Re: "Alternatives for farmers", (Editorial, March 15).
The problem of smog in our country is escalating each year. The city of Chiang Mai this year has become the world's worst in terms of air pollution caused by PM2.5 dust particles.
The current Thai government doesn't seem to care much how the provincial citizenry are suffering as a result of this calamitous situation: The authorities are being too lenient to those who are the sources of the country's forest fires, and the newly created and worsening problem of fires from the ever spreading animal-feed corn fields.
Some of the country's giant agricultural companies are rumoured to be closely connected to people in the government. These animal-feed firms are reaping hundreds of billions each year while causing sickness to millions of people as a result of the fires they have caused -- as well as damaging the country's good reputation as a top tourist destination.
It's time the government leaders thought less about what style of clothes they would wear, or which expensive watches they would put on their wrists for the day.
They should and must start working at alleviating the people's plight now -- without prejudice or fear.
Vint Chavala
Chiang Mai
Worst of the worst
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry just published a study that shows deaths from air pollution at almost 8.8 million people per year, double the previous estimates.
And Chiang Mai is now the world capital of this scourge, having achieved the number one global ranking under a government that just continued the legal status of three of the world's worst agricultural poisons.
After being placed at the top of the list for traffic fatalities and the rampant terrorism in the South, what's left for the government to shoot for, you might ask. I guess you should elect them and find out.
Mr M
Find the firestarters
Most bush and forest fires are believed to be man-made fires, but no arrests or punishments have been made due to poor surveillance. In case the investigation is unable to find the real culprits, the village head, or people at the Chiang Mai Provincial Administrative Organisation that have jurisdiction over the location of the fires should be held accountable.
RH Suga
Lamphun
Rabies plan a dud
The agriculture minister says the government has a plan to eradicate rabies from Thailand by the end of next year. Similar to the announcement that there is no prostitution in Pattaya, there may be something in the works but it's probably a dud.
In my village alone it would take a herculean effort to round up all the soi dogs and vaccinate them, but the entire nation? Of course it might give the Thai military their first meaningful task in living memory.
Mr M
Blatant school bribes
The FBI has found up to 50 people, including two well-known movie actresses, who allegedly "cheated on admission tests and arranged for bribes to get their children into prestigious schools" (Life, March 14). The number could be much higher, and even involved VIPs in the like of "chief executives, financiers, the chairman of a prominent law firm, winemaker, and fashion designer".
It is as newsworthy a story as a report on the same day about a warning over duty-free graft risk by the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT). But the report on school bribes, if put on the front page, would put almost every senior school official, and every parent and child of privilege in this country in the awkward position of potentially having to explain why this ruse has been going on blatantly in this country for decades!
Duty-free graft does not involve as many citizens of this country as does cheating and bribery to secure school seats.
Politico Steve
Sluggish construction
According to the photo caption in the March 13 edition, the construction of the new flyover at Na Ranong intersection would really take years to finish.
It seems unreasonable to take so long for such a structure.
RT Suwan
Building up chaos
Has the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration allowed for construction work at two of the busiest junctions on the Eastern leg of the Ratchadaphisek inner-ring roads to be undertaken simultaneously? The Asoke-Petchaburi flyover -- which was originally scheduled to be closed for repairs in 2018 -- has as of March 9 been closed for the next six months. Meanwhile, further south, the Na Ranong flyover is to be closed for two years from March 20. This means that two of the three main East-West intersections with Ratchadaphisek Road lying between the southern First Stage Expressway and the Second Stage Expressway to the North are going to be subjected to highly disruptive closures at the same time.
Please tell me I missed something.
Michael Winckless
Orwellian politics
Veera Prateepchaikul is probably correct in saying foreigners get the TRC case all wrong, (Opinion, March 11). Where on Earth could we have gotten the idea that the military junta use the judicial system "to suppress freedom of expression"? But as I read on I could find little to make sense of the labyrinthine ways of the Thai political landscape.
