Ever since the road from Khao Yai National Park headquarters down to Nakhon Nayok-Prachin Buri was built, elephants have ventured out of the jungle to forage along the thoroughfare. As more and more vehicles use the road, some serious elephant attacks on cars and trucks have occurred. Motorcycle riders also run the risk of being stomped.
Recently, a bull elephant named “Tho” smashed a Mercedes-Benz and other cars. With so many cars, there is no room for drivers to reverse and get out of the elephant’s way, and this male plus another female had fun bashing any vehicle that got too close.
It is just a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured or killed. In fact, last year “Tho” attacked a bus with tourists on board, injuring a few.
There is only one solution to this problem. Close this section of road permanently and stop Khao Yai from being a thoroughfare from Pak Chong to Prachin Buri. All visitors must enter on the Pak Chong side.
But this will bring complaints from local people who use the park road for business and to transport goods. These people will just have to go around the park.
But knowing how things move in Thailand, it will be like a snowball in hell; it will never happen. As the elephants get bolder, the chance of someone really getting hurt is real.
The Department of National Parks must take action and fix this very serious problem before it’s too late.
Nature Lover
Land of ignorance
Recently, I was waiting in a queue patiently waiting my turn when a Thai walked to the front of the line and started barking orders at the service attendant. And what was even more unbelievable, the attendant took the order. This is not the only ignorant practice I have experienced from Thais: Businesses jack up prices for foreigners, drivers run over pedestrians at crosswalks, and the police shake down tourists and expats.
Thailand, until you change your ignorant, racist and uncivil attitudes don’t expect to be viewed as anything other than that. Ignorant, racist and uncivil.
Sam Willis
Canada
Real men aren’t jerks
If all my critics were as good natured as David James Wong (PostBag, Jan 16) I wouldn’t resent them so much.
But unfortunately, good old David misunderstood the point I was making. I made it clear, I’m not a pacifist.
But I believe associating violence with masculinity has terrible consequences. I’m sure the terrorists in France saw themselves as macho men going down in a blaze of glory for their cause.
Don’t forget, everyone thinks they’re “the good guys”.
My point is: you don’t have to be a violent jerk to be a man.
Eric Bahrt
Decline of Buddhism
Am I missing something here? Sixty-seven million baht was allocated for the funeral rites of a monk? I don’t care if he’s God himself — no insult intended —the deceased monk and Buddha would have condemned (maybe they’d have frowned upon) this scandalous opulence. Moderation is the key word.
We’re seeing the decline of Buddhism, I see monks looking for X-rated movies, I see them in temples lying around watching television, smoking, and using foul language.
Shouldn’t they be following strict rules of behaviour while ordained? Should they not have classes to attend about Buddhism? Or at least how to behave while wearing the saffron robes?
A lot of Thais don’t go to temple to pray or make offerings, they go to buy merit, which is not how it should be done.
We are doing this all wrong! I think the Supreme Sangha Council should reorganise the whole body altogether.
I am a Buddhist, by the way.
Nattip Boonthanakit
Who are the ‘victims’?
The news yesterday about police raiding brothels and enforcing laws regarding the age of sex workers is very good news indeed. I like to hear about police enforcing Thai laws.
But the involvement of an NGO, as the article tells us, is where the danger starts.
Suddenly we have “victims” as defined by someone else, not themselves. Most sex workers who were “rescued” were consenting adults. That is universally true.
Now their pictures are in the paper “outing” them to their families and communities. Thanks to anti-trafficking zealots, all over the world young women whom NGOs call victims are treated with disrespect and sent to jails or retraining centres, or deported.
If one or two women contact an NGO, then rescue them if they wish, and not those who make no claim to being victims.
America’s TIP programme is important to Thailand. Having read recent TIP reports, I know it requires nations to behave with respect and provide support for “victims” of trafficking. What I see in this news story is harm being dished out to legal sex workers who are not victims. That will not lead to a TIP tier upgrade.
John Kane
Visa service disgrace
The visa facilities at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh are a disgrace.
All visa applicants must conduct their business on the footpath. A rickety table is provided on which to fill out the visa application form. The form is thrust at you through a window in the wall. There are no chairs and there is no cover.
I was there in the cool season and I just wonder how applicants must suffer in the hot season or the wet season. Once the form has been filled out, the applicant presents it to an official behind another window in the wall. Two business days later you can pick up your passport containing the new visa stamp.
When I went to pick up my passport, I presented myself at the hole in the wall at the beginning of the appointed period. It was not open. People inside could see me but nobody came to the window to apologise for being late or to give a reason for this tardiness.
