chang1

35 minutes ago, sead said:

Luckily when a virus spreads faster it's also gets weaker.. 

Virology is fun when you know about it

This may be what commonly happens but I doubt it is certain. Viruses mutate all the time most can't replicate some can but are easily overcome by our defenses then the odd one will become transmissible it may be more contagious or it may be more dangerous when contracted. It's survival of the fittest strain but there is nothing to stop it mutating to be more easily spread and more dangerous at the same time just far rarer. Being vaccinated greatly reduces the chance of you giving covid a chance to develop a new strain. If you end up infected in  hospital for a long time, Covid has a much greater number of chances to mutate as well as a nice environment to spread in. Of course the anti vaxers would never understand this and would say it is their god given right to go out and multiply (the number of variants). They are too brainwashed to understand that being vaccinated doesn't just help them it can potentially save thousands of lives. This is also why giving vaccines to poor countries is good for everyone - was the person that omicron came from in Africa vaccinated? I doubt it.

1 hour ago, flyfrog said:

Looks like there is nomore Delta? All new infections are Omecron related, weird, if you test Covid positive and ask which variant you have they cannot answer, so how they detect if you catch the Omicron??

"Looks like there is nomore Delta?" Your not looking hard enough - of course delta is still around, just less cases than omicron. 

"if you test Covid positive and ask which variant you have they cannot answer" - Just because they don't tell you doesn't mean they don't test which strain you have. Thailand was put on the UKs red list earlier this year because it was not testing enough for which strains were circulating meaning if a new strain started it would get a hold before it was discovered. 

"how they detect if you catch the Omicron??" I'm not sure but I think it's some kind of DNA sequencing. 

3 hours ago, sambum said:

I am surprised that nobody has picked up on "whince" (Should be "wince"!) P.S. Shhh - it's "liar"!)

Thanks. I  should have used quotation marks but lier is unforgivable even if it was about 4 in the morning. 

3 hours ago, ozimoron said:

Your proposition that every politician would respond to that question in the negative is flawed. Only racists would, Ask that question of a Singapore politician or any politician of a minority ethnic origin in any country.

Sorry for wording that poorly. 

I was more thinking of long established countries that have a majority of native citizens. Places like the US or New Zealand would be much more used to immigration as the majority are descended from immigrants. I would expect a correlation between how long a country has been established, how diverse the population is and how accepting the people are of immigrants. 

In my lifetime I have seen how immigration has changed my country (England). It now feels like a foreign country with different languages everywhere you go. Having to tip toe around incase we offend someone and constant positive racism with its token foreigner everywhere you look. 

If I  do ever retire to Thailand, I would never EXPECT my hosts to treat me special in any way. They can call me farang or pale face all day long. They have their culture and I chose to come. All I  ask is to treated fairly. I don't expect citizenship and would just leave if my hosts either wanted me to or I felt too uncomfortable. I don't have a problem with someone being racist to me. I either work with it or around it. 

As for the type of overt discrimination and violence directed at immigrants, that is disgusting and should be stood up to everytime. 

2 hours ago, Card said:

The only valid judges that someone is not racist is not yourself. They are those who are the victims of racism because, unless you are subjected to racism, you will hardly notice that it is going on in front of your eyes and ears.

First we need to define racism.  We all make judgments about people based on how they look, sound and act to decide how to interact with them. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this as we can then adjust our behaviour and be more empathetic with their culture. 

Racism has been mixed up with the totally different act of being prejudiced in a negative way. Although racism is pre judging people, it doesn't have to be in a bad way or xenophobic. Positive racism is also a thing which can be counter productive. People being given an unfair advantage is resented either way. Education, equality and respect are the way forward and progress is being made around the world but Thailand has a long way to go.

Then there is the question that no western politician would ever be able to ask - would  Thais (or insert country of your choice) be happier if there where a minimal amount of foreigners in the country or should the borders be relaxed? 

How someone answers that question is more of an indicator of racism - I, like most people, am racist. 

2 hours ago, pedro01 said:

We should not whince when someone claims they are not racist, as if everyone is racist or that racist is the default state of mind.

 

Thats leftist, divisive claptrap.

Don't whince just call them a lier as we are all racist - nothing to do with politics. 

On 12/16/2021 at 7:30 AM, tubby johnson said:

Aha! So how did pale skinned people end up with more money and more education?

Does it have anything to do with superior work ethic, respect, studying harder, saving money, prudent investing, healthier habits, a love of science and art?

You missed out education and opportunity, these are what allow the rest to flourish.  I was thinking more about the individuals involved rather than their countries history and how it shaped their culture. We were all cavemen and only relatively recently has education changed how we live. 

