plachon
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Posts posted by plachon
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Although Mae Sot is not Chiang Mai, I reckon this is the best regional section to post this, as more people in Chiang Mai have connections to Burma & its people than most TV regions, I reckon. I didn't know David Arnott, but the causes he founded and supported are ones that I can connect with. He sounds like a thoroughly good and noble campaigner on human rights and Buddhist causes throughout his life, and helped bring transparency and light to otherwise dark corners and forgotten peoples. RIP David.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/28/david-arnott-obituary
If anyone here did know him, perhaps they could offer a few personal recollections of the man. His life must have intersected with many in Thailand.
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In a country where senior politicians, especially ministers who are almost expected to skim the cream off every large project, the bureaucrats and the police are notoriously corrupt, launching a poorly conceived scheme such as this one at this time, when normal checks and balances of a parliamentary opposition have been almost entirely removed, then is it any wonder that the private sector, in the form of these hoteliers and tour companies, also jump aboard the "rent-seeking" gravy train?
Exactly what the senior police it has been reported to are supposed to do, besides arrest the minister himself for utter incompetence, is anyone's guess? The thing with Thai-style corruption of this nature, as everyone seems to take their cut of the pie, the only "victim" is the long-suffering tax payer, and they've never had a voice so don't matter, making it the "perfect crime". Everything else about this case is just pure, well-rehearsed theatrics and spectacle.
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The Commerce Ministry are living in LaLa land if they think chicken exports are going to increase by 10 % this year. Every KFC and other cheap chicken fast-food outlet is closed at the moment across Europe, with no plan for reopening restaurants for some time to come, so exports are going to decrease greatly. Because of SARS and other previous public health concerns about Thai chicken exports, it can only export frozen and processed products, much of which goes to the fast food industry. With it shut for the forseeable future, Thailand would do better with trying to get its house in order and move to a more sustainable footing for its agriculture industry, rather than helping these agribusiness giants that rape the environment and screw small farmers to make their huge profits. CP has been allowed to become a Frankenstein monster of a company that is eating Thailand alive.
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4 hours ago, Baerboxer said:
That's more or less exactly what some "experts' were saying after 9/11; after 2008.
There was massive business increases in video teleconferencing after 9/11. Lasted all of a few months!
People won't go back to giving up what they like. You underestimate people's ability to quickly forget what they don't like.
One person who clearly doesn't understand what has happened over these past couple of months to the economy and prefers to imagine fantasies of bounce-backs to normal. Oh well.....
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8 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:
Not exactly correct.....airline people have reported often that when flights resume in earnest, most flights will be extremely cheap....the thinking being that it will take quite a while for people to get back into the flight mode, and cheap flights will pave the way for increasing passenger and flight numbers
Delusional thinking. The cheap flight and bucketshop longhaul holiday era is over. Better get used to flying less and paying more. AS this article citing the industry itself makes clear:
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Makes perfect sense. Air travel is going to decrease markedly in future years and flight costs are going to increase greatly. No more cheap, subsidised flying. The industry will contract and the skies will become less crowded, as people holiday closer to home and more meetings are held remotely via online technology. So the MICE market and general tourism in Thailand will shrink. No bounce back to BAU, no matter what fantasists imagine that this is just a temporary blip in the economy.
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On 4/9/2020 at 8:40 PM, yourauntbob said:
How do you not see it? Her parents are antifa (paid for by Soros) thugs who are using their daughter to make pre-scripted comments. Have you seen her speak at a Q&A? Dont get me wrong, at that age i wouldn't be much better but her answers are much different from the prepared speeches she gives.
And for people who think the world is dying due to the plastic, they certainly dont practice what they preach:
So you produce a far-right conspiracy theorist website clip to back up your allegation....that doesn't even bother to verify said vehicle was actually Greta Thunberg's? That could have been anyone's car. C'mon, you're going to have to do better than that to produce some credible evidence than this piece of garbage, the kind of thing that Steve Bannon and his white supremacist mates turn out by the shedload for impressionable people like you on a daily basis. Oh well, it doesn't alter one bit the fact that young people are waking up to new realisations about environmental destruction, climate change and global inequity created by the very people that produce, petty propaganda like this for the likes of yourself.
