POST BAG
Much as I appreciate Crutch's column (or columns as they now are), the title ''Post Script'' no longer seems quite right since his departure from the tail end of ''Outlook''. Dare I suggest ''Notes from the Doghouse'' or, in view of his new patch on the letters page, ''Doggy Bag'' as possible alternatives?
Chris Jeffery
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WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
I just wanted to inform you people at the Bangkok Post that for days now opening your website has been next to impossible, and at best, painfully slow, although other sites present no problems for my computer. I must wonder why.
Joel Barlow
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ALL IS NOT GOLDEN IN US SYSTEM
I don't know if Mr Kenny Marshal (Sunday Post, Nov 9) is from the United States, but given his lack of knowledge of the country and its political system, one would hope not.
He expresses contempt for Thailand's rampant vote buying, and claims that nothing of the kind happens in the US.
In all US elections, from the local council all the way up to the presidency, all candidates keep a large amount of funds as ''get out the vote money''. Getting out the vote involves paid staff and volunteers driving around neighbourhoods in vans looking for voters likely to support their candidates. Anyone who has worked on an election campaign in the US knows that this often involves inducements such as buying a lunch here, paying a bar bill there, and occasionally a straight out payment for the ''inconvenience'' of voting.
There is no shortage of corruption in the US political system, as the case of big-time lobbyist Jack Abramoff showed only too clearly. With such large amounts of money needed to run for election at all levels, corruption is built into the system. As for US politicians (unlike their Thai counterparts) being ''ashamed'' to be caught, did Mr Marshall follow the recent US Senate elections? In Alaska, Senator Ted Stevens, convicted for corruption and sentenced to prison, not only showed no shame but ran for re-election. The only shame belonged to the voters of Alaska _ who apparently have re-elected him.
While there is plenty to admire in the US democracy, there is also plenty that Thailand would do well to avoid.
James Brown
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TAKE A LOOK AT THE REAL OBAMA
Regarding the column ''Obama's forgotten heritage'' (Soul Searching, Nov 9), the allegations, content, tone and style used in the article were totally uncalled for. Imtiaz Muqbil's sole intent in writing this article was in establishing some sort of link between the president-elect and Islam, citing his roots and paternal pedigree, to use as a platform for propaganda and for his Islamic political activism.
With theatrical fanfare, he challenged the courage of president-elect Obama, who, because of supposed political expediency, had distanced himself from his Islamic heritage. A heritage supported by such evidence as an Islamic middle name, the genes from an absent African father and the fact that he lived in Indonesia for a few years during his childhood.
Mr Obama and his political handlers are further met with Mr Muqbil's strong disapproval and disgust for, in his view, a disregard for the plight of 1.2 billion people who share this alleged heritage. I suggest that if Mr Muqbil wants to promote his ideological agenda it would be far more productive if he stops playing on the supposed slights against Islam and drops the personal insults and barbs about the racial orientation of Mr Obama's cabinet, and instead concentrates on the US election process and all those who control it.
I have a feeling that if the writer had done even the minimum amount of research that good journalism requires for an article concerning a presidential family, he might not have missed what a truly amazing and fabulous cast of adults, locations and events actually did shape Mr Obama's character and outlook towards life during his formative years.
Mr Bill
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THE FORGOTTEN HERITAGE, PART II
Imtiaz Muqbil wrote in his Nov 9 column that ''Today, being a Muslim in the deep fundamentalist Christian heartland of the US is the same as being a nigger in the erstwhile white supremacist southern states of the 1930s or '40s''. Aside from his offensive word choice, the writer profoundly misunderstands either US history or the contemporary lives of American Muslims. American Muslims face prejudice, but it is ludicrous and insulting to compare their experience to the horrific regime of legal segregation and extra-legal lynchings that so diminished and terrorised black Americans in the Jim Crow South.
The article also was curdled with rank anti-Semitism. Barack Obama was accused of distancing himself from his father's Muslim roots and assigning responsibility to two Jewish campaign advisers _ out of many dozens of senior advisers _ and to his newly hired chief-of-staff, who is also Jewish. Offering not a single sentence to support that any of these people are Islamophobic, Mr Muqbil cited the advisers' religion as evidence enough. Imputing evil powers of influence to behind-the-scenes Jewish advisers is, of course, a classic anti-Semitic slander. Assuming that Jewish Americans have a certain uniform point of view or are anti-Muslim is no less vile. Mr Muqbil wrote that ''rich Jewish-American backers'' of Obama prevented Jimmy Carter from speaking at the Democratic Convention _ again without summoning a shred of evidence. He wrote that religious values can be passed ''genetically'' to children, something even a 14-year old biology student would know is laughable.
In conclusion, this kind of flagrant and unvarnished racism is unworthy to be published.
Ilan Greenberg
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