I would like to bring the severe problem of the low price of palm fruits to the attention of the relevant parties.
I do not know what the government is going to do to tackle the problem of this impossible price. The present purchasing price of fresh palm fruits is 1.80 baht per kilogramme in Narathiwat, and this has been the price for the entire year.
We have seen prices ranging from 3-6 baht in the past, although most of the time it was something like an average of 3.6 baht per kg. The labour cost is about 0.7 to 1 baht, while the cost of fertiliser is no less than 0.5 baht per kg.
So with this price, it is now becoming impossible for the farmers. This amount is just enough to cover the labour and fertiliser, not to mention the investment or bank loans, if any. Since the operating costs will not change while we get half of the old prices, the real income for the farmers is about 30% of what they used to get. This has gone on for far too long.
This is a very serious problem and I wonder if the authorities are going to do anything about this. The funny thing is that the price of cooking oil has not gone down at all. What is wrong?
Mahamas Kromas
Ladder of democracy
"Merchant prices" in politics are hindering the evolution of true democracy, because they multiple their influence in an undemocratic way through their wealth mixed with political power. Some letter writers seem to confuse democracy with some kind of charity from the rich, like a feudal order where the landowner represents the peasants and the factory owner, the workers.
It must be an American point of view obtained from a land where trade unions are demonised and destroyed in addition to a total absence of a labour movement, when in functional democracies, those are important democratic players countering the power of the money.
In the last Thai election, the old fugitive merchant prince living in Dubai tried again to grab the power through his proxies. And a new Merchant Prince popped up as the leader of the newly-founded Future Forward party. Some see this young billionaire as the answer to how to develop democracy in Thailand, when the thought behind democracy is quite the opposite -- politicians are supposed to represent the people, so how can a merchant prince of the 1% represent the rest of the 99%? Of course, the last four years should have been used to establish a labour party, but instead Thailand got 45 new parties including Future Forward.
Establishing democracy is like climbing a ladder step by step to a higher and higher level, until reaching a level of functional democracy. Experience from other countries shows it doesn't come easy and not all at once, as some impatient people seem to believe. Thailand has tried the businessman's style of democracy, resulting only in violence and chaos. The time is ripe to try somebody else that is not 100% perfect but has some decency.
A Johnsen
Cobras and coups
In his letter "Respect for Prem", (PostBag, May 30), HHB asks us to imagine a possibility that might have been. He then misses the reality that has been made real.
The legacy of influential political players is the nation that they leave in their wake. Thailand today could have been a healthy, functioning democracy that dealt vigilantly with the usual problems of corruption, nepotism, legalised injustice and other abuses that are a permanent threat to every democracy, and which are far worse under undemocratic systems, as both local and foreign history can attest to. That wonderful, unrealised possibility would have greatly benefited the Thai nation.
The legacy of Thailand's decades-long lines of unelected political players is recorded in the headlines of yesterday, today and likely tomorrow: coups, division, cobras, corruption, injustice, inequality and all the rest. The reality on the street seems not quite so wonderfully gilt as imagined.
Felix Qui
Cash cow tourists
Re: "What the eye can't see", (PostBag, May 30).
Tourists who visit Thailand already pay taxes, if only the current 7% VAT on what they spend on hotel accommodation, local transport, meals and recreation alone. Add in other spending and the amount of tax paid by tourists must add up to a substantial amount.
However, whereas Thai residents benefit from the payment of their taxes by having full access to the government services that these taxes fund, tourists benefit less, simply because they have less access and usually make less use of government services than residents do. Thus, tourists are already making a substantial contribution to government revenue and receive less in return than residents.
Before the government gouges tourists for more money, it should explain why the large amount of tax it already collects from tourists is insufficient to pay for tourists' health services, security and the upkeep of tourist attractions, and show that tourists' taxes are not being misused to cross-subsidise the services government provides to residents. Otherwise, tourists could be forgiven for thinking the government regards them as nothing more than cash cows to be exploited.
Sibeymai
EU will crumble
Following the Brexit events has proven interesting. It also shows that many countries want to regain their own independence to decide their own futures.
