Latest developments and discussion of recent events in the Ukraine War

[spidermike007]

Those are likely just additional jobs attributed to the massive dereliction of duty on the part of this administration, for allowing this second, and so called third wave to happen. In reality millions upon millions of Thais are currently out of work. I have been traveling alot, and the number of closed shops, restaurants, hotels, guest houses and other domestic and international tourism related businesses that have closed (most closures are likely permanent) is breathtaking, scary, and very, very sad.

 

It could have been avoided, had some incompetents done the job they were hired (elected seems like an improper term to use) to do, and been less concerned with the optics of small, localized lockdowns. 

[ncc1701d]

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere on TV yet. But once a country has organised enough vaccines for it's entire population - this is the only way forward. If people don't want to take the vaccine - then they can't say they didn't have the opportunity. 

 

Singapore - no tracking, no tracing, no quarantine open borders. Coming soon hopefully.

 

https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/singapores-surprising-new-plan-to-live-with-covid-revealed/news-story/52fa2c29252daeb4a3c634e1658f6901

[PeeraponW]

Tourists.....hundreds of thousands....then tens of thousands..then thousands... then a few hundred... and now....    

"The industry is hoping the opening to vaccinated visitors to the resort island of Phuket from Thursday, a pilot project, will bring in some foreign tourists this year.

 

Nearly getting it right......

[joecoolfrog]

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

Who are you blaming?

 

It's the same the world over. My brother in Aberdeen has many businesses, including two pubs, which have been shut for about a year. 

 

 

 

Its not the same the world over !

I cant comment on your brother but most individuals and businesses in the UK have had extensive financial assistance.

In Thailand the vast majority of those made unemployed have been left to rot as have small business owners .

In what universe is that the same ?

[Magenta408]

There are too many hurdles to overcome getting into Phuketraz as described in Richard Barrow's cartoon today which pretty much struck home. That is about it - an island with concertina wire. Not for me.  I may change my mind come December and who knows, perhaps the "Czar" will see the light.

[Magenta408]

My list of countries for no masks, no quarantine, free-flow, etc. is not a long list but I'm glad to say that it is growing daily. Let's hope by the end of the year, the WHO mantra and the bags of money they dish out stops flowing to decision makers which should set them straight.

[Rimmer]

An off topic post has been removed

[Thomas J]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

 Thailand lost 550,000 tourism jobs in the second quarter, a private industry group said on Tuesday, as the tourism-reliant economy struggles with a third wave of coronavirus infections.

Do they really believe that these and other tourism jobs will somehow just reappear once they lift the restrictions on tourists.  

It takes decades for an industry to build itself up.  As tourists come businesses see the opportunity for profit and respond to it with restaurant, attractions, and hotels.  However once bitten equals twice cautious.  Tourism related businesses will be loath to invest more money for fear of yet another government crackdown.  Additionally, what comes first, the chicken or the egg.  If you are a tourism business operator to you open in the hopes that tourists come or if you are a tourist do you come without assurances that tourist attractions and activities are open and available. 

It is very easy to kill and industry but substantially more difficult to make it thrive.  The longer the government keeps this start and stop the more uncertainty it creates and the last thing a business owner wants is uncertainty.  The same is true for the tourist.  I am one of them.  I want to take a trip outside of Thailand but have made no plans out of fear that the obstacles to get back will be too great.  The same will be true for some time perhaps a long time before tourists coming to Thailand feel confident that they will be able to enter and then not suddenly be thrown into a mandatory quarantine.  Certainly the pictures of foreigners being arrested in restaurants and on the beach while drinking a beer are hardly beneficial to restoring any confidence that the Land of Smiles is welcoming tourists. 

[thasoss]

this figure is only for Q2 2021............................last year 2020 total figures for all out of work people due to covid is upwards of 2 million.

[VBF]

7 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Couldn't happen to a more inept, confused and conflicted, deserving place. 

Unfortunately, this story is about the small, insignificant people  whose jobs are affected, not the rich idiots running the place. The latter certainly deserve your description but not, I feel, the individuals affected nor their families.  Just "IMO" of course.

[Pracha Duang]

9 hours ago, sezze said:

 

This are the numbers for Q2 2021 . Most jobs have been lost already , as they say +2 million so far . It is a lot of people and only for Q2 2021 . I am not there , and i havent been since December 2019 ( unfortunate , Covid lockdowns started 1 week before i was flying there in 2020 ) . But i have been following the situation pretty close as much as i can . 550k for a industry that has been ravaged for over 1y already,  is a lot . Idk how many people still officially work there , and how the "sandbox" will effect the numbers , but tbh the way the Thai infection numbers aren't under control , i do not see it changing just yet . If Thailand had the numbers like 6 months ago , together with the "sandbox " and the vaccination going along , i think would be much more successful , but atm , i am even afraid i can/am willing to come in October .  I think i am not alone in that case , and the 1st numbers of the "sandbox" are showing the same thing .

It’s not just tourism jobs that have been wiped out. Foreign businesses, doctors and highly educated Thais have been completely obliterated. 90% of the anti-aging and cancer clinics have been decimated. Even the almighty Thanyapura Sports club is on its last legs. They’ve slashed foreign nurse salaries from 350,000 baht / month to 30,000 baht / month, I kid you not. Even my neighbor, a prominent American doctor in Phuket has lost millions USD on his clinic that he opened in Jan 2020 and is on the verge of going bankrupt. Same deal with neighbors from Singapore that opened a stem cell clinic in 2019.

 

It’s only the digital nomads, computer programmers and day traders that are thriving right now more so than ever before. The irony is that Thailand is literally on life support from the very people that the expat community wanted to kick out of Thailand pre-covid. Now they depend on us all for basic survival. The irony. Karma.

