Opinion
The Thaiger Opinion Columns
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Sponsored How to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses in Thailand?
Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....
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The 35 billion baht white elephant – Phuket’s light rail
“About the only thing feasible in this rendering is the blue sky.” Spending 35 billion baht on infrastructure that few will use, is planned on the least useful route and will cause mayhem for a 3-5 year build time is a waste of money. The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) is currently chatting to the private sector and…
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What’s the use of number plates if you can’t read them?
by DW (anonymously sent to The Thaiger) Hiding in plain sight, and rarely noted—at least by anyone I’ve spoken with—are thousands of cars, vans, buses, trucks, and even motorcycles. Most are commercial vehicles … you know, the ones with green and yellow plates. Now when I say they’re “hiding in plain sight”, I mean to say that yes, you can plainly…
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Opinion: Sovereignty, rights ignored in airport debacle – The Nation
Thailand could have blood on its hands if it fails to protect a Saudi traveller on her journey to freedom. The fate of a Saudi woman on her way to Australia, where she has a visa and seeks to obtain asylum, teetered in the balance in Bangkok at press time yesterday. Amid Thailand’s apparent willingness to deport her back to…
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In the wake of Pabuk, a media storm is brewing
by Tim Newton Now the actual storm has passed, a media storm is brewing over two key issues – tourists claiming they had little knowledge about the approaching storm and local tour operators, especially in the Andaman region, who say the media coverage was ‘hyped’ and overblown. “Stranded British tourists have spoken of their anger after being allowed to travel…
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December 4 – Thailand’s national day of shame
Today is Thai Environment Day. Today convenience stores, trade stores and shopping malls will refrain from providing single-use plastic bags to shoppers and at the same time will campaign for donation of cloth bags to be distributed to hospitals for containing medicines. Whether any of this actually happens, we will see. The proposed plastic bag-free day is the outcome of…
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How will ‘Chindia’ change Phuket’s tourism future?’
What exactly is this Chindia? In a nutshell it’s a flash drive marketplace with 1/3 of the world’s population – China and India. For a great number of Phuket hoteliers, the first half of 2018 saw marketplace velocity, where RevPAR’s rose on surging demand, and the most often heard comment was the ignominious ‘same same’. Though room rate growth was…
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Koh Samui balancing on tourism razor’s edge
PHOTO: www.thekalasamui.com “…shrinking Chinese demand due to the economic slowdown and depreciation for the yuan versus the baht” The time has come to open the discussion about the troubling drop in one of Thailand’s leading resort destinations, Koh Samui. Looking into the island’s performance numbers, according to data from international hospitality benchmarking group STR, at the end of August room…
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The government gets a ‘rap’ on the knuckles
13 million views and still going strong. That’s 20% of the population of Thailand. Any pop group would be astonished, amazed and pleasantly surprised by such popularity of their video clip in such a short time. But in this case the clip is a subversive rap from ‘Rap Against Dictatorship’, a five minute rant against military rule in the Kingdom.…
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Religious tolerance is OK until it starts interfering with community health
Last week it was revealed that six children have died in the southern provinces of Thailand since June this year. Sadly, children die all the time through misadventure and incurable disease. But these six children died from Measles, one of the many diseases that have been brought under control in most communities over the past half century. Vaccination has also…
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Chinese tourists heading elsewhere – what did you expect?
Don Ross of ttrweekly.com reflects on the self-imposed, but unplanned, reduction to Thailand’s tourist numbers – principally Chinese tourist numbers. If there were growing calls to limit or better control the problems of too many tourists, lax Thai safety laws have done part of the job already. Don writes… Just a few months back, the debate in Thailand focused on the…
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250,000 baht in a day. Patong’s para-sailing business.
Following the death of Australian 70 year old businessman, Roger Hussey, in July 2017, and the subsequent investigation and promises for a ‘crackdown’ on the local parasailing industry, things appear to have settled back to ‘normal’. Again. Read about the tragic death of Mr. Hussey HERE. We have nothing against good people doing business in their own country. Most of…
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New Phuket governors and a bad case of deja vu
OPINION “Andrea Kotas Tammathin, who is to be officially appointed as Switzerland’s honorary consul for Phuket on Friday… Mrs Tammathin will be joining a group of honorary consuls from Europe who have asked questions for the past two years about scams among jet-ski operators on Patong beach and the continuing high fares demanded by Phuket tuk-tuk and taxi drivers.” –…
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Hello Bangkok Christian College – It’s the 21st century
PHOTO: Bangkok Christian College In a sign that the Thai education system still has a way to go, the Bangkok Christian College has been forced to backtrack on using the phrase “sexual deviation” to describe transgenders and other shades of the GLBT spectrum. But the college insists it will still host a controversial seminar in Bangkok as planned. The seminar,…
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Samui Times responds to Police accusations of ‘fake news’
The media has become its own story today after Surat Thani, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan police and officials have accused Samui Times of spreading ‘fake news’, apparently the latest go-to explanation for any news that you disagree with. Samui Times responds to allegations of spreading ‘Fake News’ and having a ‘Vendetta’ against Koh Tao Sanook has reported that the…
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Phuket’s beaches deserve world standard lifesaving
By Daren Jenner, Marine Safety Officer, International Surf Lifesaving Association The Phuket governor’s plan to turn over what little funds are being provided for critical marine lifesaving services to the Or Bor Tors will only perpetuate the current deadly cycle of inexperienced, non-certified lifeguards, low salaries, fragmented service, and lapses in coverage. All of these factors will in turn contribute…
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Comment: Will the Blame Game result in a Chinese Phuket tourism boycott?
by Bill Barnett As the death toll climbs past a reported 40 from the recent sinking of a tourist boat in Phang Nga Bay, social media in Mainland China is creating a hailstorm of negative criticism about Phuket. While there is a general perception in Thailand that the tourism market dodged a bullet, with the Chiang Rai cave story dominating…
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COMMENT: What does it take to change driving habits?
