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Never a dull moment at PCEC meetings
PCEC members take part in
laughter therapy.
There’s never a dull moment at the Pattaya City Expats
Club (PCEC) and this was epitomised by the busy and varied programme on
Sunday February 11th at Henry J. Bean’s.
The morning got under way with this week’s MC Richard Silverberg introducing
John Lambert and Phot, this week’s guest speakers from Elephants & Friends.
 Visitors
at Elephants & Friends enjoy a great experience - much different than the
usual touristy camps.
John described how Elephants & Friends is a refuge for abused and mal
treated elephants. Located in Kanchanaburi, Elephant & Friends has rescued
and treated a number of badly treated elephants. Local vets provide their
services free of charge. Whilst it was stressed that the camp is not the
usual tourist attraction offering; for example, elephant rides and shows,
visitors are actively encouraged.
Activities which can be participated in are taking the elephants down to the
nearby River Kwai for their daily bath, feeding and generally taking care of
them. Accommodation is available at the camp.
Elephants & Friends relies upon donations for its finance. Full details can
be found on the website www.elephants-friends.com
Barbara Montigny then continued with her Laughter Therapy session. She
quoted an example when a certain Norman Cousins who had been suffering from
a debilitating illness engaged in 10 minutes of vigorous laughter,
discovered that this provided him with 2 hours pain free sleep.
Barbara likened the ability to laugh to as an uplifting ‘internal massage’
for the body. Practical effects were a cardiovascular exercise and the
conditioning of the abdominal muscles. Barbara then introduced a greeting
exercise with incorporated a great deal of laughter to illustrate the points
which she made.
Chairman Andre Machielsen then provided a reminder that the PCEC trip to
Chantaburi, the dates of which were 15th - 17th February, was rapidly
approaching. The detailed itinerary was provided which followed a similar
pattern to the recent successful trip to Kanchanaburi.
Raine Rance of the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya announced that there was a
general invitation to the club members to attend the official opening of the
new hospital building on the 14th February. She also announced that the
cholesterol check-up programme would be underway from the 12th - 17th
February and distributed vouchers to those who wished to participate.
Drew Noyes announced that the largest charity social event of the year in
Thailand will be the Diplomatic Spouses / YWCA Charity event to raise money
for a garden at the Royal Palace in Cha-Am to be held on February 25th in
Bangkok. There was an invitation to the opening of the recreated
150-year-old Thai home of ML Poomchai in the Thonglor district on one rai of
land at Sukhumvit 51.
The regular Open Forum was then underway, led by Roger Fox, and this proved
to be the usual lively and entertaining session. For more information
regarding, not only PCEC Sunday meetings but also the varied mid week
activities, please see the Community Happenings section of Pattaya Mail
or, for more details, visit the Club’s website at
pattayacityexpatsclub.com.
YWCA holds thank-you party
Members of 4 YWCA organizations
having fun at their annual New Years Party.
Vimolrat Singnikorn
YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center held a thank-you party at the Montien Hotel on
February 8 for the committees of four YWCA organizations who worked so hard to
provide support over the previous year.
Nittaya Patimasongkroh, chairwoman of the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center welcomed
the guests, and secretary general of the YWCA Thailand Federation Walaiporn
Wiriyakowin presented a speech of appreciation.
Members of the YWCA Bangkok-Pattaya Center, YWCA Bangkok-Chonburi Center, YWCA
Thailand Federation and YWCA Bangkok took part.
Sattahip Training center donates blood
Personnel at the Air and
Coastal Defense Command Training Center donate blood to honor His Majesty
the King.
Patcharapol Panrak
Officers and ratings at the Air and Coastal Defense Command Training
Center held a blood donation drive on February 2.
Captain Jongkol Meesawat, the center’s commander, said the donation was
undertaken in the name of His Majesty the King’s 80th birthday celebrations,
and that with the large and increasing number of accidents in the Eastern
region the armed services were helping society and the emergency workers.
A total of 185 personnel from the Training Center gave blood to the mobile
team from the Thai Red Cross in Rayong province.
Norwegian star Sputnik visits Pattaya
Knut, his wife Vivian, and his
friends from “GP Duo” during their performance at Linda’s Restaurant.
Peter Nordhues
Norwegian music star Knut T Storbukås, aka Sputnik, has visited Pattaya with
his wife Vivian. They are friends of Sigfrid Eiksund and her husband Gunnar
Pedersen, who both regularly perform as the GP Duo at Linda’s Restaurant on
Thappraya Road.
Sputnik has sold more than a million records in Norway, and he even appears
in the Guinness Book of Records for giving 36 concerts within only 72 days,
starting in the southern city of Mandal and ending up north in Tromsø.
A sprightly man in his mid sixties with a fully booked schedule, he is as
full of energy as a man half his age.
On January 26, every seat at Linda’s Restaurant was occupied for an event
that was organized by the Asian Business Club. The evening started with the
GP Duo providing some popular hits, and then the Norwegian legend himself
appeared on the stage.
