Jonathan Swift

7 hours ago, jackdd said:

He said "residing in Thailand"

Foreigners on non-immigrant visas aren't considered as residents, but as temporary visitors.

So if this turns out to only apply to permanent residents he wasn't lying.

Wrong. As a non O retirement visa holder with a permanent address I am considered a resident. That was a prerequisite for obtaining my certificate of entry in November.  

19 hours ago, YetAnother said:

maybe there exists the tiniest grain of intelligence in them after all

As opposed to most of the commenters here?

18 hours ago, onebir said:

To paraphrase another thread:

Apparently it's "not falling" because while property's being sold at lower prices, it's only a small amount compared the stuff sitting unsold.

(I kid you not.)

To take it one step further, no one is going to lose money if they don't actually sell the properties. As such you can put any lunatic price on something if you know it's not going to sell. So as logic would have it, the price is 2022 price, not today's, so no worries. 

10 hours ago, PatOngo said:

How do you fix "STUPID!"

 

 

Brain transplant should do it

23 hours ago, tingtongfarang said:

Are they ignoring the fact bangkok is soon to be underwater?

 

What is the date on that? Let me pencil it in on my calendar. 

22 hours ago, dcnx said:

You’re safe unless you’re a filthy foreigner from Myanmar. 

I prefer them to a filthy racist any day of the week. Which brand are you? White supremacist Trump cult or an uncouth  lout from the UK? At least with covid one can recover and heal. No cure for your disease. Please quarantine and try not to spread it, and I hope you don't teach it to any kids.

3 hours ago, Mavideol said:

where did they find 760 infected foreigners, the country is closed to uncontrolled arrivals, if they arrived under any special visa scheme and tested positive, then straight to quarantine

I don't think you've been following the story. 

8 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Another reason why Oxford vaccine (perhaps others) was so quick and also effective is it has basically been in development for years (possible decade(s)) for such a scenario. It's not a last minute, rush to get it out thing. 

I wasn't aware that Covid had been around for decades

I bet some underpaid, overworked government employee retaliated against this guy, making BS excuses for cutting him off, probably couldn't handle an upset and frantic person calling them out on their mistakes. The Australian government ought to be ashamed of itself. This has been going on long enough, measures for helping stranded citizens should be firmly in place and effective by now.

20 hours ago, Pilotman said:

why no money?  If no money here, then no money in Australia? If no money here, why is he here? No family to send some on to him? 

Well, son, there are things in life you're too young to understand. We adults must face a very complicated world every day and find it hard even for US to understand, so don't worry your little mind. Run and play now

21 hours ago, Liverpoolfan said:

Swim? ???? 

Are you somehow proud of your callousness? Are you an American? If not, I hereby grant you honorary American status. Now run and vote for Trump

21 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Wonder when the Go Fund me page will go up.  Nothing in the article indicates he has any family in Australia or any friends who are wanting to help him get home.  I do feel for him, as it has become a nightmare just in the last few months to return whence you came.  Now with the pre flight Covid tests being required, limited Quarantine locations, and other rules that certain countries have in place with the new mutated strains of Covid.  The better question is, what can he possibly do to get home if he does not raise funds. I just wonder what was left out of the story and why he did not return last summer before the restrictions fully went into place.

I can tell you from experience just being stranded here for an extra month as well as in Cambodia that flight cancellations in the early days were an unstoppable plague. I must have had at least a half dozen flights out booked and then cancelled abruptly just before they were scheduled to depart. I had to search flights every day and finally booked a one way that came up which left the very next day. That was to the US. For other countries it was even more difficult, and I seem to remember very few flights to Australia at that point

5 hours ago, Neeranam said:

What does this mean? Is being drunk a crime?

Allow me to 'splain what you didn't get. Meaning, he even freely socialized in an unsafe manner risking further spread. Capiche?

I grant them the logic of this, but why not instead design this as an insurance pool to cover all foreigners? Then incoming travelers could forgo the more expensive and opportunistic private insurers. If they raised it to $100 US or 3000 baht I wouldn't complain. It cost me $500 US for a mandatory 6 month policy. I know some of you will scoff at the idea of sensible thinking on the part of Thai government, but over my 8 years here I have more often seen many sensible and practical handling of public issues, and I don't complain about any of the silliness. I am quite happy in my Thai home. Could be a lot worse elsewhere. Ummmmm, like the US maybe? The Capitol there overrun by violent domestic terrorists and insurrectionists who want to overturn the election and install Trump for a second term?   The worst covid numbers in the world, over 360,000 dead? Nope, nice and safe here, thank you very much. Good luck and good fortune to all of you, chok dii krap. Count your blessings if you're safe and healthy here.

