OPINION

Investigate THAI

Re: "Thaksin linked to THAI's losses", (BP, Sept 18).

It is unfortunate -- but not necessarily illegal -- when national leaders make bad policy decisions. Surely, Thai Airways was not the only airline in the world to purchase the A340 aircraft, which are now widely recognised as inefficient fuel-guzzlers. The fact that the planes led to THAI losing large sums of money for years after their purchase is not itself an indication of wrongdoing.

That said, I'm all in favour of investigating the background of the purchase of the planes with a view to increasing transparency and uncovering possible malfeasance. At the same time, it would be very appropriate for investigators to look into deals that THAI made for Rolls-Royce jet engines between 1991 and 2005. If anyone needs reminding, in 2017, Rolls-Royce admitted to British fraud investigators that bribes were paid to Thai intermediaries. Sadly, Thai investigators never saw fit to probe the cases or even request related evidence from Rolls-Royce or the UK Serious Fraud Office.

Re: "Cab partitions a hot issue", (PostBag, Sept 26).

Bangkok already has taxis with partitions. Operated by a company called CABB, they are based on the famous London cab. With separate air conditioning from the driver, intercom and a wheelchair ramp the royal blue cabs can carry five passengers economically. My driver told me his cab is popular with medical workers.

Re: "China's Xi warns of 'grim' Taiwan situation in letter to opposition", (BP, Sept 26).

More humans need to realise that countries and nations, along with cultures, customs, and traditions, are all at heart only human fictions, as historian Yuval Harari correctly explains in his justly famous book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015). Mindless faith in blind nationalism or spurious ethnic myths notwithstanding, should be irrelevant to its right to self-determination today. If the people on the piece of land called Taiwan, or Tibet, or Texas, or Catalonia, or Australia, or whatever do not want to be Chinese, or American, or Spanish, or British, or whatever, that is for them to decide today constrained only by just contractual agreements entered into. Should they wish the people currently occupying some piece of real estate to remain within the same fiction that is a nation, it is for China, the United States, or Britain to persuade those citizens to freely remain in that organisational structure. Force or threats of force already betray any pretence to respecting the rights of the people.

I thought it would be instructive to know just how many people actually conspired to give themselves Covid in order to collect on the insurance payouts. Knowing this, we could better understand the actual level of Covid spread in the country. For example, what percent of the daily numbers are comprised of people who purposefully caught the virus versus those simply unlucky enough to catch it? If the ratio is quite high, we should realise then the magnitude of overreaction to the reported numbers. I ask the government to collect and report these statistics for everyone's benefit.

Re, "Divine remembrance", (Life, Sept 17).

In the article on Dante's Divine Comedy, a reference is made to the epigraph in American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis -- "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." The writer describes it as "one of the most-used quotes from the Inferno".

Perhaps he should have written, "one of the most-used misquotations from the Inferno". The translation of the original Italian is, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."