People sang and clapped along, and the dancing carried on until late in the
evening.
Chonburi Visa campaign offers
discounts to travelers
Pattaya’s Alcazar Show took
part in the announcement by displaying a replica Chonburi Tourist Visa at
city hall.
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
A promotional campaign designed to attract Thai tourists intending to travel
within Chonburi Province, and offering discounts at hotels and restaurants,
was launched on January 29 at Pattaya City Hall.
Heading the launch ceremony were Chonburi Deputy Governor Monthian Thongnit,
Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn, director of the Tourism Authority of
Thailand Central Region 3 office Chaiwat Charoensuk, Pinit Ratchawat, deputy
undersecretary of the Chonburi Provincial Administration, and Dr Pichai
Sonchaeng, president of the Chonburi Attractions Club.
Named the Chonburi Tourist Visa, and initiated by the Chonburi Attractions
Club, this is the third year in succession for this program, which currently
has 25 tourism location members in Chonburi.
“The Chonburi Tourist Visa is a special discount voucher for visiting
tourism locations, and can be used by club members and non-club members at
hotels and restaurants,” said Pichai. “The visa is used as a 20-50 percent
discount entry ticket once a day for one tourism location, and is valid from
now until December 31.”
The Chonburi Tourist Visa is distributed at every club member enterprise,
and at the TAT Central Region 3 office for the price of 100 baht per ticket.
Discussion over draft plan to eradicate problem of homeless children
Vimolrat Singnikorn
A meeting was held at the Diana Garden Resort on January 23 to discuss the
problem of homeless children and beggars, for which city hall has drafted a
strategic action plan.
 Arunratsamee
Bunkerd from the Pattaya Social Welfare Department wants each department to
be aware of its responsibility.
Dr Sumol Nakchalerm of Military Ring Regiment 14 presided, with
representatives of the committees involved in drafting the plan also
present, including Sopin Thappajug, chief justice of the Chonburi Juvenile
and Family Court, Supakorn Noja, manager of the Redemptorist Street
Children’s Home, and Arunratsamee Bunkerd of the Pattaya Social Welfare
Department.
Supakorn said that the plan to resolve the homeless children and beggar
problem needs to ensure that performance checks are undertaken closely
alongside the strategy, and that specifically a budget to support each
project must be sufficient and paid on time.
Arunratsamee said that the various departments associated with this
three-year project would be carefully divided so that each is aware of its
responsibility, and is the best department in terms of its scope and
experience to deal with the aspect of the problem with which it is
presented.
WHO reports some promising results
on avian influenza vaccines
WHO also concerned by global vaccine production capacity
Geneva - Experts meeting over the past week at the World
Health Organization (WHO) on advances in pandemic influenza vaccine
development reported encouraging progress.
Sixteen manufacturers from 10 countries are developing prototype pandemic
influenza vaccines against H5N1 avian influenza virus. Five of them are also
involved in the development of vaccines against other avian viruses (H9N2,
H5N2, and H5N3).
At present, more then 40 clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing.
Most of them have focused on healthy adults. Some companies, after
completing safety analyses in adults, have initiated clinical trials in the
elderly and in children. All vaccines were safe and well tolerated in all
age groups tested.
For the first time, results presented at the meeting have convincingly
demonstrated that vaccination with newly developed avian influenza vaccines
can bring about a potentially protective immune response against strains of
H5N1 virus found in a variety of geographical locations. Some of the
vaccines work with low doses of antigen, which means that significantly more
vaccine doses can be available in case of a pandemic.
These developments were discussed at the WHO meeting on the evaluation of
pandemic influenza prototype vaccines in clinical trials that took place in
Geneva, Switzerland, on February 15-16, 2007. This was a third such meeting
in just two years and its objectives were to review progress in the
development of candidate vaccines against pandemic influenza viruses and to
reach consensus on future priority activities.
More than 100 influenza vaccine experts - from academia, national and
regional public health institutions, the pharmaceutical industry and
regulatory bodies throughout the world - attended the meeting convened by
the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research and the WHO Global Influenza
Programme. Information on more than 20 projects was presented and discussed.
Most manufacturers are using reference vaccine strains corresponding to H5N1
viruses provided from by WHO Collaborating Centres.
In spite of the encouraging progress noted at the WHO meeting, WHO stresses
that the world still lacks the manufacturing capacity to meet potential
global pandemic influenza vaccine demand as current capacity is estimated at
less than 400 million doses per year of trivalent seasonal influenza
vaccine.
In response to this challenge, WHO launched in 2006 the Global pandemic
influenza action plan (GAP) to increase vaccine supply, a US$10 billion
effort over 10 years. One of its aims is to enable developing countries to
establish their own influenza vaccine production facilities through transfer
of technology, providing them with the most sustainable and reliable
response to the threat of pandemic influenza. WHO is currently working with
several vaccine producers, mainly in developing countries affected by H5N1,
to facilitate establishment of in-country influenza vaccine production.
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