mfd101

3 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Has anyone mention The Wai?

 

Thais don't touch when greeting as opposed to the Italians and possible Spanish?

And what do you think the Japanese do?

There are plenty of websites with stats & charts comparing different countries (different geographically culturally & demographically). And comparing infection rates, death rates, mortality rates, recovery rates etc etc.

On just about every measurement Thailand comes out looking like an extreme outlier. Which is on the whole an extremely unlikely outcome.

A reasonable person might reasonably conclude that, as usual, Thais and in particular their government have an unusual relationship with reality.

The precautionary principle: Always bring more than you think you will need, the full bunch of all possibilities. 

Then you have it if they ask for it. If they don't ask for it, then you still have it for the next time in case they do.

Be prepared!

1 hour ago, EvetsKram said:

My wife has a small salon,  forced to close down but she is unable to get on there to register.  It pisses me off reading here about all the phoney claims getting lodged

Perhaps she could just wait an extra day or three?

50 minutes ago, gearbox said:

Interesting to see if the govt would bail out Virgin Australia or let it go belly up. If only Qantas is left, expect sky high domestic fares again.

I gather (same source a couple of days ago) that Singapore Airlines is sniffing around the soon-to-be virginal corpse.

Discussion in today's 'Australian' suggests half the world's airlines will no longer be with us post CoVid. Those that do will be those that enjoy government support and those (not many) that are not up to their eyeballs in debt already.

And the recovery will be SLOW (12 months +), tending to be domestic or local in the first instance, and probably in the longer term a 'normal' rather different from the one we knew.

1 hour ago, Isaan sailor said:

I wonder how Indians feel about China now?

No love lost at any time, in either direction.

If it's so safe for 1 at a time in the pool, why wouldn't it be safe for 5 or 10 or 20 provided they keep at least 2 metres away from the doggie crawler?

4 hours ago, MaiDong said:

I remember when a Thai Scientist came forward and pronounced that Thailand would suffer(marginally) less than some other nations with rising sea levels. He turned out to be correct, despite many comments of derision - including mine.

Oh rilly? How's that? The seas are still rising and will continue to do so for at least the next 100 or 500 years, no matter what human beings do.

7 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Is there some responsible medical personnel who could give A-nut-in here an injection to induce lockjaw and stop his foot-in-mouth infection?

Don't be silly. He needs to take 6 months stress leave while the nation recovers.

The Supreme Cdr is the head of all the armed forces. Army, Navy & Air Force come (theoretically) under him, though I suspect (but don't know) his normal role is ceremonial & coordinating rather than operational command. (Certainly Army seems to act like a law unto itself.)

The PM has nominated him to be in charge of the Emergency law enforcement function.

Here in darkest deepest Surin at the edge of the world, my family 40km away in the village & farm is barely past the 'colona? wot dat?' stage.

2 BILs + kids arrive every day mask-free to work on our new khlong near the house and the new chicken house & run. No point in the cops stopping them as they wouldn't have a brass satang between them.

My b/f has at last got the message that the bank won't let him inside to complain about the 5000฿ the atm stole yesterday unless he wears a mask, but it's not quite fashionable enough yet in his eyes so I'm not allowed to take a photo of him with it to post on Facebook (sigh) ...

As to washing hands, b/f has more or less got the message though off a low base. As to the others, they spend the day either here in the dirt or at the farm with the animals. No point. They just laugh. KR shells used to rain down upon them in the village when they were small so they're not afraid of a silly little wilus.

1 minute ago, pdtokyo said:

... and your solution or advice to OP is ...?

Get a book. Go back to bed.

Few things will drive a bank under more quickly than the panic caused by stupid, ill-informed or malevolent people speculating that the bank might go under.

One of the reasons the Soviet Union collapsed in more or less slow motion over about 20 years is that all statistics were faked so none of the SU's 'leaders' could possibly have an accurate view of the state of the nation, in any area - economic, social, educational, health ...

See any parallels?

7 hours ago, keith101 said:

Is doing a 90 day an essential task in order to leave home ?

Of course it's essential. Just think of the unemployment levels for unskilled workers if we were to stop!

12 minutes ago, ParkerN said:

Truth is not valued in Thai society, only what is convenient for the purposes of the moment is important, and any moral messages are lost very quickly. It's possible, perhaps even probable, that there are some people in Thailand (including in the government) who value truth for its own sake, but in my view, it's a very small percentage people who are smart enough to the stand above the prevailing culture. Thai culture, apart from not valuing truth, is extremely intolerant of people who do no people who do not comply with the Borg, and who wish to follow their conscience. Thai culture is a group game, not an individual game, and people that do not comply are quickly ostracised or otherwise punished for the impertinence (or, more accurately the impudence thinking they're better than other Thais). Like forest animals in a forest clearing, they were always equate what is culturally familiar, with what is safe.

Yes, these are characteristics of a not-yet-modern society with a small & politically weak bourgeoisie. As the latter grows in numbers & power, and the expectation of planning, law & clarity that go with it, so Thai culture will change.

But it's a 50-year project and hardly begun. Meantime the feudals, plutocrats & generals do whatever they want.

I'm going to Kap Choeng next week for my 90 days. We don't have masks - basically pointless if you're fit and our (fitful & unenthusiastic) inquiries here in Prasat haven't found any.

So I plan to send b/f in with my p/p and I'll hang around outside the windows grinning & waiing ...

If you increase the numbers of tests, you increase the numbers who are sick.

Clearly the Government's early policy was the correct one.

4 hours ago, NanLaew said:

If there's anyone in the neighborhood, can you pop over to Government House and check if there's actually anyone at home

The lights are still on but there's noone home.