Flink

If that! If it's only a 4000 baht fine for killing a doctor on an unlicesed bike and leaving the scene.....

I think it's a moot point whether the US will sell F35's to the Thai Air Force or not. Let's face it, they drive from the airport to their hotel will give them ample time to assess how the Thais handle cars, let alone aircraft, and that will be the end of the procurement deal. Then the Thais will be able to release the 13.8 billion to social programs to help the needy in their communities nationwide.....won't they????? (and by needy I mean hungry and homeless, not those seeking more expensive watches or another Ferrari!

Well that approach has had no effect on seasonal flu and theyve been working on that one for decades. So how long do you suggest we wait for Covid? This virus is going nowhere and those in power all over the world love it because it gives them an excuse to use "extraodrinary measures" to control the populace. It's like the endemic status here. The medical professionals say they can class it as endemic but the politicians don't want that because as soon as it is classed as endemic they have no justification for keeping their special powers in place and everyone will get back to normal. They can't afford to do that yet, there's an election on the horizon so they'll be jumping all over each other to announce the endemic status and removal of all restrictions and mandates first to pull in the votes.

The advantage Japan has is that it's economy, and jobs, are not as dependant on tourism as Thailand. Therefore the loss incurred due to restrictions does not have anywhere near the impact it does here.

Yes, but never with the counting...

Pretty sure most of the numpties behind those doors don't know whats going on, so why should anyone outside the door be any different?

This is what the QS rankings site said about last year's rankings: "This year’s QS World University Rankings reveals the top 1,000 universities from around the world, covering 80 different locations. There are 47 new entrants in this year’s top 1,000 while over 5,500 universities were evaluated and considered for inclusion. For more information on this process, consult our methodology. While the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) continues its record-breaking streak at number one - the ninth year in a row it’s achieved this feat - the big story this year is the impressive gains made by Asian universities. 26 institutions from the continent now feature in the global top 100, more than ever before."

Hmmm, overall scores and rankings from QS weren't quite so favourable last year: https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2021

Yes, but that's only a recent change. Up until 2019 you had to notify immigration when you'd been away from your place of residence for 24 hours (TM30) and all the hassle that entailed. Lived in China for 7 years and never had to do that. Never had to report to immigration every 90 days. Only time I ever saw the immigration guys (when not renewing my visa/FEC or travelling in/out of the country) was when one arrived at my front door because the estate warden of the community where I lived thought I was an illegal alien.

Agree with that. I used to make regular trips to the Haon Kiem area of the city and in the evenings I'd sit at a cafe to watch the rugby and at least half the people wandering about and filling the restaurants/bars/hotels nearby were foreing tourists. Great place and I'd happily move there to live. (Mind you, I'd say the same about Mariupol if it had a 24/7 cafe that sold Guinness and showed rugby on the big screen ????)

I think you misunderstand the OP's point. It's not that he doesn't like foreigners. What, I believe, the OP is getting at is how foreigners arriving in their home country are changing it in ways that are not necessarily for the better. When you live in a foreign country, like Vietnam, you expect not to be able to read the road signs, find shops catering only to people of a different ethnicity/nationality to you. When those things begin to happen in your own country it begins to show you that the foreigners in your own country are getting the upper hand. Case in point, the recent furore over the new signs appearing at Whitechapel Underground station. When a council decides to change the some of the name boards at an international airport or arrivals hub to a foreign language we understand the logic. Lots of foreign tourists so make it easier for them to understand. When it is happening at a local underground station it conveys the notion that the area is no longer an area dominated by the natives. When you fancy a "City Break" with the wife for a weekend but find it hard to book a hotel because they've been block booked by the government to house people who entered the country illegally. When you see churches closing down but more and more mosques being built month after month. When you find yourself being accosted in the street by men in strange costumes calling your wife unspeakable things because she is wearing a sleeveless summer dress on a hot day. THAT is the "too many foreigners" people don't like. It is not a xenophonic thing, more a feeling of losing your own national identity.

The hotels would be happier with that, they'd just up the prices to compensate (plus their obligatory percentage profit and a bit extra in case brown envelopes are needed.

