OPINION

Not every hero wears a cape

Re: "Covid hysteria", (PostBag, Jan 12) and "Heedless manhunt, Omicron marches on", (PostBag, Jan 10).

This is wonderful news that a responsible Indian tourist voluntarily self-isolated regardless of the huge emotional toll of having spoilt a "joyful vacation" after expecting to start a smashing new year and leave behind a terrible Covid-stricken one.

I can only imagine your heavy disappointment, but I certainly admire greatly your civic conscience and the sacrifice you made on behalf of us all. Good job!

Wealth no crime in itself

Re: "Apple becomes 1st US company to reach $3tn valuation," (BP, Jan 4).

Before assigning adjectives to the wealth of a corporation or an individual, we need to consider how that wealth came about.

How did Apple become such a valuable company, making its owners so vastly rich in the process, in a matter of mere decades?

Clearly a billion or more people around the world have found that Apple products contribute much to their lives in the form of enjoyment and productivity, leading to the creation of their own personal wealth in a wide range of ways.

Equally, a billion people happily pay Microsoft and Google for products that enhance our lives every day in a multitude of small ways.

Apple, Google and Microsoft, like Ford Motor Cars, General Electric and Tesla, are deservedly rich because they have created vastly greater wealth for billions of other human beings. Their wealth is richly deserved.

Though there are also pertinent questions that need answers concerning how much tax (too often too little) is paid by such vastly wealthy people, merely being rich is no bad thing in itself, provided the wealth is a biproduct of the even greater wealth created for others who in turn have passed on the returns on their own labours in the form of contributions to the state.

Bangers from 'Bangers'

Re: "Fries' size matters," (PostBag, Jan 8).

Sorry S Tsow, of course Bangkok has a food named after it, bangers! All Brits are well aware that their favourite sausages, bangers, originated in Bangkok and were taken back to Britain by the traders in the nineteenth century. Bangers and mash is almost a British staple.

Even the actor and comedian Peter Sellers sang about while repulsing Sophia Loren's amorous intentions. Credit where credit is due, sir.

The dark side of the sun

One of the criteria by which we judge a civilised society is how it treats those of its citizens who are disabled.

On the credit side, there is abundant evidence that Thai companies and institutions employ disabled people.

But there is a dark side.

In Rayong there is a market (talat nat) each Monday and Thursday, and inevitably a man, grotesquely crippled in both his legs and arms, is sitting in the dust and muck of the market floor with his begging cup from pre-dawn, when the market opens, until a little after noon, when it closes.

Someone is dumping him there twice a week, and I wonder if he is carted around other markets in Rayong that I do not frequent, so that this becomes a seven-day debasement of his humanity.

I also wonder: if this is the case, who ends up collecting the money?

This is an affront to Thailand's supposed Buddhist compassion and caring.

Businessmen need a break

I am an Australian who has conducted business in Thailand for more than 20 years, and also invested in properties during that period.

After nearly two years of lockdown, I was able to take advantage of the Test & Go scheme to enter Thailand on Dec 6 for a week of long overdue meetings.

The decision to remove this option again cuts off the Bangkok business community from the rest of the world, which has to be damaging in the long term to Thailand's reputation as a leading Asian business hub.

One suggestion for recognising bona-fide business personnel would be to allow Test & Go for holders of the Apec Business travel card, which is only awarded to business leaders who are contributing significantly to the development of the Apec region, including Thailand.

It is hard to accept that despite being fully vaccinated (including a booster), and having tested negative in RT-PCR tests pre-departure and on arrival, that such people on short-term business visits present any threat to the economy.