Jumbo treated well
Re: "Ailing jumbo repatriated from Sri Lanka", (BP, July 3).
I commend the Thai government for bringing home the sick elephant named Muthu Raja. The authorities demonstrated great patience and persistence to achieve the rescue.
Gifting animals for political gain devalues both nature and those who engage in it. It has no place in the 21st century. It is pleasing that Thailand has stopped this abuse of its national animal and is checking on others held overseas.
Ian Cruickshank
Cherry picking?
Re: "Covid conundrums", (PostBag, July 2) & "More boosters are not needed, US study shows", (BP, June 23).
I wonder if Michael Setter bothered to read in full the research paper published by the NIH, which he cites in his letter. If so, I imagine he would have lightly skipped over the following: "The vaccines were amazingly effective in preventing Covid-19, saved a large number of lives, and changed the impact of the pandemic".
This, of course, roundly contradicts everything Mr Setter has been saying about vaccines for the past three years.
Nonetheless, Khun Michael is happy to tout a result from the same research that shows a diminished efficacy in the bivalent vaccine booster on the current dominant variants of Covid-19 as proof that we haven't been getting the "whole truth" about vaccines and boosters.
Ray Ban
New generation's turn
Re: "Wind of change", (PostBag, July 2) & "Pita: Senators should not abuse lese majeste issue", (BP, June 27).
For goodness sake, why are you printing Vint Chavala's letters on practically a daily basis?
Look, Vint your beloved junta, and before them, the Democrats, had their chance, and they blew it!
Then you wrote that old folks prefer change that is "peaceful and meticulous". Would you call using the lèse-majesté law to persecute political opponents "peaceful and meticulous" progress?
I'm nearly 73 years old, but I'm a teenager at heart. And I'm disgusted with people like yourself who don't realise your time has passed, and you should now have the human decency to step aside and give the young ones a shot.
Eric Bahrt
Fact-checking Nipit
Re: "MFP under fire over National Day idea", (BP, June 27).
I am afraid Nipit Intarasombat's statement "Normally, countries with monarchs as their heads of state set their national day on the birthday of their monarch", is not correct.
The Netherlands celebrates the birthday of its monarch as Koningsdag, or national day. Luxembourg uses its monarch's official (but not real) birthday. And Thailand and Liechtenstein use the birthdays of former monarchs. And that is it.
The UK has no national day as such. Denmark and Norway celebrate their constitution days as national days.
But there are 35 countries with a monarch as head of state which do have national days. A number of these are members of the Commonwealth where, ironically, their national days are based on the date of their independence from the UK.
I would never expect Nipit to conduct an exhaustive survey of monarchies around the globe, but even if he looked at the other monarchies in Axean (Brunei, Cambodia, and Malaysia), he would surely have realised his error.
Alec Bamford
