Early in 2020, I would have told you that the days of international travel were over, at least for those of us who chose not to roll our sleeves up for a certain medical intervention. And yet here I am two years later in Northern Thailand on an extended stopover en route to a new life and job in Vietnam, my Cassandra tendency unwarranted.
That’s not to say that medical discrimination is over. As members of the unvaccinated class, my family and I were required to take a ‘professional rapid antigen test’ for COVID-19 ahead of travel. £60 bought us a QR code each on a PDF certificate, glanced at by an airline representative in Heathrow Airport and then by no one else at all on an arduous 18 hour journey transiting through Muscat, Oman.
Upon arrival at the dizzying expanse of steel, glass, colour and crowds that is Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, we found the spectre of COVID-19 alive and well. A curious and conspicuous divide soon became obvious. Almost without exception, Asian people wore face masks and Westerners did not. Masks were clearly not required in the airport; we weren’t challenged once on our way through the many checkpoints. Gigantic sculptures of the demon king Thotsakan towering over the third level concourse had been fitted with their own enormous face masks to remind travellers of their civic responsibility; a somewhat demeaning appearance for such a fearsome mythical warrior.
Passing through customs, intimidating border guards demanded that travellers remove their masks for identification. This they did, before returning them again quickly, restoring their safety. But was this about safety, or something else?
We stayed for two nights at an airport hotel with a pool, primarily to reward the children who had endured two days of delirious travel like champs. The hotel staff wore red badges, to reassure guests that they had been Covid vaccinated, while signs around the place reminded visitors of the need to remain alert to signs of the virus. Visits to small local markets and stores during the following days revealed a society still very much in pandemic mode. The unwritten and unenforced rule appeared to be that masks must be worn by anyone at work or in an enclosed setting. And while no one challenged me as a bare-faced interloper, it was hard not to feel callous and inconsiderate. This was a people who had clearly been heavily, shall we say advised, and to whom mask-wearing appeared to have become intertwined with Asian social values such as respect, selflessness and courtesy to others. With this in mind, I wondered whether a ‘when in Rome’ attitude was appropriate, a feeling I have never once experienced in the U.K.
On day three, we left Bangkok on a domestic flight north to Chiang Rai. Upon boarding the plane, we met our first direct challenge, from a middle-aged Thai gentleman sitting next to my wife in the row behind. He asked her to put a mask on and called over a stewardess for assistance, who duly advised him that they were at this point optional on flights. My wife, not wanting to upset him nor endure an awkward 90 minutes, put one on that she had instinctively retained from an Oman Air ‘hygiene pack’ a few days earlier. I glanced back at her; it was the first time that either of us had ever worn one and I felt both sympathetic and proud of her. How insane these feelings would seem to people who had made them a routine part of their everyday lives. As it turned out, the man was very friendly and appreciated my wife’s respectful conformity. He had had Covid, he told her, and didn’t fancy catching it again. Like so many others, he clearly didn’t feel particularly protected by the vaccine he had almost certainly received.
We were met off the plane by an old friend of my wife’s who had retired to the region and who had unfortunately bought heavily into the pandemic. He told us that masks, while in decline, were still being worn out of respect toward others, confirming my reading of the situation while in Bangkok. He took us to a restaurant, where he told us we would be required to wear them on the walk from the car to our table but not while seated. The spirit of the scotch egg is alive and well in Thailand, and although I managed to get away with it on that occasion, it’s hard to see how I will be able to avoid at some point putting one on during the next week.
I worry that we will find a similarly illogical state of affairs in Vietnam, a country where I will soon be living and working (in an enclosed setting). Have I foolishly signed myself up for years of continued Covid theatre that seemed over and done with at home? I’ll let you know when my work permit has been issued.
‘crisisgarden’ is a pseudonym.
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Wage growth is a bit of an odd measure, I’d argue it has more effect on some workers than others. More established older workers may be more effected than younger workers for example.
