A costly choice
Re: "Phuket's safety gaps", (PostBag, March 12).
Regular contributor Regmi Suman laments, as have others, the lack of overpasses (flyovers in colonial English) in Phuket. One of the curiosities of the regulatory environment applicable to modern Thailand's road infrastructure is that it is far easier to obtain permission from ministries at the provincial and national level for the construction of tunnels than it is for elevated roadways. Thus, we have seen a flurry of flashy tunnels built instead of overpasses that would have been far less costly in accomplishing the same purpose. Central Pattaya has a fine dolphin-adorned example under Sukhumvit Road.
The determining factor for these projects is an invisible bottom line to ordinary citizens. But one can imagine huge sums floating around the ministries related to such matters. After all, to obtain a top-level position in government, the military, or the police is a costly affair.
Brokers' blind spot
Re: "SET in the doldrums", (Business, March 12).
The health of any stock exchange is highly conditional on trust -- both by the SEC/SET regulators and its brokers! If it is perceived that violators or brokers are poorly monitored and not duly sanctioned if needed, trust erodes, and so does participation over time.
Another core element is not to confuse and co-mingle traders/speculators with investors. The former must not be nourished at the expense of the latter. My own observation, with over three decades here, is that too many brokers seem to view all retail participants as traders and too -- often indirectly -- overly promote this activity, which generates commissions but often, in time, losses to investors.
There are many value stocks here, "diamonds in the rough", with their high dividends and good reputation. However, brokers who direct their research analysts mostly ignore them, most only because they are not suitable for "trading". In time, as we now see, both traders and investors lose money and then avoid, yes, even investing in the local bourse.
Step up, TRUE
I have questions for TRUE. I believe the leader in sports programming could do more. Since they depend mostly on reruns, the least they can do is annotate their onscreen menu with a small R for replay or L for live. There are no more major entertainment providers. HBO, Showtime and Anime have long disappeared. Even though we are bombarded with adverts for Anime dozens of times a day, the provider is long gone. BeIN and SPOtv provide sporadic MLB and tennis coverage but NASCAR and NCAA sports are history. F1 has been moved to BeIn1, a platinum-level offering.
So, just an update: NCAA March Madness has begun. The best US college basketball teams will meet from the "First Four" on March 18 until April 7, when the National Championship game will be played in San Antonio.
Will the government or consumer protection board protect consumers who get less in return despite paying the GradeAA price?