Stygge

I´m really inspired to solve this problem of our russian friends stuck in paradise. They long to get home to take up arms and fight off the aggressive ukranians or to start cultivating turnips for their future diet. I understand flights to Syria are open and going. Since Syria is a russian protectorate and Russia recently practised bombing the city Aleppo to gravel they have many friends there. Putin just called upon his islamist friends to come and fight in Ukraine. Their brutality against civilians is dearly needed. They are currently flown from Syria to Russia. Why not fly our bewildered friends to Syria and from there they can catch a ride with the islamist fighters going to Russia/Ukraine? It´s a cost effective way to bring them home to their Fatherland.

Their country brutally and unprovoked invaded another country killing their inhabitants by the thousands and laying cities in ruins. Only a wealthy city elite of russia can afford going on holidays in tropical countries. In general 70 % of the people stranded in Thailand love what Putin is doing in Ukraine. Now they have to pay their umbrella drinks cash. Of course it also affects the 30 % neutral or against Putin. How could it be in any other way? Russia is responsible to bring it´s citizen home to paradise. If it doesn´t why not recommend them visiting the temples for handouts? Or a go fund me rally? I´m sure many of the pro russian voices here on TV would love to chip in.

Hell of a good plane according to all test fights. It´s mainly made to take out the latest russian fighters and on simulation level it does. A few years ago the old version of Gripen made a mockery of the chinese fighters in a joint drill the thais had with the chinese. The swedes have a hard time selling them in spite of high performance/price because buyers often prefer to buy from the superpowers hoping they also get a general superpower protection. That´s an illusion the big powers try to use as a leverage when selling their products. Maybe the swedes don´t want to sell to Thailand anymore. That´s another problem they have in the market. They are not allowed to sell to dictatorships or countries in or at immediate risk of a military conflict, which limits the range of customers considerably. They now make an exception for Ukraine and deliver advanced robot 57 to them that can take out all heavy armor russia can muster.

Wow You are living in a parallel universe. "This is an existential threat to Russia and it will be eliminated" Let´s see. A country of 40 m with a weak economy and a small army would be an existential threat to a country of 140 m people with the third largest army in the world armed with nuklear weapons? Do you mean that? Really? And the majority of russians don´t mind going back to a soviet era turnip based lifestyle? And they all love Vlad the Mad and follow his commands with enthusiasm? In the russian paradise 500 families own more then the rest of the 140 m together. To those 500 economy certainly seem to matter. They go to long length to place their money in the west, and they send their children to schools in the decandent west. Why? They won´t feel the pinch? An authoritharian militarised system with no regard to it´s own human losses and even less to the invaded countries civilian losses against a democratic free economic system which values human life and use economical pressure to make a point. To parallel universes colliding. Let´s see how this plays out. To me the outcome is given.

Of course "ordinary" russians will be affected,. But only a very small percent of russians can afford going on tropical holidays. About 70 % of the russian population support their crazy leader. Of course this also affect the minority of russians being neutral och against the invasion. How could it be otherwise?

The russians are not bombing Ukraine. They are conducting a surgical military operation on the patient Ukraine. And 70 % of the russian people love it. Also the west is only conducting an economical operation on Russia. It means that russian luxery tourists have to pay cash for their umbrella drinks. My heart goes out for them.

I agree with late sen McCain who saw Russia as a gas station disguised as a country. It turns out the gas station has a crazy owner who fears a future world which no longer has any need for his overpriced gas and decides to grab what he can now when it´s still time. His employees are mostly satisfied with he situation since the docile ones get handsome paychecks for backing him up. The few discontented are dismissed from the payroll. The good employees can go for holidays in south east asia. Suddenly they get the message that the gas owner tried one hostile takeover of a competitor to many and is in a bit of trouble. Maybe their job security is in jeopardy? Of course they start rumbling a bit about the gas master, especially since the attacked competitor seem to gain some symphathy in the holiday resorts. "I never liked him, but what could i do?" the employees try to explain. To their utter disbelief other people don´t seem to accept the explaination. "They hate us just because we work in a gas station" Sigh

Pretty good. When in need for a distraction counterattack with blazing guns. I was commenting your language skills, not the subject of the thread. Since irony is lost, the point might be to suggest you embellished the story a bit to make a point. But obvious embellishment tend to diminish the very point you are trying to show.

