OPINION

Massacre questions

Re: "Former cop kills 37 in massacre", (BP, Oct 7).

The mass murder is so sad. Were there no warning signs?

It's hard to believe that such an awful person can be walking around, interacting with people months/years prior to his rampage, yet not one person noticed and reported the ticking time bomb.

My message to everyone: be aware. Listen to people. If they talk of killing, don't just chuckle it away responding with rote things like: "Oh, quit being so dramatic, ha ha ha".

Report mental illness to authorities. The brain-damaged murderer should have been committed to a locked-up facility before his rampage.

There must have been warning signs.

Hit-and-run blame

Re: "Police charge 15-year-old after fatal hit-and-run", (BP, Oct 5).

A 15-year-old boy in Nakhon Ratchasima drove a BMW through a red light, hit and killed an engineering graduate and sped off.

One major reason Thailand has one of the world's deadliest roads is that our legal enforcement is so lax, especially with the wealthy/powerful.

The underage boy either stole the BMW he was driving when he hit, killed and ran or used it with the owner's permission.

The boy should be charged with vehicular theft (in addition to other charges) if the former was the case. If, as is more likely, his rich parents let him use their car, they are accessories to his crimes and should be charged accordingly.

Yes, they didn't know that their son would hit and kill someone, but they knew that that could happen, and still they let him drive.

Jail both killer and enabler(s).

Short on solutions

Re: "Asia-Pacific facing a food crisis", (Opinion, Oct 5).

Jong-jin Kim's commentary on the need for reform of agrifood systems is long on jargon and slogans, but disappointingly short on solutions.

The commentary calls for urgent action to "fix our agrifood systems" by transforming them to withstand shocks and disruptions, but suggests nothing about what exactly to transform or how to go about it.

The commentary claims that there are plenty of available solutions, but all that is offered are condensed into two sentences mentioning only more sustainable management of natural resources and coupling traditional knowledge with a fast-growing entrepreneurial ecosystem (whatever that means).

Calls are made for increased partnerships among governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, and resource partners (presumably international aid agencies and development organisations), but it is unclear what exactly the enhanced partnerships are encouraged to do.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations declares itself to be the world's leading authority on food security.

I would therefore expect far more innovative, robust, and clearly defined ideas coming from the FAO's regional representative.

Don't hide the past

Re: "Opening an old wound", (Editorial, Oct 6).

Since it epitomises so perfectly much that continues to sicken Thailand in 2022, the ugly events of Oct 6, 1976, deserve far more notice, far more investigation, and far more truth speaking than has been permitted.

It's almost as though someone, or a few someones, have skeletons they know to be so indefensibly unspeakable that they desperately want them locked away forever in a dark closet along with the host of other shameful acts of decades.

The result today is obvious: a nation retarded politically, socially, morally and economically for many, many decades.

Did they simply give in to their own greedy indulgences with no regard for the welfare of the nation?

Or was there some deeper malignancy, wrapping itself in impenetrable veils of a gaudy show, at work these many decades?

The festering wound of Oct 6, 1976, should be thoroughly opened up so that truth-seeking and speaking cleanse it to allow the too-long denied national healing to begin.

Point of no return

Re: "Pfizer tot shots start Oct 12", (BP, Oct 7).

As an agnostic, I'm obviously not religious.

But when I read that in Thailand they're giving three Covid vaccines to children ages 5 to 11, I literally got down on my knees and said: "May God have mercy on our souls."

During this crisis, we have violated every standard of medical ethics and human decency, and we have now reached the point of no return.

Ideas on sexuality

Re: "Sexual taboos confront Pakistan", (Opinion, Oct 7).

All problems related to sex and morals lie with religion.

In nature, some creatures are asexual, bisexual, hermaphrodites, and with all other shades or gradients in between.

Religious groups that criticise The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 in Pakistan believe it will promote same-sex marriage and homosexuality, owing to a flaw in its definition of "transgender".

These groups in Pakistan and elsewhere ignore that homosexuality will exist, just like other forms of moral or immoral behaviours.

Like in many other societies, the Muslim world also has homosexuals among married men and women.

Sadly, Muslim men can divorce a woman by uttering talaq three times and discarding her as dirt. Not to say that divorce does not exist in all other societies.

Every religion has a few fanatics who believe that human beings are unique and that homosexuality and prostitution are either immoral, unethical, or a sin.

To understand the spectrum of sexuality, let us look at nature and the millions of species living among us.

Let us not pretend that somehow religions, morals, and values make us better.

While we kill every kind of animal, male, female, young or old, bisexual or otherwise, to feed our habits, we become tense witnessing aberrations in our sexuality.

We take the high ground without fully understanding the laws of nature.

Human sexuality cannot be wrapped in the cloak of morality or understood entirely using binary logic.

Reinvent our world

Re: "Pakistan in peril as woes escalate", (BP, Oct 2) and "Reform the economics and governance of water", (Opinion, Sept 30).

It is unfortunate to note that Pakistan has suffered severe and intense floods caused by climate change. Added to this, most areas and normal life out there have been severely affected by flooding.

In the East or the West, news of Pakistan having been ravaged by climate change-triggered threats has got attention from every nook and cranny.

Having been hit by floods, Pakistan is in need of international help, especially in the form of food and money. Asian countries and the West should reach out to the affected in Pakistan sooner rather than later.

True, the international community has been talking about impending threats from climate change. First off, just like other Asian nations, Pakistan is a beautiful country located in the midst of rivers, seas and mountains alike.

Even then, Pakistan has been reeling from unprecedented flood threats now. Given the kind of damage caused to Pakistan, it is clear that climate change has been playing havoc with the country.

Even in India, during this monsoon, so many areas have been receiving unprecedented levels of rainfall. Going by all these facts and figures, there has been something on the ground that has to be changed.

Yes, it is all about the attitude of humans to Mother Earth. Of course, climate change can largely be attributable to factors like fuel consumption, pollution, the felling of trees, failure to support more green activities and much more. In this context, urbanisation and the rigorous use of vehicles (this is seen everywhere these days) have been a huge deterrent to the very existence of humanity on this beautiful planet.

First up, we should stop using vehicles. No doubt technology has been good to date and will be good forever. However, we the people should switch to moderate/ordinary modes in part like walking, avoiding the rigorous use of automobiles, even turning to public transport facilities like buses and much more.

Despite having been working professionally in various areas like Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, I have long been enjoying only public transport modes like a bus in my native areas in Tamil Nadu.

So everyone and especially those born after 2000 (who have been blindly fond of luxury things in life) should come forward and think about Mother Earth -- home to all the beautiful natural sources and resources. Apart from teachers' involvement and parental guidance, individual commitment will have a profound impact.

Finally, the international community and the world media (from all countries) should come forward to create public awareness of small yet beautiful things like cycling, walking and much more (thereby preventing fuel consumption). This will pave the way for a beautiful world up ahead free from all the crises like climate change.

Bikers mask up

Re: "Masks rule to stay for public transport", (BP, Sept 30).

It would appear that Thailand has come up with another world first place, this time in irony: riding a motorbike with a medical face mask and no crash helmet.