Desperate times: Aged mother and son's plight pulls at Thai heartstrings as they wait for state handouts

[webfact]

Desperate times: Aged mother and son's plight pulls at Thai heartstrings as they wait for state handouts

 

Picture: Sanook

 

Pictures of an extremely old couple waiting to register for the 7,000 baht government handouts at a bank in the north of Thailand tugged at Thai heartstrings. 

 

Initially reported as a grandfather and grandmother the poster - P'fon Kamonthip - later said it was a mum and her son. 

 

They had left their home in Kamphaeng Phet without a baht to their name at midnight. 

 

They reached the Krung Thai bank branch in Tha Makheua to start queuing in the middle of the night. 

 

They had to make a 35 km journey.

 

Named as Jamnian and Noi they thanked well-wishers for their support and others for their help. 

 

The story was widely shared, reported Sanook.

 

Registration at the bank was for those without smart phones and has seen Krung Thai inundated with desperate people since Monday when queuing chaos prompted a reaction from PM Prayut Chan-ocha.

 

"Rao Chana" (We'll Win) handouts are in the form of money wallet vouchers for spending, not cash, and the 7,000 baht is being paid out over several weeks. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-02-18

 

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[AlfHuy]

Despicable.

 

Instead of buying those submarines to cruise the Mekong river, invest in your own people. Help them.

Nobody should go through this.

Shame on you.

[colinneil]

I hope somebody brings this to Prayuts attention, whilst he is busy defending the waste of billions on useless bloody submarines, people in the country are destitute, barely existing.

What a damn disgrace him and his bunch of money grabbing plonkers are.

[JustAnotherFarang]

This is Thailand... Solipsism is rife in this culture.  For a moment, the online do gooders and well wishers will suddenly notice and then pour out their hearts with sympathy and donations but you can bet a pound to a penny that there are hundreds if not thousands of people in the same predicament within their own communities. 

 

Wouldnt it be better to actually return back to the community that these elderly people came from and enquire as to how they ended up in these unfortunate circumstances and to see what more can the village and the community do to help their own ?

 

JAF

[petermik]

8 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

What a damn disgrace him and his bunch of money grabbing plonkers are.

parasites is a more accurate description col...

[ukrules]

I heard many thousands of people have now transferred over 5 million Baht in total to help them out.

 

This is a big story in Thailand on the Thai news.

[zyphodb]

46 minutes ago, ukrules said:

I heard many thousands of people have now transferred over 5 million Baht in total to help them out.

 

This is a big story in Thailand on the Thai news.

Better than nothing, but it's just virtue signaling by the middle classes, what about the probably millions who didn't get the publicity?

[Burma Bill]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Registration at the bank was for those without smart phones and has seen Krung Thai inundated with desperate people

 Interesting to read this, so there must be many people (like me) who do not own a stupid smartphone! Fortunately I am not "desperate" as we do not have any track & trace/registration apps here in Cambodia regarding corona virus issues.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Burma Bill
additional information

[katana]

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

I heard many thousands of people have now transferred over 5 million Baht in total to help them out.

 

This is a big story in Thailand on the Thai news.

Thairath said today it's up to 6 million Baht. Enough for them to see out their days.

[kickstart]

5 hours ago, ukrules said:

I heard many thousands of people have now transferred over 5 million Baht in total to help them out.

 

This is a big story in Thailand on the Thai news.

My wife has spent a good few hours trying to get registered  on her smartphone over the past 3 days  ,granddaughter has been helping out, finally got they today ,only so I understand finding the  system has crashed ,going to be another 2 days before any payment is made .

And what I here she is not on her own ,when it does work she has to find a shop that is actually geared up to  take payment  ,in our rural  only one or two places that can be used, of course our local Mini Big C, 7-11 and Lotus Express ,as this lot are run by CP they will be smiling all the way to the bank. 

[asiasurfer]

Just another Thai sob story. Will be forgotten soon. 

[bobandyson]

3 hours ago, katana said:

Thairath said today it's up to 6 million Baht. Enough for them to see out their days.

 

And enough for them to help out all the 'money sniffers' who will suddenly come crawling out of the woodwork.

☹️

[jvs]

49 minutes ago, bobandyson said:

 

And enough for them to help out all the 'money sniffers' who will suddenly come crawling out of the woodwork.

☹️

Yes i heard about family coming to take care of the money already,sorry,elderly mom and her son.

Another sleepless night over here,house down the road had another one of their karaoke screaming loud all night music sessions.

Sanooook!!!Thainess.

[NoshowJones]

22 hours ago, colinneil said:

I hope somebody brings this to Prayuts attention, whilst he is busy defending the waste of billions on useless bloody submarines, people in the country are destitute, barely existing.

What a damn disgrace him and his bunch of money grabbing plonkers are.

There is still the odd poster who thinks that the Unelected "PM" is doing a good job, I would love to keep naming him, he knows who he is, but to name him would be against forum rules.

[scorecard]

22 hours ago, JustAnotherFarang said:

This is Thailand... Solipsism is rife in this culture.  For a moment, the online do gooders and well wishers will suddenly notice and then pour out their hearts with sympathy and donations but you can bet a pound to a penny that there are hundreds if not thousands of people in the same predicament within their own communities. 

 

Wouldnt it be better to actually return back to the community that these elderly people came from and enquire as to how they ended up in these unfortunate circumstances and to see what more can the village and the community do to help their own ?

 

JAF

Totally agree with the last paragraph, how come local officials weren't aware some time ago of the plight of these poor souls and didn't take some action to support them. And the others in a similar situation in the local community?

 

Probably too busy playing golf and showing off their expensive cars.