AussieBob18

37 minutes ago, gimo said:

        Yes I agree . I've just finished the 2 year period and am waiting for the CV19 situation to improve enough for my son and I to get back to Thailand . Living on the dole when I first came back was very difficult , but after the pension started I moved to mid nth coast NSW and it has been a reasonably comfortable existence , with cheaper rent and rental assistance . I don't have a car so makes it more affordable . Buses to anywhere for $ 2:50 per day .

Perfect - well done mate.  Could I ask you to one day summarise all the things you do/did to enable yourself to live OK while on the pension in Aust.  A lot of Aussie blokes dont do it because they couldnt be bothered going through all the troubles and dont think that it is worth it.  Real information from someone who has recently done it could be invaluable to some.  

2 minutes ago, hobz said:

It's too late. Too many businesses are bankrupt and too many people are unemployed already. The economic damage is already done and it will take years or decades to reverse.

You could be right - I hope not - but no one really knows, because this has never happened before. 

I think a lot of how quickly the economic recovery happens, will be greatly affected by how well all the Govts introduce economic stimulus programs and payments.  Big bucks for big projects is not the way this time, lots and lots of little bucks for the smaller businesses and direct to the people in most need is what is needed.

10 minutes ago, Mayhem11 said:

So put two and two together. If the situation in Oz is not about Covid19, what is it about?
There are six tactics used by authoritarians:spreading disinformation, quashing dissent, politicising independent institutions, amassing executive power, delegitimizing communities, and corrupting elections.

Spreadingdisinformation: face masks won’t mitigate against Covid19 infection

Quashing dissent: police fining/ arresting and jailing people for leaving their abodes, raiding journos 

Politicising independent institutions: stacking the High Court, the Fair Work Commission and the ABC

Amassing executive power: closing borders, interfering with civil liberties, union bashing, wanting to track your whereabouts 

Delegitimising communities: denying workers a real chance to vote on boss sponsored slashing of worker’s remuneration and emoluments, banning gatherings, surfing and BBQs

Corrupting elections: gerrymandering, the numerous sports rorts affairs

in my opinion, this is a right wing coup d’état.

I was reading what you said and thought you would be going to say something anti-left wing ????

The harshest lockdown provisions in the USA are being done by the Dem States.

But back to Aus - the harshest provisions are being done In Vic - labor.

But here in Qld (also Labor) it is very easy going and not too harsh - outside of Brisbane.

Those in Govt are always to blame (according to opposition) and they never do anything right (according to opposition).

5 hours ago, simple1 said:

I disagree with the thrust of your OP in that Oz Federal government had already stated it will commence relaxation of Covid mitigation as Covid infection spread slows down so do not comprehend why all the noise. State government may or may not have a different timetable, but they would come under a lot of pressure if they were off message by a significant degree. Government will have to keep some form of mitigation practices in place until a vaccine is generally available to minimise flare ups, not as you commented Covid-19 will hopefully 'burn out'. 

 

I am not a 'lefty'. last election I voted Liberal, but I did not vote for Howard last time he was up for election as I considered he was attacking the rights of the lower paid. I do not put members on ignore. Trolling? No, I asked for clarification of your comments.

Ok - thanks for clarifying your request - apologies for taking it out of context. Like you I vote for the better Party in terms of policies and history - not for the personality or gender of the Party leader.

I hope you are right, but I think that this will become a political 'hot potato'. Any Govt that opens up and infections/deaths go back up again, will be attacked by their opposition. And all the Labor States will try to use this to make the Lib/Nat Fed Govt look bad. And all the Lib States will be pushing to balme the Labor ones for not opening if the infections/deaths stay about the same (or even decrease).  The basthurdds will always play politics - including with people's lives - they are what they are.

Please see my earlier post re vaccines - there will not be one for a long time - if ever.  The time is now to make decisions as to which area/city/state to open back up and get back to work/business/living.

14 hours ago, moe666 said:

If we allow things to be normal say as in NY normal who will be able to take care of the sick and the very sick people that will over whelm the system. All that can be done at present is to slow this virus down until an affective vaccine is developed. I am in the kill zone but still have some living todo.

Sorry to say this, but there will not be a vaccine for a long time - if ever.  There has been two previous coronavirus that infected humans - SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2012 - and they have been trying to develop a vaccine since 2003 but they have failed.  There was an attempt for SARS, but it was withdrawn as it made people very sick.