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There's no such thing as a free lunch (or mask), especially when a predatory company like CP is handing out them. They don't do charity, though they have a massive CSR programme. Everything is aimed at increasing the bottom line and they are masters at this game. Like going in a restaurant and being told the water and bread are "free", so long as you spend 400 baht. I rather suspect that CP will come out of this pandemic with a bigger market share in lots of products than they had going into it, which is massive right now in just about every sector you can think of, from farmed fish to phone cards. To the detriment of the population. ????
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5 minutes ago, yourauntbob said:
Greta Thunberg is a puppet of the neo-liberals and corporatists What?!!? Perhaps you'd like to explain that one, preferably with some evidence, as you've entirely lost me there. Are you on a psycho-active substance or perhaps just come off your medication? I am truly perplexed....????
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1 hour ago, yourauntbob said:I cant believe everyone is just falling in line. Even if you believe the official narrative (and i dont), how is staying in doors from 10pm - 4am help?
More and more kids are growing up not to question anything that comes out of the corporate media or government. Orwell was a bit early using "1984" but im afraid he wasnt wrong.
"More and more kids are growing up not to question anything that comes out of the corporate media or government."
Not in the UK and Europe - more and more "kids" (i.e. teenagers & young adults) are learning to question almost everything that comes out of the corporate media and the state, as evidenced by the large numbers joining Greta Thunberg's Friday School Strikes and Extinction Rebellion groups. They are seeing the neo-liberal corporatocracies for what they are, destroying the planet, fueling bigger gaps between the 1 % and the rest and ruining their future prospects, so turning against them in growing numbers. Many have also read 1984 as required reading at school and understand the dystopian future around the corner, if they sit around and let the populist dictators like Trump and corporate oligarchs rule their lives.
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not everybody is keen on a 24-hour curfew, because even though “the skies are bluer and the pungent smell of carbon monoxide has gone”, says Daisy, she’s hoping “life won’t come to a standstill”.
Oh dear, I hope Daisy does not lecture at university in a science subject. Even if it is "business studies" or something similar, I would have hoped that anyone who graduated from high school would have been taught that CO is colourless and odourless. ????
Didn't read about a lot of "pleasure" being generated by the lockdown.......????
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6 minutes ago, In the jungle said:
Dr Salintorn Thongmeensuk:
“In Britain, foreigners from risky countries may be prohibited from visiting hospitals, as a result Thais in London are unable to request a medical certificate.”
What she says in that statement is untrue. Clearly she knows little about the provision of healthcare in the UK and is content to spread misinformation.
No, she is correct and it is you who are wrong. At this time, many hospitals are only allowing for entry of emergency cases into hospitals and all non-urgent appointments have been cancelled, irrespective of nationality. It is just a matter or prioritising resources and avoiding non-essential contacts that may add to the spread of COVID-19. Thus, someone turning up to request a fit-to-fly medical certificate would be told to go home and stop putting themselves and others in danger. You clearly have little idea of the situation i the UK at the moment. Try to think before you post. ????
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On 3/31/2020 at 2:07 PM, Surasak said:
Optimistic type are we? Why be difficult, when with a little more effort you can be bloody impossible?
No, just a pragmatic realist with a history of making correct calls on economic trends. But feel free to disagree and watching the recession unfold while you regret not having cashed in your equities when you had the chance. No skin of my nose. ????
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7 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:
I must admit I've lost interest in the Covid emergency for the time being. Sure, I'll follow all the rules, and do my best, but it's the damn heat that is killing me at the moment. I can't seem to get enough fluids in me to counter all the sweating. I don't see how the virus could survive more than a few seconds outside in the 40 degree heat.
