Re: ''All paperwork to the police'' (BP, March 2).
Mr Yankelah, with respect to your experiences in Paris, what is disconcerting is that we, the majority of law abiding citizens who wish to relax and live in peace, are all coming under ever-increasing surveillance. Oppressively so.
A good idea to save all the intrusive form-filling and the overload of Thai police paperwork would be to microchip every resident foreigner and electronically tag ever tourist when they enter the country!
I have empathy with xenophobic Thais. Maybe other people do too. For example, foreign embassies which would want to evacuate their nationals if a genocidal type scenario arose. Maybe then those immigration and police lists of every movement of every tourist over every 24 hour period would be useful.
Maybe best register with your embassies just in case.
RICARDO
Dog of a bill not necessary
Re: ''LRC criticises animal cruelty bill loopholes'' (BP, March 2). There was an article about an animal rights bill which, if passed, would prohibit doing physical harm to animals unless it's deemed necessary. What in the name of God does that mean?
Is beating and torturing baby elephants for days in order to ''tame'' them necessary?
Is abusing farm animals because it would be too inconvenient to treat them better necessary? What about burying millions of chickens alive during the bird flu scare despite the fact that there were more humane ways of killing them? Was that necessary?
Is throwing your dogs or cats out in the street because you're tired of taking care of them necessary? My gut feeling _ and I hope I'm wrong _ is that the purpose of the bill is to placate animal lovers while doing nothing for the animals themselves.
ERIC BAHRT
Ruined nature's revenge
I have been living for years on Karon, Phuket. Karon was once a neat and very nice place, with clean beaches.
Now, it is filthy and dirty. Too many tourist, including Thais, do not care about nature at all and throw rubbish everywhere.
''Concerned Tourist'' (BP, March 2) is right! Perhaps the ''revenge'' of the ruined nature is the outbreak of dengue fever? Hopefully not!
KHUN KUKI,
Phuket
Drowned in sound
Like Mr Spencer who complained of loud karaoke at Mae Ram Pheung Beach (''My discord with karaoke'', March 1), our experience of this once-famous tourist beach is also a sad story.
We came here hoping for thw vacation of our dreams, but the result has been a nightmare. First, we are invited to swim among rubbish. Second, the beach is full of beach fleas, so we have had to look for medical care. Third, the noise from early evening until late from the karaoke bars makes it impossible for us to enjoy our sea view from the balcony as we have to lock ourselves in and put the AC on to avoid the noise.
If politicians and tourism authorities were to take responsibility for cleaning up the beach and have the karaoke bars lower their volume, this would be a paradise on earth and a place of prosperity and good income for the whole area.
A country that is promoting tourism should be able to fix these easy problems and if nothing changes there should be warnings for people who come here. It is not enough for us to just sit around and smile.
JOSEPH JENADRI
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