Opinion
The Thaiger Opinion Columns
-
Sponsored Limited-time deal: Save 20% on Cigna's expat health plans forever
Starting a new life abroad is exciting—new culture, new lifestyle, and new chances to grow. But living far from home also means taking steps to protect your health in unfamiliar surroundings. Without the right coverage, even small health issues can...
-
Phuket Opinion: How to steer children as they surf the web
Chalam Attatham, 54, has been the Director of the Phuket Primary Education Service Office since 2011. In 2010 he served in the same capacity in Pattalung. A Phuket native, he has a BA in Education from Srinakharinwirot University and an MA in Education from Thaksin University. Here he talks about how parents and teachers can work together to help children…
-
Phuket Opinion: The Carnival of Corruption
PHUKET: Corruption has publicly reared its ugly head as a topic of much heated debate, with one and all tacitly accepting that the situation in Phuket is out of hand. However, few are offering any realistic strategies to combat the problem at its roots: the well-entrenched mind-set that “playing by the rules is for suckers”. The good news is that…
-
Phuket Opinion: Corruption-fighter says it’s time to cleanse the island of graft
Surin Bamrungphol, 53, is a founder and President of the Phuket Anti-Corruption Network. He is a Phuket native with a PhD in Development Strategies from Phuket Rajabhat University. Mr Surin is CEO of SureMed Corporation and vice-president of the Federation of Thai Industries, Phuket Chapter. He also serves on the board of a variety of companies. Here, he talks about…
-
Phuket Opinion: Needed – more greenery for our souls
PHUKET: When I lived on Racha Island, I could never really figure out where Thalang was. The only time I encountered it was taking a taxi to the airport. Around Koh Kaew I’d ask the driver, “Is this Thalang?”, then again at the Heroines’ Monument. Finally, as we whizzed through the Ton Sai Waterfall intersection, he’d say, “This is it.”All…
-
Phuket Opinion: Waste not, and waste not wanted
PHUKET: I was recently contacted by a man named David, a graduate-level research assistant from a reputable University in Bangkok, who had come to Phuket for the first time – but not for the typical reasons. The destination luring David to our “paradise island” was not any particular beach, cove, resort, restaurant or bar, but was in fact the Waste…
-
Phuket Opinion: This could be heaven or this could be”¦
PHUKET: A recent report about the problem of “homeless foreigners” from the West becoming a burden on the Thai state (see here) set off an unprecedented flurry of comments on popular online blogs. Like so many dimensions of modern life, the problem of “homelessness” has reached global proportions, as cases like the diaspora of the stateless Rohingya from Myanmar show.…
-
Phuket Opinion: Phuket Town, worthy of Unesco World Heritage status
PHUKET: Approaching Phuket Town from the north at dusk provides a magical moment. At the intersection of Thepkasattri and Thalang Roads, the ivory-white Song Nuan Pharmacy building is cinematically lit with colors that manage to stay just on the right side of garish.Every time I pass it on my daily two-wheeled commute home, and then proceed through streets lined with…
-
Phuket Opinion: Health insurance for tourists at 7-Eleven
Dr Sirichai Silpa-archa has been the Director of Patong Hospital for six months and was Deputy Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital for 26 years. He has a medical degree from Chulalongkorn University with a specialty in Urology from Chiang Mai University, as well as an MBA. Here, he discusses options for relieving the financial burden of uninsured foreign tourist and…
-
Phuket Opinion: Italy’s Honorary Consul – respect and enforce laws
Dr Francesco Pensato, 53, became the Honorary Consul of Italy for Phuket and Southern Thailand in May. A director of the Thai-Italian Chamber of Commerce, Dr Francesco has degrees in Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Sound Engineering, and is the CEO of World Pharm, JK Drinks and King manufacturing company. Here, he talks about the most pressing problems facing Italian tourists…
-
Phuket Opinion: Keep hands steady for return to island time
PHUKET: There is a special relationship between time and islands, which Einstein might have narrowly missed quantifying in his examination of the Theory of Relativity. The theory points out, among many other things, that space travellers moving at nearly the speed of light might reach a distant galaxy and only age 26 years. However, here on Earth millions of years…
-
Phuket Opinion: Island paradise – it’s the bomb
PHUKET: News of the the unprecedented bomb explosion outside of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) offices on August 1 (story here) came as just the latest blow to the reputation of Phuket as a safe tourist destination. Fortunately, nobody was physically harmed in the incident, though a number of vehicles were damaged. While the bombing itself was as completely…
-
Phuket Opinion: The road not taken
PHUKET: After a road trip off island, a resounding thump lets you know you’ve arrived back home. I can’t drive anywhere in Phuket anymore without crater divots and potholes lurking in front of me, threatening to bring my motorbike scuttling to the ground or sending a wheel on my car scraping high into its arch. Each time I stop at…
-
Phuket Opinion: For tourists, due diligence is essential, as is due skepticism for media hype
PHUKET: Tourist safety issues have been a hot topic in the news lately as the number of accidents and crimes involving foreign visitors continues to grow with the largely unregulated expansion of the island’s tourism industry. Despite the often colorful announcements of an impending “crackdown” on this or that, or the establishment of another new “safety zone” or other largely…
-
Phuket Opinion: Our environment down the drain
Pornsri Suthanarak, 50, is the director of the Phuket Environmental Office. She has a PhD in environmental engineering from Florida International University, and was formerly the director of the Environmental Quality and Laboratory Division at the Pollution Control Department in Bangkok. Here, she explains how all of us can help to protect the environment by making inexpensive changes at home.…
-
Phuket Opinion: Bus about face
