OPINION

Business as usual...

Re: "In 'proxy crisis' land, it's all got so absurd", (Opinion, Dec 24).

I have lived in this country and read the Bangkok Post for 20 years now. The level of surrealism or absurdity is definitely very high, has certainly not decreased, but has not increased either in that period.

At the end of every year, you could produce lists of absurd news similar to those of the highlights for 2019. This is business as usual.

As for the wealth gap and poverty in this country, it is very high. But according to the Bangkok Post on July 10, in an article by Worawan Chandoevwit of the TRDI, the Gini index increased from 0.487 in 1988 to 0.522 in 2000 then dropped to 0.453 in 2017.

Meanwhile, average incomes tripled from 1988 to 2000, and tripled again by 2017. And poverty rates declined, from other sources, from 70% to 50%. The wealth gap has not increased, while average incomes have sky-rocketed and poverty rates plummeted.

Killings unavoidable

Felix Qui's comments in his Dec 25 letter, "Army needs overhaul", lacks a bit of practical thought. I do not know if Mr Qui has ever served in anyone's army. It doesn't sound like it.

Unfortunate events unfold in every army in the world. The Americans in their misadventures in various parts of the world have called in air strikes that unfortunately killed American soldiers. The coalition fighting the IS and Syrian troops have killed civilians in the melee as well. The Philippine military and Chinese military have killed and maimed many of their own citizenry in gunfights that justify their goals, not to mention the civilian killings in Mexico and Latin America. Myanmar troops have killed civilians (more by intent than accident), and the litany goes on and on.

Whether fighting insurgents, terrorists or whatever. The facts are that civilians always suffer, no matter how careful an army may be.

The Thai military does not go out of its way to kill civilians, and there will sometimes be civilian casualties no matter how well planned an attack may be.

Size doesn't matter

Re: "Govt readies street-food fiestas," (BP, Dec 25).

It was so gratifying to read of our strength in street food until the part about having to prove the greatness of our phad Thai by one LPG trader who plans to cook it in the world's longest pan (110 metres long with 100 cooks). It will weigh 2.2 tonnes and be eaten by 2,200 people. How ghastly it will be.

The secret of phad Thai lies in it being cooked artistically and individually.

In my humble opinion, it works as a gimmick and warrants one item in the Guinness World Records -- but it debases the value of phad Thai.

Having our prime minister presiding over the event is no big deal because the name itself is already Thai.

According to Guinness World Records, the largest circular pizza ever baked weighed 12,204 kilogrammes, was made in Norwood, South Africa, in 1990 -- not in Italy.

Italians have enough sense not to humiliate the fame of pizza.

A deliberate kiss

Re: "Kiss a provocation", (PostBag, Dec 25).

It evidently has not occurred to Baffled Reader that the male kissing episode was a strong political gesture and not an expression of sexual desire.

All successful civil rights movements in history -- votes for women and so on -- have had their share of behaviour which some saw as over-the-top.

Of course it is -- and it's deliberate.