News from Thailand – July 28, 2013

Bangkok Post, like many other newspapers not averse to some exaggeration, already speaks of an epidemic, but it is certain that the number of cases of dengue fever (dengue fever) threatens to exceed the record years 1986 and 2010. The Ministry of Health already expects 120.000 infections this year.

The culprits are the high temperatures last winter and the sporadic rainfall. Between October and December, 28.000 cases were already diagnosed, which is extreme because winter is not the peak season for dengue fever. Since January, there have been 82.000 infections, 78 of which have been fatal. Most of the fatalities were between the ages of 15 and 24.

Dengue fever is currently spreading rapidly in border provinces in the North, including Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son. A number of cases are also reported from northeastern provinces such as Petchabun and Loei. Most occur in remote residential communities, which are difficult to reach. The residents do not know how to prevent the disease and there are no checks for carriers of the virus.

Meanwhile, the authorities are not standing still. All hospitals in the country have been alerted and dengue corners have been set up in some hospitals to screen patients who have symptoms of the disease.

Dengue fever is caused by the Aedes mosquito. Scientists have found that the mosquito's life span has increased from one month to two months. Normally the mosquitoes feed during the day, but because it has become warmer in Thailand, they are now also active at night. Rungrueng Kitphati, president of the Society of Strengthening Epidemiology, thinks climate change is playing a role in the mosquito's altered life cycle and behavior. Urbanization and careless handling of waste add to that.

Photos: A municipal worker in Huai Khwang sprays insecticide to kill mosquitoes.

– Even more diseases. On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day, which is being "celebrated" today, government hospitals will start free testing for hepatitis B (HBV) every day next week. Some hospitals may continue until September.

The Ministry of Health estimates that 5 percent of the Thai population is infected with hepatitis. Half of them, about 1 to 2 million people, are carriers of HBV, which can lead to liver cancer and liver cirrhosis. Unlike hepatitis C, the B variant can be prevented with vaccination. Often the carriers are not aware of it until they develop symptoms of the disease.

Tawesak Tanwandee, vice president of the Thai Association for the Study of the Liver, advises people with a family history of hepatitis and those with risky sexual behavior to get checked. The spread of HBV is of particular concern in the Northeast, where 1,72 million people are said to be carriers.

– We have another drug scandal that is not a drug scandal. Minister Chalerm Yubamrung is chastised by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation because he held a press conference on Friday with a (minor) 16-year-old girl next to him who Hormones The Series plays. She would ya ice used, which would appear from a photo on the internet.

Chalerm defended the girl, saying she was tested for drugs on Wednesday and came back negative. The photo, he said, had been manipulated. Incidentally, her father said on Thursday that his daughter had once used drugs "out of curiosity."

The foundation, which is critical of Chalerm, points out that children are protected by the Child Protection Act of 2003, which means that they cannot be shown en plein publique like adults. The fact that she has been acquitted of drug use makes no difference, according to the foundation.

Chalerm is director of the government center that has to fight the drug problems. He and officials from the Narcotics Control Board office had called the press conference.

About Hormones The Series wrote Thailandblog on: https://www.thailandblog.nl/background/geen-condoom-geen-seks/

– The female tiger whose carcass was found on Saturday morning in a tree nursery, is believed to have died from poisoning. The animal is believed to have come from the Huai Kha Khaeng Game Reserve, 6 km from where it was found.

Autopsy must determine the exact cause of death. The animal had no gunshot wounds, but the left rear ankle showed a laceration. Four goat carcasses lay with the dead tiger. Authorities suspect they were used as bait and poisoned with pesticide. They think that because no worms have been found in the rotting flesh.

It has been three years since poachers poisoned tigers in the wildlife park. In 2010, a dead female tiger and two of her cubs were found near the carcass of a deer.

– The media has done it again. What have they done? They have reported separatists in the South putting up banners and chalking text on the road demanding the departure of the army. And officials and the media should stop spreading those messages, says Colonel Banpot Pulplean, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command. Those messages send the wrong message to the international community.

