OPINION

No defending coal

Mr Sanit Niyamakom, in his April 6 letter, tries to defend the shift to electricity production by burning coal.

He focused on the inconvenience of power disruptions, a bit strange for a country with so many power outages already.

Mr Sanit does not seem to be impressed by the dangers of CO2 emissions (global warming). Maybe he thinks that is a problem for the Arctic and the Antarctic, not for Thailand. He is wrong. The melting ice caps will raise the sea level near Bangkok too. The rise near Bangkok will be even greater than in Northwest Europe because the Greenland ice cap attracts sea water by gravitational pull, so if that pull disappears, the sea waters near Northwest Europe will spread out all over the world. Bangkok will drown.

If Egat insists on using fossil fuels, why the shift to coal? Producing 1kWh with coal brings 900g of CO2 into the atmosphere (assuming an efficiency of 46%). Using methane (60% efficiency) brings 178g of CO2 into the atmosphere, more than three times less. Natural gas is cheap and abundant. Buy it in Qatar.

I can't understand why Thailand does not want to use solar energy. My solar panels (20m²) give me over 3,300kWh per year. And as for energy storage: You can hydrolise water to hydrogen and oxygen and you can store hydrogen like you store natural gas.

Sanit Niyamakom's conclusion that Egat must choose between fuel diversification to achieve an energy balance and emissions reductions resulting in higher prices and reduced energy security lacks a whole systems perspective and forward thinking analysis.

Confining the argument to these two choices only serves to rationalise the government's desire to implement coal. CO2 emissions are far from the only environmental downside of coal. In particular, for the projected Krabi coal plant site, massive disruption of freshwater and brackish water coastal ecosystems is inevitable.

I would urge the people at Egat to take a long-term holistic view rather than a backpocket one when making such important decisions.

Re: "Army holds 9 over death of private", (BP, April 6).

The speed with which the army has arrested suspects over the death of Pvt Yutthakinun Boonniam is most uncharacteristic. Can we assume from this that none of the nine has the fortune of being the son of a high-ranking army officer?

In an April 4 news report, army chief Chalermchai Sittisat "expressed regret and responsibility over the death of a 22-year-old private", who is suspected of being brutally beaten at a local army prison in Surat Thani. How casual, how easy. And the problem is now supposed to be forgotten and disappear, and the soldier's family is just supposed to get on with their lives.

The army chief should not be moved to an inactive post (will never happen) but removed from the army and lose his pension. However, this will probably be the last we hear of this particular unfortunate incident, until the next one of course, regrets or no regrets. How easy it is for the powerful to slough off everything with a word of regret.

There has been a lot of news lately regarding the difficulty facing the Ministry of Education in attracting young teachers, especially in certain subjects.

At the same time we hear of yet another death of a military conscript by his compatriots in uniform. Astonishingly, the military feels a need to draft an additional 103,000 men aged 20 to 26 to serve in the armed services in 2017.

I am sure that there are plenty of young men with a good GPA who could fulfil the need for additional teachers in key subjects and would be happy to use the knowledge they have gained at university through teaching, rather than being taught how to shoot a gun against invisible enemies.

So a question to the current Thai government: If the country really needs high-quality young teachers, then why not change the rules to allow high-performing university graduates to undergo six months of teacher training instead of six months of military service?

General Prayut Chan-o-cha is at it again. Online news reports, "Prayut wields S44 to clean up fisheries". Why doesn't the general use S44 to clean out incompetents, sadists, and military misfits in the Royal Thai Army instead? I guess it is hard to bite the hand that once fed you.

Today I partook in a small part of the bureaucratic nonsense that is necessary for the correct ownership of an automobile in Thailand. As an exercise in stupidity it was without parallel but its comforting to know that several hundred others, mostly Thais endured the same fate with no acts of violence or aggression. Probably a thousand individuals passed through the Department of Land Transport office in Chiang Mai today all fulfilling the most arcane and wasteful chore of getting the necessary legal documents for their car.

With a checking bay that houses about eight vehicles and a line of some 80 cars it is not unusual to spend three to four hours just ensuring your vehicle engine and body numbers have not been criminally tampered with in the past year. Most people did nothing else for the whole day which ensured that Thailand stays well at the bottom of productivity and work attendance figures for Southeast Asia. A few entrepreneurs did benefit however as the long wait in the hot sun created great business for the cold drink sellers and snack providers who had the good business sense to line the half kilometre queue and sell iced coffee. If anyone wants to know just what is holding Thailand at 1.0 and at the same time enjoy seeing a whole fleet of aircraft coming in to land try witnessing this.

I praise the Thai government for urging people to show restraint during the Songkran festival.

In recent years the gentle spirit of Songkran has been hijacked by revellers who have no respect for the rights of others, waste a fantastic amount of precious water and cause fatal accidents on the road.

