Thai Health Ministry Urges Drinkers To Avoid Floodwaters

[Rajab Al Zarahni]

I'd really like to think that the reason these kind of news stories sound so comical is because they don't translate well between Thai and English, that somehow the meaning of the message is distorted.

Sadly, after many years I now know that not to be true.

agreed, it was a poor translation. I think it was meant to be " Thai breweries urged to stop using waste water"

[Colabamumbai]

Hi I am drowning, Can I borrow your phone to call 1669? gulp gulp

[ChanJoonYee]

He'd be better employed asking them to not drive if they've been drinking

Can't do that when your car is submerged.

[samjaidee]

What chronic diseases did they contract from their homes?

Well spotted. All for the sake of two commas.

[Robby nz]

He is right of course.

No one should drink the floodwater

Edited September 25, 2012 by Robby nz

[samjaidee]

Another statement of the bleeding <Snip!> obvious...

I though so until I read another thread and saw the rest of the paragraph.

"The Public Health Ministry warned people against drinking alcohol while half-soaked. Inebriation is blamed for 30 per cent of drowning fatalities during floods, Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon said."

With a percentage that high it may be not so obvious to a lot of Thais. Remember, he said in Thai, to Thais not in English to Westerners.

You could put it down to cultural differences, to be polite, but what may be obvious to us is often not obvious to Thais.

[maidu]

Why? We'ver got overpopulation. What better segment of society to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? It they drink fermented sugars, go out and drown in six inches of water, then can we at least bury them by a tree to provide fertilizer?

[travelmann]

You have to laugh, dont worry about the lifelong problems of drinking to much

Perhaps a better plan would be to tip 20 million litres of whisky into the flood waters and tell them to drink all they can?? That should get the flood waters down!! just like the boats scheme .

[travelmann]

"According to Dr. Surawit, alcohol consumption results in the expansion of blood vessels, causing the body to lose heat and the body temperature to drop. The occurrence, he explained, will lead to leg cramps, or worse, a body shutdown".

"Therefore, the Deputy Minister encouraged all consumers of alcoholic beverages in flood-affected areas to refrain from drinking near waterways as they would not be able to help themselves and could drown if they fell into the water".

What a clown!!!

I think that being submerged and trying to breath water might just be a tad more responsible for drownings than peoples blood vessels contracting and leg cramps.

He must have known that this would invite ridicule........or there again, it seems not!!!.

Unlike this minister who has has a brain shutdown

[jimbeam1]

Dr. Surawit should get a job on Seseme street, Barney or Rainbow for this very enlightening piece of advice!! What an complete example of why Thailand is so backwards!!!

Yes indeed and I wonder how he got this valuable advice across. Did he go down to the waters edge?

jb1

[catweazle]

By far one of the most useless news topic ever...

[catweazle]

You have to laugh, dont worry about the lifelong problems of drinking to much

Perhaps a better plan would be to tip 20 million litres of whisky into the flood waters and tell them to drink all they can?? That should get the flood waters down!! just like the boats scheme .

How about lining all drunks up in the water and letting them burp upstream - given the high percentage of alcohol abusers in LOS (including foreign expats) that certainly would help to prevent Bangkok from becoming flooded...

[nahkit]

Personally I deplore the overindulgence in alcohol by either children or soldiers !

Personally, I deplore the overindulgence of alcohol by anyone.

I'll drink to that

[vijer]

Perhaps the Health Ministry should warn drinkers about drinking and then stumbling along a busy road or drinking and then riding their motorcycle against traffic or drinking and then fighting with ....

Personally I see it as culling the gene pool of inferior genetic material. No justifiable reason to warn them, let nature take its course.

[bkkjames]

Good thing TH is a tropical country otherwise we might get warnings like "Do Not Eat Yellow Snow"....

[Payboy]

On a side note, I would urge everyone not to drink floodwater.

[khunken]

I would urge drinkers to use the toilet.

[erectem]

I love Thailand - In the last two days alone we've had 'water proof plastic' pussy whitening cream and now the dangers of mixing alcohol and floods

In my youth I use to dabble in LSD. But nothing i every experienced on those trips comes close to the surreal sense of being separated from reality that comes with living in Thailand. Love it, you couldn't make it up.

I was in Wapadi (Rangsit) the other day to pay a traffic fine. I went up to the "one stop service" counter to deal with it. A fully uniformed armed police man was sitting in a chair nearby, outside the service window. As I was conducting my business he kept shouting "you, You" . He was clearly drunk (oxymoron aside) and I took a seat to wait for my DL return. He had more remarks, some I answered. The other officers passed him by, but jeez, in a large station right near the police training center etc. Lived here 15 years and still better than the cleanest cid!

[jaideeguy]

Duuuuh!!??

"People are encouraged to call the emergency line 1669 to get help when it is needed.".......

is that the 'Alcohol abuse help line" ??

More wise words from the officials that run the kingdom.

[DocN]

Nanny state advice? Also please take your umbrella when it rains...

Here is more!

First the trousers, than the shoes!

Wipe after sh...

