Unusual for Thailand

[727Sky]

I'm pretty naive with asian affairs, but it really seems the tide is turning on china. 

On all fronts, it seems all the economic, "non hostile" military movements and the general political talking points are breaking down. 

It's like a goose is unaware how cooked it's about to get.

The Hisos (rich high society) that own pretty much everything in the country and of course the Military (can anyone spell Chinese submarines ?) depend on their big brother to the North for bribes (Financing construction projects) and filling their hotels and tourist spots. This is no small matter as even in December 2019 there were 5 million Chinese in Thailand on tour. A certain percentage of Thailand's GDP comes from tourism and the Chinese make a big part of that percentage. TPTB are already trying to lure Chinese tour groups back as soon as the international flights start back up. 

I think with the latest outbreak of covid in Beijing those plans will have to wait a bit. One report I read was there were over 2 million unemployed in the tourist industry and that ain't counting the hotels that are empty. 

Thailand has not had a case of COVID for 30+ days unless you count some of the returnees from overseas which were diagnosed and went into Hospital or quarantine. The country of 68 million has actually done quite well (if the figures are to be believed) both with low cases and deaths.. I think so far there are 58 deaths among the reported 3,157 infections, of which 3,026 patients have recovered. Probably because they did not send COVID-19 infected people to nursing homes ( can anyone spell STUPID) and the medical facilities are first class...At one time I could not buy Hydroxychloroquine because it was reserved for the hospitals or so the pharmacies said.   

Now I do not blame Thailand's PTB for wanting the to fill the tourist spots and staying on the good side of the CCP/PLA as all China has to do is shut the water off (7 Chinese hydroelectric dams) on the Mekong and just about a billion ++ people down stream will suffer from NO WATER ! 

I certainly am no expert on all this stuff as I keep a low profile even when I play golf with some of the HiSos ( I just take their money and act humble and lucky)....... I do not point fingers and blame the government... I am a guest here and after all it is their country. They can screw it up all by themselves or make it a paradise ....up to them.....ไปหาพวกเขา ... for me this is paradise and I do not want my little part of this world to end or have Chinese troops stationed some place close to me.. 

I gave up speaking Mandarin back in 1977 even though I was engaged to a Taiwanese girl (absolutely the smartest girl I have ever known) who wanted me to move to Taiwan and help run the family furniture store...My destiny was to fly not sell furniture... Mandarin, that is a hard language IMO.. Thai has 5 tones, each word has 5 different meanings depending on the tone.. Cantonese has 9 if I remember correctly and they say Mandarin has only 4 which I find hard to believe ?  My Taiwanese girl spoke 21 different dialects of Chinese to include Mandarin and also spoke great English, passable French, German, and Spanish.. I think she just liked me for my body !! hahaha She really was smart and had a mental abacus in her head. I saw her during tax season where the guy doing her taxes after adding maybe 20 numbers said this is what you will owe... She said no that is wrong as the number should be so and so... He looked at her as "how dare she think I am wrong".. He added again on his calculator and she was right and he was wrong.. I was amazed to say the least and so was he.. 

When her degree was finished she returned to Taiwan without me, but for many years we remained friends until we were both married in our own countries to local nationals. Her older sister married a B-52 instructor she meet at the officers club at Langley AAB or Carswell (?) where she was the cashier... Good family good people IMO.  

I hope Taiwan remains free from The CCP/PLA