Published on July 29, 2005
Govt plans for early care must not be hijacked by opportunistic politicians. The government’s one-year pilot project to provide a baby-care package to the parents of each newborn, which was launched yesterday as part of efforts to improve children’s quality of life, is to be commended.
The state-sponsored scheme will likely benefit children and their families, particularly those in the lower income brackets,who may not otherwise have access to such high-quality child-rearing instruction,educational toys and children’s books carefully selected by psychologists and public-health experts.
Giving children - regardless of their family’s social and economic backgrounds - a head start in life in order to realise their full potential as adults should be something that taxpayers will gladly support. That’s why the project, which covers some 900,000 babies expected to be born over the next year should be carefully evaluated, with a view to further improving the package in terms of quality, cost-effectiveness and practicality of parental education. It must be made clear from the outset that this praiseworthy child-friendly policy must never be subjected to underhanded manipulation by any opportunistic politician hawking populist policies. Indeed, this project to promote early childhood care and development should become a permanent fixture of and fit seamlessly into Thailand’s national strategy to strengthen the family institution, improve child development and upgrade primary education. To be effective, the concept requires state agencies, local governments, health practitioners, educators, families and civic organisations to all cooperate in ensuring that new generations of children receive quality healthcare, a good upbringing and anything else to help prepare them to grow up into productive members of society. ------------------------- David and the galacticos It won’t be just a David and Goliath showdown. Today’s friendly match between Thailand’s young soccer stars and some of the richest, most flamboyant players on the planet, wearing their famous Real Madrid shirts, will underline how the world’s most popular sport has evolved. Thai fans will get their closest look yet at the world’s most expensive assemblage of soccer stars, whose prices and combined wages could easily overshadow the construction costs of Rajamangala Stadium, where they will play this evening. If the Real team, with its international line-up, treat this more than just a Far East vacation, we are likely to see quite a gap in class. Crazy Thai fans will scream their hearts out for the “galacticos”, and by the end of the day, the club will have achieved its objective - an expanded fan base. Success breeds money, and vice versa. And that is today’s football. It’s almost purely commercial. Loyalty and true passion have been eclipsed by the lure of obscene salaries, agents’ dirty manoeuvring and the all the rest that makes up the ugly business side of club football. Real Madrid and other wealthy clubs are the embodiment of much that is wrong in the modern game. If they want a player, they get him by upping the bid until those at the receiving end find it impossible to refuse. In a weird statement, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has claimed he had the toughest job in football - splashing Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich’s millions on superstar players at an average of roughly Bt1 million an hour since he took the job 13 months ago. The Chelsea boss will take his spending in just over a year to a whopping Bt9 billion if he clinches Bt1.5-billion-rated Michael Essien from Olympic Lyon in the next few days. And he has also been rumoured to be plotting an unreal Bt4.2-billion raid for AC Milan star Andriy Shevchenko. That the football world has gone mad is a long-overdue conclusion. Both Real Madrid and Chelsea are hoping to win everything this season. Their financial might says they can. It’s simply a question of whether there are enough talented “Davids” out there who can show them that this desperate shortcut, money-win-all sporting philosophy is wrong. Football was supposed to be a game played on a level playing field.
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