OPINION

THAI food nosedives

Business Post on Sept 4 reported the Thai Airways International (THAI) rehab plan to reduce its losses included adopting low-cost business models.

 I believe the main contributing factor for the success of low-cost airlines is, as the title suggests, lower fares and charging for all extras such as food and drinks, etc.

As a seasoned traveller it is my experience when comparing fares for overseas destinations that THAI is usually the most expensive. I will not comment on the value for money when it comes to the food served by THAI on many of its routes. It is my opinion that THAI must offer more competitive fares and improve the standard of food it offers if it is to staunch the annual losses. As an afterthought, I wonder how many freebies and upgrades it gives to its cronies?

France's war on student cell phones and paradoxical coverage of possible literacy gains within smartphone software that appeared in the Sept 4 edition of the Bangkok Post is interesting. Unfortunately, I am sceptical that either effort will end all that well.

As with most social wars, I can tell you flatly that France will probably lose. History teaches that most addictions cannot be cured with legislation -- foremost the addictions of technology, alcohol and drugs. Tech addiction is severely injuring our students' lives, but I have yet to see any broad legislation that can stop the technology that at all times is a step ahead of our laws.

As for "Siri & Alexa", I think it is wonderful that these online programmes have brought "convenience" to millions of people. Yet, when Christopher Canon says: "We ask a question & Alexa enters the search terms for us," one needs to ask just who, really, is Alexa? And what does Alexa want from us? Is Alexa Mark Zuckerberg in disguise, big tech, or some biased "gatekeeper of knowledge?"

We are now in a world where our students are drowning in addiction and they assume that Alexa, Google and Facebook are their friends. Are they really our students' friends? Or has the clock just struck 13?

Dear Airports of Thailand,

It is important to explain to the thousands of passengers at Suvarnabhumi on the morning of Sept 5 why there was such an extended and extensive electricity outage.

Cutting off electricity in certain areas at the airport is a disgrace. Lounges were closed because there was no power. Hundreds of passengers who had paid a premium were refused access to the lounges because somehow you designed a system that was not backed up adequately.

There were large areas of darkness wherever passengers walked. This is a proper disgrace to the nation not having the main international airport with an adequate backup electricity supply.

So then, AOT, will you return the premiums people paid for tickets and the airport taxes that they paid for their flights but received poor service?

Larry Lindsey in his Sept 1 letter is 100% accurate with his assessment of the Rupert Murdoch disease now spreading like cancer in the US. That of "fake news". Murdoch tried it in the UK but was rebuffed even though he is still trying to buy the controlling stake in Sky News. Americans -- or more to the point, Trump's core base -- are a prime audience for the likes of news presenters such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

Let's all hope the apathetic voting folks -- of which 120 million did not vote in the 2016 elections, have gotten the message and will sendTtrump and his goons packing this November and in 2020 ... should Trump last that long.

Now that Suu Kyi has remained silent after two journalists in Myanmar were sentenced to seven years in jail, can anyone still deny she is a fake and her "pro-democracy" movement was a fraud? Neither the genocide against the Rohingya or the blatant crackdown on freedom of the press seem to concern this "democracy icon".

If it's impossible to remove her Nobel Peace Prize, as a bare minimum the Nobel Peace Prize committee must make some kind of symbolic gesture to make it clear that this woman is no longer worthy of that prize. Otherwise, the prize will have no meaning in the future.

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