PeterRS

The Washington Post has a paywall. Could you kindly copy and paste for those of us too mean to cough up the subscription! Many thanks. On the topic, the Winter Olympics seem to have little more success at minimising losses than the Summer Games. Perhaps that is because some of the host cities have been mere towns or even villages. The 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics was held in a village with just 3,000 tax residents. They were left with a $6 million debt, although the New York State government helped take over much of that. Albertville in the French Alps fared little better in 1992. The French government spent around $1.2 billion to upgrade the region's infrastructure. Neither during the Games nor thereafter did Albertville and its neighbouring towns see any increase in tourism. The government was left with a debt of $67 million. Nagano in Japan had around 350,000 residents when it hosted the Olympics in 1998. As the Games neared, a quarter of the hotel rooms reserved for visitors were cancelled. Ski villages nearby which normally ran at 80% occupancy saw that drop to 60%. During the bidding process, Nagano officials plied the Olympic Committee members and their entourages with first class air tickets, stays at luxury resorts and pricey entertainment. No one now knows how high the loss of those Games rose. A member of the local Olympic Committee ordered all financial records burned before auditors could get near them! South Korea's 2018 Games in Pyeongchang is believed to have cost $13 billion against the original estimate of $7 billion. Bigger cities did little better. Vancouver in 2010 was left with a hangover estimated at $1 billion. It is unlikely it will ever be repaid in full. Nothing beats Sochi in 2014, though. That cost overrun is estimated to have risen from a budget of round $11 billion up to a staggering $51 billion. https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/10-olympic-games-bankrupted-host-countries.htm https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/south-koreas-pyeongchang-winter-olympics-costs-benefits-of-hosting.html

I know nothing about the case beyond what i read in the media. But should I find it strange that a 27 year old Thai male out to collect wild orchids was aroused by any 57 year old woman? The blurry photo of the arrested man in the Phuket Daily News looks like he is around 164 cms in height and has a full head of fluffy hair. The photo of the man on the motorcycle in the Bangkok Post photo looks taller with hair having receded slightly at the temples. Not that this proves anything. Merely an observation. A South China Morning Post description of the incident states the woman was swimming below the waterfall. It adds she was "partially clothed". Her purse had been robbed of 300 baht which according to the police the suspect used to buy "drugs, drinks and phone repairs." If you have what is clearly quite a large motorbike, after paying for phone repairs, how much would be left over for booze and drugs? Again something seems a bit odd here. Yet one more oddity is that the Ton Ao Yon waterfall is not well known, it's hard to find and very difficult to access. Several websites also state the pathways are confusing and you need good shoes to avoid sharp rocks. https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3144249/thai-police-arrest-suspect-killing-swiss-woman-island

So glad you did. Double gold medallist skater Yuzuru Hanyu is one of the greatest and cutest of all athletes and has become a huge superstar in his native Japan. Only another 6 months before the next Winter Olympics. Will he still be taking part? I sure hope so. At the risk of hijacking the thread, here are two lovely photos - especially the one where he is bending down (oops!) Although it should have no effect on his athleticism and artistry, there is a lot of discussion on Japanese and other social media about his sexuality. He often appears with slightly gay mannerisms. His coach in Canada is openly gay and a gay designer often makes the costumes he wears.

I should not have used the term 'amateur' as it does connote someone who is not paid. As @reader rightly points out, many sportsmen and women receive cash from sponsors and governments. The term 'professional athletes' who make their full-time careers from their sports might have be enmore appropriate. The Dvokovics, McIlroys, Morikawas, the US and some other countries' baseball and basketball players are multi-millionaires many times over. I do not believe the Olympic ideal was that they should be the ones competing for medals. Cassius Clay was an amateur when he won the boxing gold before turning professional and changing his name to Muhammad Ali and becoming arguably the greatest boxer of all time. How many other non-professional golf, tennis and other athletes could use the Olympics as a springboard to international success? After all, even the golf majors have some amateur athletes playing alonside all the professionals. That beef apart, though, @fedssocr brings up the very pertinent issue of graft. It has been the blight of the mega international sports events for many decades. The IOC and FIFA which controls the Soccer World Cup have been the worst. The top officials, like the dreadful Sepp Blatter who was fired from FIFA and is the subject of legal proceedings, usually seem to get away with lining their pockets and it is their Committee members and Country heads who end up kicked out or in jail. Surely if the rotation of cities was every 12 years, say, rather than every 4, this could reduce the possibilities of corruption? The ease and cost of travel to the locations would not be too high for most people who really want to watch future Olympics and World Cups. But it is the TV cash that will no doubt be the largest factor in the decision making as to location and the sports to be included. If NBC reckons it got value for money having paid out US$7.7 billion for the 2020 rights, we probably won't see much change. Only if viewing figures for the equestrian events were very low is there much chance of these events disappearing. On the other hand, I think the figures for the new sports introduced this year will probably be through the roof given their appeal to youngsters. Maybe that will spur the introduction of more youth appeal sports. I can't wait for sepak takraw to be included! It could lead to that sport spreading to many more countries outside Asia.