I had to wait in the sun for another 15 minutes and then the official practically threw my passport at me without a word. I have travelled to many parts of the world and have never been treated so shabbily. The embassy should hang its head in shame.
One very annoyed farang
Streets for everyone
Re: “For pedestrian safety, BMA must step up”, (Opinion, Jan 16).
The best way to improve the safety of pedestrians is to compel motorists to obey existing laws. I lived on Asok Road for my first three years in Bangkok and it is indeed a pedestrian’s nightmare.
A handful of policemen stationed nearby the pedestrian crossings (and not taking bribes!) could quickly educate motorists that motor vehicle laws must be followed, especially regarding pedestrian crossings.
Traffic is awful in Bangkok, yes. But the system of streets and footpaths exists to serve everyone, not just those in motor vehicles.
Chris Schultz
Maps are all perception
Re: “Polarisation makes attack on SE Asia ever more likely”, (Opinion, Jan 14).
As a seasoned journalist on Southeast Asia, Michael Vatikiotis should know fine well that “the map is not the territory it represents” as said by Alfred Korzybski, and which René Magritte explained as a process in which “perception always intercedes between reality and ourselves”.
In the case of religions, Professor Jonathan Z Smith of the University of Chicago in his “Map is not territory”, remarks that religions are about making sense and coping with life and are thus applied differently to deal with the local and present. Thus it is stretched and sensationalised journalism on the part of Vatikiotis to extend what is happening in Europe and the Middle East to Southeast Asia on the basis of a few instances here.
There are no rampant attacks on Buddhist shrines in Indonesia or on Myanmar nationals in Malaysia, while the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar is more about race than religion.
Even to label the southern Thai insurgency as “Muslim Malay” does not fit the bill; it is a local ethno-nationalist conflict and not jihadist and it does not concern the rest of the Thai Muslims of different ethnicities.
As for the rise of Muslim religious conservatism in Southeast Asia, this is not an exclusively Muslim event but a worldwide religious phenomenon coming in a variety of forms, a response to the complexities of modern living and globalisation to which religious conservatism offers a simpler but unfortunately merciless and uncompassionate answers.
Imtiyaz Yusuf
More to world than US
The Bangkok Post should encourage women to raise their views in the PostBag, and the same goes for non-native English speakers.
The paper has far too many references to America from Americans or from wealthy Thais with American boarding school backgrounds. Remember, there are societies out there better organised and ruled than the ever referred to United States of America, which is a failed state in many people’s eyes — 80 million people use food stamps and it has the world’s biggest prison population.
It would make more sense to learn from countries that beat the US on all parameters such as quality of life for ordinary working people. And remember, more people speak Spanish than English. And more Spanish speakers speak English than the other way around. How much do the monolingual Anglo-Americans know and understand of the non-English speaking world?
When I see Americans used the word “Nannystate” in their letters, I understand there are many out there who don’t have a clue about what solidarity is. Letters from non-Anglo-American farang may help us get a wider and healthier view of the world.
A Johnsen
In someone’s shoes
David Brown, how I sympathise with you. In your letter, “If the shoe fits”, you’ve expressed my sentiments and that of many others as well.
I was able to locate well fitting, comfortable shoes this week at The Mall in Bang Kapi. Yes, they were imports, and they were expensive. They were size 45 and are so comfortable it feels like I’m walking on air. Size 45 is rare, 46 is even rarer.
I’m not fortunate enough to have friends back home who can send me shoes, nor do I trust having them mailed to me. It took me three months to find the shoes this time. Don’t give up, whatever you do. I’d suggest imports because they last longer, are more comfortable, and have thicker soles.
I’m not advertising any specific brand, but Hush Puppies, Ecco, Timberland, and the British-made Doc Martins seem to be the brands that offer the most choices in the larger sizes.
Jack Gilead
Stop blaming Islam
If Chris Kaye’s “Faults within Islam,” letter on Jan 16 was prompted by recent events in France, then I would address those.
French authorities have known for years that Charlie Hebdo was a terrorist target. They knew about the head terrorist in the attack as he had been convicted of and imprisoned for a terrorism-related crime. Given all of that, the attack should have been prevented, so I blame ineptitude rather than Islam.
You will not find a map of Libya on the cover of many French magazines because France and others have sent the country back to the dark ages. Libya now produces a fraction of the oil it used to, there is virtually no government and dozens of armed, independent militias rule all regions.
Is Islam to be faulted for that also? Some people in addition to Muslims need to start taking some responsibility for things.
Guy Baker
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