For example, there is a text that says that police officers shoot at Thai-Muslim teachers. And it is also suggested that the two schoolteachers who died in a bomb attack on Wednesday were hit by police officers' bullets and killed as a result.

– Of the budget of 350 billion baht for waterworks, 30 million baht has already been spent, despite the fact that the administrative court has ordered that public hearings and environmental impact assessments should be held first. The 30 million baht was spent on an alert system plus associated hardware, said Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi. But a source at the National Water and Flood Management Policy office says the money has been spent on reforestation projects, roads and flood walls.

– Three passengers were injured in a collision in Non Sung (Nakhon Ratchasima) between a lorry and a city bus. Both vehicles ended up off the road. The truck driver took off after the collision.

– A train at the station in Aranyaprathet started to reverse spontaneously yesterday. All thirty passengers managed to jump out of the train in time, which after a kilometer on a disused track came to a stop against a tree. Two of the five trainsets ran off the rails.

– Thailand is 140.000 truck drivers short and when the Asean Economic Community comes into effect, that number will rise to 200.000. The Land Transport Federation of Thailand says truck drivers are moving to easier and better paying jobs on minivans, motorcycle taxis and cabs.

According to Minister Chadchat Sittipunt (Transport), drivers have to work long hours to make up for the shortage. He said this in response to the fatal accident in Saraburi in which 19 tour bus passengers died. The driver of a truck had fallen asleep, causing his car to drive through the median and collide with the bus.

– The two badminton players, who fought a robbery during the Canada Open on Sunday, have been suspended by the Badminton Association of Thailand for two years and three months respectively. Bodin Issara had almost received a lifelong suspension, but because he admitted to starting, the organization passed its hand over its heart. Maneepong Jongjit, who had scolded Bodin, is allowed to twiddle his thumbs for three months.

Furthermore, the badminton association handed out suspensions to the coaches of both 'bad boys', as the newspaper calls them. Bodin's coach was suspended for six months and Maneepong's coach for three months.

Bodin's club, Granular, has suspended Bodin for the rest of the year without pay. Federal President Charoen Wattanasin thinks this could mean the end of Bodin's career. "It's not easy for a player to come back after such a long suspension." Bodin can still appeal the sentence. The chairman of Granular will plead with the national union for a lesser sentence.

Maneepong will miss next month's World Championship in China. He and his partner Nipitphon Puangpuapech were placed fourteenth.

The two fighters buried the hatchet yesterday and had themselves photographed shaking hands prior to the meeting of the association, in which the suspension decision was made. Maneepong admitted that he was partly to blame for the fight because he had raised his middle finger.

– Worachai Hema received nothing but praise from former Prime Minister Thaksin yesterday during a lunch on the occasion of Thaksin's birthday in Hong Kong. Twenty Pheu Thai MPs, brought in by charter flight, were allowed to share a fork with the former prime minister who fled in 2008. In the evening, Thaksin celebrated his birthday with more MPs, supporters and wives at the Empire restaurant on Victoria Bay.

Thaksin praised Worachai for the amnesty proposal he has submitted, which will be considered by parliament on August 7. If the proposal is adopted - and that is in line with expectations given the voting ratio in parliament - all red shirts still imprisoned will be released. Thaksin himself says he is not benefiting from it, according to a source at Pheu Thai.

Thaksin called on the government not to be sewn up by opposition party Democrats (word choice DvdL). He tries to discredit the government. Opposition leader Abhisit said yesterday he was concerned about the prospect of fierce political conflict if Pheu Thai pushed through the amnesty. "The country would be at peace if it weren't for that issue."

Spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard dismisses criticism of the charter flight. He says the partygoers paid for the flight out of their own pockets. “They wanted to meet someone they miss. The visit does not mean that they are abandoning the people in their own country.'

Varies

– I would like to read the editorial of Sumati Sivasiamphai, the editor-in-chief of Guru, the Friday supplement of Bangkok Post. She has a kind of humor that the English call 'tongue in cheek'. Last Friday she listed a number of remarkable incidents.