I can't explain why countries develop in different ways as it is a huge subject but we can all see the different opportunities available to people in our own country yet alone other countries. 

On 12/16/2021 at 7:38 AM, BritManToo said:

I don't give out information, I only post my opinions.

Opinions that can't be backed up are worthless. Unfortunately, many people believe worthless Opinions especially when repeated enough times.  This is why so much rubbish is put out about covid on YouTube. If more people scrutinised what they were being told and dug Into the facts and sources they would have a much more accurate view of things.

Trump was a master at telling people what they wanted to hear without any facts to back up his claims. By the time the facts get out the debate has moved on. Biden on the other hand fails at it miserably - saying things like GM is leading the change to EVs when everyone knows it is Tesla means no-one will ever take him seriously as the facts are so obvious.

58 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I don't use a seatbelt or crash helmet, unless going somewhere known for 'police checks'.

I don't agree with your 'No vaccine' blah blah.

 

I had polio, tetanus, whooping cough and yellow fever vaccines and never caught any of those.

I'm not allowed to post what diseases I think I have had, as I was never tested for them, and my posts get edited to remove 'unsupported claims'.

 

Assuming you are in Thailand, why would you not take some basic safety precautions in one of the most dangerous countries to drive in? Don't you like living and not having to feed through a straw? The police are the least of my worries there. Compared to here in the UK, Thai roads are horrendous. I have seen what they do to people. During almost every trip, I hear of someone I know who has been hospitalized and one who was killed. I had 2 years off work when my bus driver fell asleep at the wheel and turned the bus over onto its roof crushing my leg. A few feet further over and I would have drowned in the water we stopped in. 

How can you say you never caught any of those diseases? I can just as easily say the same, as I have never (knowingly) had covid. Vaccines prime your immune system to quickly react when you get infected. This means you may never know if you caught them or not as vaccines don't do anything until you actually do catch the disease. 

Helmets, seat belts and Vaccines are all preventative measures they don't stop things happening or rebuild you if things do happen. They all prevent or reduce the harm to yours and/or other people's bodies. 

In what way do you disagree with my "no vaccine blah blah"? And why? If you can give me some good information I'm perfectly willing to consider it but I warn you many have tried giving me stupid information before and then don't like hearing the truth. Normally they quote something that is based on facts which are then extrapolated into complete nonsense. 

21 hours ago, tubby johnson said:

It's not the pale skins but the Africans breaking all the laws, doing constant scams and thuggish behaviour. So you won't find any articles highlighting the "paleface crime scourge in Thailand".

Sorry to burst your bubble but palefaced people can be every bit as bad. Maybe a smaller percentage of them though which probably varies depending on which country they are from.

Also you need to take into account what resources people came with such as money and their education. 

I doubt crime is a career choice. More likely the only way to survive here. 

Skin colour is not a good way to judge someone's character but when combined with local knowledge can help.

How many of us would be more wary if approached by an African in that area than a paleface? Totally racist I know but it is reality given the reputation of that area.

On 12/15/2021 at 2:50 AM, BritManToo said:

COVID vaccine doesn't work, why stress out about not having a vaccine that doesn't work?

(By 'doesn't work' I mean doesn't stop you catching or transmitting the disease)

That's like claiming car seat belts don't work when worn by rear seat passengers so why bother using them as they don't stop people dying in car crashes.

No vaccine, ever made, stops you getting or transmitting the disease so no vaccine has ever worked. 

Now do you understand how ignorant your claim is. All widely used vaccines do work as intended although some are better than others at reducing the effects and transmission of various strains of covid. 

If people don't want to get vaccinated I am not too worried as long as they are taking other precautions to reduce the chances of catching and spreading covid. What I hate is when BS claims are used to justify their views. Why don't they just tell the truth? If someone is scared of some,  as yet unknown, side effects then just say that - we all are. The difference is most people have the courage to put others first and realise there is a chance of dying from covid. 

And as for seat belts - I always encourage all passengers to wear a belt as they do work - AS INTENDED. 

41 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I have never heard a black person refer to another ad a colored person. Anyone using this term is just ignorant.

Not sure that is a good base to judge ignorance. I have heard them call each other N****r many times on different forms of media but it is definitely off limits for anyone else to use.

I would expect the reverse could also be true. 

If white is OK for us, why is black so offensive to them? 

I am guessing any label that can easily integrated into a derogatory chant is out. Hence the move to labels with multiple words like "people of colour". 

I would like to get some input from a person of colour who understands the issues that I need to know about.

9 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Nonsense. We have no information, scientific data and studies to point toward your rather extreme and panic mongering conclusion. 

Take another look at the chart. The bottom scale is in days not months. Why is cases doubling every 2 or 3 days not worrying to you? 