Jeez, the "flash to bang" time between flip and flop is getting ridiculous. It's only been 24 hours since I read on here A-Nut_In had said Covid WOULDN'T be declared endemic on July 1st. Someone really needs to take a close clook at the internal telephone system in the government offices coz there's a lot of people missing out on the group chats where they make these decisions. Having said that, this could all be a "Baldrick" by A-Nut-In, say the endemic status won't happen, then wait for announcement of a GE and spring back in with "I'm declaring Covid endemic!!" days before they go to the voting booths. He's not going to be happy with Pitayowonganon!

To be fair, on the deaths front we're back to the old with/from debate. Clarification is hard to come by on whether people have died from, or with Covid when dealing with people who don't want to lose their emergency powers.

Be laying bigger ones after being shot through the anus????

Fastes entry point if they want to hit (what little of ) brain in A-Nut-In's case.

Yep, declare the virus endemic and you have no reason to keep the emergency powers in place. Can't be having that now, can they?

yeah, so speeding is okay, it's those damn "over-speeders" that are the problem!?!?

At least Piphat had the foresight to say "May be dropped". He knows just how the governemnt flip flop system works. And especially with the likelihood of an election in the offing, every minister will be doing what he can to scupper any possible rivals who might be about to do something that would make them look good in the public's eyes.

Never mind this possibility of there being a patch of land in Phetchaburi "someone" owns and sees a big profit opportunity, think how many are now looking into how to set up Payday Loans companies!

Please, could you take that attitude and go for a walk around Rotherham, Luton, Bradford, Tower Hamlets and suggest that they follow the rules. I'd suggest body armour or really good health insurance before you try it. What happened on KSR was a FEW, no doubt inebriated, foreigners joined in with loads of locals in some water fighting. The weren't running grooming gangs, trying to enforce their own laws or any of the other things they have to put up with back home. What is more to the point is the inconsistency of a government that outlaws anything that people might do for fun at new year but sponsors concerts and events where "social distancing " is ignored. That levvies heavy fines on entertainment venues for encouraging/assisting water fights but does next to damn all to prevent drunken locals getting into their cars and causing mayhem, death and destruction on the roads. People would be more likely to follow government edicts (locals AND foreigners) if there was an ounce of sense behind most of them or were edicts that would ACTUALLY have a genuinely beneficial effect on the society as a whole. Don't send teams of coppers down KSR at 11.30, set them up on the streets all around the area stopping every car, breathalysing the driver and carting off to jail for the night the one's that fail. However, sew shut the officers pockets to make sure EVERYONE who fails the test gets carted to jail for the night.

Well, just maybe they have decided to behave like the foreigners in their own country who don't stay for 2 weeks and hand over shed loads of cash but stay permanently, undocumented running grooming gangs and accosting the locals in the street for not doing things there way. And if accosting them doesn't work will take a knife, or van, or explosive to change their minds. And anyway, if a few foreigners are in a street with hundreds of Thais and the Thais start water fights why shouldn't the foreigners join in? They're going to get soaked whether they get involved or not. And what's sauce for the goose etc.

But of course, after all, the locals are not the ones who HAVE to be vaccinated and tested to be there, so they can't possibly be to blame for a spike, it has to be those vaccinated and tested tourists to blame. I'm not saying none of the tourists have Covid, but if they did the odds are they caught it here anyway.

At least this time they began with "A large number of locals and foreign tourists" Very surprised they showed enough restraint not to put the minority foreign tourists at the front of the headline to intimate that they were the ring leaders.

"So the government buy fleets of high powered Series 5 BMW's. For chasing down drunk/drugged/dangerous/reckless drivers on the roads and expressways?" No, fitted with cameras using facial recognition software for creeping along the streets at 15 miles and hour looking for the REAL criminal element, foreigners overstaying 3 days or late with their 90 days reports because they are giving the country a bad name." All comes down to priorities I guess. After all, a drunk driver who kills himself/others in a wreck will be reincarnated with a chance to redeem themselves, a foreigner, on the other hand......