News Forum - To wear or not to wear a face mask (in Thailand) – that is the question – OPINION

[TheDirtyDurian]

Only place I'll wear one will be at Soyouwannaboomboom on the way out....

And then the whole things become a farce as the whole plane takes them off....

 

[rc1]

7 hours ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

 

I think most people are just wearing them because everyone else is, if more people stopped wearing them it would snowball. 

Yes, this is the case in Thailand, ask Thais and they're keen to get them off they're just waiting for enough others to stop before they feel comfortable.

Someone has to lead them out of this, and rejoin the rest of the world that is simply just not masking up, in mass,  anymore.

 

 

 

[HolyCowCm]

11 hours ago, Manu said:

Great article again on the subject. However the last paragraph:

"guests"? Tourists are not welcome in Thailand as guests but as customers to spend their money, nothing else. So any tourist's decision not to wear the mask should be respected cause "the customer is always right"!

Well until you get bad service. I do agree with your post as some what saying: Thinking of the Tourists are paying Customers. But that gets debatable when it feels like that of that  we foreingers hear we should be forking out double and tripled price ranges compared with what that of a Thai would be charged. Say like double or even like: 100 bht (T) / 300bht (F),  or    50 bht (T) / 150bht (F),    or   say like a national reseve 50 bht (T) / 400bht (F). 

These already wealthy Thai Junta regime controllers or if not wealthy but extremely well off Thai power Dork representatives keeping the power, are treated on the big whole very well with their lush extravagent living on the money they collected or was donated to them. Some very lavish taken care of stuff. 

Mentality here as example: General or retired but then luckily had a rigged system set up (somehow) and then became bigger in government to say as PM, a (self imposed) regime Military person that wasn't ever elected, who has a very big house on military property, who has full disregard and zero respect to humans as how the use of Thai slave labor from military kids take care of him and his family and his toilletes and clothes sort of me it reminds me of the USA back in the 1800's or maybe England  in the1500 - 1700's.. My point? They don't conside anyone belwo them with anything but beneath them.

[Bill_Koomers]

Haven't worn one at all, other than in stores that had signage demanding it and on flights, in close to 2 yrs.

If you want to wear one, wear one, if you don't feel safe then go get a 10th booster and stay inside with your Changs. "Up to you," but it's time for you to move on to something else to be engaged in and upset about. Covid is over, vaccines are available. 

Edited by Moderator 

[Pinetree]

12 hours ago, Marc26 said:

But scientifically, you have very little chance of catching covid outside

you are missing the point, its not about the science, its about respect for the local Thais in their own country., 

[Pinetree]

12 hours ago, MrNovax said:

utter nonsense.  respect is mutual.  i dont expect foreigners who visit my home town to adapt all the customs especially if it contradicts their own.  i have a feeling that this rule of yours only applies to the thai customs you agree with.  

we're talking about masks here mate, nothing else. 

[Pinetree]

6 hours ago, rc1 said:

Someone has to lead them out of this, and rejoin the rest of the world

and that is a set of arrogant western A holes is it?  Words fail me.  A little less of the Imperialist, 'lets train the local  natives' attitude on here would be good. 

[rc1]

52 minutes ago, Pinetree said:

and that is a set of arrogant western A holes is it?  Words fail me.  A little less of the Imperialist, 'lets train the local  natives' attitude on here would be good. 

It's not about imperialist, western, or natives anything.

It's about logic and common sense. Facts are, the overwhelming  majority of the world is not wearing masks anything like Thailand and moving on from covid, targeting vaccinations and treatments to the vulnerable rather than mass mask wearing.  Many many countries now have NO restrictions at all. 

Thailand is one of a small handful of countries around the world where the people are wearing masks to this extent. 

It's impacting society, economy, and confidence , it makes people fearful, stunts communication, stops social gatherings that bring joy to so many, it needs to end. 