I doubt it will keep up that rate and will almost certainly be a lot slower in warm countries but it will spread. We are all being told to get a third dose before the end of the month if it is more than 3 months since our second dose. That's around a million a day. The queues at vaccination centres are huge. Luckily I got mine last week  (as well as the flu jab) and am still suffering. The gift from China that keeps on giving. 

1 hour ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

Why mention color at all? Where I live we have hundreds of different nationalities we have yellow black white no news ever mentioned the color they just say names

Same here in the UK. In a situation like this I guess it is used as they all had the same skin colour but were from several different countries so easier to describe them. I expect if they were all European then they would have been called farang instead. 

Maybe the important question is "should their race or nationality" be mentioned at all? The PC crowd will say no, we are all the same and in their next breath say we should celebrate diversity.  I think knowing the race of people is important as it can be used to build a picture of the culture they come from and bring with them. Ask yourself "would you prefer neighbours from Canada or Nigeria? Then try telling me you're not racist. 

I was brought up in almost entirely white British areas so knew and understand the people and culture around me. Only in the last 15 or so years have foreigners been noticeable where I live. For many years i have been subjected to the PC crowd telling me how wonderful foreigners are and I should accept them into my community and all will be wonderful. Those people were brought up in places like London surrounded by immigrants so don't have a clue what it is like to live in an almost immigrant free environment. I loved it, the sense of belonging and at ease with those around me has now long gone. My son goes to a school where around 30% are immigrants. Notices are in several languages and every skin colour is represented. Every factory I go to is the same. Do I like it? Not at all. The constant bombardment of pro immigrant propaganda makes me feel like I am living in a foreign country where I have to do what they want instead of what we want. I voted to leave Europe hoping all the Europeans would go back when their work was done but no, they were all given the right to stay for life. We are being invaded by people from every failed middle East and African state who can't get the same easy life and respect in France. This tide can never be turned back and my son will never know what it is like to be truly British so will never understand what he is missing. I hope he will embrace multiculturalism in a way I never can in my home country. 

It is not that I don't get on with foreigners as I do and love travelling and interacting with other cultures but it was always nice to go to my homeland.

So to all those who criticise Thais for being xenophobic - put yourself in their place. 

Some immigration involving quality immigrants is good, I have always enjoyed Chinese and Indian food but mass immigration is not good.

If we do eventually end up living in Thailand I will live by their rules and certainly would never have a problem with being called a farang. If a group of farangs are misbehaving I won't worry about their label but will cringe that I will be associated with them. And if enough of my race upsets Thais so much that we are asked to leave, off we go. It's their country and I am nothing more than a visitor, free to leave at any time (although I have shown some commitment by marrying a Thai and our son is Thai). I just wish they would take road safety seriously though.

46 minutes ago, Thunglom said:

I think you'll find I stated that drug use is a health problem a few days back,

There are various approaches, but DECRIMINALISATION is the main stream. 

It is fairly clear from the posts on this thread that most people's attuned to drug bust is back in the neanderthal age - and I'll bet anything they are all abusers of alcohol, one of the worst drugs you can take,

the reality is that most people argue from a position of assumption and ignorance.

The "war against drugs" was initiated in the days of Ronald Reagan, and by any standards it's a total failure.

the USA has been coincidentally involved in the kind of drugs too.

Vietnam saw the import of heroin and cannabis. Afghanistan saw opium/heroin and the wars in South and Central America saw the importation of cocaine rise. The Poindexter and North affair clearly demonstrated the US military's involvement in transporting the stuff they were claiming to fight against.

the hypocrisy needs to stop and all drugs (including those currently "legal") need to be seen as a public health issue - it puts dealers out of business, re=stabilises countries and reasserts democracy

Totally agree with everything you are saying. 

Another big problem, often overlooked, is the harm to children caused by locking up their fathers. This deprives them of a father figure and often pushes the family into poverty. 

Unfortunately politicians need to see results well before the next election and relaxing drug laws will make things worse not better. It may take 10 years before the general public sees that it is working - long after the person who brought it in has gone and their party stained with bad publicity from when drug issues had peaked.

Portugal has shown it can be done so a reasonable and proven case can be made - would the public go for it?

38 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Using the term colored people in 2021 is ignorant, dumb, tone deaf, and reeks of a feeling of a totally undeserved sense of superiority. It is very ugly. And I am NOT PC. 

Is "people of colour" any better? What words would you accept?

33 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Omicron so far appears to not only be like a pimple on the cheek of a teenager, but it may be signaling the near end of Covid. All this panic and paranoia, has so far proven to be highly unjustified, and simply more uneducated hysteria. 

