OPINION

Not holding my breath

As a man who is against military rule in any shape or form, people naturally assume I must be all for a return of the politicians.

Unfortunately, like many correspondents to this newspaper, I have witnessed a succession of corrupt, greedy unlawful representatives whose only intention was to increase their personal wealth. It is a sad fact of Thai life that only the rich, with large fortunes to sustain them, get involved in political activity and hence find themselves on an election ballot. When elections roll around the public are free to vote for some old faces who were all involved in shady, nefarious activities in different parts of the country for different parties but who all have no idea of life on a minimum wage on a building site or farm.

Organisations that allow political activity for the Thai workers have either been outlawed or are discouraged by the wealthy elites that make the rules so we see no organisation to represent field workers, house builders, shop assistants or noodle vendors which would have some hope of bringing about real change. Income inequality is at its highest because the rich make the rules to benefit themselves.

Only when Thailand finds its equivalent of Jose Mujica from Uruguay, will there be changes. As that man once suggested, "We invented this thing called representative democracy, where we say the majority is who decides, so it seems to me that we [heads of state] should live like the majority and not like the minority."

Sadly, I won't be holding my breath to see that come about in this country.

Apparently Thailand now leads the world in at least two categories -- the most female prisoners and the most traffic deaths. I wonder when this government is going to get around to try to do something about this, or is asking questions to get praise from people, buying weapons and meeting other world leaders much more important than the loss of these people?

Re: "To learn English, we must think outside box", (Opinion, Nov 15).

As a fully qualified head teacher in the UK, with teaching experience in a prestigious Thai school in Bangkok, I think the reason Thailand sits so low in the league tables of English language is because there appears to be no mechanism in which, on discovering any piece of misspelt or incorrect grammar, that any one in any authority can accept any subsequent criticism and actually make a positive change.

I am fed up with being told from True via my daily text that my internet package is valid "since" and not "from" and the huge 200 square metre spelling mistake on the building adjacent to Phra Khanong BTS (deliberately misspelt so you can see how weird this appears) makes this nation seem somewhat of a laughing stock.

Stop having a chip on your shoulder Thailand, accept a bit of positive criticism and make a few changes and let's get your nation fluent in English like it should be.

While the topic of poor English is on everyone's mind, try this. The local Tops supermarket in Prachin Buri has a sign over the egg display, where multiple cartons of eggs are sold, the sign reading "Egg", not plural.

I pointed this out to one of the general managers who came up from Bangkok for the opening years ago. He was a Dutchman who thought it was funny, and laughed and laughed. Three years later, the sign still reads "Egg".

The Tesco-Lotus a few hundred metres away has a sign cautioning no smoking, with a 2,000 "bath" fine. I pointed out on numerous occasions that "bath" means taking a shower in English, and that the currency was spelt "baht". The misspelt sign is still there, after three or more years.

Tops and Lotus are just two examples of the "who cares" attitudes, as long as they make money. Try misspelling signs in Thai and that will really cause flak. Incidentally, the local highway sign here that points to the train station still reads, "To taarain". I guess, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

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