Legal versus moral
Re: "Mall zoo prices Thailand's last caged gorilla at B30m", (BP, Oct 21).
Whilst legally sound, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's argument regarding Bua Noi, the gorilla held captive at the Pata Pinklao Department Story for decades, that they "could not take any action other than buy the giant ape, because the gorilla was private property" bought before Thailand signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, under which such a purchase would now be illegal, ignores justice and the wider moral issues at stake.
Prior to 1860, it was also legal to own human beings throughout most of the USA. That did not stop President Lincoln from emancipating much, albeit not all, of that private property on Jan 1, 1863.
It's indefensible to continue what has subsequently come to be recognised as a great injustice merely because the law once blessed such wrongs. We now understand that Bua Noi should never have been subjected to the inhumane treatment she has legally suffered. Had Bua Noi's human owners any sense of decency, they would themselves have moved her to a decent situation many years ago rather than extracting every last baht they could by turning her misery into public entertainment. Plainly, they have not and will not.
Felix Qui
Puzzling priorities
Re: "Targeted help", (PostBag, Oct 20).
So the above got his wish, and Target is back in this newspaper. Hip-hip-hooray! This is after at least 10 people wrote in on the issue since the 12th of this month. Well, congratulations to ye all.
Now let's get on with it and discuss matters of important concern in the world right at this time, such as the risk of a nuclear armageddon resulting from the Russia and Ukraine war, or the real possibility of a climatic catastrophe arising from the release of greenhouse gases here on earth out into the atmosphere.
Surely, such matters are of a more pressing concern than are some puzzle claptrap!
Paul
Half the job!
Re: "Targeted help", (PostBag, Oct 20).
You have kindly responded to what I assume must have been numerous complaints, and restored the Target game to your Diversions page. However, you've only done half the job! We need to see the full results which used to come daily, showing all the words that could be derived. Please restore Target in full.
Hugh Walford
Back to True basics?
Must, once again, thank TRUE, the LEADER in Sport Programming for its total disregard for any US expats here in the Kingdom. Over the past few years, we lost Nascar racing, NCAA football and this year, Major League Baseball. With the Divisional Series just concluded the American World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies is up next. But not here, not without the additional expense of a private VPN and a subscription to a US streaming service.
And now I see that there are no NBA games scheduled locally. So, I guess the expense of providing up-to-date programming is just too much.
We can also see this trend in the total loss of all major movie and entertainment channels like HBO and Showtime replaced with Movie Hits 1 and 2, Paramount, Warner, and a few also-runs. Surprisingly, they do manage to duplicate many channels of Chinese and Korean programming.
Having downgraded from Platinum to Gold, it's now time to go to basic to allow my partner to watch Thai soaps.
Fred Prager
