Published on January 19, 2005

Re: “Accident underground: Subway horror”, News, January 18.

I am writing to pose a question. The last paragraph of the story states: “Others said that after the crash the platform’s protective gates remained locked and passengers were trapped inside the wrecked train.”

Is this yet another example of exits and entrances in buildings that are supposed to be opened in the case of an accident or emergency remaining locked?

I have in mind the scandalous examples of emergency exits being locked in hotels when fires have caused the deaths of the people trapped inside buildings.

If the answer to my question is yes, then please, please hold the authorities responsible for criminal negligence. I am growing tired of such senseless behaviour. Please, in the last several months we have seen enough needless deaths for a lifetime.

Peter

Bangkok

What if a fire

had broken out?

Here is some food for thought – had there been a fire in the subway, what would have happened to the passengers inside the train, who were stuck for at least 10 minutes before the doors could be opened?

Anan

Bangkok

An example of more

than just human error

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was correct when he said that the problem that had caused the subway crash was “one lousy driver” – what is unfortunate is that the real problems are much deeper.

For starters, why does the subway’s safety system have to depend on humans at all? If the driver failed – as happened here – then the system fails. Why don’t we have a system like that of the BTS, which Governor Apirak says is completely computer-controlled, with backups for backups, and which has the ability to limit the speed of trains and stop them when they were within 200m of each other?

Subway governor Prapat said that the emergency doors could be opened only by the train driver, touting that as a safety measure. But if the driver’s injured, the passengers are imprisoned – and if there’s a fire, or gas, what happens then? At a minimum, the subway’s safety system needs to match or exceed the BTS’ standards, and passengers must be able to open their emergency doors by themselves.

On a related issue, it appears that the subway and BTS come under different jurisdictions. There seems to be no reason for that. If it’s due to politics, then the powers that be should sort things out transparently and in public, so that all land and water mass transit can be integrated and come under one authority. As a key part of its platform, each party should unveil its integrated mass transit policy and tell how they’d implement it in Bangkok.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

‘Pimp’ remarks insensitive

to foreign bar-owners

Sunida Kitiyakara [“Alleged victims are not necessarily equals, Letters, January 18] appears to be one of several farang-haters that I have read correspondence from in the Letters section of The Nation.

I don't know if she is right or wrong about Paul Conner as personally I also thought his letter was bogus. I have always viewed art-gallery owners as fast-talking peddlers living off of the talent of others, but as I really don’t know the circumstances I have to claim neutrality. Where I do take exception to her comments is regarding the “pimps” she referred to repeatedly, which obviously was meant as a reference to farang bar owners.

Let’s get the facts straight, Sunida.

Seven years ago, when I first moved to Thailand, I bought into a bar in Pattaya. As I wasn’t supposed to be working I had to leave the management to my Thai girlfriend, who ultimately became my wife.

It cost me Bt1 million to get into that bar and for that all I got was the equipment and 14 months left on the lease. The monthly building rental was Bt40,000. I did all of the maintenance work for the rental rooms as well as the bar.

My profit averaged about a US$1,000 (Bt38,500) a month while I had it, but as it got closer to lease renewal time I really had to look at the situation.

Thailand has a unique practice. I sometimes wonder if it is not reserved only for farangs, but it is called “key money”. It is an up-front payment to secure the lease and is separate from the monthly rental fee. As mine was Bt1 million, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it amounted to roughly two thirds of my profit over the period of a three-year lease. In other words, I would be working for my Thai landlord.

Needless to say, I dumped the place at a loss, but was happy to get out. The bar has turned over twice more since then with pretty much the same result.

As for the “pimp” remarks, let me explain to you how it works. My waitresses spent most of their time socialising, not working. If someone wanted to take them out of the bar they were required to pay the bar a fee, a fee which amounted to the girl’s wages for the day.

What she did with the customer or got from him was none of the bar’s business. So what it amounted to was a break-even for the bar. The only asset that the girl represented to the bar was that if she was pretty, customers would come to the bar. This is pretty much the same as any bar in the Western world where waitresses and hostesses are hired based on their looks, but no one calls the bar owner a pimp.

