Stickman Readers' Submissions October 5th, 2006

Divorce Thai Style

I have seen the inside of divorce courts in both the Kingdom of Smiles and the People’s Republic of California. Two different divorces, and two different ex-wives. One Farang, and one Thai. I’m farang, myself.

When it comes to divorce, California is indeed an independent republic because the U.S. has a federal system that relegates family matters primarily to the states. As far as the People’s Republic is concerned, a divorce in the neighboring
state of Nevada is almost as foreign as one occurring in Thailand.

He Clinic Bangkok

I can’t imagine a starker contrast. Compare, for example, the sheer number of laws. Last time I checked, there was no Thai Family Code per se, and there existed instead only a few pertinent laws as a subset of Commercial Code. On the
other hand, as I reach for my 2001 edition of Blumberg California Family Code, I see a massive compendium consisting of 1238 pages. So many laws, in a state renowned for its stifling politically correct culture and intrusive government.

The People’s Republic has a no-fault divorce system, as do most U.S. states, and in contrast to Thailand. To my knowledge, marriage is the only binding contract for which no penalty exists for breach of contract <I love this lineStick>. What role does a civil court have if not to enforce contracts? The court is used instead to implement social engineering programs promoted by feminazis. Here in California, we refer to such feminazis as “child
advocates” so as to confuse gullible people. Thanks to these advocates, our state has become an abominable place to raise children.

Many people don’t appreciate the profound impact that these courts have upon farang culture. You don’t need to be divorced to be affected. Gender politics are like foreign policy. When a country becomes a nuclear power, it gains
considerable leverage in the community of nations. The implied threat posed by possessing a nuclear warhead, rather than its actual use, becomes a source of power. In that sense, feminazi control of the courts is akin to Iran developing the bomb.
Whoever controls the courts also controls how we play the game.

CBD bangkok

The natural rules are as follows. Our team seeks members of the opposing team with the best physical and emotional attributes, thus enabling them to bear and nurture the healthiest children. The opposing team seeks members of our team with
the genetic material and physical and emotional support that they need in order to bear and raise the healthiest children. When a pairing occurs between opposing team members, each having these desired traits, it creates the emotional state we
call love. Those dynamics apply even when a couple doesn’t want children, because our brains are wired that way.

In Farangland, the game is rigged. A player from either team can call it quits, i.e. file divorce papers, thereby incurring a penalty and forcing his mate from the opposing team also to occur a penalty. If the penalties are equal for both
teams, then both teams will initiate an equal number of filings. That is because people respond to incentives, and equal incentives yield equal results. It further holds that the team without the handicap will initiate the most filings. Another
conclusion follows from game theory, but is, I think, intuitively obvious to most people. That is, the fewest total number of filings occurs when neither team has a handicap. Together, these factors account for both the high incidence of divorce
in California, and why so few members of our team file first. The referee usually rules against us.

Ours is a game of love, money, and contracts. Supply and demand rule. That is why we sometimes refer to the game as “the market.” Whenever a government intrudes on a free market, it always brings about strange and unintended
results.

In Farangland, marriage isn’t generally in a guy’s best interest. Nowadays, most members of our team don’t play by their rules. We try to avoid the ref at all cost. However, the only real escape is to leave altogether.
You have no idea how many members of our team want to flee to the Kingdom, but can’t do so, for personal, family or financial reasons.

wonderland clinic

I’m saying this as a guy who didn’t lose in California court. Unlike most members of our team, I filed papers first. I have children from the farang marriage, and the court granted me physical custody most of the time. I’ve
never been ordered to pay child support or spousal support. I’ve never been ordered to pay the other team’s legal expenses. In a related family matter, I have judgment in U.S. District Court against the County of Los Angeles, where
I live, for civil rights violations.

All this came at great personal cost in terms of my time, and money. I made several dozen appearances in court over a time span of about ten years. I stopped counting the number of hearings, years ago. I prevailed because I knew the rules
of the game, and I knew my proper place, as a member of the handicapped team. I never asked the court for more than I thought it would grant me.

My Thai divorce cost me 90,000 THB and required one court appearance. Compare that to roughly 50,000 USD that I paid for the farang divorce, before I got rid of my lawyer and started representing myself. After that, I did better on my own.

My Thai court appearance scared me, from the beginning. I stood before a panel of only women, no men. I think three of them were judges. This brought back bad memories of female judges I knew back in California. One of these women glared
at me in an openly hostile manner, and then walked out. Two more soon followed her out of the courtroom, leaving only one person, taking notes as I testified. In the Peoples Republic, only one judge handles each case. In the Kingdom, the judges
do it Thai style.

The court had no choice but to grant my divorce pursuant to Thai Commercial Code on grounds of abandonment.

My Thai ex did not appear in court, just as I expected. I didn’t know where she was at the time, but I later discovered that she had gone to America with her freshly minted green card a few weeks before the trial. (No, she wasn’t
a bargirl, but she was from Pak Dai, and hence jai dam.)

I’m not out of the woods, yet. I have a daughter from the farang marriage, who still attends high school here in the Peoples Republic. My moving to the Kingdom at this time would be a disaster for her, and might create legal problems
for me.

Meanwhile, the state won’t leave me alone. Almost every year I get a new letter from the California Franchise Tax Board asking me to clarify some issue regarding my latest return. We have one of the most aggressive tax agencies in
the world, whose computers crank out millions of such letters every year. Social engineering doesn’t come cheap, and the state badly needs money. If I fail to respond, the government will assume that I owe more tax. My mailman is unreliable,
and I live in fear of her putting this year’s letter in the wrong box.

Stickman's thoughts:

I have often heard it said that one of the great reasons for marrying in Thailand as opposed to the West is that the divorce laws are heavily stacked in the guy's favour in Thailand. My understanding of the local laws is that that is very much true. Let's face it, divorce law in the West has got way out of kilter and I agree entirely that any man who chooses to marry in Farangland is taking a significant risk!


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