Makan in Thailand

[steveluv]

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 14,956 ( +154 )

Deaths 262 ( +10 )

[steveluv]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Pharmaceuticals/Thai-demand-for-medicinal-herb-surges-as-natural-COVID-treatment?utm_campaign=GL_coronavirus_latest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=10&pub_date=20210902150000&seq_num=10&si=44594

Thai demand for medicinal herb surges as natural COVID treatment
Government grants fah talai jone stamp of approval in bid to boost rural support

A Thai prisoner cultivates fah talai jone. (Photo courtesy of Thailand's Ministry of Justice.)
MARIMI KISHIMOTO, Nikkei staff writerSeptember 2, 2021 10:10 JST

BANGKOK -- A medicinal herb in Thailand that has been used since antiquity to relieve cold symptoms is now being promoted by the government as a way to relieve symptoms in mild cases of COVID-19.

Demand is so high for fah talai jone, also known as green chiretta, that the asking price multiplied by a factor of 10 this year. The military-backed government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha sees the crop as a means to curb discontent in farming communities.

People have turned to the plant for centuries to treat the symptoms of respiratory tract infections and alleviate painful coughs. But experts warn that its effectiveness in treating coronavirus infections may be overstated.

The frenzy for the fah talai jone traces back to a prison study. Due to a shortage of Avigan, the flu medication used to treat coronavirus patients, prison officials began experimenting with the herb on inmates with mild cases of COVID.

Thailand's Ministry of Justice reported that most of the inmates given fah talai jone saw an improvement in symptoms, driving demand for the herb as a cheap therapeutic substitute.

Chao Phraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital, a state-run producer of herbal medicines, said its supplies of fah talai jone are not enough to meet the overwhelming demand. In August, Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin ordered prisons around the country to cultivate the plant.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives came out with a scheme to plant fah talai jone in a 1,600-hectare plot of land in the Eastern Economic Corridor, a special economic zone east of Bangkok.

The market value for fah talai jone has risen to 500 baht (around $15) per kilogram from 50 baht in a span of roughly six months from the end of 2020, according to a research team at Kasetsart University in Bangkok.

The Ministry of Commerce said it will not move to control prices, citing the potential loss of incentive among farmers to grow the crop, which would put patients at a disadvantage.

The government looks to ameliorate the grievances among farmers by lifting their incomes. Rural areas represent the political base for the opposition Pheu Thai Party, a home for loyalists to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a coup.

The Pheu Thai Party has recently joined forces with the anti-government protest movement led by college students, whose demands include the resignation of Prayut. In response, the government is looking to win broader support from the rural citizenry, who represent about 40% of Thailand's population.

Flagging shipments of rice, a crop for which Thailand used to be the world's top exporter, have also contributed to the government's push for new money-makers.

"Thai herbs could become a new cash crop," said Thamanat Prompow, deputy minister of agriculture and cooperatives. The Prayuth government has decriminalized medical marijuana and kratom as well, with an eye on possible commercial opportunities.

But critics say there is a lack of scientific evidence indicating that fah talai jone is effective against COVID-19, especially since it is usually given to patients with mild symptoms.

There needs to be more research and comparisons against control groups that never received the herb, a researcher at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok told the BBC.

[steveluv]

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 14,653 ( - 303 )

Deaths 271 ( + 9 )

[steveluv]

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 15,947 ( +1,294 )

Deaths 257 ( -14 )

[steveluv]

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 13,988 ( -1,464 )

Deaths 187 ( -37 )

[steveluv]

https://fb.watch/7SqRoyBsXx/

[steveluv]

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 13,821 ( -167 )

Deaths 241 ( +54 )

[Mooose]

5 hours ago, steveluv said:

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 13,821 ( -167 )

Deaths 241 ( +54 )

https://www.thaienquirer.com/32285/the-government-should-have-accepted-that-covid-19-was-airborne-long-ago/

Shopping malls have been reopened, dining-in has been allowed, and more measures are going to be eased, as Thais have recently been introduced to a new set of buzzwords: “Universal Prevention.”

But will that be enough to protect us from the current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic?

The Ministry of Public Health and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha himself have emphasised the Universal Prevention measures, highlighting social distancing of one to two meters, handwashing, and keeping surfaces disinfected.

But the PM and the relevant agencies have not made clear enough a point he merely touched on: COVID is airborne.

