OPINION

Lot to learn from the young

Re: "Kids expose the cracks behind the smiles", (Opinion, Oct 31).

Spot on, Wasant. A few years ago, a Thammasat professor made a speech about "Thai ethnocentrism". Ruling class propaganda has so thoroughly indoctrinated older Thais to this perspective that Thainess equals rightness, that they cannot see beyond "yellow".

Most young people have shed this blindness, and their growth, and Thailand's growth, depends on what Montessori method educators say: "Follow the child if you want to see that child grow to their full potential."

Let's see respect for elders

Wasant Techawongtham is apparently not aware that Thailand is now an upper-middle income country that has almost eradicated extreme poverty. Maybe when he was news editor, the poverty rate was 65%. It is now 10%.

I'm not sure of which echo chamber he has picked up his conspiracy.

The fact that Thai kids now protest with the same slogans as their peers in developed countries is a sign of the country's prosperity. So, yes, a little thank you to and respect for grandpa and grandma, and mum and dad, seem to be well-deserved.

And, yes, perhaps, old people understand what it takes to achieve prosperity because they have provided for the comforts kids now take for granted.

I'd think that they are a better source of wisdom than social influencers on Snapchat or Tik-Tok who try to sell them stuff that they now can buy with their parents' money. What is really shameful is to suggest that they should hang their head in shame.

Russian influence still there

In response to Petr Ivanovich's letter, "Putin the pragmatist", on Oct 31.

Mr Ivanovich is either naive, biased or deluded. His "theory" is in direct conflict with Russian actions.

These include their 2016 propaganda assault with over 1,000 fake Facebook accounts and other internet attempts to swing the election. The same has been attempted in 2020. All these efforts were for Mr Trump.

I wonder how the Russians were so certain where Mr Trump would turn?

Buses are the real menace

One cannot suppress the good old hee-haw when reading about, or hearing about, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) banning big trucks in the capital during certain hours to try to cut back air pollution.

What has the BMA ever done to effectively curb bus emission problems? So many red and whites idle for hours, and then go forth to poison the rest of us on the sidewalks as these monstrosities go by, belching oily, black smoke.

Have you ever thought about how many toxins you eat at those sidewalk restaurants on Silom, Sukhumvit and other major thoroughfares?

And whatever happened to those new buses that were impounded at some Klong Toey facility for non-payment of something or another a long time ago?

Republicans still cheating

In his Oct 30 letter, Kuldeep Nagi claims that the USA is "is incapable of providing voting booths and equipment for its own people to exercise their right to vote".

In reality, it is more than capable of doing so, but the constitution allows states to run elections, meaning Republican-controlled ones abuse this power to suppress the votes of those who would vote against them.

The Republicans have been suppressing votes and gerrymandering for decades, and it is the reason the Voting Rights Act was passed (and the reason the Republicans used their Supreme Court majority to gut it in 2013).

Should the Democrats win control of the House, Senate and White House, their first order of the day must be to undo this egregious election interference and restore voting to rights to all -- along with federal oversight to block Republican attempts to continue to cheat their way to election victories.

Until they do, America's claim to be one of the world's leading democracies is little more than a bad joke.

Trump isn't so bad

Mr Kuldeep is right that the superpower uses tanks, missiles, and others to confront other countries.

But we should not forget that Mr Trump has not started any war during his presidency, unlike all his Nobel Prize predecessors.

Better the devil you know

It seems that Mr Bahrt ("Evil to the core", PostBag, Oct 31) thinks that Richard Nixon was not all bad.

He also seems to favour Mr Biden as the next president.

I wonder did he see Mr Biden display his frailty, when sitting next to his wife like a ventriloquist's dummy, waiting for her to whisper the name he had forgotten (it was Trump's).

Whereas Mr Trump frightens me, Mr Biden terrifies me.

Mr Biden's mental powers are not going to improve as he enters his eighties with his hand on the nuclear button.

It is better to have the devil you know, in charge.