For whom the bell tolls
Re: "Keep ringing the bells, but not too loudly", (Opinion, Oct 6).
If all our descendants had followed tradition we still would live in caves. Forget about following traditions -- this is hard for conservatives but they also use smartphones instead of smoke signals and ride underground or drive cars to work and not horses. The love for old things is okay, but do not force them on others.
Religions always invoke tradition, tolerance and respect when their ways are being criticised. They themselves very often do not show much tolerance and respect for others. "Attitude adjustment" and intimidation is obviously not tolerance and respect.
Disturbing others is highly un-Bhuddist -- tradition or not. In advanced Catholic countries there was also the tradition of ringing the church bells loudly in the early mornings. They ceased to do so -- they do it at some times during the day. Nobody is worse off for that. Nobody sees a problem in that.
Karl Reichstetter
Prayut playing with fire
Re: "New terminal strays from plan", (BP, Sept 27).
The Prayut Chan-o-cha government should change its plan to build a new terminal at Suvarnabhumi airport.
First, the Architect Council of Thailand and the Engineering Institute of Thailand were not consulted or involved in this project -- sparking rumours that it is both corruption-prone and poses a risk to human lives.
Second, the Airports of Thailand-approved design of the terminal, which involves using wood as the majority of construction material, will fall short of the standards of the US National Fire Protection Association -- to which Thailand is a signatory -- and will pose a huge fire risk.
Third, the Airports of Thailand has switched the site of the new terminal to the northeasterly position instead of the southerly position. This was contrary to the original master plan put up by a consortium of foreign and Thai experts.
Fourth, even before its construction, the project has become an international scandal both in terms of it being corruption-prone and a huge risk to human lives by fire!
Hence, the government should avoid being the party to blame for its decision to approve this plan.
Chavalit WannawijitrChiang Mai
Losing my religion
Re: "Keep religion in community", (PostBag, Oct 7).
In response to David Brown's letter, I should point out that I have spent the great majority of my life among people who practise religions other than the one to which I was born into. As a Christian who never took to the faith, I have lived and worked in Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim countries where I have witnessed far more "religious intolerance" than I display.
That intolerance leads to the events seen recently in Myanmar where the minority have been severely persecuted by the majority due to being the "wrong religion".
Supposed Christians argue among themselves due to different beliefs, Muslims fight each other over differences in their sects' origins and the clashes over religion have caused several wars and far too many deaths to ignore.
I am quite happy for individuals to believe in whatever book of stories they choose and to mumble intonations to the sky if that is their preference but feel that once they congregate in numbers and amass in large crowds they start to exhibit the behaviour seen by football fans.
Once a government sides with one ideology the citizens belonging to another can expect to be subjected to a certain amount of criticism and even hate.
My intolerance to religion is that I do not enjoy seeing one group being persecuted by another, whereas when a large religious group shows intolerance it is often manifested with armed violence, torture, rape and mass murder.
When the signs of your religion are openly and proudly displayed in public they immediately set up a reaction in another group which is why I quite simply say "keep your religion in your own home, don't go out and aggravate others". There is far more to good people than just religion.
Lungstib
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