John Drake

Seems to me that a lot of what Xi is doing is smart. Cutting the Tech giants down to size before they can try and control things as they do in the US. Paying off Evergrande domestic debtors last week and stiffing the foreign debtor means a controlled implosion for housing prices--he'll let the bubble ease as much as possible. And housing needs to come down in China. Too much inequality. Taking down the private educational businesses was another good move to make access to higher education more fair. And lastly he pulled the rug out from under the "sissy boys." I only wish the US had the guts to do half as much as Xi.

Another day and still now word of where the million shots of Pfizer are???

People becoming more and more desperate. This sort of thing will get worse.

Laos. (At least for a little while) Mexico. (Could make Mexico, in the right city, permanent)

Is that a smirk on the elephant's face at the end?

Should have opted for Taco Bueno instead of Taco Bell.

I live in Sala Thammosop, on the south side of Borom. In 2011, I had 80 cm of water in my house from the end of October until the beginning of January. Consensus seems to be that my village is safe this time. But at least I'm already prepared: kept a lot of things upstairs anyway after 2011 and all the house electrical plugs were raised 1.2 meters back then, too.

Any idea on how this compares to 2011?

Merck is a US company. Don't know why Thailand should get the pills if they don't want to let the American vaccines in.

Well, at least the Germans got a thanks for their donation. The US tried to donate 1 million Pfizer shots and the Thai government spat in their face.

Elsewhere I see the Germans made a donation that was accepted today. But still no news about the 1 million Pfizer shots from the US???

Looks like Thailand already has "Holland style flood defences."

I checked the three Twitter accounts run by the US Embassy in Thailand. Nothing there, either. And they usually highlight and brag about anything from donated facemasks to cash giveaways. This all seems very odd. Like both sides are trying to hush it up.

Polynesian Long Pig?

This story appears to have disappeared almost entirely? Where are the 1 million Pfizer shots? Did they ever get here?

I'm anti-social. I don't talk to anyone, if I can avoid it. I like lockdowns.

Truth in advertising. Make the slogan Lotus's

I worked with the Fine Arts Department and other agencies after the 2011 flood to document a an historical Wat restoration project in Pathum Thani. That went fine and well, and even received financial help from international agencies. It took a year for the restoration. At the end of it, we discovered that the roads around the project were being raised by 1.5 meters to control for the next flood. Alas, that renovation also acted to place the Wat into what would be a lake during even more minor flooding. If flooding is anything this year like it was in 2011, this time the entire grounds will be destroyed. No coordination among the civic authorities.

They're workin' on it! They're workin' on it! Darnit!

The biggest part of US diplomacy was that while Thailand received the 1.5 million Pfizer, Vietnam got 5 million Moderna, Moderna being the more effective of the two against the Delta variant.

Translation: Go suck an egg.

Could be. Maybe even checkered. We're finished.

Just waved the white flag.

Prayutville

I guess it boils down to how much retirees represent as a plus or negative. I did read that the Malaysian program only has around 30,000 participants. So 1) There isn't going to be much impact one way or the other if it goes. 2) And Malaysia is already a place of ethnic division, especially between ethnic Chinese and Malays; so any program that brings in more wealthy Chinese might not be appreciated by the Malay majority. 3) Finally, there seems to be a lot of pressure for the new Malaysian government to restore the old program. The numbers for Thailand appear to be a lot different. Here is an old TV story on it, which concludes that the true numbers are impossible to determine, albeit even at the lowest estimate much higher than Malaysia's: