Your recent report on the haze in northern Thailand says that 90% of the thousands of hot spots were started by people, but figure should be 100%. Places like Australia and California have wild fires. Tropical countries do not. Why doesn't Malaysia have them? Or tropical Northern Australia, even? And if 90% were caused by arson, which in Australia means up to 20 years in jail if they cause death and destruction, how many people are now in Thai jails convicted of arson?
This year, as always, I packed my bags in February and left for two months waiting for the poison to disappear. I just returned and it is now as bad as ever in late April for first time in 20 years.
The most beautiful place on earth, Pai, was recently named the most polluted place on earth after the air quality indicator reached 801 -- more than 40 times the safe threshold. Immigration rules will not force me to leave, but the pollution may.
Very sad Nik
Incorrect inference
While Dusit Thammaraks in his April 25 letter, "Sea of stupidity", may be right in concluding the attempts of Chad Elwartowski and his wife to establish a "seastead" off Phuket were ill-advised, Khun Dusit's interpretation of the rights associated with a country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is incorrect.
A country's sovereign territory extends only for 12 nautical miles (nm) out from its shoreline. Waters of an EEZ -- which extend from 12nm offshore to 200nm -- are "international waters" under the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Thailand signed in 2011. The EEZ confers no sovereignty over the waters -- only the rights to use the resources in and under the sea within the EEZ.
In areas of overlapping EEZs (ie neighbouring countries), it is up to the states to delineate the actual maritime boundary. Generally, any point within an overlapping area defaults to the nearest state. Here's where the rub occurs -- should a seasteader succeed in gaining recognition of a new independent state established within international waters, it could hypothetically claim its own 12nm territorial waters and 200nm EEZ. In the case of the seastead off Phuket, such claims would overlap with Thailand's territorial waters and EEZ.
Mr Elwartowski is entitled to establish his seastead under international law, so long as it is outside Thai territorial waters -- meaning more than 12nm from the Thai shoreline -- which he claims to be the case.
Samanea Saman
Floating polluters
Re: "Capitalising on raft culture", BP, April 28
The piece omits an important matter when discussing provincial efforts to regulate raft businesses. Located as they are on the river, it calls into question the environmental impact of these restaurants and forms of accommodation.
Thais tend to presume waterways are free sewage systems, and the fact there is no mention of the environmental impact or any assessment of these floating waste generators suggest it is business as usual. Fire and structural codes should also be formulated and enforced with a view toward improving safety.
Michael Setter
Ill-advised remark
Re: "Paranoid immigration", PostBag, April 27.
Out of exasperation, the writer quipped, "I wonder how long it will be before we are required to wear tracking bracelets". I wish you hadn't said that. You know what you have done? You just gave Thai immigration a superb idea. Now they are saying, "Gee, why didn't we think of that before?"
Somsak Pola
Caveat venditor
How truly stupid does an individual have to be, to show a 5-million-baht Richard Mille watch to a prospective buyer at a hotel lobby after midnight. There is one born every minute, as the old expression goes.
Perhaps the seller should have chosen to show the watch to Thailand's own General Rolex instead.
449900
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