Killing the messenger
Re: "Magazine sued for 'blasphemous' kings painting", (Online, March 31).
Yet again the knee jerk reaction in Thailand to any criticism is to kill the messenger rather than fix the problem.
Your report says the governor of Chiang Mai wants criminal charges laid against a local magazine for posting a "blasphemous" painting on Facebook showing ancient kings, Mengrai, Ramkhamhaeng and Ngam Muang, wearing pollution masks as part of a campaign to protest against hazardous smog.
The English-language magazine Citylife Chiang Mai posted the illustration by a local teenage artist to promote a rally urging authorities to tackle the toxic haze that plagues the northern province annually.
The charge of blasphemy, if correctly translated and reported, is ludicrous as these three long historical kings were mortals, and the use of the Computer Crime Act to press the charge is risible. We can only hope this case will be treated with the contempt it deserves and be thrown out.
So to governor Pawin Chamniprasat: Do the job you are paid to do and clean up the pollution and stop acting like a petulant child.
David Brown
A hopeless strategy
Re: "Who cares about the Palestinians?" (PostBag, April 1).
I think a lot of people around the world care about the Palestinians, and the Israelis too, and wish that the two people could coexist in peace. However, deploying the "whataboutery" argument regarding the deaths of Jews and Palestinians achieves nothing, it just keeps stirring the malevolent mixture of mutual hatred and suspicion.
The most recent deaths of Palestinians occurred on Friday. Several were killed, and many injured, when a demonstration at the Israeli border in Gaza, which was supposed to be peaceful, turned violent. If the demonstration had remained peaceful, there would have been no deaths or injuries.
The Palestinian leaders refuse to negotiate with Israel, instead they initiate acts of violence, often against Israeli civilians in order to provoke the inevitable reaction from Israel, and thereby stir up sympathy for the Palestinian cause. It's a hopeless strategy, leading nowhere except to more violence and despair for the Palestinian people.
Robin Grant
Nothing to see here...
I got an email from my mother living in the far west of Japan that a lot of Thai tourists are visiting Saga prefecture on the island of Kyushu recently. Saga prefecture is the most unpopular city among the Japanese and the news about thousands of Thai tourists visiting this rural area was portrayed as a big success story in the Japanese media.
Saga aggressively invited TV and movie production teams from Thailand to go there, and thus Saga has been well known among Thai audiences since last year.
I am very happy to know this. But I am also concerned that they could be disappointed as there is nothing much to see.
According to the source, monks in a shrine there have started to learn Thai language so they can greet Thai tourists. This may be good hospitality for the tourists. Let's hope it's enough.
Thonglor JB
It goes both ways
President Donald Trump seems determined to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. He said the wall will effectively fend off illegal immigrant workers and illicit drugs flowing from Mexico.
He should be reminded that walls are built not only to fend off outsiders but also to prevent insiders from going out as well.
Foreign manufacturers from Europe and Asia might see the opportunity that this wall will create, and start investing heavily in Mexico to the point that Mexico will be pretty well off and no longer depend on the US job market. And if drugs can be prevented from crossing the border into the US -- how can you prevent US drug addicts from crossing the border for the stuff in Mexico?
Chavalit Wannawajitr
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