OPINION

Racist teacher policy

It is the time of the year when international schools in Thailand start recruiting teachers.­ Kris Wya, an African-American teacher with qualifications beyond the requirements, found getting a job in the country difficult. She said it was because of her skin colour and some "smart" schools wanted her photo­graphs to be sent so that they would know who she was, an African.

Growing up in California, I found a diverse range of teachers in schools, chiefly Indians who were good at math. The last decade the number of minority teachers in America has doubled and it is slowly having­ an effect. I don't find such diversity in schools here and the standard of teaching is appalling. Most teachers spend their time browsing their smart phones or computers­ and drinking endless cups of coffee and arguably contributing nothing to children, who have to either sink or swim.

As a test, I asked my friends Michael, a Floridian, and Abraham, an Indian with better qualifications than Michael, to apply for the position of math teachers in various schools. Inevitably, Michael got all the calls. I then asked them to mask their nationalities.­ Abraham was called first and when he revealed his nationality all the schools pulled back.

The incredible story of the cave boys came to a successful fruition because of international cooperation. There is a lesson here for schools. If international schools need to be called truly international, they must hire teachers of diverse nationalities. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha must look into the anomalies existing in schools and clamp down on racism in teachers' recruitment.

The picture in Aug 10's Bangkok Post shows a shuttle boat at Klong Tan pier. Apart from looking to be grossly overloaded, the passengers are standing. This, of course, raises the centre of gravity making it more susceptible to rolling over.

The relevant authority needs to check this service and also check the number of life jackets.

Nice to see the "quick" action in granting Thai nationality to the three previously stateless­ Wild Boars and their coach (BP, Aug 9). Great! Now, how about citizenship for all the others who have been waiting for such?

The number of stateless people living in Thailand is far more than the 487,000 registered officially with the Thai government. The actual number is estimated by most authorities to be between 2 and 3.5 million individuals. Do these people need to be trapped in a cave for 17 days before they are shown compassion? In reality, they have been trapped in their own caves of statelessness­ for many years -- in some cases for many decades.

With the boat capsize claiming 47 Chinese lives in Phuket, the government has, once again, furnished a knee-jerk response. To win back Chinese tourists' confidence, it has dedicated Chinese tourist lanes at major ­airports as well as proposing a visa fee waiver, pressured by tour operators.

I have two points. First, these measures won't win back their trust so long as safety precautions in all tourist destinations (from Phuket and Samui to Pattaya and Chiang Mai) haven't been fixed. It is not the visa fees that posed a hindrance to them. It is the risk of injury or getting killed. Fix that and the government will have no need to kowtow to Chinese.

Second, reliance on the Chinese segment as the main source of tourists has proven dangerous, economically speaking. In cooperation with the tourism ministry, the government must create and target other segments -- eg, Scandinavians, South Ameri­cans and Southeast Asians. To the tourism ministry: Hire creative people and top-notch marketing professionals -- not bureaucrats whose mindset resides in the medieval period. It's true that the burgeoning­ growth of the middle class in the next 10-20 years will be in China but it does not necessarily mean we have to exclusively target Chinese tourists. The great thing about (most) Western tourists is that they are here for leisure. The Chinese are here to open businesses, compete with the locals, and taking profits abroad. What's the value of that?

In his Aug 6 article, "Steve Bannon's boost to Europe's far right parties", John Lloyd attempted to do what no reasonable economist­ ever would: credit former US President Barack Obama as largely responsible for the US' now "booming economy".

But in the same edition, there was a report by AFP which outlined the disastrous record of Tesla Motorcars in Norway. Consumers are waiting 13 months for repairs, cannot even park in a normal parking lot, and one claims his car only ran correctly for four out of 242 days -- an atrocious 1.6% reliability rating. The reason why Tesla has been a disaster for Norway is the same reason why Mr Obama presided over the weakest economic recovery in modern American history -- state control of markets. The Norwegian state is intervening in the free market by demanding that Norwegians use the government's car-of-choice due to global warming concerns and, just as in the USSR, there are nothing but delays, breakdowns, and very unhappy customers.

Mr Obama attempted to revive the American economy by increasing state control by intervening in free markets. Yet, just as in Norway, it didn't work. The real reason why the American economy is booming is because President Trump has discontinued intervening in free markets, lowered taxes, increased consumer choice, and withdrawn government from the hands of industry.

Re: "Breast or Bottle", (Life, Aug 7).

What is the No.1 enemy of babies? I vote for the dairy industry. I recently read John Robbins' book, May All Be Fed, in which he quotes Unicef as saying that babies in Third World countries who are given bottled milk are 25 times more likely to die of diarrhoea than breast-fed babies. Robbins writes: "More than a million and a half infants die every year from the cycle of infection and malnutrition known as Bottle Baby Disease."

