OPINION

Toxic leaders

Re: "Village chief's fruitless fight for justice", (Opinion, Dec 15).

I am constantly amazed at the business culture here and how the quest for profits overrides common sense and decency.

The fact that the first environmental civil lawsuit in Thailand has yet to be resolved and adjudicated in a decade speaks volumes about politicians and officials' claims to be good stewards of the nation.

More effort and resources are spent over frivolous claims of verbal defamation than directed towards actual actions that cause true physical harm through commercial pollution.

Much of the industrial activity, such as making batteries for electric vehicles, is outsourced here not for the stellar performance of Thai workers, but because of the poor performance of environmental protection guidelines and weak enforcement.

What good is business and jobs if the environment and people are sacrificed in the process?

Re: "Omicron could surge", (BP, Dec 14).

Can we please stop the fear-mongering for a bit? So far, scientists have determined that Omicron is rather mild compared to other Covid variants, so why all the headlines focusing on doom?

It seems to me that the media in general, and the Bangkok Post in particular, thrives on scaring their audience.

I guess bad news sells, but I still find it both annoying and irresponsible that so often the possible negatives are highlighted ('Man dies after jab') instead of the positives ('25 million are fine after jab').

Re: "Bahrt overdose", (PostBag, Dec 14).

I totally support Wil Wright on his Eric Baht overdose post.

For too long we have been subjected to his anti-vaxxer fake news.

I thought publication of fake news was illegal in this country. Apparently not, if you have friends at the Bangkok Post.

Re: "Bahrt overdose", (PostBag, Dec 14).

For years, I have read the letters of Eric Bahrt and he has always taking "crazy" positions that later become accepted by the mainstream.

He started promoting vegetarianism, which is now trendy, at a time when "all normal people" ate meat. He spoke up for Palestinian rights at a time when all critics of Israel were called anti-Semites. And with Covid-19 exploding in countries that have high vaccination rates, people have to be asking Do these vaccines really work?

Of course people have a right to disagree with Eric's opinions. But to try and censor somebody on the grounds that his views are "dangerous" is appalling. We can only decide what is dangerous by having open and honest debates where all the facts on both sides are presented.

A few days ago we had an appointment at 2pm at the Chiang Mai Immigration Bureau for the annual extension of our retirement visa.

We handed over the required documents at 1.30pm and half an hour later our passports were returned with the visa valid for one year.

The best experience ever at Chiang Mai Immigration -- thank you very much.