DaveSamutP

Was true long ago but certainly is not now. Singapore has long ago taken on a Chinese cultural model that dominates society. Ask any brown person (Sporean Indian, Sporean Malay) and they will tell you. Massive Sino-based racism in Spore. In fact, it's gotten so bad that the "gahmen" (government) had to introduce an Anti Racism law this year. During colonial times, the Indians were 2nd to British and Chinese were 3rd.

Interesting. My admittedly harsh view is that the the Chinese and Indians deserve each other. Both present major challenges. Virtually everything you said about India Indians has a corollary for China Chinese. If you are indeed Sprorean Indian, your message almost reads as if you've been brainwashed by Sino-poreans like so many other Sporean Indians (taking on the national character of their societal masters). India Indians are no worse on balance than the China Chinese.

I didn't check the the thread yet, but has anyone made the single coke with multiple straws joke yet?

I agree. They know what they created and why. They also could be planning for the next "accidental" leak which may prove deadlier and more costly.

They are about as thick as it gets. If you're going to introduce new fees like this, just do it quietly.

Perhaps there is no tendency toward corruption at all in any of the couriers. I mean, this is Thailand after all. Corruption is virtually unheard of here.

Hi OP. I have not read through the entire thread, but I will note one thing. Maybe someone else said the same. It has been a recurring issue with the couriers here that people are charged incorrect or exorbitant duties. FedEx Thailand and DHL Thailand are amongst the worst offenders. Many have suspected it's a racket of sorts. I agree. In future, you can try to order items from companies that work with Thailand customs to accurately pre-pay the duties. I'm not sure if Amazon does it but some do. If Thai customs then tries to charge you more, the sender (Amazon or whoever) will pay the difference and help you.

I kind of agree, though, I think most of the destruction of the Thai tourism industry has been directly caused by the pandemic and could not have been helped much, no matter who was in power. Smarter countries started working on plans to move affected tourism workers to other industries. Anyway, the Thais have one potential savor and that is China. China could easily send 40 million tourists a year in exchange for economic leverage in Thailand. They are experts at weaponising their tourists.

And, that is the perfect evidence that their employment/unemployment figures are absolutely fabricated. As are most other figures in the Kingdom. Some brave journo should ask a government minister to explain the discrepancy

I can understand any nation's citizens being spooked by something like this. That said, the government's job here is to convince the Thais that they need foreigners in this capacity (and other capacities). And, that is where is falls down. 99.8% of the time, the governments here perpetuate the us vs them (locals good, foreigners bad) ideology that permeates throughout virtually all aspects of life in Thailand. How to reverse generations of that thinking suddenly? Not an easy task.

As for me, rather than starting with what is possibly false or inaccurate data, my wondering is more like 1. What faith should I have in the data? 2. How effective are the jabs? 3. How effective are the jabs when compared with the others?

Those garbage Chinese apps I delete and only install when I need to order something (then delete again).

Totally agree. China is a mess.

Yes, agree. There are even far worse possibilities. What's incredible to me is that so many expats fall into the trap of seeing Thailand the ways average Thais do and being unable to recall how the rest of the world views the country. In fact, expats who've lived here should be the most critical.

I think the old saying is applicable to Thailand. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence. ????

It's like being rated the 2nd handsomest man in the condo and somehow being proud of the fact ... ASEAN ... zzz

This is exactly right. The problem with Thailand is that it's simply a low quality country from a variety of perspectives. Very few seriously successful people would choose to be based in Thailand. There are some, but not may. Great place to have fun. Terrible place to work, invest or expose your wealth to in any significant way. There is also a HUGE stigma associated with telling any self-respecting person that you're based in Thailand. They'll get 5 or 6 "digital" guys who want to spend a couple years partying and playing hide the sausage with farm girls. Maybe 9 or 10 gray haired blokes with income generating investments. Not much else.

Yeah, but how many people from this part of the world you know going to Canada in the dead of winter? ???? On a serious note, though, despite what Dr. Sheppard says, it's false to assume that vaccines manufactured in different places are equal. Nobody thinks that way about virtually anything else. Say, autos, for example. Same car, manufactured in China vs Germany... Same auto, but is it, really? No, it's not. The problem is that people don't really understand anything about vaccines and the complexity of manufacture. They assume every country can produce to same standard...

The people have a new plan every couple of months. I don't even have to look at any of the details to know it will fail. They have such short attention spans.

Absolutely. They will systematically steal any property back temporarily lost to foreigners.

Yeah, I guess we'll see. Maybe the sandbox is having a genuine protective effect. In most countries where vaccination rates are high and they've opened up a bit, large numbers of people continue to get sick. And, these are countries where the majority of vaccinations have been quality ones (not the Chinese stuff). If they remove restrictions nationally and allow large numbers of tourists to come, I have a feeling the number of vaccinated tourists that get sick will be very high. I will add that there could very well be other mutation strains in Thailand that are unreported. We recall the single time Thailand upload a variant to the global database, there was a lot of pushback as they didn't want any variants associated with Thailand. Then, there is Mu and Lamda.

I have mixed feelings on this topic. I've seen what swarms of Chinese can do to my country's real estate market. I think countries should govern closely how many foreigners can own land. For Thailand, though, it's my expectation they will lure foreigners in, have them buy land and property and then systematically steal it back from foreigners. I genuinely believe this. They know foreigners have no legal recourse in Thailand, and only the Chinese have any ability to apply pressure. China will impose heavy penalties on Thailand if the Thais are found to be taking advantage of the Chinese. Western governments will do nothing for their citizens.

Some of us think Thailand has been deliberately underreporting the numbers from the start of the pandemic. To China's credit, the government seems to understand how truly daft much of the world is and how easily they can be lied to repeatedly. Thailand may be playing be playing the middle ground, report a reasonable number of cases against the regional figures so that the country can open up and maybe tourists will slowly start visiting. Where they will fall down is when large numbers of tourists start getting sick and reveal the healthcare system here is incapable of handling it. All this is almost a guarantee to anyone who truly understands the country.

These surveys almost always miss key options. Vaccinated. Pfizer 2 doses.

So funny. They. are. all. corrupt. It is the culture of corruption that they share. Only difference is who is whose team.