Re: "Kingdom's global standing firm as nation digs in heels", (Opinion, June 6).
If this article were soup, it is watery -- no meats, no vegetables, no taste. Mr Ambassador, if you want to convince the readers with this article, you failed.
All you said is gobbledegook at best.
You littered your article with vague and meaningless expressions -- for example, enhanced dialogue, closer coordination, regular exchanges.
And what do you mean by "the EU's Foreign Affairs Council adopted 'conclusion' on Thailand"?
Or that Mr Trump reaffirmed "the enduring alliance between the United States and Thailand"?
Sorry, Mr Ambassador, you may convince the run-off-the-mill academics and your peers, but you can't fool Bangkok Post readers.
Somsak Pola
Samut Prakan
The fox and the hounds
Fox News is playing games with opinion polls and is deliberately misleading their viewers.
They keep gloating that Donald Trump is so popular with Republican voters while amazingly ignoring the polls which show he's extremely unpopular with the rest of the country which constitutes the majority of voters.
Because Mr Trump is a lousy president he's unable to appeal to voters beyond his base. So naturally his own party loves him while the rest of the country can't stand him.
By contrast Abraham Lincoln knew how to compromise and work with people he vehemently disagreed with. And that's the difference between the greatest president in American history and the worst one.
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
Thailand misses the point
Re: "Prime minister sets out green ambitions", (BP, June 5).
Vietnam deserves praise and encouragement for mapping out an ambitious plan for more than tripling its use of renewable energy by 2030. It is disappointing that these positive actions are being taken in Vietnam, while here in Thailand energy dinosaurs continue to dredge up plans for unwanted coal-fired power plants.
Thailand could be a world leader in renewable energy use. To be such, however, the country requires vision, leadership and commitment to a clean environment rather than just a focus on what construction contracts might yield the biggest kickbacks.
Samanea Saman
Buddhist rituals 'extortion'
Re: "Empty Rituals", (PostBag, June 9).
I agree with Kuldeep Nagi and his criticisms of Buddhism as it is so often practised in Thailand today, and in particular with the exorbitant cost of accessing Buddhist rituals.
Twelve years ago I assumed the responsibility for the education of the children of a broken Isan family. The youngest boy went to a top high school, then university and has just completed his military service. He now wants to go back to his village in Surin to enter the monkhood for a period to make merit for his family and ancestors.
As I intended to make a substantial contribution to this important event in the young man's life, I asked his relatives in the village to prepare a budget and was shocked when it came out to 85,000 baht.
Apart from the obvious expectations of the neighbours and villagers that they were going to have a party, with plenty of food and lao khao (homemade whisky), a substantial part of the budget was the purchase of robes as gifts for the officiating monks, payments to the monks for the preparation of the lad, payment to the monastery, and payment for subsequent ceremonies at his ancestral house.
This is way beyond the reach of the lad's relatives, who are subsistent rice farmers, and without my assistance they would probably end up handing over the deeds of their land to a loan shark to raise the money, paying exorbitant interest rates and risking losing title to their land.
In a word, this is a disgrace.
David Brown
Rayong
I got the teaching blues
Re: "Teaching blues", (PostBag, June 9).
Erich's letter about teaching at a Thai state university, and being expected to put your time in sitting at a desk certainly rang a loud bell for me.
I taught at two major state universities in Bangkok for a total of 15 years, but eventually quit both places in disgust when it became apparent that Thai teachers valued more the time that I spent sitting on my butt at my desk, rather than the quality of my work.
Apparently, even though it seems insane to me, in my experience most Thai teachers at state universities see us farang more as bureaucrats than as teachers. The last school I taught at made several attempts to get me back after I quit, but the thought of sitting for hours at my desk again often with nothing to do after I had finished my work for the day, makes me feel like weeping even today 20 years later and it is definitely not the reason that I got into teaching.
Still Bitter After All These Years
Slack workers, slack results
In almost in every public sector institution in Thailand, especially in academia, there is indeed a complete disconnect between working hours and productivity. In fact, those who show up to work on time and stay in their chairs and produce gas all day are promoted.
As an American, I have found this phenomenon very strange. But I was told that such a practice exists because Thai workers are slack and if given the chance they would not hesitate to do several other jobs during the day. As we all know, when rule of law is missing, the people tend to be dishonest. To me, this culture of distrust in the employees is one of the main causes of the poor quality of education. Unless the employees are made to feel as stakeholders, not much will improve.
Kuldeep Nagi
More menacing than plastic
Why didn't your graphic on Thailand's trash, accompanying the article "Dead whale sparks marine fears", (BP, June 5), include the figures for yet more devastating styrofoam?
On all my last beach visits in Thailand, pollution from these far exceeded that from plastics. Further, breaking down far faster into the tiny pellets foam is compressed of, they enter the food chain even easier, from the smallest fish up.
I see Sri Lanka is already prohibiting this all-pervasive menace.
Mekong Naga
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