That trend was started by Montreal which I believe took more than 30 years to pay off its Olympics bill which had ballooned to 13 times its original estimate. As an article in The Guardian pointed out five years ago, "No other Olympics has so thoroughly broken a city." Yet Athens in 2004 came close and many of the stadia built for the Olympics were soon decaying. They were just not needed. As with every Games, the International Olympic Committee came out with a profit not far short of US$1 billion. Athens ended up with debts of $350 million in addition to its decaying stadia. Increasing the number of sports which require the construction of additional facilities has worked in the past. For Tokyo in 1964 they were a means of renewing Japan's image as a member of the world community following World War 2. Seoul in 1988 was to mark the end of martial law and the start of a democratic country (although that did not really start till 1992). Beijing in 2008 was to put a kinder, gentler face on to a dictatorship with funds no object. Now though, the cost of hosting the Games means that far fewer cities are prepared to bid. It's not only the number of different venues, the number of personnel and accommodating them is also a huge problem. The swimming venue accommodates all the swimming and diving events. They can then become of value to the community. If a city has no stadium, then the example started in Sydney is one possibility. A 60,000 seat stadium for the Games which is then reduced in size to 40,000 to become more suitable for soccer or other regular sports. Facilities for judo, karate, boxing and other smaller scale sports are probably easy to build if they do not already exist. But I stick to my original point that building new facilities including an arena and allied requirements for equestrian events should not in future be required for an Olympic Games. Like Topsy, the scope of the Games has steadily increased from 17 sports with 23 different disciplines in Rome in 1960 to 33 and 46 respectively for Tokyo 2020. 83 countries were represented in Rome; 205 in Tokyo (odd, since there are only 193 officially recognised countries in the world!) Rome had 150 medal events; Tokyo 339. Such continued expansion surely cannot continue. Either the IOC locates the Games in one city which becomes the Olympics venue at least for several Games, or we will find that only cities in authoritarian countries will end up being prepared to pay for them.

Naturally sailors, rowers, skateboarders, javelin throwers and their ilk require equipment. But with all respect they are individuals with a piece of equipment necessary for their sport. If you take your argument to its logical conclusion, soccer would be out as it requires a ball! I suppose it's all down to individual preference. You like dressage. I loathe it. I hate to think how much training a horse requires to go through that routine. And you cannot name me any other sport - sport(?) - that requires a non human to compete! It makes no sense. If you have horses, why not camel racing? Why not sled dog racing? Why not rodeo riding? Having horses involved happens only because their events were one of the first to be included in the early Olympics when the organisers were desperate to find any sports at all? I believe one criterion should definitely be popularity of a sport. My nieces are both horse crazy. Oddly they have no interest in the Olympic equestrian events! Incidentally equestrian events were not included in the Melbourne 1956 Olympics due to Australia's strict 6-month quarantine policy. So it is not as though they have always been part of the programme. So I am curious. Given that some sports are kicked out at every Olympics, which ones would you drop out for Paris and Los Angeles?

On my hobby horse (sic) again. In addition to all the events involving horses, there are others whose inclusion in future Games I would like to see ended. We live in an era when the whole idea of sport is changing quite rapidly with young people leading that change. A couple of decades or so ago, who would have thought that skateboarding, surfing, karate and the incredibly difficult (and gripping to watch) sport climbing would be included in the Olympics? What new sports will emerge in the next few years. Many of the traditional sports were introduced a century or so ago, I assume because they harked back to the olden days in Greece. Why do we still have a javelin throwing competition? Who throws javelins today? Same with shot putting. It seems to me near pointless. Then there are more modern sports introduced because someone or some group had too much influence. How many countries in the world play baseball. Dozens, but only six compete in the Olympics. Why not more? At least that will be one sport not featured in Paris. A lot of athletes now earn a lot of cash as a result of their excellence in their sport and from winning medals. I have no issue with that. But why are the top professional golfers and professional tennis players, many of whom make tens of millions in their normal careers, be permitted to play in the Olympics? Surely it would be far better to restrict the participants to genuine amateurs. i'm fed up with he likes of Novak Djokovic, a player estimated to be worth US$220 million, have hissy fits on the tennis court because he was not good enough to take home even a bronze medal. He and his like should be forced to stick to the professional tennis grounds of the world. Lastly, in Paris the surfing competition cannot be held in the city because it is not on the sea. So, Instead of locating it off Biarritz or Marseilles, or even seek to move it to Portugal where the waves at Nazare are some of the finest in the world, what will the organisers do? Locate it 16,000 kms away in Tahiti! So what happens to the concept of an Olympics village where all the athletes of the world congregate and socialise? Zero sense. Once they have got rid of some traditional events, the whole idea of host cities must surely be the next on the agenda. If a city cannot accommodate all the events, why should it be a host?