Why so?
Well, I started in 2006 fresh out of uni as a new hire on 17k but since then I have seen wage raises based on seniority as well as annual increments. Hence if you assume I had only had annual increments on my 17k then yes I would be feeling the pinch but I have risen several grades in that time to now being the office senior and therefore compared to myself back in 2096 I am much much better off.
Now some people will still be doing the same job in the same grade that they were on in 2006 but how many actually does that represent?
I’ve never had much respect for our so called elites but I didn’t really mind them because for the most part we could just get on with our lives and navigate around the messes they created.
The problem is that they are now deploying the power of the state against us and imposing their stupidity on us in a way that makes it very difficult to ignore.
Boris read classics at Oxford and a compulsory subject in the both classics and PPE in those days (sadly dropped as standards fell) was logic.
This article is an excellent exercise in logic – something sadly lacking amongst our leaders who think that because they say something it will happen like they want it to rather than as inevitably happens the law of unintended consequences. Example, lockdowns – some children not being educated or acquiring social skills or even potty training. Pretty obvious to someone who had stopped for five minutes to consider the logical outcomes as most readers of this site appear to do
Our leaders were well aware of the probable consequences of depriving children of their routines and that is why education was disrupted. The psychological damage was intentional.
If our children are to accept their slave status as adults the programming has to start now.
All pre-planned.
Talking about Bozo Johnson. Whenever Paxman cornered him on Newsnight – Johnson would stymy Paxman by throwing in a random phrase from Greek Literature that would (as with most of us), throw the interviewer off the scent. In essence outside of that Bozo is not very bright and certainly not good enough to lead a nation.
The sheer stupidity of ‘net zero’ has not been addressed in this article. It is in my opinion patently obvious that net zero has sod all to do with global health, in fact the opposite is the case and fuel impoverishment is an end in itself. No modern economy can run without carbon so the whole basis of net zero is based on a very obvious lie from the off. Even a very unscientific mind such as mine has grasped this basic fact.
Fuel shortages are being deliberately engineered and to pretend otherwise is simply naiive at best.
Cold and hungry people are much more susceptible to illnesses and the Davos Deviants have probably got a new brew under way already. So we are going to see a huge rise in sickness levels, another round of “vaccines,” and huge rises in mortality, in short depopulation. And for the sickened survivors – the slave class – “you will own nothing and be happy.”
Agenda 2030 is being rolled out in broad daylight yet people still have their eyes shut.
“It’s not always about what they say it’s about.”
I often wonder whether things would be different were the RPTB not in control of the MSM. This would mean that people might actually learn how to think critically because they would be presented with all sides of, in this case geo political matters, especially Russia/Ukraine.
They might then consider the fact that come what may the elites will never have their own living standards adversely affected, the simple reason being their wealth and power.
So, they are free to “get tough” with Russia which seems, at the moment, to find favour with the sheep – who to be fair, they control via the MSM.
Winter may yet prove to be interesting -pitchforks anyone-as we continue to fight the bear to the last Ukrainian, impose more and more sanctions and then bleat about Russia turning down the gas.
So sad, so stupid, so predictable.
Stagflation:
Money Printing + Restrictions on Supply
Not a nice thing.
Who could possibly have predicted it?!
next in the illogical and hysterical sanctions list is freezing our own pensioners to death. Who is laughing now, Mr. Putin!
A German engineer throws in the towel and sums it all up very succinctly.
I could do with a translation.
Don’t moan about: being unemployed, when you freeze in winter, you have to eat insects, and your kids can’t go to (pre-primary) school. Roughly covers the bottom end of it, if that helps.
Thanks John.
It’s more like when your children already spoiling in day care (including the grammatical error).
“Have fun in the New World Order!
It wasn’t the Coronavirus which disturbed our businesses, it was the measures taken/lockdowns etc.
It’s not the war on the Ukraine which is taking away our last reserves/resources, ( of everything ), but the sanctions.”
