Re: “Closing the health equity divide” (Opinion, Feb 24).
As a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology and having worked at Chulalongkorn University Hospital, I would like to make some comments on the subject of abortion in Thailand.
It is a fact of life that women sometimes get pregnant even if they do not want to. In this case they will do anything to get an abortion, even if this means endangering their health and even their life. To witness this, you might want to spend a day at the emergency ward of any obstetrics and gynaecology department in any hospital in Thailand. You would see women arriving at different stages between life and death following an unsafe abortion.
The legalisation of abortion almost everywhere in Europe and other developed countries had the following effects: the continent has become a safe place for women because abortion-related death virtually disappeared overnight. Campaigns to prevent unwanted pregnancies have led to a reduction in abortions in those countries where women frequently use effective contraceptives, like the Netherlands. Abortion rates remain high in those countries where prevention is neglected, like the US.
The penal code on abortion in Thailand is based on the old British law dating back to 1803. The law reflects the medical knowledge and social concepts of medieval Europe. Almost all developed countries have overcome this approach because they realised that it is simply not working and does a lot of harm.
There is no sensible alternative to legal and unrestricted access to safe abortion as a back-up for effective contraception if we want to preserve the health and the life of women.
Christian Fiala, MD, PhD
Vienna
PLASTIC-WRAPPED, TRUE TO LIFE
Re: “A floating fake” (PostBag, Feb 28).
In contrast to Mr Suga, I was impressed by the authenticity of the new floating market on Klong Phadung Krung Kasem. In tourist marketing literature every day we are promised the “real Thailand”, always just a little out of reach, just around the corner, away from the tourist hoi polloi.
Tour guides know of the tourist’s desire to find the Thailand of their imaginations so they create the staged authentic experience. Tourists who think themselves above this go on five-day treks looking for lost hill tribes. But this is just a false backstage. Those canny, internet-enabled, lost tribes are visited every day by naïve backpackers.
But the junta’s new market perfectly encapsulates the Thailand of today. It does not hide its shortcuts and shortcomings.
It does not pretend to have been there time immemorial; it claims no instrumental value of a market beyond the surface notion of simply appearing to be a market. The final icing on the cake are the soldiers nearby. Its vacuous emptiness and its plasticity make it an invigorating and authentic expression of modern junta Thailand.
Iain F Cowie
Lecturer, Political Science Faculty
Thammasat University
An UNHAPPY MEAL
Last night I stopped off for a meal at a McDonald’s restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 5 in Bangkok. I asked for a Samurai pork burger but was told “no have” and when I asked why I was told “this is Muslim zone”. I have lived in Bangkok for many years, travelled and eaten in McDonald’s restaurants all over the world, but this is the first time I have ever come across a so called “Muslim zone” McDonald’s.
That part of Bangkok does have a lot of Middle Eastern/Muslim tourists, but it also has a lot of western tourists as well. In fact, the branch is directly opposite a large four-star hotel that has mainly Western tourist guests. Do McDonald’s in Thailand now zone all their restaurants? Do they have “Christian zone” or “Buddhist zone” restaurants in Thailand? Do they zone their restaurants in other countries?
Peter Atkinson
INVESTMENT UNDER THREAT
Re: “River parks to displace 200 families” (BP, Feb 27).
Two hundred families living illegally along a section of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok will be relocated without being prosecuted for breaking the law. Foreigners will continue to be subject to discriminatory double pricing although such discrimination is in violation of the law. And now foreigners in Phuket are being stripped of their investments by a new court ruling reinforcing the 30-year lease limitation.
Institutionalised discrimination and xenophobia thrive under a regime which considers expressions of the truth equivalent to a threat and criticism to be against the law. Foreign investment is gravely threatened by such retrograde policies. They urgently need re-examining.
Michael Setter
CONTACT: BANGKOK POST BUILDING
136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110
Fax: +02 6164000 email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
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