angkorjohn wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:27 pm your standard consular position

No joke when I went to my embassy I was greeted by the picture below. When calling the number an automated voice message said they would be back "in an hour" without specifying futher. Two hours later someone came out saying "oh, is there someone here?"

fax wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:34 pm

angkorjohn wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:27 pm your standard consular position

No joke when I went to my embassy I was greeted by the picture below. When calling the number an automated voice message said they would be back "in an hour" without specifying futher. Two hours later someone came out saying "oh, is there someone here?"

Bit like the old shop sign

"I've gone to the pub will be back in an hour. If you come back and I'm not here read the first line again"

John Bingham wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:38 pm
The British Embassy don't give a fuck about any of that people business.

Not sure you are correct there mate. Back in 2015, we had a young guy from Jersey die in the G/H in S/ville I was working in. One of the, if not the, most respected expats in town was the British Embassy's representative ( I think he held the title "consul", but not sure") a wholly volunteer position. Within an hour he was on the scene and directing/organising everything from getting the body picked up by CT clinic (whose ambulance had arrived earlier, taken one look and driven off again) to the police ( I can say with 100% certainty that the G/H owner paid NO money to the police for the death on his premises) to bringing the family in to talk to us when they arrived 4 days later. Ok, the embassy itself got involved in no way that I am aware of, but the compassion and competency shown by their representative was amazing. That's definitely more a reflection on him rather then the embassy, but the point is that they DID have someone in place to deal with situations like this. 2015 was a particularly bad time in S/ville and I know this bloke dealt with many similar situations in the same way, with the same compassion and competency. I will stress again though - he was a local expat business man, not a bureaucrat. He is still performing the same role today btw.

BTW, there was a thread here about it and there was a very good reason I didn't refer back to it or mention names. So any of you ghouls who want to bring it up again in detail - just DON'T. Spare the family from having to go through it all again.

fax wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:34 pm

angkorjohn wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:27 pm your standard consular position

No joke when I went to my embassy I was greeted by the picture below. When calling the number an automated voice message said they would be back "in an hour" without specifying futher. Two hours later someone came out saying "oh, is there someone here?"

dont think i could have sat there for 2 hours

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 12:49 am When I lived here first the UK embassy had a fantastic staff member who went out of their way to try to look after British expats/ tourists. There were probably only a couple of hundred then though and now they must be in the thousands. In more recent years the embassy has often been criticized by Brits for being useless, but I'm not British myself so don't really know.

I think all embassies come in for a bit of flack by people who come to a country with fewer rules, some of us to escape countries where the government is there to wet nurse us through life....over zealous rules from health and safety to red tape for everything. Then the moment something goes wrong here wonder why someone from the embassy isn't there to wipe their ass and send them home.

We are all adults with our own responsibilities and choices and free will, the embassies of every country work within a set of parameters and guidelines set down by each countries government. I think it is wrong to criticize the staff of embassies for not doing x, y or z as they often cannot as it is outside of their parameters.

Take that prick Ricketson who has moaned about his embassy not doing stuff here, yet back in Oz they have said the Australian government doesn't get involved in other countries legal processes so how could they do anything.

Unless the embassy rep was a complete lazy asshat who didn't do what they were supposed to I don't see why they should be complained about.
"The British Embassy don't send people home" well you know, they don't it seems and if you read their policy it would no doubt explain why, and you would consider that before travelling (LOL I know). The American embassy also has a set of rules and regs and is a massive site with hundreds of staff yet can't do a lot of things.

Cambodia is a tough beast and can chew up many people who are unprepared for the challenges it poses. To expect embassies to come and pick up the pieces when things go wrong and blame them when they don't or can't is wrong, they are all funded by taxpayers money and many of these taxpayers would probably be appalled at any unnecessary spending of their money on people who moved away and fucked up. Sad but true. Go lobby your government if you are unhappy with how embassies operate as guaranteed they will operate the same policies from Cambodia to Corfu.

khmerhamster wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:57 am

Hotdigr wrote:

John Bingham wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:38 pm
The British Embassy don't give a fuck about any of that people business.

Not sure you are correct there mate. Back in 2015, we had a young guy from Jersey die in the G/H in S/ville I was working in. One of the, if not the, most respected expats in town was the British Embassy's representative ( I think he held the title "consul", but not sure") a wholly volunteer position. Within an hour he was on the scene and directing/organising everything from getting the body picked up by CT clinic (whose ambulance had arrived earlier, taken one look and driven off again) to the police ( I can say with 100% certainty that the G/H owner paid NO money to the police for the death on his premises) to bringing the family in to talk to us when they arrived 4 days later. Ok, the embassy itself got involved in no way that I am aware of, but the compassion and competency shown by their representative was amazing. That's definitely more a reflection on him rather then the embassy, but the point is that they DID have someone in place to deal with situations like this. 2015 was a particularly bad time in S/ville and I know this bloke dealt with many similar situations in the same way, with the same compassion and competency. I will stress again though - he was a local expat business man, not a bureaucrat. He is still performing the same role today btw.

That’s kinda the problem.
The embassy relies on good people who volunteer their time. I have found paid embassy staff to be disinterested and particularly useless.
I have a friend here who volunteered to visit a Brit in prison many years ago - at the embassy request. They plagued him for years after that asking him to continue this work with no payment or benefit bestowed. He ended up telling them to piss off and use their own paid staff.

Are they disinterested? most embassies will send staff to visit a prisoner/s monthly or quarterly outside of that they have plenty of other things to do. They, like every other person employed have a contract for lets say 40 hours a week, mon-fri yet often work over that for no additional income - that job at the Brit Embassy was for $1500 pcm thats a teacher salary but you expect them to what? go to see people in their free time?

I'll tell you who isn't visiting these prisoners, the friends they have in Cambodia.

Some people may volunteer their free time to go, well good for them, maybe you should go volunteer if you think it's such a worthy cause?

angkorjohn wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:38 am I'll tell you who isn't visiting these prisoners, the friends they have in Cambodia.

Running those errands will wear you out real fast. Imagine interrupting a work meeting or family event because your fucked up buddy with odd calling hours who never listened to you in the first place needs money again and he promises to pay you back when he can and if it's not that then you've got to contact all these other low lives on your buddy's behalf to ask them for money instead. How many times does your patience allow? This is the last time I ask you, I swear!

Everyone makes decisions and we are responsible for those. The show must go on even with friends in prison.