• In August 1999, the flight information screens at Don Mueang showed a porn picture for about 20 seconds. Maybe the passengers didn't take offense, she writes, but the management sent the man responsible for this out of the way. And that in a country with Patpong, Nana, Ratchada.
• The Commerce Department reported in April that exports had increased by 176,6 percent. Had to be 12,6. The error was due to an official who had entered not 300.000 but 30 billion baht as the value of an export product to Hong Kong.
• KFC Thailand received a load of criticism when it posted on Facebook a day after the earthquake on April 11, 2012 off the Indonesian coast: Let's hurry home and follow the earthquake news. And don't forget to order your favorite KFC menu.
• Finally, there was also a parliamentarian who was caught looking at a pornographic photo on his mobile phone during a parliamentary session. His excuse: His friend sent it. He was tagged.

Comments

– Bangkok has recently won two awards. For the fourth consecutive year, it was named the world's top city (according to the Travel + Leisure magazine) and was the top city for tourism in MasterCard's Global Destination Cities Index.

Bangkok Post notes in its editorial on Saturday that despite this praise, the dark side of Bangkok is getting darker: increasing traffic congestion, high levels of noise and air pollution, slow garbage collection, smelly khlongs, sidewalks blocked by street vendors, inefficient police and a staggering lack of to green. The residents of Bangkok have to make do with 3,9 square meters per person against Londoners 33,4.

Some tourists seem to find the chaos of Bangkok attractive. One online international lifestyle magazine therefore gives the capital a 'must visit' recommendation.

The newspaper points out that Thailand is no longer a cheap destination and that Bangkok and Chiang Mai are among the 50 most expensive cities in Asia. Phuket can't be far behind.

I don't know what the paper's conclusion is. Usually I read stronger comments.

Economic news

– Condominium developers are hit hardest by failures, says the Agency for Real Estate Affairs. Of the 18.404 housing units that were postponed in the first six months, 8.567 (47 percent) were condos. The remainder were detached houses (25 per cent) and town houses (13 per cent) and 9 per cent concerned land allocation.

Sales of 89 of the 1.378 projects have been postponed, representing a value of 45,8 billion baht. But this number is not yet worrying, because it decreased by 18 percent compared to the same period last year. The number of units and project value also fell by 18 and 19 percent, respectively.

The condos that top the list of deferred projects are condos priced between 1 and 2 million baht. The main cause is inadequate market exploration. The detached houses and town houses went wrong due to poor development plans.

Potential home buyers are advised by president Sopon Pornchokchai of the real estate agency escrow account [?] to use in the transaction. 'When they are used, the housing market is strong and sustainable. That benefits project developers and creates equal competition between large and small project developers.'

– Union Auction Plc, Thailand's largest used car auction company, expects an influx of used cars next year and a further drop in market prices. Advantage in quotes: The influx presents an opportunity for traders who have a lot of liquid assets.

Director Thepthai Sila thinks the government's first car program will be hit next year. Buyers who have purchased a car then run into problems with their payment. Already, he says, buyers are grappling with the financial burden, but are hesitant to sell their cars because used car prices have already fallen since last year.

The government's program provides for tax refunds for first-time car buyers. 1,3 million cars have been sold, but just months after the program ended at the end of 2012, buyers started delaying purchases or canceling orders. The program also took some casualties at used car dealers, when the tax refund made new cars as expensive as used cars.

Now that demand and prices have fallen, companies can buy cars cheaply. Just like in 1997, says Thepthai, people are willing to sell their property at any price, even at a great loss.

– The popular game Angry Birds has been given its own soft drink. It has launched in Thailand and is available in 7-Eleven stores. Three figures from the game are on the cans. They represent the flavors fruit punch, orange and strawberry.

– The Private Sector Collective Action Coalition against Corruption (a mouthful) will approach construction companies to join its initiative and put an end to corruption. Today, only foreign construction companies are members of the CAC, a joint initiative of eight leading private sector groups.

On Friday, 51 insurers joined the CAC, bringing the number of members to 225. An investigation by the CAC earlier this year found that corruption has risen to a very worrying level over the past two years.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post