 

In addition, it is encouraging the further destruction of the tourism industry. 

 

Woe is Thailand. 

At the moment, Omicron cases are doubling every 2 to 3 days, in the UK. It may seem insignificant now but it will soon be very serious especially for many anti vaxers. Over 30% here have not had any vaccines at all yet, hence the big push for vaccines going on right now.

If it keeps going at this rate (unlikely) everyone in the UK will have had it by the end of January. On Sunday there were around 1250 new cases of Omicron in the UK. 

12 - 1250 - around the 12th Dec.

15 - 2500

18 - 5000

21 - 10000

24 - 20000

27 - 50000

30 - 100000

2 - 200000

5 - 400000

8 - 800000

11 - 1.6M

14 - 3.2M

17 - 6.4M

20 - 12.8M

23 - 25.6M

27 - 51.2M

30 Jan - everyone in the UK

See chart from https://www.google.com/amp/s/inews.co.uk/news/health/omicron-cases-uk-map-how-many-where-covid-variant-surge-london-east-midlands-latest-1349649/amp

33 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Personally, I think, if use any label, unnecessarily, is offensive.  Only if asked by police what color the perp was, so they don't shoot wrong person, would skin color be necessary.

Why on earth would you be offended by having a label like black, white, Asian, European etc. If a group of dark skinned people called me a honky to my face I would not be bothered at all - not that I have heard Honky used for a long time, just an example. If that is how they normally refer to white people amongst themselves then why not use it when talking to me? People are far too easily offended by unimportant words. Context and attitude are what's important not the label.

"Hey Honky, how's it going " is fine.

"What are you doing in here Honky?" Is not good and it wouldn't make any difference if the label Honky was included or not.

1 hour ago, Thunglom said:

I think you'll find its common knowledge - only you don't know.

Thanks, just done some research and Portugal seems to have a good approach -

.https://transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-decriminalisation-in-portugal-setting-the-record-straight

As suggested in one of my previous posts they are not prosecuting users as much and instead treating drugs as a health problem. Although this is a much better way forward it still has not ended their war on drugs but keeping people out of prison who are only there for popping a few pills or injecting stuff in their own arms has to be good. However there still needs to be a "stick" available to dissuade the dealers which I presume is why Portugal still has many people in prison for drug related offences. 

Drugs are still illegal there just people are not being convicted for them the same as before. 

It would be interesting to find out how this approach works with different cultures and the differing availability of education resources. Scotland needs to try something different as their drug death rate is one of, if not the worst in Europe. Unfortunately I can't see Thailand trying anything like that under the present regime.

On 11/20/2021 at 3:16 PM, Thunglom said:

The irony of this post is it is by a chap who names himself after a legalised drug.

Where is the irony?

From my post -

"If your drug of choice doesn't cause you to affect other people in any way and you have it under control then I see little point in taking any action against you but as soon as you start a car engine or forget to feed your kid then you deserve all you get"

This clearly shows I don't have a problem with drugs, such as alcohol, when used responsibly. 

On 11/20/2021 at 2:25 PM, Rudey said:

I agree with most of what you’ve written. 
But the biggest problem here is, the cops and army are the main “dealers”. 
This guy’s death is not a deterrent to selling drugs, it’s only a warning the small dealers must share with the “big dealers” (police and army). 
Yes sad, but true. 
What is also sad in this country is, many people have no other way to “get ahead”, other than selling drugs.  
Zero help from the government for the unemployed, due to Covid doesn’t doesn’t help!!!

Totally agree. Crime around drugs is if anything the bigger problem. 

On 11/20/2021 at 2:04 PM, dinsdale said:

All drugs should be legal. Kids as you mention should be educated in a postive mode not just drugs are bad. Drugs aren't bad if used properly and are clean. Been used for centuries. Portugal has a good attitude towards this. Educate, set up community help for the addicted, set up employment programs and a lot more (worth having a look) and crime goes down as does other negative things associated with 'illicit' drug taking. Corruption disappears. This is why it doesn't happen. 

I didn't know all drugs are completely legal in Portugal. They kept that secret well. As for the education and other help, I agree, these interventions are extremely important in the war against drugs.

On 11/20/2021 at 10:17 AM, Thunglom said:

an oxymoron if ever I saw one. The police are using the faux concept of "drugs war" to mitigate or justify their actions. = Probaly the most dangerous spin-off from drugs.

Unfortunately you really don't seem to have a grasp on "drugs" yourself - you appear to contradict yourself over and again.

the war on drugs has failed and it it attitudes like yours that keep th myth and the deaths going.

The war never can be won as there will always be someone craving some sort of drug. Easy to say the war has failed but what is your foolproof solution that will save lives?