People are getting fed up with being dictated to, and having their decisions and futures dictated for them by a bunch of scruffy old men and a few women, who seem to be out of touch with reality. The EU will crumble the same way the USSR crumbled, as nations are now asserting themselves to reclaim their independence. Politicians seem to forget who they are and what they were elected to do.
As an undergrad in the 1960s at Queens College in New York City, I had the honour of attending a political science lecture by a British delegate to the United Nations, Lord Caradon. During the Q&A, I asked Lord Caradon what the proper approach should be for a politician whose personal opinions conflicted with those who elected him/her. Lord Caradon responded with one word, "resign". Unfortunately, this is not what politicians tend to do. They instead tenaciously hang on to power to fulfil their own agendas.
Jack Gilead
Stocks on the wane
Why does the Thai government and media insist the Thai stock market is doing better than ever since the coup?
The truth is, the SET index has been barely holding up over the past five years, while the rest of the stock market has seen a tremendous drop. Hence, it's very misleading and untrue for Thai brokers, the government or other news sources to claim the Thai stock market is holding up.
Actually, two-thirds of all stocks here have on average declined 30-50%, or more. That is why more than half the Thai retail investors have evaporated. This, perhaps, will be for a long time, because their confidence in the stock market -- and its mostly inept brokers -- have forced them out.
If we looked at a composite of all shares on the Thai stock market, you would see the horrific drop since the current regime took over. And whereas before the election, the Democrats claimed they would push the stock market to soar again, they have instead decided to join the regime's PPRP which will continue to drive the stock market through the floor.
Why don't the Democrat and Bhumjaithai parties consider a coalition with the FFP for the sake of the Thai economy, stock market and a more accurate definition of democracy?
Tom Banker
'Chok rai' for auditors
The role of an auditor is to provide a professional opinion on financial statements prepared based on generally accepting accounting rules.
They are supposedly held to a higher ethical standard in order to impart an unbiased view of the books of company accounts.
More importantly, they are, after all, humans subject to emotions depending on the circumstances and situations they find themselves in at any particular point in time.
While insider trading is ethically wrong as it benefits certain individuals with information that has yet to be announced publicly, one has to admit that the stock exchange is nothing more than a legalised casino.
The odds are perennially against the players and the house always wins. Even with great information, there is no guarantee the stock price will rise or fall because market movement is erratic and unpredictable.
This time, the auditors got it right by making some cash out of their inside information. Many may not be that lucky. To make them accountable, one needs to ensure their basic welfare needs are met.
The fact is, the audit profession on the surface looks glamorous. However, most of the junior auditors are really scraping by on meagre salaries due to the lowering of auditing fees and increasing the annual supply.
Someone wise recently said, it may be chok rai (ie twisted cruel fate/unlucky) for people choosing this profession. I couldn't agree more.
Jeff Chong
Very risky dairy
The government promoting the consumption of milk demonstrates what happens in a culture that does not value science and makes policy according to the financial dictations of an industry.
If mammary secretions are such a wonderful food source, then why not promote human breast milk? But for some reason, the medical profession only supports breastfeeding for six months to two years. If we witnessed a 12-year-old suckling at their mother's teat we would consider the action to be abnormal.
Drinking breast milk beyond childhood is not natural. No animal does this. Milk is designed and produced to support the growth of the particular species.
It is not produced as a "universal" substance that is equally shared among species. The milk from a cow is naturally engineered for a calf's nutritional requirements, not for humans.
There are a plethora of contraindications and health hazards that occur from humans drinking bovine milk. These range from increases in saturated fat contributing to heart disease, osteoporosis and increased bone fractures in women, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer correlations, and lactose intolerance.
If you follow the money, the dairy industry is the only one that reaps benefits from increased sales due to consumption. Not the consumer.
The biological impacts on children who consume milk from cows injected with growth hormones and other chemicals to increase the milk production unnaturally is not completely understood yet.
So why risk the well-being of a child to make more money for the dairy industry?
Darius Hober
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