Cease-fire in the South
We are well into the fourth month of 2022.
You want records?
We've got more Chinese Covid-19 records
On Friday:
COVID-19: Thailand reports record highs of new cases and deaths
28,379 new Covid cases
92 more deaths
New Mutant "XE" Omicron Variant May Be The Most Transmissible Version Of Covid Yet, According To WHO
https://deadline.com/2022/03/new-xe-covid-variant-omicron-most-transmissible-1234992060/
'WHY?', INDEED: Why can't some scientists just admit they were wrong about Covid?
https://hotair.com/headlines/2022/03/31/why-cant-some-scientists-just-admit-they-were-wrong-about-covid-n459164
Cease-fire in the South
The ruling junta of Thailand and the main "anti-Siam" group in Thailand's Deep South have agreed they won't shoot at each other for the next month, i.e. Ramadan.
The junta and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) agreed to let Malaysia make the cease-fire announcement so it would seem peaceful.
"Both main parties agreed to stop violent activities throughout the month of Ramadan from April 3 to May 14," (Ramadan plus two weeks) said the BNR leader, Anas Abdulrahman.
Thailand and the BNR have been holding desultory "peace talks" since before the pandemic.
The Deep South has had only infrequent ambushes and bomb attacks.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2288966/
THAILAND TOURISM BAD LUCK
Full story at
https://www.the-sun.com/news/5024885/needlefish-impales-man-neck-thailand/
The Thai media, "encouraged" by the ruling junta, are feeding the nation and the world with the stories they fed us last October.
Reopening gathers steam
PM urges 'collective responsibility'
'Test on arrival' is far superior to that old 'test before you arrive stuff, right?
Thailand’s reopening to foreign travellers took another big step forward on Friday as pre-travel RT-PCR tests and certificate requirements ended for visitors arriving under the Test & Go, Sandbox and quarantine programmes, with alleged 'prime minister' Prayut calling on businesses and the public to ensure there were no hiccups. (Or hiccoughs)
"From now on, if anything happens, we must accept collective responsibility. But we have made full preparations. I listened to the pros and cons and have eased restrictions wherever possible.
But.
Prayut still has a bit fat "but" and threatens yet another Covid lockdown.
"But if anything [untoward] comes to pass, we will have to go back to square one. This is the difficult part of running the country," Prayut said.
From yesterday (April Fool's Day), people who enter the country through one of the programmes will be given an RT-PCR test on arrival.
Also
If you pre-register and have all vaxxport papers at hand, you can drive back and forth into Malaysia, through the scenic Sadao gates only.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2288842/
Chiang Mai eases the no-drinking rules.
Effective immediately, alcohol consumption is now allowed until 11pm in all restaurants throughout the province.
However, water fights in public areas will be banned and alcohol sales will be prohibited in venues where festivities are being held during the Songkran festival in the middle of this month.
Auburn University gymnastics
It's ALL Sunisa Lee
On Friday
Suni Lee's all-around score leads Auburn gymnastics to Sweet 16 at home NCAA regional
... During a prolonged respite between the second and third rotations, Auburn passed the time with a game of "Heads Up!" in which everyone held pieces of paper to their foreheads, guessing what was written on the paper. Meanwhile, Lee was off the side after her 9.825 vault. Graba followed her to the locker room.
"Physically, yeah, she landed bad on her one-touch," Graba said.
When she emerged from the locker room, she was on deck for her uneven bars routine. All eyes were on the Olympic gold medalist. She stuck the landing.
Lots more AND 48 photos AND video at...
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/auburn/2022/03/31/suni-lee-all-around-score-leads-auburn-gymnastics-ncaa-sweet-16/7195977001/
Carrie "Silence of the" Lam decides to suspend universal testing. A whole bunch of people call her more nuts than usual.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3172408/new-chinese-migrants-thailand-hit-negative-stereotypes-language
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3172036/hong-kong-forewarned-about-next-covid-wave-it-forearmed
Congrats, Bob. Mighty big of ya.
