OPINION

Courtesy unreturned

There is a lot of whining over allegedly poor English displayed throughout Thailand (PostBag, Nov 26).

Those who do not like it should realise that this is Thailand, and the language of Thailand is Thai. English is a courtesy offered to those who do not understand Thai. It is a courtesy, not an obligation and it is worse than rude to ridicule Thais' attempts to communicate in a foreign language. I lived in Tokyo, Seoul, Paris and in Rio de Janeiro and I can assure you that in all these places (and in practically all places) if you have a business you better speak the local language or bring along (at your expense) somebody who can translate for you.

So my advice to all you cry babies is to learn Thai. I suspect that you have no alternative for if you return to the US you'll see a lot of notices written in incomprehensible "English".

Re: "Food safety must get top priority", (Editorial, Nov 26).

The big agro corporations are lobbying the government to prevent farmers from saving seeds, and in some areas only genetically modified seeds are available with their custom-made expensive pesticides. The economists want numbers and the press will criticise the government if the numbers are down.

The solution is simple if we follow King Rama IX's sustainable economy and agriculture philosophy. Consumers will eat healthy food and farmers won't go into debt.

It seems to me that the most serious domestic threat to this country right now is by far the death toll from the horrific traffic accidents that occur daily. Apparently more than 22,000 people died in traffic mishaps last year and from what I read, the toll is expected to exceed that this year.

If a "superboard" needs to be formed, it should be formed to drastically reduce this toll which must be costing Thailand a bundle every year, not to mention the emotional toll on the victims' families. As far as I can tell, the government seems to be a lot more concerned with critical Facebook users than what is actually killing 60 people a day here.

What is so special about Isoc that it deserves to be handed monopolies that will naturally be shrouded in the usual impunity conferring secrecy so inevitably beloved of the corrupt on all things so very profitable, as Mr Alan Dawson points out, "from the low-intensity war to the lucrative drug trade, from human trafficking to dependably profitable gun-running"?

Of course, they are good old mates of the good old PM who thinks a spot of good old brutal discipline, up to and including a bit of death, a jolly acceptable thing from his own good old days of learning to be one of the good old gang running the nation for their jolly selves. But is that quite good enough to bestow such bountiful blessings?

Nearly 300 of the faithful heinously killed in Egypt by extremists on Friday and the story in the Post on Sunday only merits page 7 as a relatively matter-of-fact event, overshadowed by the cabinet reshuffle here.

If the same loss of life had been an air disaster, more likely it would have been a blaring front-page headline. In this case, Islamic State takes the lead in generating public resignation to such ongoing atrocities.

I may be wrong about this, but I think it is the failure of our ambassadors that we expatriates are not treated better by immigration. If our ambassadors chose to represent our interests, instead of or only, the interests of large corporations, we would have longer visas and probably not these irksome visits to immigration every 90 days.

But alas, my impression is our ambassadors mostly don't give a fig about us till we die in some horrible accident and our bodies need to be sent back home or we get into some serious legal difficulty that threatens to have international consequences.

Contact: Bangkok Post Building 136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110 fax: +02 6164000 Email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th

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