Robbins notes that the British Medical Journal reported a study which showed that of 339 babies hospitalised with gastroenteritis, 338 had been bottle-fed. What's so insidious is that the people who represent the companies selling bottled milk persuade hospitals in poor countries to give free bottled­ milk to new mothers, who assume the hospitals know what's best.

Re: "8 August 1918: The turn of a coin in the Great War", (Opinion, Aug 7).

Wow, what an article. If ever an academy award were given for article of the year, this surely would be it!

It contains many enlightening facts that seasoned historians have never shared with us in their books. This is a must-read for any expats or Thais interested in History.

Firstly, I never knew that it was the contributions of the Aussies and Canadians which were pivotal to the end of World War I. Apparently, the British and French troops were so exhausted and over extended, that it took the guile of the new world countries to win the war. For the first time in the war, the Germans retreated at Amiens on the 8 August 1918, and then the Canadians and Aussies spearheaded the "Hundred Days" offensive, which led to the end of war, Mr Dyer brilliantly shows.

History is written from the perspective of the victors, with the victors in this case being primarily the US. The Americans act as if they were the ones who won the war, when in fact they only came in on 1917 after German submarines attacked their ships bringing supplies to Britain. Mr Dyer makes clear that the Germans knew it was futile to continue the war after August 1918, since the Americans were bringing in 10,000 troops per day, and would eventually be able to overpower them, if the contributions of the Allies were not enough.

However, the Americans never really­ fought much. And if the Russians had withdrawn a few months earlier than they did in 1917, the Germans would never had felt compelled to attack the Americans in January, 1917, and the war than would have ended in a draw, or the Germans would have actually won a partial victory, as the Allies and the Germans were both utterly exhausted in 1918, Mr Dyer makes clear.

And if this were the case, World War II would never have started, and millions of Jews and others would never have been ­exterminated. The fact remains that it was the stringent war reparations imposed on Germany by the League of Nations, ­especially America, that led to the election of Hitler in Germany, and the start of the World War II.

So it was the Americans who benefited the most from both World Wars, and suffered just about the least in terms of casualties. That is quite a trade-off, if you ask me. Western Europe was basically destroyed by the World Wars, as its best men died and its economies were in a shambles, especially in Britain. In contrast, the American economy boomed for at least 30 years after 1945, as they made the depleted Western Europeans dependent upon them, a condition which exists even until now.

Re: "Accept Hun Sen's win", (PostBag, Aug 9).

What other choice is there? The Cambodians have become a docile, downtrodden, spiritless people, the same as the Myanmar were at one time before the junta eased up. Cambodia has become another Chinese satellite country, rather too close to Thailand for comfort, but, that's the way it is. Sure, accept Hun Sen's win. Accept Trump's win, Putin's win and Xi's win. Live with it folks.

In a recent opinion piece, "No signs of regret for jobs poorly done", the author mentioned: "Pol Gen Srivara seems to have forgotten that he is a public servant...". No, Pol Gen Srivara has not forgotten.

In Thailand, if you work for the government you are a kha ratcha karn", literally means "servant of the monarch". But the word is translated to English as "public ­servant", which serves the purpose, but is literally wrong. Public servants are usually referred to labourers hired by provincial governments to sweep streets, clean sewers, prune trees, collect garbage.

That explains why government workers or kha ratcha karn, have such big egos, thinking they are masters of ordinary citizens, not servants. No, they don't work for us and that's what they think. They think they kindly take care of us and we ought to be grateful.

Former monk Nen Kham should not be sentenced to prison. It's too much like being a monk (BP, Aug 10). He should be required to perform public service for 114 years. Cleaning out public toilets and clearing water hyacinths from the Chao Phraya River by hand for 12 hours a day seems appropriate.­ If he ever exhibits any joy in performing these services, then and only then should he be locked up full time.

Re: "Forgive me while I proceed to ruin your dinner party", (Opinion, Aug 9).

French classical orator Bossuet famously said: "God laughs at men who deplore the consequences of causes that they cherish". It appears that those nations, peoples and cultures that object to being flattened by the no border technology-boosted globalisation Thomas Friedman has been the apostle of are ruining his dinner party. The Earth is not flat after all. Apparently, for him, liberty or democracy do not include the right to oppose his globalist project or disagree with Thomas Friedman, while the rule of law does not include the right for countries to control migration. Meanwhile, his solution for controlling some already or potentially ­devastating effects of globalisation is of course ... more globalisation.

Re: "Activists call on Laos dam operator to own up", (BP, Aug 10).

If the Koreans would have built the dam in their own country, slipshod, with ­probably lower construction standards and a lot of financial skim-offs, the entire construction company would be fined, and its president or owner joining the Korean president, a sea captain, along with a few other worthy and notable Koreans in jail.

Unlike Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, or Cambodia, the Koreans do jail their corrupt officials regardless of how great their political or social status may be.

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