Opinion
The Thaiger Opinion Columns
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Launching the Accessible Thailand Wellness Tourism initiative
The Thai government proudly announces the launch of the Accessible Thailand Wellness Tourism (ATWT) initiative. The program will kick off with a media event at the SIRIRAJ H SOLUTIONS wellness center on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, hosted on the 5th...
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Phuket Opinion: Beach warnings drowned out, but there’s hope in the sky
PHUKET: A recent poll conducted by the Phuket Gazette reveals that readers are evenly divided on which of six possible approaches would be most effective to minimize the number of lives lost to drownings during the monsoon season every year. For details of the poll and its results, click here. As noted by many who commented in our readers’ forum,…
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Phuket Opinion: Sloganeering down a silly slope
PHUKET: Days after the brutal stabbing of an Australian travel agent on a “familiarization tour” of Phuket, and the mysterious poisoning deaths of two young Québécoises on Koh Phi Phi, comes an announcement by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) trumpeting the success of its latest promotional campaign slogan: “Discover the Other You”.It’s all part of the TAT’s larger “Creative…
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Phuket Opinion: Corruption and the duality of man
PHUKET: Every now and then, local officials do things that either stun the Phuket Gazette’s readers or slide right past them. The news stories this week about the push to establish a “Chalong Hospital” and the projected opening of the Patong Tunnel both highlight a phenomenon often overlooked – that sometimes officials do have the public interest at heart. Local…
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Phuket Opinion: English language skills in urgent need of honest assessment
PHUKET: The results of last week’s online readers’ poll indicate stark differences in perception among foreigners and Thais about the level of English-language proficiency among local people working in the tourism industry. Most people who identified themselves as Thai thought these skills were good or excellent, while tourists and local foreign residents rated them quite poorly. [See story, page 8,…
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PHUKET OPINION: Speak loudly, but leave “big stick’ on mainland
PHUKET: As this week passed, the non-event of the Red Shirt rally apparently planned to be held at Nai Yang Beach last Sunday settled in as a near miss. The timing could not be a coincidence. Yesterday, May 19, 2012, marked the second anniversary of the violent confrontations in Bangkok between government security forces and the Red Shirt United Front…
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PHUKET OPINION: Few winners in war against the sea
PHUKET: Funding for projects to “combat” erosion along the Andaman coast through construction of seawalls, jetties and similar structures would be better deployed on environmentally-sound projects like sand-dune stabilization, mangrove reforestation and enforcement of laws that regulate shoreline construction. Trying to conquer the forces of time and tide is the quintessential exercise in futility. This is especially true along Phuket’s…
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PHUKET OPINION: Where property speculation meets superstition
PHUKET: There never seems to be a dull moment covering the news in Phuket, and the rumor-mongering that followed the recent seismic activity has been particularly captivating. A basic review of facts: an 8.6-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on April 11 prompted the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to issue an evacuation of tsunami-risk areas. A total breakdown…
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Phuket Opinion: Tsunami evacuation shortfalls resurface
PHUKET: THE pair of powerful earthquakes that struck off the coast of Sumatra on April 11 served as the perfect ‘live test’ of Thailand’s preparedness to conduct emergency evacuation of tsunami risk areas, exposing, once again, serious shortcomings in the government’s ability to relay important information to the public in a timely fashion. The 8.6-magnitude quake that hit at 3:38pm…
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Phuket Opinion: A tiny price tag for saving the mangroves
PHUKET: It is a pity that regional mass transport issues, and ‘mega-projects’ to whoosh ever-more tourists around the island, trumped the need for more sustainable tourism development during Tuesday’s mobile Cabinet meeting here in Phuket. In the first-ever official visit to the island by a female Thai premier, PM Yingluck Shinawatra performed admirably. She was smiling and charismatic throughout, despite…
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Phuket Opinion: Phuket land probes “a plus’ for Phuket
PHUKET: Cynics may see the effort by the Office of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) to investigate officials who allegedly colluded with investors to steal state land in Phuket as just the latest in a series of politically-inspired witch hunts. However, we should hold out hope for any effort to expose corruption, especially when elected officials and “civil servants”…
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Phuket Opinion: Message in a bottle
PHUKET: It would be difficult to find a country anywhere in the world that has a wider gap than Thailand in terms of its alcohol control laws and their actual enforcement – and no other province suffers as much as Phuket because of it. The Phuket Gazette knows that alcohol use is often associated with fatal and debilitating accidents, violence,…
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Phuket Opinion: There’s an Elephant in the Room
PHUKET: The United Nations estimates that the human population of the Earth quietly surpassed the seven billion mark last October. As a result, humankind is putting ever more pressure on the environment that sustains us. In the process, we are also driving many other animal species into extinction, some before they are even recognized by science. Few places on the…
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Sunday Opinion: Swift actions to regulate Phuket crime
PHUKET: Efforts by the Phuket Provincial Office and related agencies to tackle the problem of unregulated “swiftlet ranching” are admirable in their foresight, but regrettable in approach. (See here to read “Tourism finds swiftlet avaries difficult to swallow”). As many residents of this island are aware, mainland Chinese are one of the largest and most rapidly growing segments of the…
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Phuket Opinion: Why the muddle with maps?
PHUKET: Over the past century, mankind has made astonishing progress in understanding the nature of the universe, but it seems technological advances have now outstripped the ability of many of us to put them to the best possible use. One good example is in the field of cartography. Maps produced with painstaking effort and considerable risk a century ago, pale…
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Phuket Opinion: Great news for Phuket and our football team
PHUKET: Phuket football fans received some excellent news last weekend with the revelation that FC Phuket will enjoy financial support from Thai Premier League powerhouse Muangthong United next season. The news also came as a considerable relief to fans, given that the team had been reported “sold” and that its future had been very much in doubt. [See sports pages,…
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Phuket Opinion: Thailand’s lethal roads are not a secret
PHUKET: The UK’s Channel 4 recently aired a documentary entitled ‘The Undocumented Dangers of Thailand’s Roads’. The Phuket Gazette is grateful to Channel 4, as should be Phuket’s tourism professionals, for putting the dangers of our roads in the minds of tourists precisely when needed: just before the start of the nationwide “Seven Days of Danger” road-safety campaign which ended…
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Phuket Opinion: Taking a gamble on cruise ships
PHUKET: With Phuket’s Deep Sea Port being targeted for a huge upgrade, the island has great untapped potential in the global cruise ship industry – not just as a port of call but also as a port to call home. (See page 5, current issue of the Phuket Gazette. Digital subscribers click here to download the full newspaper.) Mention the…
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Phuket Opinion: Time to rein in the beach cowboys, and those who do not govern them
PHUKET: Given the events that have occurred at Phuket’s beaches in recent weeks, it is difficult to ascertain which is the greater maritime threat: natural phenomena such as the rough monsoon seas that claim the lives of scores of overconfident swimmers every year – or the juvenile carnival that gets underway when the winds subside and the beach business operators…
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Phuket Opinion: Amid the many bus and van crashes killing tourists in Phuket, it’s time to focus more carefully on responsibility
PHUKET: One of the most startling revelations to arise from the bus crash on Phuket’s Chalong-Kata Hill was a policeman telling the Phuket Gazette that there is no provision in law for police to lay charges against a bus owner and/or management company for vehicle malfunctions, such as brake failure. This is why bus, van and truck drivers who crash…
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Phuket Opinion: Patong Police volunteers need careful scrutiny to protect tourists
PHUKET: The safety of tourists visiting Phuket is always a key concern among local officials, and nowhere on the island is the issue more important than in Patong, which has the island’s highest density of visitors and hotels. Several agencies play roles in tourist safety there, but none assume greater responsibility than the Patong Police, who currently have 180 officers…
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Phuket Opinion: Signs of progress against roadside pollution
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette fully supports the long-overdue effort by the Phuket Highways Office to remove billboards and other unsightly advertising signage from roadsides under its authority, and we would encourage the local Department of Rural Roads and other agencies with similar authority to follow suit as soon as possible. If there is another “tropical island paradise” with roadsides that…
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Phuket Opinion: Scofflaw hotels have little to fear
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette wishes Governor Tri Augkaradacha the best of luck in his efforts to make legal the unknown thousands of unregistered hotels on the island – he is certainly going to need it. According to figures from Gov Tri’s office [see page 8, current issue of the Gazette, or click here for our digital version], there are just…
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Sunday Opinion: Meth, mobiles and keeping the peace in Phuket
PHUKET: The fact that persons unknown recently enjoyed success smuggling ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) and mobile phones into Phuket Prison by concealing the items inside dead rodents may have a comic aspect to it, but the revelation reflects a serious problem with the security situation – if not the hygiene – at that facility. The problem of smuggling at an…
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Phuket Opinion: Bangkok to have no-booze zones. Will Phuket be next?
PHUKET: If what’s good for the capital is good for the country, then Phuket could soon have alcohol-free zones. According to a report this afternoon by the government’s National News Bureau, Bangkok is tipped to have such zones throughout the city, in a move to “curb violence that often stems from binge drinking.” But this is not a tsk-tsk ‘social…
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Phuket Opinion: Despite the danger, reconciliation on the roads not likely for now
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette wishes Phuket’s Land Transport Chief Teerayout Prasertphol the best of luck in his efforts to end the illegal practice of using salaeng (motorcycles with sidecars) to transport passengers. But we think we’ll be seeing no reduction in the number if these cartoons on the roads – at least not during the current decade. It is difficult…
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Sunday Opinion: Our MPs need to leverage Thailand for the benefit of Phuket
PHUKET: The landslide election win by the Pheu Thai Party last weekend may strike fear in the hearts of some Phuket residents, but the new coalition government should be given a chance to establish itself and make good on its promises to bring about national reconciliation and prosperity. [See ‘Business as usual?’, page 11, current issue of the Phuket Gazette.…
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Sunday Opinion: Phuket declares support for roadside trash in national elections
PHUKET: As Thailand’s general election draws near, one can only guess what tourists in Phuket might make of it all. So ubiquitous and impressive is the roadside pollution that many visitors will spend their holiday bewildered as to why they are looking at thousands of colorful images of suited monkeys, salivating dogs and fatuous monitor lizards. For many, the preponderance…
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Phuket Opinion: Computer culture won’t yield to Thai Ministry
PHUKET: The efforts of the Culture Ministry (yes, we have one) to certify and brand as “white” certain computer game shops that it sees as ‘appropriate’ for youngsters, may or may not be a good idea. While the sincerity of the ‘white project’ is unassailable, many see it as presumptuous, interventionist and unlikely to succeed as the result of its…
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Phuket Opinion: Consuls could help break the choke hold on tourism
PHUKET: The latest meeting of Phuket’s honorary consuls with provincial authorities was rather unremarkable, but as the gatherings remain the only official forum for tourists and expatriate residents of Phuket to have their concerns presented directly to the people in charge, they need to continue. [See ‘Tourists beaten, cheated and cursed’, current issue of the Phuket Gazette. Digital subscribers click…
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Sunday Opinion: Phuket Town could become a driver for island-wide dining
PHUKET: Phuket Town’s plan to apply for listing as a UNESCO “City of Gastronomy”, if carried out, would be one of the more rational overtures put to the United Nations (UN) by Thailand in recent years. But it’s premature to think that we’ll soon be seeing a wave of ‘gastro-tourists’ coming to Phuket to sample the local cuisine. [See story,…
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