“We have to be aware that everyone we meet is potentially someone who has COVID. And it has been medically proven that COVID can be transmitted via airborne transmission when people are close to each other. There’s always a risk of infection in being close to other people without protection. Therefore, I am asking everyone to strictly adopt the Universal Prevention policies, especially during the present high-risk period,” the post on his Facebook page said on 18 August. 

In fact, the government must make sure that the people are fully aware that COVID is not only airborne, but is primarily airborne, and mostly spreads through inhaling very small airborne particles directly into our lungs. This is important to understand because it drastically changes our understanding of how to protect ourselves, which is very different from what was previously communicated.

The evidence for airborne Covid has been building since the beginning of the pandemic, despite resistance from the medical establishment. But recent research from NUS in Singapore published this month has confirmed that not only is Covid airborne, but that more than 85 percent of the total virus amount emitted by an infected person is spread in the form of fine aerosols carried on their out-breath. These aerosols, which can linger in the air for long periods and be inhaled by others, are responsible for the majority of Covid infections, rather than either heavier respiratory droplets (that fall to the ground quickly) or contact with contaminated surfaces (as the government has previously stated, and around which misunderstandings their prevention policies are still chiefly designed).

Innovation consultant Tanasak Pheunghua said in a recent “COVID Is Airborne” online seminar held by Zero Covid Thailand that a person may get someone’s saliva on their face about 180 times a year, but with airborne transmission, the risk comes from each of the 1,200 times per hour that a person inhales.

“In very poorly-ventilated indoor places, these virus-laden aerosols, which are emitted through breathing, talking, and singing can stay in the air for days,” said Mr. Pheunghua. “Therefore, it is important that people keep in mind that these “virosols” can be around them whenever they are with someone else, or even when they are somewhere indoors that someone else has been recently, and they must protect themselves accordingly.”

Meanwhile, Asian Institute of Technology environmental engineering management expert Assistant Professor Ekbordin Winijkul said it is good to keep social distancing, washing hands, and masks on. But with plenty of scientific evidence that shows COVID is mostly spread through airborne transmission, people must also be educated to develop working ventilation strategies in all places (wherever they can), and they must understand that the most important thing is to wear N95/KN95 masks, or to wear a surgical mask that completely covers the nose and mouth with a well-fitted fabric mask on top to provide a face seal. He also insisted that alternative effective masks must be distributed to the people for free or sold at low prices.

“During the outbreak of PM 2.5, people stockpiled N95, as they cared about long-term lung diseases. However, airborne COVID is very dangerous, and can get into our lungs directly, affecting our health in both the short and long terms, so we should be aware. In order to stop this pandemic, everyone must care more about wearing the right masks – the ones that can filter fine aerosols effectively.” he added.

[Mooose]

this kind of sums up what many people think of the school system (and of course lung tuu's gang), only cover one part to look like they are doing something but actually does not address the totality of the situation ..

[steveluv]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Thailand-pushes-dream-of-land-bridge-to-boost-economy?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20210906123000&seq_num=2&si=44594

Thailand pushes dream of 'land bridge' to boost economy
Backers say it would cut shipping time by 2 days, but project faces backlash

Ranong Province is a candidate site for the proposed Thai land bridge. (Photo courtesy of Tourism Authority of Thailand)
YOHEI MURAMATSU, Nikkei staff writerSeptember 5, 2021 12:00 JST

BANGKOK -- The dream of a Thai land bridge, a transport route that would cross the Malay Peninsula to connect ports on either side, has surfaced again in Thailand. If it becomes a reality, a land bridge could cut shipping times by about two days, compared with the current shipping route through the Malacca Strait.

The idea of a trade route cutting across the peninsula dates back to the 17th century. Thailand's current government is looking to large public works projects to rejuvenate the economy. The proposed land bridge certainly qualifies, but the project has attracted criticism over huge cost and potential environmental damage.

Squint a bit and the map of Thailand looks like an elephant, with the Malay Peninsula that stretches to the south forming the nose. The narrowest part, the Kra Isthmus," is just 44 km across, with the Gulf of Thailand to the east and the Andaman Sea to the west.

Building a transport route from east to west across the isthmus would shorten the distance that cargo ships have to travel to carry goods between East Asia and the Middle East and Europe by about 1,200 km. At present, they must sail far to the south, to the Malacca Strait.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in October 2020 ordered a feasibility study on the construction of a land bridge across the Kra Isthmus. The plan is to build ports for large cargo ships in the southern provinces of Ranong and Chumphon, linking the two ports, about 130 km apart, with railways, highways and oil pipelines.

Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob stressed the importance of building a land bridge at a business seminar in June. "We will pave the way so that Thailand can become Southeast Asia's 'economic tiger cub' again," the minister said. He believes a land bridge would not only make the route through the Malacca Strait obsolete, but would also attract investment from foreign companies if a special economic zone is set up in the area.

The idea of digging a canal across the Malay Peninsula is an old one. One Thai king asked France to conduct a survey for a canal in 1677. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French diplomat famous for making Egypt's Suez Canal a reality, also visited the Kra Isthmus in 1882. At the turn of this century, too, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government conducted a feasibility study on a canal, but the project fell apart following the 2006 coup.

A canal would be hugely expensive, with the cost estimated at around $30 billion Connecting the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea would also be technically difficult: The two bodies of water differ by several meters in elevation.

A further complication is the Thai government's simmering conflict with Islamist militants along the border with Malaysia. There are concerns that a canal would cut Thailand in two, intensifying separatist sentiment among Thailand's mostly Muslim ethnic Malays.

For these reasons, the government is leaning toward a land bridge, which would be easier and cheaper to build than a canal. A senior member of the government's economic policy team said in October 2020 that building a canal is unrealistic and the focus should be on a land bridge.

As Thailand's fiscal condition worsens due to ballooning COVID-19 expenditures, the government hopes to attract investment from foreign governments and companies through the public-private partnerships.

In a report published in January, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singapore-based think tank, said building a Thai land bridge would cost 60 billion baht ($1.85 billion), according to Thai government estimates, significantly less than a canal across the Kra Isthmus.

Yet the dream of a canal refuses to die. The Thai Canal Association, which is composed of military veterans and politicians, has lobbied the government for a canal, arguing that it would prop up the economy of southern Thailand.

"The land bridge has few advantages, as there is a need to transfer cargo to railways and trucks at the port," said Pradit Boonkerd, secretary-general of the association.

China is thought to be taking an interest in a Kra canal, as the country promotes its Belt and Road Initiative. If a canal is built, China would no longer have to send ships through the Straits of Malacca, where the U.S. has a strong presence, when importing crude oil from the Middle East. It would also make it easier for Chinese warships operating in the South China Sea to sail into the Indian Ocean.

Residents protest the Thai land bridge in Bangkok in December 2020. (Photo courtesy of the People's Network for Natural Resources and Environment Protection in Songkhla and Satun)

In 2015, it was reported that China and Thailand signed a memorandum regarding the building of a Kra canal, but both governments denied the report. The Thai Canal Association, which is conducting research with Chinese companies, is said to have close ties to Beijing.

Whether it is a land bridge or a canal, the scale of the project would be huge and impose environmental costs. The land bridge project has drawn protests from residents near the planned construction site. In December 2020, the People's Network for Natural Resources and Environment Protection in Songkhla and Satun, a citizens group, staged a sleep-in demonstration in Bangkok.

Somboon Khamheng, a coordinator of the group, says environmentally destructive economic stimulus measures are unnecessary, adding that residents depend on the area's natural resources to make their living.

Will Thailand's long-cherished dream come true? A Japanese government official is skeptical, saying he is not sure the project is worth the cost. Movement on the issue is expected by 2023, when the government's latest feasibility study is scheduled for completion.

[Mooose]

1 hour ago, steveluv said:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Thailand-pushes-dream-of-land-bridge-to-boost-economy?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20210906123000&seq_num=2&si=44594

Thailand pushes dream of 'land bridge' to boost economy
Backers say it would cut shipping time by 2 days, but project faces backlash

Ranong Province is a candidate site for the proposed Thai land bridge. (Photo courtesy of Tourism Authority of Thailand)
YOHEI MURAMATSU, Nikkei staff writerSeptember 5, 2021 12:00 JST

BANGKOK -- The dream of a Thai land bridge, a transport route that would cross the Malay Peninsula to connect ports on either side, has surfaced again in Thailand. If it becomes a reality, a land bridge could cut shipping times by about two days, compared with the current shipping route through the Malacca Strait.

The idea of a trade route cutting across the peninsula dates back to the 17th century. Thailand's current government is looking to large public works projects to rejuvenate the economy. The proposed land bridge certainly qualifies, but the project has attracted criticism over huge cost and potential environmental damage.