I can't wait until things are getting back to normal and we can have a good whinge and moan about all the normal vagaries of life here in Thailand.
Well, if you choose to reside in the self-declared "belly-button of Isaan", what do you expect in the peak of the hot season? A Skegness climate? ???? I know myself how hot it can be, having lived there or thereabouts for many years right through the hot season. And I know the only thing for it is to cram any physical activity into the early morning hours, the sweat it out for the rest of the day in the shade of a mango tree with just a pakoma on, sipping cold ones regularly and praying for a thunder storm or freak cooling shower in the late pm.
But I wouldn't ignore the perils of the coronavirus either - it's out there and spreading and doesn't mind a bit of 40 C heat it seems. In fact, it might be quite glad to jump into a slightly cooler human body for refuge, as its overwhelming virus instinct is to survive and multiply. So take sensible precautions and avoid unnecessary contact with others and you might just avoid becoming an unwilling host for Mister COVID-19 to breed and feed. As I can assure you, having the virus and putting up with the heat in a crammed to the gunwhales Isaan hospital would not be a happy combination. ????
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"In the event of a significant stock market crash in the Uk what shares (equity) would you buy?"
Do you mean you don't think 30 % crash in FTSE 100 is "significant"? The crash has already happened and will continue for many months and quite possibly years to come. In fact, it may never recover as a global recession kicks in after COVID-19 pandemic is over. The only way is down, baby! ????
But if you did want to buy something that should be relatively crash-proof, then probably supermarkets and other food producers/retailers might be relatively safe, as it's hard to substitute food in one's daily life. But even these won't be immune, as people get poorer, they can afford to buy less and so overall demand will decrease in long run.....also fewer customers around.
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2 hours ago, ozz1 said:
That money tree must be getting pretty thin giving away all this money
Amazing how many "magical money trees" can be found in the woods, when push comes to a shove. And I always believed nice Mrs May's words that austerity was necessary and not an option, as "There is no Magical Money Tree!". Perhaps someone has learned how to clone them? No talk, of course, about who eventually pays for said proliferation of MMT's and when the bill will be due....????
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3 hours ago, Just1Voice said:
The military would rather see people starving and dying in the streets than give up the toys for the boys.
It's probably only a matter of time before the military may need their hardware to quell unrest in the streets, so they'll probably be checking their arsenal and thinking about supplementing it at present. That will require a few more billion in the budget for sure. ????
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46 minutes ago, Reigntax said:
A global recession will occur and its effects will continue well after the virus is forgotten !!.
It's already well underway. It's effectively the beginning of the end for neo-liberal capitalism and corporate globalisation. The effects will be far-reaching and nothing will be the same anymore. This was the latest "black swan" event that was missed by those overpaid analysts who work in the City of London and Wall Street, but has been expected by some for years.
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5 minutes ago, timendres said:Try not to think of it in terms of who your wife "loves more". I am sure she loves you very much. Thais think very differently about love, family and money, and it is not always easy to understand. But there is no question that you must maintain absolute control of your finances, and establish the rules regarding such.
Wise answer. Many Thais will prioritise a/ their parents; b/ their children; c/ their husband; d/ their siblings; e/ their wider family members in their "love hierarchy", or some combination of these actors. Some will be up-front about it, while with others, it's just the way it is and they don't care to express it out loud. Husbands who think they should come first, need to realise this and either adapt to the hierarchy and alter their expectations, or get out of Dodge City if they are not prepared to be No. 1. ???? But remember, your kids will become collateral damage in this if you take the last option and refuse to adapt.
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On 3/16/2020 at 3:18 AM, Mister T said:
You might want to check this link about no substantial rise in sea levels in the last 140 years
https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/sea-levels-sydney.pdf
You might want to listen, read and learn from globally-respected peer-reviewed, specialist scientists in their field, such as those at the IPCC, who spend their lives analysing the best-available data and not right-wing, fossil-fuel industry climate change deniers who are paid to deceive, Mr T. Let's hope you don't have a house in Florida some 50 cms above current sea level.