Easing the lockdown, but keeping things tight for the elderly, and those in the 'kill-zone' as you said, and maintaining travel bans should be maintained.  But the world's economies need to be restarted before they die.  Right now it will eventually come back to where it was - maybe 3-6 months - but too long and we will have a depression (worldwide) that will last for years.  Far worse and much more deaths will come from that occurring.

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/coronaviruses-therapeutics-vaccines

1 hour ago, Logosone said:

No, they don't.

In Germany you only have to be 1.5 metres apart, 2 metres in the UK.

In Germany it is okay for more than 2 people to go out at the same time if they are from the same household.

In Germany harvest people from abroad are allowed in the country to work.

The UK's lockdown policies are more servere.

My contact in Sweden confirms - UK far harsher than Countries around him, and as he and we all see, the UK police are far harsher in their enforcements - arrests/fins for being in front yard of house? As usual facts evade the lefties so easily.

9 minutes ago, Logosone said:

The reason why I mention Sweden is that they are the example of a country that has basically done very little. Insignificant testing and only late and half-hearted and very limited social distancing.

So you can use that example to compare against a country like Austria which has done a whole lot of testing and the UK which has done less testing (per capita) but has been strong on social distancing.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109066/coronavirus-testing-in-europe-by-country/

We do have stats and numbers, but we do not have serious, strong studies that would prove, say in the UK, it was when testing was ramped up that it was testing and isolating the infected and not social distancing that helped the UK to reduce the number of cases.

What I see is that whenever a country has succeeded in keeping the mortality low, like Germany, South Korea it was mass testing that was key. Not social distancing.

If Sweden, who did neither, has the same numbers as the UK, but worse numbers than a country like Germany that did mass testing on a great scale, that would support the argument that mass testing, not social distancing, was the key. But yes, we need hard studies to confirm this.

Personally I don't think people will start dying in Sweden in greater numbers, on the contrary, as they ramp up testing their case numbers will go up drastically but their deaths probably won't. So their mortality figure will get better.

I am in close contact with a friend in Sweden and he is astounded. Being of a similar political ilk as myself (right) he is astounded that the Swedish leaders didnt follow blindly the dogma of locking down the poluation.  Over 70s have been asked to isolate themselves for their own saefty as it is clear that this virus affects the elderly far more than the under 70s (like all flu viruses) and has requested the remainder practice social distancing as much as possible, but keep things going as much as possible - and their borders are closed to most incoming.

Your point:  'it was testing and isolating the infected and not social distancing that helped the UK to reduce the number of cases' is exactly correct. And that is why Sweden has decided to follow the Germany model and ramp up the testing - keep things as they are, but test as many as possible and get anyone testing positive to self-isolate as much as possible.  Sensible.  Astonishing. 

31 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Yes we will see because there is not nearly enough stats to say that your much heralded 'Sweden system' works any better than everyone elses social distancing. You simply cannot say this is a better approach with absolutley no stats to prove the point.

But preliminary studies in the UK though do say self-isolation and social distancing HAS slowed down the spread in the UK https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-spread/preliminary-study-finds-uk-lockdown-is-slowing-spread-of-covid-19-idUSKBN21J56W and common sense says if you take away the main ways of spreading a virus (close proximity and isolating the infected), the virus itsel;f has nowhere to go.

I sincerely hope that Sweden is proven correct in its method but if their Covid cases suddenly increase and people start dying are you going to be the first on here to say they (and you) got it wrong?   

 

Try this weblink for stats - if that is what you and others are looking for:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-israeli-prof-claims-simple-stats-show-virus-plays-itself-out-after-70-days/

But the truth is that the real stats will not be seen this year - like all official stats about seasonal influenza infection and death rates they are best guess estimates based on long and laborious research.

2 hours ago, simple1 said:

To quote from your OP...

"It was right to lockdown the world when it appeared that between 50 million and 200 million would die.
But it is not right to continue the lockdown when it appears that only 1 million or 2 million will die.\".

 

if the above is not arguing lock downs shouldn't currently continue what are you trying to articulate? Plus to repeat, how many deaths would there be w/w p.a. if Covid-19 mitigation strategies are not kept in place until a vaccine becomes generally available.

You obviously didnt read all of the OP - like many other lefties didnt I ams sure judging by their ignore rubbish

To quote from my own OP

"Lets start to gradually and sensibly open up the world again – the number of deaths will clearly not be as high as they said initially.
Lets protect those over 65/70 and keep them socially isolated as much as possible – keep the grandkids away.
Lets get back to work and look after the economic garden before we end up with something far worse than a few million deaths.
Let the people decide what precautions they should take going forward with regards to social distancing."

