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From The Diplomat Building a huge dam just upstream from a legendary UNESCO World Heritage site in an earthquake prone region poses serious risk to the local population and the town of Luang Prabang, warns a leading Thai earthquake specialist. Dr. Punya Churasiri, formerly the earthquake expert at Chulalungkorn University’s geology department, has considerable field research experience in northern Laos. As construction on the dam moved forward, he told The Diplomat, “We worry about what could happen and the possibility of damage to the World Heritage site.” The main developer and builder of the dam is the Thai construction giant CH Karnchang corporation. The dam site sits precariously close to an active earthquake faultline only 8.6 kilometers away. A sharp reminder of the danger was provided on July 7, when a 4.7 strong earthquake was registered in Luang Prabang district. Many local people in the World Heritage city fear that the 1410 MW Luang Prabang dam could trigger another disaster after the Xepian Xenamnoi dam accident in 2018. Damage to the dam caused a massive flood that swept away villagers and villages alike, leaving 14,440 people homeless and 71 confirmed dead. The dam site is 25 kilometers upriver from Luang Prabang, a cultural mecca and cornerstone of Lao history. The city harmoniously blends old architecture and culture with the surrounding nature, flanked by the confluence of the Mekong and Khan rivers, all part of the protective UNESCO World Heritage zone. Among many issues UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC) will be considering at its annual session, which began on July 16 in China, will be the increasing impact of dams on World Heritage sites, most recently in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and Luang Prabang in Laos. The potential for damage to the sites has prompted global outcry. In the draft decision the WHC recommended the government of Laos “to halt all construction activities until a full heritage impact assessment is carried out.” Continues at https://thediplomat.com/2021/07/the-threat-of-a-dam-disaster-in-luang-prabang/

From Thai Enquirer Angry netizens have called for a ban of food-delivery application foodpanda after the company said it would fire an employee for attending pro-democracy demonstrations on Sunday. The hashtag #แบนfoodpanda (#boycottfoodpanda) has been trending on Thai twitter for the past 24 hours with more than 1.13 million tweets as of Monday morning. Many of the posts see netizens vowing to delete their accounts. The outrage began after a foodpanda social media account said that it would fire a man seen in pictures wearing the company’s logo and taking part in Sunday’s protests. “Please be aware that foodpanda has a policy against all types of violence and terrorism and is ready to cooperate with authorities in pursuing offenders,” foodpanda said on its social media account. Amid online backlash, foodpanda later issued an apology regarding the earlier response, saying it is still examining what happened. “We apologize for disappointing all customers and partner restaurants,” the company said. One of the foodpanda riders posted on Facebook that he does not agree with a company that views its employees as terrorists. “If I’m going to lose my job because of the stupidity and selfishness of this company, I’d be content,” said the rider in defiance. His post has been shared over 39,000 times and received more than 95,000 reactions at the time of writing. Foodpanda is owned by Germany-based Delivery Hero and operates in multiple incarnations across 10 countries and territories. https://www.thaienquirer.com/30074/foodpanda-the-target-of-online-boycott-after-firing-employee-attending-protests/

and rightly so, I'd join boycott if I was user

From Pattaya Mail When Pattaya first shut down at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Alisa Phanthusak Kunpalin thought that the iconic Tiffany’s Show she heads would be closed for at most three months. Sixteen months later, the stage lights remain dark, the seats empty and the feathered headdresses dusty. Alisa, Tiffany’s managing director, now fears it will be that way for some time. “I thought the government could control it,” Alisa said of the coronavirus’ spread. “But unfortunately, there are no signs of recovery.” The Tiffany’s Show, which had run continuously for 46 years until Pattaya shut down in March 2020. In between the three waves, the Beach Road theater reopened briefly and only on weekends and holidays, but it wasn’t enough to sustain the Tiffany cast of dancers, crew and administrative employees. “We were responsible for a huge slice of tourism income that poured from our sweats and tears,” one of the Tiffany transgender dancers, “Nong Kuk-Kik”, wrote on her Facebook page this week. “But now we face an indescribable situation with our income and daily lives.” To be fair, all of Pattaya’s entertainment sector has been wiped out by the three waves of business closures. The transgender cabarets are not unique. Thousands of women once worked as bar hostesses or go-go dancers on Walking Street, Soi LK Metro and the side streets in between. Hundreds of men did likewise in the city’s gay bars. Transgender women, with far fewer employment options, toiled in dingy Soi 6 brothels with only the youngest, tallest and fairest “ladyboys” lifting themselves out of the sex industry to join the famed Tiffany’s and Alcazar choruses. Continues with photos https://www.pattayamail.com/news/glamourous-life-just-a-memory-for-pattayas-ladyboy-cabaret-dancers-364103

