Solve BTS saga
Re: "Time to end BTS drama", (Editorial, Nov 25).
Governor Chadchart is burning taxpayers' money on the interest incurred on the 40 billion baht debt passed due to BTS and spoiled the train passengers along the extended routes with free rides for three years, also with taxpayers' money.
The best way to end this drama is to extend the concession to BTS, the existing operator, reciprocal of debts written off.
Only the fares and BMA revenues will be on the negotiation table, and the cost-benefit figures will be easily calculated.
As per my knowledge, the last proposal from BTS quoted the fare per kilometre lower than the BEM blue line and got a contract from MRT.
Move quickly governor; taxpayers' money has been burnt as you are dragging your feet, and you were elected to "solve" not only "perceive" the problems.
James Debentures
Paxlovid alert
Re: "Review Covid drug policy", (Editorial, Nov 21).
While the Post has reported the recent upsurge in Covid infections, I don't think your reporters have noted that Thailand has apparently exhausted its supply of Paxlovid, the best anti-viral drug for treating Covid.
Recent inquiries at four hospitals were unsuccessful in locating any doses of Paxlovid, although Molnupiravir, an anti-viral with far less efficacy than Paxlovid, seems readily available.
Given anecdotal evidence that the latest Omicron mutation is more virulent and can become more lethal than those circulating earlier this year, it is incumbent on the government to authorise the importation of enough doses of Paxlovid to treat cases over the next several months.
Failure to do so would not only deny people living in Thailand access to this life-saving drug, but it might also dissuade tourists from coming here if they fear being unable to obtain what is now standard treatment in the US (and other countries) should they become ill while vacationing in Thailand.
George Rothschild
MBS degree for what?
Re: "Honorary degree and Saudi Crown Prince", (BP, Nov 21).
The noble and venerable subject of philosophy has been debased by Kasetsart University awarding a degree to the Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known as MBS.
Like me, the fathers of philosophy like Aristotle, Plato, et al, must be scratching their heads at which branch of philosophy the prince merited his degree.
As far as MBS is known, and he is very well known for his own brand of philosophy, he does not fit into any of the philosophical disciplines taught for millennia.
Thus, giving an "environmental degree" to the head of the biggest oil-producing country certainly is not one of them. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia, by pumping so much oil, is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Instead of coming to Thailand to collect accolades, he should have attended COP27 in Egypt.
It's only next door. He could have walked in there, so his environmental footprint would have been so much smaller.
Kasetsart university, wake up!
Miro King, a philosopher
Anwar gives hope
Re: "Opposition leader Anwar named PM", (BP, Nov 25).
The 10th prime minister has already scored for the nation. One cannot downplay the sense of jubilation permeating all across the country.
News of the royal decree followed by the swearing-in ceremony at the palace that made Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim Malaysia's 10th prime minister is by any measure historic.
In fact, it is not an understatement or a bloated narrative to state that Anwar has already scored par excellence for the nation even before he enters the PMO in Putrajaya.
The incoming prime minister has demonstrated to us the power of goodwill and magnanimity in order to build, sustain and thrive in a progressive, harmonious and united Malaysia.
His philosophy of inclusiveness that cements his leadership has no parallel this far.
This lesson should go down well within the business community, the civil service and all young aspiring citizens as we take the highway to rebuilding the country.
Malaysians will certainly stand by him and ensure that on the first day of parliament in session, thumping "ayes" ring and reverberate throughout the nation as we acknowledge our 10th prime minister of hope, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
JD Lovrenciear
Doubting the CDC
Re: "Kids and Covid", (PostBag, Nov 23).
While Diana Archer gives no documentation to back up her statistics, I'm sure she's quoting from the CDC, who are, quite frankly, liars.
For example, do people know the CDC considers you "unvaccinated" until two weeks after your second Covid vaccine?
Therefore, if you "die of Covid" before you get your second vaccine (most of those people actually died from other causes) the CDC will list your death as being among the "unvaccinated".
I remember during the Aids scare, someone at the CDC told me it was just a coincidence that male homosexuals in America had Aids at a tremendously higher rate than heterosexuals. I'm telling you, these people are pathological liars.
But don't take my word for it. Just Google: "Children low risk for Covid", read all the articles below it, and you'll know I'm telling the truth.
Finally, if Archer gave a hoot about children, she would insist that the money being wasted on vaccinating them against Covid instead be used to feed the millions of children who face starvation in Africa and Afghanistan.
But hell! Pfizer can't make 40 billion dollars a year that way.
Eric Bahrt
Covid disciple
Re: "Planned pandemic", (PostBag, Nov 24).
I would have put money on finding either the name Eric Bahrt or Michael Setter at the foot of this bog-standard "Covid hoax" letter.
It seems, however, that those gentlemen have a new word-perfect disciple in David Mannion.
Putting aside the absurd proposition that exposure to sunlight prevents infection by Covid, does it ever occur to these fantasists to ask why, all of a sudden, widely disparate governments around the world agreed to stage a fake pandemic which would crush their economies and benefit mostly Big Pharma?
The notion is so patently preposterous that it is depressing to read there are still those who tout it with any degree of seriousness.
As to the supposed non-Covid "excess deaths" and the "thousands" dying post-vaccination, one has to ask where Mr Mannion gets his information if the media is failing to report them.
The answer to that quite obviously is from those same malicious conspiracy websites which Messrs Bahrt and Setter trawl for their disinformation.
Ray Ban
Shorter is sweeter
Re: "Read me uncut", (PostBag, Nov 19), and "Anti-hate hating", (PostBag, Nov 10).
While I sympathise with Mr Wright s plight, dare I say it, he is also the author of his own problems. He claims that his original Nov 10 letter "was heavily redacted", containing about only 20% of what he actually wrote.
Well, golly geez, the above 20% letter seems pretty long as it is; I'd hate to see the whole thing. It would rival something that an executive official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs once wrote on the weekend page of the Post, filling the whole "Letters to the Editor" page!
Paul
Eatery misfire
Re: "Midtown marvel", (Life's Elite Palate, Nov 25) and "189 Thai eateries win Michelin Guide's Bib Gourmand", (BP, Nov 25).
It is particularly ironic that you should devote a whole page of valuable newspaper space to an article on a restaurant in a Manhattan shopping centre on the day that the Michelin Guide awarded the Bib Gourmand label to 189 Thai restaurants and eateries.
Le Rock might be just what New Yorkers hopping at Rockefeller Center need, but perhaps the last thing the Bangkok Post's readers want to read.
David Brown
Fifa changes needed
Re: "Broadcast rights in jeopardy", (BP, Nov 24).
So Fifa head honcho and Qatar's golden boy, Gianni Infantino, assures us, despite laughable evidence to the contrary, that he is "200% in charge of the World Cup".
And then of course proceeds to tell us that "football is much more than a sport", and has a "unique magic" power to bring people together" and "the World Cup should be an occasion for joy and unity. It should send a message of hope".
And then he promptly threatens to pull Thailand's World Cup broadcasting rights because a few poor rice farmers over the border in Laos can watch it on Thai TV, and he and his money-grubbing cartel want to extract yet more money to spread this "magic" and "hope".
It's high time the federations that bring the most money to world football pull out of Fifa and establish a more transparent and less corrupt organisation to replace it, to which global members may apply only if they agree to throw open their books and account for all the Fifa money that has come their way for "one reason and another".
Tarquin Chufflebottom
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