Re: "Dept set to inspect NY gift baskets" (BP, Dec 19).
Has Thailand really degenerated into such a "nanny state" that authorities have to police the make-up of holiday gift baskets? Whatever happened to the commonsense notion of "buyer beware"? Surely Thais are clever enough to decide for themselves if a gift basket has the components and quality to warrant the price affixed. Sending inspectors out to ensure the standards of gift baskets seems like the epitome of government overreach. Perhaps the real motive for bureaucrats fanning out to shops and supermarkets is to solicit a few year-end gift baskets for themselves.
Samanea Saman
Don't they realise?
Re: "Senator sparks handbag spat with student activist" (BP, Dec 20).
In the past few years, we have seen some Thai student activists shamelessly flaunting their holier-than-thou attitude as well as their material opulence. This piece of news is just another example of their show of untutored behaviour. One thing these young, insufficiently educated thugs failed to exhibit is their ability to share their views with foreign journalists in English. Don't they realise this is the 21st Century already and that we are living in a global community?
Vint Chavala
Like Caesar's wife
Re: "Ex-Amlo chief 'can face probe' " (BP, Dec 21).
Ex-massage parlour tycoon Chuvit Kamolvisit claims that Anti-Money Laundering Office chairman Pol Maj Gen Piyaphan Pingmuang might have helped alleged Chinese mafia boss Chaiyanat "Tuhao" Kornchaiyanan evade money laundering charges in addition to those related to drugs. Tuhao allegedly owns a busted Bangkok illegal casino/drug den for Chinese tourists.
Parliament's committee against corruption should investigate Piyaphan for corruption and money laundering. MPs are elected and directly accountable to their constituencies. Members of other organisations, such as the Department of Special Investigation, are headed by and accountable to political appointees -- not the public -- and often are blind to conflicts of interest. For example, all senators were hand-picked by PM Prayut and voted for him en bloc, enabling him to be PM even if he had only one-sixth of the popular vote.
Like Caesar's wife, anti-graft leaders must be above suspicion.
Burin Kantabutra
Do something right
Re: "Revamp 7-day campaign" (Editorial, Dec 20).
The dangerous days of driving during the New Year holiday will soon be here. Year after year, approximately 300 Thai travellers are killed in traffic accidents, and hundreds are injured and maimed.
Wouldn't it be possible to assemble a Dunkirk-type fleet of volunteers from Buddhist organisations, NGOs and Thai and farang charity clubs to drive folks throughout the country so that they would not get killed on motorcycles? Wouldn't it be possible for the Thai government to offer free rides in government vehicles so folks would not get killed while speeding and drinking on motorcycles? Why doesn't the Thai army offer free rides to travellers by using armed forces trucks?
Instead of hazing and beating recruits, the army could do something really positive for Thai citizens. Of course, details such as legalities and insurance issues would have to be worked out. But it would all be worth it.
I would think that at least some lives would be saved, some travellers would come home whole instead of maimed, the nation would save a lot of money by not losing productive citizens to hospitalisation ... and death ... and many Thai households would be celebrating instead of grieving.
Ben Levin
The opposite effect
Re: "Rutte to apologise for history of slavery" (BP, Dec 20).
I could not help but shake my head when I read that Denmark's prime minister intends to go and apologise for Denmark's historical involvement with slavery. Simply put, there is nobody alive today who had anything to do with decisions made centuries ago, nor does anyone today have firsthand knowledge of what happened in those centuries. I would argue that today's young persons have neither anything for which to apologise, nor anything for which to hold a grievance over, as not one of them was alive in any of those countries then.
Feeling wronged by decisions which others made before you even lived is only a recipe for hanging onto someone else's hatred, as well as reigniting past wars and reincarnating the sins of men long since dead. By this logic, should I hate my Burmese friends because perhaps their grandparents overthrew British rule? (...I'm originally part British.) Conversely, should they hate me because my family partially originated from Britain and maybe one of my bygone ancestors participated in colonising Burma?
It is exactly the opposite of what Dr Martin Luther King supported; which was judging people not by their history or colour but by the content of their character. I would argue that if Denmark really wants to do something about slavery then maybe they should boldly march their military in to stop the modern slavery, which is happening to about 50 million souls in the world today. Perhaps they could start in the gulf of a country rather familiar to all of us?
Oh, well, I guess they just are too busy apologising to be bothered?
Jason A Jellison
Editor's note: Mark Rutte is PM of The Netherlands
Think before you go
Re: "Scam ring victims return from Cambodia" (BP, Dec 22).
This is a warning call for any young Thai in the hospitality industry who contemplates crossing the border to work in the casinos/hotels in Poipet.
I have acted in loco parentis for a Thai man since he was 13 years old. He has a bachelor's degree and is a polyglot, speaking Thai, English, Khmer, Chinese and Lao. He has worked in three of Rayong's top hotels, and is between jobs waiting for a new six-star hotel to open in February, where he hopes to further his career.
In the meantime, he decided to go to Poipet where he was offered a job that sounded too good to be true: 18,000 baht a month, room and board, one day off a week, 15 days leave every six months, and a 40,000-baht bonus on completion of one year's employment.
It was too good to be true. The moment he reported in, the hotel demanded he surrender his passport and his mobile telephone. The accommodation turned out to be five people crammed into one room. On the one day a week he is allowed off, he is not allowed to leave the confines of the hotel, and when his six-monthly 15-day leave rolls around, he has to pay 15,000 baht for what the hotel calls "working visa charges".
He immediately rejected the position, but the hotel demanded 1,000 baht before it would return his passport and mobile telephone. He is now on his way back to Thailand and will wait till February for the new hotel in Rayong to open.
David Brown
Milking the dollars
Re: "Zelensky asserts that US aid is not 'charity' " (BP, Dec 23).
Watching the old comedian Vladimir Zelensky performing in the US Congress was a comedy indeed. His best performance so far. And the congressmen were leaping to their feet.
Whilst one has every sympathy for the Ukrainians, Zelensky has milked the Congress and indeed most of the Americans for every dollar he has so far received, untold billions to date, and asked for more. More??!!
As it is Xmas and I am not Mr Bumble screaming at Oliver Twist, nor am I Scrooge, I would pat Zelensky on the head and ask him when enough is enough? For throwing so much money into a bottomless pit is never a good idea.
America has just run away from Afghanistan after spending trillions there to no avail. And now it is embroiled in another quagmire.
Miro King, not a Scrooge
Don't forget drugs!
Re: "NY alcohol measures stay" (BP, Dec 23).
As usual in Thailand, they have omitted to mention driving under the influence of drugs and cannabis.
SJL
All about the money
Often those who have ridiculed me for promoting a vegan diet are the same people who ridicule me for exposing the Covid hoax.
Yet a vegan diet would be tremendously more effective in reducing the severity of Covid infection than all the vaccines in the world. A study published in the British Medical Journal involving six countries came to that exact conclusion.
I believe one reason for this is that vegans are rarely overweight (although there are exceptions to that rule) and obesity greatly increases the risk of dying from Covid or being hospitalised for it.
But what is the reaction of the medical establishment to this life-saving information? Vaccinate! Vaccinate! Vaccinate! All this Covid nonsense is about money and politics -- not human health.
Eric Bahrt
Time for crayons
Re: "Fudged figures?" (PostBag, Dec 21).
If the PostBag is going to keep printing Mr Bahrt's blather, would someone please give him some crayons to chew for Christmas?
Tarquin Chufflebottom
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