A Bangkok Post report on Sept 12 says the truck that overturned was carrying 120 tonnes of beer. Nope, nope, nope!
That would be 240,000 pounds, or 108,862 kilogrammes. Nobody carries that heavy a load on Thai roads unless it's one of those rigs that transport heavy construction or industrial loads.
Maybe your reporter sampled the beer and got his numbers confused.
Re: "Don't pick on Koh Tao", (PostBag, Sept 11).
What the writer of this letter fails to recognise and differentiate in this article is that unlike the other tourist destinations, Koh Tao has a special status.
Many years ago the island was uninhabited and came under the auspices of the king of Thailand at that time.
It was the king who gave the incoming immigrants special privileges and allowed them to rule the island as they saw fit and with their own form of justice.
To this day this still stands and regrettably the mainland Royal Thai Police (RTP) have little to no authority on the island. The rule of law is determined by a few families on the island and it's their status that needs to be questioned.
If the island wants to be recognised as a truly beautiful and safe destination for international tourists there needs to be a root and branch change in how the island is run and managed by its locals. And that is one job the RTP are unwilling or unable to carry out.
The writer's defence of the island that there are worse places than Koh Tao for violent crimes against tourist does not hold water.
Pro rata Koh Tao has a disproportional incidence of tourist deaths and this needs urgent attention from a higher authority other than the RTP.
A 2% increase in the number of undernourished people globally in 2017 has been blamed primarily on "extreme weather" by the United Nations.
Anyone who is capable of applying a little common sense can place this gem of a statistic in the rubbish bin where it belongs.
The tally was 821 million people globally. Imagine the UN achieving less than a 2% statistical deviation in the accuracy of such numbers and then imagine it over the long term.
Of course it's the weather stupid. We need $100 million more to fund our fight against climate change so blaming hunger on the weather makes perfect sense, given it is well known that guilt is the best driver of increased donations among predominantly Judeo-Christian nations in the developed world.
Of course we have no idea what is driving climate change. More CO2 in the atmosphere has seen increased global foliage cover over the last 35 years and that means more food production, but there is no doubt climate is the primary cause of hunger, right?
Wrong, just plain wrong.
Re: "Hunt for monument caretaker", (BP, Sept 11).
There is a very clear explanation for why it is apparently so difficult to identify responsibility for maintaining Victory Monument and 14 others around the city.
It's simply that there is no money to be made from these monuments. They don't attract ticket-buying tourists and there is no adjacent space for vendors that can be "taxed".
We can be sure that if these were income-generating features, government agencies would be fighting for the "privilege" of managing them.
After being traumatised by a series of disasters, Naomi Osaka gives a reason for Japanese people to smile again (BP, Sept 12).
Her humble comments and respect shown to Williams and audiences during interviews come from the Japanese traditions of humanity.
Contact: Bangkok Post Building 136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110 fax: +02 6164000 Email:
postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
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12 Sep 2018
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