Expats

Bangkok Midnight Marathon 2020 bans foreigners

Published

9 months ago

Friday, August 7, 2020

Bangkok Midnight Marathon 2020 bans foreigners | Thaiger

It’s official. The Bangkok Midnight Marathon 2020 is closed to foreigners. Popular blogger Richard Barrow posted the news last night saying… “For some reason, the organisers of this year’s Bangkok Midnight Marathon have decided not to allow foreigners to run. I hope this doesn’t become part of the ‘new normal’.”

Unsurprisingly, the social media outrage was swift…

“Anyone who has lived in Thailand for any length of time should not be surprised by the institutionalised xenophobia. It’s not the fault of the average Thai, just the idiocy from above.”

“A good forum should be set up for all institutions and event organisers/companies that endorse this behaviour so we know who not to support in any format!”

“Surely excluding foreigners from competing will devalue the achievement of those participating in the race. Did you win because you were the best… or only because the best were excluded?!“

Even the Marathon office’s official Facebook page had these remarks posted on it…

“You don’t allow non-Thais to participate, so why is the banner in English? You only want English-speaking Thai nationals?”

“Unbelievable. I hope that no one will sign up for your race…”

“Why are expats this year not allowed to join the run ? Sorry to say, but this is pure racism not allowing foreigners, expats to participate in this marathon. We own companies here and want to support our Thai staff to run with them. Thailand is under a strict lockdown since April and every foreigner is either here since at least 4 month or was only able to enter under strict quarantine measurement. So if the concern is about Covid, the risk of a foreigner to spread viruses is not higher than by Thai people. – a disgrace to decide based on a race of people. Where does this lead to ? Imagine an international event in a western world, which would not allow Asian races to participate?”

Reaction in the Twittersphere, however, was more muted, with comments like…

“Participants must be of Thai nationality, this has nothing to do with racism. There are also ‘Farangs’ or other ethnic groups with Thai nationality. It’s common to limit participation at sport events to nationality or age groups or genders or at least divide them into categories.”

“More likely paranoia than xenophobia. We all know Thais are afraid of Covid-19, and we all know it was brought into the country mainly by foreigners. The worst pandemic managed countries are in Europe and the Americas. Not difficult to understand why they made the decision!”

Bangkok Midnight Marathon 2020 bans foreigners | News by Thaiger

SOURCES: Richard Barrow in Thailand | Bangkok Midnight Marathon

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10 Comments

Perceville Smithers

Friday, August 7, 2020 at 3:01 pm

I don’t know if I would feel this is racism. If it was open to foreigners from some countries and not others then yes, I would. But if Thais wanted to have an event for just Thais then I wouldn’t feel discriminated against.

Reply
- Nongnart Anan
  
  Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 9:45 pm
  
  Sport means equality. They should have a Marathon for whoever live there. Covid does not pick from colours or nationalities. Sometimes some people are just lack of common sense.
  
  Reply
Alan Detro

Friday, August 7, 2020 at 3:07 pm

Expats and foreigners here MUST know who is sponsoring the race and be sure to BOYCOTT their products and services. I certainly will.

Reply
Khaja Sarfaraj Mansur

Friday, August 7, 2020 at 4:18 pm

Disgraceful….. People from other corona affected countries are not animals… Anyway logic or common sense does not apply in Thailand.

Time will say…. How long Thai can sustain without foreigner especially ‘Tourist’.

God save Thailand from Corona…. They neither have the courage nor any mindset to cope with corona…… Vaccine for everyone on this earth…if there will be any effective one???? sounds impractical to me….. This world will have to learn to live with Corona….. There is no other way….. Corona is not going to go away any time soon….

Lots of countries have corona, and they started to accept it by subsiding the fear and trying to do everything with new normal.

Thailand have no corona but there is still a pandemic in Thai ‘Xenophobia’ or ‘Covid-19 Phobia’. I really feel pity on them because they are scared like hell.

God Bless Thailand….

Reply
- Thomas
  
  Friday, August 7, 2020 at 4:47 pm
  
  Amen to this.
  
  Reply
George

Friday, August 7, 2020 at 5:22 pm

Same (no foreigners allowed) with Teelakow’s ‘Ultra Trail Koh Chiang’ in February 2021.

Reply
Jean Gan

Friday, August 7, 2020 at 6:54 pm

The whole world is afraid of covid. People are now afraid of foreigners in every country. Can’t blame Thai people more than humanity.

If vaccine doesn’t work as expected it could take years for people to accept risk of covid (which I think is really small for most of healthy people).

Reply
Delwall

Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 5:52 am

Then , Thailand is sure to be on the podium this time !

Reply
simon

Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 9:19 am

I’m not in the least bit offended. Actually, I expect this kind of behaviour from Thais.It’s quite normal.