Florida Welcomes Americans Fleeing 'Dumpster Fire States.'
https://freebeacon.com/politics/beastmode-desantis-dumpster-fire/
Not to mention that the hardest-hit counties in population decline, reflecting remote-work patterns and rising crime and housing costs, were dominated by the big blue cities.
World Cup 2022 is under way in Doha
The first draw for the World Cup play is being held in Doha (overnight Friday in Thailand).
It is the most controversial World Cup in history.
(Where by "controversial" we mean blatantly corrupt.)
A shameless round of bribery and graft bought the Cup for Qatar in 2010.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/sports/2288778/
The first draw of World Cup 2022 is over. The opening match will be Ecuador vs hometown Doha on November 21.
The World Cup takes place across eight stadiums in Qatar from November 21 to December 18.
Well, it's difficult NOT to mock them.
Chris Wallace's job might not be as secure as he'd hoped:
 CNNplus employees are bracing for layoffs possibly within a month amid projections of lacklustre sales of new streaming channel.
 CNN employees say new streaming channel could be merged into larger @discoveryplus as early as May unless subscriptions pick up
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/media/cnn-plus-streaming-service-launch/index.html
Computer shortage looming
Within three months, there will be a shortage of computers on the market in Thailand.
The shortage will last from May to June, says IT distributor Advice.
And yes, it's because of China.
Chukkrit Watcharasaksilp, chief of sales and marketing at Advice, said a shortage is likely in May to June if the fresh Covid lockdowns in China hobble producers.
PHOTO: Right now, just head over to Bitec Bang Nan and buy what you want at IT fair Commart, which ends on Sunday.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2288370/
NOTE: Advice is the leading sponsor of the Liverpool-Man United exhibition, to be held at Rajamangala Nation Stadium in July.
How's that 'We are going to be neutral,' working out for you, Thailand?
Thais urged to offer aid to Ukrainians
The Ukrainian community in Bangkok is calling on Thai people to help provide humanitarian assistance to war victims in Ukraine.
Coordinator Kykola Boichuk said on Thursday he would like to update the Thai public on the latest situation in his country so they can have a better grasp of the current state of affairs.
"Our group wants to send a key message that humanitarian assistance is still needed from Thai people to help the war victims [in Ukraine], especially with medical supplies," he said.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2288338/
Money launderer arrested
... Police said the suspect was part owner of a courier service that was allegedly used to smuggle cash acquired through drug sales to producers in Myanmar.
 The courier service charged 3,000 baht for every million baht smuggled to Myanmar.
 Over the past year, more than 500 million baht in cash had been taken out of the country this way.
PHOTO: Anti-drug police hold down Withaya sae Ma, 24, at his home in Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai. He was arrested on charges of smuggling drug cash to meth producers in Myanmar
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2288806/
So sorry. The 'surprise' is that anyone with a functional brainstem is 'surprised' at any any of this. Gosh darn, pass me the clutching pearls.
 There's a new wave of Chinese migrants - this time from Hong Kong. And we are instructed to feel quite sorry for them.
 New Chinese migrants to Thailand hit with negative stereotypes, language barrier form 'parallel communities'
Unlike earlier Chinese migrants to Thailand, many 'xin yimin' report finding social interactions with local Thais challenging – and often turn to their compatriots instead.
PHOTO: A woman walks through an alley in the Talad Noi neighbourhood, long home to the ethnic Chinese communities of Bangkok.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3172408/new-chinese-migrants-thailand-hit-negative-stereotypes-language
tbf, I guess Big Media is unallowed to mention the "Chinatown Riots" of Bangkok.
There used to be a time, long, long ago, when even The New York Times would drop a mention. Today? Nah.
The disgusting part is that Bangkok's anti-Chinese riots occurred during the lifetimes of pretty well everyone reading this.
BANGKOK VOTES
These are the ballot numbers (issued on Friday) for most of the leading candidates in Bangkok election for governor on May 22.
As of today, the leading candidates are 8, 6 and 11- but don't spend a lot of money on that.
Actually...
I suppose much of this reads like PR slop, but Nan is a pleasant town and province to visit.