Yesterday we had to report the sad news of 12 year old Chinnarat Kajatroka who fell off the motorbike he was driving whilst his 12 year old passenger had to watch in horror as his friend’s head was crushed by a tour bus which was following behind. On his own admission the two were travelling very fast, apparently racing another…
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OPINION: Travelling north – The PM woos his past political foes
Despite his protestations to the contrary, the Thai PM is leveraging himself exactly where he needs to be 9 months out from the scheduled national election. A day in the north-east, courting his former red shirt foes, shows that there’s little integrity in politics, no matter who or where you are. Still, completely straight faced, the PM was marching around…
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COMMENT: The fall of the Emerald Development Group
Today is Mai Sawit Ketroj’s birthday. He’ll be spending it behind bars after being questioned by police about alleged fraud involving the Emerald Development Group. In a packed media conference yesterday Tourist Police Deputy Commander Maj Gen Surachet Hakpan outlined the unravelling of the prominent Phuket property development company. “The suspect admitted that he has a lack of financial resources…
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Animal shows in Phuket. ‘Not in my back yard’!
OPINION by Tim Newton Three years ago the issue came into sharp focus in Phuket when a Ukraine company established ‘Nemo’, the first dolphinarium in Phuket, right next door to the Chalong Zoo. The dolphinarium drew a lot of kick-back from locals who took the NIMBY approach – Not In My Back Yard. They were applying their western values about the…
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COMMENT: We’re a LONG way from May 2014
EDITORIAL We should put the current protests in Bangkok into perspective. Firstly, they’re very localised, both in geographics and demographics. The protesters, apart from a few hard core ’professional protesters’ who seem to appear at any march or placard-waving event, are mostly students. More, mostly students from Thammasat University. That shouldn’t dilute the importance of their message but the protests…
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Here I am. Look at me.
Editorial by Tim Newton Yingluck’s in London. Yep, it’s her. Somehow a Facebook page has been able to achieve what the entire Royal Thai Police and Interpol have been unable to – find former Premier Yingluck Shinawatra. We are led to believe that these random pics of the fugitive PM are a serendipitous happening, arousing media speculation and allowing the…
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There’s room for three boat shows in Thailand, but not like it is now…
PHOTO: Marine Scene Asia Opinion by Paul Poole An article in the Phuket Gazette on 30 November 2017 welcomed the annual boat show season in Thailand. It raises the question, “is there room for three boat shows each year?” Original story HERE. The question is worth considering as boat show season kicks off for 2017/2018, with a steady stream of…
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Observations on the demise of the Phuket Football Club
Tim Newton, camera-in-hand, filming commentary from Steve Johnston at Surakul Stadium, circa 2013. In 2013 and 2014 I was attending most of the Phuket FC matches held at Surukul Stadium as part of my work, reporting stuff for my employer at the time. I had no particular interest in soccer but it was local, it was something our company sponsored…
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Genocide in our back-yard
“…any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;…
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Thinking of coming to Thailand at the end of October?
COMMENTARY: Tim Newton Don’t come to Thailand at the end of October if you expect things to be the same same. For all the right reasons, it will be very different indeed. Not for Thais or those expats that fully appreciate and understand what’s going on, but for tourists. It’s likely that nothing much will be open on October 26…
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SEA Games silence is deafening
ON DECK with Duncan Worthington Sailing at the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia has just wrapped up. What? I hear you ask. You didn’t know there was any sailing at the SEA Games? You didn’t see any daily results? You’re not the only one. I’ve spent the last week or so looking for results. Going to the event website which…
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Two decades of Shinawatra influence fades as Yingluck flees
EDITORIAL Now a fugitive from Thai justice, just like her brother, Yingluck Shinawatra is thought to have fled the country as early as last Wednesday. Photos of her praying at temples on Wednesday were probably bogus distractions. Yesterday’s no-show was yet another day of high drama in Thailand’s tortured political history. Various reports say she either travelled by private jet…
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Bangkok Deputy Governor’s bad case of foot-in-mouth
EDITORIAL Yesterday we reported on the current figures relating to HIV infection in Bangkok. Although the statistics look bad, in isolation, the general trend is of reduced new infections. The 2,000 new infections of HIV in Bangkok over the past year are not significant when compared to the city’s population of (probably) over 10 million. But getting the story completely…
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‘Safety’ mayhem on Phuket’s waters
Editorial by Duncan Worthington Let’s be clear from the off that we’re talking about speedboats, specifically day tour operators who pack in the tourists on an overpowered wooden speedboat and then zip off (at speed) to stop A, B, C and D, with a lunch thrown in along the way. In Phuket’s high season, these overpacked “cattle tours” can be…
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