When new Public Health Minister Chalerm Yubamrung announced shortly after taking up his post late last month that he was pushing for a ban on the sale and even consumption of alcohol over the New Year's holiday and also on religious holidays, it generated disbelief more than anything else. The thought that a country that derives a major part of its revenue from the tourist sector would suddenly halt alcohol sales at the height of the tourist season defies all logic, especially as hotels and airlines are already reporting severe strain due to the ongoing political crisis in the country and a global economic picture that is worsening by the day. So it was no real surprise that Mr Chalerm backed away from the proposal on Friday to avoid fierce opposition from tourism entrepreneurs and tourists themselves.
Of course, the proposal is unrealistic not just from the standpoint of attracting tourists and the income they generate. It's hard to imagine how such a ban could be enforced given all the Thai citizens and resident who enjoy a drink after a hard day's work or at weekends. Mr Chalerm had cited a survey ''conducted some time ago'' that he said revealed 67 per cent of the public agreed with the idea of banning alcohol sales on religious holidays, Songkran and over the New Year period. However, he didn't identify who was surveyed. It seems hard to believe that even 67 per cent of non-drinkers would be in favour of an outright ban on alcohol sales and consumption, as most are resigned to drinking being a fact of life and won't be bothered as long as the imbibers don't infringe on the rights _ or present a danger to others or themselves.
That's not to say that Mr Chalerm, as public health minister, should not be concerned with the abuse of alcohol in the country, but if he truly wants to do something about it he should approach the problem with both feet on the ground and a careful look before leaping to any conclusions. Proposals should include, first and foremost, stricter efforts to keep people who have had too much to drink from getting behind the wheel, and also from operating motorcycles. The death and injury rate on the roads at all times of the year, not just during holiday times, is a national disgrace, and most of it can be attributed to drunk driving. If laws on the books are enforced, and semi-conscious drivers are stopped on their way home from pubs in sufficient numbers and given heavy fines or even jail time, the incidence of drunk driving will fall immediately. Another area where laws should be strictly enforced is underage drinking.
Mr Chalerm should also look into ways to expand treatment facilities devoted to alcohol abuse that are affordable by the average citizen. At present these are almost non-existent, unless one counts religious institutions.
We can all at least be thankful that Mr Chalerm had the good sense to withdraw his proposal before it got to the implementation stage, something which, again, was never very likely given that it would first have had to get the approval of the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet.
BAILOUT GOING, GOING ...
At the time of the debate a few weeks ago over the big bailouts of financial institutions, one of the big questions was, should they be geared toward helping Wall Street or Main Street? Not surprisingly, Wall Street claimed almost total victory; the final version of the bill had almost no provisions to help out those in danger of defaulting on their mortgage loans. The reasoning was that the needs of Wall Street must be addressed to avoid a total collapse of the financial system. Perhaps so, but news coming out in the last few days has got to make you wonder. For example, the insurance giant American International Group (AIG), which was given a $123 billion federal rescue loan prior to the $700 billion bailout package passed by Congress, has already gone through three-quarters of the loan, most of it to pay off bad debts. There are fears the company might not survive even with the loan, which would pull down other institutions or necessitate another huge loan.
This came on the heels of news that AIG had plans, now cancelled due to publicity, for promotional events that would have cost $80 million, and had also been spending millions of the federal loan money on lobbying efforts against increased government regulation of the financial industry.
Meanwhile, according to a New York Times story published yesterday, more than a million US homes have been lost to foreclosure in the last two years, and banks are now in the process of foreclosing on 1.5 million more.
Maybe some of the money should have been applied to the root of the problem, to provide assistance to people facing foreclosure. At least then there would be a lot less homeless people to show for the effort.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Next