[DBath]

10 hours ago, inThailand said:

Are they putting lipstick on a pig? 

That is a big fat YES!!

[DBath]

3 hours ago, mrbojangles said:

 

Not sure what you mean by falang prices. Places like Homepro, Tesco, Big C just have a single price.

 

Over the last few weeks I have been in the market for some quite biggish ticket price items, Power Washer, Drill, Angle Grinder, Welding Machine etc. Everywhere I tried was circa double Lazada price. As you can imagine, I got everything I needed from Lazada

You make very good point. I shall keep my pie hole shut until I see the price of Chang 3-packs stated as: 

156/312 baht (local/falang price).

[sandyf]

6 hours ago, SomchaiCNX said:

Wonder where that "oasis" is. My regular Tesco Lotus, food court empty, stalls half of them gone, two banks moved out third is about to follow.  Only the big names are still there, all the small family orientated business suffer very hard. When I go in to CNX town, it looks deserted with many places closed or for rent. 

Yes agreed, when I went up to CM in Dec it was a ghost town compared to my previous visit, but unlike where I live it is a tourist dependent area.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that geography and logistics tend to dictate where the more prosperous industrial areas are located.

The downside is they are the areas that have had the biggest outbreaks, if there wasn't any development sites or industrial estates they wouldn't have to try and contain them.

[NeoDinosaw]

12 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

Once again, not sure how the government could not anticipate this outcome when many of us idiots here on the TV did.

 

Better countries started working a year ago to relocate tourism workers they knew would be displaced for several years.

 

One begins to feel sorry for the Thais at some point

I always feel sorry for the majority of Thai people, but not their masters

[BestB]

5 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

 

Exactly so why even bother mentioning it in the first place.

Because there are thousands if not millions of unofficial jobs and workers 

[Neeranam]

 

 

11 minutes ago, BestB said:

Because there are thousands if not millions of unofficial jobs and workers 

If they were cheating the government by not paying tax or social security payments, they don't deserve to be helped by the government. 

 

 

[BestB]

44 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

 

 

If they were cheating the government by not paying tax or social security payments, they don't deserve to be helped by the government. 

 

 

I have been paying taxes for 16 years and did not get any help from the government . Do not I I also deserve it ?

[Ralf001]

58 minutes ago, BestB said:

Because there are thousands if not millions of unofficial jobs and workers 

 

Really, got any official stats to back up that claim ?

[Neeranam]

12 minutes ago, BestB said:

I have been paying taxes for 16 years and did not get any help from the government . Do not I I also deserve it ?

Did you pay into the Social Security fund? If so, you can get unemployment benefit. 

[Bluedan]

11 hours ago, Scottie12 said:

There is a governor in Phuket named MaAnn who, after closing all the beach bars in Surin a few years ago has now turned his attention to closing the same on Layan beach the week before the sandbox comes into effect.

His reason for closing the Surin beach bars was that a previous Thai monarch had set foot on the beach around 100 years ago. These people have no idea what tourists are looking for and probably don’t care as long as they are all right. They don’t care about the poor people who were just scraping a living on the beaches. Very sad.

as terrible as he is neither of the above was actually his decision and he may well have turned a blind eye

all of the above mentioned businesses were allowed to operate illegally for years one can assume to the benefit of a few 

[billd766]

5 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Accurate or not they are official... unlike some random number someone has pulled from their a r s e .

How do you know that they are accurate or truthful? I treat most official announcements as what they are told to say.

 

Sadly in Thailand there are few if any real sources of information other than the alternative social media. The government wants them shut down for giving fake news, but we only have the governments word that it is fake.

 

I for one, take most Thai government announcements with a shovel full of salt rather than a pinch of salt.

[lolalol]

Everybody calm down!!!

I read somewhere that the country will reopen for tourism in October.

So the economy will bounce back to pre-Covid level very soon.

Too many people seem to be negative and pessimistic. Have some faith!!!

Now I'm gonna go to the toilet and take a big sh*t. Thank you very much. 

[billd766]

1 hour ago, NeoDinosaw said:

I always feel sorry for the majority of Thai people, but not their masters

Me too.

[retsdon]

7:30pm.Just came back from a drive around what is the tourist area of our local town. If I'd driven the same route 25 years ago at 5am in the morning it would have been hopping in comparison. Nothing but shuttered shopfronts and the occasional empty restaurant. It was like something from a Dystopian movie. 

Take the headline number and add a zero - at least.

 

[Ralf001]

49 minutes ago, billd766 said:

How do you know that they are accurate or truthful? I treat most official announcements as what they are told to say.

 

Sadly in Thailand there are few if any real sources of information other than the alternative social media. The government wants them shut down for giving fake news, but we only have the governments word that it is fake.

 

I for one, take most Thai government announcements with a shovel full of salt rather than a pinch of salt.

Note the part where I said "accurate or not"..... do you really need me to elaborate or your lack of reading ability ?

[bangon04]

14 hours ago, lavender19 said:

They are.

Maths is not a strong subject here.

50% business open 

36% closed temp 

4% closed down 

Where the other 10% are no one knows

 

 

the extra 10 % are the prostitution and gambling which never existed anyway.....

[bangon04]

Can somebody please explain whether statistics from the Tourist Council of Thailand are more reliable or less reliable than those from the Tourist Authority of Thailand??

[EricTh]

Poor decision. Let's hope there won't be a fourth wave akin to India due to this ' opening for tourism'.

Edited June 30, 2021 by EricTh

[BestB]

4 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Really, got any official stats to back up that claim ?

Yes