And tied shoelaces lower the danger of tripping!

[3SoiDogNight]

So all of us drinkers should stay on high ground and all of the judgmental, non-drinking prudes should stay in the flood waters.

That's a proposition I can live with.

[Narratio]

So can we add the "Hub of Nonsensical Headlines" to the list?

Huh?

Can we?

[Frank La Rue]

I strongly urge compassionate BMs with accomodation in View Talay from 2nd floor and up to come forward and offer flood relief. Promt action now means that many, many Brothers can drink the flood away without ever noticing that there was a flood. a Flood line may be set up to FLB, QT or even Insomnia with boat service to keep up business as usual. Maybe 3-some up to 10-some becomes a social together with a compassionate conotation where a whole new level of bonding can be felt.

There may even come a new type of fatherhood out of it, instead of being a grand - father you are a "flood farther", i.e a girls got preganant during the flood, no one know for sure who is the father so you all take joint responsability reducing the cost of sponsorship to a fraction of what it is today. There are all sorts of socilological, practical ramifications.

[rollrunna]

The doctor should instead recommend abstinence from alcohol as it is one of the most harmful recreational drugs. Here are results of two separate studies to back this up:

Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis:

Quantifying the RR of harm to self and others from substance misuse: results from a survey of clinical experts across Scotland:

....... this is very misleading...without getting too pedantic.... charts like this are used when it 'shows' your case....for instance alcohol ( as obvious ) scores top in first chart,........ but as 'not classified '' does not in the second....... whereas.. Alcohol TOP Nicotine Second.... the REST Third and Nowhere, is a much truer interpretation...... Also how does anyone measure self harm, and in a comparison with other similar drugs......what criteria is used to establish Lsd and Ecstacy as self harming ( other than an idiot falling out of a window ) and amphetimine is very widely used but is not classified. But is present in many drugs that are classified....... However... 'Floodwater' does not get a mention on any chart i have seen...is this a Thai secret from the world..... apols for jesting when other people are in trouble ......

[Thai at Heart]

Another statement of the bleeding <Snip!> obvious...

I though so until I read another thread and saw the rest of the paragraph.

"The Public Health Ministry warned people against drinking alcohol while half-soaked. Inebriation is blamed for 30 per cent of drowning fatalities during floods, Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon said."

With a percentage that high it may be not so obvious to a lot of Thais. Remember, he said in Thai, to Thais not in English to Westerners.

You could put it down to cultural differences, to be polite, but what may be obvious to us is often not obvious to Thais.

Turning on the light in the hong nam while standing in waist deep water and the e switch under water can be fatal.

[rollrunna]

Also....( you had hoped i had finished )........ Tea and Coffee drunk in large quantities also deemed self harmful..as is Hemlock and Deadly nightshade ( there is no lively nightshade)...and sharp knives.....razor blades as eaten by stupid wannabe's ( include swords ).....the list of not to do s is endless, as we educate our children. Do we need to be told to be careful...if so you have lost! ( or deaf and blind )

[rollrunna]

I wish drinkers would stay away from voting booths.

.... they do .... No Alcohol sold on voting days....... obviously the thais dont know what ;stock' up means but as they only want to drink 'red bull'.....

...

[rollrunna]

I think I like most of the replies and it shows that a lot of the falangs living hear, can see the funny side in this story, even if is probably a bad situation, if your house is now surrounded by water. As far as I know, everybody should avoid flood water and not only drunken people. It is about time that the Thai Government does something about the flood situation. There are many experts in Europe, especially in The Netherlands, a country that has many areas below sealevel and you don't hear about flooding over there, and I am not from The Netherland or looking for a job. So they must do something right and the Thai Government should contact them and ask for their advise, but maybe that means they are loosing face, and that would be terrible, to ask somebody, when you don't have an answer to a problem. We all know Thailand and the Thais and still, we all love it here, why would we stay here otherwise.

obviosly they cant.... Holland would be Sea if some boy wasnt imaginative with his finger.....Thailand are Big rice growers = needs water.. Thailand FLOODS....always has always will and a Canute government is Not going to change things .

[rollrunna]

I strongly urge compassionate BMs with accomodation in View Talay from 2nd floor and up to come forward and offer flood relief. Promt action now means that many, many Brothers can drink the flood away without ever noticing that there was a flood. a Flood line may be set up to FLB, QT or even Insomnia with boat service to keep up business as usual. Maybe 3-some up to 10-some becomes a social together with a compassionate conotation where a whole new level of bonding can be felt.

There may even come a new type of fatherhood out of it, instead of being a grand - father you are a "flood farther", i.e a girls got preganant during the flood, no one know for sure who is the father so you all take joint responsability reducing the cost of sponsorship to a fraction of what it is today. There are all sorts of socilological, practical ramifications.

stop drinking the floodwater...now...

[rollrunna]

Duuuuh!!??

"People are encouraged to call the emergency line 1669 to get help when it is needed.".......

is that the 'Alcohol abuse help line" ??

More wise words from the officials that run the kingdom.

so difficult to use a soaked mob phone....