5 hours ago, internationalism said:

NOT is missing from between "should" and "drop".

I would not be that optimistic.

Now there is cold season. People get sick from catching cold, hypothermia, probably less than half population do have water heaters in showers.

Virus thrives in cold and in dry conditions - so it's the opposite what was the case during the first wave.

In the spring there were few infections and very strict rules (lock downs, closures, prohibition, night curfew, cancelled public transport and many others).

Now infections are in the range of thousand per day, with much lesser restrictions.

Judging by what's happening in Malaysia, Birma, as well as elsewhere, the second wave would last longer, than january. I would think till the beginning of March, when high temperatures would kill virus

Says the leading Thaivisa expert and epidemiologist. Cold season? Pretty darned cold and dry here in Bangkok today. Is it my imagination or are you perpetrating the myth that one "catches cold" from being in cold weather? You catch an illness from exposure to the pathogen. Person to person. Doesn't matter if you're frozen or well done, at the North Pole or at the equator. These are established medical facts. Period, end of story. Not all viruses are the same, and cold/flu viruses are exponentially different from corona virus. Corona is like something from another planet. Viruses like this are spread through close contact, and in colder countries people are closer together and in larger groups in the winter. The fact that some viruses may survive longer in colder weather is an insignificant factor. I haven't seen it snow in Thailand in my 8 years here, have you? And is there a hypothermia epidemic?  Caused by cold showers? "People get sick from catching cold, hypothermia, probably less than half population do have water heaters in showers" . Do you know the definition of hypothermia or are you just throwing words around? And I never heard the World Health Organization declare the lack of hot showers to be a cause of covid, or of hypothermia. Water heaters or not, how cold can running water possibly get in a tropical country like Thailand? If you're going to pose as an expert at LEAST do your proper research, even if it only amounts to a cursory wikipedia search. And DON'T just make stuff up merely to flesh out your impressive treatise on the subject. Spreading half truth and misinformation is actually harmful, so use your head and do some research, get your terms and facts straight, and don't make stuff up. You can't judge what's happening in Thailand by comparing it to the failures of other countries, unless you are using those countries as examples of how NOT to do things. Just about every country in the world has made the same mistakes. I have every confidence in the way Thailand is handling things, and I give credibility to what is stated in the article. It needs to be stressed that covid is spread directly between people who are not taking protective measures, and it doesn't matter what the outside temperature or season is or how long you think the virus may survive outside of people. It is spread in close crowds and when people do not wear masks. 

6 hours ago, Bangyai said:

Gambling really is a disease for Chinese it seems. They just can't get enough of it.

 

I had a hot Chinese girlfriend back in England but if we went into London for a night on the town she just could not pass an amusement arcade and spend 30 - 40 minutes in there on the penny arcade. To drag her away from a pile of pennies perched on the edge was a herculean task. She had pumped so many pennies into it that she seriously thought it owed her.  ' I am just about to win ' was her constant excuse.

 

 

 

 

Compulsive gambling is a worldwide disease, equally serious everywhere. Lives are ruined by it. How many of your brit friends compulsively buy lottery tickets or bet on sports games? And how many "hot" gambling Chinese girlfriends have you had? Just the one? It's just that since this IS Southeast Asia, you WILL see more Asians doing it. And since Thailand is so eager to have Chinese people spend their money here, Chinese people see the red carpet rolled out for them, and here they are. Go to any casino in the world and count up the ethnicities you see. So, curb your bigotry please. It's not pretty. And perhaps you should adjust your criteria regarding your choice of girlfriends simply because they are "hot". Show some respect.

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

Definitely use the ThaiChana app (blue fist icon), MorChana wants wayyyy too much personal data (and apparently swallows the battery too).

 

EDIT The ThaiChana link in the OP appears to be for registration of a store, the App itself is in the Android and iOS playstores.

 

I'm pretty sure that if you force quit the app when done with it it won't consume battery. 

3 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Coming soon to a corner near you....Government Chipping stations to ensure you can be traced and tracked like a dog....

No one is forcing you to stay here and suffer such terrible indignities. 