This seems another case of bureaucratic madness. China already has 11 massive dams on its part of the Mekong river. According to a Bloomberg article in April last year, the effect of these dams is now being felt very seriously down stream in Laos and Cambodia. Although it refers primarily to China blocking water from flowing downstream, given the seemingly cavalier attitude of China to its neighbours, what if it suddenly let out a large amount of water which found its way to this new dam north of Luang Prabang? Could it withstand the increased pressure? What if this coincided with a period of massive flooding as seen recently in other countries, notably Germany? Luang Prabang is one of Asia's most beautiful old cities. It should be protected at all costs, not put a risk. "China considers water management data to be a state secret, and, barring new evidence, it has always been difficult to reach defensible conclusions about China’s management water levels in the Mekong River. That is, until this month, when remarkable new data became public. It shines a dramatic light on how much water China’s upstream dams have blocked—even as downstream countries suffered through unprecedented drought. "Every year, the Mekong River rises and falls in cycle with the rainy season, when a massive pulse of water driven by monsoon rains and Himalayan snow melt flows downstream. Yet along the Thai-Lao border between June and November of last year the mainstream of the Mekong ran dry, the river bed and shoals were exposed, and isolated pools of flopping fish were unable to reach their spawning grounds. "That July, as the mainstream’s level fell so far that irrigation pumps could not reach it, the Thai government mobilized its army to conduct relief efforts. In the fall, Tonle Sap Lake will typically fill with monsoon waters rushing in from the mainstream for five months, providing Cambodians with up to 70 percent of their protein. Last year, the expansion of the lake, often described as the Mekong’s heartbeat, lasted just five weeks, and reports suggest it produced a fraction of the normal 500,000 tons of food. "Observers, myself included, initially concluded that the abysmally low levels in the mainstream were due to low precipitation in the broad Mekong Basin. An El Niño weather pattern still today leaves most of the region suffering from its worst drought on record. In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, millions of people are currently without access to freshwater. But a new study from the U.S-.based climate consultant Eyes on Earth provides us with a different reason: For six months in 2019, China’s dams blocked an unprecedented amount of water from entering the lower Mekong. The amount of water withheld was so large that, for the first time since modern records have been kept, there was no monsoon-driven rise in water levels just over the Chinese border in Chiang Saen, Thailand. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/22/science-shows-chinese-dams-devastating-mekong-river/ Note: Underlining is in the original article. Boldface is my addition.

I don't know if I should be directing this somewhere in particular, but I was surprised just now that my bookmark to this site which is apparently still to gaythailand.com is no longer redirecting to here. I don't know how many people are in the same boat, but luckily I remembered that it's now called gayguides - and given my memory that was something of a triumph.

Still valuable. But, to build a website is a lot of work for that value to pay off.

Sadly im a user but we only have a choice between food panda that doesnt support civillian protests and grab that bought off uber and monopoly the market, increasing their rate by a lot after. Post lockdown, id definitely have a choice to ditch both of them

I am a user and I just deleted the application.

Yes, the name was owned by Firecat and sold by his estate. There will be no more redirects.

For years Thailand has mandated a transmission delay of around 5 minutes for news programmes on CNN, BBC World News and presumably other channels. This is to give the censors time to blank screens whenever any issue about Thailand embarrassing to the government is aired. Today, though, the BBC News at 08:00 and 09:00 carried a reasonably long piece on the Bangkok protests yesterday which saw the police use of water canons, rubber bullets and tear gas. The demonstration was to protest the government's disastrous covid19 response and to seek the resignation of the Prime Minister. The rally was held despite the ban on assemblies of more than 5 people in Bangkok. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2150783/police-fire-water-cannon-rubber-bullets-tear-gas-at-protesters I can't imagine that anyone seeing these scenes will be considering returning for visits to Thailand any time soon.

