OPINION

Shunting no solution

Re: "Gambling den bust results in transfers," (BP, Oct 5).

Transfers of senior RTP officers are the knee-jerk reaction whenever major crimes occur, but are they nothing but a PR exercise designed to fool us taxpayers?

For example, here, five senior cops were transferred when a major gambling den was exposed in the middle of a bustling Din Daeng market.

The casino had evidently been raided last year, then re-opened. It was only 500 metres from the police station; the cops must have been blind, deaf, and dumb. The den is owned by a local influential figure, who evidently is still running free.

During the past five years, how many senior RTP officers were temporarily transferred due to major crimes occurring in their precinct? Of these officers, how many were found guilty, and what was their punishment, if any?

How many cases are still open? To what extent have the masterminds -- like the "local influential figure" in the Din Daeng case, who should have been arrested last year -- been convicted?

Plastic fantastic

Re: " 'Climate no burden' PM tells local event", (BP, Oct 7).

Carbon credits and their commercial trading for offsets is now established internationally including in Thailand. While the science which supports its necessity is questionable at best, the existence of ubiquitous plastic pollution in all sizes and geographic areas including the deepest part of the oceans and the highest part of the skies above is without question man-made and highly toxic to life. The average human consumes 5 grammes of micro and nano-plastic every week.

I would like to see the concept of plastic credits become popular and a mechanism for trading them established. The impact of such a system could be measured quantitatively with immediate planetary benefit. It is well established that we absolutely require CO2 to survive, but nobody has proven we need non-biodegradable plastic. There are many alternatives in existence and more will come given proper incentives.

BlackRock blight

Re: "BlackRock 'expresses interest' in Thailand", (Business, Sept 21).

BlackRock will be financing a military arms industry in Ukraine like the USA military industrial complex for democratic "freedom".

Fighting in Nato's war against Russia, almost 500,000 Ukrainian males have been killed and seriously wounded. Kiev's answer now is putting high heels in uniform. The USA Neocons and BlackRock have to save face regardless of human life.

BlackRock, at the invitation PM Srettha, has two feet in the front door of Thailand to feast on the goodies like U-Tapao and Don Mueang and building the Kra Canal to link the Gulf of Thailand with the Indian Ocean. But then there is China's BRI: extending the high-speed rail line from Laos through to Thailand and linking the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.

Will there be a clash between East and West in Thailand: between Black Rock's avarice and Xi Jin Ping's BRI with PM Srettha Thavisin cast in the role of official arbiter?

PM Srettha is encouraging foreign investment. It will be interesting to see how he handles this situation. He has the added problem of the USA neocons advancing Nato towards the Pacific -- Brics territory.

Nationalistic nonsense

Re: Ukraine Nazi problem (PostBag, Oct 3) & "Ukrainian breakthrough is a slow affair", (Opinion, Sept 28).

It shows a breathtaking degree of arrogance on letter writer Jason Wilcox's part that he, of all people, should dismiss Gwynne Dyer's knowledgeable opinion pieces as "frivolous".

It seems fairly obvious that Mr Wilcox's sketchy, one-paragraph background to the Russian invasion comes directly from Russian state-run television channel RT. Which other "journalists" are quoting unnamed "military people", presumably Russian, as asserting that Ukrainian soldiers are deserting in their tens of thousands?

Which other media outlet would claim Ukrainian soldiers know they will be treated humanely? I doubt there are many in the Ukrainian military who are unaware of the UN-verified reports of hundreds of bound and tortured bodies found after occupying Russian forces were driven out of parts of Ukrainian territory.

I am as little of a historian as is Mr Wilcox, but I know that his potted Russian-schoolroom version of the last 75 years of Russo-Ukraine relations is nationalistic nonsense.