OPINION

More scrutiny, please

My eye was drawn immediately to a Jan 8 report saying a Thai university had developed a rapid-result virus test kit. Any such advance is welcome news.

But to be honest, I was disappointed by your reporting.

Apparently the FDA has approved the test, but apart from claims by the leader of the development team, there was no word of evaluation by any other country or international body.

I am in no way qualified to make a judgement about the efficacy of the test regime, but I would like to see a bit more scrutiny before "hospitals and institutions nationwide" spend zillions of baht on what may, or may not, be a useful tool in combatting Covid19.

Let's focus on education

Re: "Year in review: The winners and losers of 2020", (Opinion, Jan 4).

This article should mention another important and highly visible loser of 2020 -- the fundamental right to education.

In this regard, schools and universities should pay full attention to the conclusions of the November 2020 meeting of the Asean ministers of education under the theme "Transforming Education the Asean Way: Forging Partnerships in the Age of Global Disruptions".

This theme has particular significance at a time when the region's educational systems are grappling with the severe disruptions caused by the Covid-19 crisis. Faced with this dramatic reality, the 10 Asean countries have the collective duty to make efforts to transform the educational crisis into a promising opportunity by reimagining and radically transforming education systems at national levels.

This regional organisation has the merit of clearly pledging to build and strengthen partnerships in the field of education at all levels and with stakeholders to ensure the fundamental right of universal access to education. 2021 must mark a decisive step in that direction.

The 'meat' of the matter

Re: "Searching for alternative proteins is now a gold rush", (BP, Jan 6). The article said plant-based food can be flavoured to taste exactly like meat.

When I first became a vegetarian, I told a vegetarian friend that sometimes I still feel the urge to eat meat. He responded: "Don't worry, you'll soon get over that urge."

Well, not exactly. While I no longer have the desire to eat meat, I sometimes have the urge to eat food which tastes like meat.

But thanks to vegetarian hamburgers and vegetarian hotdogs I now can have my "meat" and eat it too.

Enough already!

Tesco-Lotus, or at least its Rayong department store, is subjecting its staff, and to a far lesser extent its customers, to a form of mental torture.

It is playing a Covid-19 warning over and over again. I timed it at 18 seconds, with a two-second break before it starts again.

That equals 360 plays in an hour, or 2,880 plays during a staff eight-hour shift, or 17,280 plays during a six-day working week.

The sheer monotony of it, droning on and on, is enough to irritate me during a relatively short shopping trip.

But what must it be doing to the long-suffering check-out and other staff?

If I were them, I would not only be wearing the mandated masks, but ear plugs as well.

Daydream non-believer

Samanea Saman's Jan 9 letter, "It's nice to dream," scared the hell out of me until I reached the end when he disclosed that it was just a horrible nightmare.

A multi-year visa with multiple re-entries? Courteous immigration people?

God, whatever did you eat or drink that would bring on such a distressing episode like that? Don't do it again.

Like you, my 90-day report in my 23rd year in Thailand is coming up, and like in the past, immigration will deny it because my yearly visa will expire during the renewal period and they will say I should reapply when I get the new visa.

Of course, when I do they come back and say "come in" because you are past the required reporting date and subject to a 2,000 baht fine, at which time I show them that they are the ones who said report after the visa renewal and then get a dirty look for revealing their obvious error.

Yep, that is the courtesy you dreamed about.