With China backing the military and the mandarins in Beijing nervous of any revolutionary movements anywhere on their border, the supply of arms will continue flowing to the military. If there is to be a revolution, some other country/counries will have to side with those with those fighting against the present junta. So far it seems those fighting the government are on their own.

I just saw perfection again. The 14 year old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan won the women's 10m high diving. She was peerless, even beating into second place her 15-year old compatriot who is the World Record holder. Rarely have I ever seen so many top marks of 10 from diving judges. Quan was unbelievable to watch! As the commentators said, she was "sensational". And this was her first ever international competition! How can she possibly improve for Paris in 3 years time, I wonder?

Judging by the fact that soldiers have been escaping to neighbouring Bangladesh, that is probably very true. I have a dear friend who is half Thai and half Burmese. His Burmese father lives in the Shan States. For decades the central government has been fighting the rebel states which mostly border Thailand. Now my friend tells me the Shan army is calling up a lot of young men to fight the junta. As in Thailand, lads can buy their way out of army duty with what for Burmese will be an impossible amount of cash. Thankfully my friend has a job here in Thailand and has been able to send enough money to his father to buy out his younger brother and himself.

I watched him on the horizontal bar yesterday. He was the last to do his routine and half those before him had fallen at some point. He looked so secure throughout and seemed a sure thing for the gold. I don't think that photo does him justice. He is much cuter!! 😃

I find all the business of "I have a right not to wear a mask and not to get vaccinated - I have my rights under the American constitution blah blah" not just childish but anti-Constitution. Didn't the one good phrase Trump say to Bob Woodward in their various discussions about Woodward's book, "It's a war." Well, in a war, does the Constitution take precedence over fighting that war? is free speech still allowed? I very much doubt it. I used to get really worked up about the non-mask wearers and the antivaxers. Now I'd rather laugh about them. If they die, I'll not mourn.

Spurred by the hotel promo vdo under Gay Asia, this is an ad prepared by students from one of Bangkok's Universities. The gay overtones are very clear! Not sure who developed this also very gay ad.

The hotel looks nice - the Taiwan boys much nicer. I'm with Lonnie. If even one of those boys comes with the room, I'll stay there on my next trip. I see that rates around the annual Gay Pride Parade at the end of October (not that we'll be able to travel then, alas!) come in at around NT$4,200 or so. Quite pricey compared to many unless it comes with the benefits.

Optimistic PM? Huh!

Wow! And Wow again! Norway's Karsten Warholm's smashing his own world record way out of the park in the 400 m hurdles surely has to be this Olympics greatest moment. I understand that after each Olympics the Committee decides which new sports to add and which to drop. One event I was partially able to see last night was the equestrian jumping. I did not watch for long. I find it so boring. The three equestrian disciplines have been part of the Olympics since 1912 and surely they should be the first to be sent packing. Is there any other sport that requires an animal before it can happen? The cost of the equestrian events must be far higher than most other sports given the need to fly in so many horses and have an arena exclusively for them.

Absolutely no need for any excuse whatever. The photos are quite lovely.

