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Bangkok Post

Comment

Stuck in the past

I have been giving a lot of thought to the prime minister's Sept 13 claim that Thailand could become a "first world developed country". Although the PM gave no strict timetable for the metamorphosis, there are a few things that I feel will need strict attention. As he will have noticed during his travels, first world countries prohibit the burning of plastics and have an efficient refuse collection and disposal system to minimise pollution of the air and waterways. To be fair, whoever is responsible for -- or at least in charge of -- the cleaning of Klong Saen Seab has certainly made progress, but there is still a long way to go.

Other aspects of life in a developed country that the PM might wish to consider are, principally, a supply of clean, drinkable running water to all households, which, in itself, would drastically cut the use and abuse of plastic. Then, the banning of plastic bags; even India has banned single-use plastic bags. On the other hand, it is difficult to see how that could be fully implemented here since the habit of buying food on the way to work or on the way home is the norm. I think we could accept that paper bags would be quite unsuitable so an alternative should be sought.

I much doubt whether any police force in the world is completely free of corruption, but it could be more officially discouraged with a better pay structure. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Then, there is corruption in other parts of the administration but maybe we should watch this space on that one.

Politicians you can believe in? Maybe that's going a bit too far. But a developed country is more than submarines and riverside promenades and until we can escape from the deification of money and rank, I fear that this wonderful country, with so much evident potential, will be stuck in the feudal system of the Middle Ages in Europe.

Warner

Ancient locomotives

Re: "Bang Sue mega-station to be operational by January 2021", (BP, Nov 23).

I read with a bit of in trepidation, (and horror), that the Bang Sue mega railway station will be completed in 2021. I wonder how much more time this will add to my already- two-hour and forty-five minute-trip to Bangkok, which in reality takes more than three hours, with luck. Will the SRT upgrade its ancient rolling stock and perhaps introduce new locomotives? I fear not. A combination of the ancient suddenly thrust into the ultra-modern will be like Rip Van Winkle waking up to a world he does not recognise or understand, a 19th-century thrust into the 21st without a buffer.

Gevaldt

Kowtowing to China

Re: "'Eager' Duterte cosies up to Xi Jinping", (BP, Nov 21).

Former president of the National Defence College of the Philippines, Clarita Carlos, is right in characterising President Duterte's approach toward China on the South China Sea as "capitulation bordering on treason". If Mr Duterte continues with his current path of kowtowing to the Chinese and surrendering sovereignty of Philippine territory, I predict he will eventually be found guilty of treason and locked away. Unfortunately, by then, the damage will have been done and the Philippines will have lost a significant portion of its legal territorial waters.

Samanea Saman

Restrict all drugs

Re: "Mafia drug scum", (PostBag, Nov 21).

How refreshing to read the letter on drugs by Felix Qui.

Whilst I have argued the case for decriminalisation of drugs in the UK and Sri Lanka, I have always come up against a hidden prejudicial block and I know that in the case of Sri Lanka this is because the drug business is underwritten by powerful officials to the extent that Interpol even "washed its hands" of the country.

The important factor which Mr Qui did not mention and to which I trust he would agree is that all recreational drugs, including tobacco, need to be restricted to specifically licensed outlets (certainly not supermarkets) and available only to registered addicts who are not minors.

The reason for including tobacco which is already legal, but would certainly not be if it were to be discovered today, is because to the best of my knowledge it does more harm than all the others put together including the abuse of taking drugs and driving. Mr Qui quite rightly points out that an adult ought to be free to harm himself or herself, but this does not take into consideration one's social responsibility or, in the case of tobacco the harm and misery it causes to other people. This is not to mention the fatalities suffered by young boys enslaved in the tobacco fields, even in the USA, or the damage to the environment.

Michael Nightingale

Terrible Thai customs

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday night. While getting my visa checked, a more senior immigration officer appeared out of nowhere and examined my passport. I had a two-month tourist visa issued in Melbourne, Australia but according to this officer I could not enter the country as I had visited too many times on a tourist visa. He was extremely aggressive and angry. I explained I had travelled to Thailand for 34 years on a tourist visa without a problem.