Reply
Toby Andrews

Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 9:32 am

Don’t bother about it.
Foreigners had to pay over a B1000 last year, and I think Thais, B80.
Without foreigners running they will lose a lot of money. Good.
The west should give Thais some of this treatment and ban them from running marathons.
Marathons are staged to make Thais money – from foreigners.

Reply

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Jack Burton

Jack Burton is an American writer, broadcaster, linguist and journalist who has lived in Asia since 1987. A native of the state of Georgia, he attended the The University of Georgia's Henry Grady School of Journalism, which hands out journalism's prestigious Peabody Awards. His works have appeared in The China Post, The South China Morning Post, The International Herald Tribune and many magazines throughout Asia and the world. He is fluent in Mandarin and has appeared on television and radio for decades in Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

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No room at the inn – Bangkok hospitals turning away people seeking Covid tests

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Monday, April 19, 2021

Tim Newton

No room at the inn – Bangkok hospitals turning away people seeking Covid tests | Thaiger

Today’s drop in newly reported infections by the CCSA has dampened Thai’s desire for a Covid test in and around Bangkok. Now, many hospitals around the city are restricting the numbers of patients tested. And if you want to be tested, Thai or foreigner, you better be ready to pay for it.

Thai Enquirer is reporting that at least 3 private hospitals are not accepting new Covid patients, including BNH Hospital, Praram 9 Hospital and Paolo Hospital in Phaholyotin. But even the latter, who had received a new batch of test kits, said they will take walk-ins but only from 0800 – 1700. The cost at Paolo Hospital is 4,500 baht.

According to Thai Enquirer, the city’s public hospitals are also limiting the number of new Covid tests. Thammasat University Hospital and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital are doing tests but only on who they consider ‘at-risk’ communities, and only 100 tests per day. Taksin Hospital, on the west side of the Chao Phraya, is providing free Covid testing but, again, only people they consider ‘at-risk’ patients. None of them are providing the popular drive-through services. For the majority of the hospitals charging, costs for the tests are between 4,000 – 6,000 baht, depending on the patients and their perceived risk levels.

293 new infections were detected in Bangkok over the past 24 reporting period. 210 more cases were reported from provinces directly adjacent to Bangkok. Around the country there were 1,390 new cases reported this morning, down on yesterday and Saturday’s numbers but still well in excess of the numbers being reported in Thailand’s first and second waves.

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Thailand provincial figures for Monday’s Covid cases

Published

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Monday, April 19, 2021

Tim Newton

Thailand provincial figures for Monday’s Covid cases | Thaiger

The NBT has published an infographic including all the provincial data on new Covid infections over the past 24 hours in Thailand. Note that some of the data is released by the provinces one day but not reported by the CCSA as a national tally until the following day.

Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chon Buri, again, lead the way with the latest report. The provinces around Bangkok also feature heavily with today’s numbers. 63 of the country’s 77 provinces have all reported additional cases in the past 24 hours.

The CCSA earlier reported a total of 1,390 new Covid infections today. The tally is a welcome drop in new case reports after the last 5 days’ record levels of new infections. Yesterday there were 1,767 new infections reported.

3 more people have died of Covid-related illnesses, 14,851 people remain under state supervision.

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Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Website, self-quarantine for post-Songkran Bangkok travellers

Published

20 hours ago

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Neill Fronde

Website, self-quarantine for post-Songkran Bangkok travellers | Thaiger

PHOTO: bkkcovid19.bangkok.go.th website to register people returning to Bangkok.

Bangkok is taking proactive steps to deal with the likely surge of Covid-19 cases after the Songkran holiday, asking those returning to Bangkok to submit their timelines online and self-quarantine 14 days. Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang is urging all people entering Bangkok to visit a website where they can perform a self-evaluation to assess their Covid-19 risk.

The website, bkkcovid19.bangkok.go.th, allows travellers returning to Bangkok to input their travel timelines and their personal information after scanning a QR code. The system will help with contact tracing, aggregating all the travel information to make following any threads of Covid-19 spread much more efficient. Health officials will be able to access and contact anyone thought to have come in contact with a Covid-19 infected person.

Songkran is usually one of the busiest travel periods of the year with millions of people going on holiday or visiting relatives. The government launches road safety campaigns to combat the swell in traffic and accidents. And even with Covid-19 cancelling most Songkran celebrations, Bangkok still saw nearly 8 million vehicles coming and going this festival period. A swell in Coronavirus infections spread throughout the country is likely as people travelled all over Thailand and back to celebrate the Thai New Year’s holiday.

Governor Aswin explained the platform is hoped to help contain possible outbreaks by providing crucial information to health officials to trace Covid-19 spread. The system will analyze infection risk for each person who registers and give them instructions on how to proceed. People deemed to be at risk will receive a free Covid-19 swab test from Bangkok health officials, while low-risk cases will be instructed to self-quarantine for 2 weeks.

SOURCE: The Pattaya Mail