OPINION

Road death lottery

Re: "11 burned to death in Korat van crash," (Online, Jan 22).

This awful incident, which in another country would have been front-page headlines, is just more evidence that taking to the road is just another lottery in Thailand. Do you risk abysmal drivers, road rage, being under the influence, sleepless lorry/bus drivers, overcrowded vehicles ad nauseam? And we are just heaving a sigh of relief that the postulated seven dangerous days are over. For the time being, it seems to me that the time between now and Songkran is equally, if not more, fraught with danger on the roads in that regard due to ambivalence. None of the advice offered by writers to this column in the past or the future will ever be followed (damn the farang for being impertinent if read and understood), so you take your chances.

As I pointed out years ago in PostBag, these accidents are mainly attributable to sheer bloody stupidity and arrogance. Not much PC Plod can do about that except line his pockets.

Re: "Lunar New Year festivities," (BP, Jan 22).

The photo caption has the headline "Lunar New Year festivities", and it goes to call it "Chinese New Year" at the end. I would suggest that "Chinese New Year" is correct, but if you look at the Thai calendar, you will find that the "Lunar New Year" of BE 2566 starts on March 22, not on Jan 22.

Re: "A lesson in migration policy," (PostBag, Jan 22).

In his diatribe against immigrants, Ben Levin displays zealousness. Mr Levin also overlooks a rather obvious fact: Any nation that has a problem with illegal immigrants can quickly and easily solve it. As to Mr Levin's claims about 90-day reports, I am confident your average foreign criminal operating in Thailand, for example, those famous Chinese criminals so much in the news recently, has their 90-day reports properly crossed and dotted for inspection. There is no evidence and no reason to think that 90-reporting has any effect whatsoever on criminal activity by foreigners.

Re: "Finnish fur farm horrors caught on video as industry fights back," (BP, Jan 19).

If Gandhi was right -- as I believe he was -- when he said you can measure the morality of a country by the way it treats its animals, then God help you.

Re: "Signs of economic slowdown alarming," (Opinion, Jan 12).

According to Chartchai Parasuk, the Manufacturing and Wholesale and Retail Trade sectors account for about half of all of Thailand's economic output. Thus, things do not bode well for the country this year, considering that the Manufacturing Production Index contracted by 4.8% in the first two months of the last quarter of 2022.

A big reason why this occurred is that exports fell by 3.6% in October of last year and a shocking 5.5% in November, he proclaims, whereas in the previous nine months before, they grew at a rate of over 10% here.

Since exports play such a big role, affecting even domestic demand, Mr Parasuk cannot foresee anything but gloom in the coming year for the Thai economy. The mandarins in the Thai government had expected a small slowdown in exports for this year, but never foresaw the great contraction which occurred in the last quarter of 2022.

To further add to the doom, the Thai economy has a liquidity problem right now, and inflation is expected to increase this year continually.