He said I needed a non-immigrant visa but this required a marriage licence and other documents. I suggested he was wrong as I had been at the embassy only a few days before and if I had been overusing a tourist visa, surely they would have told me. I was dragged over to an office and the officer suddenly started speaking in Thai. I can speak Thai and he basically said he was going to do me a favour by letting me in. His superior appeared and I explained in Thai that I think there was a misunderstanding as I had been in Thailand only three weeks ago and no immigration officer had ever mentioned there was a limit on tourist visa use.

I just can't even imagine how a younger person or first-time traveller would have handled this. I got the impression this was going to be a shakedown until they realised I understood the rules, spoke Thai and had Thais waiting outside. This immigration officer was angry, aggressive and made me feel like I committed a crime. No wonder tourism is suffering with this type of nonsense going on. I felt totally intimidated and helpless as these people just seem to make up laws that don't exist.

Andrew Thomas

Promote local products

Re: "Japan Airlines to serve Thai coffee", (BP, Nov 23).

The introduction of Doi Tung coffee in the skies will have a positive impact on Japanese tourists who are interested in the Doi Tung brand.

I hope other local products in rural areas will be publicly promoted so that tourists see them as attractive, local Thai souvenirs.

Durian Ninja

God won't help us

Re: "Turkey hypocrisy", (PostBag, Nov 23).

Eric Bahrt writes "Gandhi said you can judge the morality of a country by the way they treat their animals. God help us!" Mr Bahrt, I have taken poetic licence to rewrite your sentence: "You can judge a country by the way they treat their citizens. God help us!"

Neither God nor any other deity has anything nothing to do with the equation. Let's first battle man's inhumanity toward man before we sort out man's desire to eat turkeys. We don't have to look too far from home for an example. Let's start with the Rohingya.

Jack Gilead

Victims of censorship

Re: "Freedom an illusion", (PostBag, Nov 21).

Guena writes that most of us don't remember what Julian Assange disclosed. Oh, I remember well. He disclosed Hillary Clinton's emails that were hacked by the Russians! Consequently, we Americans now have Donald Trump for a president. (And don't forget her emails were hacked into on the same day Mr Trump publicly asked the Russians to find them).

To act as though Assange is a victim of censorship is a slap in the face to the many innocent people throughout the world who are rotting in jail cells for simply expressing views that their governments didn't approve of.

Eric Bahrt

Look at the facts

Re: "Shooting from the hip", (PostBag, Nov 22).

Roger Kendall should have a look at the facts regarding China and Thailand. A tourist boat carrying Chinese tourists capsizes and China demands an immediate investigation. The Thai military buys Chinese tanks and other military equipment that is inferior by comparison to other standards. The government panics with a noticeable fall in Chinese tourism and sets up special entry visa lanes at Thai airports.

The government wants to build a high-speed rail link between a few major cities, and it is the Chinese who are commissioned to build it.

The Chinese even demanded, not requested, land concessions along the rail lines. The Thai retail market is flooded with "made in China" electrical appliances that need repairs or go defunct within a few months of purchase.

Most Chinese in China prefer imported products if they can afford it, because by their own admission, the pesticides and other chemicals, are not safe for consumption.

Charcoal Ridgeback

'Racist' attitudes

Re: "America last", (PostBag, Nov 18).

Kuldeep Nagi's campaign, citing whites as the central problem and placing America right at the core of all the world's problems is hardly a new illusion.

Go to any of those countries he says America has problems with or that have, as he says, started to ignore the USA, and you will, of course, encounter nirvana.

Whites were central to the settlement of the "New World", although there were other races mixed in. When attitudes people have are based on race rather than merit, that is racist and ignorant.

The heartland of America, if anything, is surrounded by urban, wide-eyed liberal ignoramuses who desperately want to try some of the ideas they read about in books, but few of whomever actually read the entire book or go to the countries of concern to see how things are infested with local greed and corruption.

These days, when a non-white encounters a white, we are supposed to believe it is the white who is racist rather than the overly-sensitive person of colour who has had it drilled into his or her head that they are part of a continually deprived minority that needs to rise up against white people.

Those illegal aliens coming from Ecuador seem not to be rising up against their own people who they claim are killing and stealing from them. They go to America for a better life, for free benefits, for freedom, period.

I think Mr Nagi wants to ignore America because that's what he has been doing anyhow, so why change?

Sign me an American. White. Modest. Conscience at ease. Non-racist. With seven decades of education and experience. At home and abroad. With whites and non-whites. And not always have I been treated fairly or knowledgeably by those who complain about "my kind".

Brian Knight