OPINION

Embrace lifelong learning

Re: "Unis 'must gear up for lifelong learning,'" (BP, Feb 7).

As the global economy changes, so must the economy of every country, including Thailand. My appreciation of "emeritus" or "lifelong" learning grew tremendously while working with one of the nearly 1,200 community colleges in the US. Once maligned as academically inferior, institutions offer affordable education to students -- many of whom are first-generation college students for whom English is a second language -- close to their homes, which allows them to remain employed while attending classes either in person or online.

Community colleges have shown themselves to be extremely flexible in working quickly with business communities to create programmes that value "soft skills", while recognising the challenges presented by technology and shifting workforce demands. While the basic rubric of education has remained unchanged for more than a century, community colleges have long stressed planning for, as Mr Suvit observes, "jobs that have not even been invented yet".

Masks, gloves and racism

David Powell, a physician and medical adviser to the International Air Transport Association, in addressing the coronavirus outbreak, was recently quoted by Bloomberg as saying "masks and gloves do a better job of spreading bugs than stopping them".

Perhaps the Thai health ministry needs to rethink its policies? At a minimum, it certainly needs to acquire an understanding of how racism spreads much like other diseases.

Unfair treatment of retirees

In a letter titled "Their own undoing", a reader reports how immigration officials are scaring tourists away by harassing them for coming too often to Thailand. This reader could add another category of foreigners being unfairly treated: retirees. The latest obstacle placed in their way when asking for visa extension is they must get a certificate from a medical insurance company listed on the Public Health Ministry's roster (comprising mostly Thai insurance companies and only two foreign ones) even if they are already fully insured by other health insurance companies. This regulation, which was adopted last year and has been strictly applied since the beginning of this year, is creating problems for many retirees who must scramble to get a second useless health insurance, at a price. Some are rejected because they have a pre-existing condition even though it is already covered by their own insurance.

How is that for making Thailand a welcoming country to people who spend quite a lot of money in this country? It would be interesting to know what it amounts to in a year.

Many are already thinking of relocating to friendlier countries like Malaysia or Vietnam.

Reform immigration bureau

The immigration bureau needs a complete overhaul, with structuring toward a civilian-run department. At present the immigration bureau operates like a government within the government, run by belligerent police thugs. Imagine that former boss with a name like "Big Joke", who went around strutting and bragging like some circus performer.

A new immigration bureau needs to be staffed people fluent in a few languages, English, Russian, Chinese, Lao, Cambodian. It is disgraceful and demeaning to see local immigration officers berating and brow-beating applicants from neighbouring countries who do not speak Thai, yet being scolded in Thai. A course in good manners and etiquette should also be required, and a thorough knowledge of immigration laws standardised across Thailand.

At the moment it seems many immigration officials have a "make it up if you don't know what to do" approach. But we all know immigration reform will never happen, at least not until those affected by loss of tourism or plain disgusted retirees and repeat tourists just pull up stakes and get the hell out of here. And maybe even then, myopia and continued ignorance by the ignorant will still prevail.

the anti-trump bandwagon

There is certainly no lack of anti-Donald Trump opinion in the Bangkok Post.

In the Feb 7 edition alone there was an anti-Trump cartoon, an anti-Trump opinion piece from a major US writer, an anti-Trump slur by actor Harrison Ford, who stated the oft-repeated, vicious lie that Trump and Trumpian policies are anti-immigrant (the United States admits one million legal immigrants per year), and a quick shot from Trump-hater Taylor Swift, who stated that she wished she had rallied other Trump haters to "resist" the cause earlier in her career. And there is usually an ample supply of anti-Trump letters in the PostBag section.

Rather than debate the anti-Trump folks, I'll just ask them two questions.

1. Why do you think 63 million voters chose Trump in 2016?

2. Do you think Trump will get re-elected in 2020?