Playing the ‘racist’ card
Re: "Refugees enrich the country", (PostBag, July 29).
David Brown calls Barry Wallace an "ugly racist" because of a remark he made about some Australian immigrants. Barry wrote "But if you look at the people who come to Australia, most only come to get money from the government, and many don't work and form conclaves. Also, they don't mix into Australian society". A racist is a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another. As there was no mention of Barry's race or the race of those immigrants in his comment, how on earth could it be deemed racist?
The fact is that whenever someone dares to voice concerns about immigration, to question it or to object to it there is always someone like David Brown who will stand up and shout RACIST in an attempt to shut down the debate.
Many people are concerned about becoming minorities in their own countries. In fact, looking at data from the UK 2011 census, I am now a minority in my home city, London, England. I was born there in the early 1950s and in my lifetime I have gone from being one of the majority white, British, to a minority.
While there are some benefits to immigration, there are also some problems with it, especially if the immigrants are illiterate and uneducated with no work skills or bring with them backward belief systems that discourage or prohibit them from integrating into the host society.
And with more people coming into a country who nearly always head for the major cities you end up with more congestion, more air pollution and economic burdens on the health care system, the education system, and the environment.
Allowing highly-skilled and wealthy immigrants into a country has obvious benefits to the host country. The downside is that you deplete the valuable human resources of the countries that they move from.
Peter Atkinson
Credit where it's due
Re: "Aussie recognition", (PostBag, July 28).
In addition to the honour granted by Australia's governor-general to Australians involved in the rescuing of the 12 Wild Boars and their coach, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday also hosted a reception for all the British divers and praised them:
"On hearing about the boys who were trapped, most people would have just stood by but you chose to go out there and do something about it ... the eyes of the world were on you and I think I can speak for everyone when I say a huge thank you," she said.
Songdej Praditsamon
'Thainess' not all bad
Re: " 'Thainess' nonsense", (PostBag, July 28).
Who really cares about designations such as Thainess. Yes, Thais do have their share of murderers, swindlers, embezzlers, but other countries have the same in proportion.
Thais do have one thing in common. This seems to be the will to help others through their expertise, as is being demonstrated in flood ravished Attepeu province in Laos.
The coming together to help is another demonstration of "Thainess".
449900
No justice at all
Re: "Trump not a total dunce", (PostBag, July 29).
The US electoral college does not give justice to small states. Because of the electoral college, presidential candidates spend virtually all their time campaigning in about 10 battleground states, while ignoring the other 40 states which includes many small states.
Eric Bahrt
Obama is no hero
Re: "Obama bashing", (PostBag, July 28).
Mr Bahrt contends that I misstated facts. Wrong, I never mentioned the Dow (DJIA) although its relationship to the GDP is a mixed bag with one influencing the other in rather murky and unpredictable ways. It remains, however, on the books, that the economy was growing at an anaemic average of 1.8% during the eight Obama years. And that is a fact.
Richard Rees
Contact: Bangkok Post Building 136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110 fax: +02 6164000 Email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
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