In his Aug 26 letter, "Risky business", William Smith makes very valid observations.
Nearly 100% of Thai drivers learn to drive with relatives and friends. There are few legitimate driving schools in Thailand, and people do not want to spend money on them. Way back in the 1950s when I was a high school student, driver education was mandatory.
It did not matter that we never owned cars or thought we'd ever own them. We were taught, as legitimate driving schools still teach, to check oil, walk around the vehicle, check lights, directional signals, etc. Today, no one cares, there are indeed, as Mr Smith points out, no spontaneous road safety checks (as in Canada) and the truth is that no one cares.
Yield signs are not understood; most drivers do not know about giving right of way. I too stopped driving at night for the same reasons Mr Smith cites, unless I have to drive for an urgent situation.
Jack Gilead
Punish the abusers
Nearly every day you read in the papers about the abuse and even killing of children. In the Bangkok Post of Aug 25 you read the cases of a nine-year-old boy who was in a monastery being killed by the monk who was supposed to take care of him.
A day earlier there was a report about the sexual assault by an army sergeant major of a seven-year-old boy. In Western papers and magazines there were repeatedly reports about sexual abuse of children by Christian priests. Finally the Pope has expressed his disgust about these happenings and the churches are finally preparing the punishment of these bastards. Personally I am against the death penalty. However, all bastards who are abusing and even killing innocent children deserve to be executed.
Lupus
BMA has lost the plot
It is high time that BMA inspectors took a walk up Sukhumvit Soi 13 to see that every business, without exception, from and including Margarita Storm upwards, has illegally commandeered the pavement outside their premises for their own use. This is not partial encroachment but total encroachment using walls and railings built over the public pavement, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road all the way up the soi.
To add insult to injury, those businesses as far up as The Trendy building have also extended their air conditioning drain pipes to ensure that they do not pour water on to "their" encroached pavement (and therefore on to their staff and customers who illegally block those areas) but on to the road area where they have forced pedestrians to walk and take on the cars and trucks. So those already inconvenienced pedestrians now have to walk even more towards the centre of the road to avoid unwanted showers courtesy of those discourteous businesses' water outlets.
Is it that the businesses are paying large sums to corrupt BMA officials to be able to do this unquestioned or is it simply that BMA inspectors have never visited this soi even though it has been torn up and remade for massive drainage improvement.
Bob Kneale
Cronyism at work
Donald Trump said the reason he hired Jeff Sessions to be attorney-general was out of loyalty to him (BP, Aug 25). What does that tell you about a president who would give the most important law enforcement job in the country to a man simply for that reason? Does the word cronyism ring a bell?
Eric Bahrt
Despair -- but where?
Your Aug 25 article on the Prague Spring of 1968 and its aftermath, with the tanks rolling in, the people being suppressed and sent for re-education, the totalitarian regime, the lies, the despair, put me in mind of another country. The trouble is, I can't for the life of me remember which country it is.
Stuart Wylie
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