Thaksin rice infests us

Thaksin rice infests us

Thank you S Piputtana (PostBag, Sept 1) for informing us that Thai rice is the most expensive rice on the shelves in the US. That is interesting news indeed.

I thought I would return the favour and let you know how things are here back home.

I run a small restaurant with my wife, so we buy quite a bit of rice. A few days ago my wife informed me the last two bags of rice I bought had weevils in them. I buy our rice at a major retailer in the Hang Dong area here in Chiang Mai.

I just got back from shopping and every bag I inspected, from all the different companies, was infested with weevils. So here in Thailand, we have our rice companies selling weevil infested rice through major retailers. I was not able to purchase any. Will need to go to plan B.

Thailand has gone from world leader in the rice business to dead last, and we did it really fast too! I have decided this bug infested rice needs a name so we can refer to it easily, so I decided to call this weevil infested rice ''Thaksin Rice''. You can too.

DISAPPOINTED RICE BUYER


Blair bias favours army

Re: ''A time for action, not reaction in the Middle East'' (Opinion, Aug 29).

Before Tony Blair was elected to parliament he was a high flying young lawyer and his defence of the military ''intervention'' in Egypt must be music to certain Thai ears.

Mr Blair says that ''You can rightly criticise the reactions or overreactions of Egypt's military'' but he doesn't mention anything about bringing them to justice.

He points out that both sides have killed and maimed and of course the military government can be relied on to see that members of the Muslim Brotherhood who committed crimes are swiftly brought to ''justice'', but the military murderers will just have to be given a good talking to.

Mr Blair says that the way forward is for the West to support the military government in ''stabilising'' the country and putting into place a ''proper and short process to an election with independent observers to be put in place''.

And what if that doesn't work out? More criticism, I guess.

DOM DUNN


Blockade not all bad

Re: ''Farmers vow to blockade South'' (BP, Aug 31). Speaking as a southerner, I see this blockade as no bad thing. Having lived in the south for more than a decade, I have observed that the region is self-sufficient, and that events that take place in Bangkok and the north, particularly the affairs of state maladministered by the government, are of little relevance to the region.

Perhaps the self-imposed blockade will help the rubber farmers understand some facts of life regarding supply and demand.

NIGEL PIKE


Rights group full of it

A human rights group has called on Dunkin' Donuts to withdraw a ''bizarre and racist'' ad for chocolate doughnuts in Thailand that shows a smiling woman with bright pink lips n blackface makeup (BP, Aug 31).

What righteous indignation! Where was this same leading self-righteous, human rights group when students paraded dressed as Nazis? Where was this so-called leading human rights group when the swastika and other Nazi paraphernalia decorated some restaurants and coffee shops in Bangkok, (and a few other places in Thailand)?

Was this leading human rights group claiming ignorance of past history, or were these people indeed truly ignorant of Germany's past during WWII? Beware of these self-righteous, self-serving, pious leading rights groups, that are probably made up of ignorant people with nothing to do except stir up what needs to be flushed down.

JACK GILEAD


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