The Thai Raksa Chart Party's controversial nomination was the most intriguing political event for years and many of us yearned for honest and informed insights as to what it all meant. We were certainly not going to get it from Khun Veera who seemed satisfied to churn out the familiar "symbolic soul of the nation" while laying the blame for this "wicked idea" on the usual suspect and resident of Dubai.
After a few years in Thailand we foreigners come to accept that vast tracts of the Thai psyche remain beyond discussion and even thought but it is sad that such a mindset is so easily accepted by journalists. It is of little wonder that the recurring adjective among farang attempting to discuss the Thai political scene is "Orwellian".
YANAWA DAVID
Insurance solution
Re "Get real, expats", (PostBag, March 14).
Samanea Saman raised good points. However I have a different reading of the situation. I'm 49 and not preoccupied by my retirement; if I have one -- a different topic.
From my understanding, the main problem is the following: Thailand mainly requests 800,000 baht to cover medical/accident costs!
Logically, many foreigners are focusing on that required capital and I'm not so offended that Thailand doesn't want to pay for others. With my due respect, I think both are right.
My naive suggestion would be, with the millions of foreigners living with a pension, working in the kingdom and married to a Thai woman, to ask the Thai government to liaise with domestic insurance companies to impose a Thai insurance contract specifically designed for foreigners residing in Thailand instead of 800,000 baht to cover health and accident costs.
Granted, it is as easy as we think, and I'm maybe wrong, but I could imagine with a mandatory insurance (one of the conditions to get the visa), paying a decent amount -- without a precise calculation let's imagine between 1,500 and 3,500 baht -- per foreigner on a monthly basis could generate interesting incomes, could create jobs, could help to cover emergency costs in public hospitals, and give a better feeling to the majority of foreigners who know that nothing is free in this world.
Gilles BERNARD
Stateless conundrum
Have the authorities and the general public given any thought to the massive contradiction that takes place before our very eyes here in Thailand. On the one hand, they don't consider being born in Thailand enough of a reason to give children a nationality, hence thousands of young people in the far North remain stateless. But at the same time, a foreigner who has resided in Thailand for 30 years and runs short of money will be "sent back" to a country the Immigration Bureau insists is their home purely because it's where they were born. Can you believe it?
Lungstib
Thank God for Prayut
I was led understand that among the election posters that are blighting the roadway into town, there are about 10 posters in different guises for Pheu Thai. All Thai political parties should be forced to write up their manifesto, their agendas, their promises, in writing, submitted to the election commission. If any elected party members start deviating from their party's platform, these people should be immediately removed from public office. If a majority of these people plan to bring Thaksin Shinawatra and Snow White back to Thailand, thank God Prayut will still be around, along with the Royal Thai Army. While an army in most countries is to defend borders and aggression, the Thai army is needed to keep despots and convicted criminals out.
Anti-Thaksinista
Brit prestige all gone
According to the British Ambassador Brian Davidson in his March 4 article on Bigchilli.com, the sale of the British Embassy has caused no loss of prestige.
Once again, a perfect example of how out of touch our diplomats and politicians are with the UK public in general and in this instance, the Thai public in particular. Not only has the British Embassy been the centre of cultural, social and consular life for local UK expats since it was built, but it has also been a very important symbol to Thais of the importance the UK places in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
The ambassador cites poor WiFi, AC, acoustics and the cost of the upkeep of the buildings and gardens as some of the reasons for the move.
Surely the cost of all of the aforementioned is pretty inconsequential compared to the ever-increasing value of the property and the relatively cheap repair costs in Thailand.
It's interesting that the ambassador is "cool to the notion that prime property is a good long-term investment and that moving out of the embassy doesn't cause any loss of prestige", yet on a personal level he needs to move with his family at our expense to one of Bangkok's most expensive new condominiums which I am sure most of us will never see the inside of.
There goes my knighthood.
David Williamson
Vocational sexism?
Regarding the TDRI article, "How vocational education can 'build the nation'", (Opinion, March 13), my only complaint was regarding the accompanying photo. There were no pictures of females.
In North America and Europe, females make up a big percentage of those in vocational schools.
Froggie
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