said: “High food prices are certainly affecting the industry. I think most caterers are trying to change the menus to reflect this. But where you are serving steak, the only option is to have a smaller portion.”

Rising grain prices affect the price of bread and pasta, but also have an impact on meat and dairy prices, with feed wheat prices up more than 80 per cent since April last year.

Vince Margiotta, director of Il Forno Italian restaurant in Liverpool and Sapporo Teppanyaki in Liverpool and Manchester, said they had added a £2.50 extra charge on their menus for customers ordering fillet steak.

“We’ve had a significant increase on fillet and I’ve had to pass that on [to customers],” Mr Margiotta said. “I’ve altered the pricing on the menu with £2.50 on top of the £17.75 list price in an addendum. We have added other cuts of meat to our weekly specials menu.”

Rice has seen the most dramatic price rises, with several major rice-growing countries in south-east Asia in effect banning exports to keep prices low for the home market. Basmati rice is the only type coming out of India and now costs British wholesalers about £1,000 a ton, up 100 per cent since April last year.

Long-grain rice from Thailand has risen 60 per cent in the last 2½ months.

Enam Ali, chairman of the Guild of Bangladeshi Restaurateurs, said in 30 years in the business he had never known anything like the recent rises in food prices.

Mr Ali, who owns the award-winning Le Raj restaurant in Epsom Downs, Surrey, said
in just six weeks the price he paid for 44lb of rice had doubled from £18 to £36, while the cost of 22lb of chicken fillets had risen from £25 to £32.

The cost of a range of other ingredients, including ghee and spices, had also gone up dramatically.

As a result, Le Raj’s chicken tikka biryani dish will be dropped altogether - charging a market rate would see it rise from £12.50 to about £18.

Chicken tikka massala is staying on the menu, but will rise from £8.50 to £9.50

Tengamita, another chicken dish, is to increase in price from £8.50 to £11.95 while special rice is to rise from the loss-making price of £3.65 to £4.50 or £4.65.

“The rice is a really big problem because 99 per cent of our customers eat rice,” Mr Ali said. “I am going to start changing some dishes because I’m losing money. I thought the market would get back to normal, it might be temporary - that’s why I haven’t increased prices - but now I have to, it’s going up and up. It’s not stopping.

He is bringing in pangush, a popular Bangladeshi fish dish, and a chicken kebab mixed half-and-half with vegetables as more affordable options. But some businesses, instead of changing the menu, are choosing to serve less.

A catering industry insider said: “We’ve heard that people are taking away the little embellishments - fish and chips might now be missing the coleslaw. People are taking some of the bigger cuts of meat off the menu. Where before you might be offered a 4oz and 8oz steak, now you can only have the 4oz.”

Peter Backman, managing director of the catering industry analyst Horizons, said businesses were being forced into making changes at a time of very stiff competition.

“People are reformulating their menus. One of the solutions is replacing more expensive things with cheaper things,” he said.

Chantelle Ludski, who is the founder and chief sandwich maker of the London-based company Fresh! Naturally Organic, has come up with several new sandwich recipes to stave off the worst effects of the rising cost of supplies.

She has decided to replace her roast beef, mozzarella, pesto, tomato and rocket sandwich with a similar one, but using British smoked cheddar and a home-made, sun-dried tomato pesto to keep the cost down to £2.65.

“It’s just tweaking the ingredients. You might say we would do that anyway, but we have also been doing it with an eye to the cost of ingredients,” Miss Ludski said. However, some price rises have been inevitable, with an egg sandwich up from £1.90 to £2.05.

But Ian Brown, head chef of Glasgow’s Ubiquitous Chip restaurant, said it was not necessarily a bad thing if higher costs meant restaurateurs were looking at cheaper cuts of meat. “It takes more skill to use the cheaper cuts,” he said.

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The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

“We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,” long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.

A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the U.S., some of them more than 150 years old.

The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.

The treaties signed with the U.S. were merely “worthless words on worthless paper,” the Lakota freedom activists said.

Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said.

“This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution,” which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.

“It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent,” said Means.

The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence — an overt play on the title of the United States’ Declaration of Independence from England.

Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because “it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,” Means said.

One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples — despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.

“We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children,” Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.

The U.S. “annexation” of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere “facsimiles of white people,” said Means.

Oppression at the hands of the U.S. government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.

Lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the U.S.; infant mortality is five times higher than the U.S. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement’s website.

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Holidaymakers who purchase faulty goods or services on holiday can now claim a refund from their credit card company, following a landmark ruling.

Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, consumers have long been able to claim a refund from their card company if goods and services bought in the UK prove to be faulty. But the House of Lords has now ruled they can also do so if they buy overseas.

The law applies to purchases over £100 and under £30,000. So if you’ve paid for a vehicle that doesn’t work, clothes that fall apart or an all-day massage from a spa that doesn’t exist, you can get your money back. Just remember to pay for it all on your credit card.

Until now, many card companies have coughed up in these circumstances as a sign of goodwill, even though legally they had no obligation to do so.

But it is an important rule because with more people buying from foreign companies over the Internet, and abroad, there was no guarantee that the card companies would continue paying.

So, great news for holidaymakers, but not so good for the companies or the banks that own them. Their liability in this so-called global marketplace is set to continue rising.

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