EC has no vision
A conscientious Election Commission would have counted the 1,500 ballots from New Zealand that arrived at their precincts after ballot counting had begun.True, the law allows for them to not be counted, but a duty-bound, proactive EC would have noted that the ballots' delay was not any fault of the voters, nor had they been tampered with en route.
An EC motivated by the spirit of the law would not have used the letter of the law as an excuse; it could have merely delayed certifying the count for the precincts in question for a day or two.
Such an EC with no vision or motivation should find other jobs.
Burin Kantabutra
Driven out by noise
Re: "Hear no evil", (BP, March 21).
Being deprived from normal nightly rest and sleep for weeks on end as a result of continuous disco boom from temple feasts, house parties and village festivals in the Phu Phiang countryside of the northern Nan province, we could not bear it any longer and cut short our holiday in Thailand, notably in an area that is currently promoted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) as a haven of calm and peace.
Don't believe the TAT, a deplorable propaganda organisation that did not even react, let alone act on our numerous complaints.
It is exactly as your article stipulated: Thai neighbours were also suffering from the disco terror -- every night the same banging -- but they did not dare complain because in Thai culture publicly criticising others is often seen as being difficult or too outspoken.
As guests in Thailand we were certainly behaving correctly: being polite and respectful. But also for the host country certain universal rules should apply: it is widely seen as not respectful to deprive guests from sleeping by making such noise. Beware of Nan! We will certainly share our experience with the travel industry. Typically, local hospitality representatives, informed of our disappointing experience, tried to blame it on us: it was all our own fault! We should not have come in the festive season and, even better, not have come to Thailand at all.
A total disgrace, really.
Joe Argusoog
Thais don't hate us
Since I frequently complain about Thailand, readers may be surprised to know that I reject the view that the Thais hate us. I have never once had an experience where I felt a Thai was hostile to me simply because I'm a foreigner. And I had one experience where two Thai men who didn't know me may have saved my life when I had an accident. There was nothing in it for them.
As for the Immigration Department, while I strongly dislike some of their rules I have never had a bad experience with the people who work there. I regard those who work there as being average people doing an extremely boring job and are in no way responsible for making the rules. I speculate that some of the expats who had bad experiences may have taken out their anger with the rules on those people. If so, those expats got the treatment they deserved.
Eric Bahrt