Showing that you can go about your day to day business with a maskless smile isn't disrespectful,  and the more people who do that, the sooner the Thai population will feel comfortable doing the same. 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by rc1
typo

[Erikbkk]

1 hour ago, Bill_Koomers said:

If you want to wear one, wear one, if you don't feel safe then go get a 10th booster and stay inside with your Changs. "Up to you," but it's time for you to move on to something else to be engaged in and upset about. Covid is over, vaccines are available. 

Wearing a mask isn’t about *your own* protection.  It’s about the protection of others.  

[Pinetree]

9 minutes ago, rc1 said:

the overwhelming  majority of the world is not wearing masks anything like Thailand

You are wrong, again.  The Chinese are still in masks and there are 1.7 billion of them, in that one country alone. 

[Pinetree]

11 minutes ago, rc1 said:

It's not about imperialist, western, or natives anything.

It's about logic and common sense. Facts are, the overwhelming  majority of the world is not wearing masks anything like Thailand and moving on from covid, targeting vaccinations and treatments to the vulnerable rather than mass mask wearing.  Many many countries now have NO restrictions at all. 

Thailand is one of a small handful of countries around the world where the people are wearing masks to this extent. 

It's impacting society, economy, and confidence , it makes people fearful, stunts communication, stops social gatherings that bring joy to so many, it needs to end. 

Showing that you can go about your day to day business with a maskless smile isn't disrespectful,  and the more people who do that, the sooner the Thai population will feel comfortable doing the same. 

None of that diatribe is right 

[rc1]

6 minutes ago, Pinetree said:

You are wrong, again.  The Chinese are still in masks and there are 1.7 billion of them, in that one country alone. 

You're right, but no one should look to China as an example of an appropriate covid response. An absolute dystopia, truly sad what is happening there.

In terms of countries, only a handful are still employing mass mask wearing, that's a fact.  

[Highlandman]

18 hours ago, Pinetree said:

Farangs should fit in with what the local Thais are doing.  All around here are wearing masks, therefore so do I.   Its a  matter of respect. 

It's not about respect, but about being part of the herd (herd mentality). It's now a personal choice not to wear one. We farang also tend to know more about health than Thais, who get all their information from TV and social media. Thai media and the government have put out what I would describe as the most extreme propaganda in the world, suggesting that not wearing a mask everywhere (even at home at one point last year) could cause you to die. They wear their masks on TV, which no other country (not even mask obsessed Japan) does. In fact, in Japan, a speaker always takes off their mask. In Thailand, it's difficult to understand what people are saying while they talk with their masks on as sound is distorted by having to pass through cloth or paper first and this is coming from someone who speaks fluent and perfect Thai and generally has no issue understanding even local accents.

Moreover, wearing a mask all day is torture. It's like forcing an 85 year old with multiple health issues to go on 20km walks daily. It's simply inhumane. Particularly since it's been going on for so long, with seemingly no end in sight. It's as if the quacks who advocate mask wearing believe Thais should be wearing their masks for the rest of their lives. There will always be new variants and we can't continue to indoctrinate and condition people with fear forever.

Despite some re-introductions of indoor mask mandates in a small number of places, the general trend is that the world has stopped masking. In Laos and Vietnam, locals have largely stopped masking despite their official mask mandates still being in place. Why can't Thais do the same?

With Thailand sticking to it's official voluntary mask recommendation, it would make more sense not to wear a mask in Thailand than in Laos or Vietnam, for the simple reason that you are technically "breaking the law" by not wearing one in the latter two countries, though like I mentioned, it's no longer much adhered to or enforced.

Like in Thailand, you have public transport operators (in Laos this applies particularly to domestic/international airports and flights and the Lao-China railway) and in Vietnam especially to airports and flights, which continue to strictly enforce the mandate. Elsewhere though, this is no longer the case.

[Highlandman]

48 minutes ago, Pinetree said:

You are wrong, again.  The Chinese are still in masks and there are 1.7 billion of them, in that one country alone. 

