BangkokReady

Sorry to disappoint you and your desire for hostility, but it's much more of a "the Thai people deserved a decent vaccine from the start" saga. How on Earth is the idea of people being allowed access to a decent vaccine McCarthyism? What a bizarre leap.

They call that a booster shot? Not a "bringing an ineffective vaccine up to a normal level" shot?

But quality over quantity? That's a plan, right? /s

It's a nice idea that the money generated by this will go to making things better for the students. I wonder what the reality will actually be.

It's quite a bizarre dichotomy where they try to please all people. "We need the population to believe that we are doing all we can to attract quality foreigners that will bring money into Thailand, but we also need to show people that we regard foreigners as lowly, dangerous people who are beneath us yet should still always pay more than natives."

It's a nice idea, but even with long-term visas and owning land, does that make Thailand attractive enough as a permanent place to make a home, especially given that wealthy people have more options than most? Will these "desirables" be protected from the other issues that foreigners face?

It goes directly against how you think an academic institution should behave. Very sad for a university to not want to conserve artistically and culturally important buildings. Should be preserved and turned into a museum or gallery. Very disappointing.

Shouldn't they be administering booster shots by now?

Yes, they seem to be conflating sex education, abuse and harassment, when they are different (although connected) things. All are important to discuss, but they are not the same and would be better discussed separately.

Are you saying you think that the article claims explaining what sexual harassment is and how to avoid it means actually sexually harassing/abusing the children? Otherwise, I don't understand your call for punishment of teachers for discussing sexual harassment.

Who says she isn't doing that already? Just it's being popular at the moment, rather than being elected.

Absolutely. Some of the nicest and smartest women I have met have been chubby. I think there must be a link, like being less in demand forces them to actually make an effort in life, while the hot girls just wait for everything to be done for them. They must be able to relate to what it takes to be a man a lot easier. And if they're still single beyond their mid-twenties, chances are some scumbag has taken advantage of them and they're pretty messed up.

I think you're drastically overestimating the choices available to these people.

What a horrible situation for everyone to be in. All for money or sex. How could any of you be happy with this arrangement?

It really sounds like they are of that quality and behavior. Possibly more expensive also. As a great man once said: “I don’t pay them for sex, I pay them to go away afterwards.”

Probably the other way around.

The pills won't replace the vaccine.

Seems inevitable. There's going to be a point where they just have to accept it. A good first step would be to ensure that teachers keep masks on and kids don't take their masks off and go and eat in large groups squashed together after school, but TiT... Unfortunately, part of the new normal is social distancing and mask wearing, but this seemed to be quickly forgotten once dining in was allowed.

Quite a key issue. These women probably have many issues that simply get ignored because they're hot. (The fact that they're attracted to these guys in the first place should be a significant red flag.) All the "nice guys" who swoon over them and complain that they "only want a**holes" probably also ignore plain looking girls who are sweet and caring.

I think it was someone coming from Cambodia. Almost zero chance that it was a Westerner.

Presumably they either caught covid, or the covid in their body increased to a detectable level, some time between the test prior to leaving and the test when they arrived in Thailand.

I think whichever way you look at it, whether playing the system or using it as intended, the system is temporarily off-line and so those that previously would have used it are being allowed to continue to stay via covid extensions, which is really to everyone's benefit. Seems reasonable and tolerable, given the global circumstances. Doesn't really feel like a time to focus on issues that are fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things (especially when they are more about principle or face than anything else). Better to focus on staying safe, beating the pandemic and getting Thailand back to where it was before, tourist-wise.

People say that, but realistically speaking, this is a global problem that has seen the entirety of world travel grind to a halt and the issuing of visas in this area, which previously hinged on border runs, has pretty much done the same. It isn't only Thailand that has relied on border hops to facilitate the issuing of visas, given the situation, visa amnesty is just a sensible and practical solution which most countries followed without half of the drama and xenophobia. Land borders are still closed, visa runs are out of the question, some people still feel unable to go home, and so on. Just because a handful of tourists are prepared to jump through the hoops required to visit Thailand, doesn't mean that everyone has the option of flying back to Europe or America and then reentering Thailand. Thailand benefits greatly in terms of workers and tourism from the land borders being open and that isn't just Westerners. It would seem logical to allow covid extensions until everything is open as normal.

Why are the middleman allowed to do this? Do they have some sort of monopoly, or are they connected to the government in some way? Can farmers not sell directly to anyone or form cooperatives?

That's a healthy mark-up. I wonder who gets most of the 45 Baht added on.