OPINION

Little to smile about

Re: "Happiness Index", (BP, March 23).

Back in 2014, when Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha led a coup to overthrow the legitimately elected government of Thailand, he made a long list of promises to justify his actions. Among them was the promise to restore happiness to the people.

The World Happiness Report 2023 lists Thailand at 60th of the 137 countries surveyed. Surely in "The Land of Smiles", this is nothing to smile about. As Thais go to the polls, they can chalk this up as another undelivered Prayut promise.

Re: "A step in the right direction", (Opinion, March 21).

In this opinion piece, when Kavi Chongkittavorn writes, "It's nobody's fault", does that mean committing a coup to overthrow your own democratic government and to thereby massively regress the economic, social, political, and moral well-being of the people?

Kavi's piece, however, might leave readers a little perplexed: Was Myanmar's National Unity Government, one of those "dialogue partners" present? More or less perplexing, the author later opines in the same piece that "besides Nay Pyi Taw, other participants understood full well who the main troublemakers were and the sources of all the troubles that preceded the current quagmire". That does sound as though the author might well suspect who is at fault for "the Myanmar quagmire".

Naturally, the junta likes Asean's Five Point Consensus; since it was promulgated in April 2021, they have used it as a convenient tool by which to put off any substantive move to restore the governance of Myanmar to the people.

Re: "ICC issues Putin arrest warrant", (BP, March 19).

Since the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has indicted Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, why does it not indict George "Dubya" Bush and Tony "Bliar" Blair for the invasion and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan?

Far more people died in those two countries than in Ukraine. As for the destruction of property, infrastructure and social fabric, the cost is incalculable.

Twenty years ago, those two liars duped the whole world by lying about Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction. And to rub salt into the wounds? Tony "Bliar" Blair was chosen to be a Middle East "Special Rapporteur".

Now both of them are making megabucks on the "after-dinner speech" circuit and pontificating about the wrongs of this world. Is that what the ICC calls justice?

Re: "Innovative advice", (PostBag, March 22).

What a pity Ken Albertson had to leave Chiang Mai before southern-facing buildings of Chiang Mai became covered with black metal columns attached to their sides, and it is a shame that Heath Robinson died many years ago; he would have enjoyed playing with the "Passive Solar Relief Tube" idea.

Mr Albertson adds: "I wish I could be in Thailand to build some prototypes, but alas, that's not possible."

Perhaps the kind staff in white coats where Mr Albertson perhaps now resides would let him come back for a visit sometime, although I doubt a trial run would be in order.