OPINION

Ring haze alarm

Re: "Alarm as haze plan lacking", (BP, Oct 18).

Not only environmental experts, but all of us should be concerned over the lack of concrete actions to deal with the perennial haze scourge. According to the State of Global Air 2020 report, more than 32,000 premature deaths occurred in Thailand in 2019 as a result of air pollution. This is nearly double the number of deaths the country has suffered during the entire Covid-19 pandemic and more than die in highway accidents each year. The economic losses due to lost productivity caused by air pollution exceed US$500 billion (17 trillion baht) annually.

Thailand's current haze management plan appears to be little more than sprinkling water from the rooftops of schools and waiting for wind and rain to eventually clear away the pollution. Thailand's people deserve better.

Re: "Buddhism confusion", (PostBag, Oct 25).

Not wishing to add fuel to the fire, but I am under the impression that the Buddha's anatta ("no-self") doctrine denies the existence of any enduring self, soul, or soul-structure whatsoever.

If that's the case, how can Buddhist meditation be "a conscious spiritual process that is ... self-forgetting and self-transcending"? You can't forget or transcend something that doesn't exist.

Perhaps what Mr Setter means is forgetting and transcending the illusion of a self. In that case, he needs to use clearer wording.

Finally, writing letters to newspapers does not seem to me to be an appropriate activity for someone who has styled himself "a practising Buddhist". Seeing your letter in print ("Look, Ma, my letter is in 'PostBag'!") is more likely to inflame your sense of ego than inhibit it.

Re: "Many roads 'unsafe' for motorcycles", (BP, Oct 22).

The other day in Phuket, I noticed a couple of cops at a Patong Beach checkpoint pulling over motorcyclists not wearing helmets. They nabbed 10 miscreants in about one minute. The on-the-spot fine for farang was 500 baht/head. If a few more men in brown could maintain that steady pace for an hour, the total haul from that single checkpoint could amount to as much as $9,000/hour. Maybe less if the "fee" for locals is set lower. But still, pure revenue with minimal effort. Multiply that figure by thousands of checkpoints across the country.

Now, I'm sure every satang of that revenue is being redirected to the Department of Transport for the benefit of road safety. It would more than cover the 15 billion baht proposed for injection into the road network. So, what's the problem?

According to CNN, "Tens of millions of filthy used medical gloves imported into the US". Country of origin: Thailand. Is the Bangkok Post going to investigate? A place to start would be the names of two Thai companies noted in the CNN article.

Re: "Abortion hypocrisy", (PostBag, Oct23) and "A prize for Tanee?", (PostBag, Oct 20).

After reading the above letter, It is now clear to me that the reason why Mr Bahrt is no longer the most prolific writer to PostBag, is not only because he is writing less to the editor (as I implied in my Oct 20 letter), but also because this newspaper is rejecting his letters at a higher rate than before.