OPINION

Running from rivals

Re: "Facts on Thai pigs", (PostBag, Sept 21).

I have been reading about the alleged trichinosis in US pigs. I see this as an excuse to have American pork banned from sale in Thailand while the same "outbreak" is 10 times worse here. The same goes for the disappearance of US turkeys from the shelves here for the past three years. We are left with the Thai "road runner" version of turkey.

It is apparent that the Thai government wants only Thai products sold here and doesn't want to hurt the feelings of Thai farmers who can only offer an inferior product.

How many people with diabetes or high blood pressure regularly eat Thai jasmine rice? Have their doctors ever told them that jasmine rice has been proven to raise blood sugar? Have their doctors ever told them that basmati rice has also been proven to lower blood sugar?

Could it be because Thai rice farmers will protest to the government -- or already have? Could it be that the Thai government would rather pay and complain about high medical costs related to high blood sugar rather than tell people to eat healthy food?

Let's face it, foreign competition is not wanted here and the government readily caves in to support lack of competition.

Even decent Italian or French bread has disappeared off the shelves and has been replaced by heavy, doughy logs of something that stores try to pass off as French or Italian.

Consumers want choices -- good choices -- and not the choice of "do I buy this because there is nothing else to choose from?".

The Nikkei Asian Review published this article, "China's projects in Vietnam earn reputation for poor quality, delays", on Sept 20. This should be a wake-up call for Thailand in its eagerness to court China to build roads, massive projects, high-speed railways, and more. Don't jump from the frying pan into the fire. The so-called bloated blimp fiasco should be a lesson in what happens when you do not do your homework properly.

You can add an aircraft carrier, a few submarines, tanks and bomb detectors to the "haste makes waste" bit too. Somehow those making decisions do not look before they leap, and later they wind up scraping "it" off their shoes.

Re: "Wounds of N Korea", (PostBag, Sept 20).

As Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have pointed out, millions of North Koreans have starved to death under the megalomaniac Kim dynasties and there are hundreds of thousands languishing in penal camps. And of course thousands desperately attempt to escape the hell that is North Korea each year.

So when Pintira Hannarong speaks of the North Korean people being wounded she might recall that the North Korean people have no say whatsoever except to toe the line of the worst dictatorial regime on the planet, which is exactly what Pintira Hannarong is doing.

Reading Chan Aye's pitiful defence of her Myanmar government (PostBag, Sept 21) made me sick to my stomach. If those who slaughter civilians are merely acting in self-defence then why don't they allow UN investigators into their country so they can prove it?

And what about all the atrocities committed against the Rohingya (whom the UN has called the "most oppressed minority in the world") that occurred before some Rohingya turned to armed resistance?

The "war on terror" is a just a war on Islam. The rest of the world does next to nothing when some of the worst atrocities since Adolf Hitler are committed against Muslims, and the slaughter is rarely called terrorism.

Aung San Suu Kyi's personal and political tragedy is truly Shakespearean.

A courageous and noble person fatally corrupted by a minor weakness (Hamlet).

postbag@bangkokpost.co.th