For two nights in a row in Chiang Mai, Thais were setting off firecrackers until six in the morning during the Loy Krathong festival, constantly waking up the entire neighbourhood.
Just like with Songkran, the Thais take a festival that was meant to be peaceful and harmonious and use it as an excuse to behave like barbarians.
While the Thais love to lecture expats about respecting Thai culture, it's the Thais themselves who show total contempt for the true meaning of their own traditions and ceremonies.
Eric Bahrt
Peace at Loy Krathong
I went to the beach at Pala, Banchang Rayong to see the "Loy Krathong" offerings to the water goddess on the night of Nov 3.
I hadn't been for years because of all the noise and fireworks. This year was really nice -- no fireworks!
No crazies firing rockets along the beach! No sudden bangs to scare the visitors and none of those senseless lanterns. Likewise the music was very subdued and everything had returned to what I saw some 35 years ago as a nice peaceful event.
It was a joy to see the kids happy and laughing without a "care in the world"! A return to tradition?
I hope it stays the same for next year!
Sir Lance
Bad Vienna memories
THAI's commercials for Vienna are impressive. True, a beautiful city, wonderful opera house, delightful coffee and delicious desserts, lots of historic sites.
But I remember another Vienna, one with jackbooted soldiers marching through the streets, the Viennese shouting "Heil Hitler" and welcoming Austria's annexation to the Reich, the round-ups and deportations of minorities, the confiscation of millions of dollars worth of art, and more.
No advertisement in the world will lure me to Vienna, regardless of all its present glory, not even a good cup of Viennese coffee. I can make that myself.
Yankeleh
Accidental victim?
Re: "People deserve JFK truth", (PostBag, Nov 5).
One of your correspondents recently expressed a desire to know the truth about JFK's assassination and while the papers recently released may have some interesting new details, I think he will find that the truth is probably closer to what writer James Reston Jr suggested in his book The Accidental Victim.
In that book he makes a very persuasive case that Lee Harvey Oswald was really out to kill John Connally, the former Secretary of the Navy sitting in front of Kennedy, who wouldn't rescind Oswald's dishonourable discharge which he received for attempting to defect to the Soviet Union, but accidentally killed John Kennedy instead.
James Reston says, in fact, that Oswald admired Kennedy, but hated Connally.
A Reader
The ruling classless
The ultra-royalists and conservatives (URC) always refer to themselves as "Thai" whose sensibilities have to be respected.
In reality, there are only a small minority who keep themselves in power with armed force and brutality. They have nothing to do with the common Thais whose genuine warmth, friendliness and charm are loved the world over.
In stark contrast, they (the URC) always scream for destruction, punishment and expulsion. They are not representing the real Thais at all.
Karl Reichstetter
Democracy by force
Re: "PM's 'democracy' working", (PostBag, Nov 5).
The real problem with the present "democracy" is that it is not resolving political differences; it is controlling the situation by strict military control. Such action merely delays the solution of the problem and its conclusion.
What will that be? I do not know, unlike many of your farang correspondents who seem to be experts on Thailand's politics. The matter is for the Thai people to decide, hopefully through compromise and not strife.
Another reader
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