You are very wrong and are virtue signaling rather than looking at the actual facts.

Firstly, there are 1.4 billion Chinese, not 1.7. Secondly, the Chinese actually stopped mandatory masking in all outdoor settings and most indoor ones soon after that, effective as early as June 2020 (August 2020 in Beijing). Exceptions apply to outbreak zones, such as Shanghai and Beijing, where masks must be worn everywhere. However, the Shanghainese were almost completely maskless from mid 2020 through to the end of March 2022 even in shopping malls and taxis until the lockdown came around. So they've only been under strict mask orders for the second time since this all started in early 2020. My understanding is masks were first mandated early in 2020 throughout most of China, but this mandate only lasted around 4-5 months.

My friend, a Chinese school teacher in western Yunnan, updates his WeChat profile almost daily and I speak to him very often. He told me that schools were shuttered between roughly January and April 2020. Then, in mid to late April they went back, everyone was forced to live at school, teachers and students included, for several weeks. They had to be masked and tested 3 times daily. About a month later, they were allowed to return to a normal day schedule, but testing was required once daily. Masks were still required. By June 2020, the masks came off! Testing was down to a couple of times a week. Later in 2020, aside from using the tracing app, everything was back to normal.

During 2021, they briefly re-introduced masks for a couple of weeks but that was it. So far in 2022, neither he nor his students have been forced to wear a mask.

Masks are still mandatory throughout China (as they have been since January or February 2020) at airports, train stations and on board public transit as well as large events such as exhibitions. Other than that, they're rarely worn except in outbreak zones as I've mentioned.

[Chaimai]

13 hours ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

Only place I'll wear one will be at Soyouwannaboomboom on the way out....

And then the whole things become a farce as the whole plane takes them off....

 

 

You will be in for a surprise.

[Chaimai]

I am looking forward to the day when everyone posting on here (myself included) gets bored with this pi55ing contest.

 

 

Just get on with life (with or without a mask, as required) and stop talking about what others are doing.

[Highlandman]

3 minutes ago, Transam said:

To be honest, I think many Thai folk think farangs are tools anyway, and just.............at the farang hi-so, do-as-we-like attitude.....

Your virtue signaling isn't going to get you very far. Thais generally don't virtue signal. Unfortunately, some are racist, but that's life. Don't let it get to you. I look at Thais (mostly upper middle class hi-sos) who mask their babies with disdain. They're torturing their children.

An old friend recently posted some images of her family on an outing near Phuket. They have a 6 year old son. They went on a luxury boat tour. The parents and the boat operator weren't wearing a mask but guess what? This poor kid was forced to wear one so the parents could virtue signal. This is quite sick behavior.

You don't generally see this even in neighboring countries, where the locals have largely stopped wearing masks, irrespective of the fact that in some of them (Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam) their mask mandates have not ended yet.

The reality is that Thais, particularly the government supporting upper middle classes, have been brainwashed to hate foreigners, which people like Anutin regularly blame, without evidence, for the country's woes. If anything, that has caused tensions, which would otherwise not be there.

The actual "tools", drunks who cause trouble, are an extremely small minority of foreigners and could just as well be Indian or Chinese.

Also, the foreigners LEAST likely to be masking (and confirmed with my own eyes in the last few days) are Middle Easterners and Indians. Farang are about 50/50. I saw almost no Middle Easterners or Indians masked outdoors and a lot of them unmasked indoors at the mall for example.

[Highlandman]

1 hour ago, Erikbkk said:

Wearing a mask isn’t about *your own* protection.  It’s about the protection of others.  

LOL. You sound like a socialist. Literally no one except virtue signaling farang wears a mask to protect others. They wear them out of fear and because they believe that they're useful to protect themselves.

[Highlandman]

2 hours ago, Pinetree said:

and that is a set of arrogant western A holes is it?  Words fail me.  A little less of the Imperialist, 'lets train the local  natives' attitude on here would be good. 