Re: "Go for tanks, not subs", (PostBag, April 4).

Once more the contentious subs prompt correspondence. I really don't see what all the fuss is about. There is a precedent. After the promised general election the incoming government will be able to hold the current administration personally responsible for the waste of state funds and demand reimbursement from the individuals concerned. All within the letter of the law, of course.

The article, "Choose a side: Donald Trump and the Sunni-Shia war", Opinion, March 17, spreads disinformation and misleads readers about Turkey's foreign policy and its democratically elected President.

Turkey's resolve to fight Daesh and other terrorist organisations in Syria remains firm. Turkey's actions on the ground and contributions to international efforts speak for themselves. The Operation Euphrates Shield has successfully concluded. The liberation of Al Bab city, a stronghold of Daesh, has been a major achievement. More than 2.600 Daesh elements were eliminated by the armed opposition supported by the Turkish military and almost 50,000 Syrians returned to the safe areas liberated by the operation. Turkey is determined to continue its fight against Daesh and other terrorist organisations threatening its national security. This also contributes to the preservation of Syria's territorial integrity and unity.

Daesh's invasion of Iraqi territories in 2014 posed a vehement national security risk for Turkey. Turkey and Iraq increased their joint efforts against this severe threat and Turkey started to train volunteers from Mosul in 2015 in the Bashiqa camp upon the request of Iraqi authorities. These volunteers played an important supportive role in the northern front of the Mosul operation. Iraq's security and prosperity are directly related to Turkey's security and prosperity. In this regard, Turkey has always been one of the strongest advocates of the preservation of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq.

Besides Daesh, Turkey is simultaneously countering other brutal terrorist organisations, among them the PKK, responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent lives. Turkey has the right and responsibility to take the necessary measures to protect its citizens and public order in its territory. While countering terrorism, utmost attention is paid to keep the delicate balance between fundamental freedoms and security needs. All measures are taken in accordance with law and in full compliance with our international obligations. The attempt at presenting Turkish counter-terrorism operations as acts against our citizens of Kurdish origin, is biased, ignorant at best, and reflects the efforts of circles that serve for PKK propaganda.

Ahmet dem Akay Turkish Embassy

Re: "Premeditated kill rap in education case", (BP, April 5).

Another crime; another re-enactment! Can someone explain to me why police are again defying the sensible order of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to stop the farce of "re-enacting" crimes?

It seems the police simply cannot get enough of this absurd practice -- even to the point of flouting the orders of the prime minister.

But I know an approach that would almost surely succeed in ending these ludicrous charades. The media should simply stop publishing photos of these ridiculous spectacles. When the fat-cat police officers are no longer featured in the news over these meaningless exhibitions, they will quickly end.

Thank you Verneita Boonlom for your well thought out, very logical comments in your April 7 letter, "Lessons of life". You have more common sense than the combined Ministry of Education.

To paraphrase an old advertisement, "Learning a language should be a treat instead of a treatment". If one is given, or presented with tools, and does not use them, well…

In my years living in this country I'm always impressed with the warm and welcoming nature of the Thai people and foreign residents -- until they get behind the wheel of a car.

I have read numerous complaints in Thai and expat forums, regarding the refusal of drivers here to allow pedestrians to cross the road in safety, be it on a designated and clearly marked pedestrian crossing or even one that is protected by traffic signals.

All too often I've witnessed hapless pedestrians trying to cross a road safely, using a clearly marked crossing, with many drivers simply refusing to stop or even slow down. It doesn't matter if the pedestrians are elderly or infirm, families with youngsters or even uniformed police officers, most drivers seem to accelerate rather than slow down.

Today on a busy soi off Sukhumvit I saw a young woman with two toddlers and a baby in arms trying to cross the road. Cars just sped past as if they were not there. When she was halfway across a courteous driver did stop and put his hazard warning lights to warn following motorists. Unfortunately, following drivers didn't feel the need to stop but just undertook the courteous motorist. The woman and youngsters were very lucky not to have been wiped out.

It seems to me that the vast majority of motorists in Thailand don't feel the need to show courtesy to those who wish to cross the road. Newspaper leaders have no impact and the government pays scant attention to the issue. Maybe a driver here in Thailand would care to give their prospective on the problem, and share with us why it's not deemed appropriate to allow pedestrians to cross the road without being in fear of their lives.

I'm disappointed that no mention was made in the Bangkok Post of June Krittania's part in the annual sailing venture from Hua Hin to Sattahip to commemorate the late King's memorable sail. His Majesty took 17 hours to complete the trip. June took 19 hours and landed in the dark. What is is remarkable is that this young girl achieved this in the smallest sailing craft ever to do so. An eight feet long Optimist dinghy. A heroic feat. Surely this merits some coverage.