PHUKET: The quiet launch last week of a new bus to shuttle tourists from the airport to Patong (story here) comes as a small dose of good news for Phuket’s ailing public transport sector, which nevertheless continues to suffer from the chronic and very serious effects of collusion, self-entitlement and a blatant, goon-like disregard for the law, common decency and…
-
Phuket Opinion: Enigmatic beach flags
PHUKET: You arrive at the beach ready for a day of sun, sea and sand, but you are greeted by a line of different colored flags lining the shoreline: red, red and yellow, yellow, blue, red and white chequered. Most people, myself included, aim for the area away from the red flag as they know what that means. The others…
-
Phuket Opinion: Saving swimmers by keeping them out of the sea
Phang Nga native Uten Singsom, 37, has been working as a lifeguard for 14 years, first at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort in Patong and for the past three years on Karon Beach. Today, he is the head of the Kata-Karon Lifeguard Club. Here he talks about what government and hotels should do to make Phuket beaches safer and stop…
-
Phuket Opinion: Keeping Chinese tourists safe by certifying more guides
Chaifu Saelee, 43, is a Chiang Mai native with a diploma in tourism from Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok. He worked as an interpreter for two years before joining Phuket Huang Tai Tour as a guide. He is now a guide with Phuket Super Holiday Travel. Here, he talks about how to increase safety for Chinese tourists in Phuket by helping…
-
Phuket Opinion: Thanks giving for 4th of July celebrations at Phuket Airpark
PHUKET: We would like to extend a most heartfelt thanks to every one of the many volunteer groups who worked together so well to make last weekend’s inaugural Phuket Airshow and Family Picnic such a successful charity event. The splendid festivities, timed to celebrate the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence 237 years ago, had so much going…
-
Phuket Opinion: It doesn’t hurt to give
PHUKET: On this lovely island renowned for its wonderful spas, the place I’ve felt most pampered is not one. It’s the sleek and modern Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC) next to the employment office, staffed by professionals delivering five-star service to those of us who give about 45 minutes of our time and about 10 per cent of our blood.…
-
Phuket Opinion: Shooting for Island Justice
PHUKET: The failure of police to bring to justice the man who shot and killed 21-year-old Ekkasit Sangangam in the heart of Phuket Town in early May last year will come as little surprise to veteran observers of Thailand’s criminal justice system. A low-ranking officer assigned to the Patong Police was arrested and charged within minutes of the shooting, which…
-
Phuket Opinion: Refugee runaways – shelters aren’t jails
Jiranun Cheamcharoen, 46, from Ratchaburi, received a BA from Thammasat University and an MA from Ramkhamhaeng University. She has been a social worker since 1991 and the director of the Phuket Shelter for Children and Families on Koh Sireh for four years. Here, she talks about the difficulties of housing Rohingya children and what action she took after they ran…
-
Phuket Opinion: Promoting Islam for Phuket youths, tourists
Maroj Thongyon, a 66-year-old Phuket native, has been a member of the committee of the Phuket Islamic Council since 1990 and is president of the Foundation Nurul Islamiah. Two years ago he took the position of Imam at the Nurulislam mosque in Patong. Here, he talks about the loss of cultural identity among Phuket Muslim youth and the opportunity to…
-
Phuket Opinion: Human trafficking is Thailand’s failure
PHUKET: Few issues are more tragic and complex than human trafficking. Recent warnings by the US that Thailand faces relegation to Tier 3 status in the US Trafficking Persons Report for 2013 should serve as a wake-up call to all of the Thai government agencies that should be working together to bring human traffickers to justice, but are failing miserably.…
-
Phuket Opinion: Samsung’s new gilt trip
PHUKET: So there we were – me, my wife and our nearly 3-year-old daughter – sitting down for a family dinner together when the advertisement for Samsung’s latest technological marvel came on the television. A mother sends her son off to travel the world armed with only his wits, backpack, stunning girlfriend and of course his Samsung S4, reasonably priced…
-
Phuket Opinion: Life-saving skills, English to the rescue
Juan Burana, 37, came from Surin to work in Phuket in 1995. He has been a Kusoldharm Foundation volunteer since 2003 and has worked as a rescue worker in Patong for the past four years.Here, he talks about what tourists can do to stay safe and what Kusoldharm can do to improve the skills of their staff and help save…
-
Phuket Opinion: Culture of neglect holds steady path
PHUKET: Failure of local authorities to complete the multi-million baht “Sea Gypsy Cultural Center” on Koh Sireh in Rassada is just the latest in a long string of long-delayed projects on the island that highlights the inefficient use of taxpayer money and failings of bureaucracy – all at the teetering altar of “tourism promotion”. Millions of baht in funding for…
-
Phuket Opinion: Why not to cook
PHUKET: This island has ruined me for cooking. I used to take no small amount of pride in my forays into the kitchen. I’m no Jamie Oliver to be sure, but I like to think I make a pretty mean spaghetti Bolognese. Alas, living in Phuket my culinary skills, along with my neglected cookware, sit on the shelf gathering dust.…
-
Phuket Opinion: Deputy PM adds insult to injury
PHUKET: Recent protests over inflammatory comments made in Chiang Mai by controversial Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi are just one small reflection of growing national unease with the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra. In an address to the people of Chiang Mai, Deputy PM Plodprasop said the refusal of the people of Phuket to elect a Pheu Thai Party candidate would…
-
Phuket Opinion: Stop the tour bus insanity
PHUKET: The latest crash of a tour bus descending into Patong highlights yet again the need for tour bus operators – and drivers in particular – to take personal responsibility for the safety of passengers under their care. If it can be considered as such, the only good fortune in this latest tragedy is that no lives were lost and…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.