As far as I understand it, the imperialists were about taking away the rights and freedoms of locals, among other things. Forcing people to wear masks is doing exactly that. Therefore, advocating for freedom is an anti-imperalist act.

[Highlandman]

19 hours ago, palooka said:

Agree totally.

Go by the basic  -- If Thais are masked show good manners and wear a mask.

We may  be back wearing masks compulsorily soon.

โรงเรียนสตรีวิทยา (satriwit.ac.th)

Satriwit School in Bangkok closed for Covid and Online learning back.

It's not about "good manners" but not wanting to be perceived as "different". Thais already know westerners hate wearing masks. TV doctors have told them this many times. I remember a segment from back in April when a doctor said on TNN Online "Foreigners loathe mask wearing".

Thais don't expect foreigners to behave the same way they do. In fact, they're confused when we act "too Thai".

[Rookiescot]

2 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

It's not about "good manners" but not wanting to be perceived as "different". Thais already know westerners hate wearing masks. TV doctors have told them this many times. I remember a segment from back in April when a doctor said on TNN Online "Foreigners loathe mask wearing".

Thais don't expect foreigners to behave the same way they do. In fact, they're confused when we act "too Thai".

Yes you should be allowed to do what you want because you are special.

[Highlandman]

14 minutes ago, Transam said:

Not a lot gets to me, sunbeam, only farang tools who think they know better and can't shake it off in LOS, quite funny really....

Yeah you need to lighten up dude. Your obsession with what other farang do seems to be causing you a lot of distress. Child out, maybe light a joint (which is legal now). Thais absolutely don't care about what we do or don't do the way you think, it's mostly farang who are obsessed about it. Most Thais have far greater issues to be concerned about, with their own citizens far more likely to be involved in anti-social behavior - just watch the Thai news for examples. Moreover, it's the antics of foreign drunks that annoy people more than little faux pas here and there. Much of it hyped up on social media though.

One of the good things about Thai culture is most people let you be, they are tolerant and don't care what you do, as long as it doesn't cause grave offense (such as pointing your foot towards a Buddha statue), is crude or violent.

[Highlandman]

1 minute ago, Rookiescot said:

Yes you should be allowed to do what you want because you are special.

Your virtue signaling isn't helpful. Thais don't care...stop being obsessed with what other farang do or don't do.

[Rookiescot]

Just now, Highlandman said:

Your virtue signaling isn't helpful. Thais don't care...stop being obsessed with what other farang do or don't do.

You need to look up the meaning of virtue signaling. You use it in almost every post but it does not mean what you think it means. 

If the local population is wearing masks then its a matter of common decency to do the same. When in Rome.....

However there will always be a small number of foreigners here who feel their entitlement gives them the right to do what they want.

Tell me something. Do you wear a seatbelt? 

[Highlandman]

17 hours ago, Pinetree said:

No, that is a religious issue, which to most reasonable thinking people  is clearly a totally different argument.  I don't drive like they do either  

So you're selective then?

If you don't drive like Thais do, you're going to get yourself into an accident or even killed.

I drive like most Thais do, because to do anything less would cause danger. 

Most Thais (car drivers at least) are fairly sensible. It's the minority of selfish ones that are not, but after a while you adapt and adjust.

So this means not driving like an old grandma at 70-90km/h in the potholed left lane with the trucks. You drive 110km/h in the right lane at the same speed as other vehicles. You flash your lights at vehicles sitting at a u-turn if you're driving on the highway to warn them of your presence.

You don't excessively honk your horn (which is considered annoying and could cause problems) - but a quick toot of the horn to warn of danger is fine when it's warranted. Tooting the horn briefly is also a common local tactic when ascending mountainous roads with sharp turns to warn other motorists of your presence. Obviously this isn't needed if the road has 2 or more lanes in the same direction; only on single lane roads.