ericbj

Free speech, yes. Today's 'facts' are tomorrow's fallacies. But slander, libel, and downright rudeness should not be included in 'free speech'.

Marxism? Or something more akin to fascism? But whereas fascist governments favoured, but controlled, big business, today we are confronted with big business controlling the government, and the mass-media. There is a need to be careful with the terms we use. While I can agree with many points made by pro-business people (notably in the U.S.) who describe themselves as "anarchists" or "libertarians", I feel that in some cases "Victorian laissez-faire capitalist" might be a better fit. Whatever became of 'The Conquest of Bread' ?

For what it may be worth :- I returned to Thailand on a Multiple Entry O-A visa on 31 OCT 2019 - with a Re-entry Permit, because Immigration had told me that this was needed if leaving the country for more than two weeks, as was the case. Shortly after reaching my home destination, I went to Immigration on 11 NOV 2019, both to report my return and to apply for a 12-month O-A Visa Extension. Immigration asked me if I had health insurance. Answer: "Yes." "Is it with one of the 8 insurance companies approved by the Thai Government?" I knew nothing about that: but was told it was a new regulation introduced in April that year. I said "OK, give me the details and I will insure." Reply: "It is too late. The insurers will wish to check on your health and the policy will not be issued by the Visa's expiry date." (25 NOV, 14 days later) I said:"What can I do?" Answer: "We can give you an O Visa in place of the O-A Visa. You do not need health insurance for that." So an O-Visa, without the government-approved health insurance, is what I now have. Incidentally, when out of curiosity I studied the approved insurance policies, only two out of the eight companies would insure a person over 70 years of age, and the remaining two would not insure beyond 75, unless you were already insured with them prior to that cut-off age. And the annual premium was about 130K baht for the minimum cover of 400K + 40K baht. Coincidentally, for approximately the past seven years I have had, on term-deposit here, 1,250,000 baht plus a bit of accrued interest. 800K for the obvious reason and the remainder in case of dire necessity. Of course, rules may have changed in the past couple of years.

Bringing in more of the super-rich will not benefit the ordinary Thais who have until recently depended upon tourism for their livelihood. I am thinking of small hotel and guesthouse owners and staff, tour and tourist-activity organisations and guides, taxi- and tuktuk-drivers, etc. Top-down thinkers are proposing top-down solutions. Why not poll the masses adversely affected by their closures? Wrecking an economy is simple. Re-building an economy is more complicated. Especially when economic decline is global.

No one has identical genes. Some may be lucky, others not. Some vaccine injuries take time to develop. With Covid-19 we are in uncharted territory.

They must mean the U.K., not just England. And does this apply to those who must change flights at Heathrow to return to the Continent ? Nearly 100K baht is a stiff price to pay !

They must mean the U.K., not just England. And does this apply to those who must change flights at Heathrow to return to the Continent ? Nearly 100K baht is a stiff price to pay !