"It's a puzzlement…" as Yul Brynner said in the musical production of The King and I. The appeal court increased the prison term for the killer Benz driver, but justice has not run its course in a similar case, involving a rich company owner's Benz that slammed into a little compact car, killing the driver who was a policeman and his wife, and seriously injuring their daughter. Indeed, it is not a "puzzlement" at all.
It is obvious that in the first instance the driver was not as rich as the driver in the second instance. As Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha declared that there will be justice for all Thais, rich or poor, regardless of status. Yeah, sure.
David James Wong
Anti-Semitic rants
Re: "Biased coverage", (PostBag, May 8).
I would like to provide a quick summary of Jayanta Kurukulasuriya's bizarre letter on biased media coverage, which is an educational concentrate of classical anti-Semitic tropes: Jews have too much money, they use this money to control and influence Western media, and they have dual loyalty to their country of citizenship and to Israel, and enough already with mentioning the Holocaust!
This person systematically uses, I presume, "American-Israeli" instead of "Jew" to suggest this dual loyalty, including to qualify American Jews such as Michael Bloomberg who is not an "American-Israeli". These anti-Semitic rants are not worth being published.
Baffled Reader
Mass murderer Mao
Re: "Biased coverage", (PostBag, May 8).
In the interest of non-biased reporting I would just like to add another mass murderer of the twentieth century to Mr Jayanta Kurukulasuriya's list.
Chairman Mao Zedong of China was responsible for more deaths than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot put together in his own country.
Fireman Sam
Food takes priority
Re: "Melodramatic rants", (PostBag, May 8).
Despite the walking disaster that currently occupies the White House, I have no reason to doubt that a billionaire could make a successful president.
However, I can't help but wonder where Andy Phillips got the information to substantiate the statement that he "admires two billionaires who have saved millions of lives through sponsoring vaccination programmes".
Even if it is true that lives have been saved, it doesn't sit well with the fact that since 1988 when Big Pharma forced the US government to pay for injuries caused by vaccinations, the government (taxpayers) has forked out US$4 million (about 127 million baht) in compensation for physical damage caused by vaccines.
More to the point is the fact that even in Asia, countless millions of children have died or suffered from stunted growth due to starvation or malnutrition, which in turn leads to substantial financial losses to the countries concerned.
It seems to me to be almost obscene to offer vaccines, which render huge profits to the pharmaceutical industry, to hungry children when what they need is food.
The situation in Africa is more serious.
I doubt that anyone who prefers to donate money to vaccination programmes over food programmes could possibly make a good politician, although it probably attracts more media attention.
Michael Nightingale
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