Please refrain from deliberate trolling and cutting and pasting a section of my post out of context.

2 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

We've been doing a lot of house cleaning here at the in-law's during the lockdown. A ton of unused <deleted> has been turning up, dishes, clothes, packed away in boxes. They're always complaining about money. Why not convert this <deleted> into some?

I said once this is over, we're gonna pack up the pickup and head to the market. I pulled out a few bowls and shirts, and started going "10 baht, 10 baht..." They looked at me like I was crazy. What, it's just gonna keep sitting here doing nothing?

The Thai face saving thing, or thinking they had once spent more money on it, or just liking to hoard. I really dunno.

Yeh I hear you - weird stuff they think at times.  There are a lot of 'used stuff' shops in western countries and lots of 'used markets'.  Not much in Thailand - try finding used golf clubs.

5 hours ago, simple1 said:

Accordingly from your research what is the projected number of deaths p.a. w/w from Covid without mitigation strategies?

To answer one of your questions, my doctor advised me that flu has an annual death w/w toll of around 500k, without vaccines would be in the millions

Irrelevant question - I am not saying remove all lockdowns - read the post.

WHO estimates vary greatly but they do go up to 650K.  The problems is that there is a lot more deaths that are from 'lower respitatory' infections that are not counted as flu deaths, but many are as a result of the flu - over 3 mill a year.

This site may have some useful info for you. https://www.proclinical.com/blogs/2017-5/the-leading-causes-of-death-in-the-world-can-they-be-cured

Sell all her used stuff online mate ????

13 minutes ago, gimo said:

         He won't have to wait for 2 years after getting the pension because he will have been in Aust from age 60 to 67 . The 2 year  thing is only for people who spend the ' majority ' of the 2 years leading up to starting the pension , overseas .

 

You are right in that circimstance - he would get 19 + 7 = 26/35 of the oseas pension.  But I assumed he would wait until 67 before he returns. The dole aint enough to live on for many - but being on the pension means lots of discounts and free stuff and subsidised rents etc etc.  IMO 2 years living in subsidised rent on the pension and living frugally is worth it in the long run when going back to Thailand means taking about $10K AUD per year for him.  Over 10 years that is $100K and IMO is worth it. Live to 90 and it is $200K.  And the longer he stays on the pension the more he will get when he leaves. 

13 hours ago, pineapple01 said:

Nah its a Website, the Grandkids run in to show me the rubbish on their mobiles.

OK.  Looked. Not for long. Silly stuff - not for me.

7 hours ago, johnny1966 said:

Great insight. So, if I lived in Australia from birth till 34yo, then in Thailand from 34 to 60, then Australia till pension age, Im not entitled. Is that right?

If you go back to Australia to live you will get the pension when you are 67.

To be able to then leave and take the pension with you means you have to be there a min of 2 years to qualify for 'portability'.

When you do qualify for poertability the amount paid will be 34-16 + say 2 = 21/35 of the total value of the overseas pension amount. 

If they used clean filtered bottle water, I would love it. But they dont. One day in the city (CM) we saw them filling buckets and guns from the moat - we stayed home for that one, and everyone thereafter.  At best they are filled form local water taps - would you drink that stuff?  You supporters of the water 'sharing' do know that water can transmit infections like cholera and viruses like Covid right? Stay locked up with no complaints because of a bad flu virus - but accept dirty/**** water being thrown over you and in the face - interesting logic.

On 4/16/2020 at 10:10 AM, Mama Noodle said:

Good. Millions in taxpayer dollars for years and years and the ONE TIME we need the WHO to help guide policy and be transparent, they utterly fail the planet by taking lying China at their word. 

AND WHO ignored Taiwan warning them, because their 'friends' in CCP told them to not listen to them.

The very fact that WHO ignored Taiwan's warnings due to a political concern, shows they are not an organisation that is primarily concerned with the health of the world's people - they are managed and controlled by political hacks.

Same for UN and NATO and FIFA and World Cup (Football) and Olympics and most global organisations.  I hope Trump defunds them all. 

2 hours ago, norfolkandchance said:

Tick Tocking. The practice of moving the arms on each side of the body, in the same direction as the same side leg when marching. Cheers.

Ah ha - like that silly 'planking' craze - right?