puck2

11 hours ago, champers said:

Comparing Covid deaths in my home country (UK) to here, I would say that Thailand have done a far better job. They lag behind in vaccinations, especially boosters but so too did other countries in the region includung S Korea, Japan and Australia, all 1st World nations.

Thailand has announced a staged approach targetting changing the status of Covid from pandemic to endemic on 1st July.

Three more months and Thailand should be fully open for business. Fingers crossed that there are no serious bumps in the road.

Of course, Thailand has done a better job ..... in NOT testing and manipulating the numbers . Only one hint: the people in the remote moutains, At the moment it's very dangerous to go in their villages, because of the spreading virus. And there are a lot of them in many parts of Thailand. The cases are only "reported(?)" when seeing a doctor.

4 hours ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

When is dollar going to be 40 baht. Waiting to transfer 50K USD. 

Ask Prayut/Anutin  (hmmm)  or a soothsayer!.

On 3/28/2022 at 2:46 PM, Jimbo2014 said:

Im not sure whether its me who is delusional or you are just use to sucking in the good old camp fire smell.  I have friends who live there and they report very differently to you, albeit this year is much better, it would still be considered toxic in most developed countries.  Previous years have been unlivable.  Chaing Mai has topped the most polluted city list for several years in a row.   This was a recurring article the last few years:  https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2080855/chiang-mai-the-most-polluted-city-on-earth

I don't need friends to confirm, if there is a burning or not.

Here in the Mae Hong Son area it is total diferent to many years before. You can breath a fresh air, see the mountains in the background very clear after the fog has disapeared in the early morning hours. All the years before we had to flee the smoke and relaxed in Hua Hin until the burning stopped.

Market people of our village reported already that Chiang Mai was clear this year, and the same happened here. The officials had given a stronger, serious warning. In addition we had rain on same days. Within the last 3 nights only 1 minute! I said to my wife, better than no rain. The tookay under our roof also tells us every late evening that he likes the clean air and the insects!

There might be a "simple" excuse for the hospital;

40,000 -   in English wrighting is:        forty thausand (km)

40.000 -   in German wrighting is:       forty thausand (km)

40,000 -   i.e. German wrighting is:     forty (km)

Only a "little" difference ???? concerning comma and point.

The "best" self entertaining thread in Asiannow I have ever seen.

Don't forget history, especially the Chinese one, connected to Thailand.

From 1927 until 1949 there was the civil war in China. Result, Mao was the new communist leader/dictator. It was a hard time in this war for the population in China. Losing homes, life of family members, starvation etc. And even under Mao there have been disasters like starvation etc.  Result, many fled to countries in SE Aisa including Thailand. If you ask your family, friends, neighbors, some or many of them have people with a Chinese origin. I.e. the grandmother of my wife fled China because of war fighting, hunger etc. and moved to Thailand.

They all have been unvoluntarily influenced by the culture of their (Chinese) families. Although with a poor and awful life in their mother country, in their hearts they have been Chinese. I can confirm this feelings and behavior. Born during Hitler's dictatorship, at the end of WW II, expelled by the Russians, we didn't change our feeling for our home country.

The same happened to the Chinese people here in Thailand. That's one important reason why they feel more connected to China('s dictatorship) than to the Western countries. It's not an issue of brain, but of the origin of the family. You will find this confirmed in the USA.

Therefore it's not „the Western arrogance“,but family history, why here is a Chinese influence,

The headline: 

Opinion: american-and-western-arrogance-will-lose-this-region-to-china’s-influence/

is poore nonsense. Why ?

Arrogance concerning people is explained by: someone who is full of self-worth or self-importance and who tells and shows that they have a feeling of superiority over others.

I believe that many, many Western people think like this. It's the same attitude that the Thai military government has against it people. Chinas communist leaders are not different.

But thinking that the "arrogance" of Western countries is the reason for losing it's influence on Thailand and its SE neighbours is not logical. There are a lot of reasons why.

• The US invaded Vietnam not because of arrogance, but because of the fear of a (Chineses) communist expansion  in SE Asia.
• The Vietnamese had  fightings/wars against the Chinese over a long time because of the fear being one of the many provinces  in  China.  There is no connection to Western "arrgance", but to Chinese lust of occupation. Vietnamese people now fear mor their communist "collegues" than the West!
• In general, fighting the communists (of China) means fighting for democracy. That*s not a fight for "superiority", but for the freedom of people.
• After the coup here in Thailand the military "leader" hurrried to China like a crazy servant, not for the welfare of the Thais, but for his own/military success + surviving. The (democratic) Western states didn't "like" him.
• Reasons for the coup:  personal, not moral or politcal, not supported by the West, but no problem for the Chinese leader. That's the real danger for SE Asia.
• Once the geography of SE Asia was more important than nowadays. Going to or from China, Japan, Korea,  E-Russia was ging through SE Asias area-. Reason: Moldern technology like aeroplanes, big ships can go around, don't need to cross chanels etc, in SE Asia.,
• Maybe the leading technology and science  in Western countries + Japan, South Korea  caused some arrogance. Vice versa would be the same.

On 3/3/2022 at 7:19 AM, BritManToo said:

Songkran ....... it's always gone by the end of Songkran.

We've been lucky this year, the pollution in CM didn't start until this week, nearly 2 months later than last year.

Not true!

It depends also on where you are staying.

Only 1 example for the draught after Songkran in 25 provinces in the year 2020.

https://reliefweb.int/report/thailand/25-provinces-declare-drought-disaster

Once you could rely on this:   the dry season stopped by the end of songkran.

But since a lot of years this prediction did NOT work (exception:  last year, at least here in Mae Hong Son).

In 2011 a strong monsoon started at the in May, flooding at lot of provinces in the North and North-East.

I don't know what they are doing aginst the yearly smoke, starting between ~ the end of February or in the first weeks of March.

Every year the same, officials are not ashamed to announce: next year we will clear this problem. The following year no difference. On every big road leading the the center of CM, you are stopped and controlled by the police. It's easy for them to collect the money for every tiny <deleted>. But hunting the fire makers would mean they have to move their but out of the car and hurry..... OMG, that's to hard, leaving the car and searching the culprits.

It would be so easy to make the owner of the land responsible for the burning.

Bad news. This smog in CM means we will have it here in the Mae Hong Province very soon. The mountains in the background already look a little bit misty. Must prepare now booking a flight to BKK re. Hua Hin. 

In the weather forecast i have read, next Tuesday there will be some rain here in our Amphoe. We will wait and see. re. fly.

16 hours ago, Pique Dard said:

but not a wall against the usa imperialism? i tried to explain why poutine felt entitled to take this UNFORTUNATE decision, but most of the comments here accuse me of supporting the war!

You seem not to understand the world "imperialism".

To help you understanding:

31 minutes ago, Henk Langeweg said:

Nah, Russia and their, for now silent, sympathizers are, what population numbers concerns, more then half +1. of the world population.

Please show us your numbers to improve the nonsense you are writing.

In 2021 Russia had a population of only ~145 (!) million people. The world has a population of a little bit below 8 BILLION.  And including "sympathisers" it should be more than "half + 1"  ???

13 hours ago, Pique Dard said:

the question is WHY russia "invaded" ukraine? who remembers james baker "U.S. Secretary of State James Baker's famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion". 

this statement was made in 1990 and  now suddenly has become a myth in some media!

the current war  isn't  SPECIFICALLY against ukraine, it is  against the expansion of nato. those are facts, however it doesn't  mean i support the war.

Why shouldn't there be a wall against Russian imperialism ?  Remember the history of communist Eastern Germany, Poland losing land in its eastern area, Russian war in Afghanistan, Russians meddling the Cuascasuus area- etc.

Following your crazy/stupid logic, all countries which have boders with Russia, should say and do the same:

We are against the  "expansion" of Russian/Putin imperialism to justify a war ???!!!

2 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

I thought it is hot season already for several weeks... When was the cold season??

Ask the people in the Northern area. Here in the Mae Hon Son Province, near to the Myanmar boderline, since nearly 3 months: every early morning between 11° - 16°. Unusual long and cold time.

I can trust our dogs by 100%, but the Thai military regime not yet by 1 Cent.

The numbers are (down) manipulated, forced by the military government. Only one reason among a lot of others: OPENESS !  Why is the military leader so shy to show us the covid-numbers of each region? Answer: afraid of being  detected as liars.

What a brilliant idea. Nowbody ever thought about this  bla..bla...bla .

Mr. Dr. S, can you deliver some details how to solve the war problem?  I'm afraid, NOT.

On 2/22/2022 at 8:28 AM, JonnyF said:

Ridiculous. I thought Thailand was number 1 in the world in dealing with Covid? So why the increase? 

 

Even long termers here are dropping like flies now. I know 3 people who have left in the last month. Tourism is in the toilet, and they INCREASE the level? Wow. The administration just goes from bad to worse.

May I correct you:

"The NON-administration just goes from bad to worse.

On 2/14/2022 at 1:22 PM, mvdf said:

DHL hands down. Reliable and punctual.

DHL for me just the opoosite, an absolute horror.

My son had send me bank cards 3-times within the last 5 years by registered mail.  2 times the letter has been stopped in BKK-Airport-DHL and arrived here in the North after ~6 weeks,  after using the tracking system. One time it has been "controlled" here in the Post office - until I went there. The woman (cannot say lady) at the desk took it out of the drawer in front of her belly. It has been there already some weeks!

On February 4  (Friday) I have sent my 90-days report to the IMO in Pai - by registered mail. Just until yesterday no returning of the 90-day-confirmation. A call in Pai: no, we didn't receive your mail, although the post-tracking showed me it was dlivered on Monday, February 7.

Our dogs would be 100-times more reliable!

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

If Andrew had been a nobody (like us), there would never have been a court case in the first place.

How many 'nobodies' do you see being taken to court 20 years after the event for trivial offences like this?

You are defending the indefensible by an "IF". To refer "20 years after the event" being taken to court has happened in many cases i.e. in Germany. Reason: new technics - unknown 20 years befor or more - allowed it to improve sexual violence. A lot of "nobobies" had to defend themselves in the court! I guess not very different from England/GB. The most surprising thing is the fact that Anrews' behavior has NOT been critizised and publicised  when it has happened -20 years before. Furthermore, it's a fact that he isn't and wasn't a "nobody". Therefore, your "If" can be taken into the wastebox.

You use the word trivial for Andrews f@cking behavior. Not surprising for me and many other ASEANNOW-readers. In many, many threats one can see your favor for sexual affairs, although you are married. No surprise that you are defending Andrews' "trivial" behavior.