When politics override logic
Re: “Light rail routes facing cutback”, (BP, Nov 2). A number of weeks ago I made a simple calculation based on the projected cost, the expected number of likely passengers and the proposed fare for a high-speed rail to Chiang Mai. The venerable Japanese International Cooperation Agency undertook a large study of that route and concluded it was not feasible and withdrew its interest in it.
Now I read in the article above that a number of proposed light rail routes will be reduced due to likely limited ridership, according to a source in the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTTPP). The source said the office ordered the seven routes proposed by the project’s consulting firm be reduced.
Thank goodness some logic prevails among many of these pie in the sky megaprojects. I suspect that some such projects are only going ahead for political reasons and possibly for financial gain by those involved -- or both. In the above case in Udon Thani, one wonders if the consulting firm’s fees were based on a percentage of estimated project costs, as is often the practice, and as a result of OTTPP’s ruling the consultants will recalculate and reduce their fees accordingly?
Martin R
Choppers too risky
The sad death of King Power and Leicester City Football Club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha underlines the danger of flying in helicopters. It seems not a day goes by that one or more of these dangerous contraptions somewhere falls out of the sky, usually resulting in deaths. It is time the manufacturers admitted their machines are hazardous and stopped selling them for use in general transportation. Admittedly there are situations where they can be useful and can be justified, but drones are about to displace them, doing a better and safer job.
If the Thai military want to pay over the odds for their helicopters, that appears to be their privilege. Forces members who use them are expected to accept hazardous situations as part of their chosen profession. Helicopters should certainly be banned from flying over inhabited areas, as happens far too frequently.
W Brown
Rubber-stamped -- at a cost
Re: “Unwanted Westerners”, (PostBag, Nov 3).
There seems to be less than a hair’s breath difference between an affidavit and a statutory declaration, but I do know that the Australian embassy in Bangkok still stamps a duly signed statutory declaration for the purposes of income declaration for Thai visa renewals, and for the past 10 years the Thai Immigration office down here in Rayong has accepted it without question.
Mind you, as the consular desk is manned by a Thai, presumably being paid a Thai salary, the 1,500 baht fee for a one second rubber stamp job seems a bit excessive.
David Brown
Bad ratings come at a cost
Re: “Blurred identities”, (PostBag, Nov 2)
Did NBC fire Megyn Kelly over her blackface comments? I watched the show in question three times and still don’t get it. All she did was making fun of “costume police” during Halloween in the US.
But it was kind of eerie when she joked about an Anne Frank costume and the whole audience burst out laughing. I was spooked by the guffaw and thought it was poor demeanour by the audience.
Anyway, I think NBC fired Kelly because of her show’s bad ratings and used the blackface incident as a pretext to salvage some of the US$69 million (2.2 billion baht) it promised to pay her over three years.
Somsak Pola
Democratic slurs
Re: “Different visions”, (PostBag, Nov 1).
In his reply to my letter pointing out that the politicians ruling over Thais since the coup in May 2014, Dusit Thammaraks repeats a number of pious myths.
First, there is the dramatically dubious claim that Thailand was facing “possibly devastating civil war”. The discussion necessary to establish any such claim has never taken place. The known facts suggest otherwise: That the streets were so easily cleared supports the idea that at most a brief period of martial law would have been more than adequate to stop the protests aiming to “Shut down Bangkok,” thereby allowing an election to form a new government to proceed smoothly in accord with the constitution.
When he then proceeds to suggest that Thai people cannot be trusted in the matter of “casting unbiased and honest votes”, he repeats a falsehood popular with anti-democratic forces everywhere. This presumption of being superior to the great majority is not only false, but ignores the moral imperative that people have a right to a voice in the form of their government.
This is a moral truth that dictators reject. Finally, no one is such a straw man as to think democracy a panacea that can magically cure all ills, merely that it is morally and practically better than dictatorship, save perhaps for the dictators making up laws that just happen to be so very beneficial to themselves and those colluding with them.
To the insultingly low opinion of the Thai people as unfit to have a fair say in determining their affairs, no supporting evidence is given. But myths are by definition blindly credited. Happily, Thais are no longer so piously blind, even regarding Thai affairs, as the dictatorially inclined who deem themselves superior would have them be.
Felix Qui
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