OPINION

Covid is everywhere

Re: "Tracing error," (PostBag, Feb 11).

I believe that any consistent reader of the Post knows that, from time to time, Khun Samanea Saman and I have had our differences. But, when it comes to these stupid, virtually useless Covid tracking apps, I could not possibly disagree with Mr Saman's analysis of the situation in any meaningful way.

Today, whether it be Thailand, the US, Israel, Russia, the Eastern Hemisphere or the Western Hemisphere, Covid-19 (like almost any truly virulent airborne disease in a globalised world of airline travel) is now simply everywhere. It's in our schools. It's in our temples. It's in our condo complexes. It's been found in our food, and, more often than you think, it is in your own room or your own body, even though many people have no symptoms and don't know the disease is there to stalk them.

Trying to use smartphone apps or temperature sensors to track this disease is rather like one man aiming a flyswatter at a plague of locusts. Sure, you'll make an occasional hit, but meanwhile the flying infestation swarms by and mainly does what it wants. The reality, as the author properly illustrates, simply is that -- until we either have a cure or much better vaccines -- we have to just coexist with the disease and manage cases based on severity. We have to accept we are up against a virus so microscopic that only N-95 masks can possibly really stop it, and N-95 masks are impossible to live in for long lengths of time.

The 'skip' generation

Re: "When baby well runs dry," (BP, Feb 6).

As the cost of living continues to soar, with rising unemployment rates and a widening income gap between the rich and the poor, it is inevitable that unless drastic changes happen, more people would think twice if not thrice about family planning.

At present, we live in a world of both cultural and gender diversity with no proper outlook. Many working-class citizens end up relying on their elderly parents to raise their children, creating a tsunami of skip generation upbringing.

It's just a matter of time until these kids grow up into adults without fully understanding the relationship between a parent and a child. Will they trust their parents, who never had a chance to raise them, but now face the responsibility of raising their own kids?

Not Biden's business

Re: "Nord Stream 2 'will end' if Russia invades," (BP, Feb 9).

What right does Joe Biden, who was president of the US last time I looked, have to dictate terms on a deal made between Germany and Russia?

A jab at Trudeau

Re: "Trudeau slams 'unacceptable' protests as police threaten arrests," (BP, Feb 10).

When I observe the way that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has smeared the truck drivers for protesting against his fascist vaccine mandate, I ask myself have I been on the wrong side of history all my life? I'm astonished that I have to explain to "liberals" that vaccine mandates totally violate medical ethics and democratic freedom. I am literally sick to my stomach to see the "liberal" elitists in the media, in the government and the medical establishment treating truck drivers -- people who work at real jobs making real wages to feed real families -- being treated as though they are human garbage.

Although I would never vote for Donald Trump, I now understand why so many real working people feel they have no one else to turn to.

Test & Going too far

Re: "Test & Go gets off to good start," (BP, Feb 3).

Your headline says a record 23,000 people signed up to enter Thailand under the revised Test & Go scheme but what you have failed to explore is how many people have decided it is too uninviting to enter Thailand.

I have lived in Thailand for the past 10 years on a retirement visa which has expired because I haven't been able to return for the past two years. I have had my flight ticket booked and paid for since last year, returning in March 2022. It was recently cancelled because I was transiting Hong Kong. Nevertheless, I rebooked via Frankfurt and was due to arrive, as planned, in early March. My wife will also return on the same day but on a different flight, arriving within 10 minutes of me.

The ASQ hotel say we cannot share a room because we arrive on different flights. Also, no alcohol will be allowed in the room, although we can have food delivered. On day 5 we must also quarantine in different rooms, even though we would have been cohabiting during the intervening period.

For me this is just too much control so I have cancelled our flights for this year and we will be holidaying in alternative, more welcoming climes.

Why isn't the government offering to renew the expired visa of retirees to encourage us to return? Why do we need to stay in a hotel when we have our own condo?

By the way, did you see Spain has recovered 75% of its normal holiday visitors, some 60 million tourists?

An elementary error

Re: "Killing of gangster caught on CCTV," (Online, Feb 9).

The online Post published a photo with the following caption: "The footage shows two barefoot men wearing white hoody jackets and short trousers emerging from bushes and approaching the victim in front of his villa on Rawai Beach at 10.56pm on Friday, Feb 4.

However, as anyone can plainly see, the time stamp on the image shows that it appears to have been taken around 9 minutes after midnight, on 5 Feb. Sherlock Holmes would likely deduce that the CCTV image was not taken in front of the villa, at the scene of the murder -- but rather somewhere else, more than an hour after the killing.

Vanishing vaccines

Re: "PM lauds nation's Covid index boost," (BP, Feb 2).

What I can't understand is why from a few months ago this government was going on about how well it was doing with vaccinations. Every day they reported how many hundreds of thousands of people had whatever shot it was. Now nothing. You have to hunt to find the relative data.

In Pattaya we have the Bangkok Hospital saying we have vaccines but only 500 a week. Whatever happened to the 1,000,000 shots day?

Road safety ignored

Re: "Wrong of way," (PostBag, Feb 5).

There has been a solution for the reduction of road accidents available for three decades yet successive Thai authorities have chosen to ignore the advice -- both national and international.

Thailand must adopt a "safe system" of road safety otherwise there will be no significant improvement ever!

Empty classroom toll

The world has suffered long and hard on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, no aspect of society has suffered more than education. It is not just the present-day loss of life and ill harm that has come to the world but the impact that will play out in the years to come. Yes, we have all suffered but the impact created by the lack of classroom schooling on our present youth will prove devastating.

Much credit must be given to those who have attempted to implement "distance learning". Yet, as commendable as that effort has been, it is tragically inferior to learning that takes place in a proper school. Many will think directly of the loss of knowledge-based learning in core subjects but that, as significant as it is, can be overcome. Most, sadly, most fail to understand the truly significant loss in the development of a child's "emotional intelligence" (EI).

Current statistics indicate that 60% of students who matriculate to Thai university will not graduate from their chosen university within the expected four-year timeline. Why is that? I suggest that there are a number of reasons but none more significant than that of a low development of "EI".

The question thus begs to be asked, "What will be the impact of the educational restrictions placed on children during these past two-three years be?" Certainly, having a child or adolescent sit in front of a computer for eight hours a day to learn a required curriculum doesn't instil much confidence that it is a positive learning experience.

And yet, the world carries on with very little reflection, comment or questioning of the cause of all of this. The quest to understand the causes of all of the harm done by Covid-19 has yet to begin. While finding out the truth of how this tragedy came about could very well prevent a similar occurrence of another pandemic.

No matter who perpetrated this world crisis, the world needs to stand-up and demand the explanation. The world deserves answers along with a corresponding apology!