Go to p.1147 for a quick snapshot of sea level rise over different time scales:
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_Chapter13_FINAL.pdf
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Yes, this is the start of a massive correction to the debt-bloated global economy that will lead to massive ramifications and consequences globally. It has been predicted for a long time and is long overdue. That it was triggered by a global pandemic will make it slightly worse. The US and developing countries with poorly developed health systems will be particularly hard hit, as will those with low savings and assets. However, having said this, it is not as serious as the climate change emergency and ecological emergency that is gathering pace - that will dwarf COVID-19 in its scale and consequences. Why do you imagine Extinction Rebellion have been out on the streets of capital cities around the world sounding the warning signal these past 18 months?
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On 3/14/2020 at 2:10 AM, Brunolem said:
Here in Sisaket, next to Surin, people are afraid of another virus: the dengue fever!
I have yet to see people coming back from the big cities after losing their job, but it will happen, at the worst possible time, when there is no water left because of the ongoing drought...
Very hard times are coming for Thailand...and the rest of the world.
Right now, we are just in the phase when the seawater recedes...before the tsunami...
Poor analogy - sea levels are currently rising at their fastest level since records began. And the Arctic and Antarctic are melting 6 times faster than they were in the 1990s. But yes, I get your point that this COVID-19 event may be looked back as a mere tremor before the actual "earthquake" of runaway climate change and ecological breakdown.
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On 3/8/2020 at 6:11 AM, Mick501 said:
Can't hurt to report and see what happens. Most police would be as repulsed by this as you are and may well make it a personal mission to find the culprit.
This is seems far more vile than recent reports of farangs attacking dogs with sticks, so maybe a social media post of the pictures would tie their hands and force them to act.
God old knows what this person is capable of if they can do that to a kitten.
I wouldn't hold out much hope that the cops would be in the slightest bit interested. They see far worse things done to humans on a fairly regular basis in some provinces and don't bad an eyelid at the blood and gore. Dogs and cats are way down on the karma pecking order and don't warrant a second thought, unfortunately.
Way back in 1991 or so, I was living in a teacher's house in rural Khon Kaen province and the house opposite mine was empty. I went over to have a look in one day and found a dead kitten with all its legs cut off at the knees just lying on the floor. There were quite a few stray cats in the area, but could never work out why anyone would senselessly butcher a harmless kitten like this and just leave its corpse on the floor of an empty house for the ants to eat. Other teachers I told of the incident couldn't give a monkey's about the kitten's fate and didn't seem to think it odd.
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This is pure theatrical tokenism, nothing more, to signal that USA hasn't entirely given up on Thailand as a nation, even though it has basically lost it to China's grasp and will be waiting like a bald eagle to snatch it's former pet back, when and if the time is right. Just don't expect any big buck handouts or special favours to generals and despots, like in the past, is the other message sent by this little gift.
However, as someone else has alluded, given the low official cases of Coronavirus in Thailand, every health professional should be scratching their head like a bad case of lice wondering how the hell did LOS miss the bug so far? Miracle, anyone? ????
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Greta Thunberg is a puppet of the neo-liberals and corporatists
Video: Large swathes of Cha-Am beach washed away - trees down - in high winds/waves
in Hua Hin and Cha-Am News
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Cha-Am doing its bit to ensure that the oceans will have more weight of plastic in them than fish biomass by 2050 by placing plastic sacks of sand against the erosive power of the waves. Definitely need to chuck more plastic, tyres and household waste on the beach to protect it from erosion, and the tourists will soon come flocking back. New slogan: "Clean sand, clean seas, welcome to Cha-Am".
The politician interviewed quite clearly didn't have clue what he was talking about, but knew that this was a great opportunity to line his own pockets, with a new construction project in the offing. Concrete, plastic, litter, no trees, fish and other marine life, what's not to like?