Squint a bit and the map of Thailand looks like an elephant, with the Malay Peninsula that stretches to the south forming the nose. The narrowest part, the Kra Isthmus," is just 44 km across, with the Gulf of Thailand to the east and the Andaman Sea to the west.

Building a transport route from east to west across the isthmus would shorten the distance that cargo ships have to travel to carry goods between East Asia and the Middle East and Europe by about 1,200 km. At present, they must sail far to the south, to the Malacca Strait.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in October 2020 ordered a feasibility study on the construction of a land bridge across the Kra Isthmus. The plan is to build ports for large cargo ships in the southern provinces of Ranong and Chumphon, linking the two ports, about 130 km apart, with railways, highways and oil pipelines.

Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob stressed the importance of building a land bridge at a business seminar in June. "We will pave the way so that Thailand can become Southeast Asia's 'economic tiger cub' again," the minister said. He believes a land bridge would not only make the route through the Malacca Strait obsolete, but would also attract investment from foreign companies if a special economic zone is set up in the area.

The idea of digging a canal across the Malay Peninsula is an old one. One Thai king asked France to conduct a survey for a canal in 1677. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French diplomat famous for making Egypt's Suez Canal a reality, also visited the Kra Isthmus in 1882. At the turn of this century, too, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government conducted a feasibility study on a canal, but the project fell apart following the 2006 coup.

A canal would be hugely expensive, with the cost estimated at around $30 billion Connecting the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea would also be technically difficult: The two bodies of water differ by several meters in elevation.

A further complication is the Thai government's simmering conflict with Islamist militants along the border with Malaysia. There are concerns that a canal would cut Thailand in two, intensifying separatist sentiment among Thailand's mostly Muslim ethnic Malays.

For these reasons, the government is leaning toward a land bridge, which would be easier and cheaper to build than a canal. A senior member of the government's economic policy team said in October 2020 that building a canal is unrealistic and the focus should be on a land bridge.

As Thailand's fiscal condition worsens due to ballooning COVID-19 expenditures, the government hopes to attract investment from foreign governments and companies through the public-private partnerships.

In a report published in January, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singapore-based think tank, said building a Thai land bridge would cost 60 billion baht ($1.85 billion), according to Thai government estimates, significantly less than a canal across the Kra Isthmus.

Yet the dream of a canal refuses to die. The Thai Canal Association, which is composed of military veterans and politicians, has lobbied the government for a canal, arguing that it would prop up the economy of southern Thailand.

"The land bridge has few advantages, as there is a need to transfer cargo to railways and trucks at the port," said Pradit Boonkerd, secretary-general of the association.

China is thought to be taking an interest in a Kra canal, as the country promotes its Belt and Road Initiative. If a canal is built, China would no longer have to send ships through the Straits of Malacca, where the U.S. has a strong presence, when importing crude oil from the Middle East. It would also make it easier for Chinese warships operating in the South China Sea to sail into the Indian Ocean.

Residents protest the Thai land bridge in Bangkok in December 2020. (Photo courtesy of the People's Network for Natural Resources and Environment Protection in Songkhla and Satun)

In 2015, it was reported that China and Thailand signed a memorandum regarding the building of a Kra canal, but both governments denied the report. The Thai Canal Association, which is conducting research with Chinese companies, is said to have close ties to Beijing.

Whether it is a land bridge or a canal, the scale of the project would be huge and impose environmental costs. The land bridge project has drawn protests from residents near the planned construction site. In December 2020, the People's Network for Natural Resources and Environment Protection in Songkhla and Satun, a citizens group, staged a sleep-in demonstration in Bangkok.

Somboon Khamheng, a coordinator of the group, says environmentally destructive economic stimulus measures are unnecessary, adding that residents depend on the area's natural resources to make their living.

Will Thailand's long-cherished dream come true? A Japanese government official is skeptical, saying he is not sure the project is worth the cost. Movement on the issue is expected by 2023, when the government's latest feasibility study is scheduled for completion.

think the unspoken and "unintended" consequence is that this would create a "border" that could be used by separatists in the south for their cause .. 🤐

[steveluv]

Here's what the roads and highways of Bangkok looks like 2 hours into curfew. Just sharing. Hope you like the music too.

