OPINION

Crossing calamities

The Bangkok Post's April 14 editorial, "Rail crossings remain unsafe", stated that "In 2013, there were nearly 130 crashes at train crossings, causing 27 deaths and nearly 100 injuries. About 80% of these took place at barricade-free crossings".

On April 15, I wrote in PostBag that " ...the government should invite the private sector, local and national, under CSR with double tax deduction incentive, to carry out installation of barricades at selected crossings..."

According to a news report on May 19, "a man and his daughter were killed and his wife seriously injured when his pickup went through an unmanned railway crossing in Wiang Sa District, Surat Thani yesterday morning. It was the third crash at a crossing in the first five months of this year, in Surat Thani alone".

Maybe, the private sector or local government or politicians, in Surat Thani, should take the initiative.

Greed runs amok

The Bang Pakong River, with its flood plain and estuary, is arguably as important as the Mekong, perhaps more so due to the fact that it remains in pristine condition. It is home to the largest freshwater fish in the world and is not surrounded by industrial activity and giant agribusiness farms.

To allow government shepherded business interests, facilitated under Section 44, to bypass environmental and social responsibility places our minders in the same class as serial rapists.

The Thai people deserve a right to have the natural treasures of the Kingdom protected from degradations by a small cadre of greed demons running amok.

Smallholding farmers, who have lived on and worked the land for generations without destroying its fragile riverine ecosystems, need to be respected far more than the EEC plotters.

Industry can be responsibly accommodated in Chachoengsao province if it is located far away from the river and only when the first infrastructure to be built comprises state-of-the-art water and waste treatment facilities, not industrial estates.

Condo rental mess

Last year, there was a published case of a court verdict in Hua Hin regarding an illegal short-term rental in a condo. Has the law meanwhile changed again? The situation here in Pattaya becomes more and more desperate. More or less all new condos operate illegal rental businesses, mostly Chinese and Russian. Management, staff and committee members are sometimes insulted, laughed at and even threatened when trying to enforce existing condo laws. Police and immigration don't want to or can't act. Booking.com is even advertising "residential condo for short term rent". Clearly against the law. New condo buyers beware, it's a mess!

Skimming off milk

I am pleased to read that checks on the quality of milk supplied to schoolchildren will be increased. I have tasted samples of the milk my nephew is encouraged to drink and the taste is nothing like milk. Just diluted down to resemble white water. It is saddening to read of children being subjected to the scams of those in charge of supplying milk and those in the education system who skim off the budget to serve up inferior school meals. Are there no depths that greedy, unscrupulous thieves will stoop to?