With so much gloom at present, more and more posters are hoping against hope that the pandemic in Thailand will be under control much sooner rather than later and their visits to this Paradise can continue. It started me thinking about Paradise and how different the word can mean for different people. When we were growing up, did we really buy into the idea of Paradise as an idyllic nirvana, a place where the vicissitudes and pettiness of daily life would be replaced by perfect peace, love and harmony? A Garden of Eden where there are no serpents hidden in the apples (as envisioned below by William Blake) and we can bask in its glory amongst gorgeous flowers, sumptuous fruits and an endless supply of beautiful guys? For some adherents of a certain religion there will be an abundance of virgins ready to fulfill their every wish. Another interpretation of that particular religion, I understand, suggests that there may instead be youths attending to them, presumably also fulfilling their intimate desires. Seriously, though, is Paradise, in Hamlet’s words, the life-ending experience “a consummation devoutly to be wished?” After all, getting there is no certainty. It’s either up or down for us. There is of course a middle path, but then who wants to spend years zooming around Purgatory desperately trying to find that exit to Paradise? Does Purgatory exist? Does an exit exist? Is it purifying or punitive? As for Hell, well that excision of part of our proud dicks as mandated by certain religions is certainly not as practiced here on earth. Down there, they lop off the whole damn organ as well as a great deal more, leaving our never-ending supply of blood continuously oozing forth as illustrated on this painting from the door of a Buddhist temple I saw near Tibet. But before leaving the horrors of Hell, there is a rather interesting little tale in the Preface of an amusing book titled SEX: Who’s Had Who. Written a few decades ago it is a lighthearted summary of who might just have had sex with whom over a period of years. Having sex is called “rogering” and each chapter is a series of who might just have rogered whom – rather like getting from A to Z by taking short cuts. Some rogers are historical. More modern rogers included are from GETRUDE STEIN to CLINT EASTWOOD in 8 rogers and from PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS to PRINCESS DIANA in 7 rogers. Naturally it’s all just a bit of fun. In the Preface is this thought. “What if God knows everything except ONE THING. What if He has a blind spot: there is no one around as intelligent as Him to put Him right, and He doesn't know He doesn't know it because that is the one thing He doesn't know . . . “What, for instance, if God has always pushed a red button to send people to Hell, and a blue one to send them to Heaven. And what if the one thing God doesn't know is that He is colour-blind. And sees red for blue and vice-versa.” * OMG! After reading that, I wondered what God would do if instead of being colour-blind He was suffering from a touch of dementia, to the point where His short-term memory would be unable to recall which button He had last pressed. And thinking that it had been red, he continuously was pressing blue. Wonder of wonders! A Paradise with one section filled only with huge numbers of all manner of young men. Could I find here all the boys and men I have loved and lusted after during my time on earth just waiting for me without their having aged and just as I have always remembered them? How many boys from my later years at school and at University whom I was desperate to bed but much too shy to do so? Since life up there will presumably be without end, perhaps Hamlet was right. I wonder how many realise that the word ‘Paradise’ comes not from Christianity or Islam. It does have a religious background, though. It was coined much earlier in Persia when Zoroastrianism, the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, was the state religion for more than a millennium. The God worshiped by the Zoroastrians was Ahura Mazda – yes, the Japanese car company did indeed appropriate the name for their Mazda cars. The prophet Zoroaster is better known to us today through Nietzsche’s novel and the Richard Strauss tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra (whose first 100 seconds is featured not only in the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey but also as the prelude for years to innumerable sex shows in Thailand’s go-go bars). Pop singer Freddie Mercury was one of the religion’s adherents. Even today some 25,000 still worship the religion in Iran’s desert city of Yazd. The Ancient Symbol of Zoroastrianism The root of the word essentially means Garden. Not one with beautiful lawns, manicured hedges and perfumed flowers like Versailles or Hampton Court. Rather, Persian Gardens. These were and still are enclosed spaces with tall trees providing shade filled with orange and pomegranate trees but where water flowing in narrow channels and fountains, often with a pavilion in the centre, plays almost the most prominent role. A Persian Garden in Kashan Over time Paradise has graduated to become a much more mundane term. Nowadays anything that gives us a lift from our everyday lives tends to be termed Paradise. It can be cocktails on a fine sandy tropical beach at sunset, nuzzling up to our partner after the most intense orgasm of the year, speeding down an open road in a sparkling new red Ferrari . . . Even our gay community is associated with the word. Phuket is no longer very gay but most of Patong’s few remaining gay venues are clustered near the Paradise Complex. More recently I discovered another Paradise. From time to time I used to tune in to a light classical station when working. Some years ago I was listening to a rather pleasant piece of music quite unknown to me. The composer, too, was a name I had never heard before, Frederick Delius, an Englishman who composed around 100 years ago. The music sounded vaguely like a cross between the impressionism of Debussy with hints of the Germanic nationalism of Richard Wagner. I was quite surprised when the announcer informed listeners that the title of the piece was Walk to the Paradise Garden. Enchanted by its perfumed harmonies and sultry textures, I could imagine being led through shimmering golden fields of wheat and then towards a magical stairway to present myself to my Creator in the most beautiful of all gardens. My Angel Awaits Imagine, then, the comedown when, far from being a second Eden, the announcer informed listeners that Paradise Garden as envisioned by Delius in fact refers to a common or garden (oops) rather seedy country pub! Paradise – a pub? Oh well! I suppose in some parts of the world, a regular gay pub may be as close as many will ever get to Paradise down here on earth. But I still like the idea of all those youths up in the hereafter ready to look after my every need! Ah! But then I worry. What if I don’t end up by going up, as it were? What if I go down? What if the Creator is indeed colour blind? Clearly time for another drink. If thoughts of Paradise can’t cheer me up in these times of covid19, hopefully another large vodka martini will! Perhaps Delius was right after all. * from SEX Who Had Who by Simon Bell, Richard Curtis and Helen Fielding originally published by Faber & Faber, London

In the immortal words of Albert Einstein, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one!"

