sambum

Just now, Conno said:

Forgiven. Now start using cash 

Always have - always will as long as I have a choice! Fed up of standing at checkouts while people are fiddling with phones and taking photos of a machine!

30 minutes ago, Conno said:

What you waffling on about? I did use the correct acronym, it was BritScot that used the incorrect one. Have you got nothing better to do?  

My apologies - mistaken identities! 

21 hours ago, Nickcage49 said:

Thailand going to space. There's so much comedy there. They need a space program like they need subs and warplanes.

Big boys' toys!

19 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Yes and No, the criminals weren't imported, at that time the UK couldn't see much use for the country other than a place of incarceration, forcing them on the Australian colony.

Following WW2 an independent Australian government looked to increase the population through an assisted passage arrangement.

"Imported" "forcing them on the Australian colony" 

Same, same but different!

16 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Foreigners in Thailand want as much as they can get for as little as possible, they have no say and the government has no interest. 

The Thai space program started in 1971, remind us what was your "giant" focused on at that time, certainly not the well being of its own population, or any other.

People ought to remember the old adage on "sin" and "stones".

"Foreigners in Thailand want as much as they can get for as little as possible,..."

Total bullpoo - Foreigners,especially tourists, want to pay a fair price for any services or amenities, but they don't expect to be charged 4 or 5 times the amount that Thais pay - especially for "Tourist Attractions"! 

"They have no say..." Correct, but they can have an opinion!

"...and the Government has no interest". So why the constant emphasis on Tourism by the Government if they have "no interest"? Visa free entries which appears to be letting anybody and his dog into the country including Chinese Mafia types, and Russian draft dodgers, all in the interests of making BAHT for the country/Government. 

4 hours ago, IslandLover said:

 

Yes 😁

Thought so!

12 hours ago, Conno said:

Maybe you should have used a different search term. Behavioral Science. PSYOP in every sense of the term. The push for a cashelss society may involve a different subject matter but the techniques used will be very similar. 

 

https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-the-uk-government-is-using-behavioural-science-134097

 

https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p652

Maybe you should have used the correct acronym ("PSYOP") in the first place , and explained what it stood for!

15 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

and if the leaders of Europe in 1500 had decided that traveling to the New World (and later Australia) was a bad idea?

Then America would belong to the North American Indians, instead of immigrants who almost destroyed their way of life along with almost making one of their  main food sources extinct. And a similar scenario in Australia, except they imported boat loads of criminals to colonise the place. 

P.S. Sorry, SIRINEOU, I posted this before I saw yours! But nice to know that somebody agrees with me!

8 hours ago, BritScot said:

One thing I have realised over the past few years is how stupid people are. Accepting lockdowns and in the uk publicly telling people they were using Phyops against their own people a fact that still disgusts me (being ex army). Then watch people sleep walking into digital currency  with the power banks and governments already welding. I tokenly carry an oz silver coin in my pocket to remind myself its real value and not made up. Everyone should read about the Bradbury pound (it scared the hell out of the Bank of England because it had real value).

"Phyops"? I'm from the UK and never heard of it - mind there are more acronyms flying around these days than 737's!

Googled it and it came up with nothing for "Phyops" - but it had this:- 

https://www.google.com/search?Psychological operations (PSYOP) are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their motives and objective reasoning%2C

1 minute ago, Mike Lister said:

My contract at BOT wont allow it, conflict of interest.

My understanding/definition of "BOT" is obviously different to yours!

3 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

No point, just useful trivia to throw out at cocktail parties to impress people. 🙂

You should get yourself a job at TAT - you'd do rather well! 

1 minute ago, Mike Lister said:

Ah, yes, but that 18% includes domestic tourism, at around 7% of GDP.

So, your point being?

1 hour ago, CANSIAM said:

Tourism 12% of GDP ? Come on spit it out…..more like 40-50%. 

Before Covid, the Government were quoting tourism % of GDP in single figures.

Now, according to Google:-

"Meanwhile, the total tourism receipts increased 71.7% from the same quarter of 2022. Thailand's tourism industry, which accounts for around 18% of GDP, began recovering in the second half of 2022, when Bangkok lifted all entry restrictions, and the recovery picked up strongly in the last quarter.Aug 21, 2566 BE"

But, depending on whose statistics you look at, figures range from about 11% to 20%, and if you take the services sector as a whole, according to Statista, as quoted in a previous post:-

"... the share of agriculture in Thailand's gross domestic product was 8.81 percent, industry contributed approximately 35 percent and the services sector contributed about 56.19 percent."

1 hour ago, CANSIAM said:

Tourism 12% of GDP ? Come on spit it out…..more like 40-50%. 

7 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Gosh, 65.78%-56.19%, hmm, that's tiny! I suppose that means Thailand really does only export almost next to nothing by way of Customs Exports goods, no agricultural produce, no cars, no electronics, no gold jewellery, wow, that's amazing. I wonder what they do with all the stuff they make, I suppose they must put them in a landfill somewhere and grow rice over it!

 

Exports of goods and services (% of GDP) in Thailand was reported at 65.78 % in 2022, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Thailand - Exports of goods and services (% of GDP) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on April of 2024.

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/exports-of-goods-and-services-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html

 

Sarcasm does travel!