3 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Oh dear I don't have eenough memory on my phone for any Apps.

Then you should go back where you came from and stay there, pray you don't come down with covid. This is no joking matter. 

3 hours ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

So if you don't own a smartphone you are now a criminal in Thailand???

Yes. Any other questions? Such as why would anyone living in today's world outside of extreme poverty or in the hills and jungles not have a smart phone? I would go as far as saying no one should enter the country without a smart phone. I would go further and say no one in their right mind would or should travel in a covid infected world without one. Stay home, stay away from Thailand. Meanwhile, I'm sure that Thailand can address the issue if it exists just fine. I hope this puts your mind at rest. 

4 hours ago, Guderian said:

So today's total of new cases is going to top 1,000 for the first time. Might even top 1,500 if it's been a bad day in the provinces.

Mr Prayut, this is not something to be proud of. Listen to your experts in the CCSA, for goodness sake. Get your finger out and fix it!

Clearly Mr. Prayuth needs to hire you as an advisor. Never mind that prior to this outbreak, which can be traced to immigrants who snuck in illegally or were allowed by unscrupulous officials to bypass immigration quarantine and secondarily a gambling den in Rayong, Thailand was ranked one of the top few safest countries due to their efficacious and thorough handling of the first outbreak. Did Prayuth do OK by you during that? Unless you somehow think that one man can be Superman and be in all places at one, or a messiah who works miracles, you cannot blame him and him alone. This is a new and unprecedented crisis for which no one was completely prepared, nor could they have been. Even the most qualified experts were baffled and unable to effectively respond at first. This is a hyper-contagious virus doing what viruses do - spreading virally. There is no magic wand you can wave to make it go away or stop it from spreading. There is no way to control an entire population and prevent breaches of protocols. Your oversimplification and rush to scapegoat one person represent a fallacious interpretation and a fantasy rather than a reality as to the modern world .  There is a time lag between the incubation period of the virus, its detection, and rallying an effective response with minimal collateral damage. Those infected do not immediately show symptoms while they are contagious and so the contagion was well under way  before the first cases were detected. There are presently serious second waves of covid in every other country who thought they had it under control, and Thailand turns out to be just as vulnerable. Whom shall we blame in THOSE countries? Perhaps it's you rather than Prayuth who should be ashamed of a rush to judgment against  people who are doing their best to address something that's bigger and more unpredictable than anything that has come before. You may even be an anti Asian racist. This is Thailand (TIT, duh!) , it is not your country or your culture and your superficial statements reveal  you to be unqualified to judge. There are no more flaws in Thai government than in any other developed so called democratic  country. I am from the US, yeah the champion of democracy and "leader of the free world", which is an example of everything done wrong largely because of one man who actually DOES deserve the blame as a failed leader, and secondarily because of an arrogant, ignorant,  and defiant population who either think this is a hoax or the are imagining they have a constitutional right to endanger others by refusing safety measures. Even now with the vaccine in hand the distribution of that vaccine by the US  health system is being thoroughly botched. You quoted numbers like an armchair quarterback/mathematician/epidemiologist but your numbers are made up with no expertise. I do not guess or speculate, here are some real numbers.  In the state I'm from, Connecticut, with a population of 3.5 million, has had over 190,000 cases. Even with this latest outbreak, compare Thailand's 9000 cases in a country of 70 million. Thailand's response has been laudable by any measure you can reasonably use compared to the anyone. There is NOTHING for any Thai official to be ashamed of. What about YOUR country? How are THEY doing?  If you're from the US, nothing further to say. Except to say I was among the ignorant in the beginning, I made ignorant statements claiming expertise that I did not have, and I was thus a fool among many. But I paid attention and LEARNED. After nine months of this there is no excuse for ANYONE to not be up to speed as to the difficulties for EVERYONE in containing this. 

18 hours ago, YetAnother said:

half way there; assuming the usual thai supply chain, in this case the end point being a jab of actually effective vaccine 

What, are there fake vaccines?  Thorough and reliable studies have SHOWN that these vaccines are 70% to 95% effective. And let me be perhaps the first to enlighten you - this is NOT the "usual" Thai supply chain. These are life saving vaccines which will certainly be regarded, handled, and distributed with that in mind. They will be distributed from supplier directly to medical facilities in special refrigerated vehicles. This is a national crisis which has 100% of EVERYONE's attention, or didn't you notice?