[Thai health officials told to discover why many still refuse to get vaccinated]

It is prudent and wise, in my view, to refuse these new 'vaccines'. The latest medical research published 8 November 2021 by Dr. S. Gundry in the medical journal, 'Circulation' (article entitled: 'MRNA COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers ...') warns of DRAMATIC incident rates of heart damage after taking the Covid mRNA vaccines. Here is the link to the Abstract: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712

[Thai Tourism: "Half of foreigners" don't pay their hospital bills; director points finger at three nationalities]

I simply do not believe the claims. No way are 50% of tourists doing a runner from hospitals without paying their bills. This is a ludicrous claim.

 

Like so many things in Thailand (officialdom), these are utterly unbelievable figures conjured out of thin air - and always aimed at raking in more money.

[Farmers to be given tractors at highly subsidised rate to compensate for chemical ban]

Can you imagine the outcry from certain militarist quarters if it were Yingluck or Thaksin offering near-free tractors to the farmers? 'Populist policies - off with his and her head!'

 

[Thai immigration reveals new requirements for retirement, marriage extensions (visas)]

3 minutes ago, Kasane said:

So there are two requirements for extension of retirement visa. Deposit In Thai bank

1. Pension 65K/mo

2. Balance of 800k baht.

 

So this is more strict than just the requirement of 800K baht in Thai bank for retirement visa extension.

That is how it seems to read to me, too, Kasane. It does not say 'Either 1 .... Or 2'. If this is the new rule (that both 400,000/800,000 in bank PLUS 65k/mo income are required), it will sink many of us. But perhaps we are misreading something that is rather ambiguous in the first place. Logically it would seem highly unlikely to me that such a radical change would have been introduced. But -  this is Thailand ....

[Thai immigration reveals new requirements for retirement, marriage extensions (visas)]

On the face of it, this looks EXTREMELY worrying for British retirees here. The irresponsible action of the British embassy in not confirming a retiree's income flow could be the death knell for many Brits here. Also, as far as I understand it, the British Government will not send pensions into a Thai bank account (only into a British one), and not every British bank will automatically forward a pension to a bank account in Thailand every month. Maybe I am wrong. 

 

Perhaps it is not as bad as I fear. What do other members think?

 

 

 

 

[Student loan ceiling to be reduced: Thai Education Ministry]

4 minutes ago, Kasset Tak said:

 I also include the 3 Thai English teachers who are working here because 2 out of 3 are lost if I would ask them "How are you today? instead of "How are you?"... all 3 of them have M Ed Teaching English!?

I nearly fell off my chair just now, Kasset Tak, when I read your words above about making the sentence more difficult by asking 'how are you today' , - because I have frequently had EXACTLY the same experience - and analogous ones. It is extraordinary, isn't it?!

[Student loan ceiling to be reduced: Thai Education Ministry]

18 minutes ago, wotsdermatter said:

... please do not brush all with the same tar brush because there are some programmes that are different from those many make comment about. 

I am sure you are right - that there are some Thai university programmes that are very good indeed (your own programme deserves high praise), and some students who excel; but I think that many of us  here are speaking about the generality of Thai students and Thai education - and it seems to many of us that the Thai academic level in schools and at university has been deliberately kept shockingly low, doubtless so that most Thais won't learn critically to think, probe and question. Such independent, critical thinking would be really dangerous in a hierarchical society like Thailand's ...

[Student loan ceiling to be reduced: Thai Education Ministry]

20 minutes ago, gamesgplayemail said:

 

A university degree here brings people to the same level as high school in my country. So at 21/22 here they don't know more than what we know at 17/18 back home.

 

But at least back home they know that they do not deserve any job without studying more and trying to understand what they are doing.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, my friend, for the above comment. I agree with you. In fact, I would go even further and say - from my many years of experience - that Thai university graduates know far less than, say, a UK school pupil of 18 years of age who has just taken his 'A' levels. Also, 'know' is not the same as 'understand': the 'graduate' in Thailand may have memorised certain facts - but has probably never really grappled with trying to understand them.

 

So not only is the breadth of knowledge enshrined in a Thai B.A. degree at best comparable to a Western 'A' Level (preparatory to university entrance), but what the Thai student has made of that 'knowledge' (how he/ she has processed it, engaged with it, and assimilated it) is probably roughly equivalent to the academic level reached by a 12 or 13-year-old school pupil in the West!

[Student loan ceiling to be reduced: Thai Education Ministry]

The sad truth is that a Thai degree is not worth the paper it is printed on. The REAL knowledge and abilities gained by most Thai students in my experience is pitifully little. Even Master's Degree students often don't really know much about the subject they are allegedly studying - and as for 'general knowledge' (about the world, intellectual ideas, etc.) it is often  zero.

 

As much as I like the Thais (and I do, generally, very much), I must say that their knowledge-base is usually the flimsiest and tiniest of any peoples I have encountered on this earth. And there usually seems no desire for self-betterment - no intellectual curiosity about life and the world.

 

So it is sad to see so many young Thais getting into debt for a piece of paper that probably is pretty much meaningless - and will become more so in the coming years. Soon everyone will have a Bachelor's Degree, most will have a Master's Degree, and then even a Ph.D. will be common currency. The whole of learning and education has been commercialised, dumbed down and turned into a money-spinning racket - with little real intellectual/ cultural achievement for most students at the end of it all. Very sad - but, regrettably, true.