Thai prime minister makes a secret visit to the airport. With a stopwatch. And he's not laughing now.
Winter's still upon us, meaning warm days (34 degrees or so) and icy overnights, down to 24 chilling degrees last night.
New York City (again) leads the world's great cities in the number of people around whom you shouldn't make a sudden move.
[Quote du Jour Introduction: Liverpool of way-up-north won the Carabao Cup donated by Carabao of Thailand with a buzzer-beating 1-0 header by Virgil van Dijk to put those Londoners, fans of Chelsea, in their proper place, i.e. losers again.]
[Sorry 'bout that, London]
GAME ANALYSIS by sore-loser coach Jurgen Klopp:
They scored and we didn't score.
MATCH ANALYSIS by Chelsea boss-man Pochettino:
We didn't score and that was a bit of a problem.
Why do Liverpool fans boo the national anthem?
Liverpool fans booed the national anthem before the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley Stadiumhttps://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/liverpool-fans-boo-national-anthem-why-wembley-b2501304.html
Thailand doesn't have nearly enough world-class girl golfers, right?
Patty Tavatanakit wins LPGA Thailand with a thrilling back-nine comeback at the Siam Country Club to defeat Albane Valenzuela who almost but then didn't win the first significant golf tournament for her native Switzerland.
Thailand's Patty took home 800,000 baht and the trophy with a 3-day performance of 21 under par.
"It’s been a dream come true for me to win a home tournament in front of my parents," said the 24-year-oild Bangkokian.
https://www.nationthailand.com/lifestyle/sport/40035882
LPGA VIDEO: Patty's Sunday brilliance https://t.ly/Z6vQP
Thai PM Srettha visited Suvarnabhumi
And was not at all impressed.
The prime minister said he found that both the arrival and departure procedures were too long.
Srettha said that he had asked the officials in charge if they could reduce the time taken. “The answer was that the processing time was uncertain,” Srettha said.
"This has to be improved urgently," the prime minister added.
The visit was unannounced, and he personally time passengers from deplaning to Immigration.
"We are trying to push Thailand into an aviation hub and we are opening doors to foreign tourists, so I would like operation officials to be service-minded and take care of the tourists so that they will be impressed from the time they get out of their planes."
PHOTO (below) Srettha braces the airport manager and the head of the Suvarnabhumi Immigration Bureau division outside the airport's departure gate.
https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/tourism/40035867
OPED ANALYSIS ECONOMY
From Thailand, best question of the weekend. Long-ish read.
Who's pulling the economic strings?
Truth is that these days you cannot answer such a question without mentioning 'Thaksin' (photo below). And Thaksinomics.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2748494/
His first homecoming in 15 years has been closely watched by the business sector, which is curious about what changes this might cause to the current administration, especially regarding economic policy under the coalition government led by Pheu Thai Party. And controlled by Thaksin since 2007 ---his full time in political exile.
Whether or not Thaksin is involved with Thai politics, I believe most entrepreneurs would like to see the nation's economy left intact.
But the old way of doing politics doesn't work.
THAILAND TRIVIA OPINION
Opinion: An Educated Guess on How Many Thais Are Royalists
NOTE: By its nature... this is an inexact question on a survey (as they say) 'where there's no wrong answer'. People interviewed might lie, might shade their answer, might actually fear answering a 'newspaper survey.' But here is what the newspaper Khao Sod (Fresh News) came up with.
Over the past two weeks, we have seen royalists and ultra-royalists wearing purple shirt and dress, changing their social media account's background colour to purple, which is the birth colour of HRH Princess Sirindhorn, younger sister of His Majesty, in order to express their professed love and solidarity towards the Princess, after a "monarchy-reform activist" honked noisily at her royal motorcade.
On the royalist side, there are genuine royalists who feel offended and donned purple to publicly express their anger. But there are also the me-too opportunists who benefit from presenting themselves as royalists, or "good people" (khon dee), while they may not be particularly attached to the institution at all.
https://shorturl.at/degtO
Also OPINION OPED CONTROVERSIAL
In recent days, members of the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) including members of parliament have begun openly praising communism, particularly the Marxist-Leninist type.
This is clear:
Move Forward will lose support by advocating for Marxism. This stance not only rekindles debates over the viability and morality of communist ideologies but also raises profound questions about the trajectory of Thai political and social reform. From the Soviet gulags to the Cultural Revolution in China, and the Khmer Rouge's genocidal regime in Cambodia, the 20th century witnessed how the pursuit of a communist utopia could devolve into tyranny and mass atrocities.
Thai Enquirer: https://shorturl.at/aswS0