 

 

[steveluv]

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 14,176 ( +355 )

Deaths 228 ( -13 )

[Mooose]

3 hours ago, steveluv said:

COVID cases in Thailand today:

Total New Cases 14,176 ( +355 )

Deaths 228 ( -13 )

absolute number of infections may be declining but many people are literally dying from the bad handling of the pandemic ..

tourist trades are especially bad ..

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2177895/jobless-tour-guides-committing-suicide-forced-to-steal

Jobless tour guides 'committing suicide, forced to steal'

PUBLISHED : 7 SEP 2021 AT 14:53

WRITER: ASSAWIN PAKKAWAN

SONGKHLA: Nine tour guides based in Hat Yai have taken their own lives since the pandemic shut down the tourist sector, while others have descended to theft to stay alive, according to an industry spokesman.

Witthaya Sae Lim, former chairman of the Songkhla professional guides association, said about 600 local guides had been without work since early last year.

Mr Witthaya was speaking while handing out donated rice to jobless guides at Jee Kong Khlong Pom shrine in downtown Hat Yai on Tuesday.

He said all of the roughly 600 tour guides based in Hat Yai were unemployed and reliant on handouts of donated rice and dried food.

Mr Witthaya said donors in Malaysia’s Sarawak state had recently gifted 160 bags of rice, each weighing 5 kilogrammes, to him to distribute among the unemployed guides.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, nine guides based in Hat Yai had committed suicide since returning to their home provinces, according to Mr Witthaya. Many were from Phuket, Yala’s Betong district and Bangkok.

One of them jumped to his death from a building in Phuket. The story was not reported by the media, he said, but was widely known in the local guide community.

Some guides had fallen into states of depression and resorted to stealing goods. They were caught and had to seek help from fellow guides, he said.

Many guides had no second jobs but still had to pay the rent on their homes and tuition fees for their children. Some could not get access to state financial assistance, he said.

He called on the Tourism and Sports Ministry to look into their plight, not only in Hat Yai but in all tourist provinces. They were all without work and in desperate need of remedial assistance.

Most guides were not yet vaccinated against Covid-19, he said, yet they were frontline workers in the tourism industry.

One woman who arrived for a rice handout said she had been a guide in Hat Yai for four years. Now she had been unemployed for almost two years. She stayed at a rented house and had been digging into her savings. The money had now run out. 

She had no idea when tourists would come back to Hat Yai and she could again find work. 

On a separate note, I just saw a promo from Pullman G at Pattaya .. B5,600 nett for 3 nights including breakfast for two and the 3 nights need not be at one go .. they can be used separately. Shows the quietness of the hotel industry .. Really cut price!

Edited September 8, 2021 by Mooose

[Arogab]

I actually looking for machinist who knows CNC operations, EDM and Grinding, hard to find workers leh

[Mooose]

6 minutes ago, Arogab said:

I actually looking for machinist who knows CNC operations, EDM and Grinding, hard to find workers leh

lung tuu needs to bow down and learn from our ITE ..

vocational students are branded as (not saying that they are, but thats what people brand them as .. and sometimes it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy) thugs busy with street fights and street gangs, and now at din daeng only ..

not everyone can or need be a uni grad .. huge mindset change needed .. hiso will gasp and lose face if their kids dont have a uni degree .. sin sod also decreased if not uni grad .. but truth is that there is no point having so many universities churning out graduates that are having trouble looking for jobs when there is a real need for hands-on positions .. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Mooose

[Arogab]

1 hour ago, Mooose said:

lung tuu needs to bow down and learn from our ITE ..

vocational students are branded as (not saying that they are, but thats what people brand them as .. and sometimes it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy) thugs busy with street fights and street gangs, and now at din daeng only ..

not everyone can or need be a uni grad .. huge mindset change needed .. hiso will gasp and lose face if their kids dont have a uni degree .. sin sod also decreased if not uni grad .. but truth is that there is no point having so many universities churning out graduates that are having trouble looking for jobs when there is a real need for hands-on positions .. 

Thus the reason for difficulty. I just keep searching.

[PSP415]

14 hours ago, steveluv said:

Here's what the roads and highways of Bangkok looks like 2 hours into curfew. Just sharing. Hope you like the music too.

 

 

Yes, deserted. U driving? Not subject to the curfew? Guess you had a valid reason. Nice music👍

Stay safe, Steve. Numbers still not looking good and we know in reality, it's probably higher than reported too. 

Cheers