Given the rate at which several other expat-oriented websites set up by the government have crashed or been offline for many weeks, I wonder who holds out much hope this one will not go the same way.

From The Guardian newspaper "The Thai government has outlawed sharing news that “causes public fear”, even if such reports are true, as officials face mounting criticism over their handling of the pandemic. On Thursday, the government tightened an emergency decree imposed more than a year ago that initially targeted false news. "The latest restrictions forbid people from distributing “information causing public fear”, or from sharing “distorted information causing misunderstanding which affects national stability”. The measures have been widely condemned by media groups and rights experts as attempts to shut down negative news reports and silence debate. Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand in Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, described it as a “serious blow” to press freedom in the country. “I think the government realises it is now facing a credibility crisis because of this disastrous response to the Covid situation, but instead of trying to find better solutions, more efficient solutions, it chooses to gag anyone from speaking about its failures,” he said. “This provision doesn’t care about accuracy or whether it is true or false.” "Under the regulations, if false content is spread online, the country’s broadcasting regulator will contact internet service providers to identify the individual’s IP address and block their internet access. "Internet providers who fail to comply will be deemed to have breached the requirements of their operating licences, and action will be taken against them." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/30/thailand-bans-sharing-of-news-that-causes-public-fear-amid-pandemic-criticism

It already has. The name is Trump. Keep well away!

CNN is reporting this morning about a new variant that is called the Columbian variant. It has not yet been given a Greek letter but it has already spread to Florida.

Aha! And obviously that is where the passengers and crew of MH 370 will be found. But I still want to know who killed JFK and why! I could make a fortune on the book, movie and tv series.

If I knew or had any reasonable conclusion I would have specified a time. I'm sure you realise I am grasping at straws as much as everyone else. I have no idea when Thailand will get to 70% vaccinated or whatever other percentage of the population is regarded as ideal for opening up. For your infomraion, the interval for the locally made AZ vaccine is 12 weeks. I just know that with the Prime Minister only a few weeks ago having revealed what he should have told the public many months ago - that the roughly 70 million AZ vaccine doses being manufactured locally and due for delivery between June and December will not in fact all be for Thailand since over 50% are earmarked for overseas (I believe negotiations are underway to have the Thailand amount increased but have seen no result) - and, so far as we know, not a great many other millions of doses are scheduled to come into the country soon with the exception of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, the government has a huge problem. The Prime Minster has even admitted this. In April and May he was saying publicly that the 70% would be reached by September. By early June that had been moved back to the end of December. Even that now seems very overoptimistic. Young people still remain very much at the back of the queue and they seem just as prone to the delta variant as older people. I know of about a dozen guys in their 20s who cannot get a date for vaccinations. One has got an August date for his first Sinopharm vaccination but only because he knows a nurse at a hospital. Even then he has to pay 3,200 baht for both. Having been jobless for many months he has had to beg and borrow that sum. What of all the boys in Pattaya, I wonder? I thought the organisation bringing in Sinopharm was doing at as a charitable exercise since a great many Thais will find it hard to pay that price. That apart, as you rightly point out, the Chinese vaccines do not seem to be as effective as the others. I think you have discounted the point made in my earlier post about the CDC's latest pronouncement. So we really do not know how effective present vaccines are other than keeping many people out of hospital. But surely the CDC's comment about vaccinated people still being contagious with the delta variant, does that not throw a rather big spanner into predictions for the future? And what if, as is surely likely, more variants appear? I wish. But you know the background to the awarding of the contract for AZ vaccines. Do you seriously believe that the Prime Minister is going to change the rules given the principals involved with the AZ production - and these include his dreadful Minister of Health, Anutin, who is from an opposition party? Anutin could have involved the government's own department which for years has manufactured various vaccines, some for the WHO. But he elected not to. Changing the rules now would be politically dangerous in my view. As for yet another lockdown, since the Prime Minister was terrified of the effect on his public image if he accepted the advice from all his medical experts to cancel Songkran this year, I cannot see him shutting down the country more than he already has. So I remain unconvinced that this country will be able to open up for a long time. I'll hazard a guess. Mid 2022. Sadly!