Hidden gems in Nan
https://m.bangkokpost.com/travel/sightseeing/54778/
Where could he find more?
SCREW American combat veterans.
If U.S. military veterans can't get along without doctors and nurses, screw 'em. Who cares?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-vaccine-migrants-border-custody/
Seen on the InterTubes:
It's possible. Barely.
Could Will Smith Lose His Oscar For Slapping Chris Rock?
But do you know what is absolutely impossible?
That the now-late Walter Duranty and still-living The New York Times will lose their Pulitzer Prizes for praising and protecting Stalin.
Things I learnt for the first time while watching the amazing documentary, The Lost City of Z.
Rudyard Kipling wrote an amazing poem, The Explorer, published in 1898:
 There's no sense in going further - it's the edge of cultivation,"
 So they said, and I believed it - broke my land and sowed my crop -
Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station
 Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop:
Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
 On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated - so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges-
 "Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"
So I went, worn out of patience; never told my nearest neighbours -
 Stole away with pack and ponies - left 'em drinking in the town;
And the faith that moveth mountains didn't seem to help my labours
 As I faced the sheer main-ranges, whipping up and leading down.
March by march I puzzled through 'em, turning flanks and dodging shoulders,
 Hurried on in hope of water, headed back for lack of grass;
Till I camped above the tree-line - drifted snow and naked boulders -
 Felt free air astir to windward - knew I'd stumbled on the Pass.
'Thought to name it for the finder: but that night the Norther found me -
 Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies; so I called the camp Despair
(It's the Railway Gap to-day, though). Then my Whisper waked to hound me: -
 "Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder! Go you there!"
Then I knew, the while I doubted - knew His Hand was certain o'er me.
 Still - it might be self-delusion - scores of better men had died -
I could reach the township living, but ... He knows what terror tore me...
 But I didn't... but I didn't. I went down the other side.
Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes,
 And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by;
But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water drained to shallows,
 And I dropped again on desert - blasted earth, and blasting sky....
I remember lighting fires; I remember sitting by 'em;
 I remember seeing faces, hearing voices, through the smoke;
I remember they were fancy - for I threw a stone to try 'em.
 "Something lost behind the Ranges" was the only word they spoke.
I remember going crazy. I remember that I knew it
When I heard myself hallooing to the funny folk I saw.
'Very full of dreams that desert, but my two legs took me through it...
And I used to watch 'em moving with the toes all black and raw.
But at last the country altered - White Man's country past disputing -
 Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills behind -
There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting.
 Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find.
Thence I ran my first rough survey - chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em -
 Week by week I pried and sampled - week by week my findings grew.
Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found a kingdom !
 But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the worth of two !
Up along the hostile mountains, where the hair-poised snowslide shivers -
 Down and through the big fat marshes that the virgin ore-bed stains,
Till I heard the mile-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers,
 And beyond the nameless timber saw illimitable plains !
'Plotted sites of future cities, traced the easy grades between 'em;
 Watched unharnessed rapids wasting fifty thousand head an hour;
Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em -
 Saw the plant to feed a people - up and waiting for the power!
Well, I know who'll take the credit - all the clever chaps that followed -
 Came, a dozen men together - never knew my desert-fears;
Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water-holes I hollowed.
 They'll go back and do the talking. They'll be called the Pioneers !
They will find my sites of townships - not the cities that I set there.
 They will rediscover rivers - not my rivers heard at night.
By my own old marks and bearings they will show me how to get there,
 By the lonely cairns I builded they will guide my feet aright.
Have I named one single river? Have I claimed one single acre ?
 Have I kept one single nugget - (barring samples)? No, not I !
Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker.
 But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy.
Ores you'll find there; wood and cattle; water-transit sure and steady
 (That should keep the railway rates down), coal and iron at your doors.
God took care to hide that country till He judged His people ready,
 Then He chose me for His Whisper, and I've found it, and it's yours !
\Yes, your "Never-never country" - yes, your "edge of cultivation"
 And "no sense in going further" - till I crossed the range to see.
God forgive me! No, I didn't. It's God's present to our nation.
 Anybody might have found it, but - His Whisper came to Me!