Thanks Amtrup.
Well, I get the gist of it. Similar posters could be made for other nations as well, no doubt.
The last sentence isn’t really German, it just uses German words in a way which doesn’t make sense. Specifically, it’s lacking a necessary auxiliary verb. Additionally, applying verdorben to people (as opposed to, say, vegetables, where it would mean rotten) is seriously oldschool. This fell out of fashion a pretty long time ago.
Perhaps he/she is from the former East Germany. I have friends now living in Mainz who were originally from the east and they are continually telling me that east Germans still have a very different mindset from their western compatriots and live “30 years behind.”
From Russia, possibly, but they wouldn’t make the mistake with the missing verb. That’s almost certainly an incompletely copied Google translation of something which was originally written in a different language. Whether that was English, Russian or Chinese is anybody’s guess. That’s also visible from the emotional in the header. The German meaning is identical to the English one, just maybe a little bit stronger: Subject to wild mood swings. Nobody, especially no engineer, would use that in the context of a professional advertisement.
BTW, I know a fair lot of people from the ex-GDR. If anything, they’re more German and less Americanized than the population of the western powers occupation zone (also known as FRG). That’s a refreshing difference.
Well since the US and its NATO vassals are not buying any Russian oil, that would seem to be the ultimate price cap $0 per barrel.
Price caps – on anything – are the best way to ensure a supply shortage.
75% of the World hasn’t joined the Coalition of the Stupid against Russia, so why would the clowns imagine they will sign up to oil price caps – when they are getting nice discounts already?
However.
The Middle East oil producing States have significantly increased their purchases of Russian oil which they are buying at a discount.
What? Coals to Newcastle!
But, all becomes clear when…
The ME States are using Russian oil to replace their domestic use of their own oil (Saudi generates most of its electricity by burning oil) and this displaced oil is sold on the World market – large amounts to Europe – at full market price. The Arabs are pocketing the difference… arbitrage.
The Europeans are in effect getting Russian oil via the Middle East, but paying more for it. Absolute genius! Take that Putin!
It also explains why Joey CoVid Fourjabs was returned rinsed and empty from Saudi. Europe is getting the oil, but the Saudis don’t need to produce more as they can get plenty from Russia, and by not increasing output they keep market prices up and therefore they maximise the profit they make by buying discounted Russian oil.
Russia has made up lost sales to the Loonie Brigade of Countries, by selling more to other Countries, at a discount, but higher volume maintained revenue, and by selling in Ruble or gold, is keeping the currency strong and still collecting foreign exchange.
In brief: the Russians clearly are more economically savvy than the cheerless, nitwits running our ‘developed’ Countries.
‘Normal inflation occurs when the economy is running too hot and is reversed when the economy enters a recession’
Yes this occurs when cheap credit encourages demand in an economy where the supply side is running at full steam ahead but cannot keep up because high level of employment means there is insufficient labour to increase output to meet increasing demand.
But this situation is different. Two years of idiotic economic shut down has paired low demand with low supply, but thanks to more Government idiocy too much printed/valueless money has been fed into the economy looking for too few goods as consumer demand recovers before supply side can which after two years of abject Government stupidity on a global scale is dead in the water.
The thing not to do is encourage demand with cheap credit, nor further impede supply-side recovery with higher costs (energy), taxes and regulation (Net Zero) nor cut off avenues of supply with sanctions on Russia.
The solution? Revolution to sweep away the whole ghastly enterprise of Government and (nominal) Opposition and the Marxist, misanthropists in the EcoFascist religion.
We could all apply a personal price cap to our energy suppliers. Simply cancel the direct debit and pay a reasonable amount by bank transfer. Inform the supplier you will do this and give reasonable notice.
The CPI suggests a 12% increase in payments since 2020. Of course the companies will threaten. But we have to tackle the house of cards sometime.
All planned. We are to own nothing.