6 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Total exports are only 60% of GDP and international tourism is regarded as an export. If International Tourism was 40 or 50%, that would mean the country hardly exports anything!.

From Statista in 2022:-

"This statistic shows the share of economic sectors in the gross domestic product (GDP) in Thailand from 2012 to 2022. In 2022, the share of agriculture in Thailand's gross domestic product was 8.81 percent, industry contributed approximately 35 percent and the services sector contributed about 56.19 percent."

"The Tourism Authority of Thailand anticipates a further recovery to between 35 million and 40 million visitors this year, including 8.2 million from China."

Just when I thought they'd gone to sleep, or on holiday, along they come with another of their "anticipations" - Yawn!

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Well, the Samui thing is different. People have a choice to fly or not, and clearly they do otherwise prices would be lower to attract custom. If people are willing to pay what they charge, they charge it. It's called good business practise. Price what the market allows.

The "Samui thing" is different in that sometimes people want to get from A to B as quickly as they can - especially tourists who want to get to their destination and "on the beach" as quickly as possible!

Personally, I begrudge paying their prices, and don't mind taking a bit more time to get from A to B, and take the Samui to Donsak ferry, then fly from Surat Thani at less than half the price, but it does take a few hours longer.

From the headline:- "British motorist causes severe accident in Pattaya."

From the article:- "At 3:16 AM, on April 4th, 2024, Pattaya City police received an accident report of a foreigner who was allegedly intoxicated on a motorbike"

Does nobody check these articles before they go to print?

Just now, Bangkok Barry said:

 

They don't actually need a photocopy of every page of your passport. I've never needed to do that over many years. They just make it up. In the real world you inform when something has changed. In Thailand they do things backwards and you have to inform that nothing has changed. If I ask my wife why these pointless things exist, not only at immigration, the reply is always 'It's the rule." Questioning the rule doesn't occur. What's the point anyway. If they want to waste their time and ours, we can't do anything about it. They say jump, we jump. Pathetic.

Totally agree with what you say - they ask for all these pointless bits of paper "because they can" - a bit like Bangkok Air charging such extortionate prices for flights to Samui!

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

I already went through that nearly a year ago - but that was after officers were removed for being 'overly helpful' to Chinese and were among 115 officers dismissed. The new boss wanted to do everything by the book and beyond, and despite being married over 30 years I (or rather my wife) was interviewed, and we had a house visit despite having had many marriage extensions before. Later this month might be more of the same. And that's in Kalasin, far far away from Phuket. We can all look forward to being tarred with the same brush.

A house visit is now an annual occurrence in Samui in order to obtain a visa extension by way of marriage to a Thai national.

What sticks in my craw is having to repeat the same "performances" year after  year, even when nothing has changed. 

For instance, why should I need to produce photocopies of EVERY page from my passport EVERY year? Why do I need to give Immigration a copy of my Marriage Certificate EVERY year? (It's not possible that the date that we got married is going to change!)

3 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

I've mentioned this before, and I guess it hasn't sunk in. Every time you downgrade foreigners, even in jest, it makes all of us look bad, although most of us aren't, abide by the laws, treat their women well, and spend a lot of money here. You're an expat I believe, and your comments are ignorant. Thais read this forum, and when a farang trashes another farang, they think, "see, even farangs think farangs are no good". Think!

I "think" that maybe the type of Thais that are educated enough to read this forum realise that NOBODY wants the type of farang that the post is about, and I "think" it is quite wrong to assume that all Thais think the same way as you intimate in your final sentence.

4 hours ago, sungod said:

In the UK we'd put up with them, welcome them with open arms and blame the locals for being racist when they dare complain about their antics.

Yes, wouldn't want to be seen as offending them!

4 hours ago, sandrew33 said:

You been in a Western Country recently mate? 
 

As an aside, everyone should be treated equally under the law, so if a foreigner commits an actual offence then they should be punished but they should also be treated fairly under the law and not subject to prejudice and presumptions of guilt. All of which is above Anutins head as he just likes to go on occasional parochial rants to distract from his own myriad failings 🙂 

"All of which is above Anutins head as he just likes to go on occasional parochial rants to distract from his own myriad failings 🙂"

Anutin  is well known for his views on foreigners, ever since one refused his offer of a mask during Covid - and walked away without bowing! 🙂 I believe he said "dirty unwashed foreigners" were the reason that Covid was in Thailand?

I think his latest tirade against foreigners is not totally unjustified, but IMHO he is "seething inwardly" because of the PM's recent public lambasting of the use of cannabis, inasmuch as he said "it was going to be the downfall of the country" (or words to that effect), so Anutin is venting his anger on "foreigners behaving badly". Poor old Anutin, after he has spent so much time promoting its use, and got so much money tied up in the widespread production and marketing of "weed" only for his "boss" to publicly denounce its use! Shame, really! 🤣🤣🤣 Can you just imagine his actions if he was PM? Scary! 

Anyway, is it just coincidence that this outbreak of bad behaviour just seems to be happening since the "visa free" scheme was put in place? (Som nam na!)

And for a change, "drunken Brits" do not seem to be being reported as the main antagonists!

Shame, really! 🤣🤣🤣 

3 hours ago, IslandLover said:

 

He wasn't, but that's what he said according to the international press.

Sorry, I thought it was the cop originally in charge of the investigation.

P.S. Have we not been on the same threads before - a long time ago?