So what I had was a situation where the Thai girls were making money and the Thai landlord was making money. I was the investor, was doing all of the work and was barely breaking even. For some reason, this didn’t seem equitable, so I bombed out with all possible haste.

The fact is that this is the situation in the great majority of bars in Thailand. Farangs are getting fleeced with gusto and regularity. And the saddest part is that those few foreigners who do find the right formula and start making some money are then visited by the police, who also seem to want to share in the profits.

Sorry Khun Sunida, but you really don’t know what you are talking about, so how about easing off with the “pimp” remarks and consider that farangs, whether or not you want to admit it, are providing a variety of Thai people with an easy income. Income that was earned in our own countries through hard work and persistence.

We’re not complaining, so why are you?

John Arnone

Yasothon

‘Nation’ correspondent was

suspiciously bitter

I read “Sunida Kitiyakara’s” contribution to your letters page on Tuesday and found myself wondering what kind of person takes such joy in another’s suffering. I mean, this person wasn’t satisfied that foreign art-gallery owner Paul Connor lost his Phuket business and his savings but goes on to equate him with a pimp and imply there is something less than honourable about his wife.

What kind of person could this be? My guess is “Sunida” isn’t a Thai at all. I’d say he/she is a long-term expat, probably living on a small pension or scraping by as a teacher or whatever, who finds his/her uniqueness in being a farang in Thailand being diluted every year as more and more Westerners come here. All the worse that some of them may come here and make some money. Conner simply put Thai artists in touch with foreign buyers, no different from the way Central Dept store operates. He hardly deserved to suffer the wrath of God for that.

As for why this writer has likely chosen to hide behind a Thai name would, I assume, be because they feel it gives them some legitimacy/authority to comment on foreigners living here. In this case, it doesn’t really matter what nationality the person is. The writer is a sad, bitter little individual from where ever they came. Surely, Nation, there are other people far more deserving of space in your paper.

JB Stevenson

Bangkok

The Democrats need to get rid of their leadership

Re: “Opposition leader simply unmarketable”, Opinion, January 18.

Your lament on the state of the Thai Democrats eerily matches Americans’ misgivings over their Democrats. It seems that the “leadership” in both parties has settled in to enjoy the somewhat diminished financial rewards due those who play the role of “loyal opposition”.

They know they aren’t meant to win. They are just going through the motions.

Any real players, like Abhisit or Howard Dean, are shouted down. I imagine that the Democrat “leadership” in both countries, career politicians first and foremost, are embarrassed by the alternative visions such people represent and the resultant, shall we say unflattering, light such real political actors cast upon both the regimes in power and the safe, fake “opposition” they themselves have to offer.

In the United States it was the Clintons and the Democratic Leadership Council that effectively sold the party to the ownership of the Republicans. The resulting Republicrat/Demoplican complex provides two different demographic appeals, separate packaging, for essentially the same product. There is no real opposition party in America. Our last presidential election featured two war candidates, two candidates pledged to put the interests of the Likud party in Israel ahead of American interests, two candidates resigned to “borrow and spend” finance, the decline of the dollar and the loss of American jobs and livelihoods.

After the defeat of John Kerry the “leadership” in the Demoplican party in America is trying to shrug it off, and to keep their jobs. Their mantra is “we almost won”. Well, I don’t think so . . . the Republicrats hold the Supreme Court, the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the governorships of 38 of the 50 states. And they strengthened their hold on both the Senate and the House in the last election. America is a single-party state. If Howard Dean is not now able to drive these losers out of the Democratic Party it will surely be time for a third party in America. A second, in reality, as the Republicrat/Demoplican is in fact one.

So I suppose it will also be a question of how badly drubbed the Democrat Party in Thailand is in the upcoming election, and on whether the “leadership” of the Democrat Party in Thailand can be convinced to “retire”. If not, I would imagine that it will be time for an alternative here too.

John Francis Lee

Chiang Rai

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