Re: "Electric cars will help cut smog", (Opinion, Feb 27).
It's the right solution for sure, but switching all motor vehicles in Thailand's cities to electric battery engines is a pipe dream. However, switching the tuk tuks and motorcycles to battery-operated engines is something that can be easily done, if the government passes and enforces the required legislation, and that would eliminate the source of at least half the problem. On a per litre of gas/per kilometre basis, tuk tuks and motorcycles release far more pollutants into the air we all have to breathe than any other type of vehicle.
Moreover, as lightweight vehicles operating on roads without hills, they could easily run on battery engines at low cost. Many cities in China have already switched to battery-operated motorcycles, and the air in those cities has greatly improved. The technology to do this quickly in Thailand can be imported from China until Thailand produces its own batteries and electric-powered engines. This is not difficult to do.
Switching to battery-powered engines for all tuk tuks and motorcycles would also eliminate the major source of another kind of pollution: noise. The motors in tuk tuks and motorcycles produce a constant barrage of noise everywhere in Thailand, and the ubiquitous roar they pour into the streets and lanes, amplified by concrete buildings, does irreparable damage to the ear's delicate sound detection mechanism. It also travels along the auditory nerves into the brain, disrupting neurological functions. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to this sort of damage, which assaults us all day and night. All of this has been scientifically proven, and the decibel level in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, most of it produced by the explosive roar of motors in two- and three-wheel vehicles, is far above the safe level for the human nervous system.
Is there any sound reason why we all of us living in Thailand -- old and young, man and woman, Thai and farang alike -- must endure two forms of relentless, debilitating pollution day and night from privately owned vehicles that are not essential for public welfare?
Trucks deliver goods to shops and markets that we all need, and public transport such as buses, taxis, and cars are the only way to get to work, so they can wait. Gas-burning tuktuks and motorcycles produce far more air and noise pollution than their functional utility is worth. They should be required to switch the clean, quiet battery-operated engines for everyone's sake, including the owners.
Daniel Reid
Chiang Mai
Farms vs smog
It has become clear that successive Thai governments and concerned members of the public have had zero impact on lessening the dangerous and costly air pollution caused by widespread annual crop burning, primarily in the north of Thailand.
Expecting people to inform on their neighbours' open burning of crops in response for cash rewards, or for police to enforce the laws, is clearly a futile exercise.
Most of these farmers engaged in crop burning are fully aware that this is hazardous to their health and that of their families, neighbours and the broader population. However, they believe they have no choice because they lack sufficient funds to purchase the necessary cutting and clearing equipment.
The huge agriculture-based companies in Thailand do have the necessary funds if they chose to assist the small farmers who supply their crops to them and the broader Thai society.
Has any effort ever been made by Thai governments and the public to persuade these large, wealthy Thai corporations to assist the small farmers and society to avoid the incredibly negative and costly impacts on Thai citizens' health and on tourism to Chiang Mai and the north of Thailand?
No doubt they could receive appropriate tax benefits to offset the relatively small costs involved. They certainly already are adept at lobbying the national government for support on issues like telecommunications and rapid train projects.
In turn, these large agricultural companies could inform the farmers who supply them with corn and other produce that they would not purchase their crops if farmers continued to carry out crop-burning despite receiving assistance to clear fields without using harmful methods.
The next step would be for these large agricultural companies to assist in the speedy termination of the use of harmful pesticides such as paraquat, if only to avoid the inevitable international boycotts of crops raised in Thailand using such pesticides.
Chiangmai Resident
Cardinal sin
Cardinal George Pell has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys, a conviction that should shake the Catholic Church out of generations of complacency (BP, Feb 26). The cardinal's conviction follows a royal commission authorised by the Australian government to look into allegations of sexual abuse including children. Without a public investigation, this conviction may never have seen the light of day. All credit to the Australian government for staying the course.
On too many occasions, the Church has declared its capability to police itself. Now, with this revelation involving a very senior cleric who had a seat alongside the pope in the Vatican, His Holiness (who has labelled these transgressors as "tools of Satan"), must do more than just meet and talk about paedophile priests. It's time for action and that means handing these sick, sexual predators over to the police to be investigated, charged, and given their day in a public court.
