Published on January 20, 2005
Do you remember the horror of the liquid-gas truck explosion more than a decade ago at New Phetburi Road’s express highway entrance? That led to more attention being paid to preventing a similar accident. Do you remember the locomotive that ran right into Hua Lamphong station’s platform and ticketing area only a few years ago? We have not stopped transporting volatile liquid gas by truck, nor have we stopped using locomotives or Hua Lamphong station, so why worry about the subway?
Certainly the accident must be investigated, clear and concrete solutions must be found for problems and action must be taken against the responsible persons. Subways have long been in operation all over the world with an extremely high rate of safety. Siemens is the leader of the technology. The question is: Were there any human factors preventing the safest technology from being used?
Having a subway is vitally important to a big city like Bangkok, yet the project was stalled for more than half a century due to self-interest and non-technical reasons. The BTS was badly criticised and looked down upon at the beginning before it proved its worth. So, my support goes to subways and all current similar mass public transit systems for Bangkok and some of our extra big cities. The subway not only saves time, it also saves the environment and our consumption of petrol. Clear up the accident and continue subway development without delay. Please. Piset Wattanavitukul Bangkok Failure to open doors was scarier than the impact Much scarier than the initial accident itself was the failure of station staff to open the emergency doors to let the people off the train! The recent South Korean subway fire proved that every second lost in a train/platform evacuation can cost lives – especially in a deep network like Bangkok’s. Hadn’t the MRTA trained its station staff in these basic emergency-evacuation procedures? David Garner Bangkok Reckless behaviour is common all over Thailand The opinion piece on Thai society’s tendency to adopt a fatalistic attitude to safety [“Fatalism keeps us from preventing accidents”, January 19] was superbly written and highly relevant. It is almost sure that if one went out onto the road, one could see unsafe behaviour, whether it’s three people including a baby on a motorcycle, a dangerously overloaded vehicle or reckless overtaking by public buses. This article should become required reading for the public, government, schools and police. Unfortunately the culture of fatalism is symptomatic of the developing world. It’s just that Thailand is more developed than most of its neighbours – excepting Singapore, which sets standards others would be wise to copy. Marius Goring Bangkok Studio contributed to the development of the arts As the owner of The Artist Studio gallery for 18 years now, I write in defence of my business, my husband and most of all my integrity, and as such wish to point out to one Sunida Kitiyakara [“Alleged victims are not necessarily equals”, Letters, January 18], whose ramblings about my business and my husband were about the most ignorant and misplaced remarks that I have ever read. Contrary to her off-the-wall remarks, I can tell her and anyone else that needs to know that far from living off the backs of others and stealing 30 per cent of my artists’ work, I alone have raised the standards, over many years, of all those who have worked for me to the point, as my husband stated in his letter, of allowing them these days to enjoy a standard of living that many Thais would envy, and, from my knowledge, is comparable to those farangs living in Western countries. Such working conditions as free apartments, free food, a guaranteed large monthly salary plus commission on sales of their work, healthcare, paid holiday and at the end of a three-year contract, if they wish, training in how to operate a gallery of their own and how to run a business in general. This can be demonstrated perhaps by the explosion of art galleries in Pattaya, Phuket to Samui and other places, most of the owners of which worked for me at some time or other. Also, in contrast to her scurrilous remarks, I can confirm that my husband has never taken any money out of the gallery and has only ever put funds in, as and when required, like he did in light of the events of December 26 in Phuket. I also note the writer’s persistent analogy of “pimps and their stable of women”. Perhaps she knows such people and has become affected by their presence. If so, she is free to visit us in our new gallery, which will open in February opposite the new Jungceylon shopping mall, where we will try to help her and introduce her to the good people of this life and those farangs, such as my husband, who love Thailand so much they give their life to promoting its growth and economic well-being, no matter how small or insignificant that may appear to others whose own contribution to Thai society remains doubtful. Sumpoaw Sarekul Conner Phuket The ‘bar fine’ system is little more than a legal loophole John Arnone [“‘Pimp’ remarks insensitive to foreign bar-owners”, Letters, January 19] wrote about the waitresses in his bar: “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.” Mr Arnone appears to voluntarily incriminate himself in print. When he knows or has reasons to know that he provides a facility where his girls can meet johns for prostitution and he collects fee for the purpose, he provides a definition of pimping. He is well advised to retain counsel. The police would not have a difficult time enlisting his girls to be witnesses for the prosecution. By the way, Mr Arnone does not have the moral high ground to defend a gallery owner who takes consignments or operates on commission from the artists. These arrangements are legal business transactions. Netirat Intira Bangkok An existing system could have prevented some deaths In the aftermath of the recent catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia, I have noted a number of articles in the international press regarding the urgent need to build an early warning tsunami system to save lives. It occurred to me that your readers may not be aware that a superior “Command and Control Communications Systems” for such a system, already exists and could be made fully operational in a matter of weeks, not months or years and at a very affordable cost. ERN Systems was originally developed in the United States for the FBI, and proved so successful that it was expanded to the Federal Emergency Management Administration and to the Department of Homeland Security. In the weeks just before December 26, representatives for ERN Systems and the IT staff of the Thai government had commenced the preparation of a business plan for the full deployment of ERN Systems in Thailand. If ERN Systems had been fully operational beforehand, it could have been immediately activated in order to save thousand of lives due to its real-time communication capabilities, including 10,000 telephone warning calls per minute, 5,000 e-mails per minute, 3,000 faxes per minute, thus broadcasting an early warning message to the affected population to promptly evacuate to higher ground. ERN Systems is precisely the very same system referred to by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in his press conference on January 4 in Phuket. Richard A Webster, director of marketing, Global Resolution Group Asia Bangkok Democrats are better critics than they are leaders Thaksin will win the upcoming elections. Why? Because the opposition cannot field a relevant candidate. They lack a leader, who can make promises and get things done. Instead, Democrats have candidates who are good at criticising, but poor at leading. Like most leaders, Thaksin has his strengths and weaknesses. His strength is that he is a man of action. His weakness is that he often makes expedient or selfish decisions, rather than those that reflect what’s in the best interest of the country. For example: his ineffective handling of social unrest in the South; his attempt to buy Liverpool Football Club; and his inability to rein in liberal borrowing and public debt. The list goes on and on. But our economy keeps chugging along despite Thaksin’s ineptitude and egocentricity. He has become the leader we all love to hate. Perhaps his resilience is due to the general buoyancy of the Southeast Asian economy, or perhaps because investors are bullish on the idea of a country having a CEO political leader who understands how to make a profit. Nevertheless, for now people are living better today than they were during the malaise of the Democrats under Chuan Leekpai’s first and second administrations. Our better lifestyle today is why Thaksin will win the election next month. Despite the calls for Thaksin’s head, the thought of returning to life under the Democrats is unpalatable. Most can remember living under the austere regime of the IMF and the penalties of liberal borrowing. No one wants to relive those days. Yet the Democrats have branded themselves as the political party that brought us these Dark Ages. If the Democrats hope to win future elections, they need to field candidates who are leaders. Their current line-up – Banyat, Chuan and Abhisit – looks more like a school debating team than a leadership team. Rather than criticising what Thaksin has done, or offering up stale messages about honesty, a self-sufficient economy, social values and people’s sovereignty, they need to paint an inspiring vision for this country. How will they ensure our economic growth is continuous? How will they lift the country to a distinctive position in the global economy? What will they do to enhance long-term competitiveness – eg, improve our workforce skills and education? Until these questions are answered, I’m afraid Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai have little competition. The fear of living through another term with the Democrats is greater than the fear of tolerating another term under Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai. Outraged taxpayer Bangkok
Post your comment to this story here