Vint Chavala makes one of his customary melodramatic rants in "Poisonous billionaires", (PostBag, May 4), this time against "many billionaires", one presumably being Mr Thanathorn. However, he does not name any others apart from Thaksin Shinawatra, nor does he give us the faintest clue why Mr Thanathorn personally should be regarded as "poisonous".
I think I should mention by name two very worthy billionaires I admire who have saved millions of lives though sponsoring vaccination programmes -- Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Mr Gates has already given US$36 billion (about 1 trillion baht) and Mr Buffet has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth to charitable causes. I would be happy to see them as US presidents.
Might I suggest Mr Chavala try to think more like a sniper and less like a machine-gunner when it comes to his somewhat chaotic attacks on a world he seems to believe is totally fallen. He may fire lots of ammunition off in some vague direction, but it is to no useful effect whatsoever.
Andy Phillips
Russian menace
Re: "Trump, Putin talk of 'Russian hoax'", (BP, May 5).
The only "Russian Hoax" is that which Donald Trump is perpetrating on the American public by undermining the findings of the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Mueller's report provides exhaustive evidence of Russia's meddling in the 2016 US elections. Putting aside the question of whether or not the Trump campaign coordinated (aka colluded) with the Russians in 2016, the real danger is that Russian operatives will again interfere in 2020 and other future elections.
So far, Mr Trump has done absolutely nothing to protect future American elections from foreign influence. Perhaps he is counting on Russian support as a key element of his re-election strategy?
Samanea Saman
Biased coverage
In his letter "Poetic language", (BP, May 6), David Brown quite correctly says that "English is not a sterile language that discards words when a crisper option is available", but he then contradicts himself by defending the use of self confessedly "archaic language".
In another May 6 letter-- "Thai insecurity", Nick Nicholson is as puzzled as I am by the "rituals and obsequiousness" that pervade the TV and other coverage of the recent Thai coronation.
The most interesting letter of the day refers to the political correctness and Western media's bias which slants all world news towards an American-Israeli perspective. For example the "Holocaust" receives blanket coverage by the Western mainstream media, while Eric Bahrt's letter points out that neither the millions murdered by Joseph Stalin or Pol Pot (and the dropper of the nuclear holocaust on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mr Harry Truman, ex-US president), get even a "dishonourable mention".
Also, as another example, last March 16th was the anniversary of the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam, where an American army platoon of "green berets", murdered and raped virtually all of the inhabitants of a remote Vietnamese village, (including several children) during the Vietnam war. Graphic accounts and a few harrowing photos can be seen online.
Not long ago an American-Israeli media tycoon (Michael Bloomberg) made a donation to a charity of his choice. There is nothing wrong with that, but the amount of what was a mere "donation" by this individual surpassed the entire foreign reserves of many less economically developed nations. Talk about disparity of economic resources!
In such a context, can you expect unbiased coverage of world events or personalities, by the mainstream press?
Jayanta Kurukulasuriya
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