The Church's second and equally urgent task is to find out why such malpractices have existed in the Church for eons, and bring about change. The Church of Rome might start with a review of its criteria for recruitment and training. It should also press for women to join the priesthood, and review the archaic rules of priests' sexual abstinence for religious reasons. The Church may be a man's world in the eyes of the See of Rome, but it needs a woman's touch to keep it out of trouble, and relevant.
Sir Frank Enstein
Addressing dissent
Re: "Debate and don't dictate", (Editorial, March 1).
Why are healthy societies characterised by open discussion, that is, the debating of competing ideas in public forums?
Because informed opinion of worth requires addressing dissenting views, people who respect knowledge debate. Because it exposes deceit, people who respect honesty debate. Because openness to opposing views nurtures them, people who respect good morals debate. Because it requires that all citizens have a right to a voice, people who respect democracy debate.
In contrast, enemies of the open society cower behind such ramparts as the bullying of bad law. In the run-up to the election, which politicians stand on which side of the debate?
Felix Qui
Going commando
Re: "Pantywashers' army," (PostBag, March 1).
Did Mr Somsak Pola ever hear of a device called a "washing machine", used to wash clothes? Perhaps a visit to an appliance shop might enlighten him.
Very few people "wash panties" by hand today, and modern day conscripts do not wash panties or other laundry for officers' wives. Perhaps in Afghanistan and Iran they do, but not in modern armies today, I'm sure the Royal Thai Army included. Conscripts might feed chickens, water lawns, act as house boys, (all illegal), but certainly do not wash panties.
David James Wong
Buddhist lottery
Mr Setter's Feb 28 letter, "Failing to see love", demonstrates the wide gulf between theory and practice in the Buddhist religion, or as he would prefer, philosophy. After 3,000 years of "profound spiritual practice" we have come around to the sad reality in Thai Buddhism where people pray to a bronze idol for lottery fiscal rewards and take their cars to monks for blessings. What happens in local temples here bears little relevance to those romantic ideals of Buddhism. I'm sure the Rohingya women burnt out of house and home and raped before being chased into Bangladesh will take great comfort in knowing that 3,000 years of understanding and wisdom from those greatest of teachers is the background for their treatment. Likewise, the Yazidi women treated similarly by the "peaceful" practitioners of Islam. I take comfort in knowing I will not be holding up a candle, that sounding much like a religious thing, and make no claim to superiority, just to having morality without god belief. It is possible.
Lungstib
No snowflakes
Re: "Rampant hypocrisy", (PostBag, Feb 28).
Without criticism how can anyone ever learn from their mistakes? Criticism has brought changes in my positions on certain topics. I didn't like being told I was wrong. But if people were afraid to criticise me, I never would have changed.
Every improvement in the world -- such as the ending of slavery or passing civil rights laws, would never have happened if people were too cowardly to admit they had been wrong.
Eric Bahrt
Poster prejudice?
I have recently seen several election posters, where either the wooden frame was crushed or the wire was cut, with the posters lying face down on the ground. As they were only a few days there, I doubt rust was responsible for the "torn" wire. Is this a new kind of electioneering?
It also seems to concern only certain parties, as other posters were left alone. For example, a Democrat party poster, and especially the "Stop Corruption!" posters from Khun Sereepisuth's party.
Wouldn't that be a matter for the police -- unless the police know who the culprits are?
Sam na Munich
Ode to Japan's finest
As a friend of Fumio Matsuo, the Bangkok bureau chief of Kyodo News from 1972 to 1975, I was saddened to learn he passed away on Feb 26 in New York State, where he was visiting. He was 85 years old.
Matsuo was one of Japan's best-known international journalists. His stint in Thailand was during the height of the student movement that led to the 1973 uprising, which ended decades of military dictatorship.
In 2009, he received the Japan Press Club Award for his contribution to world peace and US-Japan reconciliation, as expressed in his book, The Day When President Obama Donated Flowers to Hiroshima.
He is survived by three daughters.
Amporn Chakkapha
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