Can ASEAN be as wealthy and powerful as the EU


Any opinions welcome

Yes ! SOUTH EAST ASIA ROCKS !!

ASEAN can, if its members could be more trustful and trustworthy towards one another.

Then we need to get rid of bigotry and that can only come with common understanding and the acceptance that on the main we have common values.

May I ask where you are from or what ethnicity you consider yourself?

I hope so why not oh yeah europe is dieying

ASEAN is structured differently than EU. It's objectives are different too so right now, no.

from the looks of things at the moment - no chance.

Sadly NO

I think ASEAN is still trying to modernize .

Thai ultranationalist sentiment may be an impediment to solidarity.

Is anyone interested in knowing the theories to how that came about ?

yeah because
the irish love the english the english love the french the french love the germans the germans love everybody.....


seriously europeans do not get along in general.
course all cool people love the irish!

hey...i didnt even mention the belgians...

whats there to know? to insult a country need to know about it first . see nobody can insult us because nobody knows anything about belgians. and those who just laugh

i do love the way UKIP blames "brussels" for alot of the problem in the UK though. that makes us feel so important !!!

there is a belgian guy who work teaching PE at my school here.....

if i wanted to i could ask him.....
tintin was belgian right?
and didnt you guys invent french fries (aka chips)?
and i ve been to brussels once......although you are right i didnt learn anything except there is kick-@$$ architecture!

THEY'RE NOT FRENCH FRIES THEY ARE BELGIAN FRIES

yup our biggest cultural heritage has been tintin .... comic book novels are huge over there. asterix was also belgian (asterix in belgium is a hilarious one... with julius ceasar claiming both gauls and belgians to be equally stupid hehe). other things we're "famous" for is flemish art/lace making/architecture (a mixture of spanish and north european styles), food (only country in the world where mcdonalds are losing money big time apparently... not suprising),chocolate, wife beater's drink...

brussels is nice but personallu myself i would recommend bugges. now thats a place

No- in reality the states of ASEAN have too much pride in themselves.

Heys , i'm living in South East Asia . Every country here seems to get along well .

Really?


Then i'll change my opinion.


ASEAN will succeed.

Now just get a proper democracies in place and do something about that junta




PS In Britain , Scots hate English , English don't care but hate Germans : no one cares about Welsh and as for the Irish ...


But I think at least in EU the only warmongering going on is after football matches and after closing time on FRi and Sat nights

... oh forgot also outside A&E


... and as far away from Europe as possible ( as long as there's oil there )

ok let's have a show of hands then - who here who supports ASEAB is in support of introducing a single currency, free trade, free movement of ASEAN citizens (so no visas to go live/work in a fellow ASEAN state)?

^ you speak of these rivalries in the UK and you're absolutely right.... but i've never heard or seen any geman receive verbal/physical abuse, i'e never had any problems in scotland (ok im not british but i do speak with a south london accent !!!).

you've seen some of the bigotry... thai/lao, cambodian/thai, cambodian/vietnamese, burmese/thai.... i won't comment on malaysia, indonesia, phillipines, brunei since i know next to nothing about those countries.

^ you're absolutely right , abuse only comes after football matches.


I vote NO ( for now )

yup and even then its usually a couple of hundred people out of 30/40,000 and they're labelled as hooligans and only use those rivalries as an escuse to hate each other. christ- the amount of trouble i've seen after spurs/arsenal, chelsea/millwall. i was in glasgow 2 years ago when there was an old firm game on and i did not once leave my place of residency.

Theres also no real democracy in the region, I count Thailand as a faltering democracy.

@ skullwrecker_13 - Going off topic.

They say the ppl. in the South of Belgium, the Walloons, want to separate from the North Flemish part of Belgium. Also, that the German speakers of Belgium want to separate from Wallonia. They speak french in Wallonia. So Belgium is divided into a Flemish part, a Walloon part and a very small German speaking part. See map below:

In above red part is Wallonia.



In above red part is German speakers.

asean is similar but they are *not* the same nor were they intended to be from the start, though comparisons are inevitable

What makes you say its a faltering democracy?

I hear in the Thai section all about Thaksin and corruption, to me its democracy gone wayward. Buying votes its not part of democratic process. No mean to rag on your system but a clean sweep in your system is long overdue.

you say im going off topic but you bring that up. if you havent gathered this from my previous posts im from belgium myself. yes i am fully aware of those linguistic issues. im from brussells myself which is bi-lingual. its very hard not to be aware of the linguistic/political issues in belgium when you've grown up there and go back at least once a month. please do not try and patronise/lecture me about my own country. if you're desperate for me to validate my claims of being belgian maybe i can scan in my passport image just for you?

back to topic

for the record - you talk about people wanting to split the country. im a flemish republican. go figure.

It is the result of a ONE MAN's greed, stupidity and cruelty. Thaksin is the incarnate of all that is anti-Thai. Not to say that Thailand has or ever will be free from corruption anytime soon, but Thaksin sells out his own people, culture and heritage. The "faltering of democracy" you mention is the result of him, and him alone. Watch the protests, and you will see that they are led by a majority of Bangkok elites and powerful people; the core of Thailand. While on the other hand, the majority support attained by Thaksin are by the poor uneducated rurals, lured by false promises of all kinds. So no, I would disagree that Thailand is a faltering democracy.

^democracy is also quite new/recent to thailand. considering how recent it is, i think thailand is doing quite well. other places which have been new to democracy haven't been so lucky - at least there isn't a bloodbath in regards to the current situation.

asterix kicks butt...so does tintin but in a more reserved way...

^ actually my mistake asterix is french . its a shame he never got around to doing an asterix in china that could've been interesting...

hmm tintin is rather reserved... well quite boring.. what d'you expect - he's belgian . beleive it or not, a bunch of thai tintin fans wrote "tintin in bangkok". now that had me in stitches....

^^^



I'd like to read that . Is there an English translation?

yes it came out in english and thai i beleive...... im in the process of obtaining a copy of it (if it goes through ie. my source gets it for me!) and since you've made posts that show you're someone "with their head screwed on" and i've already taken a liking to you on this website (amongst others) , i can maybe e-mail it to you (and you corky if you want since you seem to like comic books ) or something like that. my only way of uploading this book atm is to scan in pictures from my friend's copy and he's a bit "protective" of it (being an avid tintin fan and all that). meanwhile entertain yourself with tintin in the land of the soviets - i nearly cried reading that. the insults written in the cyrilic alphabet are also actual insults as well. tintin in the congo is also quite amusing, if not a bit "politically incorrect".

http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/09/04/opi...on_30012709.php

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Progress as Asean finally backs away from Burma

Asean finally has mustered the courage to inform the Burmese military junta that the grouping will not support the pariah state in front of the world's highest political body, the United Nations Security Council.

thanks bro...i would REALLY REALLY appreciate that! when did they wrote these books......?

Good move I'd say



@ skullwrecker : cheers let us know if u can get copy of Tin Tin in Bangkok

Err but you are Burmese I am Thai ,we suppose to going well like CAT and DOG

J/K IF SEA are more unite the those modern day coloniser cant take advantage from us

That's true ,

btw Burmese don't actually hate Thai ...

we simply see you guys as lapsed Buddhists

( only joking )

At least I not drink in Visak day

lol

we need to wait...

Asean is a big market, currently more than 500 million people living in this region, in 2025 more countries will be categorized as wealthy countries which currently enjoy only by Singaporean and Brunei.

"Can ASEAN be as wealthy and powerful as the EU?"


Yes, why not?

We've got oil, plenty of timber, an interesting heritage (a plus for tourism), the oldest rainforest, lots of land....


It's up to the policies and the ASEAN governments as well as the initiative of the ASEAN people.