OPINION

Hail the real heroes

On Jan 8, I travelled down the highway from Hua Hin by bus to Phuket.

The rain was lashing down and I reckon we were almost underwater for most of the 650 kilometres. But when we neared Chumphon, a disaster started to appear. We encountered landslides and somehow managed to get past huge mounds of mud, uprooted trees, wrecked cars, piles of smashed houses and, working to keep the highway free in what can only be described as terrible and dangerous conditions, were many men and women, police and military lads all working in thick brown water at least one metre deep and there were piles of personal effects all over the roadside ... absolutely appalling!

In my service days as a chief fire officer I headed such rescue work with all my firemen at 25 typhoons over the years. I had many disciplined men, all in protective clothing with lots of good equipment to carry out such duties and could call on the police or military to assist as well ... all this within, at most, 20 minutes to reach such incidents.

Personnel were replaced regularly and feed and medical facilities were available all the time -- unlike the poor wretches I saw working nearby, many barefoot. I felt like getting off and helping. They worked hard and apparently kept doing that for more than three days on the trot.

There were many dead and still missing people and, in the entire area, I learnt that more than 950,000 people were made homeless, villages wiped out leaving nothing but mud. And still some of them had smiles on their faces. Absolutely fantastic spirit, they merit any salute that they get.

The eight-hour journey took 12 but I felt sad and strangely guilty to see all that had passed by me as I sat and watched.

I appreciate Khun Songdej taking the time to respond to my letter even though he didn't seem to understand it very well. I want him to know that I am aware of the electoral system and how Secretary Clinton failed to win that even though she won by almost 3 million popular votes. Unfortunately that still does not make me feel any better about the outcome of the election.

Khun Songdej attributes the positive adjectives I used to describe "Americans". I was not referring to Americans, but to President Obama who I am going to miss greatly.

Donald Trump will have protesters against him gathering elsewhere in Washington on Friday -- the day of his inauguration as the 45th President of the USA.

The protesters aim to send a strong message to Mr Trump that they strongly oppose him as US president and that he does not have a mandate to lead their country.

Mr Trump's move to appoint former CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State is seen as an attempt to appease Russia -- possibly at the expense of US interests. US intelligence agencies have accused Russia of hacking into the Democratic Party's computer system. News has it that Russia has information both on Ms Clinton and Mr Trump, but chose to use it against Ms Clinton during the US presidential campaign to help Mr Trump win the election.

According to unconfirmed reports, Russia still has "salacious" information on Mr Trump in its hand.

Hence, the political situation in the US currently is inevitably the cause for people who live elsewhere in the world to be extremely concerned.

As I opened my folded Bangkok Post Sunday to the first page, I was immediately captivated by the picture of the youngster wrapped in a python. Envy on my part, as I loathe snakes.

Then, I scanned to the advertisement below. It was the perfect response to every malcontent, those offering good advice, bad advice, no advice at all, merely complaining about the government, about education, etc. "To break the rules, you must first master them".

Bravo to watch maker Audemars Piguet for this wonderful piece of insight. It has a universal quality about it.