ThreeEyedRaven

42 minutes ago, webfact said:

certification aimed at elevating the country’s tourism industry standards

Luckily for them, they are starting from a very low point, so improvements shouldn't be hard to make. Reaching levels considered safe by those around the world is however highly unlikely. 

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

“The move to disburse gift money from the Bt2.7 billion budget to civil servants

Hang on a moment. They only have 1.36 Billion with which to give 5,000 a time to people across the nation who have lost their employment, but double that as "tips" for civil servants? Can't help but suspect the distribution will be disproportionately high towards the senior end, when average staff are only getting 1,000-1,500 a month then.

17 minutes ago, webfact said:

The goal is to "Trump-proof" the plan

Are they suggesting that Trump is fallible? I thought even God checked in with Donald before making decisions.

We should all be praying that the trial run is a similar disaster to the laughable effort last week and they give up the stupid idea for good.

I am not aware of any new cases in Pattaya since the last debacle to shut the city down, so seems a bit late anyway.

It would be very useful for the authorities to actually tell us clearly where we will and will not be able to go without mega drama.

35 minutes ago, Crazy Alex said:

 

As a very wise woman once told me, "he who has the power also has the responsibility".

Excellent quote. One which could well be heeded by one clearly out of his depth and being shown more for the buffoon he is every day.

You can talk yourself up all you like, but when you run into people who know and understand the law, you just look like a fool when you try to pretend you can do things that you can't.

A common sense approach at every local level is obviously sensible. Opening everywhere is just inviting a bigger disaster than the one that occurred the day someone said, "It's just one guy from China."

Might have been the moment it was uttered, but it isn't now is it? Who eventually is responsible for that would you say?

Let me get this right. They rejected millions of claims and yet have only managed to find five negative comments about the scheme? And those had either only been spotted by making errors in their application or making a comment after being super lucky? The Thais I have spoken with recently didn't seem very impressed at all, so I suspect there are a fair few more negative ones out there if they care to look.

I had been hoping it was going to drop a bit more than that, but it seems to confirm a downward trend over the last ten days or so.

It would be very handy for numbers to drop away after the Songkran period has passed.

Having seen a fair few kids running about with water pistols already, I think that he has zero chance of enforcing this. Will only take one small group and before you know it, the normal lunacy will likely spring up very quickly.

When a good result is commensurate with thoughtful planning, and a disaster with little or none, this was to be expected. 

Possibly the simplest way to solve this problem would be to provide every legitimate traveler, who had a visa or exemption upon arrival, with an open ended visa automatically, or just write off overstay, then providing an additional 30 day extra grace period for people to organise their way home, when it is possible to do so.

Immigration offices could effectively close, keeping their staff safer too. Social distancing means exactly what it says and immigration offices are the antithesis of that.

Here we go again. No mention of where these people were from, just the generic foreigner term used, so could have been from Cambodia or anywhere. Spitting on the floor at this time is pretty dumb, but the reaction seems to be excessive. There seems to be the mistaken belief that masks will save them all, and those without are deliberately trying to infect everyone else. And every excuse to have a dig at foreigners has no shortage of Thais, many of whom also spit on the floor, ready to unload their hatred.

1 minute ago, BobbyL said:

It certainly seems that some of the scientific research released recently around temperature and humidity restricting the spread is true. 

It may also be that the lungs and immune systems here which have not been through months of extremely cold weather are in better position to start with, making it easier to brush off. Don't care right now TBH. Numbers are going down. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Incompetence, stupidity, orders ignored, an embarrassment created. Sounds like a perfectly normal day here to me.

27 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

 

Manager's article pointed the finger at foreigners for being largely responsible for spreading the virus.

I don't recall foreigners being in charge of the decision to keep welcoming tourists for several weeks after a border closure was the sensible thing to do.

The attempted deflection of blame is becoming beneath contempt. I shall surely remember this when the virus has passed by and leaving here is looking increasingly likely.

Those lovely people at TAT who normally keep us up to date with new tourist number highs have been very quiet of late. Maybe their number fabricators compilers have found new employment? Must be tough to have to do the numbers down, rather than up though. 

6 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Oh No. Now a real lockdown.

And given the drugs they were stupid enough to have, one that is going to last a lot longer than a 14 day quarantine.

Such unusually steady and low numbers hardly seem to justify the measures the country is going through. Should things get tightened further it would strongly suggest that these are indeed just the tip of the iceberg, the whole of which can no longer be concealed. 

25 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

If most people still failed to shelter in place, the government might have to suspend all public transportation systems.

Shame this option didn't enter their minds a couple of months back, when it was absolutely containable, especially if they had shut down flights from China and subsequently other infected countries quicker.

The people will suffer from the continued incompetency and lack of willing to make unpopular decisions at the appropriate time.

Thought they could dodge a bullet to keep tourism flowing and instead, trod on a land mine.

I have made a resolution to not purchase any alchohol whatsoever during the month of April.

I have admittedly spent 14,000 Baht on some today.

8 minutes ago, canopus1969 said:

Cancel all military procurements – that should add a few more billion baht to the coffers

As would stopping the corruption which has no doubt also seen a healthy chunk "diverted."

So nice to know that the fraudsters at immigration care about us not being ripped off by anyone else.

Damn shame they can't sort themselves out to provide an online way of doing an extension though, to avoid having to mix in huge crowds when we are supposed to be social distancing.

When you get all of your "information" from FOX news and the like, rather than the educated, informed and qualified people who know what they are talking about, a disaster like this was bound to happen. YES men are always going to make calls they think the boss will like, rather than those which are truly necessary. Hopefully when the election comes along Americans still alive, will have the intelligence to work out that they indeed put a fool in the top office, and won't repeat the mistake.