Opinion
The Thaiger Opinion Columns.
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Sponsored Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run
Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...
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Phuket Opinion: The 90-day hassle
PHUKET: Having completed the bureaucratic rigmarole of obtaining a one-year work permit and a one-year non-immigrant B visa, I am soon to embark on my first quarterly “visa run” to have my passport stamped at the Ranong border control office. As a consequence, I have been mulling over the reasons why such a trip is necessary and I confess, I…
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Phuket Opinion: Providing a safe haven for abandoned pets
Dr Suchon Jittanon, 58, is a Krabi native. After earning a degree in Veterinary Medicine from Kasetsart University, he ran his own veterinary clinic in Bangkok until 1997. After that he moved to Phuket and opened another veterinary clinic, the Phuket Animal Hospital in Chalong. Here, he talks about caring for abandoned pets and urges people to think carefully before…
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Phuket Opinion: Relegate the blight of jet-skis to the past
PHUKET: It is time that the provincial government considers phasing out the jet-ski rental industry that has brought so much ill-repute to the island. The latest tragedy involving a jet-ski and a foreign tourist came last weekend, when 27-year-old Chinese visitor Shen Baocheng was rendered comatose after his rented jet-ski collided with a speedboat towing a parasailing tourist in Patong…
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Phuket Opinion: So near, but often so far
PHUKET: I don’t miss real bread and real butter, cheese and steak tartare. I don’t miss walking my dog through winter’s first snow, skiing in the French Alps or the mountains of the Czech republic. I don’t miss autumn strolls in my local park or the relief of springtime. I don’t miss the first tulips, young potatoes, fresh raspberries and…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Opinion: Not backing down in Phuket’s edgiest district
Veera Kerdsirimongkol, 57, originally from Nakhon Si Thammarat, has been District Chief of Kathu for four months. He was a district chief for 13 years before coming to Phuket, most recently in Palian, Trang. He has a master’s degree in Management Sciences from Prince of Songkla University. Here, he talks about what he has done to stop illegal activity in…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Opinion: Isle of Caprice
PHUKET: The naming of 11 parties who will be investigated by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) for so-called “mafia” activities in the island’s tourism industry (story here) have piqued the interest of even some of the most jaded Phuket media observers. However, only time will tell if this initiative turns out to be the first dose of the long-awaited…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Opinion: Snakes in the house: who you gonna call?
Watchara Srikacha, 26, has been catching snakes since he was 10 years old. Originally from Sisaket province in Thailand’s Northeast, Watchara has been working with the Kusoldharm Foundation since he came to Phuket almost five years ago. Part of his job is catching snakes. Here, he explains why more and more snakes are appearing in residential areas of Phuket. PHUKET:…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Opinion: Sea change in mindset needed to avoid dire straits
PHUKET: The recent discovery and subsequent removal of a large fishing net from the well-known dive site Shark Point (story here) is just the latest in a long series of indicators that the marine environment off Phuket is in dire straits. Government researchers at the ‘National Parks and Protected Area Innovation Institute’ told a recent seminar that coral bleaching had…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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Phuket Opinion: Memories of Mario
PHUKET: Having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s in a middle-class American suburb, much of my outlook on life was admittedly influenced, if not framed, by an ingenious team of Japanese programmers and script writers.Indeed, the original Nintendo Entertainment System (launched in the US in 1985) provided an invaluable framework for the formation and development of some of the…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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Phuket Opinion: Exceptions, all of us
PHUKET: As children we were told that we were special, unique – exceptional. Those of us who have flocked to this little island have taken our parents’ words in stride and to heart. Individuals of every nationality in Phuket believe that they are an exception – an exception to everything: laws, moral creeds and consequences. I am without a doubt,…
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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…
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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…
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