Don't wake them up. I first saw this censoring delay during the 'shirt' demonstrations. Objections at the time brought a denial from the government 'nothing to do with us guv'. They claimed that it was TRUE doing it off their own back.

Not to worry. Eventually this dispute will be settled by the careful and orderly examination of documents and compromise by the relative parties.

Prime minister was reading our boards full of praise of how well Thailand was handling pandemic ( at one point rightly so but it looks it was more luck that shrewd policy) and thought country is relatively safe just by closing Swampy and chasing foreign arrivals away ?

From Thai Enquirer By Pear Maneechote Two years ago, no one could have anticipated the world in which we live today, struck by one of the deadliest pandemics in history. With cases still soaring and more and more bodies lined up in Thailand, the battle here is far from over. There is no shortage of devastation or despair in our country, felt in hospital corridors, on the front page of the newspaper and on the dinner tables in our homes. But Thailand is not alone in this fight. The devastating third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly surrounding the highly infectious Delta variant, has been ravaging Southeast Asia, leading to a record number of deaths and daily infections linked to the virus. Many have noted that most countries in the region are experiencing their “worst outbreaks since the pandemic began,” due to the emergence of the more aggressive forms of variants, lack of vaccines and spread of misinformation. Here’s the latest update on how other nations are doing in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is the new epicenter Indonesia has become the new epicenter of the pandemic as of this week. The country is ranked the highest in Southeast Asia, third in Asia, and 16th in the world. With a reported 2,911,733 million cases and 74,920 deaths, Indonesia has surpassed India and Brazil to become the country with the world’s highest daily count of new infections. But the exact numbers — including cases with asymptomatic patients, patients who have not been tested or those who have died at home — could be much higher. Much like Thailand, social media in the country is flooded with news of those affected by the outbreak, with netizens pleading for help and grieving the loss of their loved ones. Hospitals are overcrowded, and burial sites are running out. The current situation and economic hardship also make social isolation almost impossible, especially for those living on a daily wage. Many experts have cautioned that the country still hasn’t even reached the peak of the pandemic yet, and it may surpass India’s number of infections in the near future. Aside from the startling rise in infections, Indonesia is also facing a situation that Dr. Pandu Riono, a prominent epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia, calls “herd stupidity” due to widespread and rampant misinformation. According to Dr. Pandu, Indonesian government officials have been sending mixed messages and making poor decisions throughout this outbreak. Many citizens have also refused to follow strict health protocols and social distancing, as well as refusing vaccinations based on religious conspiracy theories. The vaccine rollout in Indonesia has been incredibly low, with only 6 per cent of the population vaccinated out of its 270 million inhabitants. So far, the government has only tested 15,793,858 of its entire population. The World Health Organization, since the onset of the pandemic last year, has already urged the country to perform more tests on its people, especially on suspected patients. Myanmar’s military coup The February coup in Myanmar, followed by the subsequent protests and civil disobedience movement led by citizens and healthcare workers alike, has crumbled the country’s healthcare system and deepened its already ailing economic recession. A nationwide lockdown and additional holidays have been imposed from July 17 – 25, in an attempt to contain the outbreak. But the country’s Covid-19 testing system and vaccination rollout, in fact, have collapsed ever since the military coup took place. In defiance of the military government, many citizens have refused treatment and vaccination. Doctors and patients have fled military-run hospitals because of anger and fear toward the military authorities and their refusal to cooperate with the regime. Families are searching for treatment and oxygen on their own, according to The Asian Times. According to the latest report by CNN, as many as one-third of all people tested in Myanmar have tested positive for the virus, with the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights warning that the junta-run country could become the next “Covid-19 super spreader state.” Myanmar is in a crisis. Hospitals and crematoriums are overwhelmed and are unable to keep up with the surge. Volunteers have been going door-to-door to collect the rising number of victims dying at home. Out of a population of 54 million, the junta-struck country has reported 234,710 cases and 5,281 linked to the coronavirus outbreak. Vietnam’s latest surge Vietnam was previously hailed as one of the world’s Covid-19 success stories, until the latest surge ravaged the country. Its largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, is now on the verge of medical collapse as the virus has spread rampantly into the commercial and supply chain hub since the beginning of June. “Vietnam is now officially entering the pandemic,” noted a prominent Vietnamese doctor, Dr. Tran Van Phuc, while adding that the country is also suffering through a low vaccination rollout. As of July 17, the communist-led nation has administered 4,261,252 vaccine doses across the country out of its 96.46 million inhabitants, accounting for only up to around 4.5 per cent of its total population. However, only 309,791 have got two doses. Over half of the country’s infections occurred during the past month, with 60,180 reported cases and 334 deaths linked to the virus. Health authorities believe that it all started with Ms. Loan, who started experiencing symptoms in April, attending a church service where people were not wearing masks back in Hanoi earlier in April of this year. To control the outbreak, the Vietnamese government advised its citizens in the capital city of Hanoi to stay at home and stopped all non-essential services. There has been a nationwide closure of indoor dining, salons, gyms, as well as a halt to domestic travel via rail and bus. “This outbreak is not the same as the previous ones,” said the country’s health minister Nguyen Thanh Long on Sunday. “We are preparing and standing ready for worse and worse scenarios.” Malaysia’s white flag In Southeast Asia, Malaysia has the third highest number of infections after the Philippines and Indonesia, with 927,533 cases and 7,148 deaths. The country is currently battling its worst pandemic to date, seeing an all-time high in daily infections consecutively last week, with its death toll tripling in the past two months. Due to the staggering rise in cases since May, Malaysia has gone into “full lockdown” nationwide since June 1, 2021, which includes an 8 pm curfew in the capital Kuala Lumpur and the neighboring state Selangor. The spike in cases has caused hospitals in some regions to reach full capacity, running severely low on medical supplies, with the entire healthcare system as a whole on the brink of collapse. Only 8 per cent of its 32 million people are fully inoculated, while 19 per cent have received at least one jab of the Covid-19 vaccine. Besides having severe economic effects on the country, the pandemic has caused major political instability and uproar against the government. Many Malaysians are now struggling for their lives and pleading for help. Statistics indicate that the suicide rate has gone up to alarming levels, with a total of 468 suicides reported during the first five months of 2021, up from 631 during the same period in 2020. With the #benderaputih (“white flag”) campaign, Malaysians, namely those belonging to lower-income households, have been flying white flags outside their homes and posting them on social media as a plea for help. Much like Thailand, celebrities, businesses and other citizens have offered their help by providing food and other necessities. Following the “white flag” campaign, some people have responded to the movement with another one by flying the black flag, a new campaign urging Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resign. This was led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who tweeted three black flag emojis earlier in July. https://www.thaienquirer.com/30156/southeast-asias-worst-wave/

From Coconuts Bangkok A file photo of Charnchai Tangsubmanee at his shop Guay Jub Ouan Pochana. Photo: Guay Jub Ouan Pochana / Facebook Foodies and customers who’ve queued at a well-known noodle shop in Bangkok’s Chinatown are mourning the death of its owner after learning he succumbed to COVID-19. Tributes from customers famous and ordinary were spreading for Charnchai Tangsubmanee, the 73-year-old owner of Guay Jub Ouan Pochana who sold aromatic and peppery rolled rice noodle soup from a small shophouse over five decades. “I was in shock,” once-mighty news anchor Sorayuth Suthassanachinda said of learning Charnchai’s death. “Whenever I went there, Charnchai always greeted me, and we’d always hit it off. His noodles were hot and delicious every time, too. May he rest in peace.” News of Charnchai’s death Saturday was just confirmed by his sons, Adulwit and Narudon Tangsubmanee. According to Adulwit, Charnchai received his first dose of AstraZeneca in June but tested positive for the disease late last month. Charnchai and his wife, who also contracted COVID-19, were admitted to the Thonburi Bamrungmuang Hospital. Guay Jub Ouan Pochana was recognized on the Michelin guide’s Bib Gourmand list in 2019. Last year, it was among 106 Bangkok restaurants found worthy of the same rating by the French tire manufacturer. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/years-of-sweat-won-fame-for-his-chinatown-noodles-bangkoks-covid-3rd-wave-killed-him-in-days/

A friend just finished a 15 day quarantine in Bangkok in order to see his partner of many years. They were reunited 5 days ago. Today, there was a case of Covid in their building and they both tested positive for it. Very sad. Now, he is off to hospital for I would assume at least 2 weeks. He is schedule to fly back to US 2nd week of August so not much time with his partner or friends.