Now that there is a mad scramble to find suitable storage for all the rice the government wants to store, we now know the reason it needs to be stored.
The commerce minister is waiting for the price of rice on the world market to catch up with the price of rice that the government needs in order for the rice pledging scam to work.
''The reason the government had to store the pledged rice for the time being was not because it had a problem with exporting the product but because it needed to wait until rice prices improved in the world market,'' said the commerce minister.
How long is the government willing to wait? In the meantime, rice prices in India, Vietnam and probably in California will stay cheaper than Thai rice because that is how the free market works.
DON TETLEY
Business as usual
Re: ''Abhisit urges truth about men in black'' (BP, Oct 14). At the Democrats' rally in Lumpini Park on Saturday, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva released his new book entitled The Truth Without Colours.
Not incidentally, his book launch coincides with the upcoming Book Expo Thailand 2012 this Thursday.
The book concerns his account of the military crackdown on red-shirt protesters in 2010 and the role of the ''men in black''.
To counter this, I suspect Thaksin's camp might launch a book entitled The Real Truth Without Colours.
And the accusations and politicking between the two sides will continue business-as-usual.
At least this will promote more Thais to read _ only the synopsis notwithstanding.
EDWARD KITLERTSIRIVATANA
Bangkok
Learn from elephants
Elephants, the largest land animals, are guided and led by a matriarch; she is the wise one and the bulls, huge and powerful as they are, follow her.
There's no misogyny here as without her wisdom and sound memory the whole herd could perish, including the males. These huge animals respect superior ability regardless of gender; so unlike the human race.
Even into the 20th century in the UK, women were considered legally to be part of a man's chattels together with his cows and goats. Many males still consider females to be somewhat inferior.
To prove themselves, women have to strive harder to achieve greater heights and they are becoming increasingly successful at doing just that, except it seems in the world of Islam, where misogyny is held firmly in place.
Discrimination against women is born out of fear and male indolence. In Saudi Arabia women are denied the right to drive a car, whilst in Pakistan women are denied the right to education by extremists and the government seems to do little to change the situation.
Benazir Bhutto, the highly educated 11th prime minister of Pakistan was assassinated in 2007 and now Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old student has been shot by the Taliban, who claim they are the ''Soldiers of Allah'', because she has ambitions of achieving a good education.
These medieval misogynists claim educating women is contrary to the laws of Islam and vow to attack her again if she survives their initial heinous brutality.
Their threats are being met by the peaceful determination of Malala's fellow girl students who continue their studies in defiance. Their ''weapon'' is education which is proving more fearful than Taliban bullets.
The current controversy over conflicting interpretations of the Koran will perhaps be clarified once we see the emancipation of Muslim women being fully realised and male dominance is relegated to history. Elephants have been enlightened for thousands of years; the Taliban have yet to learn.
J C WILCOX
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