"At the time I was new to Thailand and could not believe it." "I speak a little Thai Sitting next to them, I heard the daughter telling the mother about the last guy she got for her." You were new in Thailand and still understod spoken Issan thai? My hat off for such a receptive brain.

The Chinese authorities don´t trust their own vaccine. That´s one reason they keep strict lock down for small outbreaks. Of course they don´t want this mistrust to spread abroad. They will keep zero tolerance because this was successful in the beginning and was paraded as the chinese way, superior to the West. They can´t abandon that, it would be a face loss. Even Australia has accepted mitigation and concentrate on keeping death tolls down. That´s possible because of a high vaccination rate and a more effective western vaccine. The Chinese will continue with zero tolerance policy. This will fail so no Chinese will travel abroad for a long time. No new passports are issued. The lower classes of Chinese are ok with this, only middle and upper classes whine about not being able to travel to their foreign investments. Bleak views for Thai mass tourism with flagged groups in the forseeable future.

Probably not. Total anarchy Covidwise. No face masks and the usual free loving with strangers on the streets only interrupted by angry polar bears. Lock downs unheard of. And still 42 countries so far ended up worse than Sweden death counting, among them England for example. Makes you think.

And that´s the main reason for the bath staying high

As I wrote, the minimum wage is the very low bottom the other wages align to. It set the standard for other wages, so the general income level can be kept low for normal working people. It also effect jobs with higher education. Fresh out of university starting wages often are not higher then 18-20 000 baht/month and no steep increase after that in many professions. The point is - if the governement is authoritaran enough it can impose low wages. Without any social security or functioning workers unions you take the job or starve. Low income level and no possibility to demand higher wages in line with companies increasing profits that high increasing profit will result in a highly valued currency and a strong export. Can´t be done in a democratic society with functioning trade unions. There the people would want to share the profit claiming higher wages and thus the population would prosper but the currency stays medium low.

Most democratic countires tries to keep their currency low to boost export and keep import down. The traditional tool for this has been the interest rate. Since virtually no inflation exist today they struggle. Bond buying just doesn´t cut it. No organization or state can manipulate the currency forever. Over time fundamentals will value the currency. So how do you do it if you want a high currency rate? The problem is if the country is well run, low debts, good export etc, the population gets richer and demands higher wages, they start bying imported goods etc. The currency then depreciate. So you need a more authoritarian governement. You impose a minimum wage so low people willl struggle to survive the month and don´t have time or energy to protest. You see to it that the minimum wage becomes the norm on all unschooled labor. That will also set the norm for all wages which will compare to the minimum wages. Now you invite international companies to set up plants and it will give huge profits because of the low wages. A part of that profit will land in the pockets the ruling elite as, hmm, let´s call it a commission. It´s important to have a school system that just teach the kids the bare essentials, learning things by heart, and emphasis obedience and submission to the country and it´s rulers. That ensures cheap labor to the factories. Higher education should be a matter for the children of the elite, Also see that your country has a great pull factor on tourism, so much that the tourists are willing to come even with a high currency. Since low wages ensures all services will still be reasonable cheap for tourists. Abra kadabra. You have a long time strong currency and still a healthy export. The elite can consume cheap imports and good exchange rate at their foreign bank accounts.

I filled upp my car for years for a 500 baht note, never more, same for groceries, never pay more, so rising gas prices, the baht rate or inflation doesn´t affect me. Easy peasy to beat rising costs when you have studied macro economics.

Yes, a short, sharp downfall. After that a strong economy pick up. Now it´s a fear of overheating. The Swedish stockmarket has surpassed Nasdaq by far. Same with the death´s. The majority happened early spring last year. The swedish society was not prepared for the sudden contagion. But they adopted quickly and since then death´s has been on the same low level as comparative countries. Sweden has a much greater immigrant population then neighbouring countries and the death´s mainlly hiit the immigrant population that showed very hard for the swedish authorities to reach with information of protective measures. But the important conclusion is that the swedish approach was not the catsatrophy many people stated at the time. So many countries with drastic lock downs did worse. And the knowledge that lock downs is not the solution to a pandemic like this now begins to be understood by more countires. You have to learn to live with the virus and take more selective protective measures while have a fast rate o vaccination. Even fully vaccintated we are going to live with this virus for the foreseeable future.

Strange. When Sweden said no to hysteria and total lockdown they were basically called irresponsible murderers. A year later and more and more